The Good Doctor – Unsaid

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Shaun (Freddie Highmore) makes Carly (Jasika Nicole) the perfectly scrambled eggs for breakfast. He followed Gordon Ramsay’s recipe, but used half sliced tomatoes instead of full sauteed ones as he had once encountered a patient who choked to death on the latter. Carly loves the eggs as they are perfect. Shaun is hopeful that this caring act would help her feel less insecure about his friendship with Lea (Paige Spara). Carly asks him not to bother as she’s not worried anymore but is always open for more scrambled eggs. They soon have sex and Shaun gets late to work. He shares this with the residents. While Claire (Antonia Thomas) suggests simply blaming the bus from here on, Park (Will Yun Lee) comments on how women like to enjoy these things silently. He learned that at the nurses’ break room while delivering donuts to them for goodwill. Claire is amused. Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) meets the residents and straightaway jumps to the favoritism complaint against him. Without dropping any names, he apologizes for having given the wrong impression and suggests approaching him directly going forward. Morgan appreciates it.

Soon the residents begin their rounds. Park and Claire attend to Fran (Brittany Willacy), a firefighter who got her left arm severed by a dog. Shaun and Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) accompany Chief Lim (Christina Chang) to treat Cory (Zade Garcia), a ten years old boy who cannot breathe naturally because of congenital tracheomalacia and is also mute from having no larynx. His protruding trach tubes are causing infections and pneumonia. Shaun notices how Cory’s parents converse with him in sign language to remain mindful of what he’s going through. Lim is happy that Cory is a good candidate for a previously-discussed experimental procedure that would allow him to breathe normally. However, it won’t help him speak. The parents fight apprehension and give consent for surgery. Melendez, Park and Claire reveal to Fran that her severed artery has been repaired but she’d still need additional bone tissue grafting followed by post-operative physiotherapy to restore her upper arm strength.

At the MRI room Shaun wonders how difficult it must be for Cory to communicate in sign language as he himself finds non-verbal communication confusing, which is why he prefers talking it out with Carly. Morgan asks him to focus on the silent gestures as they not only project the truth but they also matter more than words. She adds that women have been mastering it since ages. Shaun calls it sexist, but after learning from Morgan that he once missed Carly’s hidden message of not wanting to have sex because of a headache he realizes that the unsaid is sometimes more important that what’s said out loud. Park and Claire are at Fran’s MRI which shows a shattered Humerus bone. Claire presumes Morgan to have filed the complaint as she’s always searching for competition, but Park reveals that it was him. He did that to protect Claire from being universally resented for receiving special treatment. She is pissed off.

Lea shows up at Shaun’s lunch table and starts eating off of his plate. Glassman (Richard Schiff) is driving her nuts and she needs to vent out. Shaun reveals how Morgan explained about women saying the opposite of what they think and it’s gotten him worried about Carly. Lea asks him not to worry as Carly seems to be in tune with him. Their lunch is interrupted by Morgan who asks Shaun to hurry up for surgery. Fran’s tendon repair is underway. The surgeons find teeth marks imprinted on her bone. Park remembers how he was way more wary of dogs than bullets during his cop days and how martial arts helped him fight those beasts. Melendez let’s him lead the procedure cornering Claire. She later accuses Park of cleverly filing a complaint to shift the OR scenes in his favor and wonders if he fed donuts to Melendez too. Park asks her to be appreciative of his good work instead of badgering him away! At Cory’s surgery, Lim asks Morgan to do the sutures for anastomosis and finds her fingers shaking. She lies to have hurt them while hammering a nail. Shaun is asked to take over. Morgan feels spiteful and forces him to worry about Carly who wouldn’t appreciate Lea’s gradual acquiring of territory by using age-old tricks such as eating off of someone’s plate. Shaun is not worried anymore as Lea has given him assurance. Lim tells Morgan to shut up and asks Shaun to focus on the suturing. Melendez lets Claire know that they cannot jog together anymore as rumors have started and they need to be silenced. She is disappointed because his companionship was helping her heal.

After his surgery Cory breathes normally for the first time in his life. His mother, Gabrielle (Karina Noelle Castillo), translates that he’s elated. However, Shaun looks disturbed. He goes home. Carly has made him chicken but she realizes that he’s upset about something. It turns out that he’s worried about how Cory only communicates with people when they look at him. This way he’ll never make friends and might never even learn to speak if he doesn’t learn now. Stressed out, Shaun rushes to do some studying and abandons Carly at the dinner table. Morgan continues to struggle with suturing and pops pills to fight the numbing pain. Claire and Park inform Fran about her successful surgery but they soon realize that she has lost sensation in her arm. The next morning Lea finds Shaun studying away with rapt attention at the cafeteria way before his call. He looks exhausted from no sleep or food. Lea picks a piece of bacon off of his plate. Seeing her do that, Shaun gets reminded of Morgan’s words. He shares what he was told about her claiming territory and Lea assures him that it’s nothing but platonic between them. Shaun suddenly gets an idea about getting Cory to snore and rushes to explain his idea to Dr. Lim and Morgan. Lea is left puzzled.

At Lim’s office Shaun uses snoring as a model to explain. He mentions how the soft palate vibrates to create sound but as it’s not stiff enough to act as vocal cords. They can construct one by removing two of Cory’s ribs to build his anterior and posterior laryngeal frame and then stretch costal cartilage across it, thus creating fully functional vocal cords. Morgan finds it risky and a desperate act to save Cory from a stunted social life but Lim feels that the procedure is definitely worth a shot. She discusses it with the parents by stressing how any further delay could prevent Cory from picking up speech. The parents say no, worrying about complications. Shaun is upset as they’re making a wrong decision which will limit their son forever. Lim asks him to calm down but he storms out of the room. Melendez, Claire and Park brainstorm about Fran’s loss of sensation in her hand. Claire thinks that they need to take the donor route, but Park suggests making a nerve conduit using silicon and polyglycolide that would allow the severed graft and nerves to grow towards each other. While Claire doesn’t want Fran to be a guinea pig for his experiment, Park doesn’t want to bring the uncertainty of securing a donor and essentially causing Fran to lose her job. Melendez supports Park’s idea. Claire hates this cautionary bias but Melendez who’s helpless, asks her to stop overreacting.

Carly meets Lea in the elevator. Lea wonders if she’s genuinely okay with her friendship with Shaun and is relieved to know that Carly indeed is, given that Shaun’s incapable of deceit. Lim meets Melendez and accuses him of asking the residents to disobey the line of command by not bringing complaints to her. Melendez insists that he was just trying to encourage open communication and trust-building but instead Lim asks him to work on his issues. Morgan and Shaun do final checkups on Cory before discharging him, but Morgan realizes that the kid is unhappy. After a brief exchange of signs, the parents reveal that Cory wants to be able to speak as he’s done being ignored and treated like an idiot at school. They give their consent. Lim leads the procedure. They successfully construct and install the cartilaginous vocal cord. Shaun appreciates Morgan’s ability to read silent gestures that allowed them to do this surgery. She returns the appreciation by praising Shaun’s doggedness in finding a way to create the larynx from scratch. Despite a few complications, the team successfully gives Cory his own pair of vocal cords. Melendez does the nerve conduit surgery on Fran by himself without creating bias or any basis of competition between Claire and Park. Both feel left out in the OR.

Shaun goes out for clubbing with Carly to celebrate Cory’s successful surgery. Carly spots Lea heavily making out with a guy there and wonders if Shaun would ever be okay with kissing in public. They give it a go but are shortly interrupted by Lea. It suddenly becomes an awkward double date. Lea apologizes for ruining the night but Carly jokes it away. The night soon turns into a fun one as they get on the stage to rap to “Superbass.” As they groove away, Carly notices the spark between Shaun and Lea as they complement each other effortlessly. The next day, she behaves curtly with Shaun at breakfast and leaves for work.

Park and Claire inform Fran that most of her arm strength and full sensation has been successfully restored. She’s grateful. The residents ask her to thank Melendez as they really did nothing. Cory’s consciousness is back. He successfully makes a murmur sound with the help of Morgan. The parents read Cory’s signs and let the residents know that it’s the best day of his life and that he thanks Dr. Murphy. Shaun looks happy. Melendez is at a diner and Claire comes in. He prepares to leave. Claire hates how her mentor has become and lets him know that it’s turning the work environment toxic. Melendez says that he’s simply being professional. He leaves and is about to drive home but something changes. He gets back to the diner and gives company to Claire. Lim meets Morgan near the lockers. She is puzzled by the resident’s  behavior as one day she’s complaining about her attending and the next day she’s complimenting her colleague. Lim wonders if this was a preemptive move taken by her to secure her place at St. Bonaventure and if it were true what could be challenging her stay at the hospital. Morgan pretends that she has no idea what it’s all about. Lim warns her that she will never think twice before relieving a resident if she feels the need for it, no matter what corrective or preventive measures are taken. Morgan agrees with her and looks concerned about her own future at the hospital.

Shaun excitedly meets Carly at the hospital exit and lets her know about a special grilled cheese recipe that he’s going to prepare and treat her with at dinner. Carly wells up and says that she cannot be his girlfriend anymore. Shaun is taken aback. He wonders if he did anything wrong. Carly mentions how she saw something between him and Lea the other night. Shaun disagrees with her. Carly continues that he might not be aware but he loves Lea and not her. She advises him to confess them to Lea. She leaves. Shaun stands alone staring into nothingness, absorbing the turn of events as tears roll down his eyes.