Watson Season 2 Episode 12 Review: A Family Meal
We start with a fractured penis on Watson Season 2 Episode 12, “A Family Meal.” It turns out that’s just a red herring—one that leads to cannibalism.
Wren, using the name Nicole, accidentally causes a very sensitive injury to her date. He reports her random bouts of laughter, flickering eyes, and head nodding. Ingrid takes note and leads the team in tracking Wren down.
We learn she and her younger brother Robin survived a plane crash as young children that killed the rest of their family. To survive, Wren had to feed them the only meat available in an arctic landscape. The meat off their parents’ bodies.
On top of decades of guilt, Wren is diagnosed with an incurable disease called kuru. She’s tries to kill herself, convinced her brother will hate her. Yet when allowed to know the truth, Robin forgives her and works to heal their broken bonds.
In personal matters, Adam and Lauren learn that they’re expecting triplets, leading Adam to panic about being a provider. And Shinwell, now in the loop on Sherlock being alive, jets across the ocean to help track the detective down.
Thankfully, we are spared all but the most essential details of what Wren and Robin endured. Horrifying as it still is, we’re left with no doubt that it was only choice a twelve-year-old girl had to give her and her six-year-old brother a chance.
It’s heartbreaking to see Wren be unable to extend this same forgiveness to herself, wanting to spare Robin from the truth so badly that she’ll take it to the grave. Ingrid taking the lead in talking her down is a powerful scene.
That Robin is so quick to understand, only blaming himself for the grudge between them is a balm to all of that, but still very bittersweet. Wren will almost certainly eventually die, and he may also be doomed to leave his daughter as an orphan.
Still, the final scene of them beginning to reconnect is touching. Does Robin get over learning that he unknowingly ate the human flesh of his family a bit too quickly? Let’s make that one of many things we won’t think about too much.
At least triplets are happy news, right? Well, yes, but Adam is justifiably shaken up about the prospect of being the sole provider when Lauren announces that she wants to be a stay-at-home mom. How far will he go to make ends meet?
Shinwell’s behavior is also troubling. It’s great that he immediately believes John and even that he takes the lead in tracking Sherlock down, but he seems flat-out blasé about leaving both his nursing school and potential with Carlin.
If we’re lucky, we’ll get a set of healthy babies and the final proof that Sherlock exists outside Watson’s imagination before the end of the season and possibly the series. I have a feeling those happy moments may need to balance much darker ones.
What did you think of this episode of Watson? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!
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Watson airs Sundays at 10/9 on CBS.
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Caitlin Wyneken
Caitlin is an elder millennial with an only slightly unhealthy dedication to a random selection of TV shows, from PBS Masterpiece dramas to some of the less popular series on popular networks. Outside of screen time, she's dedicated to the public sector and worthy nonprofits, working to make a difference in the world outside of media.