Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) & Dr. Jared Kalu assist Dr. Marcus Andrews & Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) in operating on a VIP athlete’s elbow. Before going to the patient, Dr. Aaron Glassman summons Shaun into his office to meet his new in-home therapist, Dr. Bourne, after expressing concern for his mental health. Upon meeting her, Shaun begins to sweat and becomes extremely uncomfortable and out of control. Still, he pulls it together to go meet with the new patient, Bobby, who needs elbow surgery. While Freddie examines Bobby and makes some initial surgery suggestions, Melendez shuts him down and moves on to the next thing. As Shaun leaves, Bobby calls after him. “They should listen to you the first time. Everything is a game, sometimes the stakes are high, and this time it’s my arm,” he says, as Shaun nods along.
In a separate room, Dr. Claire Brown assists a patient with compartment syndrome after she overdid it in a spin class. Dr Coyle, a hot doctor who is loved by his team, lets Claire take the lead with the patient, and she operates on one of the legs in the OR. In Bobby’s OR, Dr. Andrews allows Dr. Kalu step in to complete the elbow surgery, while Shaun attempts to compliment Dr. Melendez to try to get on his good side and demand his respect, as Bobby had suggested. At the end of the long day, and after being shut down for his suggestions a number of times, Shaun skips his bus ride home and creates a makeshift bed in the hospital’s basement, so he doesn’t have to meet with the new therapist. The next day, knowing that Shaun didn’t go home the night before, Glassman offers to buy Shaun the surround sound system he wanted if he meets with Dr. Bourne at least 3 times — an offer Shaun reluctantly accepts… only for the surround sound.
As Dr. Browne is helping the her recovering patient, the lead doctor comes up behind her and rubs her back, making her feel extremely uncomfortable. Claire asks Kalu or Shaun to switch with her and they won’t, despite her feeling uncomfortable.
In Bobby’s recovery room, Shaun suggests the doctors order an MRI, just to make sure he is absolutely okay, but of course Melendez quickly shuts him down. Shaun abruptly suggests his patient has MS, which is Melendez’s last straw. “You don’t respect me,” Shaun says to Melendez outside the room. Kalu stands up for him, telling Melendez that he also thinks they should do the MRI. Shaun finds that Bobby has a malignant tumor and the oncologist at the hospital reveals she had met him three years ago and he had cancer then, too. The tumor on Bobby’s brain stem is inoperable, as it controls his respiratory and heart functions, but Glassman reveals he can perform an operation that will save him, but also leave him paralyzed on his left side.
While tending to her patient, Claire is inapropriately asked out and offered a massage by Dr. Coyle. As she rejects him, he pushed back, telling her that he “thought you’d be down” since she’s “been banging Kalu in the break room.” Coyle then threatens to report her for rejecting him and Claire storms off to tell Kalu what happened. While Kalu kind of man-splains the situation to Claire and “attempts” to give her advice, he’s completely out of place and just doesn’t understand what it’s like to be a woman in a male-dominated field. He approaches Coyle himself, pushing him against the lockers and threatening him. At the same time, Claire makes the career-altering decision to go to HR about her experience with Dr. Coyle.
In his life-saving, yet paralyzing surgery, Bobby goes into arrest, due to a drop in temperature and the doctors struggle to save him. With teamwork between Glassman, Melendez, Kalu and Shuan, Bobby’s surgery is successful, and the second he’s out, he’s already starting to try to move his left side. As the doctors leave, Bobby tells Shaun, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do.”
Bobby’s words of wisdom are stuck in Shaun’s head and kick off his spiral out of control. As Glassman tries to drive him home to see Dr. Bourne, Shaun loses it. “What if it doesn’t make me happy? What if it only makes you happy?” he screams while breaking out into a sweat and pulling his hair. “I want to make my own decisions. You are not my father!” he screams at the man who has been a father figure to Shaun his whole life. Shaun begins to self-harm, slamming his hands into his head and pulling out his hair, and even smacking Glassman before running off.
Claire goes searching for Kalu after speaking with Dr. Andrews about her experience with Coyle, and learns that he took matters into his own hands. She goes off on him, packed up in the locker room, where Kalu tells her that he was fired for physically assaulting Coyle. OMG… WHAT?!
Meanwhile, Dr. Bourne and Glassman hysterically search for Shaun and find his house completely emptied. Glassman notices the picture of he and his brother are missing, indicating that Shaun doesn’t plan to come back. Where is he?!
HollywoodLifers, The Good Doctor won’t be back until January 8th for the second half of the season! So until then, let me know what you think is going to happen! Is Kalu done for good? Where is Shaun?