Elementary Review: Red Light, Green Light (Season 7 Episode 4)

Things are looking up on Elementary Season 7 Episode 4, “Red Light, Green Light,” though probably more for our friends than the people killed by an exploding gas truck.

Thank you very much for that beginning with Gregson’s dream-funeral, show. I’ve totally been looking for an opportunity to feel my heart drop into my stomach.

This, it soon transpires, is how Elementary likes telling us that Gregson is awake and on the road to a full recovery. (The purpose of the killer clown is debatable.) As far as Sherlock is concerned, all is forgiven. At the moment, all seems to be forgotten, too.

At least we aren’t forgetting about the case behind the captain’s shooting. Still, it plays second fiddle as we get back to a regular series of murder investigations.

The manipulated traffic lights that lead to it are new, but a blown-up truck is a standard business day for Sherlock and Joan. This particular explosion reunites us with Halcon, our favorite(?) face-tattooed gang leader.

Or at least it sort of does. Danny doesn’t have those tattoos anymore and is instead a soccer coach with a wife and kid. Still, his old gang connections could prove useful, even when it turns out the traffic light manipulation isn’t related to gangs at all

It’s a nice twist, though maybe a bit of a rushed one. Would a van driver really not mention a mystery delivery leading to an explosion? Perhaps so—red herrings are, as ever, another sign of the status quo.

What else does Sherlock’s usual mean? Well, we see him accusing a bunch of FBI agents of treason, gauging their reactions, and declaring them innocent, though that just sounds like something he’d do for fun.

It also means filling his isolation chamber at the toilet with red, flavored gelatin at the behest of Everyone. They just make everything better, don’t they? For us as the audience, obviously, not Sherlock and Joan. Sadly, we don’t get to see it filmed.

There are considerably fewer moments of levity when it comes to the matter of Gregson’s case. The captain might be fine-ish now, but it doesn’t change the fact that someone tried to kill him.

Peter, now in prison, isn’t telling anyone much, but he’s one of the few reminders that something will eventually come back to haunt us. I say “something” because I think there’s a nonzero chance he’ll be killed in prison, leaving his suspicious wife with the name he shares.

Joan’s now got at least two sets of people on her back and doesn’t know it. It all ties back to Sherlock and Gregson, confirming that what is forgotten now can’t stay that way for long.

Overall, this is a bit of a filler episode, bridging the gap between wrapping up last season’s stories and getting started on the storylines that will (*sniff*) bring the series to a close. Quality filler, but we get more hints than actual events.

As for how those hints will play out, your guess is as good as mine. Even if I had any, I think the person we’ll meet in the next episode could throw them all up in the air. But we’ll get to that when the time comes.

As a parting note, this is another one of those episodes that leaves us all just a bit more paranoid about our real world. I know it’s very unlikely that someone would hack traffic lights to target an enemy, but the idea that the possibility exists…yikes.

 

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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