State of the #SHEA Part 31: A Bigger Look at a "Teeny" Episode

 

I’m not the first viewer to make this observation, but the #Sheababy situation is reminding me of a pivotal sequence of scenes from not that long ago… though it feels much longer. 

In the early moments of the club/karaoke sequence in 3.15 “Unsaid,” when Shaun and Carly are quietly celebrating Shaun’s latest medical victory… and Lea is across the room, dancing and making out shamelessly with Nameless Guy (as we’ve christened him)... Carly points to them (unaware yet that it’s Lea) and declares to Shaun “They are getting pregnant tonight!”

Then, as soon as the she in “they” is identified, Shaun contradicts Carly’s declaration with a firm testimony to Lea’s commitment to birth control.

And a little more than a year later, here we are. I just have to wonder-- did Shore and Company know they were going to go this direction back then? Not the #Shea direction; we know that was the plan for S3 in general. But just how long have they envisioned Shaun and Lea wrestling with baby pros and cons by the third quarter of S4? 

Because otherwise, that “pregnancy” exchange between Shaun and Carly was a helluva coincidence. And to think it struck me as a little odd at the time… why didn’t Carly just say something like “They need to get a room already!” -- which comes off a little less crude than what she did say.

Water under the bridge, I know, but we DO love to discuss foreshadowing here…!!!

🍏🍏🍏

With two new episodes of TGD airing back-to-back for the first time in a while, it’s harder for slowpoke me to keep pace. Throw in a week of World Figure Skating Championships (my sport of choice you’ve learned if you recently started following me on Twitter), and my TGD blogging efforts threaten to dry up altogether. But what fun is that? 

So here’s my compromise: a less fleshed out, more list-like look at “Teeny Blue Eyes” that I’ll follow with something longer and in-depth next week… depending on what we get from 4.13 “Spilled Milk.” (With Claire’s family dynamic back in the spotlight this coming week, the next #Shea chapter might end up a thin subplot in comparison. And there’s also got to be some #Paresnick (is that the hashtag) aftermath to deal with, right? But I’m not willing to let the ABC promotion terrorists win just yet, so… reserving judgment for now.)

A Listicle follows… and yes “listicles” are a thing, just not a thing I do much for public consumption! I’m just going to hit certain scenes from the episode in chronological order:

• 
  If Shaun taking Lea’s blood pressure at home becomes a regular occurrence during this pregnancy, I wonder if there will be a spike in her BP at some point that will prove to be the first sign of a medical issue with Lea and/or the baby.

• Lea’s initial list of (verbal) worries-- career, age, level of relationship commitment, etc.-- I’m sure there are those who will quibble with her doubts being “selfish” ones, but just as I take issue with couples who exclaim “WE’RE pregnant!”-- No. SHE is pregnant. And her worries were far from superficial. Every woman, married to her partner or otherwise, is bound to have them.

• 
  Shaun did come up with one concern by the time he reached Glassman’s office to deliver the news (“sleep deprivation”), which was an easy tipoff that he hadn’t processed much yet. For his part, Glassman didn’t freak out as I thought he might (arguably, not enough time for that in their brief scene)-- even with this confirmation that Shaun still had much to think about. What interested me here was that in making the argument that this was a big deal “especially for you,”  Shaun’s ASD claimed the top spot but “his family (of origin)” was mentioned before his career. But the way Glassy said it was more like well there’s this matter, and this matter, and BY THE WAY HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THIS?  (meaning work), delivering it as punctuation rather than a lesser concern. All in all, I saw more wonder and excitement in Glassman than frustration or judgment. Can’t help but wonder if his evolving appreciation of Lea helped with that. 

• Next came Shaun’s notebook, which went from a last-second appearance in Glassy’s office to our next window into Shaun’s mind during TGD opening credits. Among the “Pros” he’d listed at this point:

• Help with personal discipline

• Second chance at better family life

• Enjoy talking to kids

• Pregnancy before age 30= lower chance of breast cancer 

• Childhood disorders correlated with age of father

• Give a child a chance for a good life

Lea is unsure-- that was the sole “con” he’d written at that point. But I found his “pro” list intriguing, and not just because I was at a loss on a couple of them (“Childhood disorders…” Can someone explain that? Does it have to do with Shaun’s ASD?) It also, along with Lea’s earlier “Am I too young?” comment, clarified that the two of them are supposed to be around the same age (Paige Spara is  2 ½ years older than Freddie Highmore in real life). By the way, I took Lea’s question to be more about her place in life than chronological age.

• Next came Claire’s happenstance discovery of the pregnancy. Was she encouraging Lea to consider abortion during their chat? To me, not any more than Lea was already considering it herself. And the “little Shaun” scenario Claire suggested was mighty endearing. But putting the “tough decisions” thing with her thorny relationship with Mama Breeze as a frame of reference, Claire didn’t exactly part the clouds and let the sun shine in with her words. I guess I see her as relatively neutral here-- I’m just glad they gave Lea someone “new” to talk to! 

• 

  ANIMATED BABY?!?

  Shaun was still pretty cheerful about the baby when he lent his ShaunVision® to the perks of parenthood… which include Order off kids menu without having to answer questions… Excuse to buy scient museum season tickets… and excuse to avoid social obligations

  

  AAAUGH!!!!

  . Though I admit I had to back and check the specifics of that later, for which I’m going to blame whoever decided to put that ANIMATED BABY in the ShaunVision® (!!!) because it gave me horrible flashbacks
  to the Dancing Baby popularized in Ally McBeal a quarter-century ago.

• But then came Shaun’s deeper dust-ups with Silas, AKA Dr. Denial. When he started turning his own self-loathing on Shaun with verbal grenades like “You can’t understand what anyone means… you can’t express yourself like an adult… you’re a child playing dress-up,” Shaun was thrown right back to earlier days in his life-- by way of his brutal father, of classmates, of anyone who relentlessly made him feel like less of a human being. No wonder that, by the time Silas’ yellow mug broke and he bellowed “You idiot!”, we didn’t see Shaun again until he was out on the St. B overpass/bridge, struggling to come to grips with everything. Asking questions like “What if my child has no friends? How can I know what they’re feeling, how to comfort them? How can I be a good father?” Suddenly, Shaun was covering both the ASD-as-parent and possible-ASD-as-child worries in consecutive breaths… and feeling like he couldn’t win with either. Pretty heartbreaking right there… and the episode still had a ways to go.

• 
  Once again, Claire to the rescue-- except her input about the baby was secondary to her input about Shaun’s evolution since the first time they’d met, “right over there” (and as she said that I was thinking it). He needed to know he could take on the role of fatherhood whenever he wanted to, and since Lea was a less-than-partial judge in that matter, it was especially good Shaun could hear it from a colleague/friend his own age (meaning NOT Glassman).

• I thought the way Shaun subsequently handled Silas/Dr.Denial was another testament to his adaptability and growth. I don’t know that this is a fair comparison, but I thought of Shaun’s dad, and every raw emotion procured from their final meetings. Not that I expected Shaun to forego professional protocol in an effort to defend himself from the older doctor on the spectrum, but he could have kept his time with him to an absolute minimum, avoiding further engagement. Instead came the most poignant scene of the episode (outside of Shaun and Lea’s final two scenes of course). Shaun not only understood Silas’ seemingly cruel behavior for what it was, but knew he was in a better place-- with work, friends, and yes, possibly a family of his own-- and needed to try once more to reach Silas with the best show of empathy he could muster. Enter the repaired yellow mug, and a floodgate opened wide…

• (Oh, and one more thing. The Melendez name drop during this scene was quite a stunner. It's the only time Shaun has mentioned him this season.)

• This brings us to Shaun and Lea’s pros-and-cons talk, and like the waiting-room scene that followed it, plenty has already been said via social media and elsewhere (like this article featuring Paige Spara herself… so let’s see if I can add anything of interest:

• 
  I don’t know a lot about cinematography, but when I
  look at that gloriously emotional three-minute close from “Autopsy” last year and compare it to countless other #Shea scenes in that same loft apartment setting at night, the “Autopsy” scene has a different look… darker, with more sienna tones I think. I got a similar visual vibe from the Pros/Cons scene, and I doubt that was by accident. 

• The “Autopsy” scene was joyous on the surface-- candles lit, Shaun there with all his courage gathered, at last, to put his feelings for Lea on the line-- but we all knew something was not going to go well. Even those of us certain that Lea loved Shaun back watched that scene waiting for that other shoe to drop. With “Pros/Cons”, the surface joy was the pregnancy itself… but we saw how Lea looked and sounded when Shaun came through the door. We knew Shaun had been through his own kind of emotional wringer that day, the kind that could lead a guy to say, only thirty seconds into comparing notes, that “You’re right… it IS very complicated,” and set his notebook down. They weren’t discussing whether or not it was a good idea to buy a new car-- they were discussing their future, and for all the difficulties that came and went on their way to finally getting together, this was uncharted territory.

• 
  Still, Shaun kept it simple: Lea’s happiness above all else. He could have come in and launched into how Dr. Denial had helped him realize he needed to embrace this fatherhood thing, but it didn’t change the fact that Lea was brimming with doubt.

• We’ve wondered about how the ASD question would factor into their decision-making, and I’d describe the approach “downplayed” in a rather intriguing way. ASD itself was discussed much more broadly in the episode via Dr. Denial, with the undercurrents of those exchanges affecting Shaun in profound ways. Meanwhile, Lea only brought it up when talking to Claire, and since there’s a lot of question marks where answers would normally be (as discussed last time), the conversation could only go so far. When Shaun and Lea compared notes, it was only Shaun’s potential for fatherhood greatness that was discussed… and while that seemed to cover the bases regarding perceived limitations on Shaun’s part, the child-with-ASD question was never actually addressed. Did the writers take the easy way out there? Or was the ASD issue implied enough that it didn’t need to be discussed in that moment? I say maybe a little of both. How about you?

• FINALLY… I’m not honoring my days of doing production continuity if I don’t point this out-- In THIS shot, Lea’s reaching for Shaun’s hand and his notebook is already set down on the breakfast bar.

• 
  
  
  

• And in THIS shot (the close-up), Shaun sets down the notebook with one hand while taking Lea’s outstretched hand with the other.

• 
  
  
  

• Really surprising error to me, given that Shaun had already set down the notebook long before the hand-holding began… it wasn’t even close. Guess it shows us how badly they wanted to include that close-up of Shaun’s two hands clutching tight to Lea’s!

• Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for the emotional pendulum to swing the other direction. TGD did NOT leave us hanging, but they DID manage to push the abortion consideration all the way to the final two minutes of the episode. By doing so…

• We finally got to hear Lea’s last name spoken out loud! (An interesting time for it to happen… as they make this move toward parenthood, one wonders just how much longer she’ll be “just” Lea Dilallo…) 

• We knew the lengths Shaun was willing to go to give Lea what he thought she wanted. While we were aware Shaun was getting pushed to the edge emotionally-- if the tears in his eyes at the end of the Pro/Con scene didn’t say it, his subsequent time spent with his toy scalpel certainly did-- he’d pulled it together through the course of the day and was there at the clinic by day’s end, by Lea’s side.

• 
  We got a balanced look at the question. The night before was wrapped in those shades of sienna because of doubt, hovering over the two of them, refusing to lift. But once the decision to abort was set
  in motion, Lea expected a sense of relief to come… and it didn’t. Instead came a seemingly unbearable sadness, and a hint at a new decision that gleamed a lot brighter once Shaun confirmed he was on board. How many women have sat in a waiting room like that-- with their partner alongside them or without-- feeling the same way? How many went in when their name was called anyway? 

• 
  AND… we got to watch Shaun and Lea rise to a new level of their relationship in a way we haven’t seen before. When they became roommates, they jumped up and down (literally). When they knew they loved each other above all else, they kissed (and kissed and kissed). When they decided to live together again (now as a couple), they acted similarly to what we saw at the
  
  
  end of “Teeny,” punctuated later in the episode with kisses in “their” home. But this! The firm decision to embrace parenthood, and the lifetime connection it will bring-- It’s “huge,” as David Shore says. It’s another dimension. How do you convey everything that goes with that? Maybe that’s why they didn’t kiss
  
  
  in this scene, but instead ran the gamut of emotions via face and body language, with Shaun holding Lea tight as their timid smiles became more real. How much better can it get than that?

(“They STILL could’ve allowed a little kiss, though”... yes, I feel this.) 

Oh, and if you’re thinking about the editing error in the Pro/Con scene and wondering if I noticed a possible mistake in this scene too… where Shaun seems to continue holding Lea’s hand as he stands up, but in another shot he’s standing with his hands folded… yes, I did! But it’s a lot less clear than the other edit thing I mentioned. So I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one.

So! There’s my “listicle”, which reads… mighty similar to any other post, doesn’t it? Oh well. Please consider hitting up the comments with your own thoughts on “Teeny Blue Eyes”!