State of the Shea, Pt. 87: Step by Step, Issue by Issue (“M.C.E.”)

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Things were different when Dr. Neil Melendez died on TGD at the conclusion of season 3. 

Key characters had a chance to say goodbye. New episodes of the show wouldn’t air for several months.  And of course, The Powers That Be had no idea what havoc the pandemic was about to wreak in real life. Would they have begun season 4 with a memorial service, rather than a two-parter devoted entirely to the way COVID-19 was impacting hospitals and the people who ran them? 

Sure, TGD brought actor Nick Gonzalez back for a cameo appearance as Claire continued to come to terms with his death.  And it was during those COVID episodes (known as “Frontline Parts 1 & 2”) that Claire strengthened her friendship with Lim as they both continued to mourn him. But what about everyone else at St. Bons? 

Asher’s death is something else entirely– we knew as much when we saw the synagogue filled with almost everyone else in the season 7 cast. And no matter how upset viewers are with Asher as a victim of a hate crime, it’s clear that the anger and anguish were intended to spill over into the “M.C.E” episode and beyond. 

For the most part, I appreciated the efforts TGD made here. With Mike Listo directing “M.C.E.” I knew it would carry that nail-biting urgency he brought to the “Quarantine” (S2) AND “Frontline” (S4) two-part episodes, and more recently “Afterparty” (S6). And with some of my commentary from WHO AT PEACE in mind… I think this show is often at its best when the tempo is allegro and the “statements” are more delicate in nature.

So, taking it “step by step” and “issue by issue,” as Charlie directed to Shaun in a key scene from this episode, here’s my breakdown… starting with the ISSUES:

I’ll refer to these issues throughout this article…

ISSUE 1: ASHER’S DEATH and its current impact on everyone

ISSUE 2: CHARLIE’S COMPLAINT about Shaun and how their feelings evolved as the Mass Casualty Event progressed

ISSUE 3: JORDAN’S RAGE and how it evolved through the MCE

ISSUE 4: LIM’S STRUGGLE to keep her head above water as patient after patient died, much as she did during those “Frontline” episodes (where she developed PTSD)

ISSUE 5: SHAUN’S LEADERSHIP skills tested as Lim put him in charge of the M.C.E. 

(This issue will often be grouped with Issue 2.)

ISSUE 6: DOM’S STRUGGLE to overcome his issues with blood (Admittedly not the same kind of “struggle” as Lim’s, but it still earned him quite a bit of screen time)

ACT 1

It’s been three days since Asher became the victim of a hate crime. The front pews hold his fellow doctors, as well a certain IT director on maternity leave (Lea) and Asher’s would-be fiance (Jerome) Med students Dom and Charlie sit a little further back. Lim’s the only one missing; we learn a few minutes later that Lim hasn’t slept much since Asher’s death. Her mom, after observing Lim’s life over the course of several days, feels compelled to share something about Lim’s father. But of course. once Lim gets word that she’s needed at St. Bons ASAP, she hits the shower before Mom Eileen can get in another word.

At the funeral, Shaun appears his steady-Eddie self, concerned primarily with his HR “complaint” meeting to come, but Lea’s taken note of his relative silence about Asher’s death. She’s bracing for the moment when it “hits” that Asher is gone. (So are we.)

Jordan is the obvious choice for eulogizing her best friend, and she does a beautiful job with it– until her emotions get the best of her, and the raw pain tumbles out.

“They knew one thing about Asher– one thing– and they killed him for it.

Left him lying there, bleeding on the pavement. And those animals– they get to live. And now he’s dead. And I hate them!  I hate them for taking my friend.”

But before she gets any further, all the St. Bons doctors in attendance get the same notification about needing to head to the hospital.

Once Lim is briefed by Nurse Villanueva (both on the cause of the M.C.E. and the lack of staff available), she has to head to the OR immediately.  Lim quickly declares Shaun to be the one in charge of the ER floor. Park was the obvious alternate choice, but Lim favors Shaun because he “won’t let emotions get in the way.”

PAUSE. That felt kind of exploitative; this feeling that Shaun possesses a special ASD “superpower” that allows him to overcome grief and extraordinary situations in a single head rub. Just me…?

But to be fair, Lim was unable to witness Shaun’s overwhelming moments several years back (in S2’s “Quarantine pts. 1 & 2), for she was in a hospital bed fighting to survive the deadly virus herself, and didn’t witness Shaun in a fetal position rocking on the floor. 

The move was probably intended to show us, again, how far Dr. Shaun Murphy has come since he first stepped foot in St. Bons. Fair enough. Roll the opening credits–

ISSUE 1 STATUS: Asher only gets a tiny mention in this segment of the show (via Park), but he weighs heavy on everyone’s mind nonetheless. (Thankfully, Jerome was allowed to continue his day of bereavement.)

ISSUES 2 & 5  STATUS: After checking in with Villanueva, Shaun takes charge as requested. He assigns red (critical, needing surgery) tag patients to Park, Jordan, and Kalu… yellow tags (critical, not needing surgery) to Morgan… green tags (relatively minor) to Dom, and black tags (already deceased, needing to be processed) to Charlie (who takes it as an insult, go figure). And when Glassman joins the action, reminding Shaun that he can’t operate on people anymore, he is assigned to Yellow Tags.

Shaun himself operates on a pregnant woman who appeared too far gone to save…until Shaun manages to deliver the baby and save its mom! But no sooner is that accomplishment completed than Shaun has to step into the next patient crisis. You can see him take a couple of slow blinks as he sets one situation behind him and moves on.

ISSUE 3 STATUS: Jordan and Kalu take on a couple of patients, one of whom is The Driver (the man responsible for this entire M.C.E.). Jordan is extremely reluctant to help him, especially with one of the incident’s “heroes” in her care, so it takes firm directives from Shaun (“Dr. Allen! The leg! Now!”) to get her moving.

ISSUE 4 STATUS: Lim, who took on the first accident victim to roll in, is not having an easy time of it in the OR.

ISSUE 6 STATUS: With a little guidance from Morgan, Dom works his way through the crowded waiting room… where he’ll have to deal with his hemophobia head-on. For hours. 

ACT 2

ISSUE 1 STATUS: Asher’s memorial service concludes, and Lea (who moved to Jerome’s side once the doctors had to clear out early) invites Jerome to come spend time with her and Steve, which he politely declines… wishing instead to “sit a bit.”

Also, while checking on Kalu in surgery, Shaun notes that this particular O.R. is where he and Asher worked together (maybe for the last time?). Once he realizes this, Shaun decides to take on this surgical procedure (an amputation) because he can do it faster than Kalu. (That was the logical reason, though methinks Shaun’s mind was drifting too close to Asher and he felt the need to get away from those feelings immediately.

ISSUE 2 & 5 STATUS: When more room is needed for the steady stream of patients, Shaun seeks out the reason Charlie is taking too long with the Black Tags…and it turns out one of the ones believed dead isn’t dead (look up Lazarus Effect for more about this). Soon the debate will be on about which one “saved” him, but for now, Charlie and Shaun work to get him back to the ER.

ISSUE 3 STATUS: Jordan encounters The Driver’s mom– who is quite concerned about her son’s ongoing pain– and Jordan’s anger simmers beneath her words (“That’s a shame… there’s a lot of people hurting right now”). Kalu, who somehow keeps an eye and an ear on Jordan through most of the episode, reassures the mom the medication will kick in soon when Jordan moves out of earshot.

ISSUE 4 STATUS: Lim has to tell the wife of her 1st O.R. patient that he didn’t make it. Then, before Lim can get another word out of her mouth, Villanueva calls her away.

Later in this segment, Lim’s on to another life-or-death patient as the patient’s new husband begs Lim to save her. They’re on their honeymoon, after all.

No additional pressure, Audrey… jeez.

(This is where I ask myself Is San Jose a popular honeymoon destination? And answer myself with It sure as hell won’t be after THIS.)

ISSUE 6 STATUS: Dom takes care of a couple of patients in the waiting room before Nurse Hawkes directs him to “Effed up Eye Lady” (that’s what I’m calling her, anyway). The Effed up eye causes him to gag, which prompts Hawkes to call for Morgan’s assistance. By the way,  I hardly think Dom would be the only med student to react like that. I mean… yikes.

ACT 3

ISSUE 1 STATUS: Asher is in three places at once in this segment, as you’ll see shortly. But for Jerome, it’s about having nowhere to honor his would-be fiance’s memory (the Wolke family had his body sent back to NYC, of course). And as of Act 3, the poor guy can’t even sit quietly at the synagogue any longer. Rabbi Benjamin shares a few words of encouragement with Jerome before gently showing him out.

ISSUE 2 STATUS: Glassman is present when Shaun and Charlie bring the former black-tagged patient to an open bay… and witnesses their “I saved him/No,I saved him” bickering firsthand. Shaun even name-drops Dr. Wolke (“Asher was excellent at receiving constructive criticism!”) before Glassman shouts AM I GONNA HAVE TO STOP THIS CAR…

Just kidding. What he actually says is much more constructive: “It doesn’t matter who saved him, let’s just keep him safe… okay?” Next, he sends Charlie for a cardiac monitor and uses the time to remind Shaun how counterproductive the arguing is.  

“She is not helpful,” Shaun says flatly. 

“She’s helpful to me,” Glassman counters.

“Then… YOU take her for the rest of the day,” Shaun says (somewhat triumphantly) and leaves. Yeah, you kind of stepped into that one, didn’t you Glassy.

ISSUE 3 STATUS: Jordan and Kalu are now working together in an O.R., and this is where Asher’s name comes up for the third time in perhaps as many minutes. “Riley (AKA The Driver) didn’t kill Asher. It’s not your job to punish him,” Kalu tells Jordan.

“I’m not,” she says.

“Your anger is totally justified. But is it helping you? Or anything?”

“If those monsters hurt like we’re hurting, maybe something will change,” Jordan offers as an explanation. But the helplessness in her voice is palpable.

ISSUE 4 STATUS: Another hour in the OR for Lim equals another patient going downhill fast. Once again, she finds herself delivering devastating news (this time to Honeymoon Guy). 

As he turns to the wall in tears; as Lim walks away in slomo,the sounds around her muffle and we’re all taken back to her PTSD turmoil of a few years ago. 

Moments later, her fog is broken by an injured man, lamenting how long it’s taking to get his arm examined.   “We’re doing the best we can,” she says with some desperation in her tone.

“Then get more doctors,” he shoots back at her.

Which is more than enough to set Lim off. “Hey! Look around you. People are dying! Sit down and wait your damn turn,” she claps back, pouring into it all the frustrated energy of her “Wear your damn mask” line from the “Frontline” episodes. 

And with that, back to work she goes with news of yet another critical patient she’ll try to save.

ISSUE 6 STATUS: Morgan did, in fact, come to Dom’s aid with the Effed-up Eye Lady. Now sporting a giant bandage wrap, Effed-up is wheeled away while Dom apologizes to Morgan, unsure if he can continue. “Then quit,” Morgan tells him deadpan. “Tomorrow. Right now I need you to deal with that guy in the corner.” Says it’s a panic attack; take him somewhere quiet and calm him down. Sounds easy enough… until it isn’t.

ACT 4

ISSUE 1 STATUS: The memorial service is now in everyone’s rear-view mirror, but Asher still gets two mentions in this segment…

ISSUE 2 STATUS: As Charlie continues to work with (and get encouragement from) Glassman, the question of Why-is-Dr.-Murphy-Like-That-With-Me crops up. Fortunately for Charlie, she’s now asking the best possible person.

“Dr. Murphy has been held to a higher standard,” Glassman explains. “He’s doing the same thing to you.” 

“That’s not fair,” Charlie says for maybe the 20th time in the past few episodes.

“Nevertheless, he wants you to be perfect,” Glassman says cooly. ”So you do the best you can.”

Before she can process any of this, Shaun appears and assigns a complex surgery to Glassman… who’s all “Uh, hello? Remember?? I don’t do surgery anymore!”... but for every alternate suggestion he makes, Shaun comes back with the reason it won’t work– not enough available doctors (or even neighboring hospitals!) being among them. Still, Glassman refuses. “I might kill the patient!” he argues.

“He is already dying,” Shaun points out. “You are my only option.” (Translation: Yes, Glassman is a risk now, but the patient’s odds are worse if he doesn’t attempt it.) 

“So it’s me or the Janitor?” Glassy quips. And of course, Shaun misses the sarcastic tone and considers it a serious question: “The janitor is cleaning trauma two. He is very bright, but is–”

“Okay, okay, okay…”

Sure enough, a little while later we see Glassman in the OR. I can’t help but feel like there should have been at least a little more made of this…maybe a few seconds of him scrubbing in for this “bonus” surgery he never thought he’d get… but that’s nit-picking. Hooray for the bonus surgery!

I could be all wrong about this, but something about that Shaun/Glassman exchange— the way Shaun processed the situation in real time, the way Glassman responded— felt like an important reminder for Glassman as to why Shaun acted as he did when Glassman’s skills were in question last season. And why he didn’t “get” what he did was humiliating to Glassy. We haven’t gotten the conversation I hoped we’d get about this matter. Maybe this exchange will have to suffice.

(I STILL think Shaun needs to apologize though.)

ISSUE 3 STATUS: Jordan comes into contact with The Driver’s Mom again, but this time the mom tries to explain her son a little more: mental health therapies that haven’t worked, medications that failed, etc. We can see that, between what this woman said and things Kalu said earlier, Jordan is softening a little. She’s still at a loss for words, though

ISSUE 4 STATUS: It would be wonderful if Lim could save someone amid three different surgeries, but this time she’s losing a man that, to her, looks like Asher. So she’s all the more invested in his recovery. G-R-E-A-T.

(Aside from the facial hair, I didn’t see a resemblance at ALL. Was that the point, though? I don’t know…)

ISSUE 6 STATUS: After relocating to a quieter part of the hospital (as directed), Dom’s patient (a.k.a.Panic Guy) gets a bloody nose that quickly turns into a gusher of epic proportions. Immersion therapy, anyone?

ISSUE 5 STATUS: I know my issue numbers are out of order here, but we’re at the critical part of Shaun’s leadership “journey”. He’d been managing quite well until, finally, too many came at him at once with questions in need of answers: Villanueva, an EMT, another nurse I think, and Charlie. (Always Charlie!) Running out of people to which to delegate, he instinctively

tells Villanueva to “get Asher”… before seeing his departed colleague’s face in his mind’s eye… and remembering. (And everyone watching swallows the lump in their throat.)

We see it coming: the proximity of all the ones with questions… the frustration of not being able to think clearly as the questions come faster and faster… and while there’s no buzzing overhead light (like in “Quarantine”), it’s all finally overwhelming him. Big time.

Is Villanueva too frazzled to remember how to work with Shaun when he’s in this state? Maybe…

But Charlie isn’t. She’s been there herself at times, most likely. She knows what to say to get through his muffled ears, and sort his thinking out.

Before I get into my one HUGE complaint about this episode, I want to say that the ShaunVision that came next was perhaps the best I’ve ever seen. (Maybe because it was more relatable… a manager’s edition rather than a medical one! So cool!)

Once Shaun gets everything sorted out in his head, it’s back to work for him, and everyone around him.

But here’s MY “issue”: Where was Park all this time?

We saw him back in Act 1, both at the funeral and at the hospital when the doctors were given their assignments by Shaun. We saw him one more time in that same act, guiding a patient/gurney through the corridor. Then… nada. Act 2, Act 3… nowhere to be found. Even here in Act 4, when Villanueva was on the verge of getting Park to replace Shaun as team leader, I wanted to say YOU’D BETTER ASK SHAUN TO ZOOM IN ON HIS SHAUNVISION A LITTLE LONGER… for NO. ONE. HAS. SEEN. HIM.

Maybe he was tied up in the longest offscreen surgery ever. Maybe he just stayed in an O.R. and the nurses just wheeled patients in and out like they were at a fast food drive-thru.

Maybe someone should have checked the cleaning supply closet…??? (Morgan was offscreen a lot of the time too, after all)

All joking aside, I don’t get it. Yes, Shaun In Charge was a huge element of the episode, but couldn’t they establish that without sending Park to parts unknown for the majority of the episode? And if it was because Park’s portrayer (Will Yun Lee) wasn’t fully available for some reason… couldn’t they have at least covered for that better?

Ok, rant over.

ACT 5

ISSUE 1: Asher only made one “appearance” in this scene…

ISSUE 4: Lim loses Patient #3 on the day, and as his face rushes to mind, it continues to feel like she’s trying to save Asher himself.

Good Lord, that poor woman.

ISSUE 6: Dom’s Panic Guy keeps bleeding, and bleeding, and then passes out; Dom again calls desperately for assistance that isn’t anywhere nearby…

…but he’s near a supply station, and he grabs a few things (catheters) and goes to work as best he can. (Without retching OR fainting, thank you very much.)

ISSUES 2 and 5: Shaun and Charlie FINALLY work together when Shaun determines their patient’s aorta is about to rupture. Still, He literally turns and looks all around him before turning back to Charlie (RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM) and declaring she’s the only one available to help him. 

Their intensified focus— sponsored by ASD, and also an unspoken decision to stop bitching about each other– brings Act 5 to a close.

ACT 6

Just a few notes left on the “ISSUES” as the day finally winds down…

ISSUE 1: Jerome can’t bring himself to clean out Asher’s locker, but Jordan shows up in time to help.

ISSUE 2: Following their makeshift surgery together, Shaun finally says something more encouraging to Charlie: “You might make an adequate surgeon one day.” She’s easy to please; next thing we hear (as she passes Glassman in the hall) is that the HR complaint is withdrawn. “For now.”

ISSUE 3: Jordan has one more exchange with Driver Mom— as she gives The Driver medication to help him sleep through the night— but there’s a bit more compassion in Jordan’s words and deeds now.

ISSUE 4: Lim’s Mom brings cookies to St. Bons… and also tells a thoroughly spent Lim that her father had suffered from clinical depression most of his life. Mom is scared that Lim is vulnerable to it as well. (NOTE: I’m two parts intrigued that they are bringing this information to Lim late in the series, and one part afraid I’ll be disappointed that they did it.)

ISSUE 5: How did Shaun do as Team Leader? A quick check-in with Lim indicates she’s satisfied. A quicker check-in with Shaun indicates HE’S satisfied… or at least that he would embrace future leadership opportunities. (So long as there wasn’t any actual “embracing” I suppose.)

ISSUE 6: After saving Panic Guy’s life via “some kickass MacGyver medicine,” Morgan praises young Dom just when he needs it most. (In other words… he’s not quitting.)

Oh, and for a long-dormant BONUS issue… Glassman completes his surgery and “goes out on a win.” That’s a nice, unexpected touch.
As are the gifts:

• A mug Asher had made of him and Park shirtless from the “Potluck” episode, and we get a momentary flashback to that scene. (Funny/weird/ridiculous on many levels, including that Park probably has little to no memory of that happening, and yet still I loved it.) 

• A big brochure that Asher brought back from a convention about a particular articulating dissector (surgical tool) that Shaun has read about and finds promising. Asher’s death starts to hit him as he holds it, complete with a post-it note in Asher’s handwriting. “Oh…I will miss Asher. He was a good friend.”

So it was a day of mourning, and an evening of breakthroughs. Shaun and Charlie… Glassman and making peace with his surgical days… Dom and his fear of having to bail on his medical career… Lim and her mental well-being.

But for Jerome and for Jordan, any future “breakthroughs” are gonna take a while.

What did YOU think of “M.C.E.”? Was it the follow-up to “Who At Peace” that you needed? Drop a note in the comments and let me know!