‘The Good Doctor’ Fans Love Shaun Learning How to Flirt

This week’s episode of The Good Doctor, “Intangibles,” had the St. Bonaventure hospital team taking on a shocking case. While it was the dominant part of the hour, Shaun learning how to flirt was the highlight for viewers.

Gabriel, a young boy from the Congo, comes into the hospital suffering from a congenital heart defect. Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) thinks a procedure will be too dangerous, but Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) insists it will work.

Shaun is also puzzled by his neighbor Lea (Paige Spara), who pushes him on the shoulder and calls him an “asshat.”

Fans instantly fell in love with Gabriel and hoped that he survived the episode.

Claire tells Shaun Lea was flirting with him by teasing her. Some people mean something different from what they say, she explains. “I haven’t seen any data on the use of antonyms as a flirting technique,” Shaun says.

Fans have really picked up on Shaun’s relationship with Claire. It’s great to see that he has a close friend.

Meanwhile, Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) gets to treat Elizabeth, the host of a podcast she loves. The doctors can’t find Elizabeth’s tissue sample, which they need to test to make sure she doesn’t have cancer. If she does, she’ll have to have her voicebox removed.

Claire has to go around the hospital to find the sample, which might have been thrown out. When time runs out to find it, Claire sees the podcaster recording her voice.

As surgery on Elizabeth was about to start, Claire had an epiphany: what if the sample was incorrectly labelled? It turns out they found it and she didn’t have cancer. One fan called that story a little too hard to believe.

Shaun told Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) that he took flirting lessons. His mentor asked him if he was lonely, but Shaun asked him the same question. “You should learn the trifecta,” Shaun told him.

While all that humor was going on though, Gabriel is struggling to hang on to life. Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu) connects with his mother, who thinks he will become a great father some day.

Shaun suggests a procedure that he thinks will work on Gabriel, but Melendez is sure that it won’t work. He’s convinced Gabriel will not survive.

Melendez realizes that his mother is withholding medicine from Gabriel because she wanted him to stay in the hospital, where he’d have a better chance of surviving. But Melendez explains that he too understands what it’s like to be poor. Gabriel’s mother says that if they leave the hospital, they leave hope behind. He agrees to do what he can.

Later, Shaun noticed that Claire was flirting with Melendez. “It’s possible that you have ringworm,” he told her. Then Melendez walked in and she made a flirting gesture, which Shaun wrote down.

Shaun and Melendez practice for the procedure using a VR system, like a scene out of a sci-fi movie.

They discover that the procedure should work, if things go according to plan. But during the procedure, things take an unexpected turn, and Shaun fears that it won’t work because it didn’t work on the VR model. Melendez admits that he’s wrong.

But then Jared finds something in Gabriel’s heart that will help. Amazingly, the procedure worked and Gabriel was saved.

One fan thanked the Good Doctor for the impromptu dating lessons.

At the end of the episode, Glassman tells Shaun that he might not always be there to help. “I don’t want a stranger to help me,” Shaun says as he leaves.

Then, Shaun tries to flirt back to Lea by telling her how terrible her sweater is. She invites him into her apartment for an apple.

The hospital was also sued by the podcaster, even though they found the sample.

New episodes of The Good Doctor air at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT Mondays on ABC.

Photo: ABC/Jack Rowand