State of the Shea, Pt. 88: Bridges of “Faith”
As I write this post, there is at least one extended conversation on Twiter/X about this final season of The Good Doctor which is hard to ignore… and not just because I’m tagged on it.
Remember what I said in my “Who At Peace” post about…
…Sometimes the statements (made in TGD’s narrative) seem determined to outshout any questions that they generate, and THAT is an extremely unsatisfying thing.
A related discussion is what’s taking place on social media. To paraphrase much of what I’m reading– TGD has historically given us complex, flawed characters with the intent of these characters learning and growing over time– but much of the time, they get too much going at once. Much of the character “development” ends up either truncated, or happening off-screen, or not happening at all.
And because this final season is truncated itself, it feels like this particular hallmark of TGD is a bigger problem than ever. The writers and/or showrunners are trying to cram jam too many ideas into the scripts, rather than streamline it to a few important arcs, such as:
Shaun and Glassman’s relationship in the wake of Glassy’s abrupt surgical retirement.
Shaun and Lea and Baby Steve– both in terms of parenting (together as well as individually) and in the big ASD question about Steve.
Both Park and Shaun in the final months of their residency and plans for the future… (which has yet to be discussed AT ALL).
Park and Morgan and whether or not they’re in it for the long haul this time.
Also a couple of minor (or less major) storylines:
Jordan and Kalu’s maybe-relationship building up ahead of Danny Perez’s return.
Asher and Jerome’s move towards marriage (Assuming “Who at Peace” didn’t claim Asher at the end)
Instead, we got:
A quick and not-so-satisfying resolution between Shaun and Glassman
Shea + Steve scenes, but more often for filler than a compelling narrative
Lea with not much to do; we know she’s got PLENTY on her plate but we see her pushing Steve’s stroller around St. Bons more than we see “just” Lea being a mom.
First, Glassman pranking and otherwise frustrating Lim when they’re asked to work together. Then, Glassman getting his sexy on (or so we heard) with Eileen. Now it’s Glassman getting his third chance at fatherhood via Hannah.
Two brand-new characters taking screen time– one who likely needs more than half a season to be fully appreciated, and one who feels utterly unnecessary by comparison. (Apologies to Wavvy Jonez if he’s reading this– HE is terrific; it’s the ever-crowded story canvas I’m speaking of here.)
Lim’s mom Eileen, whose overall relevance is still TBD
Asher’s brutal death and some of its aftermath (I’m curious if he’ll even get mentioned beyond the “Faith” episode)
Outside of the promotional material and articles released thus far, I know precious little about what will happen in these final three TGD episodes. If you’ve dropped in on any of the post-broadcast Twitter chats hosted by Naty (a.k.a. @TheGoodDoctorAr), you know she speaks well of “how it all ends” though she hasn’t shared any details.
But it also sounds like Season 7 has been a rough go all the way around, even if you don’t factor the SAG-AFTRA strike into the mix:
Naty has said many times during the Twitter chats that no one involved with the show was ready for it to end, and having to do it all in just 10 episodes twisted the proverbial knife a little deeper.
Add to that a staggered release of those final 10 episodes…
Airing on a completely different day of the week than the previous six seasons…
On a network that seems indifferent to the show’s very existence now…
And by the way, ratings in this Tuesday time slot have yet to climb above the 3 million mark, easily suggesting a significant percentage of viewers quit watching between the end of S6 and now.
So, suffice to say… there are multiple frustrations about this final season thus far, and it seems ridiculous to think the final three episodes will magically take all that frustration away. As the 7th episode of the season, “Faith” had the honor (perhaps dubious honor) of setting the stage for the final TGD story arcs. So I’m calling the episode a show of BRIDGES… and here are ones I noted:
Jordan and her grief
How did the self-described “devout Christian” get to where she’s questioning her own deeply grounded beliefs? The senseless murder of her best friend, that’s how. Jordan’s grief was agonizingly fresh in “M.C.E.” of course, and if “Faith” took place maybe two weeks later, that’s just enough time for darker emotions to try and take root.
Two things about Jordan were made clear early on in this episode:
Asher remained heavy on her mind; she had the “locker” photo of the two of them clipped to her car visor and she gave it a few moments of her time before heading into St. Bon’s
She is NOT suffering fools gladly right now, and by “fools” I mean men who enter her place of work claiming to be Jesus Christ.
Carl, a.k.a. Jesus, was simply a man with a pheochromocytoma (rare tumor) that tricked his brain into calling himself Emmanuel and claiming to be a carpenter/teacher. But when he did believe himself to be Jesus, his impact on Jordan was profound…for he knew about her losing “the young man,” which disarmed her for quite a while. (Yes, this was explained by “people telling him a lot of things”... but they never truly zeroed in on how he knew about Asher, did they?)
The deepest part came when Jordan unleashed her anger at him– or should I say Him– and in those moments, she fully embraced the notion of speaking to her lord and savior face to face. (This was one of those beloved moments that I’ve spoken of recently.)
JC:I know you’re grieving–
JA: I don’t want to talk about it.
JC: And you can’t understand how your friend’s death could be part of God’s plan.
JA: There IS no plan. It’s a lie, and it’s cruel, And I used to believe in it SO much! Every time I lost a patient, I would tell myself it was a part of a bigger picture. I took comfort in believing that YOU were watching out for us. Even in the midst of suffering, You were working things out for our good… But it is all a lie. My friend was murdered defending one of YOUR children. YOU let him bleed out on the sidewalk all alone, and there was no one there to tell him how much he was loved!
JC: He knew. I promise. He knew.
Hey, God will love you no matter what you say to him, or about him… you just need to keep talking.
And– dare I say– that conversation was exactly what Jordan needed WHEN she needed it. Which makes Carl’s pheochromocytoma a very unique gift from God, doesn’t it?
One more thing I appreciated about this scene (and then I’ll move on!) was how unapologetic Jordan was in that moment. There was no sense that she snapped back into a mindset of What am I doing? What am I saying? This man is NOT Jesus! (watch the rest to confirm) There was a wonderful sincerity to that whole exchange that was quite moving. Maybe moreso to me as a fellow believer?
As for where Jordan goes as her grief process continues– if you read that interview with Bria Samone Henderson, it sounds like it’ll take her more directly than ever to the guy who returned in the middle of last season… who I happen to be discussing next.
Jerome and his grief
There was no personal Jesus for Jerome, though, if only because St. Bons itself was too painful a place to be. (Poor guy! It was heartbreaking every time we saw him in this episode.) So Kalu took it upon himself to visit the man THREE times– once to little avail, once to ask a favor for his POTW (which Jerome did), and once to bring his own version of an Asher Bucket List (gleaned from fellow St. Bonnites) that included
Save a cat in a tree
Learn Dothraki (which I guess is a fictional language used in Game of Thrones?)
Eat pasta in Italy
Jerome is gracious with every one of Kalu’s efforts, and it was sweet to see him go ahead and get the “spoons” tattoo that he and Asher had spoken of. But this particular “bridge” was a little confusing for me, if only because Kalu seemed an odd choice for the designated check-in person. And then to do it three times, with the third time being an offer to help Jerome cross things off Asher’s bucket list (which included a trip to Italy)? Are these two guys even friends?
I guess I can only picture one person being right for the job, and that person is Jordan… and as we just discussed, Jordan already had a full plate in this episode. (So when Kalu suggested she visit and she told him “I can’t,” she really couldn’t… even though she seemed to be saying it would be too emotionally difficult a task. Which still seems odd. But I digress.)
Park and Lea are the only others I can picture making wellness checks on Jerome, but they had all their spare time invested in Nannygate 2024 (see below)... so maybe it was Kalu by default. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; as busy as he’s been keeping tabs on Jordan, it was kind of refreshing to see him in a different light. I’m just saying it was unusual, which probably doesn’t amount to much of a problem in the current TGD environment, so… onward!
The Shea and Parnick Nanny War of 2024
I suppose we should have seen this coming, given that the S7 babies (Steve and Eden) aren’t far apart in age. But if TGD is bypassing a subplot in these final episodes about Lea and/or Morgan on the working-mom struggle bus– and it seems they are– at least we were treated to a fun little trip back to their beeyotch roots.
(Does this mean I thought Lea was the beeyotch she accused Morgan of being back in the early days? No, but I think she can hold her own just fine.)
Morgan and Lea were, in seasons 1-3, the best catfight that never happened. (Probably because they didn’t even share a scene together till midway through S3.) But I think they’ve had more scenes in S7 than in all the previous seasons put together! Despite how much both women have grown since we first met them, they were sure to clash on something…
As it happens, they found the ultimate compromise when Glassman and Lim approved an on-site daycare to be created. And before you can say Wait, St. Bons really had no need for a daycare program until now??? Or… Wait, none of these four employees of St. Bons thought to ASK about creating a daycare program until now???... Yeah, I agree. But as became clear in the final moments of “Faith,” it’s not about daycare, or nannies, or parenthood in general for TGD. It’s about Steve.
Fun fact: if you’re looking at this shot of Lim and Glassman talking to the foursome and thinking “I don’t remember this scene,” it’s because it was deleted from the final cut of the episode. Sigh. (Thanks Naty/@TheGoodDoctorAr for that info)
The entire #Shea/#Parnick dustup in “Faith” was a bridge to the question Will Steve be neurodivergent like Shaun, or neurotypical like Lea?
And since the answer to that question appears to be wrapped in yet another question (How soon should Steve be tested?)... and Shaun and Lea can’t agree on that any more than they can agree on parenting styles, or housekeeping techniques, or how to cut an avocado…THERE lies the conflict that may ruffle their feathers for the duration of the series.
Frankly, I’m here for it. The discussions Shaun and Lea have are bound to be intense in ways we maybe haven’t seen since the middle of season 5 (“Expired” and “Rebellion”). And while there’s a good chance the resolution will come too easily, given the time restrictions at hand… I’d much rather TGD give it a try than bypass the question altogether. The show has spent seven years telling a story about what a young doctor with ASD can do, both personally and professionally. Why cop out now?
Glassman and Hannah
It feels strange to have a character we just met (Hannah) listed alongside a pillar of TGD in boldface. But let’s face it– Glassman’s post-surgeon journey hasn’t exactly made “doting Grandpa” his primary role. Instead, he’s grudgingly run the hospital alongside Lim, willingly engaged in a brief affair with Lim’s mother… and now, Maddie 2.0 shows up in his clinic (played by Richard Schiff’s own daughter, Ruby Kelley).
What’s a forever guilt-ridden father to do? Of course he took offense when he brought Hannah’s imaging scans to Lim and she said the part about Maddie out loud, but that’s to be expected. Facts are facts–
Hannah is in her late teens, which puts her around the same age as Glassman’s daughter when she died of a drug overdose (19, if memory serves).
While Hannah does have a medical issue (the one Glassman detected— Chiari Zero— and convinced Lim to operate), she’s also an addict– the “bigger problem… that doesn’t have to be yours,” as Lim tried to advise. (Glassman’s daughter Maddie was also a drug addict, for any viewers who came to the show late.)
According to Hannah, her parents kicked her out of the house and disowned her due to her addiction issues. Glassman locked Maddie out of the house on the fateful night of her overdose.
Of all the things that have snatched Glassy’s focus this season, this feels the most important to Glassman’s future by a country mile. Reminding himself of his experience and knowledge (and wariness) as a leader gave way to reminding himself of being a charming, engaging man (with Eileen)... and now he’s reminded of what he wasn’t as a father, but might still be able to be for someone else’s daughter.
Initially I wanted to call TGD out on sending Glassy in too many directions during these 10 episodes of S7, but it’s feeling like it makes more sense now. Especially if his efforts lead him to be a better father/father-in-law/grandpa for Shaun and his family. So let’s see where this (brief) journey with Hannah takes him.
NOTE: Throughout the “Faith” episode we got inklings of another sort of bridge when Glassman was on the phone with an unknown entity, trying to obtain test results. It was set up to look as if the tests had been performed on him, and he was waiting to hear about his own fate (which leads us to immediately think of his cancer returning, as Shaun feared had happened last season). But reader Amy Danko (@FebWriter) for one– there may have been others– took note of the wording in the synopsis for TGD’s penultimate episode “Unconditional,” scheduled to air 5/14:
Dr. Claire Browne returns from her work in Guatemala for a personal medical examination.
Things that make you go HMMMMMM, right?
Amy also noted that every time he was on the phone he identified himself as “Dr. Glassman” or “Dr. Aaron Glassman” (rather than Aaron Glassman), which further supports the idea that he was seeking information on behalf of someone else.
In short– keep your jumping-to-conclusions shoes tucked away in the closet; you know how Shore and Co. get with misleading info, especially at the end of a season. (And a SERIES! Sigh)
Med Student Dom’s New Assignment
Thus far, Dom Hubank’s story on TGD reads like this:
He’s a big teddy bear of a guy who is determined to fulfill a family promise to become a doctor even though he faints or retches at the sight of blood.
He’s a big teddy bear who can stand toe-to-toe in damn near any conversation with Morgan and is trying SO so hard to overcome his blood issues.
He’s a big teddy bear who somehow got through the goriest, bloodiest day St. Bons had to offer and saved a patient’s life in the process. (And impressed Morgan once again.)
He’s now moved out of the rotation involving blood and into a rotation involving other bodily fluids– with Morgan now as his supervisor.
I don’t know if it counts as TGD’s comic relief this season, as Dom himself is as dedicated and serious as they come… it’s the SITUATIONS he finds himself in that are funny- or at least memorable. Whether or not viewers needed that from TGD in its final hours is a moot point. But as for if and how Dom might contribute to the big picture at the end of the series, I’ll go on record here… looking at another part of that synopsis from the upcoming “Unconditional” episode…
Park seeks out the perfect last-minute wedding location
… and say that IF there’s a wedding in Park and Morgan’s future, Dom could be the outside party that could tip Morgan’s decision one way or the other.
Oh, and those synopsis words up there are also the best clue I think we have to knowing the “bridge” to which #Parnick are headed.
But enough speculation, which is not my strong suit! While you mull over your own guesses for final happenings (which you’ll then share with us in the comment section, pretty please?), here are a couple “holding patterns” (non-bridges) from my “Faith” list:
Lim’s Well-Being
I know that’s a big topic to bridge (no pun intended), but we had three episodes in a row of Lim’s past, present and familial difficulties in the spotlight– so to find her simply treading water (pun sort of intended) in “Faith” was a little frustrating. But I’m gonna be patient and presume the matters brought up by Lim’s mom WILL prep her for some sort of change. I’ll even go out on a limb and dare to say it’ll be a positive sort of change. (Writers, you won’t let us down on this, right? RIGHT?)
Charlie
Since She-Who-Annoys-Absolutely-Everyone wasn’t in the “Faith” episode, it’s tough to say where she’s headed. Especially since it appears her dramatic clashes with Shaun already peaked and subsided with the “Who at Peace” and “M.C.E.” episodes. But her presence has consistently been one of the most talked-about elements of S7, so I’ll bypass talking about her myself and throw these questions to you:
How do YOU feel about Charlie?
What do you think of Shaun and Charlie’s relationship?
Given the time limitations, do you think TGD should have bailed on the Charlie character? Or stay with the plan, and do something differently than they have with her?
OK, there’s one last thing I need to say about “Faith,” and I apologize in advance to those of you who felt particularly uplifted by this scene (ahhh, another pun!!)...
Never a more apropos time to say CHEESE
A POTW and his daughter get two doctors (and a med student who had nothing to do with the case, but has a lot of upper body strength) to carry said POTW, on a stretcher, all the way up the 3500 feet that is Mount Umunhum???
Only one word came to mind for me with this scene, and that word is CHEESY.
Like, Chicago deep-dish pizza with extra cheese CHEESY.
Or… who replaced David Shore with Mayor McCheese CHEESY??
I guess I’m supposed to give everyone a final-season pass on that one, yes?
OK, whatever. A few weeks from now there will be much more on our list to discuss, anyway.
Your thoughts on “Faith” are thoughts we’d love to hear! Post a comment, won’t you?
