By the time you read this, The Good Doctor may have
started filming season four!
SIGH. The pandemic changed TGD’s shooting plans yet again
between the time I wrote that first line and the time I posted it live on the
blog.
Here’s the news release about the latest delay, in case you haven't seen it.
As for the ins and outs of HOW they move forward, once they do… there have been some write-ups about it, including “shooting love scenes during COVID-19” (which I know we’re all curious as hell about), and from a production standpoint, it’s quite interesting stuff.
BUT… for now you’ll need to look those articles up on your
own, because that’s not what we’re speculating on this time. Part 1 of Now
That They Found Love, which I posted back in May, opened a few avenues for
storylines/episodes that I described as The Good and The Bad:
THE GOOD= things that count as lighter dilemmas &
challenges; issues that are able to be resolved in some manner in an episode or
two
THE BAD= deeper-rooted situations that have make-or-break
potential, though obviously the hope is that Shaun and Lea now have a
foundation to withstand such root “damage”
There are plenty more roads to explore, though, so let’s see
if I hit on something that you’ve been thinking about as well…
THE GOOD
Improving “little things” before they turn into big things
Quick, what’s the only time thus far that Shaun has said
something complementary about Lea’s physical appearance? HINT: Lea wasn’t even
there when he said it…
SHAUN (talking to Claire at the hospital): My neighbor, Lea…
If she were ever in a fire, she'd be rescued first.
CLAIRE: Why's that?
SHAUN: Dr. Melendez says attractive people have advantages.
(From 1.9 “Intangibles”)
That’s the conversation that started Claire explaining “the
flirting trifecta,” which adorably led Shaun to counter Lea’s initial flirt—“You’re
such an asshat, Shaun Murphy”—with his own attempt (“Lea… you look ridiculous
in that sweater.”)
But that was then, this is now, and while it’s pretty much a
given that Shaun is physically attracted to the woman he’s in love with… he has
yet to tell her outright, at any stage of their relationship, that he thinks
she’s beautiful/pretty/gorgeous/whatever. Not a criticism, just an observation.
Is it important that he learn to say these things that neurotypical
men often tell their significant others on the regular? Well… while I do have
this filed under the little things, I think one of Lea’s self-proclaimed
“needy” attributes might the need to hear the words from time to time (let’s
face it, she’s far from alone in that regard). And one thing about Shaun’s
reticence on these kind of compliments—if/when he does feel inspired to
tell her how he sees her, it could be epic in its own way!
All of this is related to a bigger little thing
known plain and simple as communication… a challenging cornerstone for any relationship
success, usually broken into pebbles of daily or weekly happenings. The bad
news is that ASD makes communication even more challenging. The good news is that
Shaun and Lea have a head start, learning what they’ve learned about each other
for the past three years. But how far will that head start actually BE now that
the relationship, and its expectations, are changing?
Something to think about… suppose Lea and Shaun were to try
and help their communication along by mutually agreeing on an “exit line”—a.k.a.
a way to improve upon all those abrupt departures of Shaun’s. Something simple,
like I love you and I’ll talk to you later? Ah, that’s kind of boring.
YOU should come up with an exit line!
(No, really, you should! And if you do, please leave it in
the comments!)
Lea, the St. Bonaventurite-In-Training
S4 is also the perfect time for Lea to interact more with others
we know and love at St. B. On the one hand, there are a wealth of options:
Lea/Morgan (we already know we like that combo), Lea/Debbie (great potential,
though they’ve yet to share the screen), Lea/ Claire, Lea/Audrey (who appear to
be good friends off-camera already)… or any combo of the above.
It wouldn’t take that many scenes/episodes of bonding to
establish a St. B sisterhood of which Lea is now a part. I hope TGD writers
consider it. Would be a lot of fun, and a great way for Lea to become defined
beyond being Shaun’s Girlfriend.
Speaking of which-- if TGD could hand over an entire
episode in S3 to Carly’s character development AND get Carly and Shaun working
together (figuratively and literally) to strengthen their relationship (3.12
“Mutations”)… surely they could do something similar in S4 with Lea, a character
that (Lord willing) will NOT vanish from the cast a few episodes later?
From neighbors to roommates to best friends to…
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that COVID
precautions are NOT going to interfere with shooting #Shea love scenes…
I’m also going to assume that there will be at least as
much demonstrative affection between Shaun and Lea from the jump as there was
in the final few weeks of Shaun and Carly’s relationship… probably more.
But as they progress towards that First Time we’re waiting
for, there’ll be plenty of room for conflict. Maybe Lea will want to wait
longer, for any number of reasons (she’s scared, she wants it to be more
special than other “first times” in her life, she’s still uncertain about the
relationship in general, etc.) Maybe they’ll have a number of attempts that
will get interrupted by a call from the hospital. Maybe one or both of them
will get upset by efforts to “make everything perfect” for that First Time that
go awry… but then when they least expect it, an emotional rush of some sort carries
them away.
Whenever Shaun and Lea officially become lovers, I think we
need to make the most of it. Because I wonder how much we’ll witness of their sex
life from that point onward. There’s plenty the writers could do to explore the
challenges/rewards of their intimacy that does NOT come off as a retread of
Shaun and Carly, but I wonder if they will. Not necessarily because of the
pandemic, but moreso because, as we know so well, the personal stories on TGD
are doled out in very limited increments of time. I suspect once it’s been
established that #Shea have done the deed, we won’t be privy to a whole lot of pillow
talk… if only because the show has bigger relationship fish to fry. At least,
for now. (Believe me, I hope I’m wrong as much as you do!)
THE BAD
Shaun’s anger issues, revisited
They’ve got to go there, right? Here are some thoughts on how it could be done…
+ An organic way for TGD to ease Shaun and Lea into that discussion could be a scene that has them in or near the Striped Tomato for what is revealed to be the first time (or one of the few times) since the baseball bat incident. This might carry more credibility if they remind us that Lea has TWO cars, as they did when The Tomato made its debut on the show in the “Islands” episodes. (IF she still does?) Lea could make a lot of excuses for driving them around in her other car…then freeze up or react in some other, adverse way when circumstances placed Shaun back in the vicinity of her most prized possession.
+ Otherwise, it
might take a flare-up on Shaun’s part—not necessarily sparked by Lea, but just
in general—to trigger a conversation. Maybe Lea would pull away from such a
flare-up, retreating silently (rather than trying to talk Shaun down) in
recollection of that awful night last spring. How long might it take Shaun to
counter-react to such non-verbal communication? Calling on my ASD experts…
+ Since I can’t imagine going through a season of TGD without some highly emotional moments from Dr. Murphy, it seems more a matter of when than if he’s wrestling with his anger. But I truly hope that if Lea’s involved, it’s in a way that doesn’t have her questioning her decision to be with him. No guarantees for that, I know… but something that might factor into that is the timing of such an event. If it were to happen in the back half of the season, would it seem less threatening than it does right now because the relationship will have a few miles under its belt by then?
Lea’s “worthiness,” revisited
When Lea laid out her initial rationale against a
relationship with Shaun, we got several confirmations about her perceived low
self-worth. How will that play out now that she’s made her leap of love/faith?
As Andreas pointed out a while back, telling Shaun he “made her more” in the
final minute of the season didn’t give us much insight into how he does
it… or how she internalizes it.
Shaun sounded confident when he told Lea (during the final
three minutes of “Autopsy”) that he thought he’d be able to handle her
neediness/selfishness/messiness if they were to pursue a relationship. But will
that confidence hold up when their love is tested? It’s a difficult enough
question for a neurotypical person; when it’s a person with ASD… well, that’s
exactly what Lea was getting at when she initially walked away with tears in
her eyes. With that in mind, I can’t imagine TGD writers will ignore these
challenges in S4. I also can’t imagine Shaun doing anything less than finding
his own way to rise to any occasion necessary. Hopefully that’s not me simply
being over-optimistic.
An Outside Force to Be Named Later
There’s going to be at least occasional conflict if #Shea
are to get any screen time; if it doesn’t stem from the characters themselves or
any of the ideas I mentioned in the May edition of Now That They… , here
are a few more options:
+ A new character
(maybe one replacing Dr. Melendez)? A temporary character, a la Dr. Han? An
extension of something that might happen between Lea and a member of her
family? I should add that I don’t mean to imply a new character could come into
the show setting their sights on either Shaun OR Lea… there’s plenty of things
that can crop up without a hint of an issue of romantic betrayal.
+ A crime that
Lea falls victim to… I’m saying Lea, not Shaun, since he was in the holdup in
S1 and was also hospitalized in S2 after his (very brief) bar fight. But he IS
the titular character, so I suppose he could be the victim of a crime too.
Perhaps something that happens while they’re out on a date?
+ Since we just
witnessed a natural disaster in San Jose, another one seems less likely… BUT…
we had a 2-part quarantine in S2, and a 2-part quake in S3… what could be the 2
parter this time? And what long-term effect will it have on #Shea (if any)?
Readers, if you’ve got any offerings for that last idea… or,
want to share your own take on S4 storylines for #Shea (my suggestions, or your
own)… you know where to share your thoughts!
A post more specific the role ASD plays in romantic partnerships
is what I plan to do as a final installment to this Now That They…
series. Look for that in September!
