A Sherlockian Conspiracy: What If 'Watson' Isn't Real?

Brace yourselves, crackpot theory incoming.

Based solely on the pilot episode of CBS’ new medical mystery procedural, Watson, I think it’s entirely possible that John Hamish Watson doesn’t actually exist. Hear me out.

The show picks up immediately following the events at Reichenbach Falls. Holmes and Moriarty went over the falls together, and Watson went in after them. He is presumed to be the only survivor when he wakes up in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. He’s informed by Holmes’s man, Shinwell Johnson, that Sherlock bequeathed him money to open The Holmes Clinic of Diagnostic Medicine. And off Watson goes, back to Pittsburgh to establish the greatest lab in the country.

But, as fans of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories know, Holmes’s death at Reichenbach Falls was a ruse (132-year-old spoilers?), and he survived. In Watson, it’s revealed by the end of the pilot that Moriarty survived the falls, so it feels safe to assume that Sherlock did as well.

At first, I thought, “Well, they’re probably going to throw us a bunch of breadcrumbs or maybe red herrings, and then Sherlock will appear in an episode.” Then I thought the Shinwell Johnson character was going to be him in costume. But I finally decided Shinwell is just an Irregular, and realized that this version of John Watson is decidedly un-Watson-like. He exhibits a lot of the personality traits usually ascribed to Holmes and even uses the catchphrase “The game is afoot.”

Where Watson is usually the more personable of the pair, this Watson is offputting in his bluntness. He falls into stream-of-consciousness explanations and has a terrible bedside manner. While he hasn’t yet picked up a violin or a pipe, even the character’s ex-wife notices his Un-Watson-like behavior and calls him out on being changed by his time with Holmes.

I think they’re setting us up for Watson to be a fever dream or coma hallucination of Holmes while he recovers from injuries he got going over the falls. And in the end, it will be revealed that Morris Chestnut is actually the world’s greatest detective instead of the world’s greatest diagnostician. Six of one, half a dozen of the other with those two titles though.

Why else would this show exist if it’s not for some wacky twist ending? Modern-day Holmes and Watson fiction is nothing new. And I would argue a Watson who deserved their own show already exists and her name is Lucy Liu. The theme music for Watson is even eerily similar to the main theme of Elementary. It’s just begging for comparison.

The setups for Watson and NBC’s Brilliant Minds are aggressively alike. Offputting, genius older doctor mentors a diverse group of younger doctors in a niche medical field that allows them to treat patients like mysteries to be solved instead of like people.

It also borrows a convenient plot point from Doc with both main characters suffering some level of amnesia (Watson can’t remember anything leading up to or immediately following Reichenbach Falls. Which I think lends more credence to my crackpot theory.)

The one thing Watson has going for it is Morris Chestnut. He’s incredibly good-looking and an engaging actor to watch. I do not mind him being on my screens once a week. It’s been a long time since he last led a TV show. And Rosewood was also a medical mystery show. Most recently he had a run of episodes on The Resident and Reasonable Doubt. But Watson is Chestnut’s show for better or worse. They’re going to need a gimmick, besides the excellent and unexpected casting of Moriarty, to keep it going and make it stand out from the other Sherlock Holmes-coded shows out there. I am available for the writers’ room if you need me, Morris!

The Watson pilot is streaming on Paramount+ and new episodes begin airing on February 16th.