‘Watson’: Ritchie Coster Explains Why Shinwell’s ‘180 Shift’ Is ‘Deeply Satisfying’

In Watson Season 1, the titular doctor’s (Morris Chestnut) righthand man, Shinwell Johnson (Ritchie Coster), was among those forced to do James Moriarty’s (Randall Park) bidding. Now, in Season 2, Shinwell is looking for “penance,” according to the actor portraying him.

He’s certainly finding ways for just that. For example, he has a bit of a career change: He’s now a nursing student. In fact, he plays a central role in the medical case for the Monday, November 3 episode, “Happy When It Rains.” Watson and his team of fellows try to figure out what’s going on when four new patients are brought to UHOP with wounds that appear to be infected with a flesh-eating bacterium following a tornado.

Below, Ritchie Coster discusses Shinwell’s Season 2 arc, previews the next episode, and more.

At the start of the season, Shinwell says he’s not sure he can properly thank Watson for keeping him on after last year, and Watson assures him that he has thanked him enough. How is Shinwell feeling about himself and the events of last year?

Ritchie Coster: I think the events of last year come on top of a lifetime. So, when they’re talking about penance… I have a different opinion about last year because I was so thoroughly on Shinwell’s side, and he did what he did because he was being blackmailed and trying to protect people he cared about. So, it was hardly the worst thing he’s ever done in his world, in his life. I think Shinwell has done despicable things in his life. So, the penance is for a lifetime of ill deeds, which is a fascinating story to tell. I had a brother who was a very smart man who once said to me that the only stories worth telling are the ones about redemption. It is a very interesting story to play and something to keep in my mind.

Colin Bentley/CBS

Shinwell is a nursing student now. How much did he need something like that at this point in his life because that is part of that penance? It’s helping to save people, right?

Yeah. I think in the first season, there are moments where Shinwell almost stops in his tracks at just witnessing the benevolence on display in this medical institution. And I think it’s a tectonic shift for him that life can be spent in service of others instead of being a predator towards others. This all happens off-screen, but there’s a completely 180 shift in Shinwell’s life. And like I say, it’s a very compelling thing to play because which of us doesn’t understand the need to make things right, to fix past mistakes? So, playing the last season and this season have been deeply satisfying.

The logline for this next episode says that he’s searching for meaning in being a nursing student. He’s really tested in this episode with the case and patients. What can you preview about how that’s going to test him as a nursing student?

The big test is, I think, in the episodes previous to this. I think it’s been established, hopefully, that Shinwell discovers a natural capacity for empathy and for caring and to be outside of himself, but that’s easily done when the pain that you are witnessing isn’t that great. And to witness somebody that he’s fond of [in pain] and to actually force himself to be present and to be a witness there and to be the hand to hold and the shoulder to cry on is something that I don’t think he’s ever done before. It’s testing you when you don’t know what to say. And the big lesson that I think we all have to learn in life is, the only requirement is that you show up and you be present and that you recognize you can’t actually fix something. You can only be present for it and be there as a support, even if you don’t know what to say.

What you said about empathy made me think about what he says about Ingrid (Eve Harlow) coming back. He knows the position she was in last season.

Yeah. There’s something that I don’t think makes it to the screen, which is something very small that I play, which is a fondness for Ingrid because she’s the black sheep, the dark horse, the one that does wrong, the one that’s been — I actually find it quite understandable what Ingrid did. It was like, well, of course, you’d do that. So I like to play just for myself a little soft spot for Ingrid.

Is anything coming up between the two of them where there’s a moment to acknowledge, “We both went through this, we’re both coming out on the other side of it, we’re both moving forward and trying to find penance, whatever”?

There’s not a moment, but it’s palpable even when they’re not onscreen with each other. You can feel the tension between them.

Should he find out, what would Shinwell think of Sherlock (Robert Carlyle) faking his death and being back in Watson’s life? You can’t forget Shinwell was the one with Watson in the hospital at the beginning of the series to tell him Sherlock was dead.

I think Shinwell would indulgently roll his eyes and go, “Oh God, that’s Sherlock.”

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I will say that things do seem to be going well for Shinwell right now. Usually, when that’s the case on a TV show, that’s when something from the past comes back at the worst possible time.

Oh, I didn’t think of that. Of course, yes.

So, what is coming up for Shinwell? Is there anything like that coming up for him?

As far as I’ve gotten into this season, that hasn’t raised its ugly head yet. But now I know it’s coming. I hadn’t thought of that at all. Of course, things are going well, so something horrible is going to happen.

Or it could just be he’s getting the break that he deserves.

It could be the break that he deserves. While it’s happening, I’m loving it. While it’s happening, I’m getting to play these things that I’ve never played in my career before. While it’s happening, I’m getting to play the beginnings of a romance, which is intensely gratifying.

Watson, Mondays, 10/9c, CBS