Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) is up in the middle of the night in a deep sweat, searching frantically for a lost screwdriver to fix his leaking faucet. He’s so petrified, he even called Dr. Glassman for assistance. Glassman quickly finds the screwdriver so Shaun can set his faucet to the “correct drip rate,” which puts him at ease. Still, the lack of sleep and slow bus makes Shaun late, again, for work the next morning — a constant occurrence that’s getting on Dr. Melendez’s nerves. Again, Shaun is sentenced to scut work, and so is Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas), since Melendez associates her with Shaun since she’s the only one he talks to.
Claire and Shaun treat their first client who, as a result of untreated chlamydia, has a swollen boil on her labia. The 19-year-old reveals she works in the porn industry and gets tested for STDs every 30 days. The doctors need to perform surgery and Shaun will get to take the lead on this one!
To Dr. Melendez, who has his protege Dr. Jared Kalu (Chukuma “Chuku” Modu) with him during rounds, is reluctant to perform a high-risk surgery on a pregnant mother only in her second trimester. The patient reveals she has suffered from several miscarriages and is not willing to lose her child, even if it kills her. Melendez must plan to safely remove the fetus, remove the tumor that is killing the baby and the mother, and then return the fetus into the uterus. Everyone is on board, except for the patient’s husband, who goes to the hospital board, and Melendez’s wife, to stop the operation. The board votes to go ahead with the surgery, with only Dr. Preston (Beau Garrett) voting against.
Claire and Dr. Jared Kalu (Chukuma “Chuku” Modu) romance heats up in bed., while Melendez and Dr. Jessica Preston bring work home. In the meantime, Shaun reminisces on he and his brother’s stash of dirty magazines when they were young, but simultaneously misses his stop on the bus home. Scared and out of place, Shaun struggles to find home after getting off at a different stop. Luckily, his new neighbor Mia drives by and gives him a ride home. The two banter in a hilarious, honest conversation, in which Shaun tells her she “stinks” and she compliments his forthrightness. Shaun then knocks on the Super’s door with a full list of everything he needs fixed in his apartment… at 12:40 AM. This behavior prompted Dr. Glassman to suggest that Shaun get an aide to help care for him at home, but Shaun immediately gets angry and shuts him down.
While in surgery, Dr. Claire, Shaun and Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) discover that their young patient’s boil is much worse than they thought. There is a tumor beneath the original mass and it’s completely engulfed in a nerve — leading to a more intense surgery. While she’s fearful and losing father, the patient still doesn’t want her parents to come. Dr. Melendez preps for his high-risk surgery while the husband of the patient continues to question and doubt the success of the surgery. Just minutes into surgery, she has a heart attack and they immediately stitch her back up. While Melendez faces the tough decision on whether to go back and operate or not, the patient convinces him that she wants the operation done and Dr. Kalu comes up with a less-riskier solution. They choose to put their patient on bypass throughout the surgery, to safely remove the baby, remove the tumor, and return the baby to the uterus.
Shaun finds way to go through their patient’s thigh and remove the tumor, instead of going through her genitals. Dr. Andrews even allows Shaun to do the test to show that his idea worked and his excitement is so profound and evident! Seeing Dr. Murphy confident and in the OR makes it clear that is exactly where he belongs.
In the other OR, Dr. Melendez and Dr. Kalu place their patient on bypass and begin their ultimately successful surgery. Yay! Dr. Kalu and Dr. Browne invite Shaun out to celebrate and although he hesitates, Claire pushes him to come. At the bar, a pretty girl eyes Shaun from across the bar and brings him back to a final flashback. A young girl approaches a younger Shaun sitting alone on a park bench and pulls him into the woods, asking him to “show me yours.” He abruptly asks her for a kiss and then starts to take off running when all of the other school kids pop out of the bushes, laughing. The heartbreaking moment clearly scarred Shaun and has traumatized him when it comes to women and sex. Still, the episode ends on a light note with Kalu praising Shaun, Claire and his own hard work at the hospital.
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of tonight’s episode of The Good Doctor?