Watson episode 2 recap: Shinwell’s poison causes Watson to collapse

Watson episode 3, “Wait for the Punchline,” opens at a comedy club in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh. As Molly Jones (Djouliet Amara) prepares to go on stage to perform, she loses her pills. She then jokes about anxiety and big pharma, but as she starts to tell a joke about her mother she becomes overwhelmed, then faints on stage.

Was this just a dizzy spell? Or is there a very dark reason for Molly’s collapse? Obviously the latter is the answer. Take a look below to find out how John Watson (Morris Chestnut) discovers Molly’s issue below, with our recap of Watson episode 3, “Wait for the Punchline.”

Watson’s condition worsens

Since his brain injury Watson has suffered from insomnia, migraines, and his heart rate has increased. Words have also started to jumble. He can’t understand why his symptoms are getting worse.

Even when he stands up, Watson loses his footing. Watson tells Shinwell Johnson (Ritchie Coster) he is just adapting to his new medication. He then asks him for a different type of medicine.

Even while treating Molly, Watson stumbles. Then later he collapses and smashes his head on the floor. Watson is taken to the emergency room. When he wakes up he tells Molly that when people ask what happened, she needs to tell them that he slipped on water, rather than collapsed.

Later, after spotting Sasha (Inga Schlingmann)’s engagement ring, he mistakenly believes that her fingers are webbed like Moriarty (Randall Park). Watson also thinks he’s seeing Sherlock Holmes. Later, he tells Shinwell that he keeps seeing Sherlock and signs of Moriarty and admits he doesn’t know what’s happening to him.

Watson nearly collapses again in front of the other doctors. Amongst themselves they say he shouldn’t be working. But only Ingrid (Eve Harlow), as Watson’s doctor, can force him to stop.

Since Watson isn’t opening up about what he’s going through, Shinwell also threatens to tell Mary Morstan (Rochelle Aytes) that Watson is no longer capable of being a doctor.

Ingrid finally tells Watson she knows he’s lying about his injuries. Ingrid threatens to have Watson escorted from the building if he doesn’t go home.

Eventually Watson stays out of the office for a week. But Ingrid still says she’s going to figure out whether he slipped on water, or actually collapsed and made his brain injury worse.

Stephens is still mad at Adam

Adam (Peter Mark Kendall) asks Stephens (Peter Mark Kendall) over for dinner. But since Adam is dating Stephens’ ex-fiancee, Stephens isn’t interested. Stephens says he’s already dating someone. Stephens later says that even though he didn’t stop Adam from dating his ex-fiancee, it doesn’t mean he’s happy with it.

Shinwell keeps poisoning Watson

Shinwell meets with Moriarty’s crony. Shinwell asks if Moriarty wants Watson dead, why doesn’t he just get on with it and why does he have to be involved? Shinwell says the pills are debilitating Watson. She tells Shinwell to carry on giving them to him.

Moriarty’s crony warns Shinwell that if he doesn’t keep replacing Watson’s pills, Moriarty will kill the people who raised Shinwell.

What’s wrong with Molly?

Molly Jones visits Watson. While he doesn’t usually take walk-ins, Watson is fascinated by her red hair. He says that Molly has to join the red-headed league, a long-term study. Watson explains that the genes that gave Molly her red hair also mean that she requires more anesthesia.

Molly has been told that she has epilepsy. But she doesn’t believe the diagnosis. She tells Watson that both her parents are dead, one from cancer, the other from a car crash. Watson believes that Molly lied about how her parents died. They need to find out if the fall caused the seizure, or if the seizure caused the fall.

Stephens and Adam can’t find anything on Molly’s parents. But then they discover that Molly Jones changed her name from Linda Mancini. In 2002, her mother Felicia Mancini went to jail for drowning her son and daughter, and has been in jail for 23 years. Molly was the only survivor.

When Watson approaches Molly about her real history, she tries to leave. Eventually she reveals that her father died of cirrhosis of the liver. As she tells Watson this, she feels ill and then collapses into a seizure. Watson deciphers the seizures are brought on by stress.

Watson solves two cases with one look

Watson, Stephens, and Adam will go to speak to Felicia Mancini in prison. On the way, Watson says he sees holes in Felicia’s story regarding the death of her kids, who she apparently drowned in a bathtub.

They meet with Felicia. After just one look at Felicia, Watson knows what’s wrong with her. More than that, Watson says he doesn’t believe that Felicia killed her kids. After looking at her eyes, nose, and ears, Watson surmises that Felicia has a depressed nasal bridge, which suggests she has Long QT syndrome. This is a rare condition that affects the heart's rhythm and can cause sudden death in children and adults. Molly also has it, but she’s been blocking it with beta blockers.

Watson tells Felicia that her son and daughter were literally capable of being scared to death. After Felicia told them that she would eat them up, they believed her and died in the bathtub.

Watson looks to exonerate Felicia. He visits the coroner who did the autopsy on Felicia’s twins and says this is his chance to right his biggest wrong. The coroner admits that even though the evidence didn’t suggest the kids were drowned by Felicia, as they had such little water in their lungs, he was put under pressure to say she murdered them as there was no other credible reason for what happened.

While it might take time, Watson is confident that there’s enough for Felicia to be freed.

Molly goes into the clinic and finds dozens of letters to her that Felicia tried to send over the years. Watson explains to Molly that she has Long QT syndrome. When Molly realizes that her mother might have been in jail for 23 years for something she didn’t do, she has a seizure.

Molly undergoes emergency surgery, in which she’s implanted with an Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator that solves her Long QT syndrome.

Molly goes to see Felicia in prison for the first time in 23 years. She asks Watson to come with her for support. Felicia and Molly cry and hug as Watson watches on. He smiles, reminded of why he endures so much personal pain: so he can help others.

New episodes of Watson air Sundays on CBS, then are available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.