Elementary Review: Into the Woods (Season 7 Episode 5)
A new character is introduced on Elementary Season 7 Episode 5, “Into the Woods,” and his name is both familiar and ominous.
With a shortened final season, we’ll be seeing the final on-screen adventures of Sherlock, Joan, and the gang in about two months. The stories will end, one way or another. So now, welcome Oden Reichenbach.
For fans of the Arthur Conan Doyle Canon or any of its other many adaptations, the name “Reichenbach” is well known, even while generally associated with a thing instead of a person—the Reichenbach Falls.
Fans also know well that “The Final Problem” for the original Holmes wasn’t final at all. This has been repeatedly reflected in adaptations, most notably BBC’s Sherlock. Maybe we don’t need to be too worried.
Still, to hear this name in what really is the beginning of the end for this particular version of the story is…well, let’s just say its not comforting.
As a man, Odin is a tech billionaire who works his way into Joan’s graces with a huge donation to her gun buyback program and then asks her to save his threatened niece. A niece it turns out was never in any danger at all.
It’s all been a test, he says, and quickly shapes himself into a certain kind of character. Intelligent, powerful, intriguing, and now morally gray, he’s just what we might expect knowing only his name and its associations.
A character like this isn’t terribly original but will still shape the narrative from here on out. As for how the writers will choose to pay tribute to this reference, I just hope everyone makes to the end of the series alive.
With this mad goose chase eventually serving no real purpose other than to establish who Reichenbach is, we still have a case to carry us through an hour. It’s kind of a doozy, at least in terms of a single episode spree.
We open the episode on the innocent bystander killed because she happened to run past the scene. She isn’t the intended victim. Nor is the person shot after making poison for our killer Certainly not the poor hog who the poison was tested on. (Rude.)
All this is to try and slip that poison into the wine of a rich man, and the effort doesn’t prove successful. It’s good that Sherlock saves a life, of course, but this is one complicated case for a side show, even while the pay off is worth watching.
That said, this side show might also all might tie in with Peter, last seen tipping his girlfriend off to Joan during a prison visit and putting another potentially life-threatening threat on her and Sherlock. This doesn’t help Reichenbach’s emergence feel any less ominous.
All in all, we have several balls up in the air. There may have been good reason to drop the “Sherlock under investigation” storyline after all, at least much as we have done. How would we keep track otherwise?
We have good reason to feel plenty of anxiety over what’s to come. On the bright side, it could also be fascinating. With a show that pulled off Irene as Moriarty in season one, the question of who Odin Reichenbach really is has a wealth of possible answers.
What did you think of this episode of Elementary? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Elementary airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.
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Caitlin Wyneken
Caitlin is an elder millennial with an only slightly unhealthy dedication to a random selection of TV shows, from PBS Masterpiece dramas to some of the less popular series on popular networks. Outside of screen time, she's dedicated to the public sector and worthy nonprofits, working to make a difference in the world outside of media.