Watson Season 2 Episode 3 “Expletive Deleted” throws John and the rest of the fellows into a mystery surrounding a young woman who looks like she’s 10 even though she’s 30. But their biggest problem is that this woman, Maxine, didn’t want their help. And they bombarded her over and over again to the point where they ignored her directives to get her to do what they want aka choose life. And I’m left sitting here appreciating the team’s refusal to give up on someone who had given up on themselves, while acknowledging that they ignored her bodily autonomy.
In many ways, I don’t think that John saw Maxine. It felt like he was still reeling from what happened last episode with Sherlock Holmes and he was trying to find some control. And John taking things into his own hands isn’t a new thing. He went and introduced Mary to her brother without considering how such a shocking revelation being thrust upon her could mess her up in “A Son in the Oven.” And I get that he’s helpful. He’s super super helpful. But sometimes I think he is so focused on the problem that he doesn’t see the people.
MORE: Need a reminder of what happened in Watson Season 2 Episode 2 “Back from the Dead”? Read our review.
You could see the fellows questioning whether they should treat Maxine over and over in this “Expletive Deleted.”
Maxine wasn’t their patient. And they knew it. But John bent the rules to make her their patient even though she continuously expressed that she was done with all of this. And I can’t help but feel uncomfortable with John imposing his will of “there are so many great things in this world to live for,” which there are, on someone who had made their decision. Everyone’s living a different struggle and John cannot understand the struggle of being in Maxine’s body and not being able to grow up. He did find someone for her at the end to share her burdens with, but I still don’t think the end justifies the means.
Ultimately I think everything that John did in Watson Season 2 Episode 3 “Expletive Deleted” is grounded in a superiority problem I’ve clocked since Season 1 Episode 1. John is super brilliant and he wants to be super helpful. But another part of it is that sometimes he thinks he’s too brilliant and that maybe he knows a little bit more than others so they should just listen to him. And this is unfortunately something that happens with brilliant characters on TV who are geniuses or think outside the box. So not something new but still highly annoying.
Then there’s the Ingrid of it all.
Ingrid is one of my favorite characters on Watson because of how twisted she is. In Season 1 we saw her use these defense mechanisms to keep people close, keep them far away from her, or just to manipulate in a way that benefited her. And like Stephens, I’m having a hard time seeing the new her. But I like that we’re getting to see her evolve into someone else. A version of her that is struggling to let go of the past but also someone who clearly still has that bite in her, that was definitely shown when that weirdo from therapy appeared at her job. That’s not a coincidence.
Her return obviously caused a little bit of tension for the group. Stephens and Adams almost died. You can’t just come back from that like nothing. And I do like that the show itself is obviously trying to move past the events of Season 1 without forgetting them. Too often shows just steam roll ahead, kind of like what they did with Stephens and Sasha’s relationship, to get to the next point. And while Watson is guilty of doing that just like any other show, them not doing that with Ingrid is interesting and shows that they’re investing more in this character.
It’s also really interesting that the two people that Ingrid had the most problems with were Stephens and Sasha.
Stephens is an obvious problem because he almost died because of her actions. And while I loved watching these two try to find a new norm around each other, the diagnosis, I can’t pin down why it bothered me. I wasn’t sure if it was concern or manipulation.But then I looked at Sasha. I feel like Ingrid wasn’t trying to manipulate Sasha. Ingrid missed Sasha. And maybe it’s just because I like the power of friendship between women, but I’m trying to understand what leads me down a road of thinking that Ingrid is manipulating one and not manipulating the other.
Whatever may come next after Watson Season 2 Episode 3 “Expletive Deleted,” it’s clear that this show is taking the framework of Season 1 and evolving each and every single character in new directions. My hope is that those directions are filled with less holes along the way when it comes to development and that they grow together. Right now it feels like John is off doing his thing and his fellows are doing another. I want them grow side by side. That’s what’s going to make them a strong unit against whatever mystery is coming up next.
Watson airs new episodes Mondays at 10pm on CBS.
