At the beginning of Elementary's second episode Joan Watson has dragged Sherlock Holmes to a session of a drug abuse support group but instead of listening to his 'comrades' Sherlock repeats a mantra over and over inside of his head. He does so in order to avoid feeding his brain with unnecessary information since the human mind is an attic one has to take care of and keep tidy to maintain splendid mental achievements. Filling the brain with useless knowledge, its finiteness is stodged to that extent that it cannot absorb any new and probably more important information unless one decides to delete any prior memories. At least that is how Sherlock's brain works. Shortly, he is called by Gregson to assist in a case that does not seem to be that difficult to solve at first glimpse but turns out to set a series of murder with peculiar circumstances rolling, committed by a apparently comatose woman. After finding out about the woman's twin sister, Sherlock reaches an impasse as the sisters prove to not be monozygotic twins, however, the motive for murder is connected to an inheritance dispute that arose after the twins' wealthy and well-known father had died and children who were begotten in several love affairs are now to benefit from the dead father's heritage. A hint that is spotted by the detective in a second support group session serves the correct solution of the case and proves that it can be useful to Sherlock to occasionally listen to others and make room for seemingly unnecessary information in his brain attic. As in the previous episode, Sherlock shows off his skills in deduction and raises suspicion in Gregson's assisting officer Bell who is convinced by the detective's abilities in the end and shakes hands with him as a sign of a well-functioning collaboration in the future.
What is remarkable is the fact that Gregson includes Sherlock into the circle of his best men and also Bell states that he has only heard good things about the consulting detective, a total opposite working situation Sherlock Holmes has to cope with in the BBC series. Toby Gregson has known Sherlock since they worked together for Scotland Yard and even then Sherlock was "a pain in the ass but he was also very very good" (00:07:45). Despite detective Bell's initial scepticism and wariness towards Sherlock's exceptional abilities and his speed of thoughts and deductions, he does not doubt the detective's sanity and eventually is convinced of his skills in the field of criminal investigation. On the other hand, Sherlock interacts more with the NYPD than the BBC version does with Scotland Yard. When unoccupied, he trains his brain by breaking padlocks or doing other tasks throughout the episodes. In the BBC series, while Sherlock Holmes likes to order John Watson around and makes him do dull tasks connected to his investigations, the one in Elementary repeatedly tries to encourage Joan to train her own skills of observation and deduction, makes her think in explicit directions and praises her when she draws the correct conclusions. In that way, this Sherlock is far more capable of empathy and not as egocentric and arrogant as his comrade of the BBC adaptation. However, he keeps his distance to Joan on an emotional level because he thinks that friendship is not necessary for the both of them when sharing a flat. Yet, the true reason for hiding his past from Watson is his fear of reliving his prior life in London and facing what had happened there before he left for New York. An item that is closely connected to his recent past and his locked up emotions is a violin that Joan Watson finds in his belongings. In front of Watson he pretends that the instrument is useless since the ability to play it is no longer necessary to be stored in his mind attic and, thus, burns it, heeding Watson's advice to alleviate stress but in a completely misinterpreted way as she originally intended. In the end, it turns out that Sherlock still treasures the violin and eventually starts to play it again, accepting this precious item and the memories connected to it. He is ready to face the dark sides of his past to some extent and redeem the atonement imposed upon himself by not letting emotions control his mind.
Apart from being the "idiot" who draws the wrong conclusions so Holmes can correct them and shine in his brilliance, Joan Watson is a supporting element in the American Holmes adaptation. Not only does she supervise Sherlock during his work and daily life as his sober companion but she also assists in his investigations, helps when dealing with victims and spots little details Sherlock, the great consulting detective, might have overlooked, a character treat that would have never occured in the original canon and hardly in the BBC adaptation. She even unconsciously adopts Sherlock's attention to detail and way of deduction gradually, plus her medical knowledge proves to be advantageous when spotting an idiosyncrasy while examining a corpse or a crime scene. In this episode, Joan thinks that it is her job as a sober companion to overstep client boundaries and address painful things such as memories that might have been her client's trigger for abusing drugs. Hence, she tries to persuade Sherlock in order to reveal some personal facts and background information about himself and even rummages his belongings since Sherlock is very defensive about what happened to him back in London. While accepting to meet her ex-boyfriend, Joan emphasises towards Sherlock that she has no need for a relationship concerning love matters right now and the detective correctly deduces from her pace that the last time she had sex dates back quite a while ago.
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