Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Watson Episode 7.
Watson has officially crossed the midway point with tonight’s episode, and the series is finally on track to deliver on the most compelling aspects of its premise. Last week saw Shinwell (Ritchie Coster) decide not to switch Dr. Watson’s (Morris Chestnut) medicine, as instructed, and within the first few minutes of Episode 7, he learns that it was a dangerous decision to make. In Episode 3, Shinwell was very clearly told that if he refused to do Moriarty’s (Randall Park) bidding, Sebastian Moran would kill his pseudo-parents back in England. At the top of the episode, Shinwell receives a floral arrangement and a handful of pictures of his sleeping relatives with a pretty ominous threat to switch Watson’s pills or else. And therein lies the beginning of the end for Shinwell—or so he thinks.
Shinwell slips into Watson’s office to make the switch but is interrupted by the episode’s patient-of-the-week. Fortunately for Shinwell, Ginny (Jan Kamar) is suffering from episodic amnesia, so she forgets what she saw, but not before writing it down in her day planner, which plants a concern in Watson’s mind that something is up with his medication. And that isn’t the only clue leading him in the direction of concern. Throughout the episode, Watson experiences pretty extensive auditory hallucinations that manifest as Sherlock Holmes and his violin music and sage words of wisdom.
The whole pill switcheroo plot could only last for so long, and “Teeth Marks” delivers a pretty satisfying twist on the more predictable route that it seemed like the series was heading in. Shinwell spends most of the episode aware of the fact that Watson is onto him—or at least onto the fact that someone is switching his medication. He seems largely resigned to his fate, particularly after Watson enlists Stephens (Peter Mark Kendall) to work with him on a hush-hush. While Shinwell doesn’t know that Watson is, in fact, having Stephens test his Tamsulosin, he reaches out to his handlers and expresses concern. They advise him to “trust his partners” and that trust is rewarded. Albeit in the most horrific way possible.
A Set of Teeth Tear Everything Open in ‘Watson’ Episode 7

Image via CBS

With the inclusion of tonight’s episode, Watson has delivered a trio of brilliant medical mysteries, which are riveting from start to finish. It’s a marked improvement from the first handful of episodes that proved rather lackluster. Ginny is first introduced as an ER patient with a gash on her stomach and a panicked claim that there’s something inside of her. Her inability to remember anything for more than three minutes at a time leads the nurses to believe that she is having a psychotic episode, and Ginny flees, rather than being admitted to the psychiatric ward. Rather than leaving the hospital, she jumps on the elevator and finds herself in the clinic.
After discovering her in his office, Watson decides to make Ginny his patient, as it’s clear that the ER isn’t going to address the root cause of her mystery illness. Watson and the fellows do their best to unravel what the cause might be, investigating her recent trip to Machu Picchu and her potential exposure to Ayahuasca, and trying to get information out of her before her memory resets—which proves challenging. Throughout it all, Ginny maintains that “something” is eating her from the inside out, but Watson struggles to work out what that means. It’s only once he listens to the hallucinations of Holmes that he is able to piece together Ginny’s mystery—and another that’s afoot.

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Chestnut also talks about how important Moriarty will be to Watson’s story this season.

I have maintained from the start of the series that Mary (Rochelle Aytes) and Watson are the most compelling dynamic in the series, and Episode 7 continues to prove me right. Near the start of the episode, Mary checks in on Watson and questions him about the patient. The conversation is reminiscent of previous patient check-ins, but Mary reacts strangely to the news that the patient’s name is Ginny. At first, Watson believes it is because she shares a name with Mary’s late grandmother, but as the episode continues it becomes evident that that is not the reason for her emotional reaction. During one of Ginny’s lucid moments, she reveals that she and her girlfriend tried to start a family together. However, she miscarried, and her partner left her. Once again, Mary panics and remarks that she shouldn’t be involved in the case.
At the start of the final act of the episode, Ginny makes a break for it, feeling as though no one is listening to her. Watson rushes after her and assures her that he is prepared to listen to her now and trust her when she says there is something eating her alive. She agrees to return to the hospital, and she goes in for imaging which reveals that she has an ovarian teratoma: a tumor filled with teeth. While Watson watches her surgery in the OR, Mary arrives to once again check in on Ginny. Still guided by Holmes’ guiding words, Watson pieces together that there is more to Mary’s interest in Ginny than meets the eye. Ginny was the name they had picked out, should they have a daughter. Mary reveals that while Watson was gone chasing after Holmes and Moriarty, she had discovered that she was pregnant. He questions her about what happened to the baby, and she discloses that she miscarried, and she chose not to tell him. It’s a very poignant moment, and it sheds a lot of light on why their marriage fell apart. It wasn’t just because of Watson’s friendship with Holmes: it was because that friendship prevented him from being with her when she needed him most. Whether or not this revelation will help pave the way toward reconciliation is yet to be seen.
‘Watson’s Moriarty Is Everywhere in Episode 7

Image via CBS

As the episode draws to a close, Shinwell waits for Watson in the clinic, prepared to seal his fate by admitting to switching his Tamsulosin with the halogenic Ibogaine. He knows that Watson knows that his medicine has been switched, and it’s clear that all roads lead back to him, as he was the one collecting the prescription for him. But just as Shinwell begins to reveal the truth, a pharmacist named Lloyd bursts into the clinic, ranting and raving about how he was the one behind the pill swapping. Watson seems incredulous about the admission of guilt, but he grows more convinced of what he’s hearing once Lloyd states he was switching the pills for a “him,” which Watson naturally believes to be Moriarty. Shinwell, however, watches in horror as an innocent man takes the fall for his crimes. After really selling his involvement, Lloyd tells Watson and Shinwell that he took a number of pills before coming to the clinic, and he dies before they can render any aid.
The fellows are, understandably, quite alarmed by the fact that a random pharmacist dropped dead in their clinic, and even more alarmed by how cavalier Watson and Shinwell acted about it. But no fellow is more concerned than Derian (Eve Hollow), who is having her own no-good-very-bad-day. Throughout the episode, Derian receives cryptic text messages from an unknown number who knows all about the spot where she spent her birthday. As soon as Ginny is out of the woods and there are no more patients to deal with, Derian heads down to the water to try to unmask the culprit. Unfortunately for Derian, Watson isn’t the only doctor caught in Moriarty’s crosshairs—and he knows everything about her.
Throughout the last six episodes, there have been hints of Derian having a questionable past, with some characters even outright declaring that she is a dangerous person. But nothing could have prepared me for Moriarty pulling out a decomposed finger bone and declaring that he has the body of some man who was in the water that, seemingly, Derian was responsible for putting there. It’s clear that Moriarty has plans for Derian now that he has leverage against her. Watson Episode 7 is an excellent hour of television. The series has the potential to turn around its early missteps if the remaining episodes can deliver this same level of excitement and intrigue.
New episodes of Watson premiere Sundays on CBS and next-day on the Paramount+ app.

Watson

Moriarty makes his return to point fingers in Watson Episode 7.

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Network

CBS

Showrunner

Craig Sweeny

Pros & Cons

Now that the Moriarty mystery is starting to take focus, Watson is living up to its expectations.
Watson and Mary are the two most compelling characters in the series, and the new details about their past emboldens that claim.
Randall Park is such a unique Moriarty, and he brings a fresh take to the character.

The fellows are still largely uninteresting, and it remains difficult to care about Derian’s plotlines, even with Moriarty involved.