I'm standing on a stage

Of fear and self-doubt

It's a hollow play

But they'll clap anyway

My body is a cage that keeps me

From dancing with the one I love

But my mind holds the key

— From “My Body is a Cage” by Arcadia Fire

The unexpected parts of “Rebellion,” TGD’s long-awaited return to its Monday night time slot, started with the telltale lyrics that opened the episode rather than closed it.

Fans of David Shore’s previous long-running medical drama House may have claimed a bit of “the expected” with the song choice, though, and for good reason: A Peter Gabriel cover of the same tune (“My Body Is A Cage”) was used during season 7 of that show. Knowing that Dr. Gregory House and Dr. Shaun Murphy are both fictitious doctors dealing with significant adversities makes it easier to see why such a song could be used twice… though for whatever it’s worth, the original version (by Arcadia Fire) is what we heard on The Good Doctor.

Viewers had ample time to mull the possibilities that “Rebellion” would provide– and thanks to the promos that were provided, a few details were already pecked out…

• Shaun would continue to claim he can’t marry Lea.

• Lea would dispute that claim.

• Lim would vow to “take down” Salen, despite Glassman’s warnings against it.

• Glassman would (for once) come solidly to Lea’s defense.

• Shaun would somehow land on the notion Lea was “settling” for him.

Yet for nearly every expected turn of events in “Rebellion” came a healthy dose of Wow, didn’t see that coming. The biggest example to #Shea Nation likely came in the final few minutes of the episode, and that’s why a whole lot of this post will be about that part. 

But let’s see what’s noteworthy from the rest of “Rebellion” first–

EXPECTED: Second-year “newbies” Jordan and Wolke spar over patient details in relation to their personal situations, as they are wont to do. 

UNEXPECTED: That the sparring would garner so much attention on them— both negative and, eventually, positive— that we ultimately witnessed the JordAsh confirmation hearings in this episode. In other words- they’re officially a team, a platonic couple if ever there was one. So much was anticipated for the “Rebellion” episode, but further exploration of the ties that bind Dr.Jordan Allen and Dr. Asher Wolke definitely didn’t make my short list. (I’d say it made for some much-needed comic relief, but that look that crossed Wolke’s face when Jordan suggested he hadn’t grown up around “strong women”… damn. Speaking of which, I really hope we get a chance as viewers to meet both Wolke’s mother AND Jordan’s brother.

UNEXPECTED (or unexpectedly ironic??): Shaun says “Do you really think Lea realized she was wrong about my ASD? Or were you just lying to cheer me up?” and Glassman counters “Have I ever lied to you before?”

UH… DIDN’T WE JUST COVER THIS IN SPADES IN THE FINAL MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS EPISODE????? You know, the part when Shaun says Glassman lied when he promised he’d never abandon him (Just after the part when he called Lea out for lying about the fixed test scores) and then bellowed WHY IS EVERYONE LYING TO ME???

Of course, Shaun just matter-of-factly responds with “Oh…yes” without dragging out Exhibit A… and Glassy doesn’t dispute it; just says “Well I’m not lying now,” and on they go until they segue into the “Everybody’s weird” part of the conversation. 

As for me, I can’t decide if it was “weird” the way Glassman’s lying was discussed so casually here, or if was just another piece of the scenery because why is everyone lying to me continued to echo throughout this episode for Shaun, in one form or another.

• He outed Park’s lie in front of the patient

• He speculated that Lea was lying about her real feelings for him

• The story about classmates lying to let him copy off his paper (which goes to show how deep the lying thing is… now he’s thinking all the way back to grade school)

EXPECTED: Shaun goes right back to work after his breakdown. No sick days, no personal days. (I suggested while live-tweeting last week that Shaun was the one who needed to take a personal day more than Lim did.)

UNEXPECTED (I think?): Shaun’s focus is almost exclusively on processing things involving Lea. The only thing we saw about him regarding the pharmacy aftermath was the meeting with Salen, and Park’s asking him if he wanted to talk (“Talking won’t change anything”)... and as for Shaun and Glassman, well, they were sort of back to normal… but only in the sense that Glassy was giving advice regarding one of his other crises. 

I hear that various social media platforms had a field day this week choosing sides in this argument… in some circles, Team #Shea became Team Shaun OR Team Lea in a hurry. I didn’t witness much of this first-hand, so I can only assume it started with assessments like Shaun couldn’t leave ”good enough” alone; he just HAD to dredge up 2-year-old history… or Why did Lea have to fly off the handle like that; she gets the forgiveness she seeks only to pick a new (old?) fight with him AND announce she’s moving out? And got much, much worse from there.

But they’re #Shea for a reason (of course!), and when they make mistakes they make them together… learn from them together… and get stronger in the broken places. 

I’ve gone back and forth on how I wanted to analyze this crucial last scene from “Rebellion”. For perhaps obvious reasons, I liken it to the final scene from S3-16 “Autopsy” (the one Shaun references here), with a generous sprinkling of Lea’s “Friendship is a two-way street” chewout from S2-3 “36 Hours”... mostly for the way Shaun retreats once Lea starts barrelling forward.

When I wrote about the “Autopsy” scene, I did a line-by-line recall of the scene while inserting my line-by-line reaction as I went along (as if I was “coaching” Shaun… Lea a little bit too, but mostly Shaun).

But something that made this “Rebellion” scene quite different from the “Autopsy” scene was the shot of Lea sobbing in the Striped Tomato after she’d stormed out of their apartment… which was THEN followed by Shaun, flat on his back and tears in his eyes. Two years ago, the story of #Shea was very much Shaun’s to tell. Now, as we saw with Lea’s nightmare sequence leading the season opener… #Shea is BOTH of them, with Lea’s POV co-mingling with Shaun’s. 

While there’s still a question mark or two dangling out there– could she PLEASE tell Shaun when she knew she was in love with him, for instance– we’ve finally seen enough of Lea Dilallo to understand where she’s coming from, especially in times of duress. So this time, I’m walking us through the scene line by line while taking a stab at the subtext for both characters. Let’s see how this goes… (the subtext for each of them will be italicized, bold, and in parentheses.)

—

(SHAUN enters the apartment and immediately cranes his head to find Lea; she’s at the sink, filling a pot with water. She acknowledges him silently, then keeps watching him as she brings the pot to the island stovetop and turns on the burner.) 

(Lea: He’s still not talking, but he IS standing there rather than ignoring me– maybe this is more of the silence I’m used to; the one that comes when he’s collecting his thoughts.)

SHAUN: I don’t want to cancel our wedding. 

(Lea: Oh, thank God…)

SHAUN: We love each other and are good for each other… and I forgive you for lying about going to Montana and changing my scores; I know you were just trying to help me.

(Lea: Whatever Glassy said must’ve worked magic.)

LEA: (WITH MUCH GRATITUDE) Thank you. 

(LEA walks around the island towards SHAUN as he takes off his backpack.)

(Shaun: Okay, that feels much better. But I need to ask my other questions…)

SHAUN: Did you want Dr. Glassman to come back so you wouldn’t have to take care of me on your own?

(Lea: Take care of him-? Hmm. Not sure where this is coming from. I’d better word this carefully.) 

LEA: I wanted him to come back because he cares about you and I know that you care about him too. 

(Shaun: Hmm. She didn’t answer my question directly. I should be more clear…)

SHAUN: I… don’t need you to take care of me.

LEA: I know. And I don’t mean to smother you; I just want to help you and be there for you.

(Shaun: Okay, good. Now I need to ask the one whose answer I fear the most.)

SHAUN: Do you believe I’m not good enough for you?

(Lea: Wait, did I hear him right?)

LEA: That you’re not good enough…? What are you even talking about?

SHAUN: You told me once that you couldn’t be in a relationship with me because of my ASD…

(Lea: Oh shit. He knows! This damn mistake I made blew the lid off the whole facade that I can handle this relationship! HE KNOWS I’m no good at this now. All the effort was for nothing.)

LEA: Is that what you think?

(Shaun: No, this isn’t about what I think…)

SHAUN: It’s– what you said.

LEA: Yeah, a long time ago. Are you seriously telling me that you don’t see a difference in how I feel about you? That I haven’t grown at all… that our relationship hasn’t grown? 

(Shaun: No, I’m not seriously saying that at all… oh, she’s still talking.)

LEA: Shaun, all I was trying to do was help someone that I love, to be there for you like you’ve been there for me! 

(Lea: ‘you do things a certain way; you need things in a certain way’... I knew I’d ruin it two years ago if I dared to try. Now he knows it too. DAMMIT.)

LEA: But you just can’t seem to see it that way, no matter how many times I’ve tried! I mean, is every mistake I make going to be something that you hold against me forever? 

SHAUN: N– no, I am forgiving you.

(Shaun: There, I was finally able to say that part again. That should help, right? She’s angry with me. I need it to help.)

LEA: No, I don't need you to forgive me. 

(Shaun: Wait- what DO you need me to do? I thought I knew, but now I don’t. And she’s still talking…)

LEA: And I’m done! I’m done apologizing for helping you, and caring about you, and whatever else I’m doing that you seem to find SO unbearable.

SHAUN: Yes. N-no. 

(Shaun: I can’t find the right words and this is going WAY too fast…)

SHAUN: That’s not what I said.

LEA: No, what you’re saying is I’m not good enough for you. 

(Lea: Mom and Dad were right all along. Glassy had me pegged from the start. Now Shaun knows too. Once a screwup, always a screwup. I’m such an idiot. I’m not worthy of his love. I’ll never be.)

SHAUN: That’s actually not true–

LEA: And if that’s what you feel, then fine– maybe we shouldn’t get married. 

(Shaun: No, that’s NOT how I feel. What’s happening? Why isn’t she hearing me?)

(Lea: Don’t give him a chance to dispute it! Stick to your guns, Lea. They’re all you have now. It’s time to go. I have to go.)

LEA: Um-hmm… And you know what, maybe we shouldn’t even be living together. (WALKS TO DOOR) So– I’m gonna get out of your way TOTALLY…

(Shaun: Wait, she’s leaving? Now?)

LEA: And you can sleep in your own bed tonight, and first thing tomorrow, I’ll start looking for a new place to live!

(Shaun: She’s…(DOOR SLAM, VISIBLE SHUDDER) gone.)

I’ll start with the biggest question first that we seem to be asking..

WHY NOW? WHY WASN’T THIS ADDRESSED LAST SEASON?

Talk about unexpected–!! When the “Autopsy” conversation didn’t come up directly in Season 4, we were left to draw certain conclusions:

• That the resolution was within the Season 3 finale (“I Love You”) and no further questions were needed.*** (Or, they were asked and answered offscreen.)

• That some of the situations posed for #Shea in S4– Isolation during the COVID episodes, the perils of Shaun’s direct honesty, Lea’s disbelieving parents, issues with mutual respect and communication– were indirect but positive responses.

• That when the #Shea pregnancy moved forward, so did their narrative… permanently. How could either one of them question their bond once they lived through, loved through, and worked through such a profound and tragic experience?
  

***At the time, I wrote about my frustrations with David Shore over-simplifying Lea’s thinking process by throwing the word “prejudiced” around way too freely.

In fact, a recent interview with Shore leading into the “Rebellion” episode had much the same effect on me— one where he intimated Lea thinks she made “a little mistake” in omitting the patient records that should just blow over.  

To me, it does the show zero favors when Shore tries to explain her in interviews. I’ve heard before that the character of Lea was not his personal creation, that he wasn’t especially supportive of them as a couple in the beginning of TGD, etc. etc… but even if he loves them together now as much as he claims he does, they NEED to get Paige Spara or another showrunner involved in the media sneak peeks. He’s just not the guy for the job.

END OF RANT… for now.

ARE THEY REGRESSING BIG-TIME WITH THIS CONVERSATION… AND THE RESULTING CONSEQUENCES?

If they are, it’s temporary– but completely understandable. I’m thinking of the Pharmacy breakdown from “Expired” as a much, MUCH delayed aftershock from the S3 earthquake that shook both Shaun and Lea to their respective cores.  I touched on this in last week’s “Long Winter” post, but seeing Shaun connecting with his “underappreciated” patient this week– and Monica, the friend-zoner– made sense to me because the breakdown stemmed from perceived deception by the two people closest to him… one of whom had hurt him badly once before, in a situation that bore similarities to that of his patient. To Shaun, it was logical to wonder if Lea had done what she did because she didn’t really believe in him… and all the downward spiral thinking that accompanies such. 

And Lea? We know from her history, both long past and quite recent (conversations with Glassman in Montana), that self-doubt still lives in a big old rent-free penthouse apartment in her brain, triggered savagely by Shaun’s recent struggles. She clearly believed enough in her and Shaun to stick around and fight for them… but when she took what Shaun asked her and morphed it into a white-hot spotlight on her biggest flaws over the course of her entire lifetime, all that fighting resolve evaporated.

Anyway… I get paid at times for writing, so I tried to look at all this from a writer’s perspective:

• As an ASD/NT couple, Shaun and Lea face very unique challenges that can be both fun and incredibly difficult to write.

• Those challenges began the moment Shaun first told Lea he loved her… and led to some brutal aftermath episodes that essentially shook #Shea to the ground (there’s that earthquake metaphor again) and let them rebuild throughout S4.

• Aided by the general need for “lighter” story arcs in the first part of any TGD season, Shaun’s ASD-related issues were back-burnered, by and large, when it came to #Shea development. Did the writers always intend to find a way back to the “incredibly difficult” parts of the relationship? Or were they influenced, in time, by fans like you and me? We may never know the answer to those questions.

• But at some point in S4, the decision was made to write in an unintended pregnancy. And a tragic miscarriage. And all the healing that comes, at different speeds, afterwards. So from “Teeny Blue Eyes” (Episode 4-12) onward, there was no room to revisit the “Autopsy” conversation– for as we’ve often pointed out, there’s barely enough time in a given episode to tackle a fresh challenge… let alone try and deal with an older one. (Did they get themself “off the hook” by re-directing our attention to the pregnancy? I guess it all depends on which writers contributed to that decision… another question to which we may never know the answer.)

• Is it realistic that Shaun and Lea would get so far along in their relationship as they are in S5 and STILL have this question on the table? Keeping in mind that “realistic” is a relative term when you’re talking about made-for-TV realism, I say YES…for the following reasons:

  • Relationships zigzag all the time. Pregnancies happen before they’re “supposed” to; job opportunities split couples before they have a chance to gel… and many, many couples have their version of baggage that gets thrown in a corner and covered up with so many spare blankets it’s impossible to get back to it… OR… it gets nudged, little by little, back out to where it’s a massive obstacle that you stumble over in the dark of night and then blame your partner before you can scrape yourself off the floor. (I think I could’ve done better with that metaphor, but I’m gonna keep going and hope you get the idea.)

  • Having Lea get pregnant when she did was a classic plot twist. Resuming the “Autopsy” conversation NOW? Another plot twist… hard to call it a “classic” given how rare the ASD/NT relationship is in network TV, but as unfinished business goes, it’s a humdinger. If the two twists were offered in reverse order, would they have carried the same weight? I doubt it. 

  • Also– you know how we’ve talked (quite recently) about the benefits Shaun could get from seeing a therapist, particularly for anger management issues? And how we’ve openly wondered how they might weave that into the storyline when, frankly, ongoing therapy visits seldom make for compelling TV? The same could be said of the “Autopsy” conversation. It’s not something to bring up when Shaun and Lea are driving home from St. B, or watching TV… it needed to be motivated by something significant, just as Shaun’s confession of love sparked the initial conversation. 

  • Meanwhile, TGD has been dealing with Salen and Ethicure’s shenanigans all season long thus far, with Shaun himself being acutely affected:

    • It put him on the offensive when the soap, scrubs, and hand dryers affected his day-to-day work life.

    • It put his ASD front and center by way of the billboard/poster campaign.

    • It highlighted his “worst” traits via the patient evaluations– a problem that cleverly put him at odds with his fiancee

  • And while the expired meds/dead baby situation may provide the peak for his problems with Ethicure, it was the patient evaluations that created the perfect dovetail to get Shaun and Lea back to that one, crucial pillar just in time.

  • I say “just in time” because they’re still getting married. You know that, right?
    

So let’s stop our fussing and just WATCH to see how they work this out. David Hosleton was the writer behind “Autopsy”; another #Shea veteran, Thomas L. Moran, was the scribe behind “Rebellion”. But guess who’s co-writing “Yippee-Ki-Yay” (Monday 3/7’s episode)? Yep, it’s “Autopsy”’s David Hosleton. You can’t convince me that’s an accident.