Watson Season 2 Episode 17 Review: Unsolved Mysteries

We open to expected questions about John’s location on Watson Season 2 Episode 17, “Unsolved Mysteries.” A man does walk into the clinic to be greeted warmly be everyone. It’s Sherlock.

It takes about ten extremely confusing minutes before flashes of the burning car make it clear this is all happening inside John’s head. Spoiler: both he and Laila will survive, but there will be one huge caveat to his condition.

The team (who here know Sherlock well) work to analyze the case of an old mentor of Watson’s. Mr. A died on John and Mary’s wedding day after Dr. Watson misdiagnosed him. His now-adult daughter Regan may have the same condition.   

Sherlock and Brenda guide the fellows’ analysis before the detective leaves again. But Watson’s mind also hands a glimpse of tragedy: Lauren and her babies all seemingly dying in premature labor, leaving a devastated Adam behind.

We catch up with reality only in the in the final scenes. Moments after waking up, Watson is handing life-saving advice to Lauren, passing the correct diagnosis on to Regan, and even telling Stephens to try for fatherhood with Sasha.

Through the sequence, we also get glimpses of a brain scan handed to Ingrid that shows an alarming tumor. John already knows the scan is his own, explaining his visions of Sherlock. Oh, and he and Laila might break up to boot.

Even with the rational explanation, this is one of the weirder dream sequences I’ve seen. So much is exactly the same as the show we’ve watched for a year and a half, just with Sherlock walking in like he’s always been there.

As disconcerting as it is, it works for a while. The fellows get along well with Sherlock, though that may be because they’re technically figments of his best friend’s imagination. I also love Brenda offering more of her wry commentary.

Still, there are questions. Why have we never heard of Mr. A before? Why does everyone barely bat at an eye at Sherlock’s cryptic departure? Why is Ingrid the only one so bothered by the scan we’ll eventually learn is Watson’s?

The tumor offers a reasonable (if slightly too convenient) explanation for everything. And after the heartbreaking scene of Stephens finding Adam sobbing alone in a waiting area, I’m all too happy that none of it was real.

The tumor is real, of course. So are the people John is able to help once he wakes up. But by the time we get to that point, we only have a few minutes to meet Regan and to make sure that Lauren and her babies survive in the world we know.

It also leaves us with only a few episodes for John and the others to handle what that tumor will mean. Unless the real Sherlock is out there somewhere, his goodbye in this episode might be final once (or if) Watson is able to have surgery.

Assuming we are able to save our hero, that doesn’t change the love triangle he faces, which also finally reaches a climax in the end scenes. Laila seems to have an idea of his feelings, heightened by Mary’s emotional delivery of his diagnosis.

There’s probably not enough time to close the series with everyone in stable relationships and looking happily toward the future. Again, and especially with Beck still lurking, we just may need to hope they all make it to the end.

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Watson airs Sundays at 10/9c on CBS.

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