'Elementary' S3E2 - Five Orange Pipz - a review

A man walks into his apartment and checks his mail.
Inside one large envelope is five plastic beads. For some reason the sight of the beads frightens the man and he makes a phone call. The phone is picked up by Gregson who is at the office of a murder victim, the man who was suppose to answer the phone. While on the phone the caller is murdered. The second murdered man, the one who made the phone call is Elias Openshaw.
The mystery also involves blackmail and political intrigue.

 Compared to last weeks dysfunctional mess, I found 'Five Orange Pipz' to be a very good episode.

Holmes is less needy and unsure of himself and Watson has fallen, although she won't admit it yet, back a little more into a lesser roll as detective. She still offers some valuable insights, but the case is defiantly Holmes'.

The character of Kitty is filled out a little bit more with a little bit of her background exposed, and she also proves that she is not willing to play second fiddle to Watson. Where last week she seemed odd and spoiled, this week she seemed more damaged and repairable.
She also makes some valuable observations along the way. The Canonical Kitty seemed damaged yet strong. This week gave us a glimpse of that.

This week the role of Holmes being a mentor seemed more plausible and less needy and dependent.
His interest in Kitty seemed more sincere and less looking for a replacement to Watson. His role was almost that of the role the first brought Watson to Holmes.
For me, this episode was one of the closest to a more Canonical Holmes that 'Elementary' has achieved. Miller's Holmes seemed more directed by the work than the personalities this week.

Liu's Watson seemed to, maybe too quickly, fall back into her role slightly not as observant side-kick. Which is where she should be. She is still smart and adds to the case, but in the end it is Holmes' insights the solve the case.

Although back stories still played a role in character behavior this week, they did not get in the way of the story or mystery.

There were also some interesting twists involving the district attorney.

Canonical references that I caught ( I always rely on Buddy2Blogger to catch the ones I miss) are;

Miller's Holmes reference to not guessing.
Five orange pips (pipz).
Kitty Winter (again).
Openshaw.

Everything seemed to be played a little more subtly this week. There were no over the top histrionics or overly gory crime scenes. Even Kitty's seemly over reactions were latter explained.

Although as Sherlockians one of the most important aspects of going over and over the Canon is the insight we perceive we get into the personalities of Holmes and Watson, and at times our quest for that over shadows the story. But in the Canon, not matter how obsessive we get, the little tidbits of the individuals we get is always a subtle treat and not an overwhelming glut. The Canon never gets bogged down with the back stories, instead handing them out just little pieces at a time.
I think last weeks episode over did that. Where this weeks episode played it down and made for a much better night.

Would I liked to still see more Canonical Holmes like characteristics, sure. But it was much better than last week.

So this week I feel I should give it