‘The Good Doctor’ Season 3, Episode 6 ’45-Degree Angle’ Review: Apology

After the last episode‘s first lead surgery disaster, you’d think Shaun (Freddie Highmore) will get some kind of break. But, nope. This week on The Good Doctor, Shaun’s getting his second lead surgery of the season. The kicker is he doesn’t even get to finish it unscathed, again. This time though, Shaun deals with issues of humility and responsibility. He’s urged on by Lim (Christina Chang) who serves him up a scathing lesson on apologies. Sadly, that and Shaun’s other relationship troubles with Carly (Jasika Nicole) doesn’t pass this episode over its dragging mediocrity. It’s arguably the weakest episode of the season.

On the bright side though, Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) reveals a side to him never seen before in The Good Doctor. He tackles a case that is seemingly close to his heart. And it results in a huge emotional blow for him. It’s definitely strange seeing Melendez take on this mantle. But, somehow, it works. In addition to him, Claire (Antonia Thomas) is also turning a new leaf. But, it’s the kind of change that makes you want to scream “Stop!” Here’s everything that went down in tonight’s episode of The Good Doctor. 

When Rehearsals Go Right And Relationships Go Wrong

After botching his first lead surgery, Lim gives Shaun another chance. And once again, Andrews (Hill Harper) accuses her of coddling Shaun. But, Lim stands firm and insists that she’s making the right decision. By this point though, it has become a little bit too obvious. When the Chief of Surgery gives you your own team and pulls out these people from their usual stations just so you could rehearse your operation, it’s definitely coddling.

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Shaun makes good use of Lim’s generosity though and perfects his appendectomy rehearsal. He even gets Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) to pretend to be Claire who’s running late. Somewhere along the way though, his relationship comes up in the operating room chatter. He reveals that Carly didn’t invite him to a get together with her friends. And after a brief discussion, Shaun leaves the room heavily doubting his relationship with Carly.

When Claire finally arrives, Morgan passes on the duties of patching up the couple to her. Claire immediately talks to Carly about Shaun. But, it obviously doesn’t settle well with Carly. Meanwhile, Shaun seeks advice from Glassman (Richard Schiff). To his credit, Glassman sensibly tells him to set a solid boundary between work and personal life. Later on, after symbolically taking his white coat off, Shaun attempts to talk to Carly when he meets Morgan and Claire. While Morgan tries to get to the root of the issue which is Shaun’s weakness in communication, Claire blatantly lies to his face to settle him down.

Small Things, Big Consequences

Now focused and calm, Shaun leads his appendectomy surgery spectacularly. With how well it’s going, Andrews admits that he might owe Lim an apology. However, just as they’re closing up the patient, everything goes sideways.

Nurse Hawkes, one of the assisting nurses, hands Shaun the straight clamps. But, according to him, she’s handing it to him the wrong way. He calmly tries to tell her to hand it to him the right way but, since she doesn’t understand what ‘right’ way he’s referring to, Shaun loses his patience. And he kicks her out of the OR.

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Later on, Shaun explains to Lim that he wanted the clamps to be handed to him at a 45-degree angle since its the most efficient way to do it. But, it becomes apparent that Shaun also had a fault with miscommunication. So, Lim orders him to apologize to nurse Hawkes. He obediently follows orders and seeks out the nurse. But, when he finds her, he explains the ‘right’ way of handing him the clamps instead of apologizing.

Quickly enough, the situation blows up and nurse Hawkes files a complaint. This time, Lim doesn’t take it lightly with Shaun. Ignoring his protests, Lim tells him “You screwed up” and forces him to acknowledge his mistake.

Burying the Real Issues

On the other hand, after talking with Carly, Morgan confronts Claire about her recent bullshit. Instead of helping Shaun, Claire made matters worse between the couple. As Morgan sharply points out, Claire burried the real problem much like what she has been doing to generally everything right now. And suddenly, these two have switched places in The Good Doctor. 

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Despite Claire’s failed intervention though, Shaun manages to confront Carly himself after work. As it turns out, Carly didn’t invite Shaun because she assumed that Shaun wouldn’t feel comfortable around her snarky friends. But, as Shaun makes her realize, she shouldn’t have just jumped to conclusions on her own. It would have been nice if she still asked. With all things forgiven, the two patch up again.

Now that we’re talking about romantic relationships, we couldn’t forget about good old Glassy and his Debbie. Earlier in the episode, Debbie gets fired because she gives out too much free coffee to anyone who looks sad. So, she suggests working as Glassman’s clinic assistant. However, Glassman’s against the idea because he thinks having space between them is healthy. And working together would compromise their relationship. This is where Glassman’s ‘separate work and personal life’ advice to Shaun came from. Nevertheless, Debbie is determined and persistent. And with her mind set to it, she convinces Glassman to revoke his decision in the end.

A Loss That Runs Deep

Elsewhere in the episode, Melendez tackles the case of Patty Fields, a businesswoman who’s pregnant and has a cancerous mass right beside her baby. The procedure she needed seems simple enough because all they’ll have to do is to remove the mass with no risk to the baby. However, on the operating table, they discover that the mass has surrounded the uterine arteries. Removing it then would kill the baby. So, Morgan, Park, and Melendez come up with the next best thing.

Instead of cutting out the mass now, they’d perform embolization of the arteries to control the bleeding and allow them to close up Patty. Then, they’d wait for two more months for the baby to become viable outside the womb. Only then could they come back in and remove the mass safely. Morgan rushes to inform Lim of the change of procedure. But, Melendez insists there is no need for it when its the only option they have. Unfortunately, this doesn’t sit well with Lim.

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Later on, Patty’s condition tanks. Her body rejects the arterial embolization and now they’re left with two options. It’s either they deliver the baby early and risk losing her even with NICU support or they try to go around the baby while using an argon beam coagulator to control the bleeding. The latter’s the riskier of the two but, Melendez is confident he can do it. This time around, he runs these by Lim first before he makes his case to the family. In the end, despite her husband’s objections, Patty chooses to go with the riskier option.

Unfortunately, in the midst of the operation, Patty starts hemorrhaging. Melendez does everything to revive her but, to no avail. Seeing that there’s still a sign of life from the baby though, Melendez ultimately decides to take the baby out. For the first time, after the operation, Melendez hesitates to deliver the news to Patty’s husband. If you can remember, Melendez split with his fiance back in The Good Doctor‘s first season because she didn’t want kids. This might be part of the reason why this defeat hit him particularly hard and made him cry over a patient for the first time. Sadly, Melendez’s tears might be the only interesting thing in this episode. It’s not entirely terrible but, it’s a considerable dip from weeks of solid episodes. Hopefully, The Good Doctor gets back on track soon.

The Good Doctor continues Monday, November 11th, with “SFAD” at 10/9c on ABC.