Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Watson Episode 6.Watson finally hit its stride last week, and with Episode 6, “The Camgirl Inquiry,” the series is proving there’s a lot of truth to the sentiment that the best is yet to come. Just two episodes ago, the series revealed that Stephens Croft (Peter Mark Kendall) is secretly seeing a camgirl to fill the void left by his ex-fiance, who ended up with his twin and, as the title reveals, she is the latest patient-of-the-week. Porsche (Sofie Kane) is noticeably unwell as she talks with Stephens one night in a private chat room, but he’s the one not really responding to the roleplay scenario she’s trying to entice him with. He’s looking for something real and manages to convince her to tell him something about her real life. It’s relatively mundane—she was raised on a rabbit farm in New Mexico—but it proves to be a major piece of the mystery once her condition worsens.
Stephens has previously worked out that Porsche is somewhere near where he is in Pittsburgh and tries to convince her to take a referral to be seen at UHOP because he’s concerned about her being sick. Understandably, she doesn’t want to go “real world” with one of her clients. The next day, Stephens frets over her, checking to see if she’s taken him up on the referral. And much to his chagrin, everyone decides to harp on his relationship status. Adam reveals that there’s an ongoing bet about who the girl he’s seeing is, and he’s relatively mortified to learn that it’s not just his ex Lauren who is involved in the bet: Dr. Derian (Eve Harlow) and Dr. Lubbock (Inga Schlingmann) are in on it too.
But tormenting Stephens comes to an abrupt end when Shinwell (Ritchie Coster) reveals that Dr. Watson (Morris Chestnut) has a plan for the interns: Project 0. Also known as, working through the backlog of unanswered petitions seeking to be seen at the clinic. While the interns get to work, Stephens slips away to chat with Porsche again, but before he can convince her to come to UHOP, she collapses and takes her set down with her. When Stephens turns to Watson about his camgirl, the doctor is busily clacking away at a typewriter, writing up a document called “The Sign of Four” which involves the late Sherlock Holmes (a clever nod to one of the Sherlock Holmes novels). Watson won’t let Stephens see what he’s writing, but it seems immaterial in light of things. Stephens confesses that he has been seeing a camgirl and Watson is refreshingly supportive about the whole ordeal. Stephens explains what little he knows about her, and they surmise that she might have a UTI, on account of the cranberry juice sitting at the back of her set.
The mystery warrants getting the entire team involved, and, unsurprisingly, Derian is quite critical of Stephens and what he gets up to in his private time. Still, Watson makes it clear that Porsche’s life rests in their hands, and they have to work under pressure to identify where she might be located. Dr. Lubbock—who continues to share very pointed looks with Stephens—is immediately helpful. She recognizes a vibrator sitting in Porsche’s room, though it ultimately proves to be a dead end. What they do observe is that everything in Porsche’s home is rooted in Shakespeare in some way.
‘Watson’ Episode 6 Uncovers the Truth About “Porsche”

Image via CBS

Watson and the Crofts set out to locate Porsche’s home based on context clues in some of the artwork throughout her apartment. When they arrive at her potential residence, they are greeted by a rather disinterested young man who reveals that “Annie Wilson” moved out three months ago without a forwarding address. A bit of smart research yields a restraining order against the man who happens to have been Annie’s ex. But it’s not exactly a lead they can easily crack—so Adam suggests they turn to Lauren.
Stephens is reluctant to work with his ex-fiance, but Porsche’s rapidly declining condition and sage advice from Watson push him into action. The twins meet with Lauren, and she’s more than willing to help them solve the mystery, even if she is convinced that her legal contacts won’t be forthcoming about their client information. But it’s a major stepping stone for Stephens, who seems to have been increasingly isolating himself since their break-up. Thanks to the still-live webcam, they discover that Porsche has an adorable Corgi who they instantly assume must be named after a Shakespearean character. Lubbock, Derian, and Shinwell run the full gambit of potential name combinations, but it’s ultimately Watson who gets an eager response out of “Brutus.” Rather than helping them see the address on his collar, Brutus bounds off the sofa and knocks the camera, skewing the shot. But it still proves helpful, as they spot the name “Kathryn Pertuchio” on a piece of mail. Shinwell tracks down the only known Kathryn Pertuchio in the city, and the team is able to call 9-1-1 and get her the help she desperately needs.
But Kathryn’s condition doesn’t get better once they start treating her with antibiotics and once again the team is in a race against time to identify what might be ailing her. After a call from her mother, Stephens learns that she was being truthful about her childhood on the rabbit farm, and, in fact, when she was just visiting home, she was bitten by a rabbit. It doesn’t take long for Watson and the interns to piece together that Kathryn was infected with the plague when the rabbit bit her and the only reason she isn’t dead is because she has some genetic mutation that makes her immune to a certain extent. With her diagnosis finally revealed, Stephens oversees her treatment and waits by her bedside to wake up.
Stephens and Kathryn’s reunion, or rather, first introduction is absolutely beautiful. She is so appreciative of the lengths he went to save her life, and impressed that he was willing to tell his coworkers about having a camgirl. She seems a little at a loss about what they’re supposed to do now, but Stephens seems quite convinced that something has “changed” in him now, and he doesn’t need to rely on a secret relationship with her now. It will be curious to see where this goes: if the two of them explore a relationship in the real world or if Stephens will move on. If Watson intends to deliver on the unexpected chemistry between Stephens and Lubbock… Episode 6 finally creates an opening for them.

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Image via CBS

Throughout the episode, Lubbock tries to get Derian to come around to the idea of celebrating her impending birthday. But Derian remains quite firm in her disinterest in being celebrated in any way. Her birthday is a private affair, and she’s content with that. Lubbock doesn’t take her disinterest as a firm no (believing that she’s just being passive-aggressive) so she buys her a cake, and it goes terribly wrong. Derian accuses Lubbock of trying to be the author of the universe and orchestrate things that she personally wants to see, without any regard for the people around her. Coupled with the increasing pressure that Derian might squeal about her faux engagement and a slip-up with calling her “fiance” her boyfriend to Stephens, Lubbock takes this disaster to heart and heads home to break up with her boyfriend. Like I said, there’s an opening if they want to make Stephens and Lubbock a thing.
But, instead of ringing Stephens after she’s ended her relationship and kicked her ex-partner out of their home, Lubbock calls Derian. She doesn’t want to be alone, but Derian does. Derian is perched on a rock by the shoreline eating her unwanted birthday cake. Derian refuses Lubbock’s request to hang out, suggesting that they’ll see each other at work the following morning and that’s that. Derian continues to be the odd-woman-out among the group, as her callous disinterest in everything makes her hard to really sympathize with or even understand.
As the episode draws to a close, Shinwell brings Watson a new prescription that is—as expected—another batch of switched-up medications, courtesy of Moriarty (Randall Park). Watson thanks him profusely for being there for him and Shinwell squirms so much about betraying Watson’s trust. For someone who is so good at spotting a lie, it’s impressive that Watson is oblivious to what’s going on directly under his nose. Episode 6 marks the first time that Watson has spoken at length about Sherlock. When he’s counseling Stephens, he reveals that his old friend had an on-again-off-again relationship with a con woman named Irene Adler and a companion who pretended to be his housekeeper named Mrs. Hudson.
The recollection is meant to normalize Stephens’ callgirl situation, but it sheds a lot of light on how Watson is handling some of the other key characters in the Sherlock Holmes canon. Watson later discusses how he failed Sherlock when he died during their encounter with Moriarty, and he brings it up again with Shinwell, still clearly sore about it. Watson blames himself for Sherlock’s death, but Shinwell assures him that Sherlock knew exactly what he was doing when he went over the Falls. While the teaser for next week doesn’t give way the fact that Moriarty is back (again), the images for Episode 7 make it clear that all of this tee-up is for a reason, and at long last, Watson is finally getting good.
New episodes of Watson premiere Sundays on CBS and Paramount+ next-day.

Watson

Watson Episode 6 sees the doctors treating Stephens’ camgirl in a race against the clock to find her before it’s too late.

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Network

CBS

Showrunner

Craig Sweeny

Pros & Cons

Watson delivers a strong episode, with characters that are finally starting to feel fully developed and intriguing.
The series handles the camgirl storyline with a lot of respect, both toward the camgirl and Stephens.
As we reach the midway point, Watson is finally delving deeper into who Sherlock was.

Derian continues to be a difficult character to sympathize with or root for?or against.