State of the Shea Pt. 49: “St. Bon’s” Magnificent Seven (“Yipee-Ki-Yay”)
LIM GLASSMAN LEA PARK SHAUN JORDAN ASHER
BEFORE WE START… can we go back to that last scene in “Rebellion”?
I’ve formed another theory about it…
Sometimes I wonder if I project too many of my own insecurities onto Lea Dilallo.
Yes, she judges herself too harshly, especially where Shaun is concerned. No, she doesn’t “sell herself” well– even Salen picked up on that. But she’s a relatively young character who came into TGD one way, and keeps on growing and evolving in a wealth of other ways five seasons later. And she’s not afraid to point that out.
So what if she flew off the handle near the end of “Rebellion” NOT because she still sees herself as unworthy (and believed Shaun now believed it too)... but rather, out of disbelief that things she said when she was “such a stupid idiot” (as per the “I Love You” episode) were being used against her two years later?
It’s a variation on my initial take on the scene; this time, I’m thinking of Lea as someone feeling trapped by her past actions instead of trapped by herself. Seems like a small distinction, but it’s a pretty important one. And one that, admittedly, makes more sense given her reaction to Shaun’s 4th-grade bully story. Thoughts?
(We’ll re-visit their progression in the “Yipee-Ki-Yay” episode a little later.)
OK, onward to our main feature…
There are THREE film references in this clip…
The Magnificent Seven (2016 version), which was a remake of
The Magnificent Seven (1960 version), which was an “Old West” remake of
Seven Samurai, a 1954 Japanese film considered to be one of the most influential works in cinema.
As Lim suggests in the clip, the basic story is the same in all three films: a desperate farming village hires “freedom fighters” to combat the antagonists, who plan to steal their crops after harvest. We all know who the antagonist is in TGD’s version… but who will ultimately comprise the “seven”? Assuming the nurse and anesthesiologist are essentially “extras”?
There were three confirmed, as per the episode. But based on what we’ve seen of the “Cheat Day” follow-up (5x10), I took educated guesses on some of the others… and tried to match up all seven with character descriptions from the 1960 film. (That’s the film whose theme music we heard in the closing scene with Lim and Glassman.)
WARNING: The photo embellishments I made are decidedly NOT great (I can’t draw!!!), but I still thought it’d be fun to do them. And it was. I wish I had time to do more, but adding drawing time to writing time is not advisable if you’re me!
Meet the (possible) St Bonaventure Seven:
Dr. Audrey Lim as “Chris Adams” (played by Yul Brynner)
Described as “a Cajun gunslinger, leader of the seven” but the LEADER part is what I’m paying the most attention to here. While the length of her tenure at St. B is a little unclear— she said 15 years back in the “Expired” episode, while “17 years” was the number thrown around last week— her passion for this particular hospital is immeasurable right now.
Dr. Aaron Glassman as “Vin Tanner” (Played by Steve McQueen)
… Described as “a drifter,” I thought it fitting for Glassy based on his behavior for much of this season so far.
Did you notice that he changed his mind about joining Lim shortly after telling Shaun “There are some things that are out of your control” in the locker room… to be countered with Shaun’s “This isn’t one of them” and exit like a man on a mission?
Maybe this was one of those times where Shaun made Glassman “better”… just as his first wife told him a few episodes ago.
Lea Dilallo as “Chico” (played by Horst Buchholz)
The “young, hot-blooded shootist”… because if I were a betting woman, I’d say Lea was described at least once or twice “a pistol”.
(While we didn’t see Lea invited to join Team Lim during this episode, we already know she helped her out in the past… and the above pic was included in the ‘Yipee” promo pics, suggesting maybe an invited/accepted scene was left for the Deleted Scenes reel. (If so, I’m going to blame the 75 seconds that we all sat and waited for Nelly to spring back to life on Dr. Andrews’ operating table.)
(Which OF COURSE also means I blame Salen. Heh heh.)
Dr. Alex Park as “Bernardo O'Reilly” (Played by Charles Bronson)
… Described as “the professional in need of money” because he has fallen on hard times, admittedly this isn’t a fitting description of Park. So I thought of it this way: Park was the one who cited his nearly-complete residency as a reason to turn Lim down, but then cited the turning point (“She (Salen) killed a baby”) as reason enough to put career security on the line. Call it desperate measures for desperate times.
Dr. Shaun Murphy as Lee (Played by Robert Vaughn)
I connected Shaun with this role mainly because he was described as a “traumatized veteran”… which might describe Glassman a bit as well, but Shaun was the doctor most traumatized by the specific, defining incident in question. (Yes, there were obvious contributing factors, but it was all triggered by the expired medication.)
As you may recall, Shaun turned Lim down when she made her pitch, citing “emotions that may be leaking all over the place”***… but that was before Shaun’s patient Nelly nearly died because of Andrews practicing “bad medicine” as he called it. (Is it coincidence that bad medicine sounds like another term for expired medication?)
As we go into the “Cheat Day” episode, Shaun is technically out of a job with little to lose— and the promo indicates he’s joined Team Lim. I think it’s safe to call him one of the seven.
***= there were a few scenes in “Yipee” that left me scratching my head, and the one in the residents’ lounge was one of them. If time allows, I’ll elaborate once I get this initial post published.
Dr. Jordan Allen as Harry Luck (Played by Brad Dexter)
… Described as a “fortune hunter.” I gave this to Jordan because of her entrepreneurial nature (remember the patents she secured? And the shoe inserts she developed?)
Like Shaun, Jordan initially declined her Team Lim invite… She had a don’t-want-to-blow-my-good-thing execute at the ready. But also like Shaun, the promo pictures indicate she’s changed her tune for “Cheat Day.” Will Shaun’s resignation be her tipping point?
Dr. Asher Wolke as “Britt” (Played by James Coburn)
Poor Asher must’ve been stranded at that bar he and Jordan went to in “Rebellion,” for he was AWOL on the “Yipee” episode. So how do we know he’ll be on Team Lim as well?
Well, we don’t.
Except for (again) the promo pics…
And, perhaps, the fact that he and Jordan are joined at the hip. And don’t forget how much he looks up to and respects Shaun…
Yeah, he’s totally in.
(NOTE: The more I kept calling him “Wolke” in my recaps, the more I realized it felt more natural to call him “Asher.” So that’s what I’m going with this point forward.)
What, no Dr. Morgan Reznick-?
She, too, appeared to have no intention of joining Team Lim last week… and given her history with Salen, it makes sense. It also makes sense that Park influence her to change course in the coming week. But I don’t recall seeing her in many pics or scenes with the others, so I’m thinking of her as a late addition at best.
If she does, I’ll draw a pic of Morgan with a cowboy hat next week if you really want me to…
As for the Shea interlude within the whole recruitment process…
This is a challenge, you know?
Back in S3 I spoke of the incredibly ambitious road TGD chose with regards to Shaun’s lovelife development, and the subsequent “catapults” we found in key episodes that drove the plotline forward faster than expected.
Here, in S5, I see a slightly different challenge: the writers wanted to make Shaun and Lea’s path to the altar interesting, yet as relevant as ever to their uniqueness. AND they needed to deal with Shaun and Glassman’s relationship evolving. AND, OH YEAH, the hospital itself was going to be a vital part of the story arc. But that part needed to come to a (partial?) conclusion in very big fashion at the midway point of the season.
You know, right after Shaun kind of breaks up with Lea? And calls Glassman out for abandoning him? And has a breakdown? Yeah, right after all that.
So now it seems like not so much a need to keep moving the ball down the field as it is a need to split the ball (at least) three ways, keeping a couple of them in a holding pattern while the majority of the attention spins to the other ball.
It’s tough to keep those “holding pattern” balls afloat, and interesting… but they are essential to the success of the third ball, so the writers have to find ways to make it work. At least short-term.
With Shaun/Glassman, their final scene together in “Yipee” was the most successful to my eyes for the reasons I mentioned earlier (Glassman being inspired by Shaun’s assertiveness). Other efforts this time around were not my favorite; it felt weird having Glassman barely ask about the latest development with Lea when he was ALL. ABOUT. THAT the last time we saw him. But for now, I still say time is on TGD’s side with this relationship. To be continued…
But Shaun and Lea’s moments (OK, two minutes) in “Yipee” were fairly satisfying for me. Am I surprised they appear to be well on the road to full recovery already? Kind of, but knowing the show has hung all its promotion this season on their wedding, I did the math and figured the split couldn’t last TOO long (more than 3-4 eps would count as “too long” in my book).
Yeah, but this was only 2 episodes after Shaun’s meltdown. Didn’t they rush this just to get both of them working together for Team Lim? I saw more than a few people say this past week. Sure, I wouldn’t put it past the writers using that tactic…but I still bought it. Here’s why:
True to form, Shaun absorbed input (mostly from Jordan) like a sponge before going to talk to Lea in this episode.
Also true to form, there was no awkward first-sighting-after-the-big-blowup because Shaun started talking before he was even through Lea’s office door. I’m guessing Lea knew he was telling a story with current resonance as soon as he mentioned 4th grade… because let’s face it, Shaun doesn’t have many grade school stories that aren’t rooted in some sort of pain. (It’s funny to think of the storytelling as a strategy on Shaun’s part… If I go into her office already talking, she won’t be as likely to interrupt what I’m trying to tell her and I’ll be able to be clear.)
I mentioned last week that David Hoselton was a part of both this script and “Autopsy” in S3; it’s also worth a mention that his co-writer on “Yipee”-- A.S. Weissman– has ASD himself. I can’t help but wonder if Shaun’s gym class story was borne of one of Weissman’s own experiences.
I admit I would’ve liked to see Lea actually talking through things with Jordan rather than just the implication that they did so. But, like the “makeup” itself, I felt lucky we got what we did in the midst of the Salen crisis.
The promise of “hard work” for #Shea in the future is encouraging, but I’m feeling pretty believe-it-when-I-see-it. Will we get to see enough of the “hard work” happening to fully accept they’re in a far better place as a couple? THAT’s the tough part.
As an aside, though… the way Shaun said “I like hard work” with such an intimate, spellbound sweetness totally melted me into the furniture.
What about the lack of a kiss? This time, I say no problem. Two episodes ago, Shaun’s eye contact with Lea was vanishing and physical contact was impossible. With “Yipee,” the eye contact returned (for the most part), and they joined hands as if they were already standing at that altar– something they seemed to do many times last season. That’s enough, for now. Sure a kiss would’ve been nice… but so many already calling foul on THIS much of an early reunion, can you imagine the frustration if there’d been more to it?
In the end, Shaun and Lea managed to leave me feeling pretty good about their future, yet definitely wanting more both in terms of their physicality and their conversation. We know how TGD works, and that the show’s version of “more” is never quite what Shea Nation has in mind.
But we know how to be patient, and we’ve come to expect a nice payoff for doing so.
Let’s table our expectations for the week and focus on the showdown instead. I do believe we’re in for some solid entertainment with that strategy.
