ABC‘s The Good Doctor ended its seven-season run tonight with Part 2 of its two-hour finale which, like many episodes of the medical drama, mixed tragedy and triumph to close out Shaun Murphy’s journey on a hopeful note.
The closer dealt with the aftermath of the two shocking Part 1 cliffhangers: Glassman (Richard Schiff) telling Shaun (Freddie Highmore) that his cancer had returned and it was terminal, and Claire (Antonia Thomas) collapsing in Kalu’s arms. They set Shaun on a race to help two of the most important people in his life who are both in grave danger.
He eventually does his thing and finds a treatment that could add a year to Glassman’s life but no matter how many times he pitches it, progressively mitigating potential risks and side effects, he is turned down by Glassman who implores him to accept his decision to not seek treatment and spend the 3-6 months he has left enjoying time with him, Lea (Paige Spara) and little Steve.
It takes awhile — and some persuasion from Lea and Lim (Christina Chang) — but Shaun eventually comes around.
Meanwhile, Claire’s post-op infection turns out to be from acinetobacter, resistant to antibiotics. Before she is put in a coma to help her body fight, she tells Kalu (Chuku Modu) that she loves him. He says it back to her and urges her to stay strong: “I can’t say goodbye, I just got you back.”
Shaun comes up with an unorthodox plan to fight the bacteria with a virus, which involves collecting numerous bacteriophages to find one that could kill the infection before it kills Claire.
This is a painstaking process and, while Shaun and Co. keep at it, Claire’s condition continues to deteriorate to a point where Kalu suggests they amputate her arm — ending her surgical career — to save her life in an impassioned speech.
After a bacteriophage match is finally found, the FDA rejects the treatment, leading to Shaun making a fateful decision. He gathers Lea and Glassman in the same boardroom where his future at the hospital was decided in the pilot. Using the same opening line about losing his brother from the original speech that convinced the board to give him a chance, Shaun reveals his decision to administer the treatment to Claire, which would cost him his medical license. Glassman steps in and, with the team watching on, he starts her IV.
The episode ends with a 10-years time jump when Shaun is Head of Surgery at St. Bonaventura giving a TED talk with Lea, Steve and his little sister, along with Claire, Kalu and their daughter and the rest of the gang — including Lim who had left to join Surgeons For a Better World — all in the audience. Shaun, who, along with Claire, co-heads the Dr. Aaron Glassman foundation for neurodiversity in medicine, ends his speech with another reference to his boardroom plea from the pilot, noting that he now has “two televisions” along with many friends and a family.
In interviews with Deadline, The Good Doctor star Freddie Highmore and co-showrunners David Shore and Liz Friedman dissect the finale’s biggest twists, including Glassman dying, Claire losing an arm and Glassman helping save Claire’s life and Shaun’s medical career. They also discuss Shaun’s long journey to accepting Glassman’s decision not to pursue further treatment, all the pilot references (but no flashbacks!) in both parts of the closer, and why, in a full-circle moment, the show returned to a location used for the pilot to film a key finale scene.
Shore and Friedman also explain where the main characters are in the flashforward, why they opted not to reveal whether any of Shaun and Lea’s children have autism and why Hill Harper did not come back. The duo also shared whether they had ideas for another season of the show, which Shore created based on a Korean format. (And no, the two series’ conclusions have nothing in common as Shore has never seen the finale of the Korean drama.)
For more on Highmore, Shore and Friedman’s comments about Shaun’s evolution throughout the series and Thomas’ finale return, check out Deadline’s Part 1 interview.
DEADLINE: The two-part finale felt very condensed. Was the storyline in it supposed to be a longer arc?
FRIEDMAN: Initially I did see it as playing out a little bit longer although really, it was only one story that got consolidated. We were headed in this direction, and I had thought of it as something that could be either a season ender or series ender. And then when we learned that it was going to be a series ender, we moved some things around a little bit to be able to give a more complete resolution. But it was pretty close to how we planned it.
DEADLINE: Can you reveal what story got consolidated because of the condensed time?
FRIEDMAN: I’d rather not. It’s in its perfect form the way it is.
