While The Good Doctor’s season 4 finale featured the departure of a major character, it was still one of the medical drama’s happier enders.
Picking up where part 1 of the finale left off, the hour found the doctors still working in Guatemala. Their time there inspired Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) to quit her job at St. Bonaventure so she could stay and work at the clinic, a move that Lim (Christina Chang) fully supported and thus marked Thomas’ departure from the show. Meanwhile, Morgan (Fiona Gubelmann) and Park (Will Yun Lee) mended their friendship and declared their love for each other, Lim’s fling Mateo (Osvaldo Benavides) decided to follow her back to the States, and most importantly, Lea (Paige Spara) asked Shaun (Freddie Highmore) to marry her — and he said yes.
Below, The Good Doctor showrunner David Shore breaks down Thomas’ goodbye, Shaun and Lea’s new relationship status, and more.
DAVID SHORE: We owe a great debt to our crew in Vancouver. [They] did a great job of finding places in British Columbia. We were very worried about it. We wanted to be as accurate as we could. If it was any other year, there’s a good chance we could’ve actually gone [to Guatemala], but that just wasn’t feasible. They found great locations for us.
How did you settle on this being the way you’d write Claire off the show? What made it this feel like a satisfying conclusion to her journey?
The thing that I kept talking about was [that] we put that character through so much over the previous years. We’ve had our share of sad endings on this show, and it’s an ending so there’s a sadness to it, but I also wanted this to be more of a beginning at the same time. I wanted this to be hopeful and positive. So the phrase that we kept using was, “I didn’t want her to be running away from anything. I wanted her to be running to something.” So it was really important that this was a good place for her and we all felt good about it.
Did Antonia have any input on Claire’s ending?
I spoke to her about it and I explained what I just said to you. I spoke to her quite a while ago and I was really excited about it. I wasn’t excited about her leaving. It’s very sad that she’s leaving, but I respect her choice. I don’t want anybody on the show who doesn’t want to be on the show — I mean, if they want other opportunities. If she was going to do another TV show, then I might be a little less happy [laughs], but if she’s looking for other opportunities, then great. She’s done great work for us for four years. She’s given us everything we could’ve asked for. So I wanted to give her a good sendoff and I wanted to make sure she was happy with it. We talked about it and had a good talk.
Over the past four seasons, Claire’s empathetic perspective has been an integral part of the show. Do you have any idea of how you’ll deal with that void?
We’ve got a lot of characters on it. I think there are some characters that fill that aspect to some extent. We’re not looking for a new Claire, but you’re absolutely right that we want to make sure somebody represents that point of view. And that might change from episode to episode. I also believe that Claire has impacted the rest of them. I think they’re all carrying a little bit of Claire as they go forward.
How early did you decide you wanted to end the season with Shaun and Lea getting engaged?
About halfway through the year we started thinking in those terms. We’ve had a lot of downer things, and we decided to go with some more positives this year. They’re still just as, I hope, compelling as to what questions this raises and opportunities for storytelling; I’m hoping it opens those doors for us. But it’s been a rough year [for everyone], we wanted to give everybody a break. [Laughs]
Why did this feel like the right move after they went through the hardship of the miscarriage?
That was exactly it. Coming out of that, we didn’t want to break them up — at least not yet. We like them together and want to keep exploring [them]. Every year we want to take things to a new level and explore something new with Shaun and the rest of the characters. They went through a hardship and they came through. He proved himself as a good boyfriend and worthy of her love. I think she’s sensing it at this point as he stayed with her.
Having Lea propose to him was cool because Shaun was the one who was pushing for this relationship last season.
I think that was really important. You hit the nail on the head to some extent. Last year, he was pursuing her. I mean, they’re still very much in love, but he’s not pushing her. I think given what she’s been through — they both went through it, but particularly her — it was important that she be the one who signaled she was on a more positive track. I think if he had asked her, no matter what her answer might’ve been, it wouldn’t have felt the same.
