Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and Lea Dilallo (Paige Spara) are at the centre of the recent outrage.
Their romantic relationship seemingly ended as Lea said that Shaun being on the spectrum meant that they wouldn’t work as a couple.
The episode began with Shaun speaking to Dr Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) about how he was going to change Lea’s mind about the reasons they aren’t compatible.
During the work day, Shaun went back to the apartment and un-alphabetised the canned goods in the cupboard.
As well as reorganising the cupboards, he placed the toilet paper roll on the holder in a way that he believed to be incorrect, in keeping with how Lea likes it.
However, Lea was not impressed by the gesture when he invited her over, branding Shaun inconsiderate for making her drive all the way across town in the middle of the day when he could have waited until later that evening.
To Lea, Shaun is incapable of change because he’s determined to do things his way and at his own pace.
Shaun’s suspicions of Lea not wanting to be with him because he’s autistic were confirmed when she blurted out:‘’Shaun you are autistic, you can’t fix that… You are who you are and I am who I am, and the two of us will never work’’.
Shaun didn’t respond and instead turned his back to Lea and walked away. Symbolically he went to the bathroom and removed the toilet paper from the holder and put it the correct way.
Twitter users showed their dismay at the story-line and at Lea as a character after the episode aired.
One Twitter user fumed: “They’re out there really trying make us hate her and it’s working.”
Another expressed their dismay: “Stop making Lea look like a bad person, in season one it was ‘irrelevant’ to her that Shaun has autism (that’s why he felt ‘free’ around her) and now suddenly she can’t handle it?”
A third chimed in saying: “Am I the only one that thinks the story-line doesn’t make any sense [?] Lea is acting like such a b**** and it makes no sense because she knew he had autism when they kissed and when they were trying to be a thing at the end of the first season she lived with him with it.”
