‘The Good Doctor’ Boss Previews Shaun’s First Date: ‘Things Don’t Go Perfectly’

The Good Doctor Season 3 will pick up right where the shocking Season 2 finale left off back in March. Freddie Highmore‘s Dr. Shaun Murphy will be going out on his first date with pathologist Dr. Carly Lever and things will not go perfectly. Then again, few things go perfectly for Shaun on his first try.

“Things don’t go perfectly,” showrunner David Shore told TVLine. “How [Shaun] reacts to that, and how he reacts going forward, is going to be an ongoing [storyline].”

Shore teased that early episodes this season will explore “the nuances of relationships, and the artificiality of relationships… that Shaun sees through.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Audrey Lim (Christina Chang) will have to take a more upfront, “political” role as the new chief of surgery at St. Bonaventure Hospital. Lim took over in the Season 2 finale after Dr. Jackson Han (Daniel Dae Kim) was fired.

Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) will also take on a new role at the hospital “in a slightly different capacity,” Shore explained. Glassman battled cancer throughout Season 2, but was declared cancer free after Shaun pushed him to seek treatment. Shore said Glassman and Debbi Wexler (Sheila Kelley) will get married in a “unique” wedding ceremony, but not before they learn more about each other.

Dr. Neil Melendez’s (Nicholas Gonzalez) team will get more opportunities to lead surgical procedures themselves, Shore teased. This will spark a competition between Dr. Morgan Reznik (Fiona Gubelman) and Dr. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee).

“As you get more senior, the stakes become higher,” Shore told TVLine. “It’s going to be a challenge for all of them, including Shaun.”

It’s clear that Carly will play a big role in Season 3. Back in July, TVLine reported that Jasika Nicole, who plays Carly, was promoted to series regular.

In the Season 2 finale, Shore and the writers played a trick on fans, many of whom wanted to see Shaun and his roommate Lea (Paige Spara) date. However, the last scene in the episode showed Shaun showing up at Carly’s house to ask her out.

“The audience wants to see Shaun with Lea [together], and I kind of do, too, but we’ll see where that goes,” Shore teased in another TVLine interview. “At a certain point, I was going, ‘Oh, the audience is going to hate me for not having him ask Lea out,’ but then I thought just seeing him ask anybody out — and Carly is someone we care about, and somebody who cares about Shaun — is going to be a lovely victory. All [of those romantic pairings] are on the table and continue to be on the table as we go forward.”

Tamlyn Tomita, who stars as St. Bonaventure Hospital Board chairwoman Allegra Aoki, will be a recurring star in Season 3. She started off as a series regular, but only appeared in half of Season 2’s 18 episodes.

The Good Doctor finally returns on Monday, Sept. 23 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC