The Good Doctor - Is...

He lived independently in Casper, Wyoming for some time (though both Glassman and Shaun note that his neighbors provided much-needed help). With Glassman, he managed to develop his skills to be a doctor and to later control his emotions and remain calm in tough situations. Later, he moved to San Jose to begin his residency at St. Bonaventure.

The Good Doctor - Is...

In "Quarantine," a viral outbreak in the ER at Christmas time traps Shaun in the emergency room department along with Morgan and Lim. Constantly distracted by a buzzing light even before the quarantine, Shaun goes into sensory overload that turns into an autistic shutdown after Park's son Kellan suffers an asthma attack and collapses. In "Quarantine: Part Two," Morgan is instrumental in helping Shaun break out of the shutdown by getting him to focus on Santa Pete's abdominal surgery; with Doctor Lim incapacitated by the virus, Shaun and Morgan complete the surgery by themselves and save the patient. Shaun remains distracted by the buzzing light, wearing ear plugs until Park smashes the light, eliminating the source of Shaun's sensory overload issues. Shaun is then forced to treat pregnant mother-to-be Viola who suffers complications requiring a C-section. With no other doctors available, Shaun is forced to perform the C-section himself as his first solo surgery with Dr. Garcia supervising from outside the ER and only Nurse Deena Petringa assisting him. Although Shaun struggles with more sensory issues and situational stress again, he fights through it and delivers the baby. When both mother and baby suffer complications, Shaun treats them both at the same time with the help of Kellan. Shaun succeeds in saving both of his patients and later shares a rare hug with Glassman after learning of Glassman's meningitis diagnosis.

During the episode, Shaun goes on an eventful first date with Carly Lever which includes him catching a bottle of wine that he accidentally sent flying into the air, making a bad joke that causes Carly to chuckle and hitting a very understanding woman with a door while trying to be chivalrous. At the end of the night, Carly tells Shaun that she had a good time and pecks him on the lips goodnight. Shaun becomes convinced the date was a disaster and tells the story to his confused friends over the course of the episode. Shaun eventually explains that he was overwhelmed by the unpredictability of it all and thus didn't have a good time and isn't sure if Carly did either. Claire later tells Shaun that every date is a disaster and every relationship is out of control, but if you stick with it, you'll end up with someone who will help you when you need to be helped, love you when you don't feel lovable and be with you no matter what. Despite seeing two couples who share such a relationship despite the trials they are facing, Shaun is left with uncertainty about whether or not his relationship is worth pursuing. Shaun later watches Carly in the pathology lab from a distance before leaving without saying a word to her. A saddened Carly notices Shaun's departure which Shaun misses as he turns his back before she notices him.

In "Claire," Shaun works with Claire to treat Michelle Benton, a teenager who requires a gallbladder removal which excites Shaun as it will likely be Claire's first surgery. Though Melendez expresses doubt about Claire's ability to perform the procedure when it appears to be more complicated than previously thought, Shaun offers a solution that gets Melendez to agree to Claire performing the surgery. During the procedure itself, Claire enlists Shaun as the assisting doctor while Melendez supervises. Together, the two successfully remove the gallbladder and deal with a hemorrhage that develops.

In "Take My Hand," Shaun struggles with Carly's desire to hold hands as Shaun doesn't like it. At the same time, he treats a conspiracy theorist who believes he is being poisoned and who trusts only Shaun out of all the doctors due to his blunt honesty. Shaun eventually uncovers that the man has been inadvertently poisoning himself with the herbs he is taking for virility. As he is having cold feet regarding his approaching marriage to Debbie, Glassman seeks Shaun's advice for the first time, exciting Shaun who doesn't have anything to offer. However, Shaun points out that Glassman already seems to have made up his mind as he now refers to his ex-wife as his first wife, suggesting that Glassman already has a second wife in his mind. After deciding to go through with the wedding, a small civil ceremony at City Hall, Glassman invites Shaun and Carly to attend. During the ceremony, Shaun and Carly cross wrists as a compromise to Shaun's aversion to holding hands which pleases them both.

At the same time, Shaun and Carly continue their at-home movie dates, but Shaun refuses to kiss Carly more than every twelve minutes during the movie. Shaun later tells Lea that he is uncomfortable touching more than one thing at once which Lea suggests he tell Carly. Shaun follows Lea's advice which Carly admits was good advice. Carly has Shaun touch one of her breasts for the first time, exciting Shaun who tells Carly that she has no sign of lumps. After he gets off work, Shaun visits Carly and asks to touch her other breast to Carly's pleasure.

In "Moonshot," Shaun and Park treat Rosalind, a doctor who has advanced the field of leukemia treatment but in the process, pushed everyone in her life away from her. With Rosalind in heart failure, Park convinces her ex-husband Leo to be at her side as she dies. At the same time, Shaun has trouble experiencing increased intimacy with Carly, causing her to become greatly frustrated when Shaun barely even tries her solution of exposure therapy. Park helps Shaun understand that much of his issues come from fear and he decides to commit himself to trying the exposure therapy, finding that it is scary but worth it.

Following his night spent with Lea, Shaun is left struggling with his feelings for Carly and Lea, causing him to avoid Carly, hurting her in the process and then even more when Shaun reveals the truth about his night spent sleeping with Lea when he couldn't do that after weeks of practicing with Carly and tells her that with Carly he feels he needs to impress her but he doesn't feel that way with Lea. Shaun begins seeking the advice of his friends with Morgan advising Shaun against leaving Carly for Lea, calling Lea a flake. In particular, Shaun asks for advice from Andrews about love because Andrews has been in a long and happy relationship while Glassman got divorced once. Andrews advice to Shaun proves helpful as he tries to figure out his feelings, but he later suffers an emotional breakdown in Glassman's office out of fear that everyone will get sick of him and ultimately leave. Getting emotional himself, Glassman interrupts Shaun and assures him that he will get through it and is an extraordinary doctor who Glassman could not be more proud of. Glassman reassures Shaun that he could never get sick of him, causing Shaun to calm down and pull Glassman into a hug that he only ends when Shaun realizes that he's going to be late for surgery.

In "Sex and Death," Shaun works with Melendez to treat Oliver, a man who is enjoying life to the fullest while dying of cancer; the infection Oliver develops from one of his stunts ultimately causes Oliver's own immune system to attack and shrink the tumor to the point that it can be removed. Like the other doctors, Shaun is intrigued by the presence of Morgan's mother as a patient and the insight into his friend's past. Shaun suggests a treatment for Caroline's seizures that will cure the seizures but not the underlying problem that Morgan objects to as she wants to force her mother to get the lobectomy she needs; Shaun's suggestion ultimately fails as the suspected cause of the seizures proves to be incorrect.

As the situation appears to be resolved, Lim goes into distress due to previously undetected damage to her heart. Both Lim and her attacked Owen, who had attempted suicide by cop, require heart bypass, leading to Shaun arguing that they give it to Lim even if Owen has to die, but he is overruled by Andrews and Glassman. The doctors are forced to operate on Lim without bypass and Shaun suffers a meltdown when they can't find the problem, consumed with guilt over his failure to save Steve and his inability to save Lim. Steve appears to Shaun, reassuring his brother that his death wasn't Shaun's fault and urging Shaun to let go of his guilt over it. Steve and Lea are able to get Shaun to focus and he is able to determine the problem and save Lim's life.

In "Old Friends," Shaun is excited by the return of Dr. Jared Kalu, a former surgical resident and friend of Shaun's who had left St. Bonaventure years earlier. Now a concierge doctor, Jared returns to the hospital specifically in search of Shaun's help to treat his client Roland Barnes to whom Jared had spoken very highly of Shaun. Jared is also shown to enjoy watching Shaun use his visualization process to solve a problem once again, commiserating with Asher about it. Jared recalls that, before he left, Shaun had told him that Jared would eventually find happiness, but he was miserable in Denver and fears that he's a failure. Together, Shaun and Jared discover that Roland has a tapeworm larva in his brain and successfully treat him. Throughout the case, Shaun encourages his old friend to return to surgery. Jared ultimately approaches Lim about resuming his residency and he is granted a position on Shaun's team, although Jared will have to be a first year resident again.

As a result of his autism, Shaun has trouble with cognitive empathy, but is fine with emotional empathy, meaning he can pick up when someone is upset but often has trouble discerning why, this is something that he himself notes. As a result, he may make a decision that is rational and by the rules, but morally wrong or otherwise harmful such as taking away Dr. Glassman's license due to the rules dictating it while not understanding why Glassman was angry with him, Shaun was able to see that Glassman was upset, but not able to understand why he was upset. This is something Shaun is shown working on such as learning how to drive to make up for taking away Glassman's ability to drive himself places by driving Glassman instead. Another example is how he treated Lea after her return due to being hurt over her leaving in the first place which made Shaun rude and mean to his friend. At one point, Shaun advocated against giving a patient surgery to fix a dent in his forehead as the surgery was cosmetic and unnecessary. After hearing the young man's story, Shaun actually empathized with the patient and came up with a simple and ingenious solution that fixed the problem while also saving costs. Shaun came to feel he made the wrong decision as the patient suffered a complication that almost killed him, but Park revealed that Shaun's actions actually saved the young man's life as he had been planning suicide beforehand. In "Risk and Reward," Shaun's trouble with empathy and communication led to him telling a mother that her anti-depressants may have caused her infant daughter's severe birth defects, something that it is pointed out that no other doctor would have ever said. However, Shaun's bluntness at times has proven helpful such as in "Disaster" when he pointed out a couple's doubts, causing them to confront those doubts and reach a resolution. In "SFAD," Shaun is able to empathize and bond with Tara, a young woman whose lack of immune system has trapped Tara in a bubble for her whole life. As a result, like Shaun, she has spent a great deal of her life as an outsider. Shaun's ability to relate to Tara due to his own experiences allow him to convince her to take a gene therapy that could cure her. When talking with Tara, Shaun mentions having spent most of his life alone, but enjoys the friends he has made as a doctor and the lack of loneliness he now feels. In "Fractured," Carly states that she found Shaun's bluntness and obvious care for his patients cute when they had first met in "Mount Rushmore," a contrast to many people who are put off by that bluntness and that after working together in pathology, she believes Shaun to be the most genuine and honest person she knows. 041b061a72