As Kitty begins to unravel due to the imminent threat to her safety, Sherlock and Joan intensify their efforts to help her. Also, the origin of Sherlock and Kitty's relationship is revealed.
Kitty was given a lot of time and focus for the first half of Elementary's third season. And now that her story has reached a concluding point, it's time to ask if her presence was rewarding for the show and the characters during the time she spent with them. She came at a crucial turning point in the Sherlock-Joan partnership. It's difficult to believe that either one of them would have adjusted as well as they did in their new understanding without Kitty's presence. The show did a sufficient job at showcasing how her addition helped both Sherlock and Joan travel over emotional hurdles.With Kitty as their student, Sherlock and Joan became like a married couple teaching the world to a naive child. They watched over Kitty and were worried about her because of this huge trauma in her past. They taught her the skills of this profession and she helped them both mature as characters. In the second season, Sherlock and Joan were often seen as co-dependents. They were attached so frequently that it didn't feel like their dynamic was continuously evolving. This whole new understanding occurred because Joan decided to move out of the brownstone and Sherlock reacted by joining MI6 in London. That opportunity wasn't a good match for him. And Kitty was there to help pick up the pieces before he made a big mistake.
We've seen Sherlock and Kitty's friendship evolve across these twelve episodes. And now, in her final episode - for now, at least - we get to see how the two of them first met in London. He saw potential in her thought process and immediately started offering his wisdom to her. It tested both of them much more than the early days of his time with Joan. She was still in a very fragile state. Her personal emotions often effected how she viewed the world and the cases she was trying to help the police with. Meanwhile, Sherlock was all alone, unsure of what to do and was looking at the comfort of heroin again. They pulled each other out of their respective funks. They were good for each other.
The pairing of the flashbacks with the present-day story is wonderfully compelling because Sherlock is asked to pull Kitty out of her descent before she does something she can't come back from. Last week spent a lot of time on a red herring. The man Sherlock, Joan and Kitty were hunting wasn't the man who abducted Kitty in London five years ago. Instead, her actual attacker was Joan's new boss, Del Gruner. The hour doesn't waste any time on uncertainty over that fact either. Joan and Sherlock discuss it. When Del hears Sherlock put the pieces together through Joan's new company phone, he immediately fires her. Whether or not Del is guilty isn't the action of the story. It's getting the proof to arrest him for his crimes.
Even with that focus, it's not the predominant action of the episode. This two-part event is the climax of Kitty's story. She is coming face-to-face with the man who hurt her five years ago. He's a sociopath. And now, she has a choice to make: Catch him the legal way or exert her own sense of lethal vengeance. It's not unlike the situation Sherlock found himself in two years ago. He was so desperate to learn the truth about Irene's murder that he broke away from his own moral compass in order to get it. That's a fact that doesn't go unnoticed by Sherlock. Kitty's desperate acts bring up those memories for him. But now, he's trying to help Kitty by giving her all the facts.
Sherlock and Joan do get the evidence to convict Del for his past crimes. It's largely because of a connection that Detective Bell found too. Sherlock and Joan are focusing on putting together a past history while Bell finds a woman Del has a connection with right now. The big emotions are the more important character beats for Sherlock and Joan in this episode not the investigation. They get their evidence. And now, Del's fate rests in Kitty's hands. Sherlock gives her the information and then allows her to make her choice. She was willing to kill him and dissolve his body in the nutmeg concoction she learned about a few episodes ago.
She eventually has a change of heart and tells the police where they can find Del tied up to a chair. More importantly though, she gets some amount of vengeance by burning his face so that his mask is lifted and everyone can see what a monster he truly is. That last bit was a little unnecessary for me. It's a personal victory for Kitty because she got to hurt him in some way just like he hurt her. And yet, he could easily press charges against her. So now, she's leaving town to go start a life somewhere new. She's grateful for all that Sherlock has done for her. She loves him. That's a gesture of true friendship. He guided her to this place. And now, she's leaving to put her skills to use elsewhere. She can still contact Sherlock for help in any of her future cases. So this probably isn't the last we've seen of Kitty. But she served her purpose. And now, I'm curious to see how the show evolves in her absence. Sherlock and Joan came to a new understanding with her in both of their lives. How does her leaving change things for them?
Some more thoughts:
- "The One That Got Away" was written by Robert Doherty and directed by Seith Mann.
- I don't really believe that Captain Gregson and Detective Bell would just be okay with Kitty burning Del and letting her go free.
- Joan does get short-changed a little bit because of the increased focus on the Sherlock-Kitty relationship. She cares about Kitty too. But this job presented something new for her and it's taken away out of a plot necessity for Kitty without Joan having much of a reaction at all.
- Sherlock's training really has helped Kitty evolve as a person. When they first met, she placed blame on any sex offender. And now, she lets her's go because she knows that he'll be arrested. I'm not sure Ophelia Lovibond did enough to distinguish the difference but the character arc was there.
