There they are, standing in their living room with hands clasped and a serious look on their faces, just as they’ve been standing for the past few weeks.
During that time, well, we’ve kept ourselves busy. As has been necessary, as has become the usual this year, when COVID-related production delays result in a trickle of new episodes instead of a steady stream. We’ve studied the ABC-released photos, examined the promo (sometimes frame by frame), run Twitter polls, waited for confirmation on new episode titles, waited for new synopses, waited for anything more than the little we sofar have to work with this month.
Crumbs. We’re working with breadcrumbs, folks. Nothing really new about that, except that the last two times it was what we thought we knew about upcoming certain episodes that drove us bonkers. This time, for many, it’s what we don’t know about Monday’s episode that’s doing the trick.
We think we know. A lot of us are looking at factors outside the “ending that will leave… you… STUNNED” and are saying screw ABC’s manipulation; this time when Shaun and Lea stand there like they’re posed at the altar it’s the start of major dramatic development in this relationship.
Consequently, it’s once again the talk of this blog’s never-dull comment gallery. Theories fly, references criss-cross, and sometimes the glances into TGD’s crystal ball grow so complex the #Shea shipper ends up writing a guest post (Thanks again, Andreas!)
But hey, there’s a production lull. What else is there to do?
Me, I’ve decided to head to the kitchen and get to cooking…because if Lea can use bad medical analogies to explain things to Shaun, I can use mediocre food analogies to carry us to the next TGD episode. Grab a seat while I get to work on…
A RECIPE FOR A #SHEA MEATLOAF
Whether you hear “meatloaf” and think fond thoughts (comfort food, and/or memories of home) or not-so-fond ones (tasteless slabs of questionable edibility, and/or memories of home), or even if you know it by a different name (shout-out to my international readers), it’s got the same basic elements as far as ingredients go:
Meat-- either all one kind of ground meat or a combination (I presume there are plant-based proteins that fit the bill here too)
Breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs, often soaked in milk first, which serve to both “bind” the meat together into loaf form and ‘extend” the meat you have into something more (which is why meatloaf is especially popular in the U.S. during depressions/recessions when $$ is even tighter). An egg facilitates things too. But don’t read too much into that, #Shea theorists… 😉
Vegetables, chopped fine, to help give the “loaf” more texture, flavor, and substance
Seasonings-- salt, pepper, etc.
A “topping” for more flavor/eye appeal, such as a ketchup glaze and/or strips of bacon (I personally can’t stand ketchup, so I prefer the latter)
THE MEAT of the Meatloaf
I’ll cut to the question that seems to be on everyone’s mind: Is Lea pregnant?
Is that the “stunning” revelation at the end of the “Crazy” episode?
It’s a theory that has grown legs and run amok these past few weeks, fueled especially by THESE BREADCRUMBS…
🥖#Shea fans racking their brains as to what could be more “stunning” than a totally unplanned pregnancy… assuming that the “stunned” part involves #Shea at all, that is
🥖Revelations, via Paige Spara’s IG, that she’s altered her hairdo a little and now has a little fringe of bangs… which has led some to suspect a time-hop is on the way (which would allow the show to pick up the story a few months into the pregnancy)
🥖Forthcoming episode 4.12 now confirmed to have the title “Teeny Blue Eyes”
🥖A synopsis for forthcoming episode 4.12 “Teeny Blue Eyes”... which I think many of us only discovered THIS MORNING (Saturday)... contains the following:
Shaun and Lea are forced to make a life-changing decision that will alter the course of their relationship.
Well, now, hmmmm… what could all this possibly be about??? (she types sarcastically… if that’s a thing. Pretend it’s a thing, won't you? Thanks.)
When viewers started tweeting at me in the week following the “Decrypt” episode, asking if I thought a #Shea baby was on the way, I quickly tweeted back some variation of No! Not yet! I hope not… without realizing that yes, of course… that’s why it could be happening now.
I initially didn’t want to see a pregnancy (or even a pregnancy scare) this early for reasons similar to why I didn’t want Lea to move back in right away…there was a part of me that yearned for this non-traditional union to have some “tradition” to it (for lack of a better word). Marriage, then live together again, then babies a short while into marriage (realizing a baby would have to follow sooner than I’d prefer). As for the necessary dramatics, I expected something to go wrong with Lea’s first pregnancy-- a miscarriage, or an excruciating decision leading to an abortion, or even a stillbirth. But the recovery from all that-- coupled with a second, successful pregnancy-- was (in my mind) how Shaun and Lea could experience the highs and lows without a more obvious contrived breakup/makeup experience (e.g. Lea’s ex re-enters the picture).
In other words, I figured there’d be enough baby drama down the road for them IF they stayed together… IF TGD continues beyond season 4. (And for the record, while season 5 seems very likely at this point, there’s plenty of speculation as to whether the show would continue beyond that. Not so much because of ratings as the fact that Freddie Highmore may not want to continue-- and when he’s done, the show is done.)
But my “figuring,” like your “figuring,” only goes so far when we’re not David Shore & Company.
And a baby-- or at least, a pregnancy-- would complicate the back half of the season in a consistent way… no more wondering what potential complicator was coming in the next episode/series of episodes (COVID keeps them separated?! Lea was married??? Shaun’s attracted to another woman???)...
Or how we’ll get to know Lea better (What will her parents be like??? How will she handle a tremendous IT crisis??? Will she and Glassman EVER get along???)
So here’s the thing: regardless of whether TGD Season 4 runs 20 episodes (like S3 did), or reverts back to 18 (Seasons 1 and 2), S4 is currently at the same point as S3 was when the “Fractured” episode was about to air after TGD’s 6-week winter hiatus. Weird, considering they were on the “Heartbreak” episode at this time last year. But true.
I think it’s safe to say that we’d ALL like to see more bits and pieces of Shaun and Lea’s Beautiful Love Adventure, so long as the potential outcomes didn’t worry us into oblivion. We hoped to see more “adjustments” as they settled into the loft apartment on new terms; as it happens, we didn’t even get to witness Shaun adjusting to sharing a legit mattress-off-the-floor bed with Lea. (Perhaps in the crush of ideas, it was decided that their dilemmas in the “Two-Ply or not Two-Ply” episode from S2 covered enough of that. I disagree, but again, I’m not the showrunner.)
I think it’s also safe to say that they haven’t come close to mining all the possibilities for basic relationship conflict, especially in an ASD/NT (Neurotypical) situation. I know Andreas, in particular, has voiced a lot of concern about Shaun’s ASD even being played primarily for laughs in this first half of S4; knowing Andreas himself is autistic, it troubles me that he (and, I presume, others on the spectrum) are left feeling this way about a show they are so invested in for obvious reasons.
So let’s assume Shore & Co. are headed in a better direction, and look at #Shea 2.0 this way…
Keep them together; in the first half of the season, show them in a variety of situations that they resolve together and grow closer as a result. (with varying levels of success as far as viewer reception goes; with any luck, we’ll win over a few Lea-haters along the way)
By the second half of the season, we’ll need to raise the stakes if we’re to get them to a place where marriage feels like an organic progression of the relationship.
How about a serious illness? Shaun’s handled that (with Glassman’s cancer)... Work interference? At this point, it appears that Lea is perfectly tolerant of Shaun’s long hours (and vice versa? On a smaller scale?)... Questions of love/trust/commitment? Arguably much of this was resolved the moment Lea ran to Shaun and planted that kiss at the end of S3… but in more practical terms, each #Shea scenario since then has been crafted to fortify what they have.
And just as I make the 😬 face a little more and say But if Lea is pregnant, will TGD be accused of becoming even “soapier” than it already is in terms of non-medical subplots? I find myself reminded of this one critical thing:
EVERYTHING lands differently with an ASD/NT relationship.
Offhand remarks (“Newbies”), an invitation to move in with a lover (“Not the Same”), meeting the parents (“Parenting”)... the lens is different with Shaun’s involvement, and always will be.
Does that go for a #Shea wedding too? Most definitely. But they’re not to that point yet.
Does that go for a potential #Shea baby? Absolutely-- and, in theory, Shaun and Lea don’t have to be “to that point” yet because (ahem) accidents happen. That’s one thing about #Shea that puts them in the same boat as any other sexually active couple.
So for those who’d take all these things into account and STILL regard a #Shea pregnancy at this time as a dearth of ideas on the part of the writers? I guess I’d tell them to… I don’t know… go watch the show from the beginning???
(I might also tell them to go f--- themselves, at least in my head. But sometimes I frustrate easily.)
THE CRUMBS of the meatloaf
I’ve already alluded to as many of the said “crumbs” as have been made available to date, so I’m just going to add a couple of things…
1. This trail of S4 pregnancy foreshadowing, as brought to us by Andreas via the comments:
Frontline Part 1: expectant single mother without support system.
Frontline Part 2: single mother gives birth; Park delivers and nurses the baby.
Not the same: expectant single mother, pregnant with twins while her own body tries to kill one fetus, her boyfriend left her after suggesting an abortion; woman had already an abortion with 15; the doctors discuss to abort one fetus to save the other; Shaun finally delivers one baby early. Jordan reveals that she chose career over marriage.
Lim: woman surprised by unplanned pregnancy, chooses elective abortion; Jordan reveals that she had an abortion herself.
Parenting: a father has stepped down from parenthood and plays “coach” instead; Glassman claims that Shaun and Lea’s relationship is moving too fast.
Irresponsible…: a couple is surprised by an unplanned pregnancy.
That almost reads like a blueprint for a plot...
2. This little prediction from ME about the 4.12 title:
Keeping in mind that episode titles have been pulled from #Shea conversations a number of times-- most recently with “Irresponsible Salad Bar Practices”-- “Teeny Blue Eyes” sounds like something Lea would say while discussing a possible baby with Shaun-- which I think would prompt Shaun to point out immediately that a child of theirs would actually only have a 50-50 chance of blue eyes vs. brown eyes because of the way dominant and recessive genes work.
(Although I think Paige Spara’s eyes look more hazel than brown, which complicates the whole eye color thing considerably… but IF the writers go the genetics route, I doubt they’ll go all the way to this!)
THE VEGETABLES of the meatloaf
("adding texture, flavor, and substance")
Practically lost amongst all this “stunning” pregnancy talk is that there appears to be one more chapter in the Love Adventure before seriousness settles in: Operation Save Striped Tomato.
Andreas referenced it in his guest post, also noting that Lea’s parking ticket at the top of the “Decrypt” episode was another touch of foreshadowing, Grand Torino style. … and countless other readers have taken stabs at what’s to happen based on what we’ve seen so far. It goes something like this:
Shaun and Lea witness Lea’s beloved car being towed away (maybe she hasn’t paid the parking ticket(s), or was forced to park in a tow-away zone longer than planned)
Shaun and Lea ultimately attempt to recover said beloved car, in a way that does not appear to go through all the proper legal channels, shall we say. Ex-cop Park may or not be involved in this part of the adventure.
What are the repercussions of such actions? TBD, of course…
However the elements of “We’re All Crazy Sometimes” unfold-- both the Striped Tomato subplot-- and the Shaun-Morgan case of the week, apparently dealing with a man whose wife is on life support-- we’d be well-advised to look and listen for clues to #Shea’s future. Are there any allusions to Lea forgetting to take her daily (contraceptive) pill? Some have suggested that could have happened while pulling her all-nighter in the “Decrypt” episode... Does she ever refer to the Striped Tomato as “her baby”? ...Will there be a more traditional hint, such as Lea being unable to hold down food, or fainting unexpectedly-- maybe in the heat of excitement as they get her car back?
Over at St. B., meanwhile, I can easily see Morgan and Shaun debating the life-support issue, with Morgan asking “What would you do if that was Lea?” and Shaun responding in some way to infer it’s different because she’s not his wife… which would be Morgan’s cue to say something flippant like “Yeah, not now, but give it another year”...
(Perhaps wishful thinking where the lines about marriage are concerned… I still want them to get married, after all… but the long-termness of the relationship is bound to be mentioned in such a debate nonetheless.)
THE SEASONINGS of the meatloaf
In seeing these five promotional photos over and over again, I’m reminded of a certain set of promo pics we got as we headed into “Autopsy”, and the epic conversation that finally got all this started (and nearly ended it right then and there, too)...
What they showed us in advance... 
...and what actually went down 
when the cameras rolled
While I’m with the rest of you on thinking there won’t be a lot of post-revelation conversation in the “Crazy” episode-- certainly nothing as long, or deep, as the three minutes Shaun and Lea had at the end of “Autopsy”-- I’m posting these shots as a friendly reminder that what we see in the promotional materials isn’t always what we get. Even when it comes to a simple, two-person dialogue exchange. So get ready.... We don’t know what we don’t know!
OTHER THINGS WE NEED TO KEEP REMINDING OURSELVES… for this episode and beyond…
Shaun and Lea are never going to get the amount of airtime we want them to have. (Or the time the ones who develop their stories wish them to have, for that matter.) TGD simply isn’t structured that way.
When their relationship was largely undefined beyond roommates/best friends-- and especially when the lion’s share of Shaun’s personal time went to scenes with Carly-- it was tough for a casual viewer to see signs of Lea’s love for Shaun, and vice versa. That’s when the catapult moments (as I’ve been known to describe them) became so crucial in S3-- the epic embrace at the end of “Friends and Family,” the karaoke night in “Unsaid” that led to Carly breaking things off, the earthquake putting Lea’s life in danger, then Shaun’s…
Now that they’re finally together… well, historically speaking, this is where it gets rough for storytellers. How do they keep weaving the tale in an interesting way? And more to the point with TGD, how do they keep it interesting with only 3 to 5 minutes of airtime an episode? (Catapults can still work, but sparingly, as their main purpose is to quickly get characters to a new point in a story arc… not just fling the characters back and forth for the sake of entertainment)
THINGS WE HAVE TO KEEP REMINDING OURSELVES…
Shaun and Lea are never going to get the amount of airtime we want them to have. (Or the time the ones who develop their stories wish them to have, for that matter.) TGD simply isn’t structured that way.
When their relationship was largely undefined beyond roommates/best friends-- and especially when the lion’s share of Shaun’s personal time went to scenes with Carly-- it was tough for a casual viewer to see signs of Lea’s love for Shaun, and vice versa. That’s when the catapult moments (as I’ve been known to describe them) became so crucial in S3-- the epic embrace at the end of “Friends and Family,” the karaoke night in “Unsaid” that led to Carly breaking things off, the earthquake putting Lea’s life in danger, then Shaun’s…
Now that they’re finally together… well, historically speaking, this is where it gets rough for storytellers. How do they keep weaving the tale in an interesting way? And more to the point with TGD, how do they keep it interesting with only 3 to 5 minutes of airtime an episode? (Catapults can still work, but sparingly, as their main purpose is to quickly get characters to a new point in a story arc… not just fling the characters back and forth for the sake of entertainment)
Finally, THE TOPPING of the meatloaf!
David Hoselton and David Renaud are the writers of “Crazy”, which might lead you to wonder what parts of the #Shea journey have they been involved in previously? Here, I'll help:
Hoselton: wrote "Not the Same" in S4, "I Love You" in S3, "Faces" in S2 (mentioned because of the literal journey Shaun & Glassman took, as I wonder what awaits for the Striped Tomato), and "Tough Titmouse" in S2 (written solo).
Renaud: wrote "Newbies" (S4), "Heartbreak" and "Autopsy" (the latter written solo) in S3, "Hubert" (written solo) in S2, and "Apple" (written solo) in S1... the episode ending in Shaun's first semi-hug with Lea.
Also, director Mike Listo was responsible for both parts of the “Frontline” season premiere as well as the “Lim” episode this season. Last season he directed “Hurt”, “Unsaid”, and “Friends and Family." He's also behind “Breakdown” (dealing w/Shaun and Han’s final exchanges in S2) and both “Quarantine” episodes from S2...
So I think it's safe to say high drama and/or high action is among his specialties!
🍏🏎🍏🏎🍏🏎🍏🏎
Wow, this is a mighty big dish I've assembled. I'd say it's time to get it in the oven, but considering I'm about to "put a fork in it"... maybe it's already time to eat? 😃
OK, one more thing...
Try to remember, as we make our way through the back half of S4, how Shaun’s journey hit rocky territory both in the back half of S2 and S3, to the point where we were left to wonder How will he find his way back to being a surgeon? (S2) / and How will he and Lea possibly be able to make this work NOW? (S3)
Remember that HE did, and THEY did.
🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴
