We’re in for another emotional episode of The Good Doctor! The episode begins with Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and his roomie Lea deciding to get a fish as a pet. As they settle in, we see Dr. Claire Brown visit her college roommate, Kay, who is bed-ridden in hospice with only a month to live with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Witnessing her friend in pain and wanting to give her some comfort, Claire approaches Dr. Melendez and Dr. Park to see if they would be willing to help Kay by just removing a part of her tumor. Although he’s mad at her, Dr. Melendez agrees to see Claire’s former roommate that very day. As Melendez explains to Claire’s friend that he and Dr. Park will take her out of pain, Kay says she will not do the surgery without Claire scrubbing in.
In the ER, a man named Santiago comes in with a nail sticking out of his head, but as soon as Dr. Lim easily removes it, she realizes the man is also hit by nails elsewhere. Dr. Morgan Reznick and Shaun both find that Santiago has nails in his kidney. However, while in surgery, the doctors discover that their patient only has one kidney, and will need a new one to survive. His brother, Hermando, ends up being the perfect match, but he says he will only donate his kidney if his brother agrees to sell the family business. Yikes.
While conducting surgery on Kay, Park and Melendez find that the tumor hasn’t penetrated her abdomen, making her a candidate for treatment, which could give her a few months longer to live. As the doctors prepare her for surgery, Kay asks Claire to go on a date with her husband. That’s so awkward… Kay is concerned that her husband will be lonely when she passes, and wants Claire to be the one who is with. She promises to go on one date, and one date only, with Dash.
In the meantime, Shaun tries to convince Santiago to take his brother’s deal and start his own business with the money. However, Santiago refuses, because it was his father’s namesake and he wants to keep it alive. At the time time, he begins to bleed out, and it becomes apparent that he needs the transplant ASAP.
Shaun comes home to find Lea devastated and their fish dead. He offers to get another, but she doesn’t want one and is immediately defensive. “I’m sad, and angry, and frustrated and upset,” Lea said through tears. While Shaun says that they should get another fish, Lea refuses. She starts to open up about her issues in Hershey, revealing that she went home to try to keep the shop open with her brother, but they ended up tanking it together, “along with their relationship.” Shaun listens and then walks out with the fish tank in hand, without a word.
At the hospital as Kay is about to be wheeled into surgery, she pushes Claire on dating Dash again until Claire loses it. She yells at Kay and tells her she is a “neurotic control freak,” right before her friend is sent away. At the same time, Hermando finds his family members getting tested to see fi they match Santiago to give him their kidney, and he reveals to Shaun that their father was a “terrible man.” He says his father didn’t believe in Santiago and would want them to sell the business. Hermando tries to tell Santiago, but he is screamed at to get out of the room.
Hermando, sitting outside of Santiago’s room crying, signs the consent forms to donate a kidney to his brother. Shaun tells him that his father told him he “wished he wasn’t born, because he wasn’t worth the trouble.” But, he knew he was worth the trouble, because his brother always looked out for him. In the middle of the kidney transplant, a doctor came in to tell Shaun that his test came back positive for a certain disease. He says it wasn’t for Santiago… so who could it be for?! My guess is the fish.
Claire leaves the OR to tell Dash that all is going well with Kay’s surgery, except she’s called quickly back to the operating room to find Kay crashing. With Claire’s quick thinking, they re-open her up to allow her finish her treatment. Kay wakes up and she and Claire make amends. Claire encourages her friend to turn her attention to herself, because she is dying. Claire then goes to thank Dr. Melendez for all he did for her friend, and praised him as the “most gifted surgeon she’s ever worked with.” She then said she’d report back to Dr. Lim in the morning, if that’s what he preferred, and Melendez said that would be best. Damn… I think he just likes her and is nervous he will be unprofessional — right?!
Santiago and Hermando both wake up from the transplant, and although they aren’t on speaking terms, it seems like these two brothers will work things out. Speaking of working things out, Shaun and Lea go to the pet store and tell them that their fish died. While the pet store worker tries to tell them it isn’t his responsibility, Shaun whips out those test results which reveal the goldfish had a parasite from the pet store, which killed him. Poor Hubert! However, Lea’s smile is totally adorable when she realizes what Shaun did for her. Love that!
Be sure to tune in for another episode of The Good Doctor next Monday at 10 PM ET, and check in for our recaps on HollywoodLife!