With only a limited amount of time before the season finale, The Good Doctor focused on Shaun and Lea taking an ill-fated camping trip.
The Good Doctor Season 4 Episode 18 also had some more reasonable storylines, but this trip where everything went wrong took up a large portion of the hour.
And when Shaun fell off a log and needed surgery, things went from merely silly to over-the-top ridiculous.
I like a good improvised surgery storyline as much as the next person, but this one... wasn't that.
This wasn't Royal Pains, where the lead doctor expertly used hand drills, duct tape, and other household items to perform emergency surgery regularly.
Instead, Shaun insisted Lea perform surgery on him with no training whatsoever and no instruments other than a pocket knife, a tourniquet, needle and thread... and of course, tequila.
There was enough blood to make me turn my head, but the worst part of this was that none of it was at all sanitary.
Lea cleaned off the pocket knife with tequila, but she wasn't wearing gloves or a mask, and they were lying on a muddy patch of ground (somehow without getting their clothes dirty even though it had rained hard the night before.)
I kept waiting for Shaun to develop an infection.
Shaun: You were supposed to wait til I count to 3!
Lea: I know but in the movies they always do it ahead of time.
Shaun: You do not need the element of surprise to relocate an ankle.
I THINK this was supposed to be a light-hearted escape from the heavy storylines of the past few weeks, but it was too ridiculous to be enjoyable.
There was no real reason for Shaun to faint from the small amount of blood he lost, and it didn't make any sense whatsoever that Lea was able to figure out how to complete the surgery on her own after he passed out.
And then the EMT guy was impressed! He was right that Shaun was lucky, but not for the reason he thought. This whole thing was so foolhardy and could have ended badly.
Morgan: You're the most skeptical person I know, but this you agree with?
Jordan: I'm not surprised.
Morgan: That Park's a total hypocrite?
Jordan: That you two disagree. You never agree on ANYTHING. I think you enjoy arguing.
Meanwhile, Morgan and Park had an interesting storyline, though I could have done without yet another obnoxious argument between them.
Jordan was right -- these two love to butt heads, and Park reflexively decides on the opposite of what Morgan suggests.
In this case, it turned out all right, but that's a terrible habit that could cost a patient's health or even their life someday.
I wish more time had been spent on treating the patient's depression and on whether hallucinogenic mushrooms were a good treatment idea or not.
In real life, there is some research suggesting that psychedelic drugs have benefits both for depression and PTSD, but it's difficult to even do this research because of anti-drug laws, and there are very few opportunities to be able to treat patients with them in hospitals.
I loved that The Good Doctor exposed viewers to this issue, but it felt like the patient's depression was glossed over to make Morgan and Park's bickering center stage.
That was a shame because an hour in which the hospital debated what to do and tried to find alternatives that worked for this patient would have been fascinating.
Not that the storyline was entirely bad as-is, though.
Morgan demonstrated she was capable of empathy as she encouraged the patient to focus on cultivating mushrooms and telling him that he could find the light at the end of the tunnel were high points. So was Park's continuing to set boundaries with her.
The fact is, Morgan wants it both ways. She wants a commitment-free, no-strings-attached sexual relationship with Park. Yet, she also wants to be his exclusive partner -- a desire she keeps to herself then continually gets upset when it isn't fulfilled.
Park is making it more and more clear that he is an all-or-nothing kind of guy who isn't going to live in Morgan's self-imposed limbo between being committed to each other and not. If Morgan wants that relationship, she'll have to pursue it wholeheartedly.
I couldn't care less if she does it or not. I find Morgan and Park's constant bickering to be an irritating waste of screen time that could be given to other characters. But at least Park is not a doormat about this.
Claire's story was easily the most compelling, although Miles didn't seem to be suffering from any type of terminal illness anymore.
The recap at the beginning included scenes of him telling Claire he was sick but not of them discovering some miracle treatment, so am I forgetting something, or did his cancer just go by the wayside?
Lim: Did you have the talk?
Claire: Yeah.
Lim: I never said it would be easy. Tumors can't be excised without some bleeding.
I kept thinking that if Claire didn't forgive him and he took a turn for the worse, she might never forgive herself, which would be worse than not forgiving him.
Asher was annoying me. He didn't know anything about Claire's situation, and I'm not convinced he handled his own the best way.
I hope that someday his parents visit the hospital so we can learn more about what actually happened, but either way, he was giving Claire terrible advice based on believing that he caused the rift with his family by standing up for himself.
Claire, for her part, did the same thing to her patient's parents.
It was obvious that she was talking about her father when she lectured them about taking responsibility. I was surprised they took it seriously and didn't get at all defensive!
There was also some silliness with Glassman and his wife that's not worth discussing except to say that it's beyond time these two separated. Much like Morgan and Park, all they do is fight over one thing or another.
It's not entertaining or amusing. This latest skirmish was about a serious issue that was never resolved other than Glassman being labeled sexist for wanting Deb to keep her gun unloaded.
Your turn, The Good Doctor fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you thought!
Want to refresh your memory first? Just watch The Good Doctor online right here on TV Fanatic.
The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Mondays at 10 PM EST/PST. The two-part Season 4 finale airs on May 31, 2021, and June 7, 2021.
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