[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Watson.]
Summary
- Season 1 of ‘Watson’ wrapped up a complete chapter of storytelling, leaving no pre-planned plot unexplored.
- The final case involving the Croft twins was a huge challenge for the show to tackle but was worth it.
- Watson’s actions with Moriarty in the finale are controversial but deemed necessary for the greater good.
The finale of the CBS series Watson put the team directly at the center of the case, with Stephens and Adam Croft (Peter Mark Kendall) under attack from Moriarty (Randall Park) and John Watson (Morris Chestnut), along with Sasha (Inga Schlingmann) and Ingrid (Eve Harlow), left trying to find the right answers to save them both. With only one vial of antidote available and two lives hanging in the balance, secrets came out, Watson finally had a long-awaited face-off with Moriarty, and questions were left about what could come next.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, creator/showrunner Craig Sweeny discussed whether they worked everything into the season that they wanted to, figuring out the Watson versions of the characters from the Sherlock Holmes mythology, knowing what he wants the last scene of the series to be, having such a big case involving the twins, Moriarty’s involvement in the season, that inevitable head-to-head between Watson and Moriarty, Watson’s provocative actions, what’s next for Ingrid, and whether there will be some more romance in Season 2.
‘Watson’ Wrapped Up a Complete Chapter of Storytelling With Its Season Finale
“I don’t think we left much on the table.”
Collider: Do you feel like you accomplished everything with this season that you wanted to and hoped to?
CRAIG SWEENY: I don’t think we left much on the table. I wouldn’t look back and say, “No, we didn’t accomplish anything.” You build a story that could be parsed out over 20 or 22 episodes or 13 because you’re in this world where you don’t quite know how many you’re going to make. So, it’s an interesting thought experiment to be like, “How would we have paced it with a bigger order?” I do love seasons of TV that tell a complete chapter. I reference shows like Buffy or The Sopranos or The Shield where you could look back and go, “Oh, that was the season with Buffy and the Mayor,” where it’s a very distinct thing. Yes, you’re following these characters across years, but that year told that story. What I like about what we did in Season 1 is that we definitely did our version of that.
Related
Chestnut also talks about how important Moriarty will be to Watson’s story this season.
You started off giving us little tidbits about Sherlock Holmes and what happened to him. And then, we saw Moriarty and followed what he was up to. But then, you also brought in other characters from the mythology, like Lestrade and Irene Adler.
SWEENY: It was fun to do. With each character, we asked, “Are they going to be who they were in canon?” Irene shows up and is largely a version of the Irene that you would expect from the books, whereas Lestrade is a cop in Pittsburgh. We’re making choices about which way we’re going to jump each time we want to bring in one of those characters.
Have you had a pretty good sense of what Season 2 would be from the beginning? Have you had a very clear plan for several seasons, or do you take things season by season?
SWEENY: I had a general sense of what I wanted the overall storyline to be. Doing a show on a broadcast pace is so overwhelming, in a good way. Largely, my concern at any given moment is, “What’s the next scene in the episode we’re doing right now?” I do know what I want the last scene of the show to be. Do I have villainous arcs planned out for the next seven years? No. But I think it’s also very healthy to finish a season and go, “Okay, what strands emerge that surprised me and that I want to write to,” in response to the actual stuff on screen.
Having the Final Case Involve the Croft Twins Was a Huge Challenge for ‘Watson’ to Tackle
“I’m a big fan of that episode.”
What was it like to have this final case that not only involved Watson’s own team but also happened to involve the most complicated members of that team because you’re working with one actor playing twins. Were you trying to put yourself through the most challenging thing possible?
SWEENY: That’s funny. It was probably hardest on Peter [Mark Kendall], doing both sides of those scenes when they both think they’re dying in episode 12. We definitely strategized over how many scenes they were going to be in together where it’s just the two of them because those are the hardest to film. There are certain tricks you can do when they’re both in the conference room. We definitely headed into this aware that it was going to be a particularly challenging episode and bought ourselves a little extra filming time to accommodate those challenges, but it was hard. There were definitely some longer shooting days for this episode. They’re off-screen a little more so in the last one because they’re so sick, and then in Adam’s case, he’s in recovery. Episode 12 was a challenge, but it was worth it. I’m a big fan of that episode.
The quote “Moriarty won’t kill many people, he’ll kill the right people,” illustrates how calculated and dangerous he is. How did you approach figuring out how large to have him loom over the season? Did you ever want to use him more and then have to pull back on it? How much did you want to actually have him be physically present, even though he’s always essentially present?
SWEENY: That’s a great question. It’s a balance of both creative and practical concerns. You think about what’s best for the show. You also make a deal with the performer. Some of that was driven by, “Okay, we have this many episodes where Randall Park will play Moriarty.” I had a similar thing when I did the Limitless adaptation because we had this many episodes where Bradley Cooper would show up and play Eddie Morra. We created Kacey Rohl’s character, The Rep, as a means to advance Moriarty’s agenda when he’s off camera. We always knew it was best in dribs and drabs, and then there would be a big explosion of all the elements at the very end. We just pieced it out from there.
Related
CBS’ New Medical Drama Dethrones ‘Tracker’ for Most Viewers
The Sherlock Homes-inspired series is making waves.
I love the choice of actor for Moriarty, and even the choice of actor for Watson, because that’s not how we’re used to seeing those characters.
SWEENY: I agree. We made some interesting choices. The challenge is to write them in a way where you, as a fan of the Sherlock world, is like, “Okay, this is different, but it doesn’t feel like it’s violating what I love about the canon.” Responding to our choices at that level, of course, that makes you feel great as a writer.
Will we see more of these other characters from the mythology moving forward? Are there any other characters that you want to bring in? Will we continue to see someone like Lestrade?
SWEENY: That episode almost plays like the pilot of a show about a cop and a doctor that discover they have a common bond for investigating crimes that involve science. We very consciously had her be a cop in Pittsburgh for exactly that reason, so that Watson’s footprint could extend into the law enforcement world a little bit, in organic ways. Irene is less worked into the daily fabric of the show, but I loved the performance and would use that character for the right thing.
When you brought Moriarty into the show, did you know where he would end up, by the end of the season? Did you feel like a confrontation and a face-off between these two guys was something that had to happen?
SWEENY: Yeah. It was a story about Watson facing the man who defeated his best friend and mentor. If you are a fan of canon and you were asking, “Why should I watch Watson without Holmes?,” one of the best ways to answer that question is to see him actually go head-to-head with Moriarty. We didn’t set out with that exact end result in mind, as far as that final scene between them, but we knew that it was going to end with a definitive victory for Watson.
Watson’s Actions With Moriarty in the Finale Were for the Greater Good
“There’s no question that it’s a very provocative act.”
When you take steps to put someone’s death in motion, that crosses some lines, so how should we feel about Watson’s actions with Moriarty?
SWEENY: There’s no question that it’s a very provocative act that he’s done. I can talk about our intentions, and you can tell me if we succeeded in that. Watson and his work and his clinic were in such a place that, regardless of what happened with Moriarty, and whether they put him in a maximum security prison where he couldn’t see anybody for 23 hours a day, that DNA was still out there and the technology to use it to essentially kill anybody in the world without a trace is out there. And so, it did feel, to us, that Watson was in a place where he was making a choice, even though it went against so much of what he believes, that was based on what would be for the greater good.
Watson tries to learn what Moriarty’s true motives were, but never really gets a satisfactory answer. Do you think he’ll always wonder about that?
SWEENY: I’m pleased that you responded in that way because that’s what I got to in the writing of that scene. It would have been making Watson’s choice easier for Moriarty to go, “I had a really bad babysitter when I was a kid and things were just never the same after that.” He wouldn’t even give him the courtesy of saying why he was the way he was.
Related
‘Watson’ Just Revealed Derian’s Dark Past — and It’s a Major Turning Point
Plus, the return of Randall Park’s Moriarty.
When it comes to a character like The Rep, she was essentially a villain that became a little less of a villain. And then, with characters like Shinwell and Ingrid, they’re supposed to be people that Watson and the team can trust, but they step a bit into villain territory. Did you want to blur those lines and push our perception of who those characters are?
SWEENY: You just want to put your characters in difficult places to face horrible dilemmas. I’m drawn to putting characters in situations where there are no easy answers and then diving deeper into those situations. Ingrid is tough. You watch the episode where you learn about what happened to her when she was 17 and you’re like, “Okay, I see where some of those walls came from.” Every character has shades of light and dark, just like every person. Kacey is great as The Rep, but it would get repetitive if all she was doing was saying threatening things to Shinwell, so we wanted to build the world out a little bit.
Stephens thanks Ingrid for helping save his life, but he also says that he can’t work with her anymore and she has to go. What can you say to tease what could be next for her? Is she still going to be around? How does she even work with these people?
SWEENY: She is going to be around. We have an episode that is designed to work her back into the flow of the clinic. She has a really unique skill set. Stephens was in a pretty raw place, at that moment. She did terrible things, don’t get me wrong, but I could also see an argument from Ingrid’s perspective to Watson where she says, “Your big question about me was about which way I was going to jump, and whether I was Holmes or Moriarty. I showed you, at considerable cost to myself, but you fired me.” I could see some resentment from her side. We’re going to see Ingrid’s unique set of skills and seeming determination to change herself make her eligible to come back into the clinic. The real question that’s going to loom over that character in the second season is, “Is she capable of true change?” And it’s not just changing her behavior because it’s causing her life to blow up every couple of months but actually changing who she is at her core.
We got to see sparks of romance with Stephens and Sasha, and Watson got a love interest at the end of the season. Will you delve more into those relationships in Season 2?
SWEENY: Oh, for sure. We were not in a place to really explore Watson’s romantic life in Season 1, by virtue of where we placed the character. The events of the two-part finale were such a relationship accelerant that Sasha and Stephens revealed things about themselves so quickly. The ramifications of that moment and how they respond to it, they’re together when we come into Season 2 and we have a really interesting storyline planned for that.
There is No Rule Against Bringing Sherlock Holmes Onto ‘Watson’ at Some Point
“I don’t think we’ve told any lies about Sherlock’s current circumstances.”
Have you decided that you don’t ever want to bring Sherlock Holmes, as a physical character, into this series, or is that more up in the air? We haven’t seen a body, but even if he is really dead, there’s still the possibility of flashbacks.
SWEENY: Here’s what I’ll say, I don’t think we’ve told any lies about Sherlock’s current circumstances. Now that we’ve established Watson firmly as the lead of his own show, hopefully for many seasons to come, it would be a tragedy never to see the face of Sherlock Holmes. We have no dogma that states that. With a role like that, I think there are people that would want to play in this world. We got that with Moriarity, and I think we’d get that with Holmes too, should we ever cast Sherlock Holmes.
Watson airs on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+. Check out the finale trailer:
