'The Good Doctor' Season 1, Episode 9 'Intangibles' Recap: Flirting Lessons and Saving a Heart [SPOILERS]

It’s another hit on our heartstrings as “The Good Doctor” goes beyond the normal amount of emotional, medical drama in tonight’s episode. Titled “Intangibles,” members of Dr. Neil Melendez’s (Nicholas Gonzalez) surgical team are given the task of repairing the failing heart of young boy from the Congo. We’ve also got a critical case for Dr. Claire Brown (Antonia Thomas) as she struggles to find the missing specimen of a patient who needs to know if she has cancer or not. Failure to locate the sample means the patient could lose her voice if she undergoes surgery. She is a podcaster, and losing her voice means not being able to work. Meanwhile, we also see Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) try his best to learn about the logic and art of flirting. His neighbor Lea (Paige Spara) is, after all, giving him a few signals when she calls Shaun an asshat while punching his shoulder lightly.

Favoring intangibles over practicalities while Shaun learns how to flirt

The episode starts with a press con by Allegra Aoki (Tamlyn Tomita), Vice President of the St. Bonaventure Foundation, as she announces the latest recipient of their humanitarian program which focuses on helping and the treatment children with serious medical issues. Aoki announced that they had selected young boy named Gabriel (Jojo Salkey-Randon) from the Congo. The reveal momentarily surprises Melendez, as well as their head cardiologist, Dr. Avi Mehta (guest star Pej Vahdat).
Melendez didn’t expect Gabriel to be in the running since he wasn’t part of the patients that he screened for the treatment. However, Dr. Mehta signed off on him because he didn’t base his decision on what was within Melendez’ capabilities. Later, they go and meet Gabriel. Melendez takes Aoki aside and tells her his obvious observation: she selected the child because of his cuteness and possible PR effect. Melendez has none of it, but Aoki asks him to at least do his work-up on the boy.
Once Gabriel settled in his room, Melendez, Mehta and his surgeons come to check in on him. Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu) brings him a toy as a gift. He’s smitten by the cuteness of the kid too. As they check on his vitals and his heart, Melendez discovers the irregular heartbeat—to which Mehta sees as proof that they should help him. Melendez and Mehta have a minor spat outside Gabriel’s room. Melendez still doesn’t want to help because he doesn’t know how he can come in to fix his heart. Mehta is confident and wants to do a heart echo so they would know what to do.

Meanwhile, Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) discusses to Shaun about why he didn’t hire the helper he sent him based on the mismatch of an outfit. Shaun says it’s essential and that he is happy with how he is living now. Later, as Shaun and Claire bring in the heart echo machine in Gabriel’s room, he tells her about what Lea did. Claire tells him that she is obviously flirting with him, and shows him the “Flirting Trifecta”—the pretentious giggle, the squirm, and the hair sweep.
That night, Mehta, Melendez, and Shaun assess the results of Gabriel’s echo scan and finds that it’s worse than they thought. Apparently, Gabriel has many heart anomalies that not even a doctor as brilliant as Melendez and Mehta can fix easily. An operation could prove fatal, and so the only solution is to give him meds. Melendez goes to Georgieta Bangura (Maggie Benedict), Gabriel’s mother, who’s tapping on a tribal artifact that follows the sound of the heart. He tries to tell her that they couldn’t do an operation, but Georgieta is hopeful.
Meanwhile, Shaun tells Glassman that he is not stupid. This is how Shaun thinks Glassman sees him, which he denies. He then goes on to tell Glassman about what he learned about flirting.

The power of hope

The next day, Jared goes to Gabriel’s room to put his toys away as they prepare to discharge him. But he sees Georgieta flushing the toilet repeatedly and marvels at how much water there is. She compliments him about how good Jared is with kids, but they are cut short when Gabriel’s vitals fail. Once he stabilized, Mehta and Shaun assess how his vitals dropped, because nothing serious showed up from his heart scans. Mehta instructs Jared to up the dosage of meds that they’ve been giving Gabriel. Shaun, on the other hand, gets a bright idea while he watches Gabriel play with his Mr, Potato Head toy. He grabs the toy and goes to Melendez and Aoki to tell him about his plan.
According to Shaun, a septal myectomy will help in fixing Gabriel’s heart. Some of the valves are misplaced, and this procedure can help set it right. Melendez tells Aoki that he can’t do the operation. Shaun believes that the process can work, but Melendez shuts him down. He’s afraid that it might kill Gabriel if it fails.

Later, Mehta tells Melendez that the meds aren’t working. He goes to Georgieta and discovers that she hasn’t been giving the meds for Gabriel to take. She wants to stay in the hospital because she believes that Melendez can fix his heart. That night, Melendez and Shaun perform a VR operation on a heart model to see how they can set Gabriel’s heart. After a few errors, they finally get a method right. They’re now confident that they can help Gabriel.
They prep Gabriel for surgery and proceed with the operation. Melendez performs it the way he practiced it with Shaun. However, he couldn’t get past the incision because Gabriel’s heart was stiffer than they thought. Melendez then decides to change their plan and doing the incision to a smaller size. As the operation progressed, Melendez sees that he made a mistake, the incision was too broad, and it won’t be able to close. Gabriel might die any moment from there once they remove him from the bypass. But Jared sees a way out; a re-attachment point is hidden in the tissue, which can still help in closing up Gabriel’s heart. The operation finishes and they all wait for Gabriel’s heart to beat after taking him off of the bypass. A few minutes pass, and still no heartbeat. But just when things were about to make a turn for the worst, Gabriel’s heart finally beats normally.
Melendez informs Georgieta, who tears up upon finding out that Gabriel’s heart is now fixed.

Claire and the missing specimen

Claire’s patient is Elizabeth, a podcaster who just found a nodule in her throat. It’s only a matter of time before they find out if it’s cancerous or not, as her specimen is now being tested. However, Both Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) and his wife Dr. Isabel Barnes-Andrews (guest star Marsha Thomason) believe it to be a benign tumor, which can be removed and won’t cost her a surgery and her voice.
That night, as Dr. Andrews and his wife enjoy their dinner, he gets a call from the lab informing him that Elizabeth’s specimen is missing. Back at the hospital, Claire double checks the samples but couldn’t find it. Carly (Jasika Nicole), a pathologist, tells her that she’s already had it cataloged.
The next day, Dr. Andrews, Claire and the hospital’s Legal Adviser Jessica Preston (Beau Garrett) head over to Elizabeth to inform her of the situation. Jessica tells Claire to appear sorry but not say it outright so there would be no potential lawsuit if ever it arises. They Elizabeth about it, and she tells them to find it fast. Andrews also says to her that they can recover it within 24 hours, putting the pressure on Claire.
Later that day, Claire and Carly team-up to track down Elizabeth’s specimen. They interrogate a courier and ask him about the details of his transfer schedule. After much prodding, they find out that he made a stop at the cafeteria to impress the cafeteria lady. They both go to the canteen and asks the girl if she saw a misplaced specimen bottle. They rummage through the lost and found box, but only manage to find useless things and a missing denture cup.
Elizabeth is then called to the nurse’s station as Claire informs her that they haven’t found it yet. Melendez happens to them talking and overhears Claire saying sorry to Elizabeth as she panics. He tells Claire that he won’t say a word to Jessica about Claire’s apology, and she blushes.
That night, Dr. Andrews is again having dinner with Isabel. They talk about the missing specimen, and Andrews blames the nurses and people who should’ve done their jobs correctly. Isabel tells him that she wants him to feel horrible about the loss of the specimen because he’s always been a doctor who took the extra mile for his patients. It all changed when he had his eyes on the hospital presidency. He insists that it’s not his fault, and Isabel walks out.
Meanwhile, as Claire tries to deduce where the specimen might have been, Shaun comes to her and tells her that he made a chart as he observed the people around him who were flirting. He tells her that she’s also on the chart because Shaun saw her do the trifecta when Melendez saw her apologize to Elizabeth. Despite denying, it lingers with Claire. Later in the lab, Claire is losing all hope of finding the specimen. Dr. Andrews suddenly comes in and offers to help them look for it. As they rummage through the lab, Jessica comes in and asks Claire if she said sorry to Elizabeth. Claire doesn’t deny it, and Jessica hopes that they don’t see the price tag on Claire’s actions. She also tells them that the 24 hours is up.

Isabel then informs Elizabeth that they haven’t located the specimen, rendering her with no choice but to undergo a surgery that will cost in Elizabeth losing her voice. Later, Claire sees her record herself while reading a children’s book, crying. They prep her up for surgery; and just as Dr. Andrews was about to do the procedure, Claire remembers something about missing denture cup. She asks for more time and runs to Carly in the lab. She tells Carly that dentures always end up in the wrong container, which is why they’re so hard to get back to the owner. Claire things that the specimen is in the lab, but in a different container. Carly helps her look for it.

The not-so-good fallout

After all the hoo-ha with the specimen, Elizabeth wakes up. Claire tells her that they’ve found her sample and Isabel also reveals that the nodule isn’t cancerous. Meanwhile, Jared and Dr. Melendez are in Gabriel’s room watching TV with the kid. Aoki passes by and sees them. She smiles. As for Shaun, he’s now in Glassman’s office to tell him that he doesn’t need and want a helper. He asks if he has given up on Shaun despite his social interaction accomplishments, to which Glassman says no. Again, Shaun insists that he doesn’t want a stranger helping him.
Dr. Melendez is now on his way home, and Claire also chances upon him. She almost does the trifecta again, but she catches herself. Jessica meets Melendez and tells Claire that they’ve been served. Elizabeth wanted to make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
The episode ends with Shaun back home with Lea. He tells her that she looks absurd in her sweater. She then asks Shaun if he wants an apple, and they both go inside her apartment.

‘The Good Doctor: Intangibles’ Overall Verdict

It’s good to see Shaun level up on his flirting game. It’s clear that he likes Lea from the get-go, and it’s also fun to see significant development on how he makes his move. “The Good Doctor” delivers yet again a fun and emotional episode that packs dilemmas into one amazing narrative. “Intangibles” is probably one of my favorite episodes of the show yet, as it brings out the best in Shaun and shows more of Dr. Melendez’ character. One question that I had at the end of the episode, though, is how Claire deals with her hidden admiration for Dr. Melendez. Is this going to be a hindrance to her unofficial relationship with Jared?
“The Good Doctor” continues next Monday with “Sacrifice,” 10/9c on ABC.