The Good Doctor – Moonshot

By starrymag | November 24, 2019

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

 

 

Shaun (Freddie Highmore) and Carly (Jasika Nicole) are at a carnival riding a roller coaster. They stroll around, start to kiss and end up in her bedroom. Carly unbuttons his shirt, fills him in on the linen and room light details and lays down expecting him to join. Shaun starts feeling nervous, apologizes to her and leaves.

 

Dr. Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) is upset with Dr. Lim (Christina Chang) as she never returned his calls. It turns out that her retrospective weekend made her realize that Neil blamed her on the Fields case out of pure grief and she needs him to accept that he’s fallible, too. Due to their mounting issues, Neil wonders if he should run his procedures by Glassman henceforth. Audrey asks him to continue to bring his decisions past her as she’s the Chief of Surgery.

 

Andrews (Hill Harper) assigns Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) her first lead surgery, a carotid arterectomy, which is way better than the rest of the residents’ leads. Excited and elated, Morgan rushes to prep.

 

Diagnosed in her medical fitness examination, patient Wren Braxton (Donna Benedicto) has a tumor in the left lung that needs to be excised. Melendez says that they will have to remove her lung, but she needs another option as she is going to the moon.

 

Andrews, Shaun and Park (Will Yun Lee) are treating a patient named Rosalind Elion (Kathleen Duborg) who has end stage heart failure. Shaun recollects that she’s the author of a famous study done on myeloid leukaemia treatment. Park is honored to meet her. Rosalind suddenly starts to sink and have a heart attack. They rush her for a triple bypass. Andrews asks Park to inform her family.

 

While Wren is under imaging Melendez raves about her lunar visit. Claire (Antonia Thomas) was never interested in space travel as a kid as she was preoccupied with issues on earth. Melendez recalls being a Trekkie. Soon the surgeons see the tumor on their monitors and decide to approach it’s excision from the main bronchus side so as to keep the rest of the lung intact. They take it to Wren, but she’s not okay with 80% lung use as she needs 100% to qualify for space travel. She decides to seek a second opinion.

 

Morgan is practicing on the simulator. While dissecting her hands tremble. She removes her gloves and stares at her aching hands worriedly. She pops a pill.

 

Marcus and Shaun are operating on Rosalind and find the left side of her heart in a compromised state. Park scrubs in informing that Leo (Paul McGillion), Rosalind’s husband, is listed as her medical proxy. However, he’s not coming as they are divorced and have not been in contact for two years. Even her sister has been away. Shaun agrees that family members are useless in terms of medical opinions. Seeing her heart’s condition, Andrews confirms that Rosalind needs a transplant.

 

Lim wonders why Melendez didn’t give Wren the robotic arm option to spare her upper lobe, too. It seems that he’s worried that he would nick her pulmonary artery and that it’d end fatally. Lim asks him not to overestimate the risks, but he wants to err on the side of caution. Lim doesn’t want the patient to look elsewhere or lose her dreams and decides to help Wren herself.

 

Park reveals to Rosalind that they’ve made a temporary fix until they procure a new heart. He asks whom she’d like to inform. Rosalind wants to speak to her lab assistant as they’re in a crucial phase of their research. Park wonders why she listed Leo as her medical proxy. She apparently did it as she just had to fill in some name, nothing else.

 

Shaun stealthily comes to pathology to drop off samples and is about to leave when Carly calls him out. She realizes that he’s feeling awkward after last night and lets him know about some research she did and that they could try again. Shaun is ready.

 

Morgan approaches Andrews and asks for a different first lead as this one’s a tough surgery and he’s probably setting her up to fail. Andrews corrects her that he’s setting her up to shine as he’s seen the unparalleled tenacity and leadership she has in her. Morgan is happy and agrees to stick it out.

 

Wren asks Melendez to do the robotic arm surgery that Dr. Lim suggested. He repeats his qualms. While Wren believes in having guts and heroism for the better, Melendez supports being cautious and having fear as everything isn’t predictable. He adds that with this robotic arm procedure there’s a 60% chance that she’ll die on the table. Wren is still willing to take the odds. He suggests his superior, Dr. Lim, to take lead in that case.

 

At home Carly explains to Shaun how they are to lay side by side, completely clothed, for fifteen seconds and then he’s to go to the other room to take a break and then repeat. With each repeat they’d lay longer and closer. Carly sets the alarm clock and lays down. Shaun lays next to her and faces her side. As he scans her up close he starts to feel uneasy and within eight seconds he rushes downstairs in a panic. Carly follows. Shaun admits that it’s impossible for him. Carly is disheartened as she spent so much time and energy in reading psych journals, getting the lamps and bedsheets he wanted only for him to give up in eight seconds. She asks him to go. The next day, while performing endoscopy on Rosalind, Shaun discloses to Park about how he got diaphoretic in bed with Carly. Park agrees that it can feel odd with a new person and advises him to see it as a medical issue and not give up on research. Andrews walks in hoping for good news, but the surgeons soon find out that Rosalind’s heart is beyond repair and that she has one day left on Earth.

 

Lim is furious at Neil for over exaggerating the risk margin to Wren. While he feels that she’s disregarding his genuine concerns and overestimating his ability, Lim feels that the Fields debacle has made him go soft and afraid of leading this procedure.

 

Park and Shaun explain to Rosalind her grave condition. They suggest ways in which they can make her remaining hours comfortable. Park thinks she could reach out to Leo but she won’t. She reveals how he made her choose between being his wife and research. She ended up choosing where she was needed the most. Shaun supports her choice as it helped doctors all over the world.

 

Glassman (Richard Schiff) summons Lim and Melendez to his office after witnessing their quarrel. He comments on how this issue is more personal than medical. Melendez slips his surgical plan to him for review, but Glassman okays it immediately after confirming Lim’s approval. Melendez is offended that he didn’t even read it. Glassman stresses that he trusts his Chief of Surgery. Lim apologizes for their behavior. Glassman warns them to sort things out soon otherwise at least one shall have to leave St. Bonaventure. Later, Lim wonders if she should resign. Melendez confesses his love for her and hopes to find a way out.

 

Shaun and Park are in the ER where they get a case of a spoon stuck in the thoracic region. While gathering equipment Shaun takes inspiration from Rosalind and wonders if he’s better off with Carly and the happiness that she brings to him and just be content with a successful career in medicine. Park explains how happiness and success are separate and that his issues are completely normal. Park suddenly realizes that Rosalind is afraid that Leo won’t show up and that’s why she’s not contacting him. He asks Shaun to take care of the spoon and rushes to contact Leo himself.

 

Morgan visit Glassman in his clinic under the guise of getting a vaccine and reveals to him in confidence that she’s got Rheumatoid Arthritis and how she got it from her mom. Morgan needs cortisone shots to help her get through her first lead surgery. Glassman says that it’ll be a temporary fix and advises her to postpone her lead. Morgan can’t as she’ll have to reveal the reason to Lim and Andrews who will start looking at her differently. She doesn’t want to be prejudiced. She helplessly asks him to believe in her just like he advocated for Shaun when no one else did. Glassman stresses that the surgery needs finesse and with compromised dexterity she should worry about potentially killing her patient. Morgan assures him that it’s not about her wrist function yet and that she just needs her pain to be taken care of. Glassman agrees to help her.

 

Park visits Leo at a construction site and informs him about Rosalind. Leo is shocked that she sent him and how he’d always been second on her to-do lists. Park corrects him that Rosalind is unaware and that he must visit her. Leo is glad that she hasn’t turned into a hypocrite.

 

Lim leads Wren’s surgery and Melendez scrubs in to assist. They start with the robotic arm, but midway Lim realizes that Melendez was right. She asks to prep for an open thoracotomy, but Melendez suggests doing a prostatectomy procedure instead. Lim concurs and proceeds as suggested. In the other OR we see Morgan is doing her first lead with Andrews assisting her. Glassman comes to the viewing panel to observe. She reaches the most crucial stage and successfully removes the paper-like material earning praise from Andrews. She is happy.

 

Rosalind is having trouble breathing. Park realizes that it’s because she is scared. He comforts her with words and Leo shows up making Rosalind emotional. He stays by her side as she flatlines. Park pronounces her and Leo thanks him for reaching out to him.

 

After Wren regains consciousness she thanks Lim for not letting her lung get compromised. Lim gives equal credit to Melendez who has brought the robotic arm that saved her life. Wren asks both the surgeons to sign it and promises to leave it on the moon when she goes there. Lim visits Neil later in the night and with a heavy heart admits that she cannot give him the support he needs from a partner and authority he needs from a superior simultaneously. She cannot abandon her dream either and because she loves him so deeply she needs to let him go.

 

Glassman catches Morgan before she leaves for the day and congratulates her. While shaking her hand he rubs her knuckles on purpose. She says she’s okay and walks on smiling, trying hard to mask her pain. Glassman looks worriedly at her. Morgan goes home and dips her hands in ice water trying to lessen the pain as she looks scared and disturbed.

 

Shaun goes to Carly’s. He tells that he did more research on solving intimacy issues but found nothing and that her work was very thorough. He wants to give it another try. Carly lets him in. They lay down. Shaun lays next to her even after the timer has gone off and it’s time for his break. He admits that it’s terrifying but very nice. They continue to lie next to each other with hands close to one another.