‘The Good Doctor’ Preview: Shaun Freaks out During First Surgery

In this week’s episode of The Good Doctor, Dr. Shaun Murphy will take a major step forward in his career. He will finally get to lead his first surgery. Unfortunately, based on the preview for Monday’s episode, not everything goes as planned. The episode will also feature more fallout from the death of Dr. Claire Brown‘s mother.

At the beginning of the preview for “First Case, Second Base,” Shaun (Freddie Highmore) and Lea (Paige Spara) are shown celebrating the news that Shaun will be the lead in a major surgery. However, Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) warned Dr. Audrey Lim (Christina Chang) that Shaun might not be ready.

“You’re throwing him into the deep end and that’s unfair to him,” Andrews said.

In another scene, Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) asked Shaun how he was feeling about the big day.

“I’m not nervous,” Shaun insisted.

Later though, Shaun is seen getting scared after making a mistake during the surgery. He dropped his tools and stormed out of the operating room, which his colleagues yelling back for him.

The Good Doctor Season 3 has already put fans through the wringer with dramatic twists and turns. At the end of “Debts,” Lim chose Claire (Antonia Thomas) as the first resident to lead her own surgery, over Drs. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee), Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann) and Shaun. While the surgery went well in the episode “Claire,” Claire’s mother Breeze (Sharon Leal) died in a car accident at the end of the hour.

Breeze’s death has left Claire understandably shaken, and has remained conflicted on how to mourn her mother after their difficult relationship. In last week’s episode, “Take My Hand,” Morgan helped Claire take an important step in the grieving process by finding the perfect place to spread Breeze’s ashes.

In “First Case, Second Base,” Morgan and Claire will take on the case of a patient whose diagnosis leads them to question the patient’s story.

Despite the focuses on the other characters, The Good Doctor is still Shaun’s show. In an interview with PopCulture.com, Lee had nothing but great things to say about Highmore’s performance as the doctor, who is on the autistic spectrum.

“It’s just still hard to imagine that, obviously he’s been doing it almost his entire life, but he’s at home, he’s in his playpen and we just sit back and watch,” Lee explained. “Him being an actor, the notes we get are priceless and above all that stuff, he’s just a kind, kind human being. He’s just a good all round person. And just have the number one guy on your call sheet, it sets the tone for the whole show and the cast and the crew. So I mean, I know it sounds like it’s a fairy land, but it’s one of the few shows I’ve been on where everything just clicks and sinks in together. And a lot of it has to do with Freddie.”

The Good Doctor airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC/Jack Rowand