My guts feel weird as I’m writing this but in the past year that’s become fairly normal, sadly enough.
I deliberately did not talk about the Shadow Carja in last week’s Note about the tribes in Horizon Zero Dawn because I didn’t think I had much to say about them. But the more I thought about it Saturday afternoon and Sunday, the more I thought of things I could say; however, I also had this idea that has floated in and out of my head since rewatching the pilot episode of Elementary. Once it came back at the beginning of the week I wrote it down as this week’s subject so that I wouldn't forget it again.
Also, while I will compare the CBS Elementary to BBC’s Sherlock in the approach to the character, this is not meant to be an essay saying that one is superior to the other, or to put down Sherlock. I may get the two titles mixed up; I apologize if I do that.
And spoilers for the pilot episode of Elementary.
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Elementary, Sherlock Holmes, & Righteous Fury
Towards the end of the pilot episode of Elementary, Sherlock Holmes figures out how the perpetrator, the victim’s husband, did the crime: he was not the killer (who was found to have killed himself earlier in the episode), but the killer’s therapist, who was secretly seeing him. The man prescribed steroids to his patient and secretly pushed his violent urges and obsessions, despite telling him he was giving him medication to calm him down. So when the patient was put in a situation where he was in close proximity to his (the therapist’s) wife, he killed her in a rage, and immediately went home in a confused stupor disgusted with himself over what he’d done, eventually killing himself.
And when Sherlock puts this together and confronts the man, he is furious.
In grad school I took a film class, and the professor referred to something he called the ‘Save the Cat’ moment. It’s the bit of a film in which the hero shows he’s a good person.
This is that moment.
Sherlock Holmes, as presented in the early episodes of Elementary, is a douchebag. He frequently disregards the comfort of people around him, dismissing people’s concerns because they bother him or he’s trying to make a point or something. And he gets called out on it. A lot. Mostly by Joan. A large part of his character development over the course of the series is him actually picking up on this and doing his best to be a better person by respecting people other than himself. By the end of the series, Sherlock is still abrasive and has little regard for social niceties, but he’s more openly respectful of other people and willing to accept other people’s points of view.
But right here, right in the pilot, is this moment that sticks with me. Because Sherlock Holmes presents himself as a selfish ex-junkie doing his best to keep himself busy with being a detective to pass the time, because he knows he’s better at it than everyone else. And when confronting this man he’s enraged. Not because the man has outwitted Holmes by making it difficult to find proof of his crime (although I’m sure it doesn’t help), not because of anything that this man had done to Holmes personally.
He’s enraged because this doctor took a man who came to him for help was wound up and used like a weapon. That he abused a man’s trust by drugging him and setting him on another person.
Sherlock Holmes is angry because he’s feeling righteous indignation on the way this man has treated a vulnerable human being.
As far as I can recall, BBC’s Sherlock Holmes does not do this. I will admit that I haven’t seen the third and fourth seasons since they’ve aired. He does get stunned by some of Moriarty’s more horrific actions. And he gets quite angry when someone he cares about is in danger, or gets hurt, or is threatened in some way. To be fair, this is entirely consistent with his characterization and development in that show. In Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes says in the first episode that he’s a sociopath, and it’s clear throughout its run that he has trouble relating to other people at all. So him feeling the kind of rage at the injustice some criminals exhibit wouldn’t really be in character for him.
We don’t see it with the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes either. He does show concern for other people, and he does go out of his way to help others out of danger. But the Sherlock of Guy Ritchie’s films is a bit busy. He’s dealing with cases relating to the fate of the country, or of all of Europe.
The very first episode of Elementary, on the other hand, makes a point to tell the viewer: this is a man who cares very deeply about the injustices of the world, even if he’s a bit of a tosser most of the time. Right away he’s shown to be someone Good--albeit Chaotic Good and not Lawful Good, because Sherlock’s happy to break into someone’s apartment to find evidence if he thinks it’ll help. He can say what he wants about being a consulting detective, but a huge part of what he does, and why he does it, is because Sherlock recognizes that there are problems in the world that he is equipped to solve. There are people who need help, and he can help them.
I haven’t read enough of the original stories to tell you how accurate this take on the character is. Random Tumblr posts and conversations I’ve had lead me to believe that it’s closer to Arthur Conan Doyle’s characterization than a lot of other takes. But in any case, it’s become a rather rare thing to see protagonists who are doing the right thing because it’s the right thing. More often it’s revenge or self-interest that accidentally turns into saving the world or something like that. And to be clear, these aren’t bad motivations; adding personal stakes to a story is good. It makes the character’s journey personal.
And maybe I’m misreading this interaction entirely; it does involve drugs, and part of Sherlock’s whole schtick in Elementary is that he’s a recovering addict. And maybe that’s why he reacts so strongly here and I need to watch the episode again. But it’s still him getting angry on the behalf of another person, a man abused but an authority figure he trusted and that’s just… that’s Good stuff.
More like that, please.
I should just rewatch all of Elementary.
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