Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Watson Episode 13.After twelve (mostly) lackluster episodes of television — that resulted in a surprise Season 2 renewal — Watson ends its freshman season on a confoundingly bad note, which is a shame, considering the penultimate episode really felt like it was onto something. One of the biggest issues with the first half of the season was the fact that Watson leaned too heavily on the familiarity of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s canon when it came to John Watson’s (Morris Chestnut) backstory with the yet-to-be-seen and believed-to-be-dead Sherlock Holmes.
Viewers weren’t given a reason to care about Watson’s grief within the confines of the episodes, and that wasn’t the only thing that the series struggled with establishing. The ensemble cast — Dr. Sasha Lubbock (Inga Schlingmann), Dr. Stephens Croft and Dr. Adam Croft (Peter Mark Kendall), and Dr. Ingrid Derian (Eve Harlow) — were little more than characters painted with broad strokes within a series that was determined to make audiences feel like they should care about them. As the series progressed, there were signs of improvement, particularly with how the series revealed and developed Derian’s surly personality, and the slow-burn-style dynamic with Watson and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Mary Morstan (Rochelle Aytes). With the Season 1 finale, Watson walks back a lot of the goodwill it has worked towards while rushing through the best parts of the network TV dynamics it has been toying with.
Episode 13 is a true two-parter, picking up right where Episode 12 left off with Watson and the interns deliberating over which twin they should save. Lubbock points out that Stephens and Adam are essentially the same person since they are identical twins, and Derian is swift to pop that bubble by drawing attention to their differences, namely in their medical pursuits. Seeing that they are at an impasse, Watson decides to leave the decision up to fate. He ushers Lubbock and Derian into his office to flip a coin that belonged to Sherlock to decide which twin will live. Fate decides Adam, and Lubbock reacts exactly how you would expect, given the feelings realization that she and Stephens had before he slipped into a coma. Lubbock sits by Adam’s bedside after the procedure, and Stephens is the first thing he asks about when he wakes up. He agonizes over the fact that they chose him over his twin, pointing out that Stephens had the medical knowledge to help them solve their illness.
Shinwell Saves the Day After Nearly Destroying It in the ‘Watson’ Finale
Despite Shinwell’s (Ritchie Coster) revelation in the previous episode, Watson requests that he return to the clinic; when he turns up, he looks worse for wear, and everyone can tell that something is wrong. It takes a while before Watson officially addresses it, and when he does, he ushers Shinwell into a patient room to check him out. It seems that the Crofts weren’t the only ones to face Moriarty’s ire — Shinwell’s back looks like it’s gone through a cheese grater. Shinwell does his best to shake off his injuries and get back to work. His first stop is Moriarty’s agent (Kacey Rohl), seeing that she is responsible for the Crofts’ condition.
Shinwell reveals that Watson has extended an offer to treat her sick daughter, in return for answers about what Moriarty did to the Crofts. While she acknowledges that double-crossing Moriarty is a deadly task, she takes Shinwell up on his offer, like any good mother would. When they arrive at the clinic, Watson recognizes her as the pharmaceutical rep who was always loitering around the hospital. While Watson examines her daughter, Shinwell takes Moriarty’s agent to see what her work did to the Crofts firsthand. She makes no promises to provide them with a cure, but that doesn’t stop Watson from looking for a way to treat her daughter — even if Derian thinks it should.
The crux of Ashley’s predicament isn’t necessarily her cancer diagnosis, but the fact that she is unable to gain the fifteen pounds she needs to in order to qualify for a specific treatment program. It’s a dilemma that even her oncologist, Dr. Laila Bynum (Tika Sumpter), hasn’t been able to solve. Dr. Bynum turns up at the clinic to ensure that Watson isn’t trying to lead Ashley’s mother astray, citing the fact that people prey on desperate parents, especially the parents of cancer patients. Watson assures her that his intentions are pure, even if he has ulterior motives. Watson eventually discovers that Ashley has been having seizures, which have been burning up all of the fuel her body has been taking in. Dr. Bynum insists that she would have known if Ashley was having seizures, but it’s ultimately revealed that staffing shortages have led to her condition being missed during the night team at the hospital. While Watson works on Ashley, Shinwell and her mother — who reveals herself as Hannah — deduce where Moriarty has his lab set up, and they head over to stake it out.
Derian Turns Over a Surprising New Leaf in the ‘Watson’ Finale
In the midst of the crisis at the clinic, Derian makes time to attend her sister Gigi’s (Kiera Allen) PT appointment, where Moriarty (Randall Park) is waiting to rendezvous with her. He questions her about sabotaging the petri dishes, and she characterizes her actions as “inevitable” with a self-satisfied smile. He seems pleased with her actions and offers her a business card to ensure that she can reach out to him whenever she’s ready to collaborate again, and that collaboration comes sooner than expected.
Derian calls upon Moriarty to meet her on the Incline, where she divulges pertinent information about their investigation into the Crofts’ health, including the fact that they have located his laboratory. The shock of Derian’s apparent betrayal is relatively short-lived. Watson recalls Shinwell and Hannah to the clinic, and they abandon the lab just in time for Moriarty’s men to arrive to thwart their sting. When they return to the clinic, Watson reveals that Moriarty will be arriving there shortly. Derian came to him the night prior and told him about Moriarty showing up at her sister’s appointment, and they devised a super-secret plan to trick Moriarty. It turns out Derian sneakily acquired Moriarty’s DNA while she was pretending to treat him, and Watson used that DNA to create a genetically engineered disease that would take him down. Derian explains that she set up the meeting with Moriarty and arrived early to cover the incline in that virus, to ensure that it took. Within this same conversation, Derian also reveals that she sabotaged the vector for Moriarty, which led to them having to choose between the twins. She takes sole responsibility for her actions, but her confession doesn’t do her any favors with Lubbock or Watson.
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Just as planned, Moriarty stumbles into the clinic, seriously ill and half-blind and entirely aware of the fact that Watson is behind his sudden turn. Watson presents him with an ultimatum: he will treat his condition if he provides them with the cure for Stephens, and Moriarty doesn’t have much of a choice but to comply. Later, after Stephens recovers and Moriarty’s blindness is corrected, Watson reveals that there was a second step to his plan. He was never going to cure Moriarty, he only delayed the inevitable. Moriarty is horrified by this sudden turnabout in Watson, and he reminds the doctor that he swore an oath to “do no harm.” Watson characterizes saving Moriarty as doing harm, seeing as it would only lead to more people getting hurt and dying. After all, Moriarty killed Sherlock, and he tried to kill the Crofts and Shinwell. Watson offers to sit with him until he dies to ensure that he is the very last thing that Moriarty sees, and he dies rather quickly. It’s a rather disappointing end for a character that the series has spent thirteen episodes hyping up as a “big bad.”
‘Watson’ Doesn’t Know How to Handle Relationships
One of the most important elements of any good network TV series is its romantic relationships. The will-they-won’t-they dynamics are catnip to audiences who stick around for seasons waiting for their favorite characters to kiss. But it usually takes seasons for those dynamics to be established and for a series to dole out the right amount of slow-burn angst and simmering chemistry. Early in the season, I likened Lubbock and Stephens to Bones’ Angela and Hodgins, which only happened because the actors recognized that they needed something to anchor their characters to the series. A dynamic like that can’t be forced, and it also needs to be earned — and that means being patient. While Stephens is still in his coma, Lubbock sits by his bedside, holding his hand and talking to him about all the things she never got to tell him. It’s the type of scene that we deserved after three seasons of pining and forcing them to watch each other date other people. They haven’t known each other long enough for this, even if it is cute.
Unfortunately, Watson sort of botches the execution of setting up Lubbock and Stephens in these final episodes because none of it feels earned. In thirteen episodes, Lubbock has broken up with her boyfriend and gotten back with her ex (most of which was established off-screen, and before the series began), while Stephens ended things with his camgirl and started dating some girl who was only introduced in Episode 11(also off-screen). Sure, Lubbock and Stephens have sort of floated around each other, making eyes and subtly flirting, but none of what has been shown in the series warranted how quickly that happens here. After Stephens wakes up, he and Adam have a brief conversation about their situation and Adam tries to apologize for some of the things he has done, which strained their relationship — namely, the fact that he is marrying Stephens’ ex-girlfriend. But his near-death experience has given Stephens new perspective, and he’s willing to let it all go, especially since Lubbock shows up to remind him of the fact that they shared a kiss before he went comatose, which she is happy to remind him of with another kiss.
Stephens and Lubbock aren’t the only relationship that Watson botches with the finale. Throughout the series, it has seemed like Watson and Mary were headed towards reconciliation, especially over the last handful of episodes, where they have been happily working together and working through their past trauma. However, Watson shoehorns an ill-conceived flirtation with Dr. Bynum (which lacks any real chemistry), and rather than sticking a pin in that until Season 2, the show jumps forward two weeks to show that Watson and Laila are three dates in, and she’s cooking for him! It’s such an off-putting ending to the season that one might even miss the fact that Watson has kept Moriarty’s shirt and stowed it away under his bed in a box labeled “Holmes.”
The Watson finale is a disappointing end to an already frustrating season, given that the show wastes promising concepts in the name of unveiling unnecessary Sherlock Holmes characters and poorly-planned plotlines. Perhaps Season 2 will take the time to course-correct and focus on the elements that actually serve the series, rather than chasing after the flights of fancy that burden Watson from start to finish.
Watson Season 1 is streaming now on Paramount+.
- Watson fails to stick the landing with its season finale, as it builds upon its worst elements.
- Watson speed-runs all of its emotional character beats, limiting its potential.
- Watson delivers an eleventh hour relationship that undercuts the best dynamic the series has showcased.
- While Watson commits to Lubbock and Stephens, the relationship feels unearned after so little time developing it.
- Derian’s duplicitous turn deserved more time to impact the plot, but Watson has struggled with developing her throughout the series.
