My wife and I are currently binging on Elementary (courtesy, Netflix). I’m enjoying the series – perhaps a tad more than the other famous adaptation of Sherlock in the 21st century. The show’s highlight is that it’s set in NYC and has a female, Asian-American (!!) Joan Watson (Lucy Liu aces it in the role).

We just wrapped up S0108, where the climax just blew my mind.

So, like every other episode, Sherlock catches the culprit. There’s an exploded bomb but little proof to link the culprit to the act (apart from empirical/circumstantial evidence). Here’s how Sherlock wings it:

• Sherlock recovers a tiny piece of paper from the crime scene.
• The paper contains an an obscure word written in a few columns.
• He identifies the word as the answer to a question in the NYT Crossword, published on October 2008.
• The date that crossword came in NYT turns out to be the same date the murder was committed.
• The killer (now suspect), as Sherlock finds out, is big on crosswords (that too NYT crosswords), as on present day.
• Sherlock matches the handwriting of the killer to that of the killer.

BOOM.

New Life Goals:

1. Develop Sherlock-esque observation skills and deduction skills.
2. Build a mind-palace.

Someday.