The once-thought-to-be-dead Sherlock Holmes is back on *Watson*, and Robert Carlyle spoke to PopCulture.com about what the return means. After popping up at the end of the Season 2 premiere, Carlyle’s famed detective is here to stay.
In the appropriately titled episode, “Back from the Dead,” airing on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, a microbiology university researcher returns from an expedition to Siberia. She and her team members fall ill from a possible revived pathogen or “zombie virus.” Meanwhile, Watson catches up with his friend Sherlock Holmes after finding out he is alive, and Ingrid unexpectedly finds herself on the team’s floor.
It was announced in July that Carlyle would be playing Sherlock Holmes, which came as a surprise given the series was built on the premise that Sherlock is dead at the hands of Moriarty. Morris Chestnut’s titular character resumes his medical practice by opening a clinic in Sherlock’s honor.
The *Once Upon a Time* actor revealed that Sherlock’s return is only the beginning.
“I think that the relationship as it progresses through the season between Watson and Sherlock is a bit like a Sherlock Holmes mystery in itself,” Carlyle explained. “But it’s full of questions. It kind of throws up more questions than answers. Just when you think you figured it out, something else happens, and you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe it wasn’t that.’ So, I mean, again, I genuinely don’t know what’s gonna happen anytime through Episode 20.”
“At the moment, I think this relationship is lovely,” he continued. “It’s what I’ve been saying earlier. I think it’s a good thing to talk about. I think Sherlock is almost like a mirror for Watson. He’s stretching away. I think he sees a lot of himself. He sees a lot of what’s going on in his mind and Sherlock’s mind. So this kind of cerebral relationship continues through the season.”
Since the only things fans know about this Sherlock are what Watson has revealed, there is no telling what that dynamic is like and how things have evolved over these months.
When it came to building and exploring the dynamic between Sherlock and Watson, as well as his relationship with Morris Chestnut, Carlyle admitted that “American TV is so quick. It’s like a machine.”
He continued, “And there’s never been any time by anything. And certainly not rehearsals or anything like that. So you’re really hoping in any show, but particularly something with this relationship with this, that you’re gonna be lucky enough to throw a double six.”
“With Morris, he’s such a lovely, beautiful, beautiful man,” Carlyle said. “Lovely, lovely guy. He made me feel so welcome, so kind, and it put me at ease very, very quickly. And as the season has progressed — we’re in Episode 10 at the moment — the relationship just gets better and better both with Sherlock and Watson, with myself and Morris. Great friends, we love working with each other.”
Meanwhile, Sherlock’s return comes just after Watson purposely killed Moriarty (played by Randall Park), who Watson believed killed Sherlock in the Season 1 finale. Star Peter Mark Kendall, who plays twins Adam and Stephens Croft, told PopCulture.com that Watson’s decision will “greatly” affect him.
Carlyle revealed that the storyline won’t be resolved any time soon, but there is still a lot to look forward to.
“That’s still out there. I think that when Sherlock tells his story about what had happened, I think it’s an interesting little thing because it was like he had it all wrapped up,” Carlyle explained. “He was gonna do this. He’d set it up. Those two were gonna go there. He was gonna vanish off in the horizon. No one was gonna hear Sherlock ever again. And then, of course, with Watson turning up, it changes everything for both of them forevermore.”
“So I think that is an issue. But, hopefully, that resolves itself to the good, but it’s not a bad thing in the end,” he shared. “Sherlock and Watson, it’s a little unhappy. It’s like Abbott and Costello. They’re together. It’s very difficult to see them not being together. So they will continue through the path. And hopefully, Sherlock can help Watson in terms of… he can bounce things off him. He has a mind that Watson respects more than anyone else in the show, probably. So he can always go to him to kind of talk about stuff that maybe he can’t talk about to the others.”
Sherlock Holmes’ surprise return will bring some complications, but it sounds like it will also be fascinating to see how things unfold with him and Watson, especially since Watson won’t be telling the team right away.
Tune in to a new episode of *Watson* on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS to see what happens.
https://popculture.com/tv-shows/news/watson-robert-carlyle-teases-sherlock-holmes-return-is-full-of-questions-exclusive/
