When CBS opted not to renew Watson for a third season and revealed that the show’s season 2 finale would serve as a series finale, we knew this wasn’t likely to end well.
As is often the case, when writers don’t have advance notice that their show will be coming to an end, they’re unable to craft a story that brings the show to an end with the level of closure fans deserve. Instead, they approach the finales in a manner they normally would which often leads to season-ending cliffhangers designed to keep the audience talking through the offseason and lay the foundation for the next season.
Sometimes, if a show’s creative team anticipates they’re not going to be coming back, we’ll see the show craft a season finale that could double as a series finale. However, more often than not, shows canceled without notice, such as Watson, don’t tend to get a proper ending. So when CBS announced that it had canceled Watson with just a few episodes left in its run, we immediately began to fear the worst.
Given the show was on the bubble in its first season, we had some hope that perhaps the writers would avoid taking any big swings in its season 2 finale. However, that does not appear to be the case.
CBS has revealed the season 2 finale information for Watson, and it seems that the show’s unplanned series finale is going to end with some unresolved storylines.
The Watson series finale, titled “The Cobalt Fissure,” will see a murder occurring outside of UHOP that at first seems random but quickly evolves into a bigger mystery. As the synopsis hints, this seemingly random murder sets the stage for the arrival of someone from Sherlock and Watson’s past. That’s the extent of what CBS chose to tease upfront about the series finale, but the synopsis information seems to hint that season 2 will end with a major arrival that will likely end with a potentially major cliffhanger that will sadly not be resolved.
Given the way the series finale’s synopsis is framed, it’s unclear whether the identity of this mysterious individual from Sherlock and Watson’s past will be revealed early or midway through the episode or if their arrival will come at the very end of the episode. If it’s the latter, that will be a truly unfortunate sendoff for the fans as we know there will be no resolution to any cliffhangers the finale sets up.
It’s a shame the show will be coming to an end after just two seasons, and even more unfortunate that the fans who have invested in the show will be left with a potentially massive cliffhanger. All we can hope for is that the show’s creative team will provide us with some closure in post-mortem interviews to help shine a light on where season 3 would have taken things.
