‘The Good Doctor’: Twitter Stunned When Shaun Accuses Patient of Being a Terrorist

During Monday night’s episode of The Good Doctor, “Seven Reasons,” audiences at home were stunned to hear Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) accuse a patient of being a terrorist.

Shaun, Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) and Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Mudu) were assigned the case of a Muslim girl who was burned. When they first started to treat her, she claimed to be having a heart attack. However, her vitals did not fluctuate, leading Shaun to believe she was lying.

When they used a camera to look down her esophagus and into her lungs, they also found no burns. Shaun later suggested that exposure to a caustic chemical — specifically Dimethyl Sulfate — could have caused the symptoms.

Shaun shocked Melendez and Jared by suggesting that the patient could be a terrorist. When Shaun told the patient she was exposed to a chemical that is used for chemical weapons, she was also disappointed. She thought someone with autism might understand what it’s like to be ostracized.

Later, after saving her life, the patient told them the truth. Her brother took the chemical home from work so she could make perfume. If she told them the truth right away, she was afraid her brother would lose his job.

Unlike Melendez, who admitted to making a mistake earlier in the episode, Shuan did not. Instead, he thought this proved one of his reasons for why people lie — to protect someone else.

Thankfully Shaun was put in his place for making assumptions. But that assumption really shocked Twitter users who previously loved Shaun unconditionally.

One person wondered why Shaun was not forced to apologize to the patient.

Photo credit: ABC/Eike Schroter