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After seven seasons of watching Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) come into his own not only as a doctor, but as a friend, husband, and now father, it’s finally time to say goodbye to The Good Doctor. These are our top predictions for The Good Doctor‘s series finale.
The final season has brought more of everything we love about the show – more karaoke, more angry Preznick makeout scenes, more brilliant surgical interventions. But it’s also brought plenty of heartbreak, including the gut-wrenching – and seemingly out of thin air – loss of Dr. Asher Wolke (Noah Galvin) to an antisemitic hate crime while on his way to get engaged.
In a series that has been about big emotions and experiencing life transitions with one’s chosens family, it should come as no surprise that The Good Doctor has teased a few more gut-wrenching moves for the series finale. Here’s how we think things could land before The Good Doctor ending.
The Good Doctor team will fight for two important patients
As a series with no shortage of tear-jerking moments like the death of Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez), The Good Doctor has to end on an emotional note. And as confirmed by showrunners David Shore and Liz Friedman (via Insider), this means watching the medical team at St. Bonaventure fight for two people who are near and dear to them.
All of this was set up in the Season 7, Episode 9 (“Unconditional”) cliffhanger, which left two of the show’s current or former main characters fighting for their lives. After years of dealing with brain cancer and other health issues, Shaun’s chosen father Dr. Aaron Glassman reveals that his cancer is back – and this time, it’s terminal. And after having just learned that she has stage 1 breast cancer, Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) suddenly collapses mid-makeout sesh while rekindling her old situationship Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu). Following the two-team format of most episodes, The Good Doctor ending will see all hands on deck fighting for both of their lives – and there’s a pretty good chance one of them won’t make it.
Claire will move back to St. Bonaventure
With Glassman and Claire’s lives both at stake, it’s hard to believe The Good Doctor writers would kill both of them in the final episode – especially after Asher’s brutal death. After years of health scares and near-exits, Glassman’s death seems imminent, which means there’s a good chance Claire will survive the episode. And when she does, there’s an equally good chance she’ll decide she’s ready to move back home.
Claire has always been beloved by the St. Bonaventure’s crew, and she knows she’s always got a home there. She and Jared also seem ready to explore their reconnection in “Unconditional.” After narrowly surviving a serious health crisis, she might be ready to prioritize her emotional life, which could mean moving back to San Jose. And given all that she’s learned while working as Chief of Surgery in Guatemala, Claire could even return to take on that role at St. Bonaventure.
It’s curtains for Aaron Glassman
With everything that’s happened to him through the years, Dr. Aaron Glassman seems to have more lives than a cat. But after everything he has been through, even Glassman seems resigned to accept that his fight with cancer is coming to an end. Although the series finale could see him die quickly, it would make more sense narratively (and emotionally) to let the glioma run its natural course, which is typically around a year or less.
After Glassman’s promise to Hannah (Ruby Kelley) that he will be there for her when she finishes treatment for substance abuse, it would be brutal to kill him off before she gets out of rehab. Glassman’s recent promise to Shaun and baby Steve that he plans to make up for all the time he missed while being salty with Shaun only adds to the sense that he should have plenty of time to say goodbye to his loved ones. Although The Good Doctor series finale will likely see Glassman’s final moments, here’s hoping it won’t be a sudden exit.
