After Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) returns from his spontaneous trip with Lea (Paige Spara), he’s a whole new person with a new outlook. So new, he’s ready to give his whole career at San Jose St. Bonaventure up and relocate to Hershey, PA where Lea plans to move. When questioned by Dr. Glassman (Richard Schiff), Shaun happily reveals that his trip with Lea helped him, before giving Glassman his two weeks notice. Oy.
In the realm of medical care, one of the twins, Katie is not getting any blood to her brain and remains in a coma following the separation surgery, while the other twin, Jenny is awake but her heart is weak. Shaun recommends inserting a stint into Katie’s brain and is asked by Dr. Ko (Necar Zadegan) to perform the surgery. However, things go wrong as Katie’s artery is unable to hold the stint and they need to abort. In a separate room, Jenny’s heart is struggling and she needs a transplant to survive. A straight forward and emotionally-removed Shaun suggests that they give Jenny, Katie’s viable, beating heart. While Dr. Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) and Dr. Browne (Antonia Thomas) are completely against it, Dr. Ko supports Shaun and approaches the girls’ mom with the option. Katie and Jenny’s mom signs the papers to transplant Katie’s heart to Jenny, but says she does not want Jenny to know and she’d just tell her Katie died.
In a separate chain of events, Allegra Aoki (Tamlyn Tomita) tells Dr. Preston to settle the case brought to her from Jared Kalu’s lawyer, alleging he was the target of racial discrimination.
While Dr. Andrews (Hill Harper) prepares to take Katie off life support, he realizes she stabilized after being pulled off ventilation. Katie has basic organ function, but she has no brain activity. The doctors want to reconnect the twins by their femurs, to allow Katie’s functioning heart to pump into Jenny, until Katie goes into full organ failure and they can do the transplant. While Jenny wants nothing to do with the process and just wants to be with her sister, the doctors refuse to put them in the same room. Dr. Browne suggests they’re put together, just for the night, since they haven’t learned to be individuals yet, and Dr. Andrews obliges.
In the evening, Lea and Shaun pack up their things while Shaun reveals he wants to complete his residency at the Penn State Medical Center in Hersey, PA. Lea asks Shaun if she’s following him, and he responds that he just wants to learn what it’s like to be on his own.
Katie and Jenny sleep head to head, with Katie not waking throughout the night. In the morning, Jenny approves of the decision to reconnect the two by the leg and the surgery goes flawlessly. Following, Glassman approaches Shaun and asks, “Why Hershey?” to which he responds, “Because Lea is going there.” Glassman tells Shaun he brought him to San Jose St. Bonaventure because he thought Shaun needed him, before handing him a signed Letter of Recommendation. As he hands it over, Glassman says he really doesn’t want him to go, and promises to back off, telling Shaun he’ll let him make his own choices, and his own mistakes. “I believe in you, Shaun,” Glassman says before walking away.
The doctors check on the re-conjoined twins following the surgery and realize Katie’s heart may not be doing the work they thought it would. Suddenly, Katie stirs and starts to say Jenny’s name as the doctors stand watch in disbelief. The doctors realize that Katie’s heart doesn’t have the strength to beat for the two of them and Jenny needs a transplant ASAP to survive. While Claire and Shaun wait for the test results, she revealed she would miss him when he left. She also asked if Shaun had actually spoken to Lea about following her to Hershey, but before they could discuss further, the results came back. Claire and Shaun realize the twins need to be separated as soon as possible, because Jenny’s heart is failing and and Katie is working overtime. As they’re wheeled into emergency surgery, holding each other’s hands, Jenny starts to go unconscious and Katie starts wailing in sadness and pain.
Jenny’s heart failed on the table, but Katie refused to allow the doctors to separate them. The twins’ mom needed to come in to surgery to speak to Katie, making her look at her dead sister and begging her to allow them to do the surgery. “I cannot lose another daughter.”
Dr. Kalu is prepping to go into surgery after his lawyer refused to settle and got his job back, but before he went in, he thanked Dr. Andrews for allowing him to return. “You compromised your integrity,” Andrews responded, clearly unhappy to see him back in a white coat. “We would have dealt with Coyle the way we were suppose to. But, when you misrepresent racism for something it’s not, it takes us two steps back.”
Following a successful surgery, Shaun walks into Glassman’s office with the letter of recommendation. “I spoke to Claire,” Shaun said bluntly and returned the letter to Glassman’s desk.
In a shocking turn of event, Preston is sitting in the home she and Melendez share and is crying. “I want to break up,” she tells Melendez when he comes in to their room. “I want you to have everything in your life.” While Melendez begs her not to and promises he won’t resent her for not having children, she’s clear with her decision. Oh no.
Well, Kalu has his job back, Shaun isn’t leaving, and Preston and Melendez are finished… for now. What an episode! HollywoodLifers, what did you think of this episode of The Good Doctor?