59 Ways in Under 59 Minutes... That “The Good Doctor” Has (thus far) Honored, Respected, and Preserved this COVID-19 Era We’re Living In

 

For any prime-time show that made it past the first official hurdle this season—creating a safe, manageable, productive environment for cast and crew alike—a smaller obstacle had likely awaited them back at the starting block: to build, or not to build, the worldwide pandemic into the show’s storyline when writing episodes?

Consider that this part of the pre-production process was happening over the summer, when cases appeared to be leveling off somewhat and lockdown patience was wearing thin. Showrunners likely had to tackle a number of additional questions before answering that big one. Would COVID show signs of being in the world’s rear-view mirror by airtime? Would you write your show as if that was the case, or include it indefinitely? And in any scenario… would viewers, every single one of which has endured life during COVID in some fashion, be up for watching fictional stories about it on their shows of choice?

 

David Shore and Co. decided that for The Good Doctor, there wasn’t a lot of choice to be had—it’s a medical drama, so you embrace the biggest drama in modern medicine, period. You do it as a tribute to the millions who have suffered and/or lost their lives to the disease, and you do it to honor the first responders who have gone above and beyond all over the world.

Giving it only two episodes was probably a good strategy, though. By getting the TGD version of COVID contained in “just” six months (that’s the timespan they’re reported to cover by the end of “Frontline Pt.2”), the show finds enough time to cover the pandemic from a multitude of levels while also advancing a few ongoing story arcs… but by the third episode of S4, they’ve moved on. This might be a relief right about now to the ABC Network, where “Frontline Pt.1” aired last week to only an 0.7 rating (4.87 million viewers). That’s down 1.4 million viewers from S3’s opener (“Disaster”), and down nearly 2.5 million from the previous season’s premiere (“Hello”).

There’s plenty of room for speculation on the lukewarm numbers for “Frontline,” and feel free to muse about them in the comments. What I prefer to do with this recap is point out the myriad of ways Shore and Liz Friedman (co-writers of the “Frontline” 2-parter) captured the pandemic in a way that might be better appreciated years from now… at a time when TGD fans could, you know, actually get together in the same room and hold a watch party without fear of infection. (If we all lived in the same area code, that is.)

So here’s what I found, act by act, with each COVID-ism underlined, and noteworthy story developments and/or questions in bold.

ACT 1: Feb 26, 2020 (a Wednesday, BTW)

ONE WEEK TO CALIFORNIA STATE OF EMERGENCY

 

1)   Quick, simple, very effective way of showing how easily an airborne virus spreads, from the particles of a cough (into the hand, not the elbow) to the exchange of cash with the cashier to the drop of contaminated change into the tip jar.

 

Next was Shaun and Lea’s only in-person exchange of the episode, and the presumption is that this takes place on 2/26 as well. The question of whether or not “Saturday” happened for them was discussed in my earlier post about this episode… I say it did, but not everyone I’ve heard from agrees with that.

Next up was the park bench scene with Lim and Claire; the early reminder in the show that Melendez has now passed away and these two women continue their mourning.

The only St. B-related scene for Wednesday, 2/26 is the “coughing” woman from scene one getting checked out (at the clinic?) by Morgan…

2        2)   The woman (Mildred) wonders if she might have “that virus from China.” Morgan does what most doctors at that point in the U.S. were doing: a) asks about recent travel to China and/or cruise ships, b) when Mildred indicates no such travel, gets diagnosed with the flu and sent home.

 

3        3)   “Two weeks later” (3/11) is when Mildred is formally diagnosed with COVID-19 at St. Bonaventure… and presumably, that’s when everything about the hospital and its staff truly starts bending towards the pandemic.

 

4        4)   In lieu of the familiar TGD animation and music came an alternate title card, explaining this episode is “a made-up story about a real battle still being fought” and concluding with a hallmark request of current times:

 

DO YOUR PART. WEAR A MASK.

5)   By the time we get to Shaun’s diagnosis of COVID for Martin (patient #2), that same week, it’s become much easier to recognize… for the doctor—which is good given that tests were not easily found at the time.

6)   Martin protests, saying “But I can’t smell”… a symptom not realized yet.

7        7)   Shaun’s autopilot response to Martin’s question of “Now what?”—there’s no treatment, go home, stay away from people, come-back-if-you-have-trouble-breathing-goodbye- was funny (in a Dr. Murphy way) in its delivery, but it’s also what all potential COVID sufferers are (were?) advised to do if they actually get seen by a doctor in its lower-grade stages.

 

        8)   Lim struggles to get the amount of COVID test supplies needed for a hospital the size of St. B.

9)   Claire, meanwhile, deals with the “all elective surgeries are canceled TFN” aspect of things. (Is a lumpectomy truly an “elective” surgery? Claire wonders.)

        10)                      After patient #3 (the very pregnant Ambar) gets diagnosed with the virus…and, since she’s alone without any sort of family support system at home in case her case worsens, Park arranges for her to be admitted to St. B.

Park talks to ex-wife Mia on the phone and we get an update on his plans to leave St. B in order to be closer to his family…

1        11)                      Everything is on hold for the moment, given that he doesn’t feel it’s a good idea to be sharing living space with them (especially asthmatic son Kellan) during a pandemic when he’s with COVID patients 12 hours a day.

 

1        12)                      An upcoming sign of the COVID times appears when we’re reminded Kellan is graduating high school this year. Park predicts things will be back to normal by graduation time in June (remember this scene takes place in mid-March). Everyone in real life chuckles at this.

13)                      What pandemic-themed episode could go without a meeting via Zoom? This one featured Lim, Glassman, and Jessica (Melendez’s ex from S1); surprisingly, Allegra Aoki was not in the meeting.

14)                      The discussion revolves around how to acquire more PPE when all hospitals are trying to do the same thing…

15)                      …and Glassman gets the classic work-from-home-block as wife Debbie asks “nuts or no nuts?” off-camera.

16)                      Because she’s stuck at home too, passing a lot of the time in the kitchen. (But seriously, Debbie, did you not see Glassman was in a meeting AND in the middle of a sentence when you spoke? Come on now…!)

17)                      As Mildred (patient #1)’s condition worsens, we see the PPE ramp up for Lim and Claire, the two that are treating her (and now have to intubate her).

 

ACT 2… “STATE OF EMERGENCY WEEK 3”

(So… around 3/18)

Phone dance #1 (featuring Shaun/Lea and Park/Kellan) offered another COVID-ism with nearly every exchange…

1        18)                      Kellan expresses early concern with the local stats (number of cases/number of deaths)…

           19)                      Lea wants to attempt a “masked, distanced dinner” with Shaun where they turn their heads away from each other while eating…

         

2        20)                      Shaun quickly nixes the idea because “they say the regular masks don’t work” (meaning cloth masks, which weren’t as prevalent/relied upon at the pandemic’s start in the U.S.)

 

 

2        21)                      Kellan expresses concern for Park, pointing out that “people can have this and be asymptomatic”; Park assures him he’s fine.

 

2        22)                      Lea requests Shaun bring her a mask from the hospital (to attempt her dinner plans); Shaun says no to that as well… a nod to when masks were initially in short supply at hospitals.

 

 

            23)                      (Speaking of which…) Kellan also grills his dad on the amount of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) on hand at St. B.

 

2        24)                      Lea, as the voice of countless people trying to make things quasi-normal because she’s being careful, still presses for an opportunity to see Shaun. He counters as the voice of countless medical professionals who know better: “You can’t come over because we are being safe.”

 

 

2        25)                      The apple toss/ “everything’s under control” from both men to their respectives at the scene’s end felt like it represented the early, easier feelings of manageability that came with the first wave of cases and lockdowns.

2        26)                      Back at St. B., they’ve now converted part of the parking lot into an appropriately distanced diagnostic space for COVID. This is where Martin (Patient #2) returns, now with dangerously low blood oxygen levels.

 

2        27)                      Shaun makes plans to have Martin admitted to the COVID unit even as Martin states he doesn’t feel that bad. “That’s interesting… you don’t feel bad, but you are,” Shaun notes as he continues to try and get some leverage with the mysterious illness.

 

 

2        28)                      We see St. B is, at this point, closed to visitors… and has security to reinforce this fact in a brief nod to the in-house chaos of hospitals at the time.

 

2        29)                      Mildred (Patient #1) continues to struggle; Claire embarks on new remedy options she’s learned of via her online physician’s group.

 

 

            30)                      Park doubles as a “therapist” (for asthma relief, I guess) with Patient #3 Ambar. I suspect asthma sufferers will understand Park’s dual role better than I do; I’m just looking at it as one of the times dual roles are required during COVID (like the work from home/teach-the-kids-from-home parents… one of the few phenomenon that TGD isn’t really equipped to explore, at least among the show’s regulars).

 

            31)                      As Lim walks the halls of St. B with phone in hand, continuing to wrestle supplies from wherever she can as things worsen… we see more evidence of the temporary protective measures in place (plastic sheeting, bins for contaminated PPE disposal).

3            32)                      When Martin (Patient #2) reaches a certain critical point, Shaun and Andrews prepare to “prone him” (lay him on his stomach?) because Andrews got a tip from a colleague in NYC that “it helps… sometimes.”

As night falls, and the St B’vites convene (briefly, I’m sure) in the doctor’s lounge, we get a small glimpse into their current situations beyond COVID: Shaun ecstatic about the way constant mask-wearing levels the emotional playing field (giving him a rare feeling of equality)… Morgan gets cited for being happy because the banning of elective surgeries means “no one is a surgeon” (the only time in “Frontline Pt.1” that Morgan’s heartbreaking fate from S3 is acknowledged)… Claire, the one snapping at everyone, is presumably not helped by the fact that she’s soldiering through all this without Melendez…

                33)                      But from a first-responders’ perspective, the lounge scene not only allows for the brutal truth drop about trying to help COVID patients (“We didn’t help anyone…we just fended off death for a little while”)…

 

3               34)                      It also let voice-of-reason Park soothe the room by pointing out tomorrow would be more of the same, so “it’d help if we didn’t hate each other when that time comes.”

 

 

3                35)                      We then got Andrews’ biggest contribution of the night: returning home to his quiet, lonely garage space that’s been converted into his sleeping quarters so he doesn’t risk infection with his wife. She’s set his dinner out there, along with a bottle of wine and a note, but as he changes out of his clothes and sits barefoot, eating in silence, you really feel for him… no matter what dream car (I think it was a Porsche) he just got out of.

 

ACT 3… “STATE OF EMERGENCY WEEK 4”

(Putting the calendar around 3/25)

 

3                36)                      Dr. Lim gets her first taste of Thanks for all you do, but stay the hell away, you might make me sick courtesy of the woman in the elevator asking her to wait for the next one.

 

3                37)                      Even the funny-but-touching “This is Lea’s cabinet!” scene between Shaun and Park—largely designed to show Shaun struggling with the concept of missing his girlfriend—managed to get in a little sign-of-the-COVID times: Park was pleased to have scored a 12-roll of toilet paper. (And thankfully for Shaun, he even got 2-ply!)

 

 

3                38)                      Back at St.B, the rules of treating COVID patients are getting more painful for their loved ones.. as evidenced when LaShelle (grown daughter of Patient #1 Mildred) asks to bring a beloved item to her mother’s bedside, and Claire is forced to tell her that can’t happen. (And even when she offers to take it for her, the item has to be set down on the ground by LaShelle and picked up by Claire a few moments later.)

 

3                    39)                      As Martin (patient #2) develops a new complication his wife asks (from the bedside phone) “Is that from COVID?” and Shaun can only reply “I guess so… I don’t know, it keeps changing…” (how often have we ever heard Shaun say “I guess so” about ANYTHING?)

 

 

4                    40)                      Ambar (patient #3) worsens to the point of “proning”… except how to do that when she’s full-term pregnant? Park gets resourceful and borrows a pregnancy massage table from another part of the hospital to get the job done.

 

4                    41)                      As Glassman continues to be frustrated (forced to work from home due to his immunocompromised status), Debbie ramps up her need to stay busy and “try to have some fun” by doing themed dinners that require special trips to the store… none of which helps his mood.

 

 

4                    42)                      (Bonus points here for working “Sourdough starter” into Glassy’s rant.)

 

4                    43)                      Lim and Claire make one last push to save Mildred, but it’s in vain. Both doctors step out to the lot, where LaShelle awaits, and break the news that her mother has died. Claire clearly wants to hug LaShelle as she shudders with the realization, but of course she can’t even do that for her. The slow fade to black on Claire underscores all the collective misery we witness.

 

ACT 4 (No title card on this one; presumably it is still late March)

 

Phone dance #2 (featuring Shaun/Lea and Park/Kellan) offered another COVID-ism with nearly every exchange…

 

4                    44)                      Park and Kellan discuss the current stats (as someone who has made a near-daily ritual of this myself, I count it as a COVID-ism)…

 

4                45)                      Lea worries about her Good Doctor’s well-being, which prompts this rare funny exchange of dialogue in “Frontline Pt.1”…

 

PARK: Lea, Shaun’s fine. He just misses you.

SHAUN: No, no I don’t. I miss having sex with you. (LEA BEAMS)

PARK: Hey- not alone; teenager present.

SHAUN: Does Kellan not know what sex is? He’s graduating HS in two weeks… Congratulations, Kellan. ***

KELLAN: Thanks Shaun.

PARK: He knows; he just doesn’t want to hear about you having it. Neither do I.

SHAUN: Does he think Lea and I don’t have sex? Because we do… a lot. Or, we did.

PARK: I’m sure you do. We’re all sure you do. We don’t need to talk about it.

SHAUN: (big smile ) Sexual intimacy is beautiful!

PARK (waits a beat): I’m gonna skip breakfast.

PARK HEADS TO BEDROOM

 

***= Did anyone else catch this? When Shaun said Kellan was graduating in two weeks, I thought they’d advanced the timeline a month or two—after all, Park said earlier in the episode that Kellan’s graduation was in June. But when we get to Act 5 of this episode, they’re still back on week 5 of the state emergency. Either Kellan’s graduation was inexplicably bumped up to April (NOT what happened with any high school graduating classes I heard about last spring), or this was a TGD error.

 

4                46)                      Debbie catches Glassman playing some online poker while he’s allegedly working (and she’s trying to urge him out of the house for some fresh air)… and yet another kink forms in the Glassman quarantine plan.

 

4            47)                      During an update of Martin’s condition with Shaun and Andrews (the latter of which is likely gathering a ton of new ammunition about Shaun as his bedside manor with Martin fails to impress)… we hear strains of Kool and the Gang, and witness the “Celebration” parade as a COVID patient has recovered well enough to go home.

 

 

                 48)                      Park explains to Ambar that they have to put her on a ventilator, which by this point had surely become a well-known sign of things becoming critical for any COVID patient. Ambar has the additional fear for her unborn child, naturally.

 

4            49)                      We discussed Shaun and Lea’s attempt at phone sex in my previous post, but even here TGD snuck in the part about doctors’ ears getting cut up from the double-mask elastics… (a 2-parter that gets resolved later, of course)

 

ACT 5 “STATE OF EMERGENCY, WEEK 5”

 

(so, early April)

 

5                50)                      The diagnostic procedures for COVID continue to refine; we now see Morgan and Park doing instant temperature reads and asking what we recognize to be a familiar round of assessment questions. Nonetheless, this is also where Walter (patient #4) gets sent to the “non-COVID floor” by Morgan because his current symptoms don’t point to this particular disease.

 

5                51)                      When LaShelle returns to St. B in hopes of getting back her mother’s necklace, Claire initially explains they’re not supposed to return any items until “after the crisis”… but relents almost immediately, promising to look for it.

              52)                      Glassman’s ideas for keeping Debbie safe (which now include her staying away from her friends; 6 feet apart is not safe enough) drive another kink a full-blown wedge into their relationship under quarantine, reinforced later when Debbie moves into the guest room.

 

                    53)                      We get a sequel to Lim vs. the elevator lady; this time Lim growls “Wear your damn mask” as she steps on the car and turns her back to the speechless (but finally, masked) woman.

 

 

                    54)                      As things progress (on the non-COVID floor) for Patient #4 Walter, we can’t help but note an absence of masks being worn… something that likely wouldn’t have happened later in the pandemic’s cycle.

 

5                    55)                      While Ambar delivers her baby via C-section (with Park present)… Martin is grappling with the news that he now needs a ventilator. The difference between this conversation and Ambar’s earlier one is that Martin’s wife (Lily) is grappling with this news as well… and as her dialogue with Shaun continues to be strained (“Put the other doctor on”), we see that even the most refined medical professionals have a difficult time finding anything to lift the spirits of a COVID patient’s loved ones.

 

ACT 6: (Presumably that same night)

 

                    56)                      While Park tells the unconscious Ambar about her new baby (who’s completely COVID-free)… Morgan discovers COVID in Walter’s lungs and calls Nurse Petringa immediately. “You and I have been exposed, and so has everyone who passed through that hallway Walter was sitting in for an hour,” Morgan says grimly.

                    57)                      Meanwhile, Park gets permission from Andrews to try another experimental procedure that he’s been reading up on (The CHILL Study) on Ambar, whose ventilator is currently maxed out. (It feels like a sequel to the S3 finale that Park has taken it upon himself to focus attention on an “alone” individual. all while he continues to be alone as well.)

                    58)                      While the “door scene” with Shaun and Lea brings us to part two of the sore-ears matter (apparently not just doctors are researching COVID solutions online)… it’s time to address this important nugget of #Shea history that I, and readers Barbara and Mo, and others surely noticed at the start of this scene...

WHAT HAPPENED TO ALBERT THE FISH?

 

Has he died? (It’s possible; goldfish lives are not very long)

Or did Lea take him with her when she moved out…??

Did he prove to be an Alberta at some point, and have babies after Shaun and Lea added a 2^nd fish to the bowl?

Are the little fish we saw last week actually Albert/Alberta spawn??

Or are they just new fish, completely unrelated to him/her?

 

THESE ARE THE PRESSING QUESTIONS GOING FORWARD IN THE FUTURE OF #SHEA, DON’T YOU THINK???

 

Or maybe it’s time to focus on more of the “mature, committed relationship stuff” and to dwell on Albert’s fate is to live in the past. Hmm. I need some more time with this one.

 

5            59)                      Oh, and in the final moments, Claire’s daunting “needle in a haystack” search for Mildred’s necklace in a packed-to-the-gills storage room of COVID victims’ personal items… it gets hugely overshadowed by her sighting of Ghost Melendez. (And I’ll talk about this more next week, but I kind of expected something like this to happen… maybe you did too. I wish it to be the closure that a certain group of TGD fans desperately seem to need. I also acknowledge that won’t likely be the case.)

 

 

So that was part 1! Part 2 (which should span about 4 months!) will be here soon enough, so go talk about it in the comments while I give my typing fingers a rest 😏