History Series / Elementary

* AmbiguousDisorder:
** Sherlock has a lot of common personality traits with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome -- socially awkward and extremely gifted within a certain area (in his case detective work), straightforward and with a lot of BrutalHonesty.
** In "Déjà Vu All Over Again" we learn through a FreezeFrameBonus that he actually suffers from depression.
** His exact words about noticing things and being overstimulated by the world suggest a sensory processing disorder.
** [[LampshadeHanging Mycroft claims at one point that the family has consulted a number of experts about Sherlock's sanity, but have not been able to get a precise diagnosis.]] Given the situation however, he may not be telling the truth.
** Sherlock's body language is also wildly stilted and jerky. It makes his moods difficult to ascertain without his tone to give it away. He does get very, very still at serious moments or when he's [[TranquilFury incredibly angry]], however.
** In season 4 Fiona Helbron, who is explicitly Autistic, is able to identify that her boss and Joan are both Neurotypical but states she can't tell if Sherlock is also Autistic or not.

** Sherlock's habit of introducing Joan as various titles. So far we've had: "personal valet", "bodyguard", "consultant slash housekeep", "she keeps me from doing heroin", and "America's foremost expert on home security".
** Holmes waking Watson up in several ways and times of the day to share his thoughts on the latest case. It's even used in the show's promotional [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-aB2hU3axc ads.]]

''Elementary'' is an American television series that premiered on Creator/{{CBS}} in 2012 and ran for seven seasons. It presents a contemporary update of Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Franchise/SherlockHolmes detective stories set in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. It stars Creator/JonnyLeeMiller as Sherlock Holmes and Creator/LucyLiu as [[TheWatson Joan Watson]].

* PrecisionCrash: Subverted in "A Landmark Story", when a man is killed by a falling air conditioner window unit. The police chalk it up as a freak accident but something about it irks Sherlock. [[spoiler:It was a hit, done by a ProfessionalKiller specializing in [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident Making It Look Like an Accident]].]]

** "Child Predator" has [[spoiler:Adam Kemper, the so-called victim of kidnapper Samuel Abbot. He actually abused his kidnapper and forced him to kidnap and kill children, then pretends to be a guilt-ridden victim of StockholmSyndrome to get an immunity deal for his crimes. Thankfully Sherlock pulls a RulesLawyer and get him convicted.]]
** "One Way To Get Off" has [[spoiler:Sean Figueroa, illegitimate son of SerialKiller Wade Crewes, who's father convinced him to commit murders to make himself look innocent]]. He killed two couples, and a bystander who happened to be present.

** And better: In "Heroine", [[spoiler:she is the one who ''alone'' deduces Moriarty and creates the plan to her capture.]]

** [[spoiler:Irene Adler in "The Woman", leading Sherlock to deduce that she's not all she says she is because a few birthmarks are missing.]]

* TheUnreveal

** The first man the professor approached was weary of the mysterious offer, requested more money and video taped the professor coming to his door to slip more money under the door. He would show this to the police later undoing the plan.

** Pointed out in "Snow Angels", when Sherlock has a mock-up of the city with Clyde representing the ambulance and padlocks being used to represent landmarks and checkpoints. When Joan points it out the unintentional pun of using locks to show the city in lockdown, Sherlock is indignant.

* WalkAndTalk: OnceAnEpisode

** "Paint it Black": [[spoiler:Mycroft didn't arrange Joan's abduction, but he is in fact, as an [=MI6=] agent.]]

* WorkingTheSameCase: "Déjà Vu All Other Again", [[spoiler:a man's wife disappearance (Joan's) and a woman getting pushed into the subway (Sherlock's) turns out to be linked.]]

* WrenchWhack: In "Fight Risk", the VictimOfTheWeek finds the murderer [[VehicularSabotage sabotaging a plane]] in the hanger and the is killed by a wrench blow to the back of the head. The murderer stuffs the body into the cargo bay of the plane. When the plane crashes due to the sabotage, Sherlock finds a body that was dead before the crash and initially assumes this is a case of DeathInTheClouds.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In "Paint It Black" [[spoiler:after Joan tried her best, under her condition of being kidnapped and working in a backroom, to save a man in her kidnapper's employ (and the man's cousin no less). But because he was bleeding internally and this wasn't caught in the first surgery or some other complication developed, Joan pleads with her kidnapper to take him to a hospital. The man just shoots his cousin on the table]]. Later in the episode, [[spoiler:Mycroft ]] is trying to convince the villain that he still of great utility for the Milieu and that it would be a mistake to kill him and his friends but the mob boss orders all the witnesses killed anyway. This then turns into a inversion when it is revealed that [[spoiler:Mycroft was actually working for British Intelligence and was asking the mob boss to reconsider because he did not want to have to have to kill his very useful Milieu contacts in self-defense]].

* PhantomThief: Played with in "The Leviathan". A criminal who Holmes and Watson question about the break-in of a unbeatable safe clue them in of a legendary thief who's pulled impossible heists. [[spoiler:Turns out to be a fluke, and the crime in question was done by a SimilarSquad of the jury who banded together]].

** Le Chevalier, from "The Leviathan".

** "We Are Everyone" was obviously inspired by the Edward Snowden scandal. The Snowden {{Expy}} is helped by a Julian Assange-type character (sans the rape allegations). It should be noted that the Snowden expy is portrayed totally unsympathetically, being willing to kill and endanger lives rather than face the legal repercussions of his leaking national security secrets (And it is implied that he did it just to get attention).

** Part of the reason Sherlock can cope on this level may be that he's learned he doesn't have to specialise; where other Sherlocks seemed to basically keep track of everything he'd need to know for investigations on his own, Miller's Sherlock relies on his Irregulars "Everyone" for specialized knowledge of particular subjects he wouldn't expect to deal with on a more regular basis.

** In "Rip Off" this becomes a plot point where Sherlock figures out somebody can't be the killer because he doesn't understand the slang used in the e-mails he sent to his hired killer.

* SmokescreenCrime: In "[[Recap/ElementaryS03E08EndOfWatch End of Watch]]", a police officer is murdered by a masked man so that his funeral will draw most of the department away from [[spoiler:a planned robbery of the [[SWATTeam Emergency Services Unit's]] armory]]. The murdered officer's funeral is cancelled after Holmes and Watson discover he was stealing department weapons and fencing them to feed his drug addiction, forcing the killer to murder a second one.

* SnipeHunt: In "The Leviathan", when questioning a convicted perp of a previous crime leads them to the PhantomThief, Holmes and Watson quickly conclude that the guy doesn't exist, and that they're being sent on one of these. The trope is even name dropped.

* StringTheory: Holmes often works this way, placing pieces of evidence in collages on the walls of the brownstone so he can look for connections and leads. It's played for laughs in one episode when Everyone has Sherlock write an essay on why [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Bella should have chosen Jacob over Edward]], he places pages from the books on the walls and comes to the conclusion that they should have engaged in polyamory instead.
** In "Dirty Laundry" Watson demonstrates her growing interest in becoming a detective by forming her own board after she becomes invested in the Purcell case. Despite the investigation being officially closed her board helps Sherlock spot a clue that doesn't fit and leads them to the actual murderer.

* TheSummation: Given by Sherlock every episode. Often with assistance from joan.

** In "The Deductionist", imprisoned serial killer Martin Ennis breaks loose to wreak havoc and get revenge against TheProfiler, Katherine Drummond, [[spoiler:because her book destroyed his family. She falsely alleged that he was sexually abused by his father, who later hanged himself and his mother died shortly after; his sister Patricia helps him break out of jail by deliberately inducing kidney disease so that he has to come to a hospital to donate his kidney. While Holmes openly speculates that Martin manipulated his sister to help his plan, Martin still takes time during his escape to call Drummond and declare to her that his parents were good people who had nothing to do with what he has become. Notably, Drummond is also stabbed and almost killed by Patricia, implying that she also wanted revenge like her brother.]]

* HostageForMacGuffin: In "The Diabolical Kind" the Devon Gaspar and his men kidnap a girl named Kayden Fuller for $50 million. [[spoiler:In truth, they wanted a information from the girl's mother, ''Moriarty'', on the location of a treasure vault]].

** His name is [[MythologyGag Gregson]] this time, but still. (For those unaware of the reason for the pothole: Gregson is the name of a colleague of Lestrade in the original stories-he appears in the first Holmes story, "A Study In Scarlet". Lestrade appeared far more often than Gregson in the original works, but both serve identical roles -- as is now the case for ''Elementary'' and ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''.)

* InternalAffairs: In "The Best Way Out Is Always Through", Marcus finds out that his new girlfriend, Det. Shauna Scott, is an IA informant at her precinct. They break up, Marcus gets over it and apologizies, but Shauna tells him that she took his words about spying to heart and has decided to work for IA full-time.

* IntrepidReporter: Rosalie Nunez from "Internal Audit".[[spoiler:..at least, based on the little we learn about her before she's murdered.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: A good assessment [[spoiler:Odin Reichenbach in the final season; while he presents himself as a WellIntentionedExtremist who wants to prevent crimes being committed in future by killing potential perpetrators, when Sherlock presents Reichenbach with an alternative system of simply helping potential killers get over the issues that might drive them to murder, Reichenbach has three innocent people killed just to suggest that his current method is superior. Add in the later revelation that he had an innocent woman killed so that he could buy her brother's company, and Reichenbach comes across as an arrogant man on a power trip who just likes having a semi-justifiable reason to kill people]].

** Moriarty. [[spoiler:After seducing Sherlock, faking her own death, destroying his life and sanity, leading him to drug addiction, going back to his life pretending to be mentally ill and filling his heart with guilt, she tried to set him apart from Watson, made threats to his emotional health, and in the end, after ''thinking he had overdosed'' tried to manipulate him into her ''again''.]]

** In "The Diabolical Kind" Devon Gaspar and one his cohorts gun down two uniformed [=NYPD=] officers, only for one of them to shoot the cohort, and get killed by Gasper.

** In "The Five Orange Pipz", [[spoiler:the villain behind everything is a corrupt FBIAgent. His motive was to gain access to the titular toys, which contained GHB, so he could sell them as drugs.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: Holmes is a consultant, not a cop, which means he can do things the NYPD can't-such as search people's homes without a warrant, [[ArtisticLicenseLaw which no, he can't]]. While this might be Holmes' [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight self-justification]], it would be HollywoodLaw if played straight. In reality, persons acting on behalf of police agencies are bound by the same rules of evidence as sworn police, to prevent exactly this kind of loophole. Additionally, even if the evidence were admissible, it would still be a felony to break in the way he does.

* MadLibsCatchPhrase: In Season 1, Sherlock often introduces himself and Joan by the following template: "I'm Sherlock Holmes, a consultant for the NYPD. This is Ms Watson, my [employee]." [employee] usually doesn't match Watson's job at all, such as "valet" or "bodyguard", although in one episode (speaking to a woman with Alzheimer's), he introduces her by "this is Joan, she stops me from doing heroin". This goes away in Season 2 when they are actually partners, although he does once introduce her as "Ms Watson, America's foremost expert on home security".

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Odin Reichenbach justifies the viligante killings he orders with this principle, saying it saves far more lives as the people killed would have murdered thousands. He even has a number of major intelligence and law enforcement officials behind him, since they agree. However, while he is a genuine WellIntentionedExtremist, as time goes on he proves himself capable of having anyone murdered to benefit his project or protect his secrets. For example, he kills an innocent woman as part of a plan to take over her brother's company because the company's tech will improve his crime prediction system.

** Invoked in “The Deductionist”, when serial killer Martin Ennis gets out of prison and escalates his actions to explicitly defy the analysis of FBI profiler Kathryn Drummond, who incorrectly profiled him as being the victim of sexual abuse as a child and thus caused the deaths of his parents (his father committed suicide and his mother basically died of a broken heart a year later). While Drummond notes that Ennis didn’t need her to give him a reason to kill, Holmes counters that Ennis didn’t have ''this'' reason until she provoked him.
** The set-up of "On the Line": Samantha Wabash kills herself to [[FramingTheGuiltyParty frame the Lucas Bundsch, whom she believes killed her sister]]. Sherlock proves that it was indeed a suicide, but during the polygraph test realizes that Samantha was right in suspecting Lucas of killing her sister. He spends the rest of the episode trying to finish Samantha's work.

** In "Pick Your Poison", a doctor who has been selling false prescriptions using Joan's identity (among others) learns that [[spoiler:one of her patients is a victim of MunchausenSyndrome when his mother contacts one of the doctor's other identites looking for a new doctor (she can't stay with one doctor for too long in case they realise that his condition is faked). Knowing that revealing this knowledge will also require her to expose her false identities, the doctor told the son the truth about what was being done to him. In retaliation, the son manipulates one of her other patients so that his mother ''and'' the doctor are killed, even though the doctor was willing to potentially ruin her own life to try and help a relative stranger]].
** In "The Latest Model", Sherlock and Joan try to peacefully neutralize Wesley Conrad, a potential killer whom Odin has targeted. It doesn't go as well as they'd hoped. [[spoiler:While Conrad leaves the film director he'd been stalking alone, he (apparently) kills his parents and himself instead. Odin angrily tells Sherlock and Joan to GetOut and doubles down on his efforts to assassinate potential murderers.]][[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] after TheReveal that [[spoiler:Odin actually had the Conrads murdered]].

* ObfuscatingDisability: An extreme example occurs in [[spoiler:"While You Were Sleeping"]]. The killer [[spoiler:fakes a suicide attempt via drug overdose, then has her doctor accomplice place her in a medically induced coma. She is a admitted to hospital in a comatose state: supposedly the result of the overdose. The doctor then revives her so she can commit the murders. She then returns to the hospital after each murder, and the doctor places her back in a coma. If anyone checks, she is still in a coma]] and appears to have an airtight alibi.

** [[spoiler:Adam Kemper]] plays the role of a victim with severe PTSD and StockholmSyndrome, only to be revealed as the real mastermind.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Sherlock will on occasion lie about what he deduces, such as when he initially claims that Joan left being a surgeon when a friend died, only to admit later that he knew she was forced out because she accidentally killed a patient.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: We never do find out what Kitty said to Chris Stotz in "Rip It Off," only that it terrified him enough to make him quit the police force and practically beg Gregson to tell her he'd done so.

* PapaWolf: In "Rekt in Real Life", Shinwell Johnson calmly confronts a young thug who's been harassing his estranged daughter. It's especially effective because he's a former convict trying to straighten out his life and he hadn't seen his daughter since he got out of jail. [[spoiler:Subverted in that she gets angry at him because she never wanted to see him, but that she needed the gangster out of her life.]]

** In "The Deductionist", Sherlock has to work with his ex-lover FBI [[TheProfiler profiler]] Katherine Drummond when an escaped serial killer is on the loose. He isn't happy at all with this arrangement, though.