The Good Doctor Episode 14 aired Febraury 5th, on ABC.
As always, The Good Doctor continues its focus on timely story lines, and Shaun being Shaun, he’s the perfect character to explore them.
The Big Story
This week, it’s a teen boy who identifies as a girl. Quinn needs surgery for testicular cancer, and she wants to have bilateral surgery in order to stop all those male hormones (she’d been taking puberty blockers, but this led to low bone density). Her parents support her, but her grandmother isn’t going for it and she threatens to bring the parents up on charges of child abuse if the surgery is allowed. When an emergency forces the parents to make a quick decision, they decide to only to do what is medically necessary—for fear that Quinn might want to have a family later in life.
But throughout Quinn’s story, Shaun has a difficult time understanding, and continues to call Quinn “he” and ask questions that many find insensitive. But the thing is, with Shaun, he’s not really being insensitive, he’s genuinely curious and trying to understand. Which, again, makes him the perfect character to explore these kinds of topics. He’s not on one side or the other, he’s just trying to become aware.
In one of the more poignant exchanges between Quinn and Shaun, she tells him that when her parents let her be who she is, she felt free, “like when you’re in a pool and just float.”
Later, speaking to Kalu, Shaun says of Quinn: “She’s more of a purple kind of girl.” A simple statement that means so much because we know Shaun finally gets it.
Meanwhile
- Let’s talk about the new addition, Dr. Morgan Reznick. I think most of us had one word for the newbie, and it wasn’t a nice word. She wasted no time letting Claire know that they were not going to be friends, and, as they worked together to take care of a man who had a super bug because he’d been taking old prescriptions, Dr. Reznick took every opportunity she could to undermine Claire and make her own self look good. By the end of the episode, they were still going at it, but it seemed like they had both learned something from working with the other. I predict that the two might eventually even become friends.
- Happy to see Dr. Andrews getting some story time. He and his wife are seeing a specialist because they’re having problems conceiving. When Andrews lays the fault on his wife, he ends up feeling pretty humbled when it turns out that he is the one with the problem.
- Shaun’s new neighbor is quirky, but I don’t like that he just breaks into Shaun’s apartment without consent. Come on, ever heard of privacy? Then again, maybe that’s what Shaun needs, someone who will totally ignore boundaries.
- Dr. Glassman tries to make amends when he offers to get something to eat with Shaun. But Shaun isn’t going to let him off that easy and tells him, “You said you can’t be my friend. So no thank you.”
The episode ends with the beautiful image of Shaun, floating in the pool as his neighbor looks on, a call back to the conversation Shaun had with Quinn earlier. When the neighbor asks what Shaun is doing he says, “Understanding.” And isn’t that what this show is really all about? Understanding.
My favorite line:
Questions are good, they lead to awareness and understanding, and mabye even acceptance.” ~ Dr. Glassman
What’s your thoughts on Episode 14? Do you think the writers are doing a good job exploring these story lines that could be offensive if handled in the wrong way? Any ideas for topics you’d like to see included in future episodes?
The Good Doctor is taking a break for the Olympics and will return February 26th, 10/9C, on ABC.
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