At the end of last season, Holmes was having a horrible, no good, very bad day:

• Antonio had been kidnapped and he was being forced to solve clues around the city;
• the baddie of the episode was trying to seduce him into using heroin to rescue Antonio;
• Holmes beat the crap out of the baddie, near killing him; and,
• he went off with the drugs at the episode to presumably shoot up.

I was worried that the season would start up with a revelation that he hadn’t actually used. That, somehow, at the last minute, he thrown off his demons, and had walked the righteous path. Instead, the reality was actually worse.

I don’t mean that he used, although that did indeed happen. I mean that the show starts only a few days after the incident and Holmes is back to his regretful self. No withdrawal, no cravings, oops, I used. All better now, let’s go to meetings. No darkness. No despair. No wallowing. Not even Holmes turning his cruel observations inward to self-immolate his failure. Honestly, it’s like he made a resolution to work out every day and to eat healthy, and all he did was eat a chocolate bar and skip the gym. He is back on the wagon so fast, with no emotional or intellectual fall-out whatsoever, I have no idea what the writers were thinking. I feel ripped off. The equivalent of him saying, “oops, my bad”, and moving on.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t fall-out — the DA is deciding if they will charge him with attempted murder or not, and the NYPD has cut all ties with their consultants, including Watson. That actually registers with Holmes in the episode…not his personal failure, but that it has impacted Watson. Who last year went her own way, wants to still work with him but with distance, but also wants to do stuff on her own too, and yet when it is revealed to her that she’s out too, she’s all “well, I only work with you, so if you’re out, I’d be out anyway”. Sure she would. Like last year when he left and she kept working with them. WTF?

Their NYPD partners said goodbye, and I don’t know if that is the plan for the season that they will work with others or not. Holmes hit up the NSA who basically told them all the agencies will consider them radioactive too.

The only real upside to the episode was the end of episode twist of having Holmes’ father, Morland, arrive to “fix everything”, with his reputed harsh assessment of Holmes, etc. Very priggish. I love the actor, John Noble, who plays Morland and I loved him on both Fringe and to a slightly lesser extent on Sleepy Hollow. But the reality is that he is least enjoyable when he’s trying to play a prig, so not sure how well that will play out. Instead of seeming “nasty”, he comes off more immature / childishly evil. Draco Malfoy was more sinister, and he sucked most of the time. Sigh.