The Good Doctor Season 6 Episode 4 Review: Shrapnel

Glassman, get over yourself.

On The Good Doctor Season 6 Episode 4, Glassman ghosted for Shaun for as long as he could and got angry at both Andrews and Lea for bringing their concerns about the situation between Shaun and Lim to him.

When he finally talked to Shaun, he said a lot of ridiculous nonsense that led Shaun to throw him out. The whole thing was an exercise in frustration, and this annoying story isn’t nearly over yet.

Glassman has always been Shaun’s surrogate father as well as his mentor. He’s understood Shaun’s autism for years and knows Shaun’s idiosyncracies in and out.

The problem is Glassman’s ego is getting in the way. He’s convinced himself that Shaun’s refusal to do things Glassman’s way caused Lim’s paralysis, despite no clear evidence that the other surgery would have made a difference.

He thinks he could have stopped Lim from suffering paralysis if only he’d been five minutes earlier and forced Shaun to do a different procedure. That’s pure ego — there’s no evidence whatsoever that Glassman could have controlled this.

Andrews: Murphy wants his own office.
Glassman: Does that surprise you?
Andrews: No, but why did he come to me instead of his supervisor? Is there something between Lim and Murphy I should know about?
Glassman: Why are you asking me?
Andrews: Because you’re close to both of them.
Glassman: So that means it’s my responsibility to straighten this out?

Furthermore, Glassman’s annoyance with Andrews and Lea was not reasonable. He acted like everyone should be able to read his mind and realize he was avoiding Shaun.

He’s always helped Shaun navigate tricky social situations, so it shouldn’t be surprising that Lea turned to him with her concerns about Shaun’s mental health.

And if something is up between Lim and Shaun, Andrews needs to know that to do his job effectively. Otherwise, he will have to deal with problems that could have been prevented if he had complete information.

As for what Glassman said to Shaun, it felt more like projection than anything else.

Shaun prefers to work alone and doesn’t get along well when he has to share space with others. Glassman knows this, or he should after all these years of dealing with Shaun’s autism.

Glassman: Why are you isolating yourself?
Shaun: I’m not. You’re the one who canceled our breakfast.
Glassman: Because I didn’t want to deal with this. I’m angry at you, Shaun.
Shaun: Oh. Why?
Glassman: Because Lim is paralyzed. You didn’t listen to me and –
Shaun: The parameters changed.
Glassman: Lim is paralyzed and she’s angry at you.
Shaun: You should not be angry at me. Lim should not be angry at me. I saved her life.
Glassman: You’re the surgeon. Lim is paralyzed and you have to take accountability.
Shaun: You are wrong.
Glassman: You are acting like you did in high school. You are a married man and you’re running away, shrinking your world.
Shaun: You are being mean. You are calling me a child and taking Lim’s side. I do not want you in my office.

Glassman, however, isolates himself when he gets stressed. He has been avoiding Shaun, Lim, and any mention of the two of them so that he won’t have to say what he really feels about the situation.

As Shaun pointed out, Glassman was the one who stood him up. Glassman was also the one who was being immature; he’d avoided Shaun and snapped at everybody who dared approach him about this situation.

Shaun got embroiled in a silly argument with Park over placing the furniture in their shared space. Since no one would help him work it out, he found his own solution: a distraction-free storage room he could use as a private office.

Is it weird? Maybe. Inconvenient? If Andrews needs that storage space, it will be.

But for now, it works for Shaun, and that’s the important thing. He’s not isolating to avoid his feelings — that’s Glassman. His neurodivergent brain simply works better in a less distracting environment.

The medical storylines seemed like they were there to open the door to the more personal storylines instead of being full-fledged stories in their own right.

Andy, the guy with the severed foot, lay in bed bleeding while Perez and Jordan went to the beach to await the discovery of Andy’s foot and had a semi-flirtatious conversation. A secondary reason for the story seemed to be for Park to relate to him because of Park’s disaster of a love life.

At this point, it seems that Morgan made a huge mistake turning down that job in New York. She and Park are back to doing nothing but sniping at each other, and for good measure, she had some silly argument with Glassman over who had to take an undesirable patient.

It would have ended the obnoxious banter between her and Park if she’d gone to New York.

Shaun’s medical story was a bit more involved. Shaun had to figure out how to save Mr. Military Reenactor’s arm.

Still, the lion’s share of the airtime given to this story involved Asher pestering Powell about why she joined the Nacy.

Powell didn’t want to talk about it, but every time she turned around, Asher was standing there, ready to interrogate her about the reasons for her service.

He was trying too hard to get to know her, and there was no real reason for it. Sure, he might find her story interesting since it’s different than any he’s ever known, but it wasn’t an emergency for him to learn it.

Couldn’t Jerome have distracted him with more call-room sex? Sheesh.

And what the heck was that with Jordan and Perez?

Their relationship followed a predictable but acceptable path toward romance when Perez suddenly pulled back.

Jordan was left just as much in the dark as viewers were about why Perez rejected her. Maybe he has a strict no-dating coworkers policy, or perhaps something happened in the past that makes him want to take things very slowly.

Whatever the case is, he needs to explain to Jordan exactly why that kiss didn’t feel right, if for no other reason than viewers want to know.

Your turn, Good Doctor fanatics. Hit that big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and share your thoughts.

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The Good Doctor airs on ABC Mondays at 10 PM EST / PST.

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