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‘The Good Doctor’ Episode Recap – ‘Seven Reasons’

Spoiler alert!  The following article contains spoilers from the latest episode of The Good Doctor titled Seven Reasons.

'The Good Doctor' Episode Recap - 'Seven Reasons'

If Dr. Shaun Murphy was trying to smooth things over between him and Dr. Neil Melendez, this episode was not the way to to do it.  The primary story of Monday night’s The Good Doctor followed Dr. Melendez, Shaun and Dr. Jared Kalu as they worked together to treat a Muslim woman who came in with what originally seemed to be a simple hand burn.  As they learned more about the case, things got more and more complicated.

While being examined for her hand, the patient had what appeared to be a heart attack however, her vitals were totally normal.  Something else was causing her distress.  The team took her in for a bronchoscopy conducted by Melendez.  The procedure went well until Melendez nicked the bronchial wall.  Shaun immediately noted that Melendez had made a mistake during the procedure and, it seemed that he had.  Knowing full well the proper protocol, Shaun went to Dr. Aaron Glassman to report the incident.

Melendez was approached by Jessica Preston about the incident.  She suggested that perhaps he was so upset over their sudden breakup that he wasn’t paying attention during the procedure.  As you can imagine, this only angered Melendez who took a huge step by admitting that he’s not perfect (you had us fooled Neil) but adamantly declaring that he did not make a mistake during this procedure.  Later on in the episode, Jessica suggested to Melendez that maybe they made a mistake breaking up.  Relationships are tough!

'The Good Doctor' Episode Recap - 'Seven Reasons'

Later on, the patient began experiencing a new symptom – intense abdominal pain.  The team determined this was caused by an overconsumption of alcohol in her symptom which is impossible because of her Muslim religion.  She does drink!  Shaun pointed out that it could also be caused by overexposure to dimethyl sulfate, a chemical used by terrorists (WHAT?!).  Did Shaun just accuse his patient of being a terrorist?  Yes, he sure did.

The patient was clearly offended by Shaun’s assumption based on her religion and she expressed her disappointment in him.  Shortly after, she suffered another cardiac arrest.  Her heart was literally burning up from the chemicals in her system.  The team treated her with steroids and, finally, the truth came out.  The reason for the chemicals in her system was due to the fact that she makes her own perfume and that her brother was stealing the dimethyl sulfate for her to use.  Luckily for all, this story had a happy ending but what’s up with Shaun being so judgemental?  Is this a new side of him that we’ll be seeing from now on?

Shaun also had some difficulties with Dr. Glassman during this episode.  When Shaun approached Dr. Glassman asking him to meet up for breakfast like they used to do, he declined and reiterated that he promised to back off and let Shaun live his life.  The most heart-breaking moment of the episode was definitely this scene as Shaun’s big, expressive eyes tear up and he tells Dr. Glassman that he needs a friend.  He doesn’t need a father.  He just needs a friend.  Dr. Glassman clearly caught off guard by Shaun’s display of emotion, couldn’t find the words to respond.

'The Good Doctor' Episode Recap - 'Seven Reasons'

Elsewhere in the hospital, Dr. Claire Brown and Dr. Lim worked together on a patient who was rushed to the hospital by his wife and son.  The patient had just suffered a stroke – his second in six years.  While undergoing surgery, he suffered another stroke, this time, it was life-threatening.  When Claire and Dr. Lim suggested a fairly complicated procedure to stop the strokes, the patient’s wife declined to say her husband wouldn’t want to undergo the surgery without knowing he’d make a full recovery.  He’d rather just die.

Shaun and Claire met for breakfast the next morning and spoke about her patient.  Shaun suggested that the wife was lying and said there are seven reasons why someone lies.  If you really loved someone, you’d do anything to save them so, she must be lying.  This stayed with Claire and, she confronted the wife about her decision.  It turns out the wife was lying.  The patient has a history of domestic violence and abuse.  The wife was hoping that the patient would die so her son could never find out the horrible things he has done.

Dr. Lim insisted that Claire get consent for the procedure based on the thought that the wife could be lying.  The wife finally signed the consent form and, during the procedure, it was discovered that the patient was getting worse and experiencing more strokes because he hadn’t been taking his medication.  Why hadn’t he been taking his medication?  The son, whom the wife assumed was unaware of the domestic abuse going on at home, knew full well that his mother was in trouble.  The son had been swapping out his dad’s medication for weeks.  Ultimately, Claire and Dr. Lim successfully completed the procedure on the patient but the mother and son used this as an opportunity to get away from him to a safe environment.

While this was all going on, Claire learned that Dr. Coyle (aka. the doctor who made inappropriate advances towards her and ultimately got Jared fired), had not had not been fired.  In fact, he was promoted, in a sense.  He was put into a position within the hospital where he would have less contact with patients and staff and he received a pay increase.  Clearly distraught by this news, Claire reached out to a former employee from St. Bonaventure who had also had a similar experience with Dr. Coyle.  Together, they vowed to support each other and fight back against Dr. Coyle.

'The Good Doctor' Episode Recap - 'Seven Reasons'

Because of Dr. Coyle’s transfer, the whole surgical resident team could be changing.  Dr. Melendez dropped a bit of a bomb on Jared (who just got his job back) when he said that, since Dr. Coyle has been transferred, he will now be taking over mentoring his surgical resident.  Since Dr. Melendez is only permitted to have three surgical residents and he will soon have four, that means somebody won’t be staying around much longer but who?

Lastly, and this is just a fun tidbit from the episode, there is a new resident living in Lea’s apartment and I’m not sure how he and Shaun will get along.  The new neighbor does not yet have a name on the series but the role was played by Undatable‘s Chris D’Elia.  It’s safe to say we’ll be seeing him around more as the season continues on.

What did you think of The Good Doctor episode Seven Reasons?  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!

 

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