Farewell, Kitty

Excellent conclusion to the two-parter on Elementary; they updated the canon story very well, and even surprised me in some details. The character beats were really touching and emotional too. The actors could convey so much without hugging or being demonstrative as other, less reserved characters might have done. Since the episode featured flashbacks to Holmes meeting Kitty in London, and showed the dramatic conclusion of her vengeance, it was a nice bookend for her character arc. I will complain, though, that it took forever for that stupid heroin packet from last season to finally pay off; they kept that under wraps too long, and I will be glad to never see a flashback to that goddamn packet again.


At first I was dismayed that Watson did not believe that Kitty really recognized Gruner's voice, and that she didn't realize that her company phone was bugged, but I guess that was a plot device so Gruner could fire her and Watson would realize that she had been setup. Holmes was very penitent for doubting Kitty's instincts as well, so he let her pursue her dangerous plan alone. (I for one was fooled when Kitty said she wanted to go home to London; I assumed that Gruner would intercept her on the way and kidnap her, but the show continued to keep Kitty out of such a damsel role.) I suppose it's not surprising that Kitty thinks vigilante justice is fine, since Holmes told her of how he hunted down Moran, when he thought Moran killed Irene. She insisted that she had the right man, and Holmes did not attempt to lecture her at all on morality; he just offered his unconditional friendship and walked away, leaving the choice up to her. I still thought Kitty would just decide to brand Gruner, if she wasn't going to kill him, but then she used the nutmeg concoction for her acid attack. I'm glad we didn't need to see the gruesome result in the end, though.

So Kitty's gone away to start a new life; "Kitty Winter" wasn't her real name anyway, since she changed it after her escape from Gruner, so she's already practiced at this "new identity" stuff. I'm glad the writers left it open-ended that Kitty might get in contact again occasionally. For the end of the season, I do hope that Moriarty doesn't somehow find out about Kitty and get jealous like she was when she couldn't stand that Watson had a connection to Holmes. I really don't want to see Moriarty again, ever.

Now that Kitty's gone, perhaps there will now be room for other stories that have been dropped this season, like Joan's boyfriend, and what she's gonna do now that she closed her practice and got fired from the fake job at Leda. The might be more stuff about Bell or Gregson's families too. I hope Ms. Hudson will be able to come by again, and as ever, I want some damn variety in the cases! Holmes in the books took lots of cases, with the police or with private clients, so long as they were bizarre. I wish Holmes wouldn't keep snubbing private cases on the show because he thinks he's being so awesome working for free instead of taking money. Just because he hates his father's money (while hypocritically living in his father's house, and paying Watson from his father's money) doesn't mean it's evil for Holmes to ever have a paying client. It just smacks of narcissism and aristocratic privilege.