The Good Doctor Delivered A Scary Cliffhanger In Season 6 Fall Finale, But How Worried Do Fans Need To Be?
Spoilers ahead for the fall finale of The Good Doctor Season 6, called “Broken or Not.”
The Good Doctor has officially come to an end for 2022, and “Broken or Not” left a lot for fans to think about before Season 6 returns in the 2023 TV premiere schedule. Some endings were better than others, with Lim getting a proposal from Clay before surgery as a show of support that he’s all-in, Lea finding out that she’s pregnant despite recently learning about the dangers to her health, and Jordan showing up for her first real date with Perez… only to find him unconscious (at best) with a needle on the floor next to him. Perez’s fate is uncertain and he definitely wasn’t moving when Jordan found him, so should fans be concerned about the scary cliffhanger?
The course of true love never did run smooth on The Good Doctor, and that apparently also applies to first dates, as Jordan showed up happily carrying ice cream for their dinner together, only to peek through the window, see Perez on the floor, break through the door, and call 911 while he was unresponsive next to a needle. The scene ended with Jordan calling for help and trying to find a pulse without revealing whether or not he was alive, so 2022 is officially ending without revealing whether he lives, dies, or suffers permanent damage from his relapse.
Although Perez seemingly overdosing was an unpleasant surprise (to say the least) for Jordan, it’s not completely out of nowhere. Clean when he came to St. Bonaventure, he had a history of struggling with opioid addiction. Sparks were flying between him and Jordan, and he seemed to be doing well at the hospital, but now worried fans can just wait and hope for the best.
The good news is that those fans may not need to worry too much about whether or not Perez will die! Deadline reported back in November that actor Brandon Larracuente had been bumped up to series regular status after only being billed as recurring for the first portion of Season 6. It seems unlikely that The Good Doctor would promote the actor playing one of the newest doctors just to kill off the character less than two months later. I feel pretty comfortable saying that Perez will survive his overdose.
The Good Doctor isn’t the only medical drama with a storyline about a surgeon with an addiction, and Perez is in more dire straits than Ian has been on The Resident so far, which has been more similar to ER than anything else. Perez may need more than just a stint in rehab off-screen before he can come back to work, depending on how much damage was done before Jordan arrived and broke in to try and save his life.
If Brandon Larracuente was still only recurring, I’d be worried about this storyline being used to kill Perez off or write his exit. As it stands, I’m more curious about how the aftermath will play out, and whether the overdose will jeopardize his position at St. Bonaventure. Unfortunately, the promo is no help when it comes to his fate. It’s focused more on Shaun and Lea with Lea in emergency surgery, and Jordan makes an appearance, but Perez is nowhere to be seen. Take a look:
On the whole, it seems that ABC wants to keep fans guessing as much as possible without dropping even a hint about Perez’s fate, but I’m comfortable predicting that whatever happens, he’s not going to die. The show is still going strong by this point in Season 6, not long after the 100th episode milestone and its big reveal about Morgan.
Find out the fate of Dr. Danny Perez with the winter premiere of The Good Doctor on Monday, January 23 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. If you want to revisit some earlier episodes or even seasons of the hit medical drama, you can do so streaming with a Hulu subscription now.
