A series of avoidable outcomes drive Dr. Shaun Murphy to his breaking point during Monday’s The Good Doctor — the last new episode until spring 2022.
Let us begin with Dr. Glassman. During the fall finale, the hospital’s figurehead president meets with a realtor. He intends to sell his house and move to Montana — that is, until first wife Ilana (played by The Boys‘ Ann Cusack) shows up at his doorstep and asks that he oversee her current husband’s life-threatening case. What is believed to be Lewy Body Dementia is found to be a tumor pressing on her husband’s carotid artery, which in turn mimics symptoms of Lewy Body.

Before Glassman successfully removes said tumor, he and Ilana have a much-needed discussion about the loss of their daughter Maddie — who, as you may recall, was seen only once, as a figment of Glassman’s imagination during his Season 2 cancer battle. Ilana resented Glassman for his relationship with Shaun, thinking he’d gone and “replaced” their dead daughter with Dr. Murphy. She has since come to understand that this was not the case. She also understands that Shaun has played a pivotal role in her ex’s life. After surgery, she encourages Glassman not to move to Montana, and to remain in San Jose to be close to his surrogate son. “He makes you better,” she tells him. And she’s right.

As for Lea, she confronts Shaun and tells him that she changed his patient satisfaction scores. She is truly sorry, but her fiancé refuses to accept her apology.

The Case of the Week, meanwhile, involves a pregnant car accident victim. Circumstances force her to deliver the baby surgically, but a medicine for the preemie turns out to be expired, which is discovered only after it has been administered. Within minutes, the baby is dead, and an irate Dr. Lim confronts Salen about their fatal mistake — a direct result of Ethicure’s penny pinching. Salen tells the chief of surgery that “discretion” is in everyone’s best interest until the hospital has conducted a thorough investigation. That means keeping the cause of death from the baby’s mother, presumably until she has had a chance to consult Ethicure’s in-house attorneys.