‘Watson’: Eve Harlow Weighs in on Ingrid’s Shocking Reveal (Exclusive)

The latest episode of Watson finally gave fans a look at Ingrid’s backstory, and Eve Harlow spoke to PopCulture.com about the shocking details.

In “Take a Family History,” Gigi is brought into UHOP and Holmes Clinic, and as Ingrid tries to save her sister’s life in the present, fans are taken back to 2010 to the time of her accident.

The episode saw Ingrid frantically trying to get help for Gigi, who fell from a balcony. She was going to have Dr. Mary Morstan do the surgery after pleading with her but her boss finds out and pulls the plug before the surgery started. Ingrid later finds out from Gigi that it was their father who was responsible for her fall, which paralyzed her. The episode ends with young Ingrid taking driving her abusive dad out to the waterfront and injecting him with fentanyl, pushing him into an open hole, where he dies. It was a lot to handle, knowing now what Ingrid did and what Moriarty meant when he met with her. Check out what Harlow had to say about the revelation. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity).

PopCulture: With Ingrid’s sister coming back into the fold, how challenging was it for Ingrid to continue holding on to this secret?

Eve Harlow: I know, given the gravity of the secret, it seems like it would be very difficult. The thing is, for Ingrid, her sister is the most important thing, and so that kind of deflates anything else. And so it’s like in order to protect her sister, she has this goal in mind so everything that stands in the way gets pushed aside. Even though it’s like, ‘Yeah. She killed her dad. So what? We need to get Gigi better.’ And it’s also given the kind of person that she is. This psychopath with a very clear goal and intention in mind.

PC: What do you think this secret does to Ingrid’s relationship with her sister?

Harlow: Ingrid doesn’t think in the way that a normal person would. Right? And so she did what she had to do in order to protect her sister. And that’s kind of where it begins and ends. She knows that other people would judge her for what she did. Other people’s opinions do not impact Ingrid. She plays by her own rules. She does what she thinks is right. And it’s not the way that a normal person would behave necessarily, but she’s putting things into her own hands.

PC: This episode really delved into her backstory. What was it like exploring the storyline and learning more about her?

Harlow: Pretty early on, Craig [Sweeny, creator] told me the points about Ingrid. And it’s funny because it was actually very easy for me. I have a younger sister, and she’s my world. I don’t know what I would do without her. I think that people have just platonic soulmates of just, like, ‘Oh my god. You understand me, and I understand you, and I love you so much.’

That is what my younger sister is to me. And so when Craig was telling me this thing of, this is what she did in order to protect her sister and that her entire, basically, life trajectory has been dictated by this mission to save her sister, to me, totally makes sense. It wasn’t that difficult. I would do anything for my sister. I mean, killing people is bad. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s just how far we could go for people to love is, I think, the ultimate question, and the answer is pretty damn far. So it wasn’t like, ‘Oh my god. How did she… why did she do it, and how?’ I understood it immediately.

PC: Learning more about her either at the beginning of the series or when you got the script for the episode, what surprised you the most about her backstory?

Harlow: I mean, I don’t think that a lot did surprise me, because this is the way that I think of it. Zombie apocalypse, everyone’s like, ‘I’m gonna shoot the s— out of all the zombies. I’m a pacifist. I am such a peacekeeper.’ I’m like, ‘No. Oh my god.’ If there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’d be like, ‘Eat me zombies.’ I don’t care. But then somebody’s like, ‘Okay. What if the zombies were attacking your family?’ I’m like, ‘If anyone touched my sister, my mom, I would kill them.’

I’d be like, ‘Give me the machine gun. No one’s touching my sister. No one’s touching my mom.’ And it’s this protective nature that comes into play that makes you know when they say, ‘Mother’s child is in danger,’ all of a sudden she gets the strength to pick up a car. It’s that. So even though this measure is very drastic of literally killing somebody, this somebody is threatening the person that you love most on this planet, this person that means the most to you. And so it’s a horrific thing to do. I can see how it can be justified. So it wasn’t surprising. And, again, especially because I was told when I first got it like, ‘Hey. This is the secret that you’re harboring.’ I was like, ‘Okay, cool. Got it.’

PC: These final episodes of Season 1 are going to be big for Ingrid. What are you most excited for fans to see?

Harlow: Honestly, all of it. Every episode, I feel like this is Christmas or Hanukkah, whatever, opening a new gift. Every single time, we’re like, ‘Oh, this is crazy. ‘And then we film it, and then we get the next script, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god. This is crazy.’ And I just feel like with every episode, it kept on elevating the stakes and the drama, and that’s what made the show so fun to work on because you just never knew what you were gonna get next, but you knew that it was gonna be good.

New episodes of Watson air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.