'Watson' Episode 2 Starts Revealing Team Secrets

The premiere of Watson introduced us to a new iteration of Sherlock Holmes' trusted sidekick. Now being played by Morris Chestnut, John Watson kicks off the CBS series by restarting his medical practice after seeing Sherlock go over a waterfall with Dr. Moriarty (Randall Park). As with typical pilots, the first episode focused on establishing who Watson is, his connection to Holmes, and how the alleged death of his best friend and detective best friend has affected the doctor. 

The second episode pivots focus to the team that Watson has assembled at his clinic. It seems that every person that Watson has assembled has some sort of secret to hide. Sasha (Inga Schlingmann) is in an unfulfilling long-term relationship with a man who treats proposing to her like it's paying taxes. Stephens (Peter Mark Kendall) thinks she should be with someone who appreciates her more. That person could be him, but he's got a secret digital relationship that his long-distance girl fears may bankrupt him, and we don't exactly know what that means. 

Mary (Rochelle Aytes) is potentially dating the head of HR of the hospital, but John is trying to stop himself from digging into his estranged wife's personal business. The person that everyone needs to start digging into is Dr. Ingred Derian (Eve Harlow). Watson spotted that she lied on her resume about her acting skills, but the episode revealed that there's something much more sinister going on with the neurologist, and not even Watson may be prepared for what she's planning. 

The patient of the week is a man named Adam Turner, whose main hobby is playing Scottish sniper Patrick Ferguson in Revolutionary War re-enactments. He gets shot in the head at the top of the episode, and when he wakes up, will only speak in a Scottish accent and swears that he is his European alter ego. 

The team initially believes that Adam's delusion is caused by the bullet still lodged in his brain. Watson soon discovers that Adam was convinced he had the early signs of Huntington's Disease before he was shot, and the Scottish act was so he didn't have to face the diagnosis. However, Watson was able to diagnose Adam with Wilson's Disease, which was much less severe and would allow him to spend many fruitful years doing re-enactments and watching his children grow up. With the new diagnosis, Adam dropped the act and agreed to do the surgery to remove the brain and start treatment for Wilson's Disease. 

The tricky thing is that the bullet was lodged in the brain and surrounded by multiple tricky aneurysms that could detonate at any moment. The team needed a neuro cowboy willing to take the risk of dissecting each of the aneurysms and retrieve the bullet without killing Adam. The only person suitable was an ostracized surgeon by the name of Isaac, who just happened to be a former patient of Ingrid's. She managed to convince him to do the surgery, but not without the audience finding out that there was a dark history between the two and that Ingrid is not who she claims to be. 

Isaac was ostracized from the medical community after he was pulled over for drunk driving when he was in grad school. He suspects that Ingrid was the one to call the cops because they were together on the night that he was arrested. They had a few drinks to celebrate getting an A in a tough class and he was only two-hundredths of a point over the legal limit. He wasn't speeding or swerving – according to him – and he thinks Ingrid called it in to take him out of the running for a grant they both wanted. 

After Adam's surgery went well, Mary tried to offer Isaac a job at UHop but he turned it down. He also warned Mary that Ingrid was dangerous and that when she decided to strike, it was Mary who could potentially suffer the fallout. The episode then cuts to Ingrid in the bathroom, practicing reciting that she went to a restaurant she previously lied to Watson about going to. She's trying to figure out what her tell is, which only begs the question, what exactly is she trying to hide? 

Is she working for Moriarty, or is there something else going on there? Either way, she's a danger to have on the team, and Watson either knows that, or he needs to start paying better attention to the clues immediately around him instead of on Mary's appointment calendar.  

On the bright side, we got our first hint of a potential workplace romance. Stephens was the one who sent Sasha balloons at the beginning of the episode, suspecting her boyfriend was going to propose after the hints she had previously dropped in the office. The boyfriend didn't propose, but Sasha figured out that Stephens was the one who got her the balloons and thanked him sincerely for the gesture. 

Stephens laid out that her boyfriend wasn't stepping up to the plate like he should and Sasha admitted it was maybe the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her. It's clear that Stephens has a soft spot for the immunologist, and if she wasn't wrapped up in waiting for a guy who doesn't appreciate her to propose, she might see that Stephens is a better fit. It's just a spark at the moment, a mutual acknowledgement of care for each other, but we love a slow-burn office romance and will be waiting for more to develop between these two as the cases go on.

Watson continues Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Episodes are available the next day to stream on Paramount+.