State of the Shea, Pt. 43: Nine “Measure”-worthy Scenes from 5x3
Why was this episode called “Measure of Intelligence”?
I still don’t know. Pre-airing, I wondered if the enigmatic new CEO Salen Morrison was administering some sort of testing process to all St. B staff in episode 5x3 that would allegedly, you know, give her a “measure of intelligence” to work with… so she could coordinate teamwork strategies more effectively, and… OK, it was a bad idea. And probably not even legal.
Still, the words “measure of intelligence” were never uttered, intelligence itself was never discussed outright, and it wasn’t something that could be correlated to either patient of the week. (Did you notice that one of them-- the bike crash guy-- never said a word or communicated an emotion, nor did we see him in post-op recovery? Granted, given his injuries he probably couldn’t speak-- how convenient-- but we also never saw a single family member there, giving him a “voice” while the PEEK implants et al were being discussed.)
(Not that I missed it... I’m just not sure it’s been done that way on TGD before.)
(But I digress.)
Since most episode titles have a direct connection to Shaun, I presume “Measure” gets its name from Shaun’s struggle throughout the episode to show everyone-- Lea, his colleagues, Salen-- that the soap/dryers/scrubs are not just his personal issue, but “objectively” worse for everyone. (As in… anyone with a measure of intelligence would be able to discern this. Hmmm. Maybe this was a line of Shaun’s in an earlier draft of the script, but it was dropped because it made Shaun sound like he was calling everyone around him unintelligent?)
(And… they kept the title as-is because calling an episode “Objectively worse” seems weird?)
(Sorry, I digressed yet again. But at least you can see why it takes me so long to get a new post up for you to read… ha!)
Since I couldn’t assign a definitive reason for the title, I’ve elected to build it into the blog by assigning a “Measure of Intelligence” (or M.O.I.) to the 9 most important scenes of the episode (most important to me, anyway). See what you think as I use a scale of 1-10 to measure these scenes, in chronological order, using random reasons that may vary from scene to scene. In other words… a method that Shaun would probably loathe more than the synthetic grey scrubs!
Shaun & Lea/The Loft
“I’ve seen you adapt to things before… like the toilet paper, and the way I cut avocados…”
Measure of Intelligence (M.O.I.): 9/10
We knew they weren’t going to pick up right where “Piece of Cake” ended, but this sets up Shaun’s issues well as an alternative: we see it’s ongoing (he can’t sleep), and while he has a short-term solution in place (bringing his own soap/towels), he still invested a lot of time into the research he feels he needs to prove his point. (Plus, true to his word, he’s helping Lea with wedding plans. Because of course.)
I also appreciated how the scene put Lea as a voice of logic that he could easily listen to in the early AM quiet of their apartment-- no itchy scrubs to yank at, no hand dryers blowing up a soundstorm.
Doing the “Save-the-Date” cards as a sidebar/plot point in this episode was very clever: it not only set the wheel in motion for a wedding timeline, but it did so in a tangible way that posed a legit issue (Shaun’s Mom), yet still remained incredibly vague. What date is it that we’re saving, exactly??
Lea an
d Morgan/Break Room
“You think the man who happily helped you with your explosive diarrhea can’t handle your opinion about his estranged mom?”
M.O.I.: 10/10
First and foremost… FINALLY! We’ve wanted a scene with these two for so long… and this didn’t disappoint. Bonding over terrible Ethicure-approved snacks was divine. “This tastes like a toenail dusted with Stevia”— yeah, I might need to borrow that line in the future.
For one thing, it confirmed that these two are “good” nowadays-- not besties, but not adversaries either.
Also, I loved how they were able to talk honestly and hilariously about their respective concerns. By the way-- while I thoroughly enjoyed the comic relief provided by Morgan’s gas issues, I’m curious how it might have been written differently if two, or even ONE, of TGD’s ample roster of women scribes was involved.
I appreciated the “atomic wings” backstory enough to downgrade this scene for any potential flaws it contained. Having said that, I do have this one little question… when they ordered the “Atomic Wings” was that really when Shaun and Lea were first roomies, or when she moved back in? I know Lea said “when I first moved in with Shaun…” but then she said this thing about vulnerability being attractive. So was this a “tell” of Lea’s underlying feelings for Shaun in the roomie days, or a slight misstep on the writers’ part?
Shaun & Lea/Lounge
“Could you take a break for just a minute?”
M.O.I.: 7/10
Fun fact: we all know by now that when someone says to Shaun “got a minute?” he’s gonna look at his watch because he’s thinking about a literal minute… and he did here… and that’s because he apparently had one minute before he had to go stabilize his patient’s (client’s??) airway.
Lea trying to do the right thing got superseded by a “righter” thing: a need not to overwhelm Shaun. I loved her little, gentle “hey” as she took his hand and assured him he’d figure it all out.
The scene itself wasn’t all that necessary to me; it was mostly a vehicle to show Shaun getting more upset and Lea making an effort after her chat with Morgan. But I’m glad they left it in.
As we see that Marcie WILL apparently be a factor this season (if not at the wedding, elsewhere)... does this means there was no issue about Donnie getting a save the date? OR will we possibly hear from him later because he did NOT get one?? I appreciate the need for the show to address one family drama plot point at a time, but like the rest of you I REALLY don’t want them to make us think we were mistaken about the status of that relationship.
Glassman and Shaun/Glassman’s garage
“You like grapes…”
“Not to walk on.”
M.O.I.: 4/10
The reason I’m giving this one an MOI of just 4 is the fact that we’re having to wonder Would the Shaun Murphy we know-- hates the beach, hates mud, hates the feeling of anything foreign between his toes-- REALLY take off his shoes and socks and step his (unwashed!) feet into a vat of grapes? ASD adviser-for-the-show Melissa Reiner indicated, in her Tweeted recap of the episode, that she was at odds with the writers on this one for all the reasons I just listed… but apparently, they wanted the scene their way enough to override her vote this time. I’m not sure why. Sure, it was kind of funny, and also very uncomfortable as we watched Shaun’s face while in the vat. But, like Ms. Reiner, I tend to think there were ways to get that across without taking a strong character trait of this guy we’ve “known” for over 4 years and nearly overlooking it completely. (I say “nearly” because, of course, Shaun only stayed in that vat 30 seconds or less.) I’m still queasy at the thought of Shaun, all sticky and purple-footed, padding back down the driveway after all that and… calling an Uber, I guess? And going home like that? Hmmm.
ALL THAT ASIDE… it’s interesting to think of the reasons Shaun might agree to it (because he’s desperate to connect w/Glassman?) just as it is to wonder why Glassman would ask it of him (because he’s trying not to coddle him? Part of the “he’s fine, yeah he’s anxious but who wouldn’t be?” thing?)
It also seemed noteworthy because they were done talking specifically about Salen very early in the conversation, as per Glassman (who changed the subject when Shaun urged him to come back and stop her: “What I need to do is step on grapes”)
Another “tell” on Glassman’s utter boredom, depression, etc… if he was really eager to dive into a “me time” hobby, he’d have been working at one of those four things throughout the episode (woodwork, wine-making, painting, gardening). Instead, in the downswing that is his current life, he does a little of each… just enough to make a mess he’s probably reluctant to clean up, and not enough to complete anything (except maybe the sunflowers, but what’s the man doing planting new flowers in mid-fall anyway?!). By the way, did anyone notice the wine vat in the foreground when he was painting? Ewww.
Shaun, Wolke & Jordan/Lounge
“My ASD does not make me irrational”
M.O.I.: 8/10
As with the Lea/Morgan scene earlier, I liked the way two episodic themes crossed paths here: Wolke & Jordan bicker, which causes Shaun to (again) point to the bigger problem he sees (jerking the scrub shirt off in the process), which gets some pushback from Wolke, and an eventual apology from Jordan… who then uses it to make a point in her argument with Wolke. NICE.
With Shaun growing increasingly upset, it was actually good for Wolke to point out the irrationality of Shaun’s thinking/behavior. Not good for him/them, but to remind the audience that the longer we get into this episode, the more Shaun’s irrational/obsessive side overtakes his efforts to do as Lea advised in the opening scene.
Shaun’s meltdown sequence
A.K.A. I can see clearly now, the scrubs are off… DAMN THAT HAND DRYER!!! (Not an actual quote)
M.O.I.: 7
It was like the hand dryer we saw at the end of “Cake” had grown 10 feet tall by this scene. There was no Lea to help this time, but probably much more important was the notion that he literally couldn’t think clearly until he yanked the scrub top off again and stood there, bare-chested… THEN he got the beginning of his solution to the PEEK implant dilemma. But then-- UGH! Dryerus Interruptus! And that was the final straw.
Why am I only giving it a 7? Because I wasn’t happy with the way the hand dryer “triggering” happened. I didn’t like that it was an unnamed woman… I know men and women share the locker space; we saw that earlier in the episode. But I didn’t like seeing a woman in there, a woman we didn’t know, drying her hands and leaving without even noticing Shaun there, especially when he was so obviously having difficulty. There was something that felt very inauthentic about the whole thing. But they needed to have the dryer go off… yeah, I agree. Especially the way the last episode ended. But could they really find no other way?
Shaun, Lea, & Salen/Computer Central
“If you’ll just let me finish, I was going to assure you that I’m not dismissing you”
M.O.I.: 8
The word Okay can mean so many things besides Okay when Shaun is saying it… and in this scene, he was using it towards Lea more than Salen… Knowing the “good advice” Lea dispensed at the beginning of the episode, and how Shaun was essentially ignoring every word of it by the time he confronted Salen, Okay became Sorry, but I’m doing it this way after all. (I suppose you could also say it equated with Quiet, Lea, I’m trying to make a point… but given how thoughtful and GOOD her good advice really was, the first one sounds more like he’d at least tried to do it “Lea’s way.” (Which he did, if you count his futile efforts to rally his colleagues around the soap/dryers/scrubs revolt. After that, I daresay their preoccupation with the chapel size/”magic man” issue aggravated Shaun, leading to his “irrational” behavior.)
Salen is super-interesting to watch in this scene. First of all, she’s cucumber cool throughout-- doesn’t appear fearful of this autistic man she barely knows (OK he’s not really imposing in size, but he is tall), hair disheveled, no scrubs, no white lab coat, just street clothes and a pile of folders and very visibly upset. (Let’s face it, that last “YOU’RE WRONG!” of his, delivered full force with a finger jabbing in her face, was really uncomfortable. Would Dr. Han have been so chill?) Then when it was her turn to speak, she was surprisingly unpatronizing. But then again it’s clear Salen has some carefully honed management chops… diffusing tense situations is surely something she has lots of experience with. Step one: tell him “You’re right” immediately. (Exactly what he wanted to hear, regardless of how she qualified it a moment later.) That got her an Okay from him, which this time meant Yes, I know, thank you. Step two: Defend her choices, essentially saying “I’m right too.” Step three: carefully (as the subject of his ASD was extremely touchy at that moment) underscore his value at St. B. (Again, as in “Piece of Cake,” she tried to show common ground with him because of her ADHD… this time he didn’t reject it, probably because things were going pretty well for him at that point.) Step four: back up her words “I’m not dismissing you” with action; give him what he wants… which were very tangible things in this case.
As for Salen’s moments of stopping the convo to jot down “some doctors are different”… her words that ended up alongside poster-sized Shaun at the episode’s end… funny how that was pretty much the only time Shaun looked Lea’s way the entire scene. He had his purpose, he was there, standing up for himself, good advice be damned, and Salen actually seemed to be taking him seriously, but then… Hey, what the hell? What’s she doing? I don’t like that I don’t know what she’s doing. Lea, help… was the vibe I got there. Too bad Lea couldn’t read Salen’s mind and tip him off in that moment.
Meanwhile, we get our first look at Lea in a uniquely challenging situation… 1) She has compassion for Shaun and wants his issues to be resolved, but 2) She fears he won’t get any of what he wants now the way he’s going about it, so 3) she finds herself apologizing to Salen on Shaun’s behalf in her own effort to diffuse things, explaining Shaun as “passionate.” This time around, everything worked out (the giant banner/poster to come notwithstanding). But one thing’s for sure-- the fact that Shaun and Lea do completely different things at St. B is not going to keep them off of Conflict’s doorstep with Salen around. (And yes, I’ve read the synopsis for upcoming episodes… bigger issues are definitely coming Lea’s way.)
Glassman and Lea/Glassy’s Garden
“Am I being unfair? Selfish? Paranoid? Feel free to step in at any time…”
M.O.I.: 7
Lea is obviously well aware of Shaun’s earlier visit (“planting grapes?”)... which is perhaps why Glassman quickly assures her that he’s “fine”.
Her reveal that Shaun had invited Marcie to the wedding gave him literal, momentary pause… but he quickly pushed forward without so much as a mild reprimand/reminder about parents needing second chances (I’m thinking of his conversation with Lea in “Friends and Family”).
As soon as Lea said “I don’t want to feel like I have to protect him (on our day),” that’s when Glassman appeared to disconnect again.
The petulant attitude was what pissed me off-- a sort of Hey, Shaun is your problem now, little miss fiancee in his glances and refusal to help. It’s a front, of course, for the feeling that Shaun doesn’t need him the way he used to… how ironic that four different people (including Shaun), all playing different roles in his life, specifically tracked him down in this episode because they “needed” him.
As with Lea’s measured reaction to the Glassman “disaster toast” at the engagement party, I have to think something much bigger is coming with these two; that she’s tucking these instances of incredible frustration into her back pocket to pull out in a later discussion.
(But I’m giving this scene an MOI of 7 because I’m a little irritated that Lea has to remain so patient while Glassy carries on as he does.)
Wolke, Jordan, Shea/Karaoke
“Would you be okay not having her there?”
“Yes. Very.”
M.O.I.:9
While I get that some might’ve been upset that neither Shaun nor Lea actually did any singing on “Measure”’s triumphant return to karaoke night, you’ve got to take the following into consideration:
Wolke and Jordan needed to make amends, and we all know the magic of singing to pre-recorded tracks under pretty colored lights
Shaun and Lea needed to talk… OK, Lea needed to talk. To Shaun. About Marcie.
If YOU were Freddie and/or Paige, doing a karaoke scene alongside people with the pipes of Bria Samone Henderson and Noah Galvin-- the latter of which has sung on Broadway, among other places-- wouldn’t YOU happily cede the microphone(s) to them?
Anyway, this was more than a joyous couple of minutes that are worth re-watching for Shaun’s “disco fingers” (as I called them on Twitter) alone. This was Shaun celebrating something that is difficult for him to do successfully (stand up for himself and his needs). This was Lea celebrating with him, rather than lamenting the way he did it. And of course, this was also Lea coming clean about keeping Marcie’s save-the-date out of the mail. Hooray for that; Shaun’s just-following-the-rules explanation made sense, given he’d been reading up on wedding etiquette as per the opening scene of “Measure”. But this scene also came with some CAUTION flags waving in the periphery…
Caution #1: I think we can all agree now that Marcie is definitely going to show up this season. At the wedding itself, or sometime before it-- hard to say, but the seed has been planted… (a twist I came up with was… what if Shaun and Lea get a “Save the Date” card from Marcie, thereby announcing her own plans to (re)marry and invite her only living son? But I think that’s much more than TGD wants to take on, at least in S5…)
Caution #2: While she DID come clean about the Marcie invite, Lea waited until Shaun was in a much better mood to do so. I can’t say I blame her, but methinks-- again, with the help of future episodic synopses (I’m not sharing them here directly, keeping the “no spoiler” crowd in mind)-- that the idea of Lea wrestling with the need to protect her future husband will be revisited. (And will make a helluva discussion if she and Glassy can ever get down to brass tacks and just TALK.)
Caution #3: Things were going too well; Shaun’s “victory,” as uncomfortable a ride as it was to get there, still came a lot easier than we expected. And-- most importantly-- the episode still had 40 seconds to go.
By the end of those 40 seconds, we all realized what Shaun and Lea will learn by the time episode 5x4 “Rationality” hits the airwaves next week: Salen’s not below exploiting one of her doctors in an effort to make one of her acquisitions look good. (I’d call it a “hospital” rather than an acquisition, but if she keeps on calling patients “clients,” even daring to play God when it came to the issue of the bike crash guy’s recovery options…)
Let’s just say I imagine the reaction from #Shea will come at least as quickly as that giant poster materialized. I know the time-space continuum is an ongoing discussion here, but I guess we’re supposed to believe that the Shaun/Salen showdown took place in the afternoon, and six hours or less later the St. B marketing department whipped up a design that met Salen’s approval… AND they got it printed? AND they got it posted?? Absolutely an only-on-TV moment!
(Thanks for reading! Comments are welcomed and encouraged as always… just remember to hover your cursor in the lower right corner of the box below in order to see the “post comment” button!)
