Sad, angry, dejected, deflated, stunned, bewildered,
confused…
Slap in the face. Punch in the gut. Kick in the head.
I’m the first to admit I get too enmeshed in it all. Over-involved.
Embarrassingly so. And it pisses me off that I’ve been here before—caught up in
a fictional story I thought I understood so well, only to feel betrayed by
those actually telling the story.
But until the “Mutations” episode of The Good Doctor
aired on 1/20, Dr. Shaun Murphy’s story was so, so very different. That’s what
made Shaun and Lea’s story so fascinating and fun for me—and probably for you,
too: a “slow burn” (to quote an early interview featuring Paige Spara) of
neighbors turned flirty friends turned semi-estranged turned roommates turned
best friends… that still had time, in my humble opinion, to turn that last
corner towards both-sides-now romantic love and “endgame,” as people like to
say. I thought time was of the essence; if Shaun’s relationship with Carly
didn’t complete its course by the end of this season, with Lea there to pick up
the pieces in some sort of fashion, then perhaps that good ship #Shea had
sailed for good.
“Mutations” not only all but did away with practically every last
hope for the above… it did so in a way that felt small, and mean-spirited, and
left me to wonder just what Paige Spara (Lea) ever did in her life—and
especially via her character on the show—to deserve that kind of
sendoff.** “Mutations”? Heh. Yep, they
sure did get the name of this episode right. Just not in the way I anticipated
AT ALL.
(** Nipping this in the bud right away: I don’t know if
Spara is being completely written off the show or not. I know that especially
after “Mutations,” the rumors are probably going to keep growing, and every
Insta post she makes will be carefully combed for clues. But I, myself, have no
idea as of this writing.)
I don’t even want to watch TGD in real time next week.
That’s where half the fun usually is, but my head has been swimming too much
after each of the past two episodes, keeping me sleepless in a life where I
only average 5 hours a night as it is. The 1/13 episode was far from what I’d
have liked it to be with regards to Shaun & Lea, but at least it left me
thinking I still knew the direction in which things were headed. The 1/20 was…as Shaun might say... different. We all knew the spotlight would be on Shaun & Carly, but damn, I
can’t even come up with words for how brutal that opening (and only) scene with
Lea was.
Well, maybe I can. How about these words: It was as if David
Shore
A confession: In the crush of the current presidential administration’s impact on
current events and beyond, TGD has been one of my only true happy places of late. Lord knows for
someone like me—battling chronic low-grade depression, anxiety, and a kettle of
other issues that leave me somewhat less than optimistic in general—I needed
that happy place. But like Paige Spara’s role on the show, it now feels
inexplicably snatched away.
I know I’m contradicting myself when I say all this because,
a week ago, I was the one nodding methodically, saying It’s OK, #Shea fans,
we’re still got 9 new episodes to go; I’m sure there’s a plan… But as of
now, it feels like the “plan” is to kick Lea, and a beautifully crafted
friendship/love story, to the curb. And to quote Shaun again, this time from his big Glassman
scene last week… I feel sick.
Even if that’s somehow NOT the plan, how can the show possibly rebound from that atrocious “movin’ out” scene? Shaun was, well, cold (to quote a fellow
Shea fan on Twitter) and seemingly unconcerned, even failing to reciprocate
Lea’s “I’m gonna miss you, Shaun” with anything more than his new favorite
phrase I love Carly. (Which now seems to, among other things, translate
to “I cannot possess any feeling at all for you, Lea.”) Obviously his words and expressions don't often come off as others do, but this somehow felt deliberate.
It was equally miserable how Lea was uncharacteristically
agreeable to the whole thing: Oh, Carly thinks we shouldn’t live together
anymore? Wow, I don’t know how I feel bout—oh, what’s that? You agree with her?
Well, I think we at least need to talk about some things before you move out…
oh, what’s that? You think *I* should move out? Well, I guess I’m fine with
that… I think; um, I haven’t really had time to—OH, you meant you want me to
move out TODAY? But Shaun, I still need half a day to make arrange—AAAND now
you’re handing me a box and bubble wrap. Oookay then.
In racking my brain, struggling to understand how things
looked so interesting/promising two episodes ago to… THIS… the only thing I’m
coming up with is that the writers used, even exploited, Lea’s character (and the entire Shaun/Lea relationship) solely to create
conflict and advance the Shaun/Carly storyline. Lea became the other woman in
a way that only makes sense in a non-neurotypical relationship—an “other woman”
who spends the night with a man without shedding so much as a heavy pullover. And once
Shaun made a choice (in one episode's time) to recommit himself to Carly? The one that I’ve seen
described repeatedly online as Shaun’s “endgame” is, instead, facing “game over.”
So to summarize: TGD brought Paige Spara back as a regular
cast member for season 2, apparently appreciating her talents (to say nothing
of her chemistry with the titular character) enough to spend FOUR of the early
episodes of that season getting #Shea to a place that they could work with
long-term: roommates that could, at any time through the magic of great writing
and directing, turn into something even more delightful…
But here we are just 18 months later, just a couple
episodes removed from being thrown a gigantic bone of new possibility (“Friends
and Family”)… and even with my crappy middle-aged eyes I feel I can read the writing on
the wall, and the words are We wrote her into a corner we couldn’t get out
of.
If that’s what I’m reading…as a fellow writer… allow me to
call bullshit on that notion. It doesn’t make sense, to borrow yet another favorite
phrase of Dr. Shaun Murphy.
And if ever there was a time when we REALLY needed
something, anything, to make sense... it’s these early months of 2020.
I may be completely wrong about all of this… or, it may
stand that we #Shea ‘shippers were wrong the first time around. All I know now
is that TGD is not getting the benefit of the doubt from me for the foreseeable
future.
How about you? As always, your thoughts—either long-form in
the comments, or short-form via Twitter—are most welcome. This misery can
definitely continue to benefit from some company.
12 comments:
Have to split this into parts again.
There were definitely gaping holes last night. I think a big part of the problem is that this season, we've been reduced to seeing both Lea and Carly solely through Shaun's eyes, for the most part. I realize there's a time limit to each episode, and only so much time can be devoted to the characters in each episode (as with the reduced presence of Dr. Lim since she became Chief of Surgery this season, just as last season, we saw a whole lot less of Dr. Andrews while he was wearing both the Hospital President and Chief of Surgery hats, and to be honest, we haven't gotten any real growth for Dr. Park either. I like Park, always have. But he is restricted solely to a doctor, and we haven't had any more visits from or even mentions of his son Kellan, let alone any follow-up on the fact that he started wearing his wedding ring again). But things don't feel very well-rounded in general, and when it comes to Shaun, his dating life is skewed. We've seen a first date with Carly that he felt was a disaster, his inability to decipher the emojis she sent him in a text message without help, Carly shutting down his well-meaning friends Claire and Morgan attempting to intercede with her on his behalf with a snotty attitude, Glassman and Park's advice to "just do what Carly wants you to do, even if you don't want to do it," and Andrews boiling love down to the infatuation stage: rapid heartbeat, feelings of excitement in the stomach. Shaun says he loves Carly. As far as he actually understands love, that is probably true. But Carly has not said it back, and despite the claims of fans on Twitter and Morgan that Carly is patient with all of Shaun's flaws, she really ISN'T. And it was fine for her to throw Shaun out of her house when he couldn't handle her touching him for 8 seconds, but when she put the brakes on having sex with Shaun, his first question was, "Did I do something wrong?" and she answered with one of the great clichés of all time: "No. It's not you, it's me." She explained herself later in the episode, but she didn't explain WHY she thought she was ready and in the moment, her body said stop. Why did she initially resist having sex with Shaun when she's been trying to get into his pants for months? That's a question I need a more satisfactory answer to than "My body said stop, but it wasn't you, it was me."
I'm still holding out hope for #Shea until something drastic and irrevocable happens that lets us know in no uncertain terms that it will never happen. I am hoping we don't see that day. There's a lot still to unpack here. When the infatuation fades, when the sex is no longer a novelty, or if there's bad sex--because realistically, sex isn't great every single time--what then? And Lea is definitely an Issue With a Capital I for Carly. If she wasn't, then Carly wouldn't have demanded that Shaun stop living with Lea or Carly didn't know if she could go on dating him. To me, it was about Carly taking Shaun away from Lea, like two kids fighting over a toy. Lea was very considerate, all things considered, and bowed out gracefully...for now. There is so much that needs to be discussed here, and so much that not only Lea, but Glassman and Morgan and Claire and everybody else don't know, like Carly shaming Shaun when he couldn't let her touch him for even 8 seconds and throwing him out of her house as a result.
Continued...
And Carly doesn't strike me as the type to be able to handle things like the Way to Hang the Toilet Paper Debate with the grace that Lea did.
Also, Shaun hasn't told Carly anything about his past, apparently. None of the major stuff, anyway, about the abuse by his father, his mother picking his father over him, the estrangement from both of them. There is a very good reason he didn't want her in Wyoming, and he did want Lea.
Finally, Carly doesn't know that Shaun had feelings for Lea before he ever even met Carly for real, when Han banished him to Pathology. In that context, Carly is a rebound. Shaun couldn't be with Lea, so he got with Carly. Carly would NOT handle that information well.
The clock is ticking, and we are keeping score. At least I am. There's still time to turn this around, to give Lea the presence and voice in this story that she deserves, and it will be a real disservice not only to Paige Spara but to the show and to all of us fans who have been rooting for #Shea for so long if they don't do that. So I'm hoping that they do that between now and the season finale on March 30.
In conclusion, there is a lot about Shaun that Carly doesn't know. And I don't think she would be receptive to finding out most of it, especially when she learns that at least Lea and Claire knew about most, if not all, of it before she did.
Last week's patient told Shaun (paraphrasing) "You do what you have to do to keep somebody, even if it means burying a part of yourself."
How long can Shaun realistically keep these parts of himself buried in order to appease Carly?
And more importantly, he doesn't HAVE to keep these parts of himself buried with Lea, because she already knows about them and accepts them.
Don’t give up maybe Carly is using Shaun just to get what she wants and will leave shaun. The distance between Shaun and Lea will make them realize Lea is in love with Shaun. It is to early to give up on #Shea Paige is still filming the Good doctor she did an audition but it does not mean she is leaving. Freddie has been working on a documentary while also filming the Good Doctor. It’s to early to give up shore knows we are routing for Shea. It’s like Melendez and Claire or Melendez and Lim.
OMG you just made my day. I thought I was the only one who was feeling like this (angry, made fun of me in my face, cheated...) For me they ruined a story, a couple that was true, honest, fun and that could have been awesome and beautiful to see. 😭😭
I am angry as hell because they (the writers) were the ones who give us those feelings about Shea with that beautiful amazing first season just ignore and ruin everything later. I am so so disappointed of how short time screen Lea has this season almost if she was never even existed and in an interview with Paige Spara and another one with David Shore at the begging of the season they said we will see how Shaun relationship with Carly will affect Lea... Well I still waiting for that because I haven't seen a thing of that besides she's super happy about it...
Plus they way Shaun gets rid of her after all she has done for him ... And they way she seems to agrees about leaving WTF? I hoped to see the scene where Shaun tells her to leave and how she reacts but no there wasn't that scene.
Also the sex scene with Carly and everything seemed so forced and awful ( Shaun went to couldn't touch Carly for more than 5 seconds to have sex with her in like 5 seconds?) Why even give us those scenes in episode 10 to clearly see that Shaun connection with Lea is just natural and not forced at all just to what exactly, laugh at our faces then...
U don't like Carly at all. She manipulates Shaun as she wants, don't understand him at all and only cares about what she wants, she didn't even ask about his feelings about his dad dead. Besides I'm sure Carly will freak out and have no idea of what to do if she finds Shaun in the way Lea found him at the end of 3x10 because she has always seen Shaun happy and calm. Another reason their relationship it's a joke...
Anyways I'm super mad, dissapointed ND I just love Paige Spara and what she brings to the show it's like fresh air and will be an awful mistake to get rid of her....
Dear Kelli,
I am grateful to have this space to share a few thoughts about TGD with a fellow aficionado. I am what you might call an “old soul” – I am not on any kind of social media, so I usually end up talking only to myself about the writing, acting, etc. I followed the link you posted on TGD Squad Twitter site, which I read occasionally.
I am as disappointed/morose as you about the last few episodes. I had a few thoughts, however, with which I am convincing myself to keep a bit of hope alive. Will also have to
split this into a few parts.
1. I remember reading an article or watching an interview in which Freddie Highmore’s acting style and David Shore’s creative style were discussed. One of the things Freddie delighted in about the series, he said, was Shore’s inclusion of subtle, seemingly insignificant moments or actions which were loaded with meaning and could change the entire thrust of a scene or episode. Additionally, one of Freddie’s costars commented on his style of playing a scene several different ways, surprising them – not just playing it the expected or obvious way.
If you keep these two things in mind, several moments could be significant. Firstly, if you watch Shaun’s face at the end of “Fractured,” after he grabs Carly’s hand and tells her hat he loves her, it slowly changes a bit. It sags, as if reality has sunk in. Shaun is capable of showing joy (“I’m going with Lea,” in the Wyoming bar scene), and he has closed his eyes with contentment after hugging Dr. Glassman on several occasions. This is not that. To me, this is not the face of a man who finally has arrived at the Promised Land. Dr. Glassman told him that he had to hurry up his decision, and Shaun is not at his best in hurry mode. His primary fear, as we heard in Dr. Glassman’s office, is being abandoned and left alone. I’d better make a decision quickly, before everyone leaves me. His responses to Lea in the apartment the day she is moving out are perfunctory and unemotional – the exact opposite of his clinging to her the night his Father died.
Part 2
2. Secondly, the scene in Shaun’s apartment where he arrived home, sat next to Lea, and measured his heart rate – I read this as Shaun hoping that his pulse would race. He tested Dr. Andrews’s somewhat limited explanation of love on Lea, and I saw clear disappointment on his face when his pulse did not race. If at first you don’t succeed, move closer to the lady. He did, and even that did not work. I think Shaun is smarter than we think in the art of love – he already subconsciously has many of the emotional things that matter in his relationship with Lea – but he has been convinced that without the fluttering pulse and the jumpy stomach, he does not have love. He needs something he can quantify. Even his list of pros and cons was understandably superficial.
3. Lea never has given him any hope that their relationship could be anything but platonic. He continually repeats this as a mantra when her name is mentioned, as if trying to convince himself. Oddly, I think it is Lea who has some growing up to do. Methinks she doth protest too much. In several past scenes, she has alluded to her inability to have a stable, meaningful relationship for any length of time. Drummers, anyone? She does not yet seem mature enough to put in the work. Something in the future could change this dynamic.
4. I remember reading once that the third year of a serial drama is often the weakest. As a professional writer, you would know better than I. Season One is fresh and new; Season Two continues to build the characters and has plenty of room to explore new themes. Season Three can be dicey. In my opinion, this season has not been as sharp or engaging as One and Two. It definitely has had its moments, but overall, it seems slightly weaker than the first two. I do love delving into the back stories of the characters, but things seem to be meandering a bit, and the dialogue seems rushed at times.
5. Lastly, I could be completely wrong in everything. Behind the scenes, Paige Spara either made someone very angry, or she was offered the part of a lifetime, and she is outta there pronto. Somehow, I do not think so. David Shore said that we are going on this journey with Shaun, and these zigs and zags are part of life. Shaun and Lea get together; everything is coming up roses; end of series. Remember House? David Shore rarely plays it safe or takes the expected outcome. I do believe he loves this character, though, as does producer Highmore. I am trying to remember that patience is a virtue. It must be hard to construct a master plan for a series never knowing when the powers that be might pull the plug.
Thank you for giving me a place to posit a few theories.
I'm embarrassed to say that this is by far the most comments I've had on a blog post in LONG TIME (skating peeps have less to say, I guess)... and in fact I thought I could respond to each comment individually but that doesn't seem to be the case! I'll try to keep this short but you know how that goes, given the subject matter...
AMY you got the comments rolling in a big way on all 4 installments! Your positivity and plot recounting skills are top-notch and I thank you for sharing your voice :)
NORMA, you didn't write nearly as much as the others but I still read it of course... I agree that it's too soon to give up the #Shea ship for many of the reasons you stated. Problem is that with "Mutations" in particular, Shore & Co. had a funny-not-funny way of acknowledging the #Shea Adoration Society!
DANY, "making your day" made MY day. I get self-conscious about RT'ing myself but I keep following the TGD hashtag this week and see SO MANY upset fans. Not that we're all in agreement about the extent of the Shaun/Lea relationship, or how much last week will impact future viewing, but mirroring the commonalities seems to help...especially when you don't have anyone in your day to day life who "gets" it, therefore it just feels silly to talk about... Anyway, if you haven't read the three other posts I did earlier in the week, you might enjoy them too. Lots of other similar thoughts shared!
BARBARA, I'd like to think I have some the "old soul" of which you speak... I probably get more involved in social media than you do, but as you can see on this blog I'm no good at bells and whistles, AKA pictures & cool effects. I just write :) Anyway, let me go point by point kinda quickly! 1) Totally agree; I made similar observations in some of my other #Shea posts. 2) See previous answer :) all of which is why I felt like I knew where they were going with things, and why Lea's quick ouster in "Mutations" felt like an undeserved sucker punch. I agree it could be just a HUGE "zig" to previous "zags" in the story, but the focus on Shaun and Carly finally consummating their relationship felt terribly off-putting... and downright hurtful to anyone who felt passionately that Lea should be Shaun's "first". (Me, I have mixed emotions on that. Will discuss in another post probably) 3) We are thinking the same thoughts pretty much when it comes to "why platonic" w/Lea. Noticed the same things. Also something I want to discuss in a later post. 4) Interesting thought there about a 3rd year slump on dramas! I thought that might be more of a 2nd year thing (hence the infamous "sophomore slump"), but another thing that's different about TGD is that they seemed to have to re-set the entire Shaun/Lea relationship once Paige Spara came back in season 2. Given that, I wonder if maybe the slump was a little delayed here...? and 5) Yeah, no idea what's really going on (if anything) behind the scenes. Some I've talked to about this seem to have insight from following certain actors, writers, etc. but I am not one of them. All I know is that Paige is training her puppy over on Instagram, and from what I've heard/sensed, there's been a lot of vitriol thrown in Jasika Nicole's direction via social media... everything from taking out anger about her character on the show to making downright racist statements about the actress... which OF COURSE SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING. So, it ain't over till it's over as they say, but "Mutations" still carries a fresh sting for now.
THANKS AGAIN FOR SO MUCH GOOD INPUT !!!!
You're welcome, Kelli, and thank you! It's funny--I've shipped Shaun and Lea since their first meeting, and I honestly didn't think there were very many others who did because I so rarely saw anything about it on Twitter. I've posted about my own #Shea love and the fact that I ship them on Twitter, but I didn't get a whole lot of likes or RTs or response tweets until after "Friends and Family" aired, and then it was like all of the previously silent #Shea shippers came out of the woodwork.
I do agree with Barbara about there being something of a slump this year. There have been moments of greatness, but overall, almost everyone seems to be stuck in a holding pattern, and we're not seeing the kind of growth with the characters that we saw slowly evolve over the first two seasons, with Morgan being the sole exception, IMHO.
When Morgan arrived, she was ready to step on everybody on her way to the top and she helped Jared get his job in Denver so she had less competition and she criticized Claire for empathizing with her patients and was ready for Shaun to get tossed out on his ear at the end of Season 1 after he made that mistake in surgery while he was worried about Glassman's cancer, which led to that awesome scene between Morgan and Melendez where Melendez told Morgan (paraphrasing because it's been a long time since I've seen the S1 finale episode), "Someday you're going to kill a patient, and you'd better hope and pray that after that happens, there is still a doctor willing to stand by you," because Melendez and Claire and Jared Glassman and even Park were standing by Shaun after his surgery mistake, but Morgan was thinking this was her chance to get rid of two of her rivals, Jared and Shaun, and she had to settle for only getting rid of one.
Then we get into season 2, and they start to slowly humanize Morgan. "Quarantine" was a big turning point for her. The paramedic she'd been flirting with died before they could go out on a date; Morgan worked her butt off to help save Lim's life when she caught the virus; and when Shaun was on the floor in the fetal position with his hands over his ears because he was so overwhelmed by everything happening around him that he'd gone into sensory overload, it was Morgan who told one of the nurses, "Talk to Shaun about surgery! That will get him back up on his feet." And she was right! Then, after the quarantine, Morgan actually reached out to Claire, inviting her to brunch, which made Claire suspicious, but she went anyway, and Morgan ended up helping Claire with her mother that day.
Season 3 has shown us more layers of Morgan. One thread they haven't gone back to happened in the season opener, when Morgan was one of the doctors for that elderly couple where the man had dementia and his wife was resisting the team's recommendations for him. Then, at the end of the episode, we see Morgan visiting the old man at an assisted living facility and greeting him with two words: "Hi, Grandpa." I was sitting here going, WHAT THE WHAT?! The old man with dementia is Morgan's GRANDFATHER?! I need to know more. But they haven't gone back to that particular story thread. Then Claire's mother died, and Morgan discovered her death when she found Claire staring at the container of her mother's ashes in the trunk of Claire's car, and Morgan proved herself a true friend to Claire by being there for her when she spread her mother's ashes, covering for her with their attendings while Claire was on her self-destructive spiral in the wake of her mother's death, and delivering tough love when she found Claire at that bar and told her to stop this kind of behavior before this is who Claire really becomes. Morgan also interceded with Carly on Shaun's behalf, very protectively, warning Carly that she'd better not just be using Shaun as a project, which made Carly very defensive. And then we discovered that Morgan is hiding the fact that she has rheumatoid arthritis from everyone but Dr. Glassman because he's treating her for it. And the medication she was on made her keep throwing up at work, so she finally went back to him and asked for something different after initially rejecting his suggestion. But that can't stay a secret forever, because it affects her hands, and a surgeon needs her hands in order to work. And in the next episode, we meet Morgan’s mother, who is apparently right down there with Claire’s mother and Shaun’s parents in terms of being a good parent.
I know this is the part where I'm supposed to say Shaun is growing too because he's dating now, but I honestly think the one character that is evolving this season is Morgan. Yes, we get Dating Shaun now, Shaun With a Girlfriend, but it's a very superficial relationship, much like his Pro and Con lists. So I can't rightly say that I feel that Shaun is growing as much as Morgan. To me, it doesn't count as growth when you have to bury parts of yourself and shove your real feelings down to hang onto somebody else. If that person doesn't accept you as you really are, flaws, quirks, and all, they're not the right person for you. I'm not opposed to Shaun learning that the hard way, if only because I know Freddie Highmore will crush it if Carly ends up breaking Shaun's heart, and that will clear the way for Shaun and Lea to eventually be together as I've always believed they are meant to be.
This has been an unbalanced season overall so far, I think, again with the exception of Morgan, and thankfully Claire is coming out of her downward spiral. It's slow going and hard work, but she's getting there. But everyone else...little to no growth happening. Holding patterns galore. They have 8 episodes left in this season, so we'll see what happens in those, and then it'll be the long wait for season 4. I'm convinced there will be a season 4, and hopefully there will be more balance in season 4, and more growth for everyone.
I totally agree in the fact that season 3 is being more low. I don't know why and I'm liking it but I have to admitted I had imagined very different, in fact I wrote a fan fic of the entire season and has nothing to do with what is happening except for the Carly asking Shaun to move out of the apartment thing...
And yes I noticed A LOT that it seems like season 1 is one planet and season 2-3 another one and I have no idea why or if it is planned this way but it changes a lot and yes I know usually season 1 of everything is more exciting and everything but it's just that season one is so perfect in every way...
I was very sad too about the sex scene because I really hoped for Lea to be the first one of course and I don't think with Carly was very forced and on the Rush like you have said I don't think Shaun loved Carly not even close I just think that he is scarred to end up alone as he told Glassy and he thinks (because of Lea saying it) that Lea don't want to be with him romantically so he has to do whatever it takes to keep this other girl (Carly) who sees him this way and that is just so sad...
Anyways as I always say WE STILL HAVE HOPE and there are a lot of scenes that have things hidden as you have said so let's hope SHES is on the way
By the way forgot to said that yes U have read all of your other posts and love to see people thinks like me and love Shea so much ;D
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