The next comprises spoilers for Watson Season 1, Episode 10, “The Man With the Alien Hand,” which debuted April 20 on CBS and streams on Paramount+.
The tenth episode of Watson on CBS provides the gang on the Sherlock Holmes clinic an excellent, old school homicide to analyze with a medical twist. As John Watson usually tells his workforce of docs he works with, he’s coaching them “to be detectives.” It’s the sort of story the collection might do extra usually. The inheritor to a financially highly effective household with ties to the collection’ setting of Pittsburgh, PA has “alien hand syndrome” and makes use of this to cowl for the homicide of his brother.
The one different episode to pair a medical thriller with against the law to this point was the second Watson episode, “Redcoat.” A person tried to orchestrate his personal homicide to make sure his household bought an insurance coverage payoff. “The Man With the Alien Hand” can be a thriller mixing homicide, cash and medical obscurity, but it surely’s far more malicious. It’s the sort of case viewers could truthfully anticipate from a present steeped within the lore of Arthur Conan Doyle’s well-known detective. But, the tales this collection tells are targeted extra on humanity than crime, save for one tied to the private historical past of one in every of Watson’s workforce members. Because the collection enters its house stretch earlier than the primary finale, Moriarty additionally turns into a a lot larger presence within the narrative. Fortunately, a Holmes legacy character joins the workforce to assist face the legendary villain.
Watson Makes use of a Acquainted Actual-Life Pittsburgh Philanthropist Household’s Identify for Its Thriller
Fictionalized Right here, the Actual Phipps Household Has Ties to the Metropolis’s Metal Work Previous
From the Watson series premiere, the nice physician’s native Pittsburgh (additionally the hometown of collection creator Craig Sweeny) performs a big function within the story. “The Man With the Alien Hand” introduces a personality with a really acquainted final title.
The Phipps household has ties to town, each its metal work historical past and public establishments just like the Phipps Conservatory. Cameron Phipps seeks Watson’s assist for a uncommon (and actual) situation known as alien hand syndrome. Ostensibly, his left hand acts of its personal accord.
The Phipps household gained its wealth within the nineteenth Century, partnering with Andrew Carnegie and has ties to Pittsburgh. There are at present 300 members with a mixed wealth of round $8.6 billion.
Whereas treating the ailment, Cameron murders his brother to get a bigger portion of his father’s $300 million inheritance. Whereas Watson believes, at first, this was a tragedy brought on by his hand, his investigative nature reveals that Cameron deliberate it. Probably the most fascinating a part of this case just isn’t a lot the thriller itself, however quite that Watson himself is humbled. He’s fooled by Cameron in a method the series implies Holmes would not have been. His want to resolve the case is, at the very least in keeping with his protégé, Stephens Croft.
In contrast to the present’s extra severe tales, resembling its critique of the healthcare system, this case properly blends humor and tragedy. Thompson performs Cameron as loathsome, and his comeuppance is in the end satisfying. But, the story itself can be grounded in Watson’s character, particularly how he sees himself after his time with Holmes. Maybe inferior to his late pal, Watson nonetheless tries to make use of the talents that made him very important to Britain’s finest deductive thoughts. It’s essential to him that he was solely “performed” and never “duped.”
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Together with the thriller of the week, the episode picks up the story from “Take a Family History,” revealing Ingrid’s past. Ingrid Derian desperately desires to stick with Watson’s workforce regardless of being advised to search for different employment. The strain within the air is palpable, seen particularly by Sasha Lubbock, who’s arguably Ingrid’s closest pal within the workplace. Whereas she resists the assistance at first, the episode ends with a tearful confession that might change issues significantly.
“You and I, we’re buddies. I feel we’re buddies. We do friends-adjacent stuff…. That affected person from the spinal sign factor? Are you linked to her? It’s the one factor that is sensible,” Sasha to Ingrid.
In Episode 7, Moriarty approached Ingrid and threatened her. Viewers now know his blackmail try would reveal that she murdered her father as a young person. What exactly he desires from her is an open query. In actual fact, a lot of Moriarty’s bigger plan stays mysterious, although with solely three episodes left, it should seemingly come to the forefront quickly sufficient. Nevertheless, Ingrid is formidable. Her second of weak spot with Sasha is uncharacteristic so far as viewers know, however it could be what she must combat again.
The large shock within the premiere was casting Randall Park as Watson’s Moriarty, who survived the Reichenbach Falls encounter that opened the collection. Park’s amiable on-screen presence is a pleasant distinction to the same old “arch” or in any other case over-the-top portrayal of Doyle’s finest villain. Nonetheless, for many of Season 1, he’s been a menace looming over the collection. Nevertheless, one other story in “The Man With the Alien Hand” means that’s about to vary.
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Shinwell Johnson Additionally Begins to Battle Again In opposition to Moriarty’s Manipulations
He Defies the Mysterious Agent of the Professor Who Asks for the Workforce’s DNA
One of many more surprising inclusions in Watson’s cast is Shinwell Johnson, an rare character from the Doyle tales. He’s a legal who grew to become pleasant with each Holmes and Watson. As a part of the previous’s will, Johnson is paid to function “aide and common dogsbody” to Watson. Nevertheless, he’s additionally been co-opted by Moriarty. The 2 met within the first episode on Pittsburgh’s iconic Duquesne Incline, the place Johnson delivered “samples” to the professor who promised he “is at all times watching.”
To date, Moriarty – particularly by means of his unnamed agent (Kacey Rohl) – has used Shinwell to tamper with Watson’s self-prescribed therapy for his traumatic mind damage. Solely now, the agent asks Johnson to ship samples of the workforce’s DNA to Moriarty. Though folks near Johnson are threatened by the professor’s acolytes, he lastly decides to commit an act of riot. He provides the agent DNA samples, however not these belonging to the workforce.
“The fellows’ DNA within the arms of Moriarty can be utilized for just one factor: to take them off the sphere of play. Pretend samples it’s, then. Moriarty won’t ever get his arms on the fellows’ DNA, not from the bastard Shinwell Johnson,” Shinwell to himself.
Whereas Johnson believes the DNA can be used, maybe to border the workforce by some means, there may be one other potential trigger. Lots of Watson’s stories are about unique genetic variations, together with the Phipps case.
It’s potential that Moriarty’s plan, as teased of their first assembly, is extra medical in nature. He could also be creating some sort of illness that might both goal Watson and the fellows particularly or, even worse, everybody else, leaving them immune. Given the character of Watson as a collection, a medical twist to Moriarty’s plan is sensible.
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Watson Introduces One other Acquainted Legacy Character From the Sherlock Holmes Mythos
Detective Lestrade Is Not a Scotland Yard Investigator, however Pittsburgh ‘Homicide Police’
The opposite huge second in “The Man With the Alien Hand” entails the introduction of one other legacy character from the Arthur Conan Doyle tales. Inspector Lestrade is each often a person and a member of Scotland Yard. In Watson, Rachel Hayward performs Detective Lestrade, and he or she is a veteran murder detective on the Pittsburgh police drive. Her affiliation with Watson is, clearly, simply starting.
At first, she has a doubtful response to Watson and his theories. Nevertheless, by the top, she is each happy with the “poetic justice” Watson’s workforce delivers and the eventual witness, permitting her to arrest Cameron. The collection makes it clear she’s going to return and work with Watson once more. This may very well be a method the present introduces extra murder-themed instances for Watson and his workforce to resolve. But, Lestrade may additionally be a significant ally within the coming confrontation with Moriarty.
Not solely is she a wildcard, a determine he didn’t account for, however she might find yourself arresting or killing him. Watson and his workforce are docs, to allow them to do neither of these items. Most certainly, Moriarty will find yourself in jail quite than lifeless, just because Park’s model of the villain is simply too good to do away with.
Watson debuts new episodes Sundays at 9 PM on CBS and streams the following day on Paramount+.
Watson Season 1, Episode 10, “The Man with the Alien Hand”
- Launch Date
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January 26, 2025
- Showrunner
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Craig Sweeny
- Administrators
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Larry Teng
- Writers
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Craig Sweeny
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Morris Chestnut
Dr. John Watson
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- The episode’s homicide thriller aptitude is a welcome shift to Watson’s earlier episodic storytelling.
- The episoe makes good use of the ensemble together with introducing new characters.
- The episode is a clver mix of humor and severe drama.
- The episode might’ve targeted extra carefully on how Watson’s ego performed into the case.
- With solely three episodes left, some followers could really feel Moriarty and his menace has been under-utilized.
- The fondness Lestrade has for Watson could really feel somewhat fast to some viewers.
