Elementary, one of our favorite detective drama/comedies returns to CBS tonight with an all new Thursday December 10, season 4 episode 5 called, “The Games Underfoot,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller ) and Watson (Lucy Liu) investigate the murder of an archaeologist they believe was killed for what he discovered during his last dig in a local landfill. Meanwhile, Sherlock’s relationship with his former sobriety sponsor hits a rough patch.
On the last episode, when Holmes and Watson investigated the murder of a fertility lab technician, they discovered the woman had a secret personal life that lead them to multiple suspects. Also, the tables were turned on Watson when she’s investigated by an NYPD detective. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed the episode we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis, “when an archeologist is murdered, Holmes and Watson believe the man may have been killed for what he discovered during his last excavation in a local landfill. Also, Sherlock’s relationship with Alfredo, his friend and former sobriety sponsor, hits a rough patch.”
Are you looking forward to the season 4 episode 5 tonight? Be sure to come back here later tonight at 10 PM EST for our awesome recap of this episode. In the meantime, hit up the comments below and let us know how excited you are for season 4.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
#Elementary starts with Joan finding Alfredo at the door. She invites him in – he just got back from Chicago. He says he came to say hi to Sherlock and she says he went to meeting but Alfredo says he was a no show at any meetings this week.
Joan wonders if he’s avoiding meetings and Alfredo says he may be avoiding him. He says he hasn’t seen Sherlock since he’s been back. Eddie’s answering machine picks up. Sharon, a neighbor leaves a message saying she smells gas.
A guy turns up all the burners then tinkers with the fire alarm, spreads gas around and throws down a match. Eddie looks like he’s the dead body on the floor with the bloody knife sticking out of him. Marcus tells Joan and Sherlock that the victim is Eddie Ross.
Looks like the killer torched the place. Sherlock asks about her smelling natural gas. Marcel says he was killed with an archeologist tool. Joan says it’s a left handed killer. They go to Eddie’s work and find his upset ex-girlfriend.
She says they met in grad school and they both worked in archeology. She says she got a good job and he was struggling to find one so they split over that. She was at a lecture then had breakfast. They ask her to confirm her alibi.
They ask why her tool was at her ex’s place. She says he asked to borrow some equipment a week ago – she says he had a dig and was excited but wouldn’t tell her what it is. Sherlock asks if it’s of historical value or monetary value.
She says he didn’t say. She says she gave him a shovel, pickaxe, stakes, buckets and also loaned him her truck. She says she thinks he left it parked near his place. Joan tells Sherlock that Eddie had no record and the ex’s alibi checked out.
Sherlock has the buckets Eddie dug up – it’s full of trash. Sherlock says there’s a specialty called garbageology. He says they study garbage to study culture. He says he thinks that Eddie was digging at a landfill for a prize.
Joan mentions that Alfredo dropped by and Sherlock admits he hasn’t been to meetings lately. He says he’s been going to different ones. She asks why he has been skipping St Luke’s. He says he had to start over since his relapse and wanted new groups.
Joan says Alfredo thought he was avoiding him because he felt guilty about Oscar. Joan encourages him to check in with Alfredo. Sherlock says this is mail that shouldn’t have been at the top since it’s dated 1980.
Marcus meets some beat cops and says they found the block of a neighborhood that was built over a landfill. Sherlock says it’s likely in soil since Eddie didn’t ask for concrete tools. A local says that guy has been digging in the yard for a week and had official ID and an organ vest.
Joan asks to see the spot and he takes her out back. Sherlock comes up with two bikes and says they were stolen in Chelsea last month. He gives one to Sherlock. Joan calls and tells them to get down there. She says someone is there digging right now.
They bring the guy in and he says he didn’t know Eddie didn’t have permission. He says he met him online. He says he was at a video game tournament in Bayville last night. He says a friend even tweeted photos from there.
He says he wanted to see if Eddie found the games. Joan says tell us and he says Nottingham Knights. Joan looks it up and she says she remembers this and the guy says EmeryVision laid the groundwork for Wii and PlayStations.
Marcus reads online that it’s the worst game ever. He says it was a big Christmas release in 1980 but bad reviews caused pre-sales to plummet so they canceled the release. Sherlock says this is a legend and the guy says it’s a gamer Holy Grail.
He says someone tries to find the games every few years looking for where it was dumped. He says Eddie was looking, posted updates on the boards, then went radio silent. Marcus asks if he found it. He says there was some EmeryVison stuff in there from the right period, but no cartridges.
The guy says these games are worth $10k each and there would have been thousands of them so that’s millions of dollars. Sherlock goes to Alfredo’s shop. He says it’s nice to see you Alfredo. Sherlock says he’s been difficult to reach lately.
He invites Sherlock to join him for breakfast. They go for donuts and Sherlock says that’s not breakfast. He says he tried those when Alfredo brought them to a meeting and says pink coconut doesn’t happen in nature. Alfredo says everyone loves them.
Sherlock says alcoholics love sugar. Sherlock says the program has been helpful to him but since his relapse, he finds the routine and familiar faces remind him of his failure. Alfredo asks if he’s one of those familiar faces.
Sherlock says yeah. Alfredo says do what’s right for him to stay sober. Sherlock says this shouldn’t affect their friendship. He asks if he has a new sponsor. Sherlock says he’s difficult to replace. He says don’t take too long, going it alone doesn’t work.
Joan comes home and finds Sherlock in the study. She says she and Marcus met with the building owner. She says he didn’t know Eddie was digging. Sherlock is on the message boards looking at updates about the games. He talks about a user called IntegerOverflow.
They were sharing info and Sherlock says they don’t know how they swapped maps and tangible info. Sherlock says if Eddie found them, Overflow might have killed and robbed him. He says he has Everyone working on this but worries what payment they’ll want.
She asks about Alfredo and he says their friendship is strained outside of recovery since they have little else in common. The doorbell rings – it’s a box from Everyone. They take it back inside. There’s a game console with a game called Swords of Saturn and a note that says finish me. Sherlock starts playing the game and Joan backseat drives. He says her help is not helpful. Sherlock dies again and gets frustrated. Joan takes over. Sherlock says Swords of Saturn is supposed to be one of the best game of the era.
Joan says she’s played this before and is doing much better than Sherlock. She wins it then they see the sound engineer was IntegerOverflow. Sherlock goes to ice his thumb – he was playing for seven hours. They go see the guy.
He says he was at home alone when Eddie died. Sherlock says maybe Eddie found the games and he stole them. The guy smiles and says they’re way off. He says he didn’t kill Eddie or take any games. He says come on – I’ll show you.
He takes them to a garage out back. He has all of them. Sherlock says that doesn’t prove his innocence. Ostrin says no one killed Eddie because he didn’t find them. He says he found them six years ago. He says he can prove it with more than 100 hours of video.
He says he recorded it to make a documentary. He says he was leading Eddie on a wild goose chase and they are too. He says whatever Eddie found was not these games.
Marcus says Ostrin’s story checks out and he even has his NDAs and digging permits. Marcus says he’s been selling one every few months online for spending money. Joan says they’re only valuable because they’re rare. It makes sense that he fed the legend.
Marcus says nothing is missing from his apartment that the family can tell. Joan says maybe he found something else hidden that someone else wanted. Gregson says send CSU back to the hole. He says the building owner chewed them out.
Sherlock goes to a meeting and Martin sits by him. He says he should be proud of the 30 day chip. Sherlock says he had three years before that. Martin says he had four relapses in his first three years now he has 2 years clean.
He pulls out a donut with pink coconut. He says there’s more of them and points. Sherlock sees the box from Alfredo’s favorite place. He asks if there was meeting earlier and Martin says yes. Marcus finds Joan looking through sanitation department info.
She’s looking through records for the landfill. She says Corrigan Chemical’s name came up and they were accused of dumping toxic chemicals. She says maybe Eddie found out and threatened to go public. They go to Corrigan and Amy Kim come to talk to them.
She says her company purchased Corrigan. Marcus asks to speak in private. She says Eddie never approached them. Marcus says the EPA tested the soil and found the chemical Corrigan was dumping. She says Brower bought the company after that.
She says Corrigan hired an independent contractor and it was that contractor who did the illegal dumping. Amy says several cases have come up and Brower was cleared of all liability. She says the state paid for one clean up and the property owner paid for the other.
Marcus says the property owner wanted the hole filled in immediately. They bring in the property owner and says he told them he didn’t know Eddie but the secretary Elaine confirms Eddie was there twice. The boss says Elaine is nice but mistaken.
The lawyer says they’re leaving. Sherlock says the second visit left a more lasting impression. Marcus says Eddie knew about the toxic dumping and came to him about it. Joan says the building is in escrow and he’s 15 days from closing on a $10 million sale.
It would have killed the deal and caused tenant lawsuits. Gregson says they searched the property and there are two drums missing – Eddie obviously found them and they moved them. The guy asks to speak to his attorney alone.
Joan asks Sherlock about the meeting. He asks what Alfredo said to him. The lawyer says the statement is that he moved the barrels. He tells them to review the footage at a truck storage place and gives them the address.
The guy has an alibi – he was moving the barrels illegally when Eddie was being killed across town. Sherlock plays the video game again and says Bryce the property owner must have had an accomplice who killed Eddie while he was moving the toxic waste.
Joan says she may have found something. She says a fire gutted another building Bryce bought and there was a hefty insurance payout. She says maybe that arsonist did both jobs. She says Bryce probably only knows one or two criminals.
Joan says Eddie neighbors told them she smelled gas and says the guy was there setting a fire to look accidental but then Eddie came in and he has to kill him and then did the sloppier fire in a hurry when the neighbor called.
Sherlock and Joan find Bryce on the street. Sherlock says he knows Bryce paid to have it burned down. Marcus says they know he hired Vladimir Orlov to burn this. Joan says the smoke detector didn’t go off even though the super said he had changed it.
Marcus says they found his prints and Gregson says Orlov named him as the one who hired him to kill Eddie. Marcus arrests him. Sherlock is at Alfredo’s tinkering with his car. Sherlock says he waited outside and got bored.
Alfredo asks if he fixed the wiring problem then asks what’s up. Sherlock asks if he’s okay then says he told Joan that he hadn’t been to any St Luke’s meetings then says he wouldn’t know he had not been there unless he had gone to all of them.
Then he says he noticed he had been at another meeting and left donuts. Sherlock says he’s going to more meetings than usual and that says he’s struggling with something. Alfredo says he didn’t want to put this on him then says he’s down.
He says it has nothing to do with Oscar but doesn’t know what it is. Sherlock says he’s a friend and they can talk. Sherlock says helping him would be good for his own recovery. He says Alfredo tells him to be selfish in his sobriety but Alfredo is being selfless.
Alfredo laughs and says stay for dinner. Sherlock shuts up the garage and decides to stay and help his friend.
THE END!
