Watson Season 2 Episode 4 Recap: Storms, Secrets & a Deadly Outbreak at UHOP

Watson is listening to music on the UHOP roof just as a storm begins to roll in.  Adam, Ingrid and Sasha find him there and give him an update on a patient. They all get an alert on their cells stating the storm may become a tornado. Inside, Shinwell has a slight confrontation with his  nurse preceptor, Nurse Carlin DaCosta. She’s making sure her student nurses get some rest. Shinwell tells her he’s gotten some, here and there. She tells him to let her know if he needs to get some rest. Shinwell assures her he will. He changes the subject by asking her what the word “yinz” means. He’s heard some others use it, and wants to know how to tell if someone is using it in quotation marks, or if as a word they use it as a normal word.

Nurse Carlin DaCosta tells him it’s like jazz for Pittsburghers. If you’re listening to jazz and you need to ask when the downbeat is, you need to listen to more jazz. Someone in a room calls for Nurse Johnson. Shinwell recognizes the voice and goes to see the patient. Shinwell asks him why he’s back, he thought he was discharged. Ben is the patient, and he tells Shinwell his shin is a bit gnarly, so his Mom brought him back. Shinwell is really interested in that word “yinz”, and asks Ben about it. Ben asks him if he’s going downtown and doesn’t really give him a straight answer. Shinwell sees Ben favor his shin as he moves to sit up in the bed. He can see it hurts. Shinwell checks Ben’s shin and it doesn’t look well.

Later, Shinwell hears a patient at the nurse’s station using the word "yinz" in a sentence, as she asks for assistance. She has cut herself shaving, and it’s not getting better. The cut is now grayish black. 

Shinwell and Carlin help another patient in another room. The patient is wearing a yellow tee-shirt with the word “yinz” printed on it. Shinwell checked a cut on the back of his neck. It doesn’t look good.  Shinwell tells Nurse Carlin about the similarity of cuts on three different patients. She is frustrated because they are short staffed, and doesn’t have time to listen to him. She walks off.

Shinwell goes to see Watson and the fellows. He’s unsure about bringing them the information on the patients’ cuts. He shows them two patients' pictures of their cuts, and the fellows immediately spring into action.  Shinwell doesn’t know what’s happening, and Watson explains to him he did the right thing. All Shinwell hears is “debridement and lose his leg”.  He starts to panic. Watson points out that the black tissue surrounding the wounds is dead. If left as is, the necrosis would continue to spread. Watson tells him he might have uncovered a flesh-eating bacteria outbreak at UHOP.  A mysterious outbreak is Watson and the fellows newest mystery to solve. 

Mary's up on the roof looking out at the sky, and listening to music. Shinwell finds her there and apologizes for interrupting. He tells her that Dr. Watson needs to see her. Marie goes to see Watson. He updates her on the outbreak. There are now four patients with the same tissue necrosis. All four patients need debridement treatment. They are doing blood cultures and administering antibiotics to all affected patients. Mary asks Watson how it happened and where it started. The cases vary, and the fellows are currently speaking with the patients to get more information. 

Ben gets some bad news from Adam Croft. He tells him they need to remove part of his shin. Ben’s a basketball player and has hopes of becoming a professional player. Adam can’t tell him how much material will be removed.  Ingrid tells the patient with a cut on her thigh, Frankie, about the debridement that needs to be done. Ingrid looks at the wound and it looks bad.

Mary and Watson continue to brainstorm in the conference room. Mary says they do have one staffer that’s been in contact with all four patients. It’s Shinwell.  Nurse Carlin DaCosta collects a swab of saliva to test in the lab. Mary tells Shinwell they will be able to test his sample against the four patients’ samples to determine if he’s the carrier for the bacteria causing the fasciitis. Nurse Carlin jokes that Shinwell is the world’s oldest nursing student, and it  only makes sense he’s spreading death and decay. Shinwell is not amused. Mary sidelines him until further notice.

The Croft brothers have a little time to relax in their office and joke about cake tasting when everything hits the fan. Sasha and Ingrid return to the office stating the debridement treatment isn't working, and Adam is worried he has to surgically remove more of Ben's shin. Watson gets there telling them the outbreak didn’t start at UHOP, but at Van Kirk Memorial, another hospital that had two cases there. He says someone died at AGH, another hospital. He’s headed to ground zero of the outbreak. Adam drives Watson to an area where Ortiz and Ben frequent only a few miles apart. 

This is getting intense and no one knows exactly how to fix this outbreak. Scary to see how quickly the outbreak happened. They do field work and look for the cause. Watson identifies it and notifies Mary. She tells him Ben’s in surgery now for more debridement. Watson tells her not to amputate his leg. They have to change the patients’ treatment. Hope they can save Ben’s leg.  The maddening and swift pace that things are happening is insane, but can’t stop watching to see how they solve this mystery. The patients were misdiagnosed, and the course of treatment has to be changed. In the midst of all this, Adam gets some unexpected news from Lauren.  He shares how overwhelmed he is with his brother. Shinwell is upset about Ben’s future. Nurse DaCosta says he needs him to talk to him.

Another patient, Frankie, is not responding to the new treatment.  The prognosis for one of the four patients is not responding properly.  Sequencing of DNA needs to be done. More medical testing and science gets done to solve this new mystery. More field work is done by Sasha and Ingrid.  Shinwell is having doubts about being a nurse, but Watson gives him encouragement. A secret is uncovered about one of the patients, involving mitochondrial replacement therapy. The fellows are curious about Ingrid's sudden change of hair color.  Sasha thinks Ingrid’s doing a psych experiment on her.  

Lots happening in this medical mystery drama episode. Interesting how the writers were able to intertwine the mini-storylines and uncover more, while staying consistent with the underlying story that makes the show unique, investigating and resolving medical mysteries. They also added more to the story making Shinwell the consistent point of the story.

Interesting how they also showed how doctors get a diagnosis wrong because they are quickly responding to the symptoms to save patients’ lives. This episode was a whirlwind of mystery, heartbreaking sadness, surprising and funny moments. Like how the fellows and Watson have gotten closer and are more like a family, even with the return of Ingrid.  Liked Watson’s aunt’s description of a guinea pig, too. Adam has a crisis, and Shinwell and Nurse Carlin have a heart-to-heart discussion. He supports Ben, surprising how Shinwell has changed.

Tornadoes and storms are an underlying theme of this episode that affects the patients’ lives, and also remind Mary and John of happier times. This was such a good episode with hints of a possible new relationship, and the change of another.  Watson narrating how storms and rains bring life changes was a great way to end this episode. A new character is also introduced. It was so good. 

I gave this episode 4.9 out of 5 Stars. 

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