‘Elementary’ Season 5 Spoilers: Why Will Sherlock Encourage Joan To Assist Shinwell In His Transition From Prison Life To Freedom?

Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) will come up with an idea that can make Joan’s (Lucy Liu) detective career more fulfilling.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “Elementary” executive producer Rob Doherty said that Season 5 will open with Sherlock sensing that Joan is no longer as enthusiastic about her work as an investigator as she's been in the past.

“When the season starts, Sherlock comments that Watson has seemed down in the dumps over the course of the summer,” Doherty told the news outlet, adding that the super sleuth is “concerned that maybe the sadness that he has detected [in her] has something to do with the approach” of their anniversary as partners.

While Joan will make it clear that she remains “quite happy” being a detective, Doherty said that the former doctor will admit that “she misses helping people.”

“It’s something that she could do when she was a surgeon. It’s something she could do when she was a sober companion,” Doherty said. “But, as she says in the first episode, she and Sherlock are in the punishment business.”

Fortunately, it won’t be long before Sherlock finds a way for Joan to continue her work as a detective while doing the kind of helping she has always wanted to do.

Doherty revealed to Entertainment Weekly that Sherlock will convince Joan to assist reformed criminal Shinwell Johnson (Nelsan Ellis) as he transitions from prison life back to the outside world.

“He is someone with a dark and troubled past, who is trying to reform himself, but he brings a lot of baggage to our doorstep,” Doherty said of Shinwell, who is a character created by Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his 1924 short story, “The Illustrious Client.”

Doherty, however, added that “there may be a difference of opinion” between Sherlock and Joan along the way regarding whether keeping Shinwell in their orbit is a good idea.

TVLine reported last month that Shinwell will first appear in the Season 5 premiere, which finds Sherlock and Joan joining the NYPD manhunt for a serial bomber who is active again after going dormant for six years. During the investigation, Joan seeks help from Shinwell.

According to a press release for Season 5, Episode 1, titled “Folie a Deux,” (obtained by KSiteTV), Joan and Shinwell have known each other for a long time, since she saved his life once when she was still a surgeon. After the season premiere, Ellis is set to appear in at least two more episodes.

“Elementary” Season 5 premieres Sunday, Oct. 2 at 10/9c on CBS.