Summary
Watson Season 2 continues to feel improved in “Livvy Sees the Doctor”, delivering a solid premise that works as both a medical mystery and a taut drama.
I’m not the biggest fan of Watson, as anyone who has been reading these Season 2 recaps can probably tell, but I’m happy to admit when it settles on a good idea. And Episode 8, “Livvy Sees the Doctor”, is built around a really good – albeit familiar – idea. There’s no Sherlock or Mycroft nonsense, there’s refreshingly little of the supporting characters and their bizarre out-of-nowhere subplots – with the exception of one key one – and Watson himself is forced to confront some genuinely challenging ideas.
This is the kind of episode that the show should be producing, something that works on its own terms and resonates as both a medical mystery and a pretty taut drama. Watson is perfectly capable of this, which makes it even more frustrating when it so frequently indulges in nonsense. Last week’s episode was a step in the right direction; this one makes quite a leap.
The hook is that a soldier named William “Fitz” Fitzgerald is so desperate to secure treatment for his daughter Olivia – the “Livvy” of the title – that he has decided to strap a bomb to his chest and detonate it if she isn’t immediately tended to. It’s worth noting that this isn’t as rash a gesture as it sounds – Fitz has made multiple efforts to have Livvy treated, but she has been passed around (even by Watson) to multiple doctors in different states, despite the fact that he doesn’t have the money to get her there.
It’s a classic “wrong thing, right reasons” scenario, then, and to be perfectly honest, it isn’t surprising in its broad strokes. But Jon Beavers is really good in this and plays Fitz as a fundamentally decent guy who’s just at the end of his rope. He’s desperate to save his daughter, and once Watson recognises the sincerity – not to mention the enticing mystery of what’s really wrong with the kid, which takes a few twists and turns – he’s more than willing to help.
Adams and Shinwell happen to be out of the building running an errand when this goes down, so they’re sidelined for the majority of the episode, although they help to investigate the medical side of things all the same. Shinwell even has a nice moment after the situation has peacefully resolved, where he’s beating himself up about not being at Watson’s side to protect him. Shinwell is by far the most consistently characterised figure in the supporting cast, which shouldn’t go unmentioned.
The only real misstep that Watson Season 2, Episode 8 makes is weaving in Ingrid’s ongoing subplot with her weird therapy buddy, Beck. For contrived reasons, Beck is present in the clinic when Fitz arrives, so he’s caught up in the situation, and even when given the opportunity to leave, he nonetheless decides to stay and play the hero. And that is explicitly his intention. He says it aloud multiple times, and just when the situation is being negotiated, he attacks and stabs Fitz with a pair of scissors, almost killing everyone and making a profound fool of himself.
Not that he sees it that way, obviously. He’s totally fixated on the idea that he has achieved heroic status for his actions, which is so evidently not the case that there’s very little surprise this dude needs therapy. Sasha cottons on to his weirdness immediately, and even confronts him about it, and Ingrid seems a bit put off by his rash behaviour and delusion.
But not that put off, since at the end of the episode she turns up at his place to sleep with him, very turned on by the idea of him being the hero he thinks he is. Odd. Odder still is that his clashes with Sasha have inspired him to look her up, suggesting that he’s clearly intending to target her in some fashion going forward. Maybe re-hiring Ingrid wasn’t such a good idea after all.
