State of the #SHEA Part 8: When All is "Unsaid" and Done

I couldn’t help it—I had to get to writing as soon as I could!

Now, ABOUT LAST NIGHT…

+      Lea was EVERYWHERE and I loved it. (More than 2 scenes + talked about in multiple scenes= “everywhere”)

+      The seeds for Lea’s epiphany were sowed (or sowed further, if you count her comforting Shaun in “Friends & Family” as the first big one), and that was encouraging. The cafeteria scenes, the elevator, the karaoke slo-mo.  It was all there.

+      Lea’s boyfriend in the karaoke scene didn’t have any lines… hell, he didn’t even have a NAME! I consider this a plus.

+      I have mixed feelings about the PDA part of the karaoke bar scene. Shaun’s reaction to it being Lea out there making out on the dance floor didn’t seem to be tinged with any sort of jealousy—launching into how “Lea always uses protection” was a hilarious reaction, to be honest. But on the other hand, when Carly declared a need to conduct her own PDA “experiment” and Shaun had trouble focusing, eyes opening and closing throughout—was he having difficulty because Lea was nearby? Or because he saw her approaching out of the corner of his (open) eye? Or was it simply because he’s NOT comfortable with PDA?  Seemed like it could be a mix of things. Or not.

Shaun wiped his lips post-PDA attempt in Lea's presence

+      As for the KARAOKE itself… even before the slo-mo shot started, how could anyone not love that?  Rapid-fire sing/rapping “Super Bass”? Lea and Carly trading verses? Shaun stealing the show from both of them? Shaun mispronouncing Nicki Minaj’s last name? (Wonder if that was a Freddie Highmore error that they decided to go with…?) I hope it was as much fun to execute as it was to watch. One for the ages.

Shaun doing air drums at the very start of the karaoke sequence

+      Now, let’s count the many ways I got my guesses from my previous blog post wrong…

       1) It wasn’t a double-date arranged by Shaun, but a happenstance run-in at the same bar. (Wish we knew whether it was Shaun or Carly who invited Lea and Nameless Guy to join them at the table…)

       2) While Shaun & Lea’s karaoke history surely weighed in on the storyline overall, there was no direct mention of it… and I’m still left wondering if Carly knew anything about their pre-roomie history. (Probably a moot point by now, but still…)

      




3) Claire’s apparently too busy with her own issues and relationships to even know Lea’s working at St.B, so once again it was Morgan who offered up her two cents—make that two hundred cents—about Lea’s “dominant” nature. (It’s OK, she and Lea got plenty of snarky moments out of it… kind of tough to believe we’d never seen them share screen space until yesterday, but it’s true)

      4) Lea’s Nameless Guy didn’t seem to mind Shaun & Lea’s karaoke moment enough to call her on it… in fact, in maybe the most random moment of the whole show, Nameless Guy was actually shaking up and uncorking champagne as Shaun and Lea spun into their own world up there on the stage. It suddenly felt like Shaun and Lea had won the Daytona 500.

The one thing I predicted that DID work out, though not at all as I expected …"something transpiring on the double date to indicate that spark between Shaun & Lea… whether Carly takes note or not."

     1) Um, yeah… she took note!  (More about the breakup scene from "Unsaid" next time)

Props to TGD director Mike Listo for creating this excellent (though heartbreaking) shot 

     

 2) My completely #Shea-biased opinion? Whether it was added in by the director of “Unsaid”, or already in the script (most likely the latter, as it was maybe the most crucial part of the story)… by drawing out Shaun and Lea’s lost-in-their-own-world moment with slow motion, with the lights bright, the music fading into the background as an increasingly stunned Carly looked on… they took that spark of #Shea and underlined it, highlighted it, drew a circle around it with a big red Sharpie. And with that, I started to think (for the first time since "Friends &Family")... wow, they just might be on our side after all.

Now, just a little bit ABOUT NEXT WEEK (“Autopsy”), which I will post more about as we get closer to airtime…

The summary copy of the show includes the line When Dr. Shaun Murphy makes an emotional confession, the result may not be as desired. It’s got us all in fits already, and many are bracing for impact with thoughts of Lea crushing him further with a complete inability to feel as he feels. Here’s what I’m doing with this so far:

+  I think the results Shaun “desires” next week are a clear-cut understanding of where to go from here with Lea. (Well I also think he wants things to continue as they have been with Carly, but I REALLY don’t think he’s gonna get that.)

+ That said, I don’t think he’s gonna get clear-cut from Lea. The only way that could happen, MAYBE, is if she had consciously been pining for him this whole year. She hasn’t. But that doesn’t mean she’s gonna pat him on the hand and say Shaun, didn’t we cover this way back when we first became roommates? They’re not where they were then.

+ In fact, since Lea’s clueless enough about Shaun’s love to believe it when Carly told her in the elevator that Shaun doesn’t think of her that way… let’s see, what does she have to work with again?         

      A) Having to leave her great apartment (and bestie/roomie) because he felt that the need to please his girlfriend superseded his relationship with Lea

     B) The knowledge that Shaun and Carly have broken up (I presume she’ll know by next week)… like, JUST broken up.

    C) The awareness that Shaun is dealing with a LOT (for anyone experiencing their first breakup, let alone someone with ASD), and feels lonely, and desperate… maybe even desperate enough to put their friendship on the line for what might feel to her like a rebound romance.

You see where I’m going with that, right?

One more thing for now… Shaun’s realization of his true feelings might come sooner than Lea’s, but not without a fight. Maybe a “fight” along the way with Lea; after all, he may resent her on some level (especially when she doesn’t magically fall into his arms) because he blames her for Carly’s decision. And most definitely he’s still fighting himself on the idea. Remember that he’s been all about compatibility this season with Carly, from the binder of questions he asked on their early dates to he frequent declarations lately of being “very compatible sexually” (Yep, still not gonna ask about that).

So-- even if he can admit love for Lea, he may balk at first (and second, and maybe third) about how “it doesn’t make sense”...

Which, with any luck at all, will lead him to perhaps his best relationship lesson yet.