Elementary Review: The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out (Season 6 Episode 17)

As you may guess, it’s probably a good idea to finish dinner before watching Elementary Season 6 Episode 17, “The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out.”

I cannot help but be concerned about the first scene to greet me in an episode with a title like this. There are no creepy crawlies in the first few minutes, though there are painted women posing as wallpaper.

Still, never fear. We do get worms– in a bed of fertilizer that also contains human body parts. I’m generally wary of anything called a “worm extractor,” but I’m still sure that’s not supposed to be a part of it.

There’s plenty of “ick” to go around, especially for the poor guys tasked with fishing our victim’s half-consumed body from soil. Again, not a meal or even snack-worthy episode, though it is certainly done well.

We may feel that our dead man has it coming a little bit. Sleeping with several people at once is just fine by me– if everyone is in the know. This guy forgets that second part.

At first, it looks like a pretty standard motive. Jealous husband in his cheating wife’s car, blah blah blah. But I just love this gem of a plot-twisting phrase for a man who shot someone who died from stab wounds:

I don’t think he is lying. I think he did shoot [the victim]. But I think someone else killed him.

So yes. This a great episode for drama, even if it’s not such a great one for worm hunters (or fidelity.) Yet it seems pretty surprising that a guy dubbed a “worm hunter” would get death threats, even if he does sleep around.

As it turns out, the those death threats are actually embedded code. That’s both less and more confusing, frankly, because can really think of no other type of letter to use?

When it turns out the sender actually is the killer, it’s almost anti-climactic. At least the motive of “vengeance for insects” is almost poetic. Or maybe that’s just me.

As for that other plot twist: I guess I accept material from spider silk blocking a bullet. I can even accept a man not realizing his victim is dead, leaving him to be killed by another. But I’m doing it all grudgingly.

The entire case is just up Sherlock’s alley, at a time when he already has plenty else on his mind. Here, we fear at first that it may mean an obstacle in the way of his mental recovery.

The good news is that his recovery is going just fine. The bad news is that his identity his been stolen. Not that that’s anything Sherlock can’t handle.

…Or, at least, it wouldn’t be if that’s all there was to this. But after Sherlock tracks the guy using his name to the guy who actually stole it, he realizes he has a much bigger enemy.

That would be Michael, who, after a season with so many fraught emotions, has almost slipped my mind. All the same, there is a serial killer waiting to return to Sherlock’s life. He’s about to fulfill that promise.

Is it bad that I’m this excited about his return? Perhaps. But I have full confidence that Sherlock will win, and await a long and complicated dance with real challenges before we get to that point.

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

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Elementary airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.

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