Morris Chestnut on Moriarty’s Death, Watson’s Role (Exclusive)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Watson Season 1 finale “Your Life’s Work, Part 2.”]

Dr. John Watson … killer?! The Watson Season 1 finale, which aired on Sunday, May 11, saw the titular doctor (Morris Chestnut) face off against the villain James Moriarty (Randall Park) in order to save one of his fellows.

Moriarty used DNA against the team, targeting Adam (Peter Mark Kendall) but also infecting his twin, Stephens, and then thanks to what he had Ingrid (Eve Harlow) do — he blackmailed her with her father’s remains, after discovering she’d killed the abusive man as a teen — there was only one dose of a cure. But thanks to Ingrid then going to Watson, the doctor was able to make his own virus to use against Moriarty — and the cure, which he gave him after he helped them save Stephens, didn’t work as well as he’d hoped, he said, before sitting with the villain as he died in the hospital. Two weeks later, we learned that Watson officially had a new love interest, pediatric oncologist Laila (Tika Sumpter).

Below, Morris Chestnut reacts to that shocking finale, opens up about filming that last scene with Randall Park, shares his hopes for Season 2, and more. (Plus, read executive producer Craig Sweeny’s deep dive of the finale and Season 2 teases here.)

Watson essentially killing Moriarty — first of all, is Moriarty really dead?

Morris Chestnut: I can definitely say that I do believe that Moriarty is definitely dead. What I administer to him would definitely kill any human being. However, he has a lot of people running around acting on his behalf, so he may be dead, but is he really truly ever gone?

What was your reaction to reading that in the script?

So I loved it, but it brought up so many questions because as a doctor, I’m there to help heal people and once you cross that line —  as a doctor, so you cross that line as a doctor and you say to yourself, wow, everything that I’ve been doing, my whole practice, I’ve just done the exact opposite of everything that I’ve been working for, working towards if it’s helping people and even though it was for a good cause, there’s still that dilemma. There’s a dilemma of people knowing about exactly what happened. And then I think just even as a person, once you crossed the line like that, how does it make you feel? Can you really, really live with yourself? Did you like it? Is it something you want to keep pushing? There’s so many things that it brings up, which is, I’m excited for Season 2 because I believe Craig [Sweeny, executive producer] is going to be exploring all of those questions.

Sergei Bachlakov / CBS

How do you think Watson feels about what he did?

He’s definitely remorseful. It’s definitely something that he’s struggling with. But for all of the turmoil that Moriarty has caused in my life, affecting Shinwell’s [Ritchie Coster] family, he affected the twins, for everyone that he has affected in a negative way, I feel that it was best for society that I end his life at that point in time. It wasn’t just personal. A lot of it was personal because it affected me and the people that I love, but I think it was best for everyone that that individual was no longer walking around on the planet Earth and it was just good for me that I was the last face that he got to see after.

Talk about filming that hospital room scene with Randall.

I loved, loved working with Randall. Randall is so great, and to see him play this character, different than the other character you’ve seen. Randall is such a giving actor. He really gives and he’s there for you, like, Hey, do you need anything? Can I do something different? And it’s always great to hear that we worked very well together. It was one of those things, there was a scene where we’re in the room and I kind of threatened him, and it was like I really had to separate myself because he’s such a nice gu,y and it’s like Randall Park and I’m threatening him. But at that moment, of course, he was Moriarty, but he’s a great guy and he’s great to work with.

The two-week time jump reveals that things are going well for Watson and Laila. Is he really ready to move on for Mary (Rochelle Aytes)? What is it about Laila that he might very well be?

That’s an incredible question. Have you talked to Craig? Did Craig talk to you about Season 2? That’s an incredible question that we’re looking forward to exploring. I know that it’s going to be — what Watson gave up chasing after Moriarty and whatever that was and Mary having a miscarriage and him coming back and them not being together, that’s always going to affect him. He’s always going to try to make up for that in some type of way, shape, or form. However, in addition to that, he truly loves Mary. Laila is great, she’s incredible, and she has tremendous attributes that if anybody could get Watson to move on and finally release Mary and let her go, it’s Laila. Whether that will happen or not, we’ll have to see in Season 2.

Watson packs up the Always and Everywhere shirt into the Holmes box that he puts under the bed. Does that signify him closing the chapter on Moriarty and Sherlock, that he’s ready to move on from that, even if that part of his life might not be done?

Yeah, it definitely signifies that. He wants to move on to the next chapter. Whether he will be able to do that or not still remains to be seen because there’s still a universe out there with a lot of different characters. And although Moriarty is dead, I mean, is he truly gone? We’ll have to see.

Yeah. We don’t know about a network that he could have out there.

Exactly.

And how they might react. There’s so much to go to there.

There’s so much to go there. Exactly. So we’ll have to see. This is one of those things that Craig is, particularly after seeing the finale and everything that kind of culminated with the finale, at a certain point, I think it was probably Episode 8, no one was able to relax. Shinwell had his situation, Ingrid had her situation, and of course the last two episodes, the twins had their situation. So he’s been such a looming presence over our lives and affecting us. I don’t know if that tension is going to be relieved for a while. It’s one of those things to where I think we’re possibly going to have some type of PTSD because it’s been so traumatic dealing with him for the whole season.

How does Watson feel about losing Ingrid as part of his team, at least for now?

So when Watson assembled the entire team, not only did he have faith in them and he really respected their intellect, and he brought them together as a team because of what they all could provide individually to complete the team, but there was definitely something intriguing about Ingrid that was even just beyond her being a part of the team. He didn’t realize that it was going to be everything that ended up happening, so he got more than he actually bargained for there. But I think there’s an aspect of Watson who has not been perfect by any way, shape, or form. And I believe that he believes in redemption stories. So I would like to think that he may risk it one more time. He may. I don’t know, I haven’t talked to Craig, but he may risk it again and keep her around

And he wouldn’t care about Stephens’ feelings. That’s the thing. I feel like if he wants Ingrid on the team, he wouldn’t care.

No, he wouldn’t care. I think everyone has redeeming values. I think everyone can redeem themselves, but she helped solve a couple of cases this year, individually. So I think he definitely values her contributions to the team.

Ed Araquel / CBS

Has Watson forgiven Shinwell?

Now, that’s a tough one. So we saw Shinwell come back, and Watson was glad to have him back because he put himself aside because he believed he could contribute to help solve what was happening. I think first and foremost, and in order to help people, Watson will be able to forgive. I’m not sure how he’ll be able to forget.

What are your hopes for Watson in Season 2?

I can’t wait to talk to Craig in even more depth about it because he hasn’t really told me anything. We had a couple of brief conversations. I want to explore his past a little bit more. How did we get here? I know in the beginning, just after the waterfall, boom, we’re in the clinic, but how did we get to that point of who he is as a man, who he is as a doctor, and why does he do the things that he does and exploring the personal relationships, the personal relationship with Laila, the love interest, and Mary, how does that work? Am I going to be able to let Mary go? She’s so much a part of my life. In addition to that, just more mentoring of the fellows. He really gets excited and inspired. He’s inspired by their intellect, inspired by teaching and instructing and mentoring them.

As Shinwell says to Watson, what happened to the Crofts, with Moriarty, and the fact that he used his DNA samples, it’s a lot. Do you think this is going to change his approach to his work at all?

That’s a good question. I think it has to change the approach because considering how such extremely delicate DNA was used, it was weaponized, how everything was weaponized, he has to change the approach for sure — possibly less trusting, possibly more guardrails. I’m not sure how Craig is going to explore it, but he has no choice to because it would’ve been because of my life’s work that we could have lost twins. And everyone who came into the clinic and had given their DNA, their life was at risk. And because of me, they trusted me. It was my clinic. So I definitely think that he can’t just go blindly — and he didn’t go blindly before. He just didn’t realize that someone was capable of doing such a devious thing. So yeah, I think he definitely has to change.

Watson, Season 2, 2026, CBS