'The Good Doctor' Season 1, Episode 3 'Oliver' Recap: Of Liver Transplants and Pride [SPOILERS]

So far, so good. Tonight’s third episode of ABC’s “The Good Doctor” gives us another look into how Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) operates and how hard it is for Dr. Claire Brown (Antonia Thomas) to understand him. It’s an episode that features the important need for teamwork, especially in surgical/medical procedures. Emotions are also tested as Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) and Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu) discover that their patient Chuck hasn’t been completely honest with them when it comes to his pre-operation procedure, which ultimately costs the patient his spot for a liver transplant. Meanwhile, Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) has a hard time trying to choke his ego down as he is tasked to handle a VIP patient and doesn’t want Dr. Melendez’s help during the surgery.

It’s a fine day for Shaun and Claire

“The Good Doctor: Oliver” starts with a man getting on his motorcycle as he checks out some pretty girls walking by. As soon as he revs his engine up and leaves, his distraction towards the girls costs him his life as an oncoming vehicle hits him.
Meanwhile that night, Shaun sits in his apartment trying to take in all the sounds he’s hearing. A knock on the door snaps him out of his trance-like concentration. He answers it and its revealed to be his female neighbor who lives in Door 34. She asks if she could borrow some batteries, to which Shaun provides. There’s a bit of a connection between the two, but knowing how Shaun is downright passive, he closes the door.
At the Bonaventure Hospital the following day, Claire answers a telephone call. It turns out that there is an opportunity for them to get a functioning liver to be used for transplant. She reports it to Neil and Jared, and Neil immediately assigns Claire and Shaun to pick it up while they prep Chuck, the liver transplant patient. Both surgeons make their way to the roof, as a helicopter waits for them. Shaun is obviously agitated by the sounds, but he likes them anyway because he also happens to like helicopters despite never having been on one. While inside the helicopter Claire tells Shaun about what they’re doing right now is basically “scut work,” and that she’s bummed that Jared gets to perform the surgery too. Shaun isn’t listening, however, because he’s trying to make sense of the helicopter’s structure.
As soon as they both arrive at the hospital that has the liver, they find out that the liver has actually been out of the body for three hours now, setting them back on the specimen’s shelf life. They now have a total of 4 hours and 45 minutes left for the liver’s viability. Shaun examines the liver. This leads to Claire asking him more questions about what he’s going to do. Shaun subtly shuts her down by saying that there’s nothing wrong with the liver. But knowing Shaun, there’s obviously something wrong. While waiting, Claire calls Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) and complains to him how hard it is to communicate with Shaun. Aaron tells her to find her own way to connect because, for someone like Shaun, it’s going to be pretty hard.

As they go back to the helicopter pilot, Shaun says that they’re not leaving. Claire is puzzled, but before she could say anything, the pilot tells them that they might be pushed back for a couple of hours because of the weather. Claire and Shaun go back in the hospital and asks for a police escort back to Bonaventure Hospital.
With a little less than 4 hours remaining, Shaun and Claire wait for their police escort to arrive. As soon as Claire finishes up a call, she asks Shaun how he knew about the weather. Shaun refuses to answer and promptly tells her that he watches The Weather Channel.
Meanwhile, Jared finds out that Chuck, the liver transplant patient, has alcohol in his system. As he runs the test again, it turns out that he did have alcohol prior to his operation. Jared goes in to confront Chuck, and he admits that he had a glass of champagne three days ago while celebrating his daughter’s graduation. Jared goes to Neil and asks him what they should do. Neil solves an equation that might defend Chuck’s situation and figures out a way to have the board agree to still let Chuck have the liver.
Back in the other hospital, the police escort arrives for Shaun and Claire. As they were about to get in, Shaun experiences a flashback where he was in a police car back when his brother just died. The younger Shaun suffers an emotional breakdown and cries. He snaps back to reality as Claire calls his name. Finally, he goes inside. He asks Claire about the liver donor’s name and says that it’s Oliver. Little do they know that this liver actually belongs to the guy who had an accident in the beginning of the episode.
At Bonaventure, Jared goes back to check in on Chuck. And as they both talk about the possibility of losing the liver transplant, Chuck goes into code blue. Jared and Neil discover blood in his esophagus. This means that his condition has worsened and that he only had three months to live. As soon as Chuck recovers, Jared delivers him the news. Chuck’s daughter takes the blame for herself because she was the one who gave the champagne to his dad. This automatically disqualifies Chuck for the liver transplant—unless Neil finds a way to convince the board that he could still get the liver.

As Claire and Shaun are in transit, the liver’s temperature escalates. They ask the police to stop by a place with ice. In a convenience store, Claire tries to use frozen vegetables to lower the temperature, but it doesn’t work. Shaun says that the slushies will do the job, to which Claire agrees to do. This is when Claire finds out that Shaun doesn’t like being asked questions, and that she needs to make her questions into statements so Shaun could answer her.
Neil is now on his way to a board meeting. He tries to convince them that Chuck still deserves to have the liver, but the board disagrees, saying that by doing so, the hospital might be removed from the receiving list of organ transplants.
Time is running out for Claire and Shaun. While on their way back, Shaun feels the liver again and knows that there is a clot inside it. The charts and scans doesn;t show it, but Shaun knows its there. And so Both Claire and Shaun perform a successful operation in the police car to remove the clot. As soon as it’s done, they race back to Bonaventure. When they arrive, Claire gets a call that Chuck has been moved to the bottom of the list and the liver will now be used by a patient from another hospital. An ambulance arrives and takes the liver. Claire is disappointed, but Shaun isn’t saying that they still managed to save a life, only it isn’t Chuck.

Dr. Andrews and his pride

Meanwhile, Marcus is given the task to handle a VIP patient’s surgery. Board Member Allegra Aoki (Tamlyn Tomita) tells him to make everything work out well because this patient can help add funds to the hospital’s foundation. Because of this, Aoki tells Marcus to Make Neil his second. Marcus is offended because he thinks that Aoki cannot do a proper procedure. She insists, saying that everything needs to be perfectly in order.
Neil comes to Marcus’ office and offers his help for the VIP patient’s operation. Marcus shuts him down and says that he could do the job even without a second because he is the chief of surgery. Marcus insists on helping for the hospital’s funding. But still, Marcus won’t budge.
During lunchtime, Marcus asks Dr. Glassman for advice, and he tells him that he has to choose between being a chief who wants to be the top surgeon or a chief who wants to be president. Glassman also tells him that he has to swallow his pride if he wants to be the latter.
During the surgery, a complication happens which is beyond Marcus’ abilities, and so he finally asks for Neil’s help. The surgery comes out as a success.

Of pancakes and medical books

Back home, Shaun arrives and remembers that he needs to get his batteries from his Room 34 neighbor. He knocks and asks for it back. He also asks her name, which turns out to be Leah. Back in his apartment, he leaves a can of cat food for the neighborhood cat.
The next day, a flashback of a younger Shaun and Dr. Galssman is shown. They’re in a diner. Shaun refuses to eat his food but his interest is piqued when Glassman places a medical book in front of Shaun. We cut back to the present day, where both Glassman and Shaun are eating breakfast at the Bonaventure Hospital.

‘The Good Doctor: Oliver’ Overall Verdict

Tonight’s episode of “The Good Doctor” offered up a slower-paced narrative that focused on how Shaun likes to interact with people. It’s the first time we see him outside of the hospital, and this shakes him up a bit. As for the resident surgeons at Bonaventure, it’s a great way of showing how they all have to deal with each other despite not getting along often. It’s the perfect balance of a normal hospital drama and basic human emotions all grouped into a light-hearted episode.
“The Good Doctor” continues next week with “Pipes,” Monday at 10 PM on ABC.