John Watson has a lot to deal with in Watson season 1, episode 3. Take a look at the events of the episode.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Watson season 1, episode 3.
The episode opens with a young woman who is getting up for her stand up comedy routine. She’s struggling with anxiety but tries to brush it off. Her life turns upside down when she collapses on the stage.
Meanwhile, Watson deals with visions of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. Just how much of Moriarty is a vision?
John Watson helps a family reunite in Watson season 1, episode 3
The case itself is secondary to the overall story, and it works. This is a chance to see Watson attempt to hide his growing concerns over his head, learn more about why Shinwell is working for Moriarty, and get to know the other doctors a little more. We also learn a little more of the reason Watson is so focused on cases.
Molly comes to Watson, and he’s immediately intrigued by her naturally red hair. He will help her as long as she takes part in a study for people with red hair, which she agrees to as she wants to get answers about why she keeps collapsing.
It takes some time to get to the bottom of it. She’s been diagnosed with epilepsy in the past, but it’s clear that her seizures aren’t epileptic in nature. So, what’s going on?
Watson needs to figure out her past, and it’s the twins who get to the bottom of things. They realize that the story Molly has shared about her family isn’t true. Her mom is actually a murderer doing time in jail. This mom killed two of her children, with Molly being the only survivor. Watson decides he needs to pay Mom a visit, and that’s when he figures it all out. Just looking at Molly’s mom tells him that they both have a genetic mutation that leads to seizures and heart failure.
Molly’s mom definitely didn’t kill her two children. They were literally scared to death because of their genetic mutation. While this was great for Molly as it meant that they could save her life, it wasn’t great for Molly’s mom who was stuck in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Molly did decide that she would see her mom, though. She wanted to get to know the woman she had always believed wanted to kill all her children all her life. It was time for a family reunion.
Watson did also take steps to help get Molly’s mom released from prison. This will be a long process, but there’s hope!
Watson’s fears of his condition getting worse explained
John Watson isn’t necessarily afraid of death from his TBI. He knows that his TBI will eventually kill him. What he’s scared of is leaving people without all the help they need. He’s worried about leaving them behind when he’s one of the only people in the world who can help them. There is a God complex element to this, but there’s also heart to it.
Throughout the episode, Watson struggles with his symptoms getting worse. We know that it’s because Shinwell has switched out the medication on Moriarty’s orders. Moriarty clearly wants to test a few theories on Watson, but he isn’t ready to kill him just yet. After a few days of the symptoms getting worse, the pharma rep tells Shinwell to give Watson his regular medication back.
I’m surprised that Watson doesn’t even consider looking at his pills. He knows that his medication is supposed to be helping. So, why doesn’t he consider that his pills have been switched and then switched back, especially considering he gets better so quickly? As a detective who had worked under Sherlock Holmes, I would have thought he’d consider all things and not just the fact that his TBI symptoms were getting worse.
At least we get to understand why Shinwell is going against Watson. Moriarty is threatening people Shinwell cares about. For as long as Shinwell does as he’s told, the people are protected. I just wish that Shinwell would tell Watson something. They could work together to protect people.
That wouldn’t for a good story make, though, would it? Watson season 1, episode 3 brings us signs of how the symptoms affect John, and we see him have visions of both Sherlock and Moriarty. I know that Sherlock is supposed to be dead and there are no plans on reversing that (yet), but we know Moriarty is alive. Is there a chance that John wasn’t seeing visions of Moriarty? Was Randall Park’s character actually there, knowing that he’d get away with it due to the visions that John would get? I would expect Moriarty would want to be there to experience things.
Getting to know the other doctors more in Watson
I’m still not convinced by the other doctors just yet. I don’t think we’re getting to know them enough in these earlier episodes to even care about them. I have enjoyed seeing them learn to be detectives, but I want to have some sort of emotional connection to care about them.
I think we could do with an episode dedicated to each character. This would give us more time to learn more about their pasts and their personal lives right now. This episode did give us more time with the twins as they researched Molly’s family history, and I appreciated that. More of this with all the other characters without Watson around would work better.
Watson airs on Sundays at 9/8c on CBS. Catch up the following day on Paramount+.
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