Actually, let me rephrase that: the social media buildup to
this Monday’s “Autopsy” episode already has me emotionally drained. How about you?
Are you as weary as I am of certain words and phrases that keep popping up, be
it in synopses, or articles, or plain old garden variety speculation that
screams more doom and gloom for Dr. Shaun Murphy?
So I’m gonna try and make this more of a restorative post,
because I think we could use it right about now.
Because I’m still feeling a lot better about things in the
wake of “Unsaid”, but at the same time, I continue to carry the angry burn left
behind by “Mutations”. Because I have numerous guesses as to what will go down
on Monday night—as may you—but am still fearful that the ones I think work the
best will somehow vaporize as possibilities the minute I type them out. Because
I’ve been encouraged again this week by what seems to be an overwhelming
majority of like-minded TGD fans, but as the week progressed (more on this in a
minute), the anti-Lea fans started showing their claws more…
Lea is the worst.
I've always thought Lea is insecure and manipulative at
best…
I don't know if Shaun loves Lea but I know Lea does not
love Shaun. And I really disliked her behavior this week. It's like she makes
Carly do all the work to get Shaun to place where he is okay dating then she
sweeps in. Idk. I don't like her.
ENOUGH. I’m lighting a candle, I’m grabbing some hot
chocolate, I’m putting on my mood music… you’re invited to do the same. Let’s see what we can come up with here.
WHAT WE KNOW:
+
Carly broke up with Shaun after
witnessing with her own eyes “the something” that Shaun and Lea have between
each other.
+
Carly told Shaun that despite what
he says or believes, he loves Lea and should tell her so (because she thinks
Lea loves him too).
+
Shaun (of course) didn’t
understand where this was coming from, and looked quietly shattered as Carly
walked away.
+
Lea, as of last episode, was aware
that Carly had some jealousy issues… but surely, after karaoke night, presumes
all is well.
OH, and a note about the final scene from “Unsaid” that I
neglected to mention last time… this was yet another thing I got wrong! I anticipated Carly issuing an ultimatum to
Shaun; turned out she spared him the Lea-or-me choice by making a decision of
her own. And with that, the writers both humanized Carly further (perhaps
silencing a few of those calling her shrill, annoying, insecure, possessive,
etc.)… and provided some much-needed validation to #Shea fans by having Carly
notice sparks between BOTH Shaun and Lea. No easy task. Also, thanks. Progress
counts!
WHAT WE’VE BEEN TOLD ABOUT “AUTOPSY”
+ Via an interview with FreddieHighmore, who is directing as well as starring: "It feels like a sort of climactic, meaningful episode that (includes) the payoff for lots of different things that have been set off over the course of the season."
+
And about that line in the
synopsis—Shaun’s going to make an emotional confession (to Lea) that may not
generate the results desired--
Highmore had this to say: “It's a scene that I'm really proud of. Paige did such a wonderful job playing the scene and it's always a joy to act opposite her. There's this sort of horrible truth that the episode ends on that hopefully will feel surprising, even though it's not entirely conclusive."
WHAT WE'VE SEEN SO FAR OF "AUTOPSY"
WHAT WE'VE SEEN SO FAR OF "AUTOPSY"
+
Shaun’s emotions are everywhere
BUT happy, satisfied, content… all the things he’s probably associating most
with Carly right now.
+
Carly is standing by what she told
Shaun about breaking up.
+
Lea we’ve seen, but not heard from
via the promos.
+
Presumably, the scene from which
we’ve seen only stills—at the apartment Shaun and Lea used to share—is where
the emotional confession takes place. You can see some of them here in this post.
Meanwhile, I’ve been scrolling Twitter’s hashtag thread for
TGD in search of the some hints (for #Shea fans in particular) that we’re still
gonna be OK after Monday night. It seems an odd thing to be doing,
given the support that bloomed up again the day after “Unsaid” aired (10
minutes of scrolling resulted in pro-Lea fans outnumbering pro-Carly fans 80%
to 20%, same as several polls have shown)… but the speculation that Lea’s going
to further crush the pieces of Shaun’s already shattered heart is mighty
depressing.
For reasons I mentioned in my previous post, such guesses seem
overly-simplistic. And while the phrase “horrible truth” (from Highmore’s
interview) seems rather hyperbolic to me—childhood cancers are a horrible
truth, most personal revelations aren’t—I have trouble linking the
she’s-just-not-that-into-you vibe with the word HORRIBLE.
So in the midst of trying to keep a level head this week, I took
that page of brainstorms I worked on upon first glance of THE PICTURES… crossed
out more than half of those ideas, since they were irrelevant in the wake of
the Shaun/Carly breakup… and added several more that might be able to skew to
“horrible truth”…
1)
Shaun realizes he never loved
Carly, but chose her out of his fear of being alone (and without anyone to
sleep with). This could muddy his ability to proclaim/believe in love for Lea…
and/or cause him to resent her because he’s now without his sexual partner. He
might ask her to leave him alone/cut off contact for a while.
2)
Despite any feelings he and Lea
might be able to admit to each other, his lingering feelings of loss over Carly
keeps him paralyzed from moving forward. Lea says “It’s too soon right now, but
when you’re ready, I’ll be waiting.”
3)
Lea doesn’t believe he loves her;
in fact, she feels a bit used. How can he make her move out of their apartment,
then try to date her on the rebound as soon as things go south with Carly? Does he value their friendship THAT little? Shaun isn’t prepared to explain anything, and gets upset that his declaration
isn’t enough for the results he seeks. The two of them part without a resolution.
 |
| She walks away... |
4)
While Lea doesn’t turn Shaun down
flat, she tells him she needs to process all this and that she needs time. When
this fails to make sense to Shaun—he needed to figure it out right away, why
can’t she?—Lea suggests she spend some time out of touch while she “processes”.
 |
| Um, wait, is she coming back? (Or is Paige just returning to her mark for another take??) |
5)
He loves Lea and she loves him
too… but… more than ever, both are terrified of making a mistake from which
their friendship could never recover. So they decide to spend some time out of
touch with each other while attempting to deal with their respective issues. (Hopefully
any “time out of touch” situation = no more than 1 or 2 episodes)
6)
He loves Lea, but she insists she loves him
only as a friend… and the two come to that dreaded impasse. Or, they mutually
agree that Carly was flat-out wrong, and they are not in love. So there! BFFs forever. End
of scene. In both cases, I have no idea where the writers would go from here.
With Lea’s new job at St. B, and the karaoke, and Carly’s decision, it’s hard to
believe the momentum gained over the past couple episodes would simply fizzle
to one of these options.
Those half-dozen possibilities stem from me running Shaun/Lea flow
charts in my head, trying to create all the if/then possibilities and knowing I
most likely won’t get close to the real thing. There are variables I left out,
too: Does their former roommate status factor into any decisions? Do previous
conversations about them as a couple resurface? Does anything about Shaun’s ASD and ability to communicate (or not) impact what is decided... for instance, will his delayed ability to realize these feelings on his own make them seem insincere to Lea?
And while I did not entertain the option of a full-on happy
ending for the confession scene (because even I won’t dream that big
yet), I think it’s important to remember that the stills that ABC releases to
the public for a given TGD episode are rarely a full representation of what
goes on in a given scene. Last week we got a slew of fun-loving karaoke bar
shots to admire ahead of “Unsaid”, but absolutely nothing that would have
prepared us for that final 30 seconds.
And on a related note, about this upcoming episode titled
“Heartbreak”… yes, it’s got everyone (especially #Shea fans) freaking out all
over again, presuming perhaps that Lea’s official decision about them will be
delayed until that episode. But here’s what I wonder: even a Tweet directly
from the official account of TGD already described Shaun this week as “having
his heart shattered into a million pieces” by way of the breakup with Carly in
“Unsaid”. Is the plan really for the already emotionally frail Dr. Murphy to
suffer a one-two punch in his love life? I suppose it’s possible, but there are
many different kind of heartbreaks one encounters in life… and many different
characters on TGD to which “Heartbreak” might apply. Still waiting for the
synopsis on that one, by the way… meanwhile, the March 3 synopsis (for“Fixation”) is available NOW. (And no, neither Carly nor Lea is mentioned in
that one.)
I hope I was able to provide a little oasis this time around
on your trek through the social media desert! Whether you want to lend support
to one of the ideas presented here, or have one of your own to share… tag me on
Twitter @KLBSt8ofSk8, or share in the comments! Everyone hang in there…
Monday’s coming…
4 comments:
The part that jumped out at me was Freddie saying the ending of tomorrow's episode is not entirely conclusive. I'm not speculating in specifics, but to me, that says that Shaun and Lea aren't going to get together yet. As long as Lea does not say absolutely, unequivocally never to being with Shaun, I can take whatever comes tomorrow night. Their journey is not a straight line; it's zigzagging all over the place, with twists and turns, detours and bumps in the road, and that's to be expected. I want Shaun and Lea to be endgame, not some temporary rebound thing. And since Lea is now working at St. Bonaventure where literally all the other contract characters work, they're opening her up to more interactions than with only Shaun and Glassman, and therefore further integrating her into the fabric of the show by making her an official part of the St. Bonaventure Hospital family. We already have season 4 confirmed, and season 4 contains a world of possibilities. So I remain, as ever, relentlessly optimistic that Shaun and Lea have a future together, but resolved to the knowledge that that future isn't here just yet.
As for "Heartbreak," I do have theories that the heartbreak(s) in question have absolutely nothing to do with Shaun and Lea directly. There's a lot of other stuff going on with the other characters, and I can think of one definite and one highly probably scenario for heartbreak in 3x18.
The definite is Morgan, who has been hiding her rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and lying about it to everyone, including Dr. Glassman, who is treating her, for the majority of the season. Glassman had to find out from the janitor that the first medication he prescribed for Morgan literally had her running out of consults to throw up in the bathroom. She lied to him about her pain levels post-diagnosis, and since he switched her to a different medication, she has not checked back in with him, although as we saw last week, Morgan is becoming increasingly dangerous with surgical instruments in her hands and a patient on the operating table in front of her. This story is brilliant, because Morgan is the one resident who would step on everybody (and has to various degrees at one time or another, going all the way back to getting Jared his job in Denver) and go absolutely ANYTHING to become a surgeon--and now circumstances beyond her control are threatening to cost her the only thing she really wants in life: a career as a surgeon. Lim and Andrews, especially, are going to be angry when they find out Morgan's been lying, and for how long. She may very well face disciplinary action at the very least. However, I don't for one second believe that Morgan is going anywhere. There are physical therapies & even surgery that are used to treat RA (I looked it up). Morgan will lose trust from her attendings & fellow residents, lose face with everyone, especially Lim, her Chief of Surgery, and possibly lose time from her residency, but being a surgeon is everything to her, and once she is busted for trying to make it with the secrets and lies surrounding her RA, if her only choice is to do it legitimately, after other treatments and/or a suspension, she will.
The highly probable scenario, especially after I read the synopsis for "Fixation," episode 3x17, is the rapidly escalating powder keg situation surrounding Claire and Melendez. For the record, I am a Limlendez shipper. I have never seen any romantic chemistry between Claire and Melendez. Even during the prom for the cancer teens, Melendez asked Claire to dance only as a friend. The way his face lit up when Lim sought him out months after she ended their relationship to call him on the carpet about Claire due to Morgan's complaint of favoritism had me believing that Melendez definitely still loves Lim. He could have jumped into bed immediately with anyone after he and Jessica ended their relationship in season 1, but he didn't. Claire, on the other hand, numbed her grief and guilt over her mother's sudden death by drinking and a host of random one-night stands. (That's not a judgment, it's a fact.) Once Claire hit her own bottom, Melendez reached out, making sure she was okay after her last one-night stand's wife found out about her and slapped her across the face in the middle of the hospital, causing Claire to run off to a stairwell crying. Melendez told Claire it was okay for her to be angry at her mother for dying when and how she did, and suggested therapy would be helpful to her. Then we find out Claire is in therapy. Then Melendez suggested Claire channel more of her energies into running and they became running buddies, which is when Morgan saw them together and blabbed to Lim.
I believe that Melendez cares about Claire as a resident, as a person, as a friend and colleague. But is he in love with her? I honestly don't think so. He's not a man who loves easily, from what we've seen these last three years.
Claire, on the other hand, has been presented as always kind of having...not necessarily a crush on Melendez, but holding him in a much different regard than she holds any of the other men she works with. She is clearly a platonic friend to Shaun, almost like the sister he never had, and I miss that relationship, since it's been de-emphasized in the past couple of seasons from the level of season 1. Andrews and Glassman are both happily married, and also, technically speaking, old enough to be her father (Glassman is possibly old enough to be her grandfather), and she isn't particularly close to either of them. But Melendez has encouraged Claire as a doctor since season 1, when he wanted her to read the article Morgan had published in a medical journal so that she wouldn't fall behind where Morgan was. Claire has obviously come to depend on Melendez since reaching the anger stage of her grieving process over her mother. Prior to that, the person she leaned on, the one who kept her secrets, was Morgan. When everything tumbled out, Melendez was the one who followed up with Claire, who gave her permission to be angry at her mother for dying, who recommended therapy and became her running buddy. Claire could easily construe that as meaning more than it actually does.
Yes, just last week, Claire said that there was nothing wrong with a man and a woman being friends, and Melendez, after walking on eggshells at work following the reprimand from Lim and going out of his way NOT to favor Claire, even telling her that she was overreacting and if she didn't get it under control, she would be watching from the gallery, returned to have dinner with her. But the synopsis for "Fixation" talks about Claire and Melendez "navigating their feelings as colleagues and friends."
I could very easily see Claire wanting something more in "Heartbreak," and Melendez, both because of his position of authority as one of her attendings, and his still being in love with Lim, turning Claire down, which Claire would find heartbreaking.
Or, worst case scenario for me, he either agrees to try a date, or Claire plants a kiss on him, and Lim witnesses them together and thinks that she has lost her chance with Melendez and he has moved on with Claire when that wouldn't be the truth--either the date or the kiss would leave Melendez feeling nothing more for Claire than friendship, and that's how it's going to stay on his end.
"Heartbreak" was supposed to be the season finale, until we got the extra 2 episodes for the first time ever, and we have no idea what's going to happen in those last 2 episodes. Whatever does happen, though, we have that world of possibilities awaiting us in season 4 come September, so even if season 3 doesn't end as we might hope for any of the characters, there are no limits to what and how much can change once season 4 begins. As we saw last week, a lot can happen in one episode, and when season 4 starts, we'll have 18-20 episodes' worth of story to tell with everyone, and yes, I believe that both Lea and Morgan will figure prominently in all of season 4.
There's no way for us to know exactly what's coming for anyone at St. Bonaventure, but I'll be watching to find out, now, in March, and, unless they REALLY screw the pooch on multiple fronts in the next 5 weeks here, from September onward.
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