'The Good Doctor' Is New Tonight, and Shaun Takes Major Step

Another new episode of The Good Doctor airs on ABC Monday at 10 p.m. ET. In the episode, titled "Parenting," Dr. Shaun Murphy takes a significant step in his relationship with Lea Diallo, despite learning a shocking fact about her during "The Uncertainty Principle." The doctors will also try to help a teenage gymnast who has complications from her extreme training regiment.

In last week's episode, Lea (Paige Spara) set up a piece of gym equipment in the apartment she now shares with Shaun (Freddie Highmore). She plans to sell the equipment, which she received from her ex-husband! She never told Shaun about this because she rarely thought about him after their split. "We got married, not for long, right out of high school," Lea explained. "We grew up together, people expected it, it was a big mistake. We both realized it pretty quickly." Shaun then became concerned their relationship would fizzle just as quickly, but she assured him they will not "end in a natural disaster."

The Good Doctor's fourth season has also featured a major story arc for Dr. Audrey Lim (Christina Chang). She has PTSD herself after the coronavirus pandemic (which is over in the fictional Good Doctor world). At the end of the Jan. 11 episode "Lim," she got into a motorcycle accident and barely survived. In "The Uncertainty Principle," she told her team she sold her bike to bu a Subaru and refused to talk about her injury. Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) noticed the wrecked bike at Lim's home though.

"She's dealing with a lot of trauma. I think in this episode, we will start to explore exactly what it is that's bothering her, what has traumatized her," Christina Chang told PopCulture.com in a recent interview. "It's really about watching Lim grapple with what might be going on, whether she's able to embrace that and accept that that's what's going on while being the chief of surgery while conducting surgeries and running a department and trying to juggle it all, which I imagine many, many, many healthcare workers are dealing with currently and have."

Elsewhere in the interview, Chang pointed out that the writers try to strike a balance between facing the reality of the pandemic with providing an escape for viewers. "I think that's the message of hope, is if you fall, you pick yourself back up," she said. "If it's hard for you to do that, your colleagues or your friends or your family will do that and stand beside you and support you, and you will endeavor to the best of your ability. I think that's what sets us apart."