#The Good Doctor Season 4 Episode 5 Review: Fault

Color me surprised. Lea did something unselfish.

On The Good Doctor Season 4 Episode 5, there was plenty of sadness to go around, but Lea’s insistence that Shaun goes back to the hospital was a bright spot.

She wasn’t focused just on herself for once, and that made her a lot more likable.

Lea and Shaun’s relationship took up just a small part of the hour, which was fine with me.

I can only take these two being together in small doses. Too much Lea tends to raise my blood pressure.

She’s whiny and clingy and generally irritating, and I’m still not over the fact that Shaun chose her over the far more stable and compelling Carly.

Lea: Shaunie! Go to the hospital.

Shaun: No. I already scheduled this date with you.

Lea: Someone else needs you more than I do.

But this time, Lea demonstrated she could think about people other than herself and even sacrificed date night so Shaun could be with his patient. If Lea acts like that more often, I might warm up to her.

Of course, most of the hour focused on Shaun, Asher, and a dying patient that no one realized was dying until it was too late.

Shaun switched quickly from blaming Asher to blaming himself after Lim pointed out that he should have agreed to double-check Asher’s work, while Asher blamed himself for not feeling the aneurysm in the first place.

Fair enough, but neither one of them addressed the bigger problem: Asher getting too attached to his patient.

Man: Do I detect an accent?

Asher: No. I mean, I used to have one, but I worked really hard to get rid of it.

Man: East European?

Asher: Brooklyn. I grew up Hasidic but I left the religion and my family behind a long time ago.

Man: It couldn’t have been easy growing up, knowing you were a… doctor. You know, in my generation, people would beat you up, bash you. Be grateful you can live your life as who you are.

Asher: I don’t know what you went through. Please don’t presume to know what I did.

The man tried to give Asher some advice about his perceived sexual orientation, asked Asher to pray with him, and generally acted more like a zedye [Jewish grandfather] than a stranger.

Since Asher has long ago cut ties with his birth family, it was natural that he gravitated toward this old man who probably reminded him of the family he lost… or maybe the one he wished he had.

But getting too attached might have made it harder for him to do his job effectively. It certainly made it difficult for him to accept that the man was gone.

Dr. Welk. Dr. Welk. He is dead.



Shaun

The man’s death scene was powerful and understated, and afterward, both Shaun and Asher struggled with guilt. But how much worse was Asher’s guilt because of his affection for the man?

Shaun doesn’t tend to get attached to people, except for Glassman, and is not naturally adept at understanding social rules. So he probably doesn’t realize that the attachment issue needs to be addressed.

But Asher can’t allow himself to get sucked into personal conversations and get so attached to patients. It will ruin him as a doctor because he won’t be objective or separate his feelings about the patient from what the diagnostic data tells him.

I’m glad he didn’t quit medicine, though. His response to losing that patient reminded me of Scrubs Season 1 Episode 7 when a supposed golden boy broke down after a young patient’s death and ended up dropping out of the residency program.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen here. Instead, Shaun sat in silence with Asher, something that is natural for a person with autism to do and which happened to be exactly what Asher needed.

I’m glad Shaun got his obligatory pep talk scene from Glassman, but his mentor was wrong about one thing.

Shaun’s autism absolutely did affect this situation. He took Lim’s advice to back off the residents literally rather than understanding that it was contextual, and that’s why he didn’t double-check Asher’s diagnosis.

Ultimately, it might not have made a difference, but this isn’t the first time Shaun has misunderstood Lim’s instructions, and some guidance from Glassman on how to direct Shaun effectively might not be amiss.

Meanwhile, Claire and Park’s patient brought up an interesting situation.

I don’t want my decision about my marriage to be decided by an operation.
Ellie

Ellie didn’t want to forget the time she spent with her boyfriend after her surgery and end up choosing her husband by default. But was that what happened?

Learning about her affair but not remembering it directly made her re-commit to Brendan. But there was another possibility that nobody discussed: the cyst might have been causing erratic behavior and strange emotions in the first place.

I’m sure her feelings for Zane were real, but it’s well documented that brain tumors and the like can cause personality changes and mood swings.

Ellie’s doctors should have brought in a neurosurgery expert since she needed brain surgery and was worried about losing her memories. And that person should have discussed the possibility that her condition with Ellie and Brendan influenced her behavior and feelings.

Also, what happened to Jordan? As the story progressed, she disappeared. I would have liked to have heard more of her outspoken opinions on the case and this situation.

Either way, this story was far more compelling than the Park/Morgan stupidity.

The Good Doctor’s medical storylines are always fascinating, but most of the time, they suck at putting people together romantically.

Park and Morgan are a great example. Morgan is insufferable in general, and when she gets with Park, it’s even worse.

Park and Morgan have always engaged in the type of banter meant to be funny but irritates me so much I’m tempted to change the channel.

This was no exception, and while Morgan’s teasing Park was annoying, his walking in on her half-naked to bug her about her photos of her exes and whatnot was downright creepy.

No one should walk in on an undressed person uninvited, and certainly not just to tease them about their past. Yuck!

Leaving those awful images aside, The Good Doctor Season 4 Episode 5 packed an emotional punch, though there were no real cliffhangers to keep us talking until the series returns in January 2021.

Besides not knowing how Asher will move forward after this loss, there were zero questions left unanswered.

Claire’s patient fell for her husband again, and Claire had no reaction, Shaun got some support from Glassman, and Morgan and Park moved toward a relationship no one wants on their screens.

So while I’m looking forward to the second half of the season, I’m not on pins and needles for it to come back.

What about you, Good Doctor fanatics?

Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and share your thoughts about the hour and your hopes for the second half of The Good Doctor Season 4.

Don’t want to wait till January for your next The Good Doctor fix? Watch The Good Doctor online here on TV Fanatic and relive your favorite moments.

The Good Doctor continues to air on ABC on Mondays at 10 PM EST/PST. The next new episode airs on January 11, 2021.

Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.