Watson Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Back From the Dead

On Watson Season 2 Episode 2, “Back From the Dead,” a certain consulting detective isn’t the only one to reemerge from being believed to be gone forever.

The glimpse we get of Sherlock turns out to be a flash-forward. This episode plays via Watson (who overcomes his shock very quickly) telling his friend about a day that starts when a woman insists her flu-like symptoms are caused by a “zombie disease”

While exploring species frozen since the ice age with fellow scientists, she’s exposed to a disease believed to kill woolly mammoths. Watson is initially dismissive, but that changes when her peers also get sick—and one dies of cardiac arrest.

Watson and Ingrid are exposed while trying to save him. (Ingrid is getting therapy but is not yet rehired) Panic looms over a possible pandemic. Thankfully, our doctor is quick to shut it down the with the discovery the team was poisoned.

No problem? Not quite. Technically, they’ve all been intentionally infected with typhoid fever. Watson believes a scientist writing a book did it to raise money for her sick brother. But Sherlock, who’s been loving this tale, says she’s innocent.

He’s quickly proven right, of course. He even manages to convince his friend to take Ingrid back before bidding him another, temporary, farewell. And in another lovely closing scene, Sasha’s attempts to find her birth family lead her to meet her uncle.

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away: this appears to be the real Sherlock Holmes, really back from the dead. I still can’t quite get past the fact only John as seen him so far, even if he has appeared “publicly” in disguise.

Still, as this may be all we see of the detective for the time being, I guess we have to accept the evidence of our eyes. I’m less willing to accept the believability of Watson getting over what is essentially a very deep betrayal quite this quickly.

True, he challenges his friend to explain how and why he faked his death, but he has little to say about the pain he was caused. Perhaps when they do get a chance to meet again (hopefully with others around), more will come to the surface.

With a plot development like this, even a “zombie” virus struggles to compete, but it does its best. The idea that a illness like typhoid could be so easily implanted into others is somehow just as terrifying as the initial belief of a long-lost disease.

My only criticism here is that, while throwing a whole crew of scientists into the plot makes for bigger pools of both victims and suspects, it’s also harder to get to know and care for the clinic’s patients the way we do when there’s just one.

We also see that with Sasha’s subplot. I love the idea of her reaching out to her family and the broader conversations about adoption and belonging that come with that. But we only get a glimpse of her initial success, even if it is very sweet.

And then there’s Ingrid. It may stretch belief that everyone is convinced to forgive her so quickly, but I’ll take it for the sake of letting us move on. And the idea of her willingly getting treatment as a possible sociopath is very intriguing indeed.

For the time being, it looks like we’ll go back to where we were for most of season one. Solving cases in the Holmes Clinic while the world continues to believe its namesake is dead. But John knows differently, and he can’t be the only one forever.

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Wats0n airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.

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