State of the #SHEA part 13: And You May Say to Yourself "My God, What Have I Done?"

We’ve got to talk about “Heartbreak’s” penultimate scene.

If you’re still “Team #Shea”, as I guess you are to some degree if you’re taking the time to read this, I’m going to assume you are not looking at the scene with the same eyes as the TGD viewers who are applauding Dr. Murphy’s approach (“Bravo Shaun!”…“Lea got what was coming to her!”… “I wish he’d gone ahead and bashed the car in!”)

You know what’s (not so) funny about that? After the “Fixation” episode concluded—and the Anti-Lea talk reached a fever pitch--  I wondered if what those viewers wanted, at this point in the story, was some sort of comeuppance for her. But I didn’t really expect them to feel like they actually got their wish. Certainly not like this.

I was hoping Shaun and Lea wouldn’t see each other in “Heartbreak.” If we saw Lea at all, I hoped it would be her talking to someone else in the cast. Or talking to herself. Or to Bertie the Fish (assuming he’s still around somewhere; not sure which of them got custody after she moved out of the apartment). Or a potted plant. ANYone or thing that would help her viewpoint be better seen.

Was it one more thing on my wish list for “Heartbreak  that was not to be? Well, not exactly. But we’ll get back to that.

AT LEAST THEY GAVE US SOME WARNING…

And here I thought the one-two punch of “Mutations” and “Sex and Death” would be the toughest episodes of TGD to get through this year. Nope. When Shaun, in a Weather Channel daze, wrapped in a blanket on his couch (where he apparently spent three days following the “Fixation” bridge scene with Lea) is Shaun in one of his more pleasant moments in an episode, you know you’re in for it.

So we got the dial turned up on his less charming traits— rudeness (a notch beyond “bluntness”), irritability, and self-pity for most of the episode, until Carrie Underwood’s Stunt Double went to work on Finn’s Mercedes (I think it was a Mercedes?) in the St. B parking lot. Then, in the time it took for him to do a little Q-and-A while bandaging Miss Jilted’s hand, we found Shaun saying “I like her” when the incident got discussed in the OR. Uh-oh.

His decision to seek out Lea’s Grand Torino with baseball bat in hand surely wasn’t helped by Shaun’s trip to a bar, where he threw back at least two shots in quick order—and if it was the drink he first learned to enjoy with Lea, I’m afraid “Tequila, STAT” will never be same. (As if the #Shea days of seasons 1 and 2 didn’t already seem long ago and far away.)

The last time we saw Shaun drinking at a bar, all by himself, was when he was fired from St. B and avoiding a scheduled job interview in last season’s finale (“Trampoline,” 2-18). Not exactly a great memory… but when it came to the penultimate scene in “Heartbreak,” more than a few not-great memories cropped up.

WE’VE BEEN WARNED BEFORE

Because let’s face it—this was not Shaun’s first rodeo when it comes to offensive, aggressive outbursts (that yes, are a part of his ASD) at the expense of another:

+      In 1-10 “Sacrifice,” he struck Glassman (and then ran off) while they were arguing in the St. B  lobby about Shaun’s need for assistance and/or therapy.

+     In 2-17 “Breakdown,” while we were not privy to all that happened in Dr. Han’s office before security escorted Shaun away, we saw enough to know his behavior was clearly perceived as threatening.

+     In 3-16 “Autopsy”—just a few weeks ago—Shaun’s erratic behavior at the home of Jane Doe’s son got him thrown in jail (albeit temporarily).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a reminder, at this point, that Shaun’s childhood was shaped greatly by his father’s violent tendencies.

And now, we have Shaun handling Lea’s version of bluntness with a threat to vandalize the “Striped Tomato”—a beloved vehicle that once took these two on the road trip to remember—with a baseball bat, right in front of a horrified Lea. When he can’t bring himself to swing the bat anywhere but to the asphalt ground below them, he opts instead for a vicious inventory of everything negative about Lea that Shaun can think of to say… things he’s not only assessed from recent encounters with her but heard from the BV-ites, from Glassman, from Lea herself.  And being Shaun at that point, in a very downbeat episode of the show, it was A LOT.

Remind me again why Lea was evil for citing his autism as a reason things can’t work out for them?

“Heartbreak” struck a nerve for many of us. At the most basic level, Shaun’s behavior in that scene was more than unacceptable—it was criminal. And those that are better-informed on ASD matters than a layperson such as myself will tell you that violent behavior is a well-documented problem with autistic individuals. I mentioned over on Twitter this Reddit post by Andreas (a fellow TGD fan and frequent reader of this blog); it is an incredibly helpful look into the autistic-related behavior that not only shapes Shaun’s personality, but Lea’s reasoning thus far.

Speaking of Lea—who has obviously witnessed Shaun’s meltdowns before, but never one fueled in her direction—surely a part of her was confirming she’d made a good decision by the time Shaun walked away in that scene. 

But I’m willing to bet a bigger part of her was saying I deserved every bit of that. Not because she DID, but because she believes that she did. That kind of thinking is part of her bigger problem right now, as many of us have acknowledged. But self-esteem issues aside, some TGD viewers have come away from the “Heartbreak” episode hoping that if/when #Shea moves past recent events, Lea makes it clear that such outbursts are intolerable.

“IF/WHEN #SHEA MOVES PAST RECENT EVENTS”…?

Yeah, I said it. Remember the “catapulting” I discussed in the last post, and how Lea’s words on the bridge scene of “Fixation” felt like one of those moments? 

Technically speaking, Shaun’s unload on Lea in “Heartbreak” was a little longer, and a lot more verbose, than would seem to qualify as a catapult moment for the storyline. But I’d argue that the initial action of the scene—Shaun preparing to commit an act of vandalism—was the catapult itself. Because now, for all intents and purposes, the playing field has been leveled. Both have been crushed by the other’s words and actions in their own way. Everything important has been said; it’s been anything but pretty, but it’s out there now and that’s what counts.

So, um… bring on that earthquake?!?

(If you haven’t heard, San Jose gets rocked by a massive earthquake in the two-part season finale airing March 23 and 30… check out the promo here.)

AUTISM’S “DARK SIDE” MADE BRIGHTER

“Should autism be told as fairytale?” Andreas asked rhetorically at the conclusion of his aforementioned Reddit essay. And I have to admit, I think I’m guilty of wanting that at times. We’ve had three years to “meet” Dr. Shaun Murphy, get to know him, try to understand him. We want to see him in the light thriving, but if nothing else, we have to know by now that Shaun’s path to that destination is uniquely his… ASD shadows and all. (As is that of every autistic person on the planet.)

Initially I thought Shaun’s act of near-violence as something we might not hear about again; that it was perceived as the intense, eye-for-an-eye type of dramatic license necessary for Shaun to “get even” with Lea. But after taking in what my more knowledgeable fellow fans have said… I hope the time is coming next season for a deeper dive into Shaun’s well-established pattern of aggressive tendencies. As I understand it, such tendencies in autistic people CAN be curbed, in due time, with therapy and medication. Lea needs to know this, and hopefully, when the dust settles (literally) in the final moments of season 3, Shaun will be on his way to leaning into that very idea. 

And that journey, all by itself, would be far more compelling than any fairytale that comes to mind.

If you are so inclined, be sure to jump into the comments or tag me on Twitter @KLBSt8ofSk8 with your thoughts!