State of The Shea, Pt. 74: In With The Old (“Old Friends”)

Sometimes you’ve gotta honor the past in order to move on to the future.

I don’t know that that’s an actual saying, but it’s what leaps to mind as I think about the “Old Friends” episode kicking off the month of March for TGD; the 15th of 22 episodes this season. The most obvious representation of “the past” was Choku Modu, reprising his role as original TGD resident Jared Kalu for this episode and, reportedly, the remainder of S6. Plenty to talk about there… but I took the old theme a little further, applying it to as many aspects of the episode as I could think of. Some were an easy fit– I don’t think Old Friends was a term solely reserved for Jared in this one– while others might require more elastic thinking ;) 

These are pretty much in chronological order. Take a look!

OLD YARDSTICKS: Shaun gives us an answer to “how far along is Lea as of this episode?”-- 28 weeks. This means she’s at the start of her third trimester… and “The Peanut” is approximately the size of a head of lettuce. (I suspect Lea will want to stick with calling it “Peanut” though.)

OLD PROBLEM: Lea is grudgingly coming to terms with the extremes of a pregnant body (the jeans) and the fact that soon, she won’t be able to drive the Striped Tomato full-time…

OLD QUESTION (but a good one): WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO LEA’S FIRST CAR?

(AKA the one she was driving in S1 when she saw Shaun at a bus stop in the dark and gave. him a ride home)

My guess: Since the character of Lea Dilallo was originally intended to last only 6 episodes, they introduced the striped tomato strictly for the purposes of the Road Trip (Both for #Shea bonding— Shaun recognized it from watching Starsky and Hutch reruns— and to symbolize the trust Lea had in Shaun when she let him drive her prized possession).

THEN, after Paige Spara was brought back for S2 and beyond, a decision must’ve been made that the Grand Torino was now Lea’s car… and hopefully we’d just forget about seeing it in the “Pipes” episode. I think Lea initially introduced the GT as a “special occasion” vehicle, but once we saw her teaching Shaun to drive in it, we knew the other car was a goner.

OLD BEEF: WHERE DID THINGS STAND WHEN JARED LEFT ST. BONS IN 2018 WITH ANDREWS?

Suffice to say, no one was sugar-coating it. Andrews was hell-on-wheels any time the two crossed paths in the “Hello” episode (S2).

… But, of course, that WAS nearly 5 years ago.

Now that Jared’s back on board and Andrews ultimately did NOT get a big fat check from Roland? Yikes. Jared better keep on watching his back for a while if you ask me.

OLD QUESTION, DIFFERENT CHARACTER: DOES ASHER FEEL UNDERUSED TO YOU SINCE WINTER HIATUS ENDED?

With the notable exception of Danni Powell’s farewell episode (“The Good Boy”), Dr. Asher Wolke has come into a LOT of scenes like a backup signer at a Rhianna concert. Whether he needs boyfriend Jerome for storyline assistance or not, I hope they find space on the storytelling map for Asher substance soon.

OLD WOUND: PARK COMING FACE TO FACE WITH “JOE” THE HOMEWRECKER

If the Jared/St. Bon’s reunion hadn’t taken place, Park’s dilemma could’ve easily grabbed center stage. (“What are you doing here,” indeed!)

By laying it out as a subplot, though, they steered clear of moral dilemmas (e.g. surgical complications that could put Park in a bind) and kept the focus on forgiveness. Which was probably as tough for Park as most OR procedures.

OLD TRANSPORTATION:

WASN’T IT WEIRD TO THINK OF SHAUN STILL TAKING THE BUS?

I suppose there are plenty of times he’s not out riding along with Lea, but the last time TGD showed him on a bus was in last season’s “Rebellion” episode (when Shaun was reeling from Glassman and Lea’s recent actions)... so that info came as something of a surprise to me.

OLD REFERENCE THAT STILL GIVES ME HOPE: LEA’S BROTHER

I’m admittedly a sucker for breadcrumbs, but every time Lea mentions Donnie— A.K.A. her estranged and only sibling, as far as we know— my hope for his eventual appearance on TGD is re-kindled.

If she gets back to the point of actually saying his name instead of “my brother,” I’ll be starting a whole hope bonfire.

OLD PROBLEM (CONTINUITY EDITION):

In the scene where Shaun discovered Roland was sleeping with “Jared”’s Dalia, we saw Shaun close the door behind him as he approached… but then when he called for a nurse, one came right in. Maybe there was a nurse standing by in another part of the suite Roland appeared to be in. Maybe they are accustomed to responding to muffled commands while out in the middle of hospital foot traffic. But I couldn’t help but wonder why Shaun would’ve closed the door behind him in the first place. (I get why Roland had it closed, of course…)

OLD CONVERSATIONS:

It’s true— Shaun did indeed tell Jared in his TGD sendoff that someday he’d be happy…

… And that he would “fulfill his potential.”

(“SHAUN” WOULD KNOW, GIVEN THAT FREDDIE HIGHMORE WROTE THAT EPISODE.)

But S6 Shaun even has his version of Dude, seriously? in the form of the one-word question to Jared: “Sciatica?”

OLD… SOFA?

(It was on clearance, after all. But Glassy probably couldn’t care less what his new sofa looks like so long as he can watch baseball and football comfortably on it.)

OLD STATUS

When we last saw them, Lea was supposedly fed up with Glassman AND less than thrilled he was moving in down the hall. But here, they were back on very comfortable terms. Was this the result of some of the script/episode shuffling that was apparently done in order to place the embedded Good Lawyer pilot in the desired place on the schedule?

It’s surely not worth wondering about. Let’s just be glad all is well again, I guess.

OLD CONVERSATION– NEW BACKSTORY EDITION (FROM LIM)

Those watching in S4 may recall that Jordan first shared her personal abortion story back in her earliest days on the show. Lim, however, had not revealed her own story… until now. So how would the conversation have gone if Lim had shared this with Jordan back in S4— when Jordan was explaining her religious/moral conflicts with performing an abortion on a patient?

Backstory gets invented as characters go all the time, so again, not worth wondering about.

Unless it was simply that Lim didn’t know Jordan well enough then to connect with her on something so personal.

OK, definitely over-thinking it now! Let’s move on…

OLD TREND STILL PLAYED DAILY BY PEOPLE OF A CERTAIN AGE…??? 

I can thoroughly believe Morgan’s the type who leans over your shoulder while doing WORDLE and gloats about how she got it in three guesses or less. Every. single. day. To which I can only say SHUT UP, MORGAN, there’s nothing wrong with being average with my damn Wordle score.

But Park was distracted, as we all know, so we missed the verbal slap that might’ve been.

OLD NEWS BY NOW…

But I loved the way Morgan summarized the specific reason for their breakup… and how it tied in nicely with Park’s “letting go” dilemma.

OLD REMEDY: KICK THE S*** OUT OF SOMEONE FOR SPORT

I mean DAMN, Park. Maybe take out your frustrations on a sandbag next time? At least it doesn’t gush blood and give you dirty looks when you’re done.

OLD HONESTY OOPSIE:

Andrews was nearly ready to hold his hand out eagerly for Roland’s 100 MILLION dollar check, but Shaun accurately stated that his patient should not be authorizing such monumental decisions while his head was full of worm larvae. (ICK)

See, Andrews? You wanted Shaun to get better at connecting with patients and understanding their needs (back in S2)… look how great he is at that now!

OLD CIRCLE COME AROUND FULL…

As I mentioned earlier, Jordan got into some hot water back in her early St. Bon’s days when she refused to perform an abortion on a patient in need. This time, the discussion about abortion was deeper and more complex, with Jordan staying true to herself and “praying for a miracle” despite Morgan’s objections. When things got very dire, though, Jordan stepped up to the plate in a different way— the only way that she could, and the only way that patient Sonja could resonate with.

And if that wasn’t enough of a heart-wrenching scene, we then saw Sonja ask Jordan to perform the abortion— and Jordan give a thoughtful, aching “yes.”

This leads me to this OLD COMPLEMENT THAT SURELY NEVER GETS OLD FOR THOSE THAT HEAR IT… big, big kudos to Bria Samone Henderson and Elyse Maloway for their work in the entire episode. It was “above and beyond” in a field of actors that is already so very above and beyond!

OLD ADAGE ABOUT FORGIVENESS…

The forgiveness you give someone else isn’t supposed to be “earned” by the someone else… it’s supposed to set the forgiver free of their own tethers to the situation at hand. Wonder if anyone ever told Park that?

OLD JOBS BEGET… NEW OPPORTUNITIES?

I guess we’ll have to watch Jared in his new/old 1st-year resident shoes and see if that one holds. In any case, it sure was lovely to see Shaun so happy.

OLD (ACTUALLY ANCIENT?) ART FORM…

It had to be tough to find a “good” way to end Sonja’s story, but the tiny tattoo on her husband’s wrist was pretty effective.

OLD CARS INSPIRE… NEW ONES

Is it Son of Striped Tomato? Rocketship 2023? The Dilallo-MurphyMobile? Whatever we end up calling it, it’s GLORIOUS.

OLD TERM SHORTENED INTO MODERN-DAY LINGO AND… USED INCORRECTLY HERE???

I must say at this point that I adored the script for “Old Friends” (written by Adam Scott Weissman). I can tell that I adored it because I kept quoting it directly in my notes as I did this writeup. HOWEVER… I don’t think “Bougie Jared” was the write thing for Lea to call him in that final champagne scene. For one thing, it seems to carry a negative connotation about one’s wealth/supposed wealth that I can’t imagine Lea meaning— unless it was in a joking manner. For another thing— Lea never met Jared the first time around. In fact, she returned to San Jose JUST as Jared was leaving town (in the “Hello” episode). So why would she joke like that to a virtual stranger?

Just a bad choice of words… or word… in my opinion.

But… maybe still not as hard on the ears in that moment as “You’ve been served” was to Shaun. To be continued… of course!

Were you a fan of “Old Friends?” Or were you eager to move on to something else? Let me know in the comments below!