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'Elementary' Season 2, Episode 19 Recap: 'The Many Mouths of Aaron Colville'

Michael Huard |
April 4, 2014 | 11:40 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

(CBS)
(CBS)
If you watch enough crime procedurals, you are bound to notice one thing: some actors are typecast. An episode begins, you see this man or woman and immediately you know s/he is the killer. In “The Many Mouths of Aaron Colville” the minds behind “Elementary” experimented with typecasting in order to keep Sherlock and the audience guessing. 

We begin in a mortician’s office, where the dopey funeral director decided to get high while gallivanting on the table above a corpse. In the process, a robber broke into the office, causing the mortician to slip and hit the corpse’s mouth, which results in bite marks on the now-deceased mortician’s neck. The presence of bite marks brings in a detective from the Bronx with a string of murders all showcasing bite marks.

These murders go all the way back to 2005 (yes, almost a decade ago now!) when a man named Aaron Colville was arrested for the murders and subsequently stabbed in prison. When transported to the hospital, a Dr. Fleming listened to his final words before administering lackadaisical resuscitation procedures, much to the shock and awe of his assistant, Joan Watson (Lucy Liu)—with an awful wig since fads have changed so much in nine years. Hearing the name Aaron Colville triggers Watson’s intrigue and she adopts the case, but not before checking in with her former colleague, the smarmy, creepy Dr. Fleming (or typecast #1).

READ MORE: 'Elementary' Season 2, Episode 17 Recap: 'Ears To You'

Back at the brownstone, Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) tries to convince his partner they need to exit the interminable winter of New York and go on a treasure hunt of sorts for Australia’s version of the Titanic. He even references Ms. Hudson for the first time!! In any case, Watson declines the invite and sucks Holmes into the reopened case. The first action: contact the hackers from earlier in the season to get the dental records for thousands of people living near the murder sites. Insert time lapse. They find their man. 

However, it’s still early in the episode, so a twist is imminent. Turns out, the dental records for this man matched because he spent time in the same prison as Aaron Colville, who had a full set of teeth. As such, the prison dentist used Colville as the mold for dentures once the inmates lost their teeth—usually from a savage beating. The consultants use this information to determine that eight individuals received the dentures, with only four still in play to be suspects. 

After a moderately amusing turnstile of suspects, all four are ruled out. Holmes, at a loss for options, returns to the prison to search through the entirety of their dental records. Here, he finds the file for the hunchback dental assistant and former sexual predator Stan Divac (or typecast #2). Through the cunning use of social networks, Holmes, Watson and Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) find out Divac had a veterinarian’s appointment for the next morning for his cancer-ridden dog. They apprehend Divac’s friend who immediately turns on the assistant. 

READ MORE: 'Elementary' Season 2, Episode 16 Recap: 'The One Percent Solution'

In the interrogation room, Divac complains wildly of hurting his hand while proclaiming his innocence. Since he had been taking the chemical castration drug given to sexual offenders, he had developed osteoporosis, which rules him out from one murder that involved shattered glass. Back to square one with two typecasts ruled out—Dr. Fleming admitted to potentially flubbing the surgery with Colville, but did not commit the murders.

Finally, Holmes begins hypothesizing about who would benefit from clearing Colville’s name. The man had been dead for years so bringing the murders back could imply he had been wrongfully accused. At this time, Colville’s mother decides to sue the NYPD for a nine-figure sum. Upon naively letting Holmes, Watson and Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) into her home, Colville’s mother is discovered to own a pair of the dentures. Holmes has his murderer and Watson can clear her conscious. The end…and still no mention of Mycroft’s plan to get Sherlock back to London. Maybe that’ll be saved for season three.

Read more by Michael at MHMovieReviews.com.

Reach Staff Reporter Michael Huard here.



 

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