Warning: spoilers are ahead for Episode 3 of Watson Season 2 on CBS, called “Expletive Deleted” (for good reason) and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Dr. John Watson and Co. had a new case of the week with “Expletive Deleted,” but that doesn’t mean the doctor-detective is just moving on from his reunion with the one and only Sherlock Holmes in the previous episode of Watson. In an episode that also managed to include F-bombs (sort of) on CBS, there was something surreal about the storyline that would have made me wonder if perhaps the whole encounter with Sherlock only happened in John’s mind and something was very wrong with him medically.
After all, Sherlock’s first episode in Season 1 was a hallucination. That said, comments from actor Robert Carlyle have me convinced that the Sherlock who appeared to help John solve a medical mystery last week did so alive and in the flesh, which raises interesting questions as the fall of the 2025 TV schedule continues. But first things first!
The Case Of The Week: “Expletive Deleted”
It was clear pretty early on that a bit of time passed since Sherlock left John once again, but the good doctor didn’t have too many spare minutes to dwell on The Pittsburgh Mystery once the case kicked off. He didn't even seem to clock that his behavior tipped Shinwell off that something was amiss. The patient of the week was Max, a 30-year-old woman who looked exactly like a 10-year-old girl and just wanted to die rather than keep on being treated like a child.
I did get a laugh at the very end out of the fact that she was ultimately diagnosed with lupus. Although lupus obviously isn’t funny, House – another show inspired by Sherlock Holmes characters – famously dismissed that diagnosis so many times that it became a running joke. What would Gregory House say to this episode of Watson?
The running joke of this episode was that Max tended to use language that 1) went towards proving that she was not just 10 years old and 2) was not allowed on CBS. The solution? Bleep out the non-network-TV-approved words and obscure the syllables even being formed, with a photo of what I have to assume is an old-timey portrait of the literary John Watson from Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Take a look at when Watson himself dropped the F-bomb:
Fortunately, Max’s story was wrapped up by the end of the episode to keep with the show’s usual procedural nature. This was also Ingrid’s first case back with the team, and a rare appearance of Mary Morstan scrubbed up for surgery, so there was a lot going on. Ingrid and Sasha seem to be on the road to repairing their friendship so long as she doesn’t give her fellow doctor reason to distrust her again, and Stephens was open to hearing her diagnosis of him despite Ingrid indirectly almost causing his death.
Something has just been a bit off with John lately, according to the lovely Laila, and combined with him not mentioning Sherlock faking his death and his audio hallucination of his friend in Season 1, there would be reasons to worry that we were starting to see symptoms that something is seriously wrong with the good doctor. I’m not worried that Sherlock isn’t real, however, thanks to what Robert Carlyle told CinemaBlend about his new character.
What Robert Carlyle Says About John And Sherlock
Sherlock’s brief “appearance” in Season 1 was actually just his voice, which was provided by What We Do In The Shadows’ Matt Berry before Robert Caryle was cast for Season 2. The audio hallucination was also prompted by Moriarty forcing Shinwell to mess with John’s medications, so there’s not actually a precedent for John to hallucinate Sherlock without being under the influence of drugs.
But Laila was asleep during John and Sherlock’s whole conversation in Episode 2, and he’s seemingly keeping his best friend’s return to the world of the living a secret from all of his loved ones. Shinwell seems to at least be catching on after spotting “The Pittsburgh Mystery” written on John’s window. When I spoke with Robert Carlyle ahead of his first full episode of Watson, the Once Upon a Time vet shared that “as far I'm concerned, as far as Watson's concerned, [Sherlock] is real” and referred to “the flesh and blood of Sherlock.”
That certainly sounds to me like an actor commenting on his very much alive character, rather than a hallucination! Robert Carlyle went on to weigh in on his incarnation of Sherlock Holmes, as created by Watson showrunner (and Elementary executive producer) Craig Sweeny. He said:
Speaking to Craig Sweeny, the creator, because he's done the Sherlock thing before with Elementary. He's been down that kind of road, and he didn't really want to bring Sherlock into the Watson world. [laughs] But I think he realized that they're like Laurel and Hardy. They're Abbott and Costello. They're just Sherlock and Watson. They're a team, and I think he realized that he could do it in a different way that doesn't have to be them side by side, solving stuff, solving, solving, solving. There can be other ways of doing that, other ways to make that relationship work, and I think he's done that really brilliantly in the four or five episodes that I've shot so far.
While Watson has only aired one full episode with Robert Carlyle as Sherlock Holmes so far, there’s been enough to say with confidence that Morris Chestnut’s John to Carlyle’s Sherlock on Watson is very different from Johnny Lee Miller’s Sherlock and Lucy Liu’s Joan on Elementary!
Carlyle went on to reiterate that “the show is called Watson” and is “100% Watson and Watson-centric,” so Sherlock’s arrival doesn’t mean that he’s going to become the co-lead of the show or steal the spotlight. He explained:
I think that Sherlock just gives it that little extra something. I think it just gives the show a little bit more. It gives Watson someone to bounce ideas off of... This is quite interesting, I think. It's almost like, for Watson and Sherlock, it's a bit like looking in the mirror. It's like [each] seeing some parts of his self, if that makes sense. And I think that kind of dynamic is what plays throughout, so far as those questions that Watson's asking Sherlock. Is he asking himself those questions as well? So it's wonderful. It's a mystery. This Watson/Sherlock relationship is a mystery in the same way as a Sherlock Holmes mystery would be.
Did Robert Carlyle come right out and state that it’s 100% absolute fact that his character is real, alive, and in the flesh as opposed to a hallucination? Maybe not, and I’ll never doubt this show’s ability to deliver a twist after the lovable Randall Park was revealed as the despicable Moriarty. Still, there are enough pieces that don’t quite fit with this version of Sherlock being imaginary, on top of Carlyle’s comments.
Of course, based on the promo for the upcoming fourth episode of Season 2, the whole team may soon have much more pressing issues than whatever is (or isn’t) happening with Sherlock Holmes. Take a look:
Keep tuning in to CBS on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET for new episodes of Watson. Whatever your opinion on how the drama incorporated F-bombs for “Expletive Deleted,” it’s a safe bet that it won't be a weekly occurrence. As for when Sherlock will be back… well, only time will tell, but Robert Carlyle made it clear that he’ll definitely be in several more episodes. You can also check out Watson streaming via Paramount+.
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