Something I’ve always pondered is why insurance companies would prefer to pay out over and over again for treatments that don’t work to cure rather than shelling out once for an expensive sure. Watson season 1, episode 5 continued my thoughts on that as Watson found a way outside of the law to treat a patient.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Watson season 1, episode 5
I guess only paying out for treatments for symptoms leads to more money in Big Pharma’s hands in the long-term. However, it’s a failing in the healthcare system, and not just in the United States. This is a failure around the world. Watson season 1, episode 5 points out that there are cures for sickle cell anemia, but they cost millions of dollars and health insurance won’t cover them.
So, John Watson goes about the treatment on his own. He just knows that this is something he needs to do with a small group because it is breaking the law.
John Watson is willing to break the law for one patient in Watson season 1, episode 5
What makes Taryn more suitable for John to break the law than any other patient with sickle cell anemia? I guess that will never be explored, but it’s more just the fact that Mary asked him to treat her and hasn’t asked him with other sickle cell patients. If he had the opportunity to do it again, he probably would, especially now that he knows it works.
The storyline is intriguing. We get to see Watson want to do something to actually help a patient. Even with other cases, he hasn’t really cured the problem all the time. When he has cured it, the investigation work is the storyline. With this episode, the storyline is on how Watson can protect himself as he treats a patient.
He knows that he can’t have his interns involved. The less they know, the better for them. Would they keep their story straight if questioned? Watson proves that he doesn’t know all of them well enough to make that sort of judgement call, so he makes the best call for himself and his patient. He doesn’t even tell his ex-wife what he’s doing, knowing that she wouldn’t stand for it. In the end, Mary realizes that whatever John did was for the best of the patient, but it takes delivering the good news that Taryn is pregnant for that to happen.
I’m finding Mary a little tiresome at this point in the series. I think that’s because she only comes in to cause problems for John. In House, Dr. House had a boss just like Mary, but we got to know more and more about her through storylines, and those storylines came up early. All we know about Mary is that she was married to John, wants a divorce, and has moved on with a woman. I find nothing likeable about this woman just yet, so I hope the series fixes that soon.
Shinwell has Watson’s back in a time of need
I was so grateful that Moriarty didn’t come up in this episode, but the back of my mind is playing withhow Moirarty can use all this. We know that he’s watching, and he’ll probably know that John has done something illegal. However, I did enjoy seeing Shinwell just working for John and finding a way to help the patient.
When John needed advice on how to circumvent the law, of course Shinwell was going to be the one to turn to. We all know Shinwell’s history. The series hasn’t hidden that from us at all. I just expected him to do a little more than he did. He’s another character I feel we hasn’t really gotten to know enough, but at least there’s something and now we know what Moriarty has over him to get him to work against Watson.
Having Shinwell question who John would get involved on the surgery was great. He doesn’t trust a lot of people, but he does trust Watson’s judgment. However, he did have all the words of caution in bringing on too many people. The more people who know, the worse it could be for all of them.
Of course, the interns did eventually find out, and they had to have a conversation between themselves about what to do. This episode was a great lesson for them in figuring out the major failings within the healthcare system. If there is a potential treatment out there, why is it not being used? If there is a cure out there, why does it cost so much money out of pocket? Why is healthcare not trying to actually help people instead of just treating the symptoms.
More and more details about the fellows in Watson
While they have to figure out what to do about the confession from John (after they work out that he’s hiding something), we also get to know a little more about them. One of those is that Sasha will take on others’ work to make sure she gets the grade she wants, and that leads to her getting one of Derian’s patients into the Spinal Signal Program.
Derian clearly manipulated the situation, though, and I love that we are seeing that. Sasha is able to get Gigi into the study, and we later find out that Derian knows Gigi personally. Of course Gigi was never going to be considered by Derian alone due to the conflict of interest. Derian needed to make sure her name wasn’t attached to the suggestion. I have a feeling Derian lied about her suggestions being ignored purely to manipulate Sasha into putting together a proposal.
We know that the twins do not get along, and it all seemed to stem from Adam being with Stephens’s ex-fiancee. It looks like their estrangement is much bigger, with Stephens not knowing that Adam relapsed in his sobriety for a bit. It’s clear that Stephens is starting to consider having a relationship with his brother again. I just hope that Adam is being genuine with his brother, because I know how this can go.
Overall, it wasn’t the case that was interesting in Watson season 1, episode 5. It was how they handle a major failing in the healthcare system.
Watson airs on Sundays at 9/8c on CBS. Catch up the following day on Paramount+.
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