Summary
Watson Season 2 has been all over the place, but it finally coheres in “Giant Steps” into a genuinely good and surprisingly moving outing.
Just in case you needed any more evidence that Watson works best as a straight-up medical drama that has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes, look no further than “Giant Steps”, which is, by my count, the first and thus far only genuinely good episode of Season 2. And there’s no Sherlock. There isn’t even any Moriarty, who had just started to make his unwelcome presence felt. There is only Watson. It took until Episode 7 for him to be confronted with his own deeply-held issues, and that, it turns out, creates a problem he for once can’t easily solve.
Watson hasn’t mentioned his father much, since he’s usually too busy mentioning Sherlock, so his dad, Hamish, provides a new angle from which to consider the character. I’m glad that the show resisted the impulse to make the two of them openly antagonistic. Their relationship is instead more complicated. They’re cordial. Friendly. But Hamish is a legendary jazz musician who is happy to brag about Watson’s geneticist accolades but never quite got over the disappointment of his musical failures; Watson respects his father but always felt the pang of that disappointment, a dynamic worsened by Hamish’s focus on his protege, Annabelle.
It’s Annabelle who’s the patient in “Giant Steps”, but it’s Hamish’s presence that makes it interesting. Annabelle’s condition, predictably, is related to her music, so she ultimately has to decide between risking her life or her career. This is very Brilliant Minds, a comparison that is usually unfavourable for Watson, but here seems warranted. Annabelle’s music is deeply connected to her relationship with Hamish, who has always treated her as a surrogate daughter on account of her talent, so the exploration of their dynamic by definition also has to be an exploration of Hamish and Watson’s.
This also informs the weird state of Watson and Mary’s relationship, since Hamish treats her as if she’s still his daughter-in-law, which makes Watson a bit wistful. Laila is mentioned a couple of times here, but her continued absence remains awkward. We’re supposed to buy into the idea that Watson and Mary are just a respectful platonic working partnership, but their relationship never really feels like that to me. It remains one of the weakest areas of Watson’s writing, comparable to the seemingly random lottery of supporting character subplots (more on this momentarily).
But the stuff between Watson and Hamish really works in Season 2, Episode 7. In seeing Watson in his element, Hamish is able to finally understand him and reconcile the idea that he veered away from music because he was meant for something else. In seeing Hamish’s relationship with Annabelle, Watson can see how impactful Hamish’s career has been and the sacrifices that he made to it for Watson’s sake. The payoff is predictable, but it’s effective and builds to a couple of moments of unexpected emotion – something that this show, generally speaking, isn’t very good at.
Speaking of which, “Giant Steps” also returns to the “Sasha is adopted” subplot, which was introduced pretty much out of nowhere earlier in the season. If you recall, Sasha had been contacted by someone claiming to be her biological uncle, and she has been compelled to meet with him, even though he might be some kind of maniac, to explore that area of her life. Before we see this, though, Stephens discusses it with Ingrid, and it’s interesting to see their wildly differing approaches to looking out for Sasha. Ingrid, typically, wants to put the kibosh on the whole idea, while Stephens is content to allow her to make her own decisions but support her in whatever happens.
Some of that support manifests as having to eat extremely spicy food at dinner, which is pretty funny. But Sasha’s “uncle” doesn’t just have a penchant for hot grub – he’s also in possession of a photograph of Sasha’s biological mother, whom she looks exactly like. It seems like he’s genuine, at least until he lets slip something that makes Sasha suspicious. She later confronts him, and he admits that he isn’t her uncle after all.
But! He obviously knows enough to have acquired that photograph, which means he really might be able to help Sasha find her mother. Will she be able to put aside his dishonesty – he claims to just be a lonely guy who took the opportunity to form a connection with someone – to continue her search? We’ll have to wait and see, but something tells me that she probably will.
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