Have you noticed what I’ve noticed with regards to S6 ABC network promos for The Good Doctor…?

The subject matter for each has been as follows:

“Afterparty”- Hospital’s in crisis mode after Lim/Villanueva are stabbed

“Change of Perspective”- Newbies 2.0 plus Lim’s return

“A Big Sign”- Shaun & Lea’s “bad habits” + brewing discontent via Lim

“Shrapnel”- A literal explosion in OR… Lim’s situation, Shaun/Glass arguing

“Growth Opportunities”- It’s Halloween… and Shaun has a surgery plan for Lim

“Hot and Bothered”-  San Jose has a heat wave, and Shaun/Powell are struggling 

“Boys Don’t Cry”-- THE SEXTUPLETS (and #Shea baby wishes)

In other words, the Patients Of The Week have not been highlighted nearly as much as the storyline arcs of the regular characters. I’d have to do a deeper dive down the promo rabbit hole to be sure of this, but it sure seems like this is the first time in the history of the series that the spotlight has shifted so consistently. 

(Just a Thing That Makes Me Go Hmmmm… as Arsenio Hall used to say.)

This time around, the Patients of the Week (all eight of them, if you include the parents) couldn’t help but be the stars alongside St. Bon’s finest– some pairings expected, some not, some really not. But I guess Andrews and ex-wife Isabel were more overseers than an actual medical team, right? 

Since TGD conveniently had the six babies named alphabetically in correspondence with their arrival into the world, I’ll run through each respective situation alphabetically as well.

BUT FIRST…

But that TV time-space continuum thing is crazy enough that we must remember they can, and will, take artistic license with that whenever they can. The fact that an actual calendar of November was seen here made it a little less palatable; you’ve gotta wonder, couldn’t they have just posted a generic calendar page to keep things a little more fluid? Nonetheless, the timing was hardly the issue by the end of the episode. unless by timing, you mean Will there be a #Shea baby in the duration of the series?

I know a lot of fans were everything from devastated, to furious, to everything in between with the awareness that the show is bringing a real-life complication known as Asherman’s Syndrome into the #Shea storyline.  I get it; I don’t like to see Shaun and Lea sad either, and we know Shaun knows how to be the “rock” Lea needs. Nothing needs to be proven at this point. But TGD’s hallmark is emotional drama, and with that in mind I think there are several benefits to bringing this complication to the table:

• It’s a real life thing to which many fertility-challenged couples can relate. 

• It is a complication, but not a death sentence, to the #Shea baby possibilities.

• And perhaps most important, I think it’s a better option than the “complication” of having Lea get pregnant again only to miscarry again, regardless of what might trigger it.. 

My thought now is that once Lea becomes pregnant again – and I do think she will— she’ll carry to term this time. There may be difficulties, there may be incredibly anxious moments, but I think the show is wisely spreading out the pain, the doubt, the anticipation, all the things that give a pregnancy storyline its texture. 

I suppose some of that depends, too, on whether or not TGD gets renewed for a seventh season. None of us know the answer to that right now, so I don’t know if the show would try to deliver (pun intended!) a complete pregnancy storyline within THIS season. All I can guess is that they have a contingency plan for either outcome, and one way or another, we will see some parental-ish joy on Shaun and Lea’s faces down the road.

Speaking of reuniting… as an aside,  I must say, I did not see a possible reunion of Andrews and Isabel anywhere among the long-term possibilities of this year. Of course, that’s likely because we hadn’t seen Isabel onscreen in several years (making it a lot easier to recast that role as they did!). There seems to be so much going on with the shows personal developments already that I’m hard-pressed to believe we’ll see Isabel again anytime soon. But they’ve either put some decent closure on this part of Andrews‘s life that join the storyline in the final episodes of season four… Or, they’ve opened a can of worms to revisit whenever they feel like it. My guess is the latter.

Another reason for liking this team that worked on baby Erin was that it kept Jordan out of HD/Perez’s path for a week. Those two needed some breathing room. They still do… say, any multiple births coming into St. Bon’s this week?

One of those things has got to be, I think, a problem somewhere down the road regarding her friendship with Powell. Sure, they’ve bonded over their respective disabilities, and Powell has had quite the influence on Lim finding her way with a new identity. Still, it feels weird, doesn’t it? The chief of surgery being so chummy with a first year attending? They worked well together in this episode as they brought Baby F(rancesa) out of the woods (With an assist from Clay). But Powell, a.k.a. Combat Danni, has build a reputation already amongst the others as somewhat difficult. And things are bound to get dicey between her and Lim at some point, especially if Lim has a change of heart about “the surgery “. Keep an eye on them.

(When not focused on #Shea, that is…)

What did YOU think of “Boys Don’t Cry”— or of the latest #Shea development in particular? Leave a comment and let us know!