*** PLEASE NOTE—I PLAN TO CONTINUE STATE OF THE #SHEA
THROUGH AS MUCH OF TGD’S HIATUS AS POSSIBLE, SO KEEP AN EYE OUT ON
TWITTER… I’LL ALWAYS TAG NEW POSTS WITH #THEGOODDOCTOR ***
(Prelude to The Kiss, Part 3)
Have you ever walked up to a special person in your life and,
much to their surprise, laid a kiss on them?
I have. It’s quite a rush.
In my case, I’d had a little time to think about it. The
relationship—which, for a number of reasons and a number of years, had been a near-miss
in the “love” department—was coming to a close. I was poised to do as Shaun’s
patient Vera vowed to do (move on), both figuratively and literally. Departure
time was just a few days off. But I’d decided to summon all my courage, make my
way to this particular guy, kiss him (and mean it), and be on my way. In my
case I knew it wouldn’t change the trajectory, and it didn’t. It was
essentially a dare to myself. But it’s one of those moments in that particular relationship
that I can look back on fondly.
There’s bravery at many levels of relationship development
(and demolition), but I don’t know if there’s anything quite like The
Unexpected Kiss. It is vulnerability personified; literally an extreme close-up
with the rejection/acceptance question. And it’s having absolutely nowhere
to hide if that answer is rejection.
Lea was clearly putting her heart on the line when she
kissed Shaun in the final minutes of the “I Love You” season finale on TGD,
but I think we can all agree that Shaun had been the one doing that for weeks
(counting back to his profession of love in “Autopsy”)… for months (dating back
to his decision do whatever it took to make things work with Carly in
“Fractured”)… for a whole year, really, considering what it took for him to ask
Carly out in the first place. It was definitely time for Lea to be the brave
one. And oh, was she ever.
When did Lea decide to kiss Shaun?
I don’t know that a consensus is possible on this one, but
But your mileage may vary, as they say. Maybe Lea resolved
to kiss him earlier in the night when Shaun talked about her making him “more”.
Maybe it was when she was counting. Maybe it was when she first saw him alive
and well, coming up behind Vera. Maybe not until she was watching him from a
distance as he finished his work. Maybe none of the above (?!). It’d be a great
topic about which to leave a comment…
How much did I love that closing scene? Let me count the
ways…
(I’m not going to say “closing sequence” because that’s a
slightly different story that we’ve already discussed a little, and will
discuss a little more later.)
1) The
teaser
After all the struggles and setbacks in the final episodes of S3, was it
possible that TGD could end the season with Shaun and Lea simply gazing at each
other across an EMT-crowded street? Well not really, considering TGD ends
each episode with Shaun in the scene. (Have they ever made an exception to
this? I’m sure there are some eagle-eyed fans out there who know!)
But the buildup to what would actually happen in that final Shaun-scene
left me, as a fan of this couple, anything but certain of their next step. I
knew Lea was at a new place, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was laboring
under the (mistaken) impression that Shaun’s promise to Vera was unconditional.
Plus, Shaun’s ASD often makes him a difficult read, emotionally speaking.
Plus we were looking over his shoulder at Lea for the most part!
I
hate to admit it, but even with the other closing scenes (with Park, and
obviously Melendez/Claire/Lim) being as emotionally charged as they were…I was
probably bouncing in my chair (matching Lea, bouncing on her toes) waiting to
get back to #Shea.
2) Twelve edits of magic
Yes,
I went back and counted (once a production geek, always a production geek).
Starting with the pickup OTS (over-the-shoulder) shot and going until that
long, lovely crane shot that closed out the season, David Shore officially got
Shaun and Lea to their happy place in about a minute and 37 seconds, three
cameras (I think), and 12 edits. I’m really hoping the Vancouver weather
cooperated and they were able to shoot this in-sequence (last), or at least
last of the #Shea scenes for this episode. It’s such a joyous 1:37, and the
more we see natural elements working in their favor—a hint of rosy dawn in the
sky, a light breeze catching Lea’s skirt—the more magical it becomes. A “save
the best for last” scene, to be certain. Shore gave us a big, sweeping,
silver-screen valentine of a finish for these two. Can’t ask for much more than
that.
3)The
nonverbals
Think about how much Lea talked at times in the first season of TGD—sometimes
spurred by anger (e.g. bursting into Shaun’s apartment and complaining about
the landlord), other times by joy/excitement (the road trip). Now think how
much she conveyed solely by facial expression in “Autopsy,” in “Heartbreak,”
and of course the two-part finale. (I’m not forgetting “Friends and Family,”
but the big non-verbal scene in that one was all about communication via
physical touch, not facial expression.) Paige Spara has more than proven she’s
got the acting chops to play alongside Freddie Highmore as his love interest—not
just because of the chemistry generated by their characters, but because of the
intriguing juxtaposition of Lea’s non-verbal communication to Shaun’s. Now that
they’re on the same page romantically, I’m eager to see how this juxtaposition
works both for and against #Shea in future episodes.
But right now, I just want to talk about her nonverbals in THIS scene.
Andreas starts us off:
“Look at the very first seconds of their last scene: Lea is standing
at a distance, looking at Shaun. Her shoulders move slightly down, she exhales:
Lea has come to a resolution. She takes a leap of faith, walks decisively
towards Shaun, kisses him without hesitation, and relaxes totally after the
first kiss ends. She has put her fears aside. Again, Paige Spara’s nonverbal
acting was outstanding, yet subtle.”
I loved the way she kept her eyes closed an extra second before looking
up at him… a combination of savoring the moment she’d created, and possibly
postponing a look of rejection in Shaun’s eyes.
I was picturing a caption to go with the post-kiss looks on her face; Amy
Danko captioned it very nicely with this Tweet:
“Without a single word, she's saying, "Tell me I didn't
completely blow it for us. Tell me that my fears didn't make me make the
biggest mistake of my life, Shaun." And he did.”
Once she clarified “what that was” (we’ll get to Shaun’s side of things
in a minute), she gave him the second one-- love, love, LOVE the way she
touched his chin with her thumb immediately after, with her fingertips resting
lightly near his throat for the duration of the dialogue. At that point, the
look in her eyes was similar, but a little more searching for his overall
reaction.
(There was also a momentary, anxious tremble of her lower lip to help
punctuate all that vulnerability. Or maybe I’m just seeing things at this
point. I’ve watched that scene many times.)
(I’d better go check it again.)
(It’s research. Hush.)
Meanwhile, Shaun had a LOT to process. The most salient points he stated
verbally, initially showing his true uncertainty as to what was happening as he
gave a nod to their first kiss (“practice”) and their other kiss (“goodbye”),
with one of Morgan’s old assertions about Lea’s intentions in the middle (“pity
kiss”). For more about this, Sonya really nailed it—let’s hear form her:
“After the first kiss Shaun’s brain is swirling. He's got all these
little bits and pieces he believes that he knows about this woman and how she
really feels about him, and reconciling those earlier concepts of Lea with this
new version of her that just... walks up and kisses him senseless, like a woman
kisses a man, and says she loves him with everything she is...
“His brain is going "Shit, where does this new information fit in
to the picture I have of Lea?" He quite literally does not know what to do
with it. Most of the time that Lea has touched Shaun, to this point in their
relationship, has been to comfort or reassure him. This moment is not designed
to do either of those things.
“She's not kissing him because she thinks he's limited. She's kissing
him because she now knows from the top of her head to the tips of her toes,
that he is more than any one thing.”
As for the only other thing he verbalized (“Vera didn’t die, so the
promise doesn’t count!”), it was as if he was processing his own permission
slip in real time—a totally Shaun thing to do, and say.
Which is probably why Lea didn’t even bat an eye before sealing the deal
with “You make me more, Shaun.” Followed by the kiss that went on and on and on
and on…
Kissing Carly vs. Kissing Lea
Maybe we already knew (or hoped we knew), as #Shea fans, that if these two ever got to kiss again it would be unlike anything we ever
saw with Shaun and Carly. The “Friends and Family” embrace gave us a big clue
to that, as it confirmed
But I, for one, was not convinced we’d get even ONE #Shea
kiss this season… which is why I (and maybe you, too) were “just” hoping to see
them hug each other when all was said and done. But holy cow, look what we got!
Love out loud. Touching. Eye contact. EYE CONTACT. “Like a woman kisses a man”
kissing. Shaun catching Lea by the waist and drawing closer, knowing exactly
what to do once he fully understood what was happening.
And all because Lea, not Shaun, gave their
relationship the ultimate catapult. Even though they’re back to a new
beginning, I can’t help but think Oh, how far they’ve come!
Remember back in part one of the finale (“Hurt”) when all
was still relatively well with Melendez (RIP), and he and Claire were focused
on helping Marta— brewpub owner and host of the fundraiser? Well here’s another
observation from Andreas I want to share:
“The more I think about it, the more I believe the key to
understanding Shaun and Lea’s arc since 2.1 “Hello” (!) is a line of dialogue
in 3.19 “Hurt” delivered by Marta (as she spoke to her wife): “I only found you
once I stopped listening to my fear… […] of dying alone. Pushing that all aside
made room for you, and you are my life.”
He goes on to point out how this line reflects on multiple
characters/arcs in the show:
“The first half is true for all involved characters such as
Morgan (being a surgeon), Park (love for his family), Melendez, Claire, Lim
(all three being in love), but especially Lea with respect to 3.16 “Autopsy”… but
the last bit about dying alone was a direct reference to Shaun’s biggest fear (shared
with Carly in 3.9 “Incomplete”).
“The earthquake situation was a catalyst and a metaphor: it
broke down the old and made way for the new. All characters were confronted
with the ultimate choice: use it or lose it. In the last scene Lea took action,
and Shaun trusted her enough to give into her.”
While I don’t think we’ll ever see Vera on TGD again,
and I wasn’t a fan of everything she said down in the flooding basement… there
was definitely something to her assessment that Shaun’s goal wasn’t Lea, but
love itself.
What Vera didn’t count on was Shaun getting the resolution
she’d wanted for her own life. Because by the dawn of that new day, he’d
achieved that goal—it just so happened that Lea was still attached to it,
hanging on for dear life.
When you think about it that way, I guess he got to rescue
her after all.
*** AGAIN, STATE OF THE #SHEA WILL CONTINUE OVER THE
SUMMER, HOPEFULLY ALL THE WAY TO WHENEVER S4 GETS ON THE AIR. NOT AS
FREQUENTLY, FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, BUT THERE’S PLENTY TO DISCUSS… KEEP AN EYE ON
TWITTER FOR UPDATES! THANKS AGAIN FOR READING ***
29 comments:
Thank you, Kelli, for sharing your private story on this. I’ve read many comments elsewhere complaining about bad writing in season 3 but as we discussed before The Good Doctor’s storytelling techniques and plotlines are far from simple.
Yet, it eases my mind even more to hear from you that even a sudden kiss is not a movie trope but a real thing! ;)
There is still a lot to say about season 3 and its finale but for now I would just to add that the eye contact and Shaun’s body language truly tell the story at length: he never held that much eye contact with anybody else, Carly included. I just went back to the scenes of episodes 3.14/15 (post first sex!) and it is obvious that Shaun has less eye contact with Carly than with Lea (still, 3.20 is a whole new level). Also, he only reluctantly touches Carly while kissing and his body is always very tense.
From my own autistic experience, I can say that eye contact is a very good indicator how comfortable I am with a person. There were only very few women in my life I could look into their eyes such as in this last scene… Freddie Highmore sure did know how to convey the difference Shaun felt between Carly and Lea.
Shaun doesn't often show fear. He's more likely to melt down when he gets overwhelmed by a lot of emotions--as when he was in the fetal position in the quarantine; the buzzing light is what pushed him over the edge, but the ER had been quarantined, Lim almost died, Shaun and Morgan were de facto doctors in charge once Lim started showing symptoms. And his anger and pain at the final confrontation with his father left him literally beating himself up until Lea walked in and physically stopped him from doing so by holding onto him and then he reached out and held onto her in return. And when Carly's threat to break up with him made him the most afraid I've ever seen Shaun, when he began to spiral out of control in Glassman's office, again it was hitting himself, tears in his eyes, and stream of consciousness ranting about his fears of ending up alone: "Carly now hates me! Lea will get tired of me! You'll get tired of me too, and I'll be alone! I don't do anything right!"
And so it has been with Shaun fully realizing and admitting his love for Lea. He went from "I don't want love" to "I'm not okay that Lea is into Jake" to "I love you, Lea, and I want to be your boyfriend."
And really, Lea taught Shaun to be fearless in his emotions more than anyone else ever has. "Before I met Lea...I never knew I could fall in love." By just being herself, by encouraging Shaun to learn to drive a car, to enjoy music (as long as it's not too loud), everything else he listed, she not only always had his back, assuring him when he messed up that it wasn't his fault when he damaged the car, that the hangover was normal after the tequila, that she would have asked him to kiss her again if she had brushed her teeth before racing outside to find him, and Lea was the one who told him that he'll never be truly happy if he's afraid all the time, Shaun was able to conquer his fears, get past not even wanting love in his life at all (beyond Glassman), and put his heart on the line by first of all, realizing that he does love Lea--and that he loves her more than he loved Carly--and telling Lea that he loves her WHILE looking in her eyes, with his head held high and no doubts or hesitation in his voice.
Lea gave Shaun the courage to admit his love for her TO her.
And as I've said before, even with as much as she hurt him when she said no, when she said they would never work, it didn't change his feelings. He still loves her. He went rogue in that building to look for her, and talked himself into staying calm, and confronted his demons about his recent heartbreak with in the form of Ghost Steve, and then Vera. But even with Ghost Steve and Vera telling Shaun what they each told him, it still didn't change his feelings. He's still in love with Lea. She still makes him more. He still does not want to change who he is when he's with her. And even if she had ultimately rejected him, she made such a significant impact on Shaun that going forward, every other woman he meets will be compared to Lea and will come up lacking in some way. Even Carly did. "You were right. I love you, Carly. But I love Lea more." That's why he didn't want the patient with all the girlfriends to fix him up with that nurse: for Shaun, it's not about loving he one he's with. It's about being with the one he loves, emphasis on ONE. Lea is the ONE Shaun loves.
Lea's a little bit harder to pin down because we don't know as much specifically about her as we do about almost everyone else, as we do about Shaun, but I'll take a shot at it.
Lea isn't close with her family, with the exception of her late Grandpa Rod. Having been in that position myself (still am), and having also gone through the loss of the one and only person in my life that made me feel unconditionally loved and accepted, flaws and all, I might be projecting, but I can very easily see this being the case with Lea, and I know from my own experience that when you have that kind of a relationship in your life and the other person dies, you say to yourself, "Okay, I have to go on from here without them and live the rest of my life, and just be grateful that I had that for as long as I did, because I've never had it from anyone else, and I doubt that I ever will."
It's why we don't see Lea with a bunch of friends. It's why her past romantic relationships are surface at best: Jake, and Nameless Beer Spraying Guy at season 3 Shea karaoke. On the one hand, it still makes me laugh that the guy had no lines at all, and that Lea didn't even have a throwaway line just telling Shaun and Carly the guy's first name. "This is Bill." Or whatever. That shows just how truly meaningless and lacking in depth Lea's relationships with people tend to be.
And, again, from my own experience, a big part of that is fear. You've already gone almost 30 years with having only that one person solidly in your corner at all times, no matter what, and being your emotional go-to for everything, being the one person who truly gets you, being the one person that even when you're at your worst, even when you're down on yourself, they still love you. You lose that, and hell no, you don't think you're ever gonna find it again in anybody. So it's a lot less scary, and honestly, a lot easier, to just build a wall around yourself emotionally, and keep all the really deep stuff, your innermost thoughts and feelings, and your worst flaws and your greatest fears, securely under lock and key from the rest of the world. Keep it casual, keep it light, don't invest too much of yourself in any one person, and it won't hurt, at least not as much, when they eventually see how much of a mess you can really be and decide not to bother with you anymore.
Except that in Lea's case, Shaun, without even consciously trying for the most part, made Lea open up, or want to open up. She told him about her Grandpa Rod, about Alaska, about hating her job. He didn't ask. She volunteered that information.
Shaun made enough of an impact on Lea that she was hurt and angry that he didn't ask what happened in Hershey when she came back, and she finally confronted him about it: "You never even asked me what happened in Hershey!" Because anyone else would have. And then she would have been obligated to tell the whole sordid story and take her lumps for her part in it.
But Shaun didn't do that. Shaun told Lea honestly, "I don't care what happened in Hershey. But I care that YOU care."
And all of a sudden, Lea's gotta be thinking, whoa, okay, I was NOT expecting that. He doesn't care how much or how badly I screwed up, or how bad or how irresponsible or, to use Morgan's/Glassy's word flaky, my brother and whoever else thinks I am or how it makes me look. That doesn't matter to him. I'm hurt that he didn't ask me what I did to screw things up so badly and give him a chance to berate me for it, and he doesn't even WANT to berate me for it, because he doesn't care what I did or didn't do or say, he only cares that *I* care about it.
Holy crap, I think I found somebody who might possibly, potentially, be able to see the best in me when I'm convinced there's no best to be seen. He's sweet and kind and he's always honest with me, and oh my god, what am I gonna do NOW?
Well, if you're Lea, you're going to get even more scared than you were when you first had to face the rest of your life without your grandfather. After resigning yourself to the fact that nobody else is ever going to love you enough or care about you enough to overlook and put up with your biggest flaws and not beat you over the head with them and not get tired of you or bored with you and just bail, usually with no notice or warning, that mere prospect is terrifying.
But at the same time, you want it. You want that in your life again, even though it's totally different this time because the last time you had somebody in your life that felt like this about you, it was your grandparent, and now you have somebody like this in your life again, and it's your best friend who also happens to be sweet and kind and who is incapable of lying and who listens to you and cares about what you care about because he cares about YOU.
So you go for it, while trying to keep your feelings under some semblance of control, but how can you not fall in love with this guy? Jake and Nameless Date Guy at karaoke, they're a dime a dozen. But Shaun is one in a million.
And then he gets a girlfriend, and the girlfriend is not you. Did you really think it would be? He's a genius surgeon in training. If not for him, you would have been convinced you couldn't even keep a goldfish alive. He's seen the kind of guys you bring home. He knows that's not him, just like you know that's not him. And you tell yourself you don't have what it takes to be in a real relationship with him, because he deserves so much better than you anyway. You're still his best friend, and that will just have to be enough.
Until it's not. And if you're being as brutally honest as Shaun always is, it never was going to be enough. Glassy was thanking you for letting Shaun down gently before you even got the chance to do it, or the chance to say that maybe you didn't want to let Shaun down at all, and then there was Carly.
But then you were there for him on the worst night of his adult life. And when you held him and cried with him, he reached out and held onto you in return. For that one night, all wrapped up in each other's arms in that motel bed in Wyoming, you were one another's anchor. And everything crystallized for you that night.
And then you were singing karaoke. It's a thing with the two of you. Okay, sure, Carly was there, and so were Nameless Date Guy, he who obnoxiously sprayed beer, but you forgot about him. You and Shaun both forgot about him, and Carly completely dropped off the radar too, because you were sharing Shaun's microphone. He picked up the cord so you wouldn't trip over it and did this half-dorky, half-cute spin around you, and then you were looking into each other's eyes with big smiles on your faces as you jumped and danced and sang Nicki Minaj at the top of your lungs into the same microphone, and there was nobody else in the entire universe for those precious few moments.
The next thing you know, you hear through the grapevine that Carly broke up with Shaun, because now you're working at the hospital too. And Shaun is hovering by your desk. You tell him how sorry you are about his breakup, and that he's a wonderful man, maybe the most wonderful man you've ever known, though you know there's no "maybe" about it.
And then he asks you over to his place, which used to be your place too. "Talk to me, Shaunie." And even before he says it, you know what's coming. He loves you. He wants to be your boyfriend.
And you love him too. But you're not good enough for him. And you tell him that, you start listing off your biggest faults...but that doesn't faze him at all. He believes he can handle your faults. He wants the chance to handle your faults.
And now you're more terrified than ever before, because if it should turn out that he CAN'T handle your faults, you not only lose the man you love, you lose your best friend.
So you run. You're good at that. He keeps pushing, and you get cruel in an attempt to keep him at bay. It works. You break his heart. And then he breaks your heart when he tells you off. He's never been this angry with you before. He's never hurt you this much before. But then, you did the one thing that hurt him worse than when you left to go back to Hershey when you told him that you two would never work.
And then came the earthquake. And you hear him telling a complete stranger on the radio that he's in love with you, that he doesn't want to change who he is when he's with you, that you make him more, but that he doesn't make you more, because if he did, you'd want to be his girlfriend.
And you sit in the back of an open rescue vehicle with the radio in your hands and cry because now you know exactly how much he loves you...and you also know that he DOES make you more.
But a water pipe bursts, and he won't leave the building, even though you try to make him. He sees right through your lie and calls you on it. Not angrily, just matter-of-factly. He could drown in there. He could die. And for a few horrible moments, it looks like that's exactly what happened. So you can't leave. Because leaving means accepting that Shaun is dead, and you're not ready for that.
And then the radio crackles to life again. "We've got something!" You take off running like you've never run in your entire life. There's no time to grab a helmet. You have to get into that building and see what this "something" is.
And by some fabulous miracle, part of the "something" is Shaun, alive and well, standing at the bottom of the steps!
And everything you were so afraid of before this moment doesn't matter anymore. Because you were almost left with the biggest regret and greatest mistake of your life, and you just got the second chance to end all second chances, and you are damn well NOT going to blow it this time.
Lea's heart firmly overruled her head. She could have lost everything, an entire future, if Shaun hadn't made it out of that building alive. But he did, and yes, he promised Vera he would move on if Vera DIDN'T make it out of the building alive, but Vera made it out too. Still, knowing how seriously Shaun takes his promises, Lea knew there were no guarantees. So she waited patiently for Shaun to finish with Vera, and then she strode up to him with no insecurity, with no fear, and kissed him soundly and firmly and with all the emotion she'd been feeling for the last ten or so hours.
And yes, the nonverbals here were AMAZING. Lea kissing Shaun...keeping her eyes closed those extra few seconds to savor the moment in case it turned out she HAD completely blown it with him and this was as close as she would ever get to him...the fact that once she framed his face in her hands to kiss him, she never took her hands off him, just moved them, to clutch at his jacket, to rest on his heart, to touch his chin, to wrap her arms around him when they kissed again.
And Shaun, honest as ever: "I don't know what that was." He knew he loved Lea, but although she had admitted to loving him, she also said they would never work. So of course he has to ask for clarification. And Lea was only happy to give it, and to confirm that she'd been a stupid idiot for not seeing it, but she loves Shaun with all her heart.
And because Vera didn't die in that building, the promise doesn't count.
Then, having declared her love, there's one more thing Lea has to make sure Shaun knows: "You make me more, Shaun." There's nothing one-sided here. Shaun loves Lea. Lea loves Shaun. Lea makes Shaun more. Shaun makes Lea more.
And then Shaun initiates the next kiss, and wraps his arms around Lea to pull her close against him, and he NEVER did ANYTHING like that with Carly. They were as far away as they could get from each other in the same bed after having sex. Contrast that with Shaun holding onto Lea for dear life that night in Wyoming. They were both fully clothed, there was nothing sexual about it, but it was a kind of intimacy that he never had with Carly.
And the eye contact: starting with karaoke, going through Shaun's first declaration of love, and even when he was telling Lea off after she broke his heart, both of them crying again, and now looking in each other's eyes after the kissing and the "I love you with all my heart" and "You make me more, Shaun." Shaun has never held this much eye contact with anyone in all the time we've known him. That's MAJOR!
Shaun and Lea are finally on the same page, and poised to launch a new chapter in their lives and in their relationship, as an official couple.
And no, things were never like this for Shaun with Carly. He termed his first date with Carly a disaster because he felt too much was out of his control. He was never as comfortable physically with Carly as he has always been with Lea, especially since "Friends & Family," as Andreas pointed out. There was always a stiffness in Shaun whenever he kissed Carly, a reserve. And he sure never pulled her against him and initiated a kiss like he did with Lea to end season 3!
In 3 seasons, Shaun went from "I don't want love" to "I'm not okay that Lea is into Jake" to "I love you, Lea, and I want to be your boyfriend."
In 3 seasons, Lea went from taking Shaun's last apple while ranting at him to "Us as boyfriend and girlfriend? That's never going to happen" to "We would never work, Shaun" to "I love you with all my heart. You make me more, Shaun."
There's so much possibility for Shaun and Lea as a couple. And I'll wait as long as it takes to be able to see them as a couple, navigating their love relationship together, with all the great stuff and all the bumps in the road that will come with this new relationship of theirs.
Wow, Amy D. You've just uncovered a new layer to that entire Hershey conversation. Beautifully put, thanks for that.
I don't know Amy D, I think you have Lea's pinned down precisely. :) In my opinion, that was an excellent summation of her character.
Kelli, I want to say thank you for providing a safe harbour for this little "ship" of ours. They are few and far between, so it's been exceptionally nice to have this place to escape to from time to time. I look forward to your posts in the future and will definately follow along via twitter for more updates and insights.
Wow, Amy D, your musings on their reconciliation in 2.4 “Tough Titmouse” give me really new ideas about that. I never thought that Grandpa Rod could have been of *this* importance in Lea’s life. As long as we don’t get more information on her living family than it’s “a mess”, this is a useful theory to go with.
For sure the character of Lea holds enough possibilities to bring us more compelling stories in season 4 and Freddie Highmore and Paige Spara have shown us in season 3 that they can deliver all the highs and lows of Shaun and Lea’s relationship. It was a hell of a ride.
Now that the hiatus allows us to catch a breath, I hope we find the time to reflect on some questions that did arise with the course #Shea took this season. For example, I still don’t get it why many viewers and even some TV critics call their relationship “toxic” – while the research on ASD I know pretty much is in line with what the writers did this season. Was The Good Doctor more realistic than some viewers could take?
I second Angelica with endless thanks, Kelli, for this oasis for us Shea shippers.
I admit, a lot of what I wrote was projecting my own feelings because I was very close to my grandmother and I've never been as close to anyone else in my family as I was to her, and although I do have friends, it takes a lot for me to let my guard down enough to really open up. The one family member Lea has mentioned more than once, and always favorably, is her Grandpa Rod. So if he was to her what my grandmother was to me, I can totally relate to her behavior all along the way, except I don't have a best friend like Shaun that I could potentially fall in love with.
Most of the people who were calling Shaun and Lea's relationship "toxic" among the viewers, at least on Twitter, were people who were angry about Melendez's death and saying that Lea should have died instead of Melendez. I ended up blocking a few dozen of those people on Twitter. I'm guessing the TV critics don't understand that what Shaun and Lea went through in the second half of season 3 was very realistic, so I think you're right, Andreas, that at least for some of them, The Good Doctor was more realistic than they could take. That, and their anger over Melendez dying, fuels their anger at #Shea and at those of us who love them because our couple gets to be together now, and theirs, whether they were Limlendez or Melendaire fans, does not.
Freddie and Paige are going to dazzle us all in season 4. I have no doubts at all about that.
It is so enlightening to read the breadth of everyone's comments about The Good Doctor. Clearly all of you have writing expertise and understand plot, arc construction, and character development. I remember reading an article published around the time that Season 2 was to begin with "Hello," the episode written by Freddie Highmore, in which he described what the writer's room was like. He revealed that it could get quite personal, even to the point of being uncomfortable, as they revealed secrets about themselves and some of their personal relationships in the name of research -- insights kept within the confines of that room. What trust they must have with each other as collaborators. What care they show for each of the characters. Knowing what a difficult process the writers embark on makes the sniping and threats to abandon the show by many disgruntled viewers troubling for me.
I remember one of my poetry professors in college positing an interesting take on authors and readers. As literature students are wont to do, we all were tumbling over ourselves to decipher exactly what the author meant by a certain word, a certain phrase, a certain theme. After listening patiently to us for most of the class, he ended the class by suggesting that it didn't matter what the author meant. I am certain he delighted in the shock and dismay on our faces. What do you mean it doesn't matter what the author intended? He said we could spend our time arguing about the poet's intent if we wanted, but in the end, once the work was published and sent off into the universe, it no longer belonged to the author. It belonged to the reader. We could listen to an interview with the poet, do research on his or her life, hear a discussion of their inspirations or life experiences and how those influenced their writing, but in the end, it is what the reader brings to the work of art that matters. All of those things enumerated above are interesting and bring texture and depth to a work, but what remains is how the work speaks to the reader or listener. A poem or novel belongs to the author only as long as it lives on the pages of a notebook -- once loosed from its bonds, the author is no longer its guardian. An interesting thought by our professor -- it certainly stirred things up for we earnest literature majors.
So, do authors write for themselves or for others? I do believe the better ones write for themselves, hoping their words ring true. I believe the Good Doctor writers create the characters they imagine, use them to tell meaningful stories, attempt to stay faithful to those characters, then send them out into the universe. The idea that David Shore would employ a deus ex machina under pressure from viewers unhappy with life at St. Bonaventure Hospital as he envisions it strikes me as silly. If the audience members want a different story, they are free to write a manuscript, get an agent, and try to sell it. Perhaps I am naive here. I am not privy to the ways of television and the pressures brought to bear by network executives. I do remember Paige Spara commenting in an interview after the airing of episode 3.16, "Autopsy," that Freddie Highmore as director had given her permission to not speak and to walk away when she felt it was right in that last scene. She went on to reveal how that kind of freedom in network television is very rare. So, maybe even a David Shore creation is not exempt from meddling higher-ups?
Of course, we here in the safe haven of Kelli's Shea universe are happy as clams. I wonder how morose we would be if The Good Doctor creators had not gifted us with that last gorgeous scene right out of a Hollywood classic movie? I think we would have wished for something more satisfying to us, and discussed what that might have been, but I hardly think we would be taking to the streets with pitchforks. As Andreas always says...the series is entitled The Good Doctor. I do not think that was changed at any point to The Hot Attending. Thomas Moran apparently sent out a comical greeting to the social media audience a few days ago, just trying to be friendly, and instead of appreciating the humor of it, endless streams of irritable fans used it as an opportunity to demand the return of Neil Melendez from the dead. Maybe the writers should go into witness protection for a while.
I never intended this comment to run on for this long. But...I did want to get your opinions on something. I pay special attention to tiny interactions in the series. I remember David Shore talking in an interview about Shaun and how his progress is shown in small, seemingly insignificant moments -- the little details that he hopes we don't miss. I was curious what you all thought about that moment in "Autopsy" when Dr. Glassman has just sprung Shaun from jail, they are sitting in the car outside the police station, and Shaun blurts out that he has to do what Carly told him to do. Remembering all of the times that Aaron had spoken dismissively or snarkily or disapprovingly about Lea and her relationship to Shaun, I thought it was an interesting moment when he presented the possibility to Shaun that Lea might say that she loved him, too, and said it with the slightest whisper of a smile. I wondered what prompted that? Is he more willing to chance Shaun getting hurt in the name of maturation? Did Wyoming change his take on Lea? He had that grin at the end of his interview with Lea, as well. Hard to know what his current take on Lea is...but he will have a lot to deal with in Season 4!
I agree with Amy, I think that a lot of people are angry about Melendez dying and lashing out. Or upset that Shaun is in love with Lea and not Claire.
But, it's interesting how this show goes to great lengths to dispel some of the stereotypes and prejudices surrounding autism and disability through its use of representation, but that there are still those people in the audience who promptly put Shaun into another box by labeling him as "the toxic nice guy." Or they did as soon as he did something unsavory but totally attributable to his autism. There is also the fact that some people label Lea as the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl," even when her character is growing and continuously proving to be more than that.
I suppose that it may seem more politically correct to criticize Shaun for being a man than it is to criticize Shaun for being autistic. Or to criticize Lea for...existing? I don't know.
This group of commenters is just AWESOME! I'm truly humbled to read so many personal stories from fellow TGD fans - especially the Shea fans! I'm not a particularly romantic person - at least on the surface. I'm in my 30's, never married, and fairly stoic in my demeanor.
But two things I've been very good at: (1) Maintaining strong and long-lasting intentional friendships - several of them going back more than half my life. And (2) keeping hope in the future that "the" relationship will emerge.
For me, Lea and Shaun represent both of these exceptionally well. Their steadily-developing friendship over three seasons is a great display of just how precious that bond is - romantic or otherwise. Furthermore, their passionate kisses and admission of each other making them "more" are such satisfying rewards for not giving up hope for the best for them as times got tough.
As far as the scene itself is concerned, I want to hop onto Kelli's point about the non-verbals. I've said on Reddit, YouTube, and Facebook (though I confess I'm not on Twitter) that Paige Spara is highly underrated actress whose non-verbal acting is some of the finest I've seen. Two key points that stick out to me come on either side of Lea's meaningful "you make me more" echo.
Right before she says it, after Shaun had given his "promise doesn't count" line, she gives a playful near-eyes-closed grin. This was the moment that Lea knew she HADN'T blown it - and that HER hope was rewarded. It also shows us that even as she matures and takes that leap of faith, that she's still the same vibrant Lea at the core!
And right AFTER "you make me more, Shaun", is perhaps my favorite nonverbal moment. Lea gives a nod to Shaun. So subtle that a casual viewer might miss it, but a nod with so much meaning:
(a) She was confident in her declaration and her decision, showing that she was indeed overcoming some personal self-demons.
(b) She was COMMITTING to love! And taking a HUGE chance with her heart that she may have never taken before.
(c) She was providing assurance to Shaun to ease HIS concerns and uncertainty. She wanted to make sure HE knew this was the real deal!
That nod - and the ensuing look of confidence - were HUGE, and very telling for someone whose biggest personal hangup so far has been commitment and self-doubt. To me, that nod/look told me that:
- Lea trusts Shaun in a way that she’s never trusted anyone; AND
- Lea is confident in her decision - and in her ability to even make a good life decision.
Put all these things together, and I truly believe this is far beyond a near-emergency emotional high. I've said in past posts that this was the culmination of a journey and the beginning of a new one. And with so much substance in their relationship, this development is DEFINITELY "earned" (despite what some angrier fans might say).
Hi Barbara! Beautiful story, thank you for sharing it with us.
To answer your question, I personally feel that Glassman is less concerned about who Shaun ends up with,and more concerned about whether or not Shaun is fully informed and content with his choice. Furthermore, while Lea may not be Aaron's favorite person in the world - methinks he doth protest too much. Because if you ask me, he is developing a deep respect for her due to her loyalty to Shaun and, by extension, him.
Ultimately, though, I believe that Aaron's happy when Shaun is happy...and, I believe he's had some suspicions about how Shaun makes Lea feel, too. In my mind, this is one of the reasons why he was so suspicious of her in the season 2 episode "Aftermath."
Tony, I have nothing else to add because you've covered everything so nicely. But you should know that I'm at work right now and you have everyone wondering why I'm smiling like an idiot. Thanks ;)
Tony, I'm in my early 40s and never married, and while I am, in my own words, an emotional mushball, others who know me tell me that I've always worn my heart on my sleeve and that I have absolutely no poker face. And I'm a neurotypical person, but in my experience, a lot of people find my emotional approach to life off-putting.
I'm not sure how many people are rooting for Shaun and Claire, but I've been very active on Twitter w/r/t The Good Doctor for the past couple of seasons, and as a result, especially since 3x20, I've blocked literally dozens of people insulting Lea, insulting Shaun, insulting Lea and Shaun as a couple, and while most of them were angry and upset about Melendez's death, not all of them were.
Depending on how much Glassman remembers from his and Shaun's weed-fueled Uber ride across state lines, if he does recall that day, then he knows that Shaun has had feelings for Lea for a long time. Actually, it goes back even further than that, to season 1, when Shaun wanted to transfer his residency to Hershey to follow Lea. Glassman did write the letter of recommendation, but Shaun ended up not using it and not following Lea. And I agree with Angelica that despite Glassman's curmudgeonly attitude, he knows how much Lea means to Shaun, and once presented with solid proof of how much Shaun means to Lea, I'll go out on a limb and say that he would give them his blessing. Although Carly was at Glassman's wedding, Carly and Glassman never actually spoke that we saw. He only knew Carly from what Shaun said about her. But Glassman and Lea have known each other almost as long as Shaun and Lea have known each other.
Tony, your analysis of Lea at the end of "I Love You" is brilliant and spot-on. And yes, as we've said here, Shaun and Lea are so much more than just a moment. Really, their journey began when Lea knocked on Shaun's door asking to borrow batteries and they went from neighbors to friends to best friends to platonic roommates to, now, after all that's happened in the last 3 years, both good and bad, both in their relationship and to the two of them as individuals, best friends who are in love with each other. Shaun put his heart on the line before the earthquake, and now Lea is doing the same. She is ready to take the leap of faith and commit to Shaun, and I agree that this is the first time she has taken this kind of chance with her heart. Shaun and Lea are entering a new phase and beginning a new chapter of their relationship now. And yes, Paige Spara is very gifted at nonverbal acting. She says so much with her facial expressions, her eyes, and her body language. Lea and Shaun have ABSOLUTELY earned this development, and yes, their relationship has plenty of substance. I know I'm biased, but I'll even go so far as to say that theirs is the relationship out of all the relationships on the show that has the most substance. Park/Mia have substance, and I see some with Glassman/Debbie. We haven't seen Andrews' wife since season 1, but they had substance then. But we've seen Shaun and Lea at all the points along the way, more than we have any of the others, including Limlendez and Melendaire. And I hope showing the substance continues. I believe that it will.
When we fight, when we lie/
When the weakness shows/
When we laugh, when we cry/
When it's all exposed/
(Hold On by Biship Briggs, The Good Doctor 2.12 Aftermath)
Barbara, your poetry professor sure knew his trade too, sparing the big revelation for the last minute. Whatever an artist lays into his art, he has no absolute control about how it resonates with audience.
With resonance comes self-disclosure. It’ obvious here and now – and I’m grateful for our shared experiences here. But it also makes me wonder why we are “those happy few” in what seems a storm wave of #bringbackmelendez, flooding every single twitter post of David Shore and his writers?
#Shea and #Mendelaire have been very different couples. While Claire and Melendez (RIP) were by TV standards a very typical pairing with (great looks, social, straight careers, sportive!), Shaun and Lea are on the fringes (unstable careers, socially awkward/tomboy in STEM, Hubert the Fish [RIP] and off-tune karaoke).
What kept #Mendelaire apart was the fear of external circumstances while #Shea was kept apart by the fear of themselves.
#Mendelaire was nice and easy, with the tickling temptation of the forbitten fruit because of the power imbalance that came with their work relationship; #Shea was an emotional mess at the far frontier, only to conquer by hard effort and endurance.
#Shea represents something, some viewers do not want to be confronted with. Either because it does not resonate with them at all – or it resonates with them in a way that makes them too uncomfortable?
What I gather from all our comments here is that #Shea in all its complexity provides hope and reassurance that things can turn out right, even if the obstacles seem huge. Or taking up a previous notion of Angelica concerning the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, that patience and keeping one’s faith are virtues to be rewarded.
Barbara, my take on Glassman’s stance towards Lea, based on the body of evidence, aka the dialogues: he was always wary that Shaun might get hurt by her, but acknowledged and even facilitated Shaun’s choices in that matter.
1.11 Islands Part One – GLASSMAN: I know you've [Lea] been helping Shaun, and I appreciate that, …
1.12 Islands Part Two – GLASSMAN: Did this trip with this girl help? SHAUN: Yes. Yes, it did. GLASSMAN: Okay. How? SHAUN: I would like to give two-weeks notice. – as Amy already said, Glassman later signs the letter of recommendation Shaun needs to follow Lea to Hershey.
2.7 Two-Ply (Or Not Two-Ply) – Glassman gives Lea advice how to deal with Shaun without hurting him (more than necessary): https://youtu.be/MhnqTiaQ6oA
2.11 Quarantine Part Two – GLASSMANN: You're still here? […] Very kind of you. No wonder you and Shaun get along so well. […] LEA: You should tell him. GLASSMAN: Look at that. Another reason why you two are so good together. Neither one of you are willing to drop a thing. LEA: He deserves to know. GLASSMAN: Deserves? Is that how things work in your world? People get what they deserve? Shaun deserves to be toyed with? LEA: Who's toying with him? GLASSMAN: You. LEA: I'm his friend. GLASSMAN: You whisk him away on a road trip, kiss him and then leave town. Now you pop back into his life, move in with him. Shaun's not some hamster you get to play with and then not think twice about it when you forget to feed him. You're gonna hurt him again. You know that. I know that. LEA: I'm gonna let that slide because you're dying.
2.12 Aftermath – GLASSMAN [after inquiring Lea about having no friends other than Shaun earlier]: Lea's okay, huh? She gets you. SHAUN: Yes. I get her, too. She's a good friend. GLASSMAN: You think she'll ever be more than that? SHAUN: She only wants to be my friend. She made that very clear. GLASSMAN: Hmm. You're a good man, you know. Deserve to be happy.
2.14 Faces – GLASSMAN: How's Lea? […] She still into Jack? SHAUN: No. She is into Jake. […] GLASSMAN: You okay with that? I don't think you're okay with that. I think that's why you're here. – At the end of the episode Shaun says he is not okay with Lea being into Jake and Glassman gives him a “told-ya” glance.
2.18 Trampoline – GLASSMAN: He likes you, you know? LEA: Yeah, I like him, too. GLASSMAN: He likes you more. When he gets rejected, I'm glad it's coming from somebody who cares about him.
3.11 Fractured – SHAUN: I was upset, and Lea comforted me. Lying in bed with her, it felt Different than it does with Carly. GLASSMAN: Well, maybe that's why you invited Lea instead of Carly in the first place? SHAUN: Mm. Lea and I are just friends. GLASSMAN: Yeah, she's made that very clear. Sometimes you learn more about someone by what they do than what they say. Of course, who the hell knows what she wants. But more importantly, what do you want?
This last exchange makes it clear that Glassman’s priority is Shaun’s wellbeing. Since season 2 Glassman tried to help Shaun to understand his feelings for Lea. And he obviously had also an idea about how close Lea felt to Shaun after the night in Wyoming, although Lea was hard to read for him.
Thank you for that timeline of Glassy/Lea, Andreas!
I think our girl is going to have to prove to Glassy how serious she is about making this work with Shaun and how much she really does love him. And I'm totally here for that!
Hey Commenters past, present and future...
No one has speculated on this yet besides me, so I'll ask it again:
When (over the course of Quake Night) did Lea decide to kiss Shaun?
Remember, there are no wrong answers... :)
In my second comment for this post, let me first thank everyone to their kind responses to my first comment!
As a follow-up to the thoughts about "so many" angry fans, I would like to point out that there are indeed a good number of us, too! Even if the number of Twitter/etc. comments seem "angry" or "anti-Shea", I'll throw out a couple of numbers that I hope serve as an encouragement. Because I really don't think that comments alone tell the whole story.
In looking at the two Facebook postings of the Season 3 final clip by the show, the number of supportive reactions (Likes, Loves) far outnumbered the number of others (Angry Face, Sad Face).
- The first time, posted minutes after the finale aired that night, currently has 40,100 reactions. Of these, 36,800 were given "Likes" and "Loves". That's a pretty sweet 92%.
- The second time, posted that ensuing Sunday and after clips of Claire/Melendez, Morgan, and Park, currently has 15,200 reactions. 14,800 of which are supportive. An even sweeter 97%!!
Moving over to YouTube, I've created a spreadsheet of all 60 ABC TGD Season 3 videos and have tracked them weekly. The Top 5 Videos are:
1. Shaun's (would-be) First Lead Surgery Meltdown & Recovery (3.05)
2. Shaun Yelling at his Father (3.10)
3. Shaun/Lea Angry Bat Scene (3.18)
4. Shaun/Lea "Friends and Family" Ending (3.10)
5. Shaun/Lea "I Love You" Ending (most-watched of the last week) (3.20)
So it's easy to see that people WANT to see (and re-see) Shaun and Lea. Three of the Top 5 involve the two of them (with Lea also being a silent observer in the #2 video as well).
I'm certainly not trying to cherry-pick stats and figures. But I do like to suggest that this is just as much a part of the overall "big picture" as the raw social media comments.
Kelli, thanks for bringing this question back to life. I admit I overlooked it, but have certainly given it some thought.
I would argue there were two key "moments" that contributed to the love-you-with-all-my-heart kiss that we had the pleasure of seeing (and re-seeing, I'm sure).
For the first "moment", I go back to the shot of Lea sitting on that ambulance. As Shaun said "but I don't make her more", I could see an ever-so-subtle wince in Lea's eyes. It was this moment that Lea was telling herself "oh, but he DOES make me more!". At that point, I believe that SHE started believing that her fears of not being "good enough" for Shaun were null and void. That being said, I'm not sold that this was THE moment that made her decide to pursue those feelings.
I would argue that we actually didn't see THAT moment, but that it came between "Shaun, can you hear me? SHAUN?!?!?!?" and "Lea...it's time to go." At some point during that indeterminate time gap, I believe Lea had gone from THINKING about overcoming her fears and COMMITTING to doing so if the opportunity came. And in my mind, her decision to run into that unstable building without a helmet - putting her life on the line and valuing his life above her own - was her first decision under that new commitment.
Once the dust settled, and they were each other's "last one standing" outside of that brewery, Lea followed up what was a great physically-risky action with one that was perhaps even more emotionally risky. Thus demonstrating her newfound commitment in TWO ways that late night / early dawn.
You make very good points about the question when – and how – Lea decided to kiss Shaun, Tony.
But because this all is very speculative in the first place and since the show does not give any hard proof to a definitive answer, I would suggest as an alternative that the moment of decision itself might be depicted in the first seconds of last scene, right before Lea straightly walks over to Shaun: Lea waits patiently, then suddenly shifts into action.
Ah Tony, thank you for working the magic of descriptive statistics! ;) These figures ease my mind…
Thank you for those stats, Tony! Looking back now, I can't believe there was a time I ever thought I was the only person who loved Shea and wanted them together. Like Andreas, these figures ease my mind too.
It sounds like we Shea fans are a silent majority on Twitter, but since that's the social media platform where I'm the most active, I'll happily keep repping our couple over there, and I know I'm not the only one, just seemingly the only one that doesn't know how to make edits, graphics, GIFs, and videos. Creeping middle age, I guess, LOL. Or more accurately, lack of technology and knowhow.
When did Lea decide to kiss Shaun? That's a good question, and one I'm not sure of the answer to either.
But when she heard what Shaun said about her making him more, and all the things he didn't know he could do before he met her, and he didn't believe he made her more, again, the look on her face (Paige Spara is INCREDIBLE!) was definitely one of anguish and regret that he honestly believed that he doesn't make her more, because he does. To me, that's why, once she was sure she hadn't blown it, that she and Shaun were going to take this leap of faith together, she made sure he knew, "You make me more, Shaun." Because until she said that, Shaun hadn't known that Lea heard him on the radio at that point (as far as we know), and so she wanted to make it clear to him that they are on the same page: they love each other, and they make each other more.
So I'm not sure when Lea decided to kiss Shaun (there are actually several points we could argue she was thinking about it or vowing to herself that she would do it the first chance she got), but it wasn't enough for her to just kiss him, she made sure he knew without any doubts that she loves him, and that he does make her more.
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