Watson Season 2 Episode 10 Review: Love, DNA Hacking, and a Devastating Medical Twist
- Barbara
- 5 hours ago
- 8 min read
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) Gone Horribly Wrong
Hobie McSorley, the Man with the Glowing Chest, is chatting with the bartender, Jenna, in a Philadelphia hotel, as he waits for his date. He mentions and shows Jenna his glowing chest. He brags about how he gave himself a CRISPR treatment that hacked his DNA which caused his chest to glow. He eagerly tells her DNA can be hacked to make the body better. She asks why someone would do that, and he finally tells her the truth. His personal problems and boredom led him to do something so drastic. Jenna’s trying not to freak out, and tells him about someone earlier who had a fork stuck to her fingers. Hobie says it was someone with Neodymium magnetic implants, the same community, just a body modification. That’s not a gene hack. Jenna questions the legality. Hobie sidesteps the issue just as his date, Wendy, arrives.
They awkwardly introduce themselves and Wendy suggests they go to her hotel room. She shows him a neat trick of magnetism, completely fascinating him. They get to the room and it’s decorated with red and white balloons. Wendy was happy to meet him and learn more about his genome hacking. They tell each other they love each other, and Hobie injects them both with hacked DNA serum. His arm starts showing a glowing heart. They await Wendy’s matching glowing heart, but she begins to have a reaction.
The Fellows Have Limits
At that time, Shinwell interrupts Dr John Watson’s ten minutes of rest in his office. The Fellows need his help with performing a transplant. “The transplant” involves picking up snot and placing it in the fridge. Ingrid, Adam, Stephens and Sasha all stand in the lab looking at an Erlenmeyer flask of snot with uneasiness. Nobody wants to do it. A patient, Laine Sudow, with chronic serious sinus infections will have her bad snot swapped out with the good snot in the flask. Someone needs to preserve the specimen. Nobody volunteers. An exasperated Sasha grabs the flask and pours it into the beaker. Science at work is no glamorous job. This scene was a good one that showed how even the brilliant Fellows had lines they wouldn’t cross for science.
John leaves the lab to find somewhere to think in peace. Mary catches him in the hallway and asks him for a favor. She’s getting honored by the Deltas, and needs someone to introduce her at the ceremony. He agrees. Their witty, teasing, friendly chatter was playful. These two were developing an easy rapport. John had a chance to bow out when Dr. Kim said she would do the speech. He refuses and assures Mary he will give her the John Watson special.
Sherlock Returns
John Watson finally finds somewhere he can think in peace at the clinic, the old abandoned wing of the clinic. He sees some writing on a wall that wasn’t there before, and hears a person moan. He checks it out and it's a sleeping Sherlock on the floor. Sherlock wakes surprised to see Watson. He asks him why he’s sleeping there. Sherlock tells him about a secret he discovered about the walls of the room. He tells him about public murals that were commissioned by the government to keep people working during the Great Depression. There’s a mural by one of the great artists of the day on one of the walls of the abandoned clinic room. Watson instinctively checks Sherlock out by using his unusual ability to quickly analyze a problem in a person’s behavior and appearance. With just a look. He notices that Sherlock is favoring his right arm and repeating himself. Watson is about to take Sherlock back to his office for a detailed exam when gets a frantic call from Hobie.
CRISPR Catastrophe Mystery
Hobie tells him about Wendy and they were doing a CRISPR mod together. He tells Watson he’s in love with Wendy Goss, but thinks he just killed her. Wendy’s lying on the bed unconscious. What a thrilling way to introduce the latest episode.
The EMTs get Wendy to the UHOP ER. Hobie is terrified as he accompanies the EMTs and tries to tell Watson what happened. Hobie says he worked up a love mod to share with Wendy. It’s supposed to glow only when they are in love. Watson questions how that could be if Hobie just met Wendy. The glow is triggered by oxytocin, love hormones. The heart shape glows using Hobie’s gene cassette, like a tattoo, instead of ink. He mailed Wendy the serum, the injection at the hotel was just a booster. Watson asks for a sample of the serum, the booster and full schematic. He tells Hobie the truth, that even he may not be able to fix this. Hobie finally realizes he may be in trouble.
Watson presents the case of Wendy Goss/The Love Mod to Shinwell and the Fellows. He tells them she’s in the ICU with hemolytic anemia and her red cells are popping. Her kidneys are unaffected. He asks them to help find the cause. Brainstorming begins. Shinwell says it’s the tattoos. Watson says he didn’t mean the karma cause, but is looking for the medical cause. Stephens suggests it’s an infection, Sasha says it could be an immune-driven food allergy. Of course, Ingrid points out that Wendy mainlined a CRISPR cocktail, and they are worried about food allergies. Watson points out they need to consider everything. Wendy is a biohacker experimenting with implants and mechanical additions. This is her first time hacking her own genome. Watson devises a game plan and assigns teams and tasks. Sasha and Stephens get the lab and Ingrid and Adam get field work. Watson emphasizes they inspect the sequence targeted by the mod.
Uncle Jun Died
Detective Lestrade suddenly appears in the office to see Sasha. She informs her that Uncle Jun is dead. He was found at home alone. Sasha tells Lestrade about her connection. Detective Lestrade tells her it’s not her fault and will let her know what she learns.
Investigative Research and Field Work Continues
Watson later goes to see Hobie and Wendy in the ICU. He updates Hobie on Wendy’s condition, and asks about other body mods she may have. Hobie tells all he knows. Watson notices her anemia is worsening. Hobie tells him not to tell him who he can love.
Ingrid and Adam get to Wendy’s hotel room to search for anything that provides a clue to her condition. Ingrid decides to share some personal information about her and Beck. Adam gives his opinion. Adam clarifies things for her and offers some advice. He continues searching for clues and finds “chikken” in her hotel fridge. He texts Watson the ingredients. Watson reviews the data that night at home.
Sherlock is sleeping on his sofa having a nightmare. He wakes him. He asks Holmes what’s really happening to him. Holmes says he’s been thinking about dying. He believes someone, somewhere will be murdered at the exact time of his death. Now that’s something to think about. He feels he hasn’t changed anything to prevent that. Watson disagrees. He wants to show people something beautiful that can commemorate him after he’s passed. Watson notices Sherlock’s odd pulling of his shirt cuff on the right hand again with his left hand. He’s not wearing a shirt with cuffs. He tells Sherlock it’s a symptom of something that needs to be checked. His friend won’t listen. They are interrupted with a call from Hobie.
Wendy’s peeing blood. Hobie’s freaking out. Watson tells Sherlock he thinks his patient’s kidneys are failing. Watson gets to hospital and tells Wendy her kidneys are failing. Hobie helps her. Watson tells her they need to find out the issue. Wendy says she consented to the CRISPR, and that what’s happening to her is not Hobie’s fault.
Science and Medicine Coordinating Perfectly
Ingrid updates Watson on their findings in Wendy’s hotel room. They really are working these scenes so well together. Watson getting updates, field work findings being reported, the lab sampling progress. All coordinated in perfect unison, like science does. Watson gives more tasks to help solve the case. He asks Ingrid to return to the office.
In the meantime, Stephens checks to ensure Sasha is really doing fine, after learning of Uncle Jun’s death. He tells her that she was kinder to Jun than he deserved. Sasha’s concerned because Jun worked for one of those international adoption agencies run by the Chinese government. She got an email from someone Jun gave her contact information. She showed it to Stephens, and Sasha is unsure but thinks it’s from her birth Mom.
Back in Watson’s office, Ingrid reviews Watson’s findings. He needed a second opinion, and Ingrid came to the same conclusion. He says he identified an erratic pattern in a friend’s behavior. Ingrid recognizes something that may be complex partial seizures. She sees the repetitive movements as “meaningless reaching”. Ingrid says he could have a brain tumor and needs to see her now. Did not realize they were discussing Sherlock until the repetitive movements were mentioned.
Stephens and Sasha interrupt them and show Watson their findings on Wendy in the lab. They show him Wendy Goss’ karyotype. The chromosomes are fractured. They theorize on the cause. CRISPR is the only possible cause of the chromosome shredding. Watson realizes Wendy lied, and has used CRISPR before. He confronts Wendy and she confirms it. She hacked her genes before, but didn’t want Hobie to know. She placed three extra olfactory subvariants in her OR3A subfamily, enhancing her sense of smell, about a year ago. She wanted to see what the world is like for her cats. Watson tells her his job is to find out why the CRISPR damage from a year ago has her in the ICU.
A Fava Bean Solves a Medical and Biological Mystery
Adam interrupts and asks Watson about the chikken sample they found in Wendy’s hotel room. He heard about the karyotype and told him the protein is made from fava beans.
Who painted a mural on the abandoned clinic wall?
What’s a “love mod”?
What’s Detective Lestrade’s nickname for Dr. Watson?
What’s a death of despair?
Why is fava beans an ingredient of importance in Wendy’s case?
When is a G6PD deficiency triggered?
How is it identified?
Does Sasha answer the email?
Who is Sasha really emailing?
Does Wendy finally get her glowing heart?
Watson and the Fellows meet in the conference room to discuss the latest findings. The twins' friendly combative tone is evident when they joke about Adam finding the cause. Watson devises a prognosis from their collective findings, and renders a cure that helps Wendy live a long life with proper medication and avoidance of fava beans in her diet. They realize the antibiotics are preventing her condition from improving. Watson assigns new tasks that will help Wendy’s health improve.
Hearts Broken and Sad Conclusions
Ingrid tells Adam she’s taking his advice about Beck and why. Ingrid tells Beck she doesn’t want to see him again.
Watson finds Ingrid, but an alarm goes off in Wendy’s room. They rush to see her. She’s convulsing. They deduce Hobie caused Wendy’s reaction, and it’s not good for Hobie and Wendy, until it is. Hobie sacrifices all for Wendy, and shows her he got rid of his chest glow for her and true love. Hobie later gives Watson some very good advice, and Watson follows it. Is it too late?
Watson tells Sherlock he’s ill and asks him to see a neurologist. He leaves him in a private room and goes to find Ingrid. That was a mistake. Sherlock disappears but leaves a message. Watson tells Shinwell Sherlock’s alive but he’s sick. He asks him for help finding him.
This was a lesson in what people will do for love. There were three stories interwoven which arrived at different heartwarming, heartbreaking, questionable and surprising conclusions. Watson, Shinwell and the Fellows were exceptional in science, medical and lab work investigations. This episode was packed with some bizarre twists and just when you thought it settled down, there was something new to upset everything. Glad to see Watson and Mary together, but it looks like Mary has moved on. Great having Sherlock back, but it was fleeting and he’s seriously ill. This was a striking, intriguing, sometimes frustrating and sometimes happy episode. One thing missed was a final closure on Uncle Juno from Detective Lestrade. Also, I think Sasha should have told Lestrade about the email she received. There were two cliffhangers left unanswered. We won’t see them addressed until the show returns next year, Sunday, March 1, 2026. I found this episode very entertaining and give it 5 Stars out of 5.
What did you think?
Loved it
Hated it
So/So