[Content note: contains discussion of child abuse]
[Spoilers for Elementary ep. 3]
I have very much been enjoying CBS's Elementary, a modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes taking place in NYC. It features a female, Asian Watson, and a Holmes that can show real emotion and isn't limited to being an acerbic asshole. This Holmes can, instead, apologize when needed! and say thank you!, in a way that makes it actually believable that someone as intelligent and self-possessed as Joan Watson would choose to spend time with him (even after her duties as sober companion have expired, I hope I hope!) But there has been one cloud in my enjoyment of this lovely series: the third episode.
Now, let me come out and say that I do not enjoy movies, shows, or books about child abuse very much. It's just not something that I enjoy watching. Seeing kids being abused turns my stomach, in a way that other violence does not. But I decided to watch this episode, because I had been so impressed with the others. I was glad of that decision, until half way through it.
In this episode, Sherlock demonstrates a great understanding for the experiences of a child who's being abused. He acknowledges that children are manipulated into feeling grateful to their abusers, as is the boy in this episode. While talking to Sherlock, the boy relates how, trying to escape from the room he slept in, he cut his hand on the glass, and he expresses gratitude towards his abuser for bandaging the cut afterwards- a neat example of the double-think required for victims of abuse. They must hold in their heads both that they were trying to escape from a place and a person that they hated and feared, and that they are required to be grateful- genuinely grateful, lest they incite more violence from their abuser.
At this point in the episode, I was surprised and pleased to see that Elementary was doing such a bang-up job of portraying someone who had been abused for almost a decade: the lies and manipulations of their abuser still as strong as ever in their mind, even after they were removed from the abuser's control, only changeable with lots of work and the mindfulness and understanding of the people around them. The boy is so scared of the adults near him that he can't speak to any of them, until Sherlock acknowledges that he must have loved the man who abused him- as any child must love someone who takes care of them, even if the adult mixes that care with severe abuse. I liked that they didn't shy away from portraying something as heartbreaking as that.
So, I was feeling pretty good about the episode. Until the plot twist: the boy is actually the one abusing the man, and indeed, the one killing all the other children.
This is fucked. up.
Almost all children who have been physically abused have also been psychologically abused. The psychological abuse very commonly consists of the abuser telling the child that they are causing the abuse- that they are responsible for it. "If you just cleaned the house right, I wouldn't have to hit you." "If you didn't look scared all the time, I wouldn't get so angry and have to yell at you." "If you didn't get smart with me, I wouldn't have to lock you in your closet for the night." "This is for your own good." "If you weren't a bad kid, I would be able to love you."This isn't just limited to child abuse- domestic abuse and elder abuse look very similar to this, as well.
And sometimes children (or other victims of abuse) feel as if they are complicit in the crimes that their abusers commit. "He told me that if I never told anyone, he wouldn't hurt my little sister. But he raped her too, and it's my fault because I didn't tell anyone. That rape is my responsibility."
These are very common narratives in the minds of people recovering from abuse. They are not rare.
Now imagine that you are someone recovering from abuse (or currently being abused), and you see this episode of Elementary. There's a boy who was abused. He's afraid. Sherlock is kind to him, and understands that he has conflicting feelings about the man who kidnapped him a decade ago.
And then: the boy is evil.
Everything is his fault. He wasn't being abused; he was actually the abuser all along. He was manipulating his poor adult into doing things, like hurting other kids, that he didn't want to do. The man wouldn't have done it if that kid hadn't been so evil. Everything is the kid's fault.
Add to that that the reason that Sherlock discovered that the kid was evil was because he was sleeping in the bed that should have belonged to the grown man. Imagine being sexually abused, and seeing that scene. Seeing that sleeping in the grown-up's bed proved that he was the bad one, the one who had been hurting other people. What would that do to you? You're being raped in an adult's bed, and this show is telling you that if anyone ever finds out that you were raped there, they will know that it's you who is hurting other people. You who is causing the abuse. You who is the bad person.
THAT IS DISGUSTING.
So basically, I found this episode of Elementary to actually be really revolting and kind of unconscionable. I was shocked that they could represent abuse so well in the first half, and then do something so horrible to people with histories of abuse in the second. Basically: fuck that shit. I may or may not continue watching the series, but I have become very disillusioned about the emotional safety of the content.
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