The Good Doctor – Incomplete

By starrymag | December 1, 2019

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

 

 

Claire (Antonia Thomas) wakes up in her room and realizes that she hooked up with a guy last night. The guy, Kane (Sharif Atkins), comes in with scrambled eggs and coffee and remembers how he out-drank her last night, partly crediting a dose of Molly. He admits to have had a great time. He realizes that Claire is a doctor from a bedside birthday photo with her colleagues. Claire’s unenthusiastic demeanor gives him an indication that she doesn’t want to meet again. He leaves without a fuss.

 

Shaun (Freddie Highmore) goes to Glassman’s (Richard Schiff) with a bouquet of pink roses and another of Purple Peruvian lilies. Debbie (Sheila Kelley) opens the door as Aaron is in the shower. Apparently, the florist told Shaun that the roses express passion while the lilies express devotion, but now he’s torn between the two as he feels both for Carly (Jasika Nicole). Debbie helps him out by making him go with Carly’s favorite color which is purple. Shaun hands her the other bouquet and goes straight to the hospital to see Carly in the lab. In front of a room full of her colleagues he expresses his wish to have sex that night and asks if she wants it too. Carly nods. Shaun hands her the bouquet and leaves.

 

Claire and Dr. Park (Will Yun Lee) get a car crash patient with multiple injuries, a ruptured spleen and a lacerated liver. He’s sent to the OR immediately. The patient is Kane. Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) and Shaun treat a patient named Jeanie (Irene Choi) who is accompanied by her fiancé Tony (Hayden Szeto). They were at their engagement photoshoot when Jeanie developed a mild headache followed by a paralytic feel to her left side. The residents guess mini stroke and recommend additional imaging.

 

In the OR  we see Park asks Dr.Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) about this restaurant that he and Dr. Lim (Christina Chang) once visited. Mia is in town and Park wants to take her there. Melendez discloses that he and Lim have broken up. Claire spots a compromised aorta which needs grafting. Park suddenly notices skyrocketing BP, which is unnatural since Kane just suffered a major blood loss and should be hypotensive instead. Melendez asks the anesthetist to push beta blockers, but Claire recallss how Kane mentioned Molly to her in the morning and how the beta blockers could kill him. She immediately suggests the possibility of MDMA-anesthesia complex that is causing the high BP. The surgeons manage to stabilize the vitals and decide to wait on the grafting procedure till the MDMA leaves Kane’s system. Melendez appreciates Claire.

 

At Jeanie’s MRI we see Shaun disclose to Morgan about how he’ll have sex for the first time that night. Surprised, she tells how first times could go wrong and not meet expectations. Shaun wonders if hers was bad. Morgan explains to him that it’s not a suitable question for a colleague but suggests that hers was an exception. Suddenly, Jeanie starts having seizures and the residents confirm a distended bladder. They take the case to Dr. Andrews (Hill Harper) stating how the CT and labs confirm that sex caused Jeanie’s seizures from a dormant tumor that’s been there near her clitoris. Morgan and Shaun take the diagnosis and tumor removal surgery to the couple. They try explaining the risks of them having any more sex and how this surgery would still allow them to bear children but it would deprive Jeanie of the pleasures of intercourse. Jeanie says no to the surgery as she doesn’t want to abstain. Tony stays mum.

 

After the MDMA is out of Kane’s system Claire wants to start prepping for the aorta grafting procedure without wasting any more time, but Melendez asks her to get consent from Kane’s wife, Sasha (Chelsea Hobbs). Park and Claire get her signature. Kane’s daughter Allie (Aiyanna Miorin) is worried and Claire reassures her that it’ll all be fine. Melendez meets Lim near the elevators and realizes that she’s been avoiding him by making excuses about her busy schedule but she denies having done any such thing.

 

Morgan and Shaun go to Andrews about Jeanie’s ridiculous decision. Morgan thinks that sex is overrated and makes people take foolish decisions, but Andrews is against stripping away pleasure from the young couple’s lives. Shaun lays down facts about how frequently couples engage in sex, but Morgan argues that there’s a lot beyond that which defines a relationship. She suggests counselling but Andrews doesn’t entertain her idea and asks the residents to discharge Jeanie soon. Morgan informs the couple about Jeanie’s discharge, but doesn’t spare the opportunity to call Tony selfish. She accuses him of letting Jeanie self-destruct herself only to secure his own chances of getting laid. Tony defends himself by saying how he’s simply supporting his fiance. Jeanie believes him blindly.

 

Claire checks up on Kane while his wife and daughter are present. She realizes that he lied to his family about his whereabouts last night and feels increasingly uncomfortable. Claire later speaks to Sasha in order to reassure her of Kane’s condition, but learns that she is well aware of being cheated on by her husband.

 

Carly and Shaun get to bed. They start off by making out, but Shaun cannot go beyond undressing himself and Carly. He visits Glassman at his office the next day to talk about it. While Glassman thinks Shaun has issues with intimacy or maybe something hormonal, Shaun reveals how he got distracted by a half-heart tattoo that Carly had. He doesn’t understand why someone would get an incomplete tattoo and wishes that she got it removed. Glassman knows that she won’t. Debbie politely asks Shaun to leave as there are patients waiting.

 

Morgan approaches Carly and asks her about last night. Carly doesn’t seem keen to share. Morgan; however, refers to Shaun’s oversharing nature and reveals about how she’s aware of the couple’s month-long foreplay which is an unnatural saint-like attitude for a single woman. She bluntly asks Carly not to treat her good friend Shaun as a project only to break his heart in the future. It turns out that Carly loves Shaun for his good nature and not for any martyr complex. She also wonders if Morgan, herself, sees Shaun as a project and not as a person. Melendez meets Lim and asks her to admit that she’s been avoiding him. He wonders why he’s getting the cold shoulder when he was the one who got dumped. He asks her if she’s having second thoughts. Lim says no.

 

Shaun is checking up on Jeanie and wonders as to why she is risking her life for sex. Jeanie explains how sex helps one share his/her vulnerable sides and fears and how it’s a prerequisite for a strong relationship. Morgan tries counselling Tony by asking him about his most memorable experience that he’s had with Jeanie. He recalls a backpacking adventure as opposed to some sex-related memory. Stating her own failed relationship as an example, Morgan tries explaining how little value the act holds and how it can often be a stupid idea. Tony is afraid that there will be nothing left in his and Jeanie’s lives without it but admits how deeply he’s in love with her.

 

Claire checks up on Kane. He can’t stop thinking about how awkward this is and shares his tendency to cheat on his family repeatedly in spite of loving them to bits. Claire asks him to leave them for the better and that she isn’t one to cheat. Kane feels otherwise as he remembers her checking out his wedding ring before making advances at the bar. He calls her a cheater to an equal degree. Suddenly his leg starts to feel cold. Claire realizes that he’s got a clot and that he needs immediate surgery. Park confronts Claire during Kane’s angio and asks how she knew him from before and that he’s been finding her behavior very odd lately. She reveals about her one night stand with Kane. Park guesses that something’s hurt her bad and caused her to turn to things that she won’t do normally but now it’s affecting her work. Had she not been avoiding Kan, she could’ve caught the clot sooner. Kane’s condition worsens and the residents prepare to open him up again. Later, they successfully dissolve the clot saving his leg and Melendez appreciates Claire. She calls it a team effort as Park continues to stare at her.

 

At lunch Aaron is displeased with Debbie because she cut short his time with Shaun when he needed some genuine advice especially when she was the one who drove Murphy to dating like an adult. Debbie in return complains about Aaron’s spoon feeding nature and how he needs to start letting Shaun learn the hard way. She asks him to acknowledge Shaun’s love life and how boundaries are in order.

 

Shaun visits Glassman at his office to share what Jeanie told him about “sharing,” but he’s stopped short. Glassman asks him to adhere to boundaries. Shaun understands that this is coming from Debbie. Glassman suggests talking over pancakes on Tuesday, but Shaun isn’t interested. He misses the days when it was just the two of them. He leaves Glassman’s office and joins Morgan to check on Jeanie’s stats. Tony comes over. Jeanie is still unsure about the surgery and what it’ll snatch away from their lives. Tony promises to stand by her side no matter what. The couple gives consent. In the OR we see that Andrews appreciates Morgan for securing the consent. She reveals how she got Tony to lie, but Andrews feels that it was true for him even though he didn’t know it.

 

Shaun and Carly try sex again. Shaun reveals his qualms about her half-heart tattoo. Relieved that it wasn’t some bigger issue, Carly simply draws the other half but Shaun still cannot get himself at ease. At the hospital, after Kane’s surgery, Claire asks Sasha to confront him regarding his possible extramarital affair. Lim visits Melendez at his office and admits that it has been very hard for her to block him out and, yes, she’s having second thoughts. Melendez is just glad that it mattered and leaves for the day.

 

Shaun asks Carly about her biggest fears. She reveals how she suffers from self-doubt at work and how pigeons freak her out, too. Shaun shares how he’s afraid of ending up alone if he cannot get over this given that it’s inevitable that she would leave him. Carly says that they don’t need to have sex and that they can simply hold hands. They do and lay down in silence. Shaun comes to a realization that Glassman was right in saying that tattoo wasn’t the issue but something else was. He goes back to his place leaving Carly wondering what went wrong.

 

Claire notices that Sasha and Kane are having an argument. Melendez and Park are around. Sasha approaches Claire in anger and slaps across her face in front of the whole nursing and surgical staff on that floor. Claire rushes out the doors and sits by the emergency stairway, weeping uncontrollably. Melendez follows her and comforts her by placing his hand on her shoulder.

 

Debbie and Aaron have received some news regarding Shaun. She asks Aaron to visit him as he would need his support now. Shaun, who has just gotten home from Carly’s, finds Glassman at the doorway. Shaun learns that his mom called from Wyoming saying that his dad has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only has a few days left to live.