The Good Doctor S2 E5
The Good Doctor rises to a season high, and tackles some heavy (no pun intended) issues again–this week in Episode 5 of Season 2.
To Live Together or Not To Live Together, That Is The Question
Shaun has paid the deposit (again) for the two bedroom apartment for him and Lea (and it has a fireplace, which he keeps reminding Lea about). But Lea isn’t happy, she suddenly doesn’t want a “relationship” with Shaun, she wants to stay just friends. So what the heck was the deal with that kiss, Lea? You were leading Shaun on and I don’t like it. Anyway, Lea is afraid that if they live together it will ruin their friendship, he might see her naked! They go back and forth between living together and not living together, and probably driving the potential landlord crazy—I’ll let you know at the bottom what they finally decided.
Eating Disorders
One patient is a wife and mother who has Anorexia. She is literally starving herself to death, and her heat is damaged. She needs heart surgery, but she’s not healthy enough to undergo it. They need to feed her first and get her nutritional health back up. She’s given an NG tube and despite the fact that she’s trying, the woman simply can’t do it and she yanks the tube out.
Kudos to The Good Doctor for shedding light on the fact that Anorexia is not about weight loss, it’s about control. I had a friend who was anorexic and this is a big misunderstanding with the disease. Another big misunderstanding is that these people can just say no to the disease and simply choose to start eating. It’s not that simple, folks.
Claire does some digging and finds an experimental surgery that could potentially stop the anorexic behavior, but there’s some big risks, the biggest being that it could change her personality, she might not want to be a mother to her son. Claire brings the suggestion to Melendez, who turns her down. It’s too risky. But Claire goes behind his back and brings the information to the patient, who asks for the operation. It’s eventually approved and the surgery seems to go okay. When she wakes up she is hungry—a great sign. But …. she hugs her son, and after he leaves she tells Claire she wonders if the hug felt different to him. Claire wants to know if it felt different to her, and she doesn’t answer. But I’m taking the nonanswer as a yes. Not good. Later, Claire reports to Melendez who drops a bombshell, Claire is no longer on his team. He’s angry that she went behind his back, and he can’t lead a team that way. Poor Claire, she can’t seem to win for losing.
Our other patient this week presents with one problem but while there has some complications from a previous gastric bypass surgery. The only problem is that he did not tell his husband about his previous obesity or the surgery. He does not want the team to share this information with his husband, and Dr. Park is dead set against this secrecy. Dr. Lim however, tells Park that it’s not his place to give out marital advice. Shaun reminds them that they both have failed marriages. Park sort of spills the beans to the guy’s husband, and the patient is forced to explain. Later, the guy talks to Park, shows him pictures of his husband when he was obese, and wants to know if there’s a danger he could be that way again. When Park says yes, he says he wished he didn’t know. Way to go, dude. Show how shallow you really are.
The Carrot
Besides trying to convince Lea to share an apartment with him, Shaun has also been trying to get Dr. Glassman to get up and walk, and have a bowel movement (TMI, Shaun). But Glassman isn’t budging, he does not want to get up and walk. Shaun talks to Dr. Blaize about it, who encourages Shaun that if the stick doesn’t work, try the carrot. I really like Dr. Blaize, by the way. I hope they keep her around. Once Shaun understands that the carrot is a metaphor for reward, he visits the cafeteria in search of a muffin for Dr. Glassman. Debbie is there, and she suggests Glassman’s favorite, chocolate chip. Shaun tries to bribe Glassman with the muffin, which he left at the nurse’s station, if he’ll get up and walk, he can have his muffin. He still refuses to walk, and the orderly eats his muffin. Later, Shaun figures out a better carrot—he has Debbie visit Dr. Glassman, and sure enough it works, she’s able to get him up and moving.
The episode ends with Shaun and Lea, jumping up and down, all giddy and happy because they’ve finally come to a decision, they are going to rent the two bedroom apartment. And it has a fireplace! Yay!
How’d you like this episode? Have you ever known anyone with an eating disorder? And what about secrecy? Do you think secrecy in a relationship is always a bad idea, or is it sometimes okay?
The Good Doctor returns November 5th, 10/9 C, on ABC.
Before you go:
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Rhode Island Comic Con: Tiny State, Massive Convention!