The Good Doctor Season 5 Episode 7 Review: Expired

Wow! What a cliffhanger!

The Good Doctor Season 5 Episode 7 brought the tension between Salen and everyone else at St. Bonaventure to a head. Salen had better watch out because Lim is NOT the kind of person she wants as an enemy.

The cliffhanger is sure to keep viewers talking over the winter hiatus, which is what the fall finale needed to do.

It wasn’t just the last five minutes that were compelling, either. Some powerful medical storylines kept me glued to the screen, making this one of the best episodes of The Good Doctor to come along in a while.

Glassman’s storyline was one of the strongest he’s had yet.

I’m glad he’s likely going to be staying at St. Bonaventure, at least until Shaun’s more stable again. Every time he said he was moving to Montana, all I could think was that he wouldn’t fit in on Yellowstone very well.

And while the final scene showed how much Shaun still needs Glassman, it never would have happened had his ex-wife not pushed him to jump back into a risky surgery and to stick around afterward.

Back when Glassman thought he was dying of brain cancer himself, he had it out with an imaginary version of his late daughter, Maddie, and resolved some of his guilt over her death.

Since then, she’s barely been mentioned, but her mother’s return forced Glassman to confront that old tragedy all over again.

Reeves: What’s in Montana?
Glassman: Cowboys and big boots. And i Montana, no one knows me, and I have no history, and no one has any expectations for me.

His ex was right when she suggested he was running away to Montana just like he tried to run away after their daughter’s death.

These two seemed like they were better off as good friends than as marriage partners. At least in this instance, she was one of the best friends he’s ever had.

Glassman’s reluctance to jump into a risky surgery might have partially been because he didn’t want to cost his ex another person she loved. Still, it also seemed that he put way too much stock into Debbie’s negative opinion of him.

He and Debbie were a poor match from the beginning. He jumped impulsively into marriage with a woman he barely knew, and they were so different that it had no chance of working out.

Glassman may be tired of getting his heart broken, but changing himself to please the Debbies of the world isn’t the answer. He needs to find people who will accept him for who he is, ego-driven behavior and all.

In a way, it’s a shame that he and Ilana broke up. She seemed to get him in a way that Debbie never did. Maybe it was Maddie’s death, or maybe there were problems between them that became insurmountable afterward. Either way, they’ve both moved on, but I’m glad at least they remained friends.

And when Ilana admitted she blamed Glassman for Maddie’s death for a long time and he, in turn, admitted that he was scared to operate on her husband, it made me cry.

I’m a sucker for emotional scenes like this, and I hope we get more of them when The Good Doctor returns.

Reeves: I don’t blame you anymore for Maddie.
Glassman: Don’t –
Reeves: No, I have to do this. Please listen. For a long time I was angry at you for her, and for trying to replace her with Shaun.
Glassman: I wasn’t trying to replace her. Nobody could.
Reeves: Being part of Suniel’s family has given me peace. I’m so glad you found Shaun.

Elsewhere, I had no idea Shaun’s storyline would turn into a tragic catalyst for Lim to get fed up with Salen finally.

I figured from the clip of Shaun’s meltdown on the spoiler video that the baby would die. But I hadn’t guessed that it would be due to expired medicine that Salen hadn’t replaced as a cost-savings measure.

Salen may be the hospital head now, but she should have gotten input on her budget from the rest of the board. Who signed off on cutting back on medication orders besides her?

Anyway, when Shaun was fighting so hard to save that unsaveable baby, I couldn’t help wondering whether it reminded him of Lea losing their baby.

The baby’s death was heartbreaking. The only weakness in this storyline was that the mother was still unconscious as the credits rolled. Her reaction would have been raw and painful, which would have made for riveting drama.

Lim’s confrontation with Salen was amazing, though, and that’s only the beginning of what she’s going to do about Salen.

We just lost a baby because the medication was expired, no backup supply. Did the money you saved pay for your water wall? In my 15 years, I’ve never seen something like this. Your priorities are upside down and backwards.

Lim

Salen was a fool to think that Lim would go along with any scheme to keep the reason for the baby’s death quiet. Legally and morally, Lim can’t do that, and she’s not the kind of person who would.

This sets up a ton of compelling drama for the second half of the season. Salen and Lim will go to war, and it’s not clear who is going to win.

I’m especially curious about how Andrews’ relationship with Salen will play into this conflict. He may take Salen’s side out of obligation to the relationship, which will set Lim off.

If it gets ugly, Lim might call him out for his relationship with Salen. And Andrews might suggest that’s hypocritical since she sneaked around the hospital with Melendez because of a similar boss/employee dynamic.

Speaking of relationships, there was some silly drama between Morgan and Park over whether he’d go to dinner with Salen and Andrews and some annoying drama between Shaun and Lea over the review scores scandal.

Lea should have predicted Shaun’s reaction to her confession and found a way to explain it to him that wouldn’t lead to him breaking off their engagement!

I couldn’t care less whether Shaun or Lea get married or not.

I’ve never been a fan of this couple, and I think Shaun is at his best when focusing on medical mysteries, not mysteries of the heart.

As Shaun himself said, science is far more predictable than people are, and this latest roadblock in his relationship with Lea goes to show how difficult social skills still are for him.

But Shaun’s anger at Lea can’t last forever, and I’m sure Glassman will try to talk him down once the shock of losing this baby wears off.

It’s your turn, The Good Doctor fanatics.

Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know what you think.

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The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Mondays at 10 PM EST/PST. The next new episode will air in early 2022.

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Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.

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