Watson Season 2 Episode 1 Review: A Son in the Oven

We open a couple months after the very climactic events of season one’s finale on Watson Season 2 Episode 1, “A Son in the Oven.”

Mary chats on the phone with her mom, Elizabeth. Elizabeth tastes what we learn is homemade bitter almond extract and accidentally poisons herself. The team finds the cause and saves her, but in hospital, she enters a state of rapid mental decline.

Soon after, Elizabeth doesn’t know her own daughter—or age. She can’t remember anything past when she was 25 and believes that’s how old she is, and that she is pregnant. Watson is convinced that this means her condition can be reversed.

As her health worsens, Elizabeth needs a liver transplant. Mary insists on being a living donor, but her risk is too high. Then, a breakthrough: Elizabeth gave birth to Mary at 29. At 25, she was also pregnant with a baby boy she gave away for adoption.

Miles is alive and well but stunned to learn his parentage. He resists donating until he realizes his mother has come to his coffee shop every day. In the end, he not only gives her part of his liver, but brings his kids to meet their grandmother and aunt.

Outside this drama, the characters’ personal lives are much as we last saw them. Watson and Leila are still together, as are Stephens and Sasha. Both couples are as happy as they can be for people surrounded by lives of constant chaos.

The fired Ingrid reappears with a new hairstyle and lease on life, but first Watson will need to consider taking her back. Sasha is encouraging, but he’s a bit distracted. Having the presumed-dead detective Sherlock Holmes reappear will do that to a man

After a long hiatus, the writers at Watson know hitting below the belt with personal case is a good way to hit the ground running. Elizabeth’s condition more than fits the bill. She’s an immediately likeable woman, and her condition devastates everyone.

The emotional progress is a roller coaster of highs and lows, from believing her decline is easily repairable to thinking she’s at the brink of death. Shows love to use their most climactic episodes to break hearts, and for a time, that seems likely.

Instead, we get something truly heartwarming. I really hope we’ll see more of Mary’s new-found extended family. We certainly deserve to see more of Elizabeth and giving nieces and nephews to someone who once lost her baby feels wonderful.  

This much weight does also mean that everything else falls to the wayside a bit. Thankfully, Sasha and Stephens still have that “new love” glow and Leila proves to be an excellent partner in fully supporting John’s dedication to his ex-wife and mother-in-law.

The rest is a bit more complicated. I appreciate Shinwell’s efforts to advocate for Ingrid and especially to atone for his own guilt, but the fact remains her actions were clearly the worst of anyone else on the team. She has a lot to make up for.

She does at least appear to be putting in the work. She goes to therapy and doesn’t pressure anyone in her brief reappearance. It’s enough to convince Sasha to put her name back in front of Watson, and promotions for this season make his decision clear.

And then there’s that ending. Our first question must be whether Sherlock is indeed real, or a figment of his friend’s imagination. As we saw repeatedly in the first season, Watson’s mind still reels enough from that loss for the latter to be possible.

I remain convinced that a truly alive Sherlock will eventually appear but can’t speak for this one until we know more. And while we’re on the matter of our title character’s mental health: when will we go back to the little matter of him killing Moriarty?               

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Watson airs Mondays at 10/9 central on CBS.

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