E3:9. Trivial mattters.

Trivia time: Who is Alfredo Llamosa?

If you answered, "A character on CBS's Elementary who had an intriguing debut and then disappeared, notably missing for all of 2014," you would be correct. Alfredo Llamosa, Mr. Elementary's addiction recovery sponsor, appeared in his fourth episode this week, giving him one more show than the similarly afflicted Ms. Hudson.

In this week's Elementary, Alfredo stopped in to give Mr. Elementary a talking car alarm to try to crack for a cartoonish subplot. The car alarm's name is Odin, an electronic entity that really go on a date with Bella the artificial intelligence that Mr. Elementary also decided he had to battle earlier this season.

And, speaking of Bella, "Everyone" -- that weird Elementary version of Anonymous that Mr. Elementary begs for help every now and then -- has Mr. E. working on a treatise about Twilight for a public reading at a Twilight convention. His personal theory is that Bella should have been able to work out an arrangement where she got to keep both beaus, Jacob and Edward, a curious metaphor for Mr. Elementary continuing to work with both Joan and Kitty rather than choosing just one.

Hold up . . . really cute bartender . . . okay, back to the regularly scheduled show.

Apparently to raise Joan Watson up to Mr. Elementary's level as an equal, Kitty Winter had to be brought in as someone they could then both be better than, and an irritating scene where they both criticize her lockpicking lends credence to that thought, when the overall feel to the show this season has been that Kitty Winter is pretty much an equal to either of these supposed consulting detectives.

Did I mention that this week's case came via a nurse who worked with Joan Watson during her medical career? Not that it really goes anywhere, but a reference to Joan having anything to do with the medical field is always worth noting, just as a reminder of what she could be doing instead of this weird "how does she support herself in New York?" job she has currently.

Jonny Lee Miller delivers a pretty good speech about sobriety in this episode, one that actually makes one wonder why such a state was included as on ongoing plot device in the show. It doesn't really
go anywhere, and most likely won't. But lest we forget what show it is we're watching, the touching speech is followed up by a wacky "wake Watson up with a bugle" segment. Ah, well, Elementary has developed its own characteristic habits, and it certainly sticks to them.

At some point in this series's development, arguing that Mr. Elementary was not Sherlock Holmes, despite having that name, became a moot point. The character started quite different from his namesake, but now, midway through his third season, he's developed even further into a separate creation in his own right, like a failed cloning experiment who finds his own life . . . the sort that usually takes on a new name. (Hint, hint.)

I considered letting Elementary go in 2015, but the upcoming arrival of Stuart Townsend as "Del Gruner" has me curious as to what will happen to the show's Kitty Winter. Given Elementary's usual "names only" approach to characters from the Sherlockian Canon, literally anything could happen.

Except, probably, another appearance by Alfredo Llamosa. And given that said African-American only seems to show up to discuss stealing cars, I think that little bit of subtle racism is something easily done without.