The Good Doctor (4×02) Frontline, Part 2 Review

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

Synopsis: Shaun has a hard time balancing his fears and concerns about potentially jeopardizing Lea’s health and wanting to be with the woman he loves. Claire looks for a way to grieve Melendez’s death. Park and Mia discuss their future together. (IMDb)

It’s hard to imagine the COVID-19 pandemic being over but this is a TV series and it has to move on at some point and belief must be suspended but it’s still hard to overlook. The conclusion of this two part episode saw the team essentially catch up to where we stand as they continued to work through the California emergency lockdown as the toll of being away from the people they love continues to mount. Meanwhile. Browne gets sidelined by a personal mission to move on from Melendez.

Frontline, Part 2 started with Nurse Petringa being admitted to the hospital after contracting COVID. Of course she knew more than she was letting on to help her son Jimmy (James Kot) feel better. All the characters flocking to her was compelling to watch (her impact on Reznick was the strongest). Browne found the necklace she was looking for but that was only the start of it as helping people reconnect with their lost loved ones was a way for her to sort of grieve Melendez’s death (while his spirit continued to watch over her and tried to help her move on). Martin Cross was still struggling as everyone was still on edge. Park was still stuck in the middle between his duties as a doctor (and Ambar) and Kellan (who wanted his father to be there for his high school graduation party and to know that he cared more about him than his job which he clearly did though they eventually figured it out). Glassman needed a 15-year-old online to help him with his relationship with Debbie (it took a while but they got there after he was empowered to share his feelings which is what Debbie was waiting to hear).

As far as the hospital was concerned, the patients were not doing very well therefore a lot of plugs needed to be pulled which made for a very emotional sequence that hit Lim particularly hard (as the doctors held smartphones up so their loved ones could be there via video chat).

Murphy was sidetracked by his concern for Lea (and her sore throat which wasn’t COVID). As a result, things got heated between him and Lily Cross (his delivery still needs work). Needing some guidance, he bothered Glassman. Murphy was feeling cranky but Glassman helped put things in perspective. Murphy just had to be kind and this advice seemed to have helped. Martin was still on a ventilator and faced clotting issues first in his lungs therefore one of his feet needed to be amputated up to the ankle.

Nurse Petringa was getting worse but luckily she wasn’t alone. Unfortunately, she would have to be put on a ventilator which was almost certainly a bad sign. Several weeks later, she would have to be taken off the ventilator. Not long after Nurse Petringa was taken off the ventilator came the fantasy post-COVID (at least for now) sequence where the remaining living patients got to leave to thunderous applause. Andrews got to move out of the garage. Browne was finally able to return a set of dog tags whose owner had been hard to track down. This was seemingly enough to convince her to move on.

Finally, armed with a set of negative COVID-19 tests, Murphy and Lea reunited in their appartment.

It will definitely be interesting to see where the series goes as COVID-19 is seemingly over as far as the series’ world is concerned.

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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.