Elementary Review: The Visions of Norman P. Horowitz (Season 6 Episode 18)

Sherlock and Joan take in an eerie case and a disconcerting amount of gold on Elementary Season 6 Episode 18, “The Visions of Norman P Horowitz.”

Remember the show Early Edition? Pre-Friday Night Lights Kyle Chandler plays a guy who gets tomorrow’s newspaper (delivered by a cat!) and has to save those who will face harm in the next 24 hours?

I’m guessing you never thought this show would take a page from that book. Yet premonitions of the future exist all the same.

Well, not really, of course. Not in a world with Sherlock Holmes, at least.  Still, what Norman P. Horowitz leaves behind is pretty convincing.

The only debatably disappointing thing about this episode is that the possibility of Norman’s brother being the perp despite bringing the case to our heroes himself is a bit of an obvious one for the regular viewer.

His motive is also a little anti-climactic. There’s at least a trace of a twisted perception of nobility in killing to make his brother’s maligned predictions come true. Targeting one man in greed though, is just kind of selfish.

That the man is Henry Baskerville, of the case infamous in so many versions of the Holmes story, does make for a nice callback. Henry himself seems like a viable suspect for a while, but it’s just one of our beloved red herrings.

There is a small part of me that would like an inconclusive ending. What if those predictions of the future really could be true? After all, the original Holmes himself speaks so memorably about the impossible.

Alas, in this version, it is not meant to be, and not only because Sherlock is among the hundreds of potential targets. Sherlock doesn’t believe in that kind of thing. Never has, and never will.

He does at least believe in common sense, though. While he may not accept premonitions, being marked for death by a serial killer still requires some measures to be taken.

In the end, what we see of his hidden wealth (and the further oddities we’ve come to expect) is really just a plot convenience to heighten his relationship with Joan. Still, seriously, that is a lot of gold.

Also, given the steps Sherlock has taken to mend bonds with his family—or at least the members still alive—his pledge to reject his inheritance for honor seems a little off.

That said, I’m not complaining too much. That he instead takes the money and divides it among charities important to Joan is a powerful and touching gesture.

…Although, and I kind of feel bad saying so in the wake of such generosity, at least some of that money could have gone to one more cause. Something like the tiny human Joan will presumably soon be raising.

Speaking of which, we see nothing of that storyline here. Perhaps more tellingly, we hear nothing of Michael, who we can guess will soon upturn everyone’s lives.

There are only a few episodes left in the season with lots of threads to tie up. A serial killer with his sights set on Sherlock is the most ominous, but there’s still that awaited adoption, Sherlock’s health, and Marcus’s likely departure.

Hopefully everything will be given the attention it deserves, especially considering this may have been planned as the final season. Instead, we should get an interesting set up for what comes next.

Sadly, it may mean a future without at least one loved character. Yet it could also mean meeting some new people—including one very small one. Perhaps we’ll get more clues before the season’s end.

What did you think of this episode of Elementary? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Elementary airs Mondays at 10/9 on CBS.

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