The Good Doctor – Influence

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Shaun (Freddie Highmore) is wide awake at 5:30AM. He wants to have sex, but Carly (Jasika Nicole) thinks it’s way too early. However, she lets his wish come true after learning that he’s been up since 4:53AM calculating time for this. They are late for work so Shaun hurries into the ER and joins Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann). They attend to Kayley (Chelsea Alden), a patient suffering from chronic sore throat, frequent fainting episodes and headaches worse than a brain freeze. She’s visited a number of specialists but nothing has come to fruition. Shaun is excited as there are plenty of probable diagnoses. Adoring his scholastic and autistic personality, Kayley snaps a picture of him for her social media. Park (Will Yun Lee) and Claire (Antonia Thomas) treat Ann (Cristina Rosato) who is having severe abdominal discomfort and is tachycardic. Her daughter, Marla (Mila Jones), has no one to look after her. Kayley’s lab results come back. They’re all normal. Shaun is thrilled as they can do advanced imaging. Carly cuts him short reminding him about how she got late, too. Shaun admits that he didn’t account for their comparatively slower morning pace in his calculations. She suggests discussing it over lunch but Shaun isn’t available.

Lea (Paige Spara) and Shaun meet for lunch. Shaun orders her a salad while he gets an ice cream to experience brain freeze but he doesn’t know how to get one. Lea suggests eating way too much way too fast. She also reveals that she’s quitting her job. Shaun kicking her out of their apartment gave her the needed push but she’s not ready to share this with Glassman (Richard Schiff) yet. Shaun is amused. He follows her gorging advice and soon gets a nasty brain freeze.

Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez), Claire and Park inform Ann about her compromised colon. She wonders if it’s related to UTI and is glad to know that it’s not. Claire decides to get a social worker to take care of Marla. Morgan and Shaun share Kayley’s prognosis with Dr. Andrews (Hill Harper). Shaun lays down a number of possibilities which would need extensive testing, but Andrews turns them down fearing heavy expenditure. Shaun sternly asks him if he’s ever had a brain freeze. Andrews reveals that he has but sticks to treating Kayley with only painkillers. Claire approaches the receptionist to page the social worker who’s running late. Marla gets restless and starts mumbling to herself revealing that mommy drank her poop. Soon Ann reveals to her surgeons that she used Marla’s stool for a home fecal transplant to treat her UTI, which was unresponsive to antibiotics. She blames the online video that deemed it safe. Morgan and Shaun tell Kayley that they can’t diagnose or run more tests. Kayley is helpless and asks them not to worry about money, begging them to return her original voice. Suddenly, she collapses. Shaun focuses on Kayley’s cranial structure and realizes that her carotid sinus is impinged. He administers Lidocaine and in no time she regains consciousness. The whole room is in awe of Shaun!

Melendez, Park and Claire watch the video that Ann was referencing. They realize that she might’ve essentially drank feces. Park finds it stupid, but Claire supports the technical correctness of the principle as it’s been proven that the E-coli strains of UTI’s drug-resistant bacteria often hideout in the gut and repopulating the colon microbium via FMT actually works. Park feels that ensuring sterility and having medical supervision is mandatory. Melendez asks the residents to prepare for Ann’s colostomy and to get Marla’s stool tested for infection. Shaun is thrilled about how he successfully revived Kayley and now wants to celebrate by kissing Carly. He brings her outside and is unable to stop gushing about how the rare “Eagle Syndrome” caused Kayley’s unusually long styloid bone to pinch random nerves resulting in confusing symptoms that baffled multiple specialists and how a few minutes ago, it pinched her carotid causing the stroke. Carly cuts him short and they kiss. Suddenly, the lovebirds get interrupted by a group of girls who click them away whilst fangirling over Shaun. A disturbed Shaun retreats indoors and soon joins Morgan and Andrews to explain to Kayley about their available invasive and non-invasive options. They learn that Kayley’s a social media influencer whose post about Shaun has gone viral. Seeing her continue to take pictures of him Morgan feels left out. Overwhelmed, Shaun accuses Kayley of jeopardizing his privacy without his consent and lets her know that he doesn’t crave fame.

Claire takes Marla to the restroom for stool collection, but due to lack of natural defecation pressure Claire performs an enema on her. Ann’s surgery is underway. Melendez complains about the current trend of getting unguided medical advice online. Claire feels that high medical costs, physician egos and incompetencies are the real culprits. Park doesn’t believe that doctors are the only ones to blame but Melendez starts supporting Claire. Ann has hemorrhagic complications, which the surgeons handle by performing a splenectomy. Carly informs Melendez about Marla’s stool sample showing alarmingly high levels of cholesterol. Soon, Marla undergoes an MRI that indicates extensive arterial blockage that needs immediate surgery.

Shaun’s picture has gone viral thanks to Kayley. Lim (Christina Chang), Andrews, Melendez and Glassman discuss it. Though Shaun is not ready for being interviewed by reporters, Lim feels that it’d boost publicity. Andrews and Melendez think that it could blow up on their faces unearthing Shaun’s personal feelings about them, details about demotions, cover ups, etc. Lim offers to accompany him and handle the situation,but Glassman doesn’t want to treat Shaun as a liability when he’s an asset. He decides to talk to him.

On her way home Morgan spots Melendez and Claire enjoying a jogging session together. The next day Shaun explains about Kayley’s surgery to the team. Morgan expresses her wish to lead the surgery. Lim believes that it’s a perfect surgery for a third year resident to lead, but Andrews wants more experienced hands to deal with this high-profile case and feels that Reznick somehow wants to lead just to garner spotlight. Giving Morgan a word of caution, Lim allows her to lead the surgery. Ann is informed about Marla’s grave scenario. She tries getting Marla to agree by mentioning how them doing everything together calls for twinning surgeries too, but upon learning that she’d be cut open Marla gets scared and starts screaming “No.” Suddenly, she collapses.

Glassman realizes that Shaun doesn’t want to get interviewed. He wonders if he’s shy. Shaun doesn’t think he is and points at his computer which is beeping every few minutes. Glassman complains about a technical glitch. Shaun reveals that he has no downtime outside of work and sex these days. He suggests Glassman to hire Lea as his tech support. He makes a deal that if Shaun really thinks about the interview, then he will interview Lea. Shaun is happy and relieved. He joins Lim, Andrews and Morgan to meet Kayley and they learn that she’s chosen the non-invasive approach, which was actually decided by her fans. Morgan happily gets selected as lead surgeon. Kayley thanks Shaun for saving her life and career. Shaun is puzzled at how she compromises on her privacy. Kayley says that she has nothing to hide and prefers being who she is. However, Shaun believes that people get defined by the decisions they make and if someone else is making it for them then they simply lose their identity. Glassman interviews Lea. She gets the vibe of it being a formality as he doesn’t even ask for her CV. She doesn’t want to waste her time and moreover doubts her and Glassman to be a good fit anyways. Glassman agrees that their mutual appreciation for Shaun isn’t a strong enough glue. Lea lists out all the technical problems his PC is facing and walks out. Glassman changes his mind about how good she is and calls her back.

The surgeons do a coronary bypass on Marla. Claire is glad that Ann did what she did, but Park argues about her having to forego a chunk of her colon. To Claire that loss helped save Marla’s life. Melendez supports Claire. Park feels cornered. Shaun meets Carly for lunch as he needs some advice. Carly thinks that the press could be patronizing for Shaun and asks him to do what he feels is right. He now decides to take Lea’s advice, too. Seeing Carly’s reaction he’s forced to reveal about her applying for Glassman’s tech support job. Carly is appalled that first he hid about their lunch and secondly Lea might hover over their relationship all over again. Third of all, he is willing to take Lea’s advice when hers turns out to be insufficient. Shaun doesn’t think he did anything deceitful or wrong and goes on to meet Lea. Carly rushes out to blow off some steam and finds Morgan there. Morgan was worriedly massaging her fingers earlier but upon seeing Carly she flexes her knuckles naturally. Carly reveals it all to Morgan who figures out that she’s jealous of Lea. While Carly hates harboring trust issues, Morgan asks her to own up to her jealousy, savor it and then get over it.

Kayley’s surgery is underway. Morgan does well until she causes cerebral ischemia by impinging the carotid while cutting the extra bone. Shaun tilts Kayley’s head to help Morgan retrieve the cut bone and restores normal baseline EEG. After the surgery Lim wonders if they should inform Kayley about her on-table ischemia as per hospital policy. Andrews doesn’t think it’s necessary as there’s no proof. If disclosed, it could lead to disastrous press. Shaun thinks that each of them are responsible as Morgan wasn’t working in solitude. Lim turns to Morgan. She has nothing to say. Andrews wonders if Shaun could keep this detail from being disclosed during his interview. Shaun isn’t sure. Lim asks him to try but she’d never force him to compromise on his integrity.

After Marla’s surgery she’s wheeled into Ann’s room where the surgeons let her know that Marla would need a lipid apheresis and lifelong medications but essentially for the longer haul. Ann is grateful. Kayley has regained consciousness. She’s doing live coverage of Dr. Andrews, Morgan and Shaun for her social media. All three keep it normal with no mention about the stroke that she had a few hours ago. Morgan asks nurses to circulate the video. Glassman meets her in the hallway and blatantly blames her RA for the screwup.

Carly meets Shaun and admits that she’s jealous. She promises to work on it but is curious to know what advice Lea gave him. Shaun reveals that according to Lea not sharing his story to the world would be selfish. He prefers Carly’s advice. She kisses him and walks away smiling. Lim meets Melendez at his office to discuss an anonymous favoritism complaint against him and Claire. Shaun lets Glassman know that he doesn’t want to give the interview as he wouldn’t be able to be himself. Glassman feels that it’s natural as no one behaves the same way at home and at work. Shaun disagrees as it’s not the case with him; he wants to be known as a good doctor and not as a good autistic doctor.