The Good Doctor (3×04) Take My Hand Review

For our review of the last episode of The Good Doctor, click here.

Synopsis: A conspiracy theorist questions Dr. Neil Melendez; Dr. Claire Browne treats a woman whose inability to feel pain is threatening both her marriage and her life; Dr. Shaun Murphy and Dr. Aaron Glassman each face crises in their romantic relationships. (TV Guide)

Who would have guessed than Antonia Thomas could sing? This may be a mild spoiler but Take My Hand definitely took the developments we saw with Browne from the last episode and ran with them as the death of her mother appears to have changed her as a character.

The episode started with with Murphy and Carly kissing. something he clearly wasn’t used to as he intentionally or unintentionally deflected Carly’s attempts to hold hands. Meanwhile, the doctors were graced with a new celebrity patient (with celebrity being used loosely), a controversial conspiracy theorist named Mitchell Stewart (Joshua Malina). He was an incredibly paranoid man in need of liver surgery. Stewart believed he was being poisoned (all the conspiracy stuff kind of went over Murphy’s head though he was fascinated with his beliefs which brought up some interesting conversations where Murphy arguably took his words the wrong way).

Stewart’s condition was genetic but it was hard not to rule out his poisoning theory considering the man certainly had plenty of enemies. In the end, Stewart’s surgery was a success but his liver was still deteriorating. He was still convinced he was getting poisoned. In fact, he was taking what he thought were natural herbs to make him more virile but he was taking the main ingredient of viagra which aggravated his genetic liver condition.

Browne and Reznick dealt with a woman brought into the hospital by her worried husband. Her appendix ruptured so there was definitely something going on. Unfortunately for Browne, she was distracted for reasons that we know but the others did not. After testing the woman’s brain, Browne and Reznick were certain that she could not feel pain (while Browne was perhaps projecting her feelings onto their patient and her husband). This revelation caused some uneasiness between the woman and her husband which only got worse as the episode went on (as he started to question their marriage).

The woman had to lose her infected hand and was offered medication that would allow her to feel pain but she didn’t see the need for it. Needing some time to himself, the husband left and then came back later (and got a lashing from Browne). Sensing something was wrong, Reznick confronted Browne who told her about her mother’s death. She convinced Browne to help her spread her mother’s ashes (which she had in her car) at a sea lion exhibit. Meanwhile, the woman finally felt something (she thought she was on medication when she wasn’t).

The third subplot of the episode was Glassman’s love life (and to a lesser extent Murphy’s). Murphy and Carly are still getting to know each other while he considered Glassman’s relationship to be more solid. Doubt crept in for Glassman as he backed out of getting married to Debbie at the courthouse (he was worried that he didn’t know anything about her). She was obviously confused but it was clear that unlike Debbie, Glassman was uneasy about change. Talking with Murphy (and attempting to ask him for advice), helped Glassman realize what was going on and giving him the courage to try again with Debbie. Meanwhile, Carly and Murphy were still not holding hands (she said it was okay but she was really just giving up on the notion which wasn’t good for both of them).

While Glassman and Debbie (along with Murphy and Carly) made a second trip to the courthouse, Browne was about to spread her mother’s ashes. Because her mother was a musician, Reznick convinced her to sing. She sang over the final few moments of the episode, ending with her picking up a man at a bar and them making out in an alley (Browne slipping).

In the end, the Browne subplot, while strong, was one of too many elements in this episode whose parts outweighed their sum. Slow down The Good Doctor, it’s still early.

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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.