The Good Doctor Season 1 Episode 16: Pain Review

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: When the team treats a patient who has to decide about getting a dangerous surgery that could change his life, the man asks Dr. Murphy what he would do if he had to make that same decision. (TV Guide)

Writers: William L. Rotko and David Renaud

Director: Allison Liddi-Brown

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 41mins

Two more patients both experiencing pain (who would have thought?) in life or death situations ending with different results. We also met Claire’s mother and we know the predictable truth about Kenny.

First, one of Melendez’s first patients, a male in a wheelchair who was paralyzed from the chest down started feeling pain. The cause of this was a tumor on his spinal cord on a part of the cord that was different from his injury that got him in the wheelchair. If they were able to remove the tumor, he could potentially walk again.

Murphy and the patient became close as they bonded over their so called disabilities. After further inspection of the tumor, they discovered that it was wrapped tightly around the patient’s spinal cord and near the brain stem. Because of its location, removing the tumor would be dangerous so they offered another solution that would remove the pain but would keep him in a wheelchair. Despite the danger, the patient wanted the tumor removed which upset his wife, however, Melendez convinced her to come back.

While they were conferring, Murphy shared a story about how he, Kenny, and his girlfriend went to the carnival and spent hundreds of dollars on them. It sounded like he was being used and Park’s background check on Kenny confirmed it. Kenny had a criminal history full of misdemeanors including theft. Ironically, the patient wasn’t sure about the surgery, however, his wife convinced him to go along with it. The surgery was risky but it was a success

Second, a female patient of Andrews suffered from an infection around one of her implants. In order to fix her, the infection around the respective implant would have to be cleaned. Meanwhile, Reznick played mind games with Kalu while working on the case by giving him credit for everything she did. They took care of the infection yet when a bad reaction was found, Andrews determined that they had to remove all her implants which would cause scarring. The patient was against having her implants removed. A less invasive solution was antibiotics, however, there was a chance she could die. Despite this, she chose antibiotics.

The antibiotics weren’t working and the patient could die. She just couldn’t go back to the way it used to be for her. She wanted a second opinion. Reznick convinced her husband to convince his wife to go for surgery thus equating her cosmetic surgeries to their alleged marital problems. They seemed to settle whatever problems they had and he convinced her to have surgery. Unfortunately, they lost her.

The episode also introduced us to Claire’s mother (Sharon Leal) who she did not have the greatest relationship with. She wanted back into Claire’s life but Claire didn’t want anything to do with her. After the stress of her case, she eventually agreed to meet her mother for coffee. Her mother shared that she found a place closer to Claire, however, she needed financial help (which was probably the only reason why she showed up).

After losing a patient, Andrews did not want his relationship with his wife to become like they were. He and his wife wanted to start a family so Andrews found a potential surgery that could help him but it also had a risk to make him infertile. Andrews was unsure what to do, however, his wife fully supported him.

Finally, when Murphy returned home, Kenny was already inside with Chinese food but Murphy didn’t like Chinese food. Knowing what he knew, they still played some Mortal Kombat together.

Overall, this was another decent episode which was just more of the same story wise but was still compelling to watch. The addition of Claire’s mother was an interesting one and who knows how long she’s going to stay around as Claire needs something after Coyle and Kalu. It was obvious that Kenny was using Murphy, however, what will he do about him now that he knows the truth? Those are a few questions that still have to be answered and there is now 2 episodes left to find out.

Score: 7.5/10

If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, and also like me on Facebook.

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.