Oh, Baby! Let's revisit that TGD S6 Wish List
How’s the summer treating you, TGD fans?
I’m not deliberately being slow about my summer posts, though what is now a dual strike (from both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA) makes that very tempting…
Nope, just lots of family business to attend to. Gratefully it’s been the good kind so far:
Celebrating my son’s graduation from Purdue 🧑🎓
Getting both kids resettled into the house for the summer (one temporarily) 🏡
Helping my daughter prep for her long-delayed driver’s license exam (she passed) 🪪
Helping my son decide on a car purchase and prep for his first solo move to an apartment out of town 🚘
Helping with that move 🧳
Shadowing my daughter’s drive to and from work (on a thoroughfare that has been in a perpetual state of construction for YEARS, sigh) until she was comfortable doing it herself 🚧
Remaining ever-thankful that we don’t live in an area of excessive heat or flooding this summer… I know people that do; if you’re one of them I feel for you! 🙏
Oh, and I also got to be in another community production earlier this summer. The Little Mermaid. You’ve probably heard of it!
Anyway– even as I’ve been finishing up post I’ve been fielding questions, comments, pictures AND video from my son as he shows off his newly-adopted cat. FUN FACT: the cat’s name is Stephen. Not the same spelling as the #Shea “Steven,” but it still makes me smile.
So let’s get to it already! My post of the Season 6 Wish List, comprised both of my ideas and that of readers like you, is what I’m basing this entire “revisit” upon. Check it out (if you haven’t already) if you’d like a reminder before diving in!
Here are the most tangible wishes-come-true from S6, according to that list:
A BABY FOR SHAUN AND LEA
It was the natural progression #Shea Nation had hoped for, especially after Lea’s S4 miscarriage. And given the fact that a season 7 was not guaranteed, it would have brought a whole new world of hurt if there was no baby in sight for Shaun and Lea by the end of S6. But thanks to a year’s worth of dimension-defying time hops (and nimble storytelling arcs), we went from #Shea’s harrowing wedding reception to a potentially tragic case of Asherman’s Syndrome to an odds-defying final trimester and delivery.
SHAUN AND PARK’S NEXT STEPS “IN ACTION”
“I hope they actually serve as leaders, just as we’ve seen with previous Attendings,” Tony said of Shaun and Park’s next steps on their St. Bons journey. And I think we definitely got that– in an obvious way when they got their own office and took turns guiding the newest doctors in the fold, and beyond that as they continued to serve as leaders to Asher and Jordan. Jared’s return (as a “year 1”) brought obvious but new conflict to Shaun’s position in “Second Chances & Past Regrets,” and of course Shaun’s status (and reputation) factored heavily into his season-ending situation with Glassman.
I know Park had several “leading” moments of his own this year, but I think more of them involved interacting/clashing with Morgan… maybe that’s why they aren’t as clear to me. If you’ve got specific Park moments in mind, tell me about them in the comments please.
PARK AND MORGAN GET BACK TOGETHER*
This one gets an instant asterisk, for the fact that #Parnick even had to get back together came as a surprise. As you’ll recall, the relationship was on rocky ground at the end of S5 because Morgan admitted to Park that she wanted to accept an East Coast job opportunity. One perilous episode later, Park broke up with her despite her decision to stay in town. (Apparently the fact that she’d even considered it was too much for him.)...
And that set up a season’s worth of petty bickering, more meaningful bickering, warnings from superiors, open pining, not-so-open pining, cautious friendliness, less cautious friendliness, open caring, even more open caring… and finally, a reunion. (With a baby that biologically belongs to neither of them.)
All’s well that ends well I guess… yet in a way, they’re only just beginning!
JORDAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT
I rooted for Jordan to get some spice in her life, particularly of the romance variety (though just getting to know her outside her career would be a plus). What we got was a little of both– we met her beloved “Grandma E” (Hard Heart) and we met Dr. Danny Perez… who simultaneously jerked her around all season (wittingly or unwittingly) while imparting valuable lessons in life and friendship. Longtime readers know how I feel about these two together; I’m trying to be charitable here!
So we definitely got a “spotlight,” but maybe next time I’ll need to be more specific?!
GLASSMAN’S ROLE/RELATIONSHIP WITH SHAUN CHANGING
With Shaun’s life settling into a place of joy, we presumed the dynamic between him and Glassman would change. We were right about that, at least.
Me, I wanted Glassy to bring a sharper focus to his surgical career and continue to steer clear of any potential candidates for Wife #3. And he did.
But from his new cancer scare to his mini-stroke to his impromptu retirement from the OR, Glassman’s career and his relationship with Shaun intertwined in ways we didn’t see coming. And now both have gone sideways.
I know there are complaints here and there about Shaun and Glassman clashing TOO much on TGD, but their relationship is the heart of the show. If I were to stay with anatomical metaphors, I’d say #Shea is the backbone… but Glassman is why Shaun is at St. Bons in the first place; arguably, he’s why Shaun has a medical career at all. And as was established in both hilarious and quite dramatic fashion this past year, the two men are very similar in personality and taste… which also leads the two to butt heads. A lot.
Ideally, they come away from each skirmish having learned and grown a little more from the experience– keeping in mind that Shaun has a disability that makes this harder for him than others, and Glassman is quite set in his ways at this point in his life.
I think, all in all, TGD continues to do an impressive job with the Shaun/Glassman relationship trajectory. What about you?
LIM EMERGING FROM HER ASSAULT STRONGER
Lim’s paralysis created the initial tension for Shaun and Glassman in S6, but of course she alone had to deal with the emotional and physical fallout. That part was initially painful to watch, but of course that made it all the more exciting to see her begin to thrive in her “new normal” of disability.
Should TGD have forgone the storyline about Lim’s paralysis reversal? That’s a tough question, especially as people voiced opinions on this blog (and elsewhere) strongly opposed to what TGD ultimately did. But when you go back to the premise of TGD itself– the fact that this is primarily about Shaun’s journey, not that of everyone we know and love on the show– I can’t imagine Shaun doing anything BUT come up with a can’t-miss surgery for her.
GOOD #JASHER CONTENT
“If they break up, let it be authentic and not played for laughs,” is what I said specifically… which was partly out of uncertainty for the future of Jerome (Giacomo Baessato) on the show, and partly steeped in times when relationships between gay people weren’t taken seriously on TV (when they were “taken” on TV at all).
But not only are Asher and Jerome still #Jasher, we also got to root for them through a few different challenges. Sometimes it was a situation more commonly associated with gay couples (Jerome’s HIV+ status), sometimes it wasn’t (Asher’s seeming disregard for Jerome’s point-of-view). But aside from Shaun and Lea, I can’t name a healthier couple on S6 than these two.
MORE OF “PROFESSIONAL LEA”
Lea Dilallo is still Lea Dilallo– literally (I never heard or saw anything in S6 to indicate she’d taken Shaun’s last name in any form). Did we continue to see her as Badass Lea Dilallo, leaping tall cyber-challenges in a single (sneaker hop)? Yes, though in smaller, less conspicuous ways:
As an impromptu nurse in “Afterparty”
Dealing with the power outage in “Hot & Bothered”
Her regular workload had the potential to be substantial; we saw that when it became a component of her disagreement with Shaun in “39 Differences”
And, while she’s certainly not the first woman to do it, was still trying to take care of work-related loose ends while officially admitted to St. Bons in “Love’s Labor”
SHEA- DOMESTICATED BLISS
The obvious images that leap to mind are from “A Big Sign,” which deliberately took on the subject of housework from a neurotypical-vs-neurodivergent perspective … which is why we saw Shaun and Lea doing dishes, folding laundry, and discussing grocery etiquette in the middle of the episode rather than just at the beginning or end. But their lying-in-bed-talking scenes, pancake breakfasts, and living room/kitchen chats remain frequent flyers in the opening scene category of any given episode… and sometimes the closing scene as well (or darn close to it).
While #Shea devotees might argue there’s no such thing as too many domestic scenes, we remain grateful that they remain a hallmark of TGD.
SHEA- ROAD TRIP
It’s not really a TGD season without a little travel (and a little karaoke), right? This time we got a Babymoon (pre-baby getaway for first-time parents)... but we’ll have to assume it was a lovely one, for the viewer’s part in it started and ended with an injured dog before they ever reached their destination.
Ah well. At least we learned that Shaun figured out the number of bathroom breaks his pregnant wife would need. (Because of course he did.)
SHEA- CONTINUED GROWTH AS A COUPLE
We can grumble all we want about the #Shea wedding being tainted by near-tragedy, but it sure forced Shaun and Lea to hit the ground running with new tests to their bond. Once the dust had settled on that long night, we were briefly reminded of #Shea loft squabbles 2.0 before most of the attention turned to Shaun’s broken relationship with Lim (and his initial futile attempts to mend it). Then, in overlapping fashion, came the discovery of Asherman’s Syndrome… the fear (anticipated, and then real) that came with Lea’s unexpected pregnancy… the two of them building new, grandfatherly bonds with Glassman… and then the bittersweet dichotomy of Glassman’s brutal new normal and #Shea’s joyous one, with bonds too frayed to bridge. The disagreements between Shaun and Lea were relatively few, but there was still a wealth of growth cultivated– inadvertently– by way of their loved ones. And that was great to see.
(Though I wouldn’t mind a return to LEA as the one Going Through It a time or two– with Shaun as the beam of support. Note for Season 7…)
Here’s what we KINDA got…
A HOLIDAY-THEMED EPISODE
Halloween is celebrated in countries all over the world, but in the U.S. it gets a LOT of attention for an “unofficial” holiday (meaning one that doesn’t close federal offices for the day). And since it happened to fall on a Monday in 2022, TGD gifted us with a rare “themed” episode. Sort of. “Growth Opportunities” had precious little to do with the spooky and scary, but it did give us some fun costumes… for the first act of the episode, anyway.
“Delightful and nonsensical all at the same time,” I said when I wrote about “Growth Opportunities,” noting the way most of the costumes (and makeup) were gone by the time we got to any OR scenes. Couldn’t some of the characters have simply costumed up for an after-hours party at Asher’s place instead?
And while it wasn’t the holiday I was hoping for… I have it on good authority that Danielle (the one who “wished” it) feels her wish was granted.
FEWER STORIES PER EPISODE/LESS CROWDING THE STORYTELLING CANVAS
Overcrowding in TGD episodes has long been a State of the #Shea concern, but when we heard TWO new characters were being introduced in S6 (bringing the count back up to 11; 13 if you figure in Nurses Jerome Martel and Dalisay Villanueva)... yikes! No wonder there were entire episodes with little or no Morgan, Lea, etc.
Then around the halfway point of the season, one of those two newbies was gone… (OK, a little more breathing room)
But a few episodes later, an “old friend” in the form of Dr. Jared Kalu was back at St. Bons (YAY!)... and looked to be sticking around a while (YAY!), which brought that character count right back to where we started the season (Yikes!)... until Danny and Andrews’ respective exits were signaled in the finale.
So when the canvas starts from a place of overflow in a given season, is there any chance for “breathing room” where the characters have time and space to simply exist? It turned out there was… but it typically required a character (or two) to become a Patient Of The Week:
Lim and Villanueva in “Afterparty” (And Lim again, to an extent, in “Not Broken Yet”)
Lea in “Quiet and Loud”
Danny in “Love’s Labor”
Real question: Does the presence of babies Eden and Steven (wow, I didn’t realize they rhymed until just now) mean that Danny’s and Andrews’ spots are already filled for S7?
All of this ties into another item on the wish list…
MORE TEAM BONDING, A LA THE ST BONS BASEBALL TEAM OF SEASON 5
Rebuilding hospital morale in the wake of the Ethicure takeover was critical 2 seasons back. Maybe it can be said the bonding reached its strongest point on Shaun and Lea’s wedding day, which united everyone in both a lovely way (Season 5 finale “Sons”) and a terrifying one (Season 6 opener “Afterparty”). Beyond that, any “team bonding” this season came in the form of the heavy (supporting Shaun and Lea in both “Quiet and Loud” and “Love’s Labor”) and the much lighter (singing karaoke in “A Blip” and “Half Measures”)
Maybe also the Christmas Village thing in “A Beautiful Day”... but none of those events encompassed ALL the characters.
Except “Boys Don’t Cry” (the one with the sextuplets)... it was highly work-related, but it was one BIG patient of the week situation (pun intended?) that brought every character into the fold, including Lea (as she learned about the Asherman’s Syndrome). That was cool.
I mean the concept was cool, not Lea suffering from Asherman’s… you knew that, right?
MORE SHAUN FLASHBACKS
We did get a flashback in S6, but the characters involved were Glassman and Maddie (in “Growth Opportunities”).* When it came to Shaun, we got a familiar flashback in “Afterparty” when Lim’s stabbing triggered memories of Steve’s fatal accident… but also got a wonderful surprise when Shaun envisioned Steve during a critical point in Lim’s surgery.
Both of those happened early in the season; I don’t think there were others (I know you’ll correct me in the comments if I’m wrong about that!). It makes me wonder if the days of Shaun/Glassman flashbacks are in the past… but then again, I never expected Steve to make an all-new cameo 6 seasons into the show!
(LASTING) LOVE FOR LIM
After a romantic false alarm for Lim– I suppose we should call it a “trick,” as it happened during the Halloween episode– she hit it off big-time with Clay Porter, a fellow wheelchair-bound doctor from another hospital. Four episodes later, Clay made an “open” proposal of marriage to Lim just before going in for the surgery that ultimately reversed her paralysis… and while she never accepted, she did counteroffer with the suggestion of moving in together, and he accepted.
And then…? As far as we know, they continue to live and love happily together. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s all happened offscreen since January’s “Quiet and Loud” episode. But Clay’s portrayer, Michael Patrick Thornton, starred in a Broadway revival of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House this past spring– so I presume Lim and Clay’s relationship was rushed a little to accommodate his availability and left in a good place so viewers could have some level of satisfaction on Lim’s behalf (even if we couldn’t witness it).
Finally, (sigh) here’s what we did NOT get:
DONNIE. OR MARCIE. OR PAM. OR MIKE.
I grouped these four together since they’re all directly related to either Shaun or Lea. Pam and Mike Dilallo (Lea’s parents) we haven’t seen since S4; Lea spoke of them occasionally in S6, but only in reference to past events (the house she grew up in, the dog they briefly owned)-- no present-day communications. Donnie she referenced twice (in “Growth Opportunities” and “Old Friends”), but never by name. Marcie Murphy (Shaun’s mom) hasn’t been mentioned since Lea and Shaun agreed NOT to invite her to the wedding back in S5.
Call me crazy, but I’m not giving up hope yet. The adaptive family dynamic between Shaun, Lea, and Glassman is strong (or will be again, eventually), which feels like still-fertile territory for any of these blood relatives to appear. But I’ll save that conversation for the S7 “wish list”.
KELLAN
Park’s only child got a couple of mentions in S6– apparently, he even came to San Jose for an offscreen visit-- but it’s now been over two years since he’s graced a TGD episode. While he’s clearly not essential to the Park-Morgan dynamic the way a younger child might be, family is so hard to come by on this show…
LEA’S EX-HUSBAND
I’ll be honest– the fact that Lea’s first husband never got a name continues to dim any hopes of him putting in an appearance. And maybe I’m alone in wishing we’d get just one look at him anyway. But to be clear, it’s not about bringing him in as some sort of temptation-of-a-simpler-time for Lea. I just like backstory to be cultivated whenever it can, and TGD provided quite a few nuggets for Lea back in the early days. I’d rather see Donnie Dilallo that this guy ANYTIME, but that doesn’t change the fact that Lea has an ex-husband somewhere in TGD’s universe. Even if he’s waaaay the hell out on Pluto.
(I know that’s not considered a planet anymore, but I went through my formative years being told otherwise. Live with it :)
MORE ABOUT THE #DILALLEN DEVICE
Welp, I was afraid this would happen…
We got 2 episodes in S5 that introduced Jordan’s latest medical invention, brought Lea on board for the technical side of the product, got Glassman involved as an adviser (for better or worse)... and you’d never know any of that had happened throughout S6. Instead, we had Jordan so enmeshed with Danny’s difficulties that she didn’t even share a scene with Lea between “Afterparty” and “Quiet and Loud,” let alone devote episode time to a progress report on this would-be gold mine of an invention!
While it’s within the realm of possibility that TGD could still come back to this marvelous #DilAllen Device– especially if the show concludes with S7 and wants to have some sort of financial windfall for these two characters as they wrap things up– I feel like they’re missing some great opportunities along the way. Both Lea as a woman in a STEM career, and Jordan as a black woman entrepreneur, are terrific inspriation material. But anyone watching TGD for the first time with S6 is unlikely to even know Jordan’s fiercely impressive work history. Talk about a wasted backstory!
PAIGE SPARA DIRECTING
This was reader Asa’s idea, and much as I love it (as might Spara herself if she read this!), the closest we got was another great episode directed by her onscreen husband. (Freddie Highmore led the way on the “Half Measures” episode that aired in April.)
Just wait til’ next year…? (Or whenever we finally get Season 7!)
A FOLLOW-UP WITH “KEVIN”
A longshot wish of mine was for “Kevin,” the young patient from S5’s “My Way” episode in whom Andrews took a personal interest, would turn up again in some fashion and Andrews would take him in as a foster child… obviously that didn’t happen, and never will if Hill Harper’s Senate run takes him off TGD for the remainder of the series.
Come to think of it, wouldn’t it have been terrific if they could’ve built Kevin into Andrews’ departure from the show? If Andrews had to leave St. Bons because he needed to relocate and/or devote more time to his “son”...?
And they could’ve brought his ex-wife Isabel back into the picture too, as they teased us with in “Boys Don’t Cry”...?
And Andrews could have sought advice about surrogate parenting from TGD’s OG surrogate parent, Glassman….?!?
Instead we got the makeshift mess with Villanueva. Uggghhhhh! Now I’m pissed off.
Will this final set of unfulfilled #Shea wishes make me feel any better? It’s highly unlikely, but I’d better list them off anyway…
#SHEA SPECIFIC: “DITCH THE PJS”
As I type, I haven’t even checked the photographic evidence I’m going to post for this… and yet I’m confident that said PJs were not ditched.
And there ya go. Sorry, Juliana…
#SHEA SPECIFIC: DOUBLE DATING
We’ve wished, and we’ve wished, and we’ve wished…
Seasons 4, and 5, and now 6…
Send them out with #Parnick, with #Jasher, with Lim and Clay (did they ever get a nickname?)...
And the closest we came this year– if it even counts– was Jared’s first try at Karaoke Night, where Shaun, Lea, and Jordan attended (but no one else came). And Jordan mildly chastised Jared. And Shaun was obsessed with Glassman’s medical records. And Lea practically fell asleep.
In other words, not close at all. Booooo.
#SHEA SPECIFIC: A CAPER, e.g. THE TOWED STRIPED TOMATO
At the time, the point of the “caper” to which I’m referring (see “We’re All Crazy Sometimes” from S4 for more details) was to give Shaun and Lea a little burst of shenaniganery just before settling into the seriousness of an unplanned pregnancy. Are #Shea too mature/domesticated now to deal with such an adventure? The closest thing we got in S6– falling in between Shaun’s preoccupations with Lim’s paralysis and Glassman’s brain issues– was the situation with the injured dog in “The Good Boy.” The episode gave us much of the poignancy, humor, and bonus backstory (on Lea’s part) that we love, and did much more by bringing Glassman in for a consult and strengthening Shaun and Lea’s belief that they’ll work well together as parents.
But, alas, not much in the way of shenanigans.
Lea’s still Lea, though. Maybe, now that she’s no longer growing a human within her, she’ll find herself back in the “crazy” sometime?
#SHEA SPECIFIC: PROLONGED LOVE SCENES
Perhaps a “prolonged” love scene (define that however you like) for #Shea was even more of a longshot than Andrews becoming a foster dad to Kevin!
At least we got two teaser scenes in S6:
Hurrying off to the bedroom (to maximize the 23 minutes Shaun had before leaving for work) at the start of “Boys Don’t Cry”
Realizing they had time for “an extra long shower… together” in “365 Degrees”
… the latter of those two was the setup for one of the funniest scenes in all of S6, so at least I must applaud the writers for their efficiency!
Speaking of “funniest scenes,” I’ll be working on some best (and worst) roundups of TGD Season 6 for August, and may be looking for some interactive help with that! So keep your eyes open. In the meantime– were there things on YOUR S6 wishlist that weren’t addressed here? Or things mentioned here that you’d like to talk about further? Please tell me about them in the comments!
