The Good Doctor Season 6 Episode 11 Review: The Good Boy

Who else teared up when “Buddy’s” real family came to reclaim their dog?

On The Good Doctor Season 6 Episode 11, it seemed like Shaun and Lea were adding a stray, injured dog to their new family… only for another family to claim him.

Now that Shaun has warmed to the idea of a dog, maybe they’ll get one of their own. Still, while it’s great the family got their dog back, it kind of sucked for Shaun and Lea.

I didn’t expect to like this storyline. The spoiler video seemed silly and predictable, but the story was neither.

Lea didn’t get the dog in the end, but getting Shaun to come around to the idea of a messy, slobbery pet in the house was a major victory. Plus, Shaun and Lea working together to get the dog to its pee pad on time was good practice for when they have to toilet train a child someday.

The dog story was symbolic of the journey Shaun and Lea were about to take as parents. They put time, energy, money, and love into healing this allegedly unhealable dog.

Lea: When I was in first grade, I begged my parents for a puppy. Tessa. She was a chocolate lab and so cute. She peed on my dad’s briefcase and he returned her the next day.
Shaun: That sounds like bad parenting.

This experience allowed them to slow down and fully process their fears about becoming parents.

Shaun’s focus on the sensory issues involved with having an infant in the house was typical of Shaun. No wonder Lea worried they were incompatible as parents! Her worries were emotional, and Shaun didn’t have those.

In a surprisingly mature scene, Shaun reassured Lea that they would both mess up as parents but would figure it out together. That’s the most adult Shaun has ever been.

For the first time, I found his and Lea’s relationship compelling instead of annoying. They usually seem more like teenagers in adults’ bodies than two professionals ready to have a baby. Thank goodness they seem to have finally grown up!

Lea’s mother sounded unbelievably flaky — who forgets to pick up their child from school? With a role model like that, it’s not surprising that parenting terrifies Lea.

The good news is that it’s hard to be as irresponsible as Lea’s mother was! So Lea can only do better than that, no matter what.

I loved Lea’s discussion with Glassman. They’ve both lost a child, though the circumstances were very different. After losing her first baby, Lea has to be worried about her child dying prematurely someday. Glassman has been through that, so he was the perfect person to talk to about it.

I know I can be a lot. I learned from an early age that if I didn’t push back, I’d be pushed around.

Powell

The parenthood theme popped up throughout the hour. Even Powell admitted her stubbornness had come from her upbringing.

And, of course, Morgan and Park’s story was all about parenthood — and Morgan’s lack of it.

Andrews: Dr. Reznick heard the same thing you did and saw it differently.
Park: She’s not a parent.
Andrews: That’s patronizing, but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong. You’re confident you can save his arm?
Park: Absolutely.
Andrews: Let’s do it.
[Morgan follows Park out of the room.]
Morgan: That was a dick move. I am so tired of being told that childless people can’t feel love.
Park: There is love, and there is being a parent. In nine months, you’ll understand.

Surprisingly, Morgan wasn’t obnoxious for once.

She and Park both made good points about the patient’s potential surgeries and what they might mean for Dylan’s future. Park should never have claimed that Morgan couldn’t understand this decision as a childless person. I was glad she called him out on that asshattery!

No one could predict which surgery would turn out better. This was like the situation with Lim’s surgery at the beginning of the year; the other surgery might have been less risky but could also have turned out badly.

In this case, Park’s confidence that he could save the patient’s arm paid off, but there was no way to know whether it was the right call ahead of time. The man came so close to suffering irreversible brain damage that Andrews yelled at Park to abandon this course of action.

Park was lucky it worked out; it could easily have gone the other way.

At least he apologized to Morgan, and she was willing to be vulnerable enough to share that the implantation failed. Could these two continue to act like mature human beings, please? They’re far more tolerable this way!

The Powell situation included my least favorite trope: the doctor who has to operate without the benefit of the hospital.

Most of these MacGyver-esque situations involve using household items instead of proper instruments. Thankfully, this one didn’t. But still, this story was irritating.

Powell ended up roping Asher and Lim into this mess. Considering that Lim “misplaced” the bullet so Vince wouldn’t go back to jail, the entire operation-in-the-living-room scenario was unnecessary.

If Powell had talked to Lim ahead of time, she probably could have gotten her to keep that bullet to herself. Lim understood the issue. But instead, Powell had to try to operate on Vince’s leg at home, nearly killing him.

Lim was right that it was irresponsible and stupid to approach the issue this way. Powell deserved to get fired, and I can’t say I’m sorry to see her go.

Til the end, she stubbornly insisted she did the right thing and didn’t care that she lost her residency over it. What she doesn’t get is that this isn’t the first time.

Shaun wanted to fire her long ago, but Lim thought he should give Powell more of a chance.

Powell’s insistence that she “saved” Lim by talking her out of surgery the first time didn’t make sense. What makes her think that surgery would have gone badly? The new surgery worked, so why not the one that Powell interfered with?

She’s gone now. Hopefully, Asher’ll survive his probation and not get roped into any more crazy schemes.

What did you think, Good Doctor fanatics? Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know! And don’t forget you can watch The Good Doctor online on TV Fanatic.

The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Mondays at 10 PM EST / PST.

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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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