Watson Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Lucky

Sherlock and Lestrade both return to comment on an already bewildering series of events on Watson Season 2 Episode 5, “Lucky.”

A man nicknamed Lucky has been in a coma for years when a nurse sees him moving his eyelids. She tells Watson, who avows Lucky has “locked-in syndrome” after he answers a question. When they “talk” again, he claims someone is about to die.

Indeed, another patient does—one in a string of those who mysteriously code despite good prognoses. That night, a travel nurse arrives and injects something into Lucky’s IV that doesn’t kill him, but does take away his ability to reach out.

The team is able to shock him back to where he’d been and confirm and arrest his attacker with Lestrade’s help. Sherlock also returns to offer insight into both the case and his brother, Mycroft, who appears at the very end of the hour himself.

Amidst all this, the team notices how distracted John seems (secretly running off to consult Sherlock). We also see Ingrid in group therapy, both helping her main doctor and having tense relations with fellow likely sociopath, Beck.

Despite– or because– of his inability to do almost anything, Lucky’s condition is one of the most gripping we’ve seen on the show yet. He’s watched life pass by, including the death of his wife, without moving or speaking a word.

It’s fascinating and heartbreaking enough to stand without the murder plot, but that element does give Lucky agency. By the end of the episode, his consciousness allows him a very sweet closing scene with Lestrade and nurse who first sees him.

I still love this take on the character of Lestrade, who returns to offer plenty of wry commentary and support to both the investigation and Lucky without the complications that we’ll soon see both Holmes brothers bring with them.

With Sherlock, I still can’t shake the feeling that we’re being set up for a “gotcha” moment in that John has been the only one to see him. Yet has he? Mary sees food he leaves, and he makes a call to help catch our killer. It still feels very strange.

Of course, it could still be just as it seems. Sherlock is still dead to the world. That includes Mycroft, at least if we take the elder Holmes at his word. From the ominous way he starts speaking to Watson, the jury is out in that department.

Even more troubling is the scene as Sherlock departs. John warns him against giving into his darker nature, and he shrugs the words off. Could this be foreshadowing of him becoming a foe? I’m not sure I can get my head around that possibility.

All I can say for now is that between Watson’s hang ups with his friend and Ingrid’s relations with Beck, which are neither friendly nor entirely hostile, the fragile peace our characters have found is likely to reach a breaking point sooner than later.

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Watson airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.

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