Watson Season 2 Episode 6 “Buying Time” was giving filler episode but with some pretty forgettable characters. That made it so I felt like fast forwarding through everything that was happening with the case of the week. But stuff like this happens with procedurals and that doesn’t mean that the episode didn’t have some really interesting beats. It did. Plenty.
On the romance front, I love that we’re getting to see more of Sasha and Stephens through a romantic lens that doesn’t get enough screen time on TV; the everyday stuff. After the events of last week’s episode, Stephens is a little bit on edge about possibly having depression. And it matters that the show took the time to have Sasha talk to him about her concerns, even if it’s in the middle of a case. That shows to me, the viewer, that Watson considers them a couple on the clock and off the clock. Even better, it shows that these two aren’t just a background romance or that they’re solely there to have sex in weird places.
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On a friendship front, there was a spark between Stephens and Ingrid. And I’m not going to lie, in the beginning I didn’t like how Sasha was clocking it a little bit like she wasn’t jealous of Ingrid. I side-eyed the show like, “Please don’t add a love triangle unless they’re all going to kiss.” By the end of “Buying Time,” they made it very clear that no one could understand you better than someone who’s also going through the same pain. And going through that same pain doesn’t mean that you’re going to end up together. It just means that you can empathize with that person. That’s why Stephens told Ingrid about what happened to his uncle.
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On a brother front, I love that we got a little teasing in this episode. Stephens and Adam are going through vastly distinct journeys. But they’re still brothers. And Watson has infused Season 2 now with some moments of light. And the latest one is Stephens confirming that Adam is actually Adams and then Sasha teasing him about it with Stephens acting innocent after. Because that has been driving me crazy since Season 1. If you look back at some of my earlier reviews I called him “Adams” because that’s what the press material said. But then people were calling him Adam on the show so I was like, “What’s going on?!”
And finally, even though the case of the week was boring, on the John Watson front he was in his element. John clocked the rich guy, took the risks needed to keep the clinic open, and saved a life. Sure, one life was lost. But that life really didn’t care for others so… I’m not going to sit here and cry over them. Either way, John is fighting for the clinic’s life while Sherlock is galavanting around the world doing things and stuff. And… that makes me as a viewer frustrated with this “friend” of John’s.
As we’re gearing up for the mid-season finale of Watson, I have to admit that this whole subplot of Mycroft being gifted a genome or whatever that Sherlock knew was going to fail, that’s kind of boring. Give me a villain. Because Moriarty was here for Season 1 and it’s been kind of quiet on the villain front in Season 2. Unless it’s Sherlock that will be the villain. They’ve hinted at that gently in previous episodes and now that would be a twist.
Watson airs new episodes Mondays at 10pm on CBS.
