Villainess Review: Yvette Ellison (Elementary)

Elementary was, and is, an amazing series. I was drawn in quickly due to the fact that it was a modern retelling of Sherlock Holmes, and I ended up enjoying seven amazing seasons of this spectacular show. Among the many things I enjoyed about the show was its collection of villainesses, coming in all forms and all kinds. Every collection has a beginning, and in the case of Elementary, it was the second-ever episode, "While You Were Sleeping," that kicked things off.

Holmes and Joan Watson are in the home of Casey McManus, who is found shot to death. Already, Holmes deduces many things: a) the killer is female, and b) she was sitting down while she killed Casey. The deductions are made due to the aroma of a feminine deodorant on a chair, and eventually, a sketch of the possible killer uncovers a name: Yvette Ellison. So they have their killer, just like that. Well...not quite yet. It seems that Yvette had an alibi and it was a pretty solid one: she was in a coma.

It turns out that Yvette had been comatose following a suicide attempt, but even so, Holmes did catch that same deodorant aroma on Yvette. However, a test to find out if the coma was fake ended up failing; this was legit. It is uncovered that Yvette had a twin sister, Rebecca Ellison, and they were the daughters of shipping magnate Charles Ellison, whose fortune was left to them. Upon finding Rebecca, they see that she is a fraternal, not identical, twin, so mistaken identity is out of the question. Later on, another person, Anna Webster, is found dead in her home, and after seeing that both she and Casey had a similar condition (a clouding of the cornea in one eye), Holmes realized that the two are related.

In fact, the victims were actually Charles Ellison's illegitimate offspring, meaning that they were the half-siblings of Rebecca and Yvette. The sisters had known this before their father died, and regarding Rebecca, she had her attorneys track them to find out what kind of people they were, while adding that Yvette became depressed and made her suicide attempt. Rebecca is later suspected, but camera footage revealed that she was at home when the murders were committed, leaving only Yvette. But how could Holmes prove that a comatose woman killed two people?

Holmes decided to enter Yvette's room, where Rebecca was reading to her, and shouted details about a third heir--Mary Margaret Phelps--while revealing that he knew how Yvette committed the murders. He even shoved detective Marcus Bell during his rant, leading to Holmes being taken away. Meanwhile, as Ms. Phelps is inside her house, a gloved villainess breaks in to the house armed with a gun, but just as she is about to kill her intended victim, she is stopped by Bell and Captain Gregson, who reveal the villainess as none other than Yvette Ellison herself.

So as Yvette is interrogated, Holmes and Watson reveal everything to Rebecca, who is stunned to find out about her sister's evil deeds. It was already established that the sisters had known about their half-siblings, but while big-hearted Rebecca wanted to share the inheritance with Casey and Anna, Yvette turned heel by planning to kill them, as she had no plans on sharing her wealth. However, Yvette knew that if she committed two murders, it would be easily traced back to her, and as Watson revealed, Yvette's doctor was also her illicit lover, and she enlisted him to stage her suicide and place her in a medically induced coma. This gave Yvette a hardcore alibi, as she would be revived from her coma and head out to kill both Casey and Anna, using a gun to commit each murder.

As to why Yvette was seated, it was because she was weakened by the drugs, and regarding the third heir, she was actually one of Gregson's officers, as the whole thing (even the confrontation with Holmes and Bell) was staged to trap Yvette. Rebecca remained shocked by Yvette's heel turn, but she wanted to help her, as she still cared for her. However, Holmes provided a shocking reminder to Rebecca: Yvette killed Anna a day prior, but went back into the coma anyway. Who else could have been her target? Rebecca's shocked expression answered the question: Yvette was planning to kill her own twin sister so she could have the entire inheritance to herself. Wow.

"While You Were Sleeping," aired on October 4, 2012, and featured Amy Landon as the evil Yvette Ellison. The premiere episode did not have a female killer, making Yvette Ellison the very first villainess from the long-running CBS series. I still remember being amazed by Yvette's villainy when I watched this episode that evening, and that amazement remains. Greed can make a person do very terrible things and resort to insane lengths. Yvette Ellison defined that statement to perfection. She was willing to nearly kill herself by having her doctor/lover drug her up and put her in a medically induced coma, all to provide an alibi for two murders that she would commit while revived.

Though Yvette had no dialogue in this episode, Landon still did a wonderful job portraying Yvette's fiendish drive to maintain as much of her wealth as possible. I can't help but remain stuck on that big "wham" reveal to Rebecca: Yvette went back into the coma even after killing both half-siblings, so that clearly meant that Rebecca was next on her hit list. Landon was excellent in that final moment as well; giving an ominous stare to Rebecca that truly showed that her villainous persona was still intact.

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