The Good Doctor (4×17) Letting Go Review

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

Synopsis: Dr. Claire Browne and the team must face hard truths about what lines they are willing to cross when one of Claire’s idols becomes her patient. (IMDb)

After the events of the last episode, there would have to be some letting go so to the credit of this latest heavy episode of The Good Doctor, there was some letting go. Instead of focusing on the clear pain of Murphy and Lea, that heavy subplot got diluted somewhat while trying to force them to face their pain in a heavy handed way though Murphy is a character that sometimes needs help to reinforce that emotion. However, he has since seen his fair share of strides and is nowhere near the kind of character he used to be. The latter didn’t really get a fair shake. Meanwhile, Browne had to do some letting go of her own, learning to look past her nature as it has consistently clouded her judgement regarding patients. Luckily, she had a fun dynamic with Reznick who has never been shy to call anyone out whenever needed.

Letting Go began with Murphy and Lea who have both taken time off following Lea’s miscarriage. They needed to move on and Murphy thought he was ready and wanted to go back to work while Lea stayed home (Lea was ignoring calls from her mother all episode because she did not tell her about her miscarriage). Murphy’s coworkers were surprised to see him. Meanwhile, A man named Artie Hill (Derek McGrath) arrived at the hospital who claimed to be suffering from heart palpitations. The doctor who performed his bypass, Dr. Paul Nakano (Hiro Kanagawa), wasn’t too far behind. He was Andrews’ chief of surgery when he was a resident. Murphy just happened to be passing by when Hill complained about cold feet. With that knowledge alone, he interrupted a conference between Andrews, Nakano, and Park, questioning whether Nakano made a mistake with his bypass believing that their proposed solution for Hill would kill him based on it. Of course it did not go well and going around their back to Hill just made it worse. Murphy couldn’t take the hint that he should go home. He was prepared to be found right until he wasn’t which shook him since he was never wrong.

If anything, the relationship between Andrews and Nakano brought on some great insight into the former as their past essentially mirrored what was happening today. Meanwhile, Murphy and Lea seemed to be making breakthroughs but Murphy’s case was still in his mind though he figured out what was really going on and that he was the one who made the mistake. That find allowed Murphy to join the surgery. Catching himself making a minor mistake during the surgery, Nakano decided to quit surgery before he made a bigger one.

Browne and Reznick were tending to Senator Marian Clark (Cynthia Stevenson) for whom Browne was a fan (she was the reason Browne became a doctor but it was all based on a lie) and Reznick not so much though it was plainly there to see. Suffering from a twitchy face, Clark was primarily concerned with her perception and was concerned if her issues were found out publicly (even from her husband). Complications made it increasingly difficulty to keep Clark’s condition from the public. After confronting Clark following the surgery, Browne was once again faced with the realization that that was the way things were.

At the end of the day, Andrews decided to spend time with Nakano to help shoulder his loss over what they both loved as Murphy went to Lea to help shoulder their collective loss. At that point, nothing else mattered but each other in what was a powerful moment between Freddie Highmore and Paige Spara.

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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.