The Good Doctor corrected a significant problem in Charlie’s character during Season 7. The Freddie Highmore-led series has focused on Shaun’s journey as an autistic doctor since the beginning. The Good Doctor’s Shaun has come full circle and is now an attending who teaches residents and medical students. During Season 7, Charlie (Kayla Comer) joined the medical drama as an autistic medical student whom Shaun cannot stand. Charlie idolizes Shaun because he is autistic too and yearns for his approval.
Charlie is The Good Doctor’s second autistic character. Like Shaun, she has communications and social challenges and she and Shaun have often butted heads over her behavior. The Good Doctor is ending after Season 7 and Charlie’s conflict with Shaun has taken up a lot of screen time during the shortened final season. Her similarities to Shaun have risked reinforcing stereotypes about how autistic people behave, but one moment during season 7 changed that.
Charlie’s Response In The Good Doctor’s Latest Episode Demonstrated Her Empathy
Charlie’s behavior had been less than desirable. She constantly interrupted Shaun, never stopped talking, and ignored his directions. All of these behaviors were related to her autism, but instead of working on them, she expected Shaun and other doctors to simply accept them because of her neurobiology. This sent negative messages about autistic people that contradicted The Good Doctor’s commitment to positive autistic representation by depicting Charlie as someone who wanted to hide behind her diagnosis instead of taking responsibility for her behavior on the job.
That all changed when Shaun melted down while leading the ER staff through a crisis. There were a lot of patients in need of urgent care and people making huge demands of Shaun, causing him to put his hands over his ears and whimper. While neurotypical members of the care team were clamoring for someone to get Dr. Park to relieve Shaun of his duties, Charlie spoke softly to him about his overwhelm and encouraged him, which allowed Shaun to calm down enough to visualize the entire hospital wing and figure out who needed to do what.
Charlie displayed a type of empathy that is characteristic of autistic people but which stereotypes claim they do not possess. She understood what Shaun was going through because she is autistic too and knew how to get through to him. This allowed Shaun to see her in a new light as well as helped him be able to do his job rather than having to cede leadership to a neurotypical person. Thus, Charlie’s behavior in this instance not only smashed stereotypes about autism and empathy but demonstrated that autistic people can be leaders despite their challenges.
Charlie Followed Directions For The First Time
When Shaun allowed Charlie to work with him on a patient after the incident, he told her that she could only assist if she followed his directions. Charlie did so admirably, not interrupting, questioning, or doing her own thing. She focused on helping Shaun save the patient’s life, demonstrating to him that she was capable of doing the job she had signed up for despite his earlier concerns. Her improvement in this area impressed Shaun enough that he praised her during the procedure and conceded later that she might have some potential.
Charlie’s improved behavior sent an important, pro-autistic message that her previous behavior had not. In the past, Charlie had told Shaun that her autism-related communications difficulties could not be helped and therefore he had to make allowances for her constant interruptions and refusal to follow directions. However, she ultimately did follow his instructions, demonstrating not only that she was capable of doing so even though it wasn’t natural for her but that autistic people like her could learn and grow rather than being limited by their challenging behaviors.
Why Charlie And Shaun Were Not On Good Terms Up To This Point
Shaun had been annoyed by Charlie from their first meeting. She was inspired by his journey to become a doctor herself and couldn’t wait to work with him, but Shaun immediately took a dislike to her. He especially disliked that Charlie constantly interrupted him, which caused him to lose his train of thought, and told her repeatedly that her job was to observe silently and not to work with patients or otherwise interfere with what he was doing.
Glassman and Lim tried to point out that Charlie was similar to how Shaun was when he first came to St. Bonaventure, but Shaun wasn’t having that, and the conflict kept escalating until Shaun kicked Charlie out of his OR one too many times. This led her to file a complaint with HR, which was a big deal for her because she idolized Shaun and wanted badly for him to approve of her.
