‘The Good Doctor’: [SPOILER] Gets Fired

During the winter finale of The Good Doctor delivered on a promise to shake things up at San Jose St. Bonaventure hospital. “Sacrifice” ended with a member of the cast leaving.

In “Sacrifice,” Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) continued his ongoing efforts to help Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore). This time, he introduced Shaun to a new therapist, Melissa (Erin Matthews), which Shaun wasn’t happy about. Shaun also felt that Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) still doesn’t respect him.

Meanwhile, Claire (Antonia Thomas) dealt with a topical subject: workplace sexual harassment. Dr. Matt Coyle (Eric Winter), a dashing young doctor, acted inappropriately and she worried about the consequences of coming forward. But it’s not Claire who gets fired. Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu) is fired.

The episode kicked off with Jared and Shaun being assigned to work with Melendez to help an eSports pro. On the way, Shaun is called to Glassman’s office to meet the therapist. Shaun walked out, refusing to meet with her.

When the doctors meet the patient, Bobby (The Good Place‘s Manny Jacinto), Bobby plants an idea in Shaun’s mind that he’s not respected by the others. That appears to be true during the procedure, when Jared is asked to take a bigger role and Shaun is sidelined.

Claire starts working with Coyle. During the procedure, Coyle asks if any of the other doctors would like to go out for drinks. She’s already uncomfortable. Later, he even touches her back.

Shaun then decides to sleep in a hospital closet instead of going home, where he’d have to see Melissa, his therapist again. The next day, Glassman realizes that he didn’t really go home. Glassman tells Shaun he doesn’t want to see Melissa. He makes Shaun an offer – if you see her three times, he’ll buy him a surround sound system. Shaun agrees.

Shaun later suggests to Melendez they do an MRI to make sure Bobby doesn’t have multiple sclerosis. Although he didn’t have it, Shaun discovered that there was something else wrong. Another doctor tells Melendez Bobby had cancer three years ago. Bobby thought the cancer hurt his gaming ability, so he blocked it out. Shaun says they have to do a scan to make sure the cancer didn’t metastasize.

Claire tries to swap patients with Jared and Shaun, but they refuse. Later, the patient said she noticed how Coyle was treating her. She suggested just taking it in stride, but the patent’s friend insisted that she shouldn’t.

During a scan, Shaun and Jared find a schwannoma in Bobby’s brain. Melendez meets with Glassman about it, and is surprised to hear Glassman agree with Bobby. Maybe it is a good idea to put all those thoughts of doom out of your head.

Melendez, Jared and Shaun tell Bobby the bad news about the mass. It’s inoperable. Bobby is stunned. “I had a good run. I wish it was longer, but I came out on top,” he said.

After saving the patient, Coyle tries to make a move on Claire. She calls him an ass, but he threatens to report her for insubordination.

Shaun decides to sleep in the janitor’s closet again. The janitor shows up, and Shaun asks him if he was happy with his life. While he admits that cleaning up a hospital isn’t that great, he still has a wife and family to be proud of. Shaun gives him the mop in exchange.

Glassman and Melendez realize that there’s a chance the mass could be removed from Bobby’s brain. But he’ll have to make a sacrifice. If Bobby does it, he’ll be paralyzed on one side of his body and he’ll never be a gamer again.

Later, Jared tells Claire she needs to talk to human resources about it. But she fears repercussions. Jared decides to take it into his own hands, confronting Coyle in a locker room. He pushes him into a locker and threatens his superior.

During the procedure on Bobby, things are going bad quickly. But after a commercial break, they all figure out how to get things back to normal and continue the procedure. It was successful, even though Bobby won’t be able to play.

Bobby then tells Shaun to never let anyone tell him what he can and can’t do. This inspires Shaun to tell Glassman that he wants to make his own decisions. Shaun starts hitting himself. As Glassman tries to stop him from hurting himself, Shaun hits Glassman. He runs off.

Claire goes to Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) to talk about Coyle. But he surprisingly wanted to talk about it too.

A subplot running through the episode was Melendez meeting Jessica’s (Beau Garrett) father. He insists she quit her job to have a family and offers to pay for their wedding. Melendez gets off on the wrong foot, accusing Jessica’s father of wanting their children to be trust fund babies.

Claire yells at Jared for trying to help her. She couldn’t believe it. But she’s not the one who gets fired for speaking up. Jared gets fired for assaulting another doctor.

Photo credit: ABC/Eike Schroter