If memory serves me correctly, there’s at least one blog post out there referring to TGD’s “Potluck” episode 5x14 as “filler.” I only saw the lede lines that accompanied the tweet promoting said blog– so my apologies if the writer of that blog is reading this one– but the vibe I got, while still quite positive, was dismissive by way of the word “filler.” 

Superficially, I see it– “magic mushrooms” find their way into a St. Bon’s pot luck lunch, and next thing you know, unnamed staff are vomiting and/or laughing deliriously and/or practicing yoga moves on gurneys… and named staff is acting like, well, anything but their named staff self. 

Hijinks prevailed, that’s for sure. But plenty more happened as well, most of which will play strongly into the tone for the remainder of the season. 

It was revealed last week that TGD will only air 18 episodes for S5, which is two episodes less than we got in S3 or S4. While my instinct is to blame ABC for toying with the time slot– putting the ill-fated Promised Land in TGD’s place for a month surely did it NO favors– the fact is TGD only has eight episodes rather than the expected ten to deal with St. Bon’s post-Salen recovery… and oh, yeah, get Shaun and Lea to the proverbial church on time (as earlier TGD S5 promos teased relentlessly).

I’ve seen the remaining episode titles for S5, and based on what’s being introduced in the “My Way” episode airing this week, I have my speculations as to what the next month will bring us. But for now, my focus is on the brilliance that was TGD’s “Potluck” episode… and what I’m referring to specifically are the unexpected couplings of characters that took the standard of hijinks to another level. Even Jordan and Jerome, the two characters “unpartnered” in this episode (I’ll explain what I mean about Jerome in a minute), were absolutely vital to the success of “Potluck.” 

PREVIOUSLY ON TGD: In five seasons, we’d never seen Dr. Glassman, brain surgeon extraordinaire, actually work alongside his protege. How can that be? Well…

• In Season 1, Glassman was primarily busy with his duties as St. Bon’s President– and while very immersed in Shaun’s brave new world as a first-year resident on the ASD spectrum, his presence in any OR was minimal to non-existent. (I haven’t made time to go back and check for exceptions to this rule; that’s why I’m leaving open the possibility he put in an appearance or two.)
  

• In S2, Glassman found himself in the fight of his life as he battled cancer- which put him and Shaun in the thick of it personally, but not professionally. 
  

• In S3, Glassman gradually made his way back to the OR, but spent most of his working hours embracing his new lease on life via his pet project (St. Bon’s free clinic for the economically challenged). 
  

• And in S4, we saw more of Glassman in his office than we did anywhere else– especially when it came to his screen time with Shaun. Professional consults between the two were many. Personal consults, probably even more so. But working together in the OR still wasn’t a thing.

   

• Even in S5, during the most pivotal OR scenes of the season (in the winter finale “Expired”), Shaun and Glassman were operating in two very different worlds… both literally and figuratively, with Shaun’s world coming apart just as Glassman was getting his surgical mojo back (see what I said about it at the time…)

NOW: The not-so-funny thing about this “couple” is that they were contending with much more than different OR styles and seniority levels. They had the very real problem of being too close as people, much as Park and Morgan might have if Morgan was still a surgeon, and Lim and Melendez did have when they were an item (might as well name them here, as Melendez haunted the back half of this episode anyway. I’m getting to that part, of course…)

I’ll readily admit that when I first heard these two would be working together throughout “Potluck” I was hoping it would trigger a conversation that harkened back to the first half of the season, when Glassman was for all intents and purposes abandoning St. Bon’s (leaving Shaun feeling abandoned on a deeply personal level, as we saw at the end of “Expired”). But I quickly tabled those hopes, realizing the pace of the episode would never give way to such a talk. I remain hopeful we’ll witness it at some point; to have Glassman apologize for his “Potluck” behavior while still awaiting a show of remorse for much more egregious behavior feels weird.