State of the #SHEA Part 7: Who's "Influence"-ing Who?

I spent about 15 minutes just now brainstorming at least a dozen possibilities for THE PICTURES.

Which pictures, you ask? (Really? You don’t know?)

The promo pictures from the episode set to air February 24 (“Autopsy”). I’m not posting them here yet because if I do, you’ll be fine tooth-combing them too (instead of reading all this stuff I just posted). I’m also not posting them because there’s still last week to debrief, to say nothing of the coming week (entitled “Unsaid”), and all the karaoke shots from that one… 

Karoake 2.0 is ON like Donkey Kong

to say nothing of the awkward as hell elevator scene with Lea and Carly… 

If these walls could talk...
(with any luck, they won't have to)

in other words, we’ve finally got a lot to unpack here. Let’s not rush it. 

Even though I just did, with the brainstorming and all…c’mon, Kelli. FOCUS.

OK, “Influence”… three key developments for #Shea fans:

+      Lea’s back. (OK, she never really left, but… you know what I mean.)

+      Thanks to Shaun, Lea is now employed by St. Bonaventure—specifically, Dr. Glassman, aka GLASSY.

+      Lea is still most definitely under Carly’s skin… I don’t care how many “parades” she has now experienced with Shaun.

Remember how I broke down scenes and screen time for the“Fractured” episode? I didn’t do a full breakdown this time, but I did track two things: 1) Lea’s on-screen time, and 2) amount of discussion that had something to do with Lea, which surely had to be at a high point for this season at least…

On-Screen Time: 3 minutes 15 seconds (2 scenes)

Talked-About Lea Time: 6 minutes 30 seconds (4 scenes)

Heh. Funny how it worked out to be exactly twice as much. While I’d rather the two numbers be more evenly distributed, I’ll take it. When Lea announced over the lunch with Shaun that she was quitting her job, my heart sank a little because my instinctual reaction was Oh no, they’re gonna send her away and off the show. It doesn’t even make sense at this point if you’ve read ahead AT ALL, but in that moment my head was still stuck on the brutally short “packing” scene from “Mutations.” And when Shaun’s deliberate ice cream headache hit him full force, the entire “I quit” thing was so overshadowed, I didn’t expect to hear about it again anytime soon… much less to become a sort of bargaining chip for Shaun when up against the ropes about the interview he didn’t want to give.

But think about the entire little scene: Shaun made lunch plans with Lea, but was so excited about the possibilities with Kayley The Influencer’s affliction that he almost canceled said plans. THEN he found a way to not only keep his date with Lea, but use the time to get more in touch with patient Kayley’s pain. That’s a genius move already. And then (!) he uses the little technical difficulty in Glassy’s office (not the first computer problem that’s cropped up this season for him, by the way) to pave the way for Lea to come work in the same building he works… sure he was being helpful, given what Lea had just told him about quitting. But how much was helpful, and how much was I miss seeing Lea everyday so this might help me too?

Surely that’s a question weighing heavy on Carly’s mind after “Influence”. Let’s cut right to it—she’s about 1 or 2 episodes away from laying down the it’s-Lea-or-Me ultimatum, isn’t she? (More on this in a minute.) Even though she seemed to heed advice from Morgan (yikes, those words alone spell danger!)… even though the little chat with Shaun about her jealousy issues ended relatively well… even though Shaun opted for Carly’s advice about dealing with the press over Lea’s advice (which I’ll say again did not sound like a fully-fleshed out Lea response, but in this particular instance that might’ve been by design). This episode felt like she won the battle, but hmmm… about that war…

And the fact that both Lea and Shaun appear oblivious to developments between them is, for the moment, as maddening as it is intriguing. As many of us jump ahead to that sequence of Lea/Shaun pics from “Autopsy”, struggling a guess as to what is transpiring—and how it relates to the confession Shaun is reportedly going to make in that episode (described in the press release as both “dramatic” and “emotional”), I start with the thought Shaun needs to be aware of something before he confesses it. And as of the conclusion of “Influence,” his awareness is limited to what’s right in front of him:

1)      He conquered his fears of intimacy with Carly, therefore, he thinks his decision to commit stronger to that relationship was a good one.

2)      He and Lea remain strictly platonic friends; neither of them have yet to indicate anything different to the other. To him, Carly’s only upset about Lea because of what happened in Wyoming (as opposed to the entire relationship).

3)      Since he and Carly will “work through her jealousy together” (to paraphrase what he said near the end last week), Shaun believes any lingering issues will be resolved efficiently.

We can talk about the possible contents of Shaun’s confession next week, but for now we’ve gotta talk about what goes down during the double-date that changes things up. You’d think the simple fact that Lea has someone to bring along on a double-date should please Carly, right? As should the fact that Shaun is supportive enough of Lea and the other dude to sit alongside them at a karaoke bar? But a full-blown double date is way too loaded with possibilities to simply provide two minutes or more of window-dressing. And don’t forget about those elevator shots…

And the header YOU CAN’T FIGHT YOUR TRUE FEELINGS found in the ABC press release for the “Unsaid” episode. How many characters are included in those words this week?

Something else to note: Carly is not mentioned in the summary for “Autopsy”, nor is she anywhere to be seen in the promo pics. That, combined with the expected double meaning of the show’s title, are leading many to guess that Carly and Shaun’s relationship is “dead” (or as good as) by the end of “Unsaid”… which might mean that whole “Lea or ME” ultimatum I mentioned earlier is about to go down this Monday night.

But what TGD episode is devoid of red herrings?

AAAUGH!!! What’s gonna happen?

No tequila this time around, but that doesn't guarantee this night will end smoothly

OK, I know y’all got some guesses of your own. Here are mine:

+      Shaun’s going to arrange this double date as a way to help Carly with her insecurities about Lea…

Shaun and his backup singers?

+      But once it comes up that Lea and Shaun have done this before, it’ll lead to a rehash—or maybe an entire revelation—that he and Lea had a thing for each other in the beginning, had a road trip, had a kiss or two… I don’t think he’s told her any of this. Do you? So—big trouble.

+      And since Lea now works at St. B… AND since the PR copy says “despite everyone else’s doubts”… others from the St. B gang might opine on this triangle for a minute. Since Morgan had some input last week, my money is on Claire. (Hey, it’s not like Carly’s tight with either of them. That was clear back at the start of this season, when she gave variations of “leave me & Shaun alone” to both doctors.)

+      Bonus Wish #1 (meaning the writers will not do this, but I really wish they would): something transpiring on the double date to indicate that spark between Shaun & Lea… whether Carly takes note or not.

Penny for your thoughts, Lea? We're willing to pay much, much more, by the way... 

+      Bonus Wish #2 : Lea’s date DOES take note that she seems more interested in her “friend” than him, and tells Lea so.

Potentially pissed that he's not The Good Doctor

COUPLE MORE THINGS TO MENTION…

1)      Lea coming to Glassy’s aid—professionally speaking—was by far the best thing to come out of “Influence” for Team #Shea. The ramped-up jealousy of Carly I expected. This--! A lovely surprise that not only advanced the narrative nicely, but gave fans a badly-needed vote of confidence about Lea’s future. Until now, she’s sort of been the odd woman out in a cast of doctors and related personnel (even Debbie was connected to St. B as an in-house barista before becoming Glassy’s wife and office manager). This move is inspired for the situations it’ll create for TGD’s original Odd Couple, and anyone else Lea may now be able to come in contact with easily. And yes, for me it’s the start of a path to forgiveness for “Mutations”. Let’s see where TGD goes from here.

2)      Speaking of “Mutations”… I’d guessed early on that if Shaun and Lea separated for Carly’s sake, it would prompt Lea to re-evaluate everything in her life. The main thing, of course, was her relationship with Shaun. Obviously we haven’t seen that happen yet, but as Lea herself said during lunch with Shaun, there definitely IS a re-evaluation taking place…

3)      Oh, and speaking of the lunch! Just a quick technical thing I noted: if you watch the part of the scene where Shaun launches into the medical breakdown of an ice cream headache, you’ll see that they went to an over-the-shoulder shot of Shaun/medium closeup of Lea almost as soon as he started with the 18-syllable words. If you listen hard, you might notice (as I did) what sounds like a tiny audio edit. I suspect that Freddie Highmore had an exceptionally difficult time getting those 18-syllable words out in this particular scene, and they ended up re-dubbing them in post-production (with Highmore repeating the lines in an audio booth).  I could be completely wrong, but that’s what it sounded like to me. 

    For all I know, that kind of thing has to be done all the time on medical dramas! But it reminded me of a time I was working on a pre-recorded TV talk segment in the mid-1990s, when Benjamin Netanyahu had just become Israel’s Prime Minister for the first time. One of the on-camera talents had a terrible time pronouncing his name. He flubbed it so many times, in fact, that we had to edit in just that one word (“Netanyahu”) after he mastered its pronunciation later. The edit sounded AWFUL, but there was no other way to make it work. TV magic?!?! Eh, not so much.

As I post this, we’re about 24 hours away from getting more clarity on what’s “Unsaid” in Monday’s episode. Got predictions, hopes, daydreams, other things to add? Tag me on Twitter or leave it in the comments!