‘The Good Doctor’ Season 4, Episode 3 ‘Newbies’ Recap: The New Team

The first two episodes of The Good Doctor season 4 hit deep, especially since this pandemic is far from over but with a new episode comes new hope and a bit more cheer.

This week on The Good Doctor “Newbies,” we’re meeting some new faces. Immediately, I thought, “This is going to be fun.” One, newbies (obviously). There’s a lot of fun to be had with newbies. Two, these newbies have spunk! I can already tell they’re going to spice up St. Bonaventure. And three, it just feels so fresh. I don’t know about you but this breath of fresh air on the show is more than welcome to me.

In this episode, Lim (Christina Chang) tasks Shaun (Freddie Highmore), Claire (Antonia Thomas), and Park (Will Yun Lee) to evaluate their top first-year resident contenders and give her their honest opinions. These candidates shadow them through two cases. The first one is Andrews’ (Hill Harper) breast enhancement surgery to a minor. The second one is a heart complication on Morgan’s (Fiona Gubelmann).

Without further ado, let’s get into The Good Doctor Season 4, Episode 3.

The Guppies

Okay, first let’s get to know our new guppies. Under Shaun, Park, and Andrews are opinionated, sassy Jordan Allen (Bria Henderson), quiet and aloof John Lundberg (Michael Liu), and boardwalk shorts Enrique Guerin(Brian Marc). Meanwhile, under Lim and Browne are sexist arrogant Will Hooper (Sam Robert Mulk), wise Asher Wolke (Noah Galvin), and brilliant but insecure Olivia Jackson (Summer Brown).

Now that you have an idea of who they are, let’s get down to the good bits. First case: Andrews.

The case Andrews team is shadowing is a breast enhancement surgery for 17-year-old Monica (Sophia Bucior). Everything is going swimmingly until Jordan pipes up subtly disapproving of a minor going through such kind of surgery. Shaun immediately leaps to the patient’s and Andrews’ defense but it’s settled by Monica herself who tells them that it’s her choice and it’s what she wants.

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As expected, Andrews didn’t like the undermining of his authority going on in the room. But even then, Jordan maintains that there’s nothing to fix with Monica’s breasts. She also not-so-subtly notes that cosmetic surgery is dominated by male surgeons who have a sexist bias. (Oh, the staredown between Andrews and her right there was tense) Andrews didn’t directly respond to that but he did tell her to do less of the lecturing and more of the listening. Andrews also told Shaun to be a better mentor.

Later on, while having lunch, Shaun does try to be better by getting to know his shadows with Lea’s (Paige Spara) help. Instead of bonding with them though, Shaun ends up having too much TMI moments like when he said he liked Lea’s breasts very much. He also admits that he doesn’t like Lea’s voice very much. Awkward.

The Ongoing Claire vs Morgan Battle

Morgan still hasn’t moved on from giving up practicing surgery. So when she finds out that her patient Josh (Samer Salem) has a tumor on his heart that needs surgery, she does everything she could to butt in much to Claire’s disdain. One thing the two can agree on is that Will is barely tolerable.

After debating the best way to get the tumor out, Claire finally told Morgan to butt out. Morgan, however, insists that she has sway over the case since it’s her patient. That’s when Will decided to mansplain which department the authority defaults to. After that, he was promptly told to shut up by both Morgan and Claire. And in the end, they went with Claire’s approach.

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While Lim and Claire were operating, Morgan got to know the recruits by asking the most asked professional question of all time: why are you in the business? Will’s answer was the standard “I want to help people” stuff. Asher’s though was beautiful. He was once part of an orthodox Jewish sect but since he separated himself and went to med school, he stopped believing there was a god. And since then, he believed that it was on us to help each other. As he said, “No benevolent higher power is going to save us so we have to save each other.” Before Olivia could say her piece though, something goes wrong with Josh’s operation. Lim and Browne can’t get the tumor out.

Time to Prove Yourselves

Since there was no way to access the tumor without injuring Josh’s heart, Morgan suggests taking the heart out, cutting off the tumor, and putting it back in. It could work but only if the tumor hasn’t gotten into his major arteries. While checking the MRI, Browne asks for the newbies’ opinions. Olivia starts but Will interrupts her almost immediately. Irked, Morgan promptly gives Will another lecture. Then she turns to Olivia all nice and caring mentor. As it turns out though, Olivia was right.

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Meanwhile, back in Andrews’ corner, Monica suffers from a complication. Though her breast enhancement was successful, she flatlines and recovers but doesn’t regain consciousness. The team checks on everything but it all seems normal. Drawing on his wide travel experience, Enrique suggests doing a nuclear perfusion scan which might be the only thing that could catch what’s wrong.

The Best Way to Get to Know Someone is to Party It Up

The get to know party doesn’t end there because as Park said, you never really get to know someone until you’ve had few drinks with them. And so, after a long day, the senior residents and the newbies get together with some drinks in the resident’s lounge to party it up a bit.

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Shaun tries his best to strike up a conversation with his team. And though he’s still rocky at best, he has improved tremendously and he is asking the questions that matter. He seems particularly interested in Asher asking him if he had a boyfriend (Asher’s gay by the way) and about his religious beliefs. Although Asher was more than accommodating to the questions, John wasn’t. He felt that personal things shouldn’t be brought into work. In the midst of that conversation, Jordan also made it clear that Shaun might’ve upset Lea by their earlier lunch conversation. Checking on Lea later, Shaun finds out that she’s right.

On the other hand, the tension between Morgan and Claire comes to a head when Morgan books an anaesthetician without Claire’s consent. It ends with Morgan telling Claire to suck it and walking out the door.

Love and Professional Advice All In One

If there’s anyone who has a knack for asking for both personal advice and professional advice in The Good Doctor, that’s Shaun. While scanning Monica, he asks his newbie team advice on what he should do with Lea. Strangely enough, it’s Enrique, the guy who looks like he doesn’t take anything seriously who gives the most logical answer. Seriously, this guy is amazing at advice.

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He tells Shaun that he might’ve hit an insecurity with Lea but it’s not his fault. “We all have stuff that we’re insecure about that’s why it’s so risky falling in love,” he said. “We all hope that when we let our guard down, it’s for the one person that doesn’t see our flaws.” His advice? Shaun has to figure out what would make Lea feel secure in the relationship again.

Shaun turns to the other two but Jordan’s single and John just refuses to. Instead, John figures out why Monica’s not waking up. There’s a clot in her brain. It’s difficult to remove but Shaun figures they could do it with a stent retriever. In the end, that does the trick.

Morgan Gets Kicked Out

On the other hand, Lim and Browne’s operation on Josh isn’t going as well. They’ve removed too much tissue to get a good margin but now there’s not enough to reconstruct his heart’s inflow chambers. It’s not helping that Morgan’s trying to tell them what to do from the gallery too. Finally fed up, Lim kicks Morgan out.

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Thinking through their options, Lim realizes they could try to make up for the missing tissue with pig bladder tissue and sends a nurse to get it. Up in the gallery, Asher slips away. He soon returns to the operating room doors with the pig bladder tissue. And because of that, Lim allows him to scrub in and watch right beside the scene of the action. After patching it back up and reconnecting it to Josh’s body, they get his heart beating again.

The Test

At the end of those two days, Lim asks for the team’s assessment of the newbies. There are six of them but only four of them can get in. And since the beginning, Lim has been going on and on about how Will was at the top of all programs so it seems that he’s guaranteed a spot. The other three favorites were Jordan, Asher, and John.

Right off the bat though, Lim tells everyone that John has resigned before he even began. He thought everyone there was unprofessional with all the drinking and personal sharing. That leaves room for only Enrique or Olivia. Claire votes for both. Unable to take it any longer, she lists down every reason Will shouldn’t get in. Shaun and Park could only nod. And in the end, Lim agrees.

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It was all just a test to see how honest they would be. And yes, Lim did say that Will was the worst of them all. He’s just your typical boy with rich parents, a cute face, and a humungous ego. Now that the team has been decided though, new responsibilities await Claire, Shaun, and Park. Now, it’s on them to prevent their underlings from killing anybody. No pressure, right?

On the other hand, Shaun also makes up with Lea. He takes Enrique and Glassman’s advice together and tells Lea why he loves her despite her flaws. More specifically, he tells her, “I don’t like your body because it’s excellent. I like it because it’s yours…When I hear your voice, especially after a difficult day, I find it comforting.” Now, how’s that for sweet?

‘The Good Doctor: Newbies’ Overall Verdict

The Good Doctor’s third episode was a bit jarring especially coming from two emotional pandemic centered episodes but somehow, it’s also ok. Freddie Highmore’s little PSA at the beginning definitely did its job to maintain the integrity of those two episodes while transitioning back into the more fictional aspects of the show.

The best part about this week’s episode on The Good Doctor though was all the new personalities the newbies are bringing. I love how headstrong Jordan is (plus he no BS attitude), how upfront Asher is about who he truly is, how street-smart and life-smart Enrique is, and how quietly brilliant Olivia is. They’re all very interesting characters and they bring a whole lot of interesting flavors to the table. It excites me to see how they’ll grow in the show and how Shaun, Claire, and Park will fit into that mentor glove.

It also makes me realize how much older and mature our favorite characters are getting. Maybe we’ll see them as chief of departments soon? Just a thought.

The Good Doctor continues next Monday, November 23rd, with “Not The Same” at 10/9c on ABC.