‘Elementary’ Season 5, Episode 11 Recap: Be My Guest

This week’s ‘Elementary’ finds Sherlock in a desperate race against the clock to find a woman that’s been held captive for years. Meanwhile, Joan becomes frustrated with Shinwell over his informant training.

This week’s Elementary found Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan (Lucy Liu) racing against the clock to find a woman being held captive. Shinwell’s (Nelsan Ellis) informant training doesn’t go as well as Joan had hoped. Leading to friction between Joan and Shinwell. Below is my recap for episode 11, “Be My Guest.”

The Case of the Week

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The episode opens with a woman making some breakfast. It seems rather pedestrian but there’s clearly something off. It doesn’t take long to figure out why. A man comes out to say goodbye to the woman, and before he leaves attaches a leash like device to a collar around her neck. The woman is being held there against her will.

Gregson and Sherlock are talking to a man they believe stole from the auction house that he works for. Although he tries denying it they have strong enough evidence tying him to it. Outside of the conference room, Sherlock notices a man acting suspiciously. When the man gets up and leaves Sherlock follows him and steals his phone. Once the man realizes his phone is missing the two men end up in a scuffle which Gregson breaks up. Before the man found him Sherlock found a video in which it’s clear the girl is being held captive. Unfortunately for our favorite detective, the man got the cell phone back before he could show it to the captain.

Sherlock doesn’t tell Gregson about the video because the police wouldn’t have probable cause to get a warrant. So Sherlock decides that he and Joan must break into the man’s house. His name is Ryan Decker and judging by the state of his house he doesn’t spend much time there. Sherlock read his lips when he first noticed him and knows that he’s working with an accomplice. Sherlock is worried that now Decker is spooked he might hurt the girl.

While the house is mainly a bust for the missing girl, they manage to find something to bring Decker in for. They’re able to bring him in for having pirated movies. But Decker has since gotten rid of the cell phone, or lost it as he claims. Decker lawyers up pretty quickly. Gregson informs Sherlock that they only have a day or two at the most to hold him on. So now the clock is really ticking to find the girl.

Joan goes to talk to Decker’s ex-wife Carrie. The woman appears to really dislike her ex-husband and can’t think of anyone who would be the accomplice. Joan does find out that Decker used to work with Carrie at an immigration and customs office. She suspects that he might have found his victims through there. It’s through here that Sherlock finds the identity of the woman he saw in the video. Decker’s victim is Preeda Boonark and Decker has had her for five years.

Their search for the accomplice turns up more and more dead ends. Each lead that they seem to find leads nowhere. Eventually, they have to release Decker since they don’t have anything to charge him with. Things go from bad to worse when they officers assigned to Decker lose track of him within a matter of hours.

They’re able to narrow down the area in which Decker disappeared but it still casts a wide net. Sherlock suggests that they start close to the beach, based on some crap paintings in Decker’s house. It’s there that they catch a small break although it’s not the kind they were hoping for. The police find a massive pool of blood on the beach. So much that it’s clear whoever the blood belonged to couldn’t have survived. Joan hopes that it’s the accomplice and not Preeda.

Sherlock finds Decker’s keys on the beach which leads them to another house. Sherlock and Joan wait outside while the swat team enters the house. Much to their relief they hear the team say that they’ve found the girl alive. Unfortunately their relief appears to be short-lived. The girl being held captive in that house is not Preeda but another victim of Decker. Their final break in the case comes from soy milk in the fridge of the house. Joan recognizes the brand as the same one Decker’s ex-wife was using in her coffee. Decker’s ex-wife Carrie is the accomplice.

They find the second house just in the nick of time. Carrie was preparing to torch it just as the cops arrived. One of the cops on the scene realizes there’s someone in the trunk of the car in the driveway. At first they suspect it might be Decker. When they open the trunk they find Preeda, who is thankfully still alive. They realize that the blood they found on the beach was Decker’s. Carrie killed him to start tying up loose ends now that the cops were after him.

Shinwell’s Training

Shinwell’s training isn’t going very well. He doesn’t seem to want to do the homework that Joan has assigned him such as lock picking. Shinwell doesn’t believe that it will help him in his quest to take down his former gang, The pair is butt heads throughout the episode over it. Shinwell is in the process of setting up a drug deal that will get him in with the higher-ups in SBK. Joan doesn’t like this plan because she feels like he isn’t ready for it.

Shinwell has his meeting despite Joan’s concerns. Lucky for him he did pay some attention to what Joan had been trying to teach him. He ends up calling the deal off when the guy acts suspiciously. Which is a good thing, because the guy was planning on ripping him off. It was thanks to one of the things Joan had said that he was able to pick up on the man’s strange behavior. At the end of the episode, Shinwell is at the brownstone and appears to be ready to take his training a little more seriously.

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Thoughts on the Episode

• This episode was a bit on the creepy side. I was really happy when that Decker didn’t make it out of the episode alive.
• I’m really loving what they’re doing with Shinwell’s character and storyline. I really can’t wait to see where they go next with it.

Elementary airs Sundays at 10/9c on CBS.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments!