S04.E12: Teeny Blue Eyes

[helenamonster]

Quote

When a renowned surgeon comes to St. Bonaventure for treatment, the team’s enthusiasm is quickly overshadowed by the doctor’s behavior. After studying his case, Shaun sees a pattern he recognizes. Shaun and Lea are forced to make a life-changing decision that will alter the course of their relationship.

Original airdate: 3/22/21

[SunnyBeBe]

Shaun and Leah becoming parents is perhaps one of my least favorite storylines.  These writers.....

Edited March 23, 2021 by SunnyBeBe

[Annber03]

On the one hand I'm kind of surprised, 'cause Shaun and Lea seemed pretty certain there, but on the other hand I'm also not, because of the whole idea of exploring someone like Shaun becoming a dad. Guess we shall see how this pans out going forward, then!

So. Park and Morgan finally gave in  and stopped dancing around each other :D. Also curious to see what comes of that. 

And wow, another one up and leaving with Enrique. Aw. Hopefully he'll do well with whatever he chooses to do next. 

[Driad]

I was hoping Lea would go back to Hershey, never to be heard from again.

Why did Boardshorts leave?  I was starting to like him, even though I sometimes had trouble recognizing him; didn't he have bleached hair tips when he arrived?

The surgeon patient is of a generation that if he is on the spectrum, he likely would not have been diagnosed as a youngster.  He would just have been told to pull himself together and work harder, so he did.

[thuganomics85]

Can't remember the last time I saw Christian Clemenson in something, so it was a nice surprise seeing him as Dr. Chambers.  While the character had quite a bit of flaws, I thought they did a good job with him and showing that he was someone who was on the spectrum during a period where he likely didn't get a proper diagnosis (let alone understanding from others), and how it effected him going forward in his life.  Really highlights that while things with Shaun have certainly not been easy, it is at least good that he has a support system, and co-workers, friends, and even a girlfriend that understand him and accept him for who he is.  I also like that he brought up Melendez and their relationship, even if it once again makes me annoyed that he is gone.

Whelp, looks like another newbie has fallen!  Enrique decides to take his van, board-shorts, and more, and transfer to what sounded like a hospital where he will work more with the needy than at San Jose.  I guess that would fit his character better, but it was kind of a random exit and it felt like there was still some set-up that never panned out (especially what was going on between him and Claire.)  Curious to see if someone else will leave or will Jordan and Asher be here to stay.

Love you, Park, but you really, really, really need to stop automatically dismissing cases and assuming the patient is lying, just because their history might be spotty.  One of these days a patient could really get sick or worse, if you keep it up.  Lucky as hell that Reznick went behind his back, and even though I understand why Lim called them both out, I was way more annoyed with him than her.

But, hey, it did lead to Park confessing that he has feelings for Reznick, which led to a) her making him move out since she can't be roommates with someone who is attracted to her and b) her then making out with him, because, again, they aren't roomies anymore!  Sounds like she claimed it will only be an one time thing, but I'm going to doubt that!

Both Shaun and Lea fret over the pregnancy, list the pro and cons, and originally plan to have an abortion, but change their mind at the last minute in typical television drama fashion.  At least both of them seen to know what they are getting into and I do think they can be great parents, but I just hope the show finds ways to make this more interesting than the norm.

[KaveDweller]

I guess it is realistic that some residents leave before their time is up, but I liked Boardshorts. I hope Asher and the woman whose name I'm forgetting stay, they keep things interesting.

I thought they had some interesting cases, and I think someone realizing they are on the spectrum at such an old age is an interesting thing to explore. 

I hope they don't keep Lea's pregnancy so dramatic and angsty the whole time. I know the show is a drama, but there should be some joy in having a baby.

[Whodunnit]

So Shawn is going to become a father after all.

Interesting fact:

In autistics vasopressin is below average.

First time fatherhood leads to an increase in estrogen and vasopressin.

What will that mean for Shawn?

 

[preeya]

35 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Both Shaun and Lea fret over the pregnancy, list the pro and cons, and originally plan to have an abortion, but change their mind at the last minute in typical television drama fashion.  At least both of them seen to know what they are getting into and I do think they can be great parents, but I just hope the show finds ways to make this more interesting than the norm.

Yeah, but just imagine what we, the viewers are getting into. I've said it before, I hate baby story lines. There is nothing they can do that hasn't already been done. Not looking forward to this.

Edited March 23, 2021 by preeya

[SunnyBeBe]

I suspect the show will go the normal route of there being a miscarriage.  I honestly can’t imagine either of those characters being parents.

Reznick must not realize most places had a moratorium on residential evictions due to covid. Lol I really like Park. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by SunnyBeBe

[preeya]

42 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Can't remember the last time I saw Christian Clemenson in something, so it was a nice surprise seeing him as Dr. Chambers.

Last I remember him was Boston Legal (Denny Crane).

He played Jerry Espenson who had Asperger Syndrome. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by preeya

[SunnyBeBe]

31 minutes ago, preeya said:

Last I remember him was Boston Legal (Denny Crane).

He played Jerry Espenson who had Asperger Syndrome. 

Yes!

[bros402]

I called that guy having trigeminal neuralgia shortly after he appeared on screen.

Leah, pasta with olive oil is not puke proof. Pasta is not pleasant coming back up at all.

Reznick illegally evicting Park is not a good look at all - she needs to give proper notice, he's a tenant.

At the end, that was the world's most patient nurse - Leah didn't come back immediately when her name was said and the nurse didn't immediately go "Leah? Is Leah here?" Or go out into the waiting room and take a peek? Since I am pretty sure when she said Leah's name, she was inside the hallway - or not enough in the waiting room to peek around the corner and see Leah and Shaun.

This baby storyline is gonna be something.

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I suspect the show will go the normal route of there being a miscarriage.  I honestly can’t imagine either of those characters being parents.

Reznick must not realize most places had a moratorium on residential evictions due to covid. Lol I really like Park. 

This is a post-COVID world.

[Annber03]

10 minutes ago, bros402 said:

At the end, that was the world's most patient nurse - Leah didn't come back immediately when her name was said and the nurse didn't immediately go "Leah? Is Leah here?" Or go out into the waiting room and take a peek? Since I am pretty sure when she said Leah's name, she was inside the hallway - or not enough in the waiting room to peek around the corner and see Leah and Shaun.

Haha, I was thinking the same thing :p. 

[StevedeMena]

What was written on the surgeon patient’s mug, the one Shaun fixed? I couldn't make it out at all.  

[Madding crowd]

I still can’t stand Reznick and hope Park is good with being put down and snapped at throughout their relationship. I liked the storyline with the autistic patient and even though he wasn’t a nice person, I felt bad he had no one to be with him after a dangerous surgery.

I don’t mind Lea or the baby story.

[preeya]

1 hour ago, StevedeMena said:

What was written on the surgeon patient’s mug, the one Shaun fixed? I couldn't make it out at all.  

The first word looks like autism, I couldn't make out the rest.

[tennisgurl]

So it looks like we are going through with it, Shaun and Lea are going to have a baby. Unless Lea has a dramatic miscarriage we are going with the baby plot, which I am still pretty mixed on. Its hard to do a baby in a show where most of the action takes place outside of the home, so I worry that a child could suck up all of the shows energy and plots. Plus, baby stories are pretty played out on TV and its hard to do that story without it seeming like a desperate attempt to do something new when a show is running low on ideas. On the other hand, the show can make this baby plot stand out more as they are telling a story about someone on the spectrum having a child, which I don't think we have seen a lot of on TV and I think that could be interesting. With Shaun's family history and being on the spectrum and wondering if his kid will be too, there is at least something there to explore to make it sound better than every other baby plot we've seen. I would have waited a season or two to give Shaun this story, but I will see where it goes. 

Sucks that Enrique is already gone, I was really starting to like him. Him just heading out seems rather random and abrupt, especially after they seemed to be setting up something happening between him and Claire, but him going somewhere where he can help more disadvantaged people does seem like its in character. I hope we can at least keep our last few newbies around. 

The plot with Doctor Chambers was quite interesting, sort of a What If scenario is Shaun had been born in a different time or had less of a support network now. He's a very flawed man that is hard to like, but it must have been terribly hard being on the spectrum before a time when people really knew much about that. He was just seen as "weird" by people in a time before kids were diagnosed with autism, its interesting seeing someone being diagnosed later in life. 

Park really does need to work on listening to his patients more, he has gotten a lot better about it since he first got here and was still rather operating on cop mode, treating patients like suspects he had to interrogate, he can still fall into that, especially when he gets signs that things might be wonky, like the patients wife saying she thought he might be faking for pills. He and Morgan have also finally admitted their sexual tension, and while Morgan is saying its just for one time, I don't buy that for a second. 

[possibilities]

4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Park really does need to work on listening to his patients more

Yeah. When Reznik looks like the sympathetic one who's nicer to the patients and trusts them and listens better, you have a real problem.

----

I get how hard it would be to grow up without any social support, but the man is a doctor. You'd think at some point he might actually have looked into his situation, as times changed and autism became much more widely publicly understood. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by possibilities

[Fable]

We all saw it coming, but I’m not a fan of Park and Reznik as a couple.  I like them both, but I thought they would make interesting roomies.  Now we just have to wait for the inevitable breakup and drama that comes with that. 

I’m glad another resident is leaving.  I never got attached to the character, but I didn’t dislike him either.  I just feel like the cast was rather bloated.  Andrews, Lim and Glassman never seem to get much screen time anymore. 

So Shaun and Lea are going to be parents.  Alrighty then!  I figured whatever they initially were planning to do, they would end up doing the opposite, so no surprise there.  I did appreciate that they were mindful and receptive of each other’s feelings.  That’s how to be supportive of a partner…not sneaking a car out of impound.

[KaveDweller]

17 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I suspect the show will go the normal route of there being a miscarriage.  I honestly can’t imagine either of those characters being parents.

Reznick must not realize most places had a moratorium on residential evictions due to covid. Lol I really like Park. 

Covid is magically fixed in this universe, but still not even giving him a day's notice was pretty terrible.

16 hours ago, bros402 said:

At the end, that was the world's most patient nurse - Leah didn't come back immediately when her name was said and the nurse didn't immediately go "Leah? Is Leah here?" Or go out into the waiting room and take a peek? Since I am pretty sure when she said Leah's name, she was inside the hallway - or not enough in the waiting room to peek around the corner and see Leah and Shaun.

That bothered me so much. I've never been in a doctor's waiting room where they call your name once and then disappear. I get they wanted to have a dramatic scene, but it really took me out of the scene.

[statsgirl]

I'm glad at least there is someplace for Enrique to go so that he can continue medicine. But this seems ridiculous; I spent some time working in a hospital and I never heard of any of the residents quitting although I guess some must sometimes.

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

I get how hard it would be to grow up without any social support, but the man is a doctor. You'd think at some point he might actually have looked into his situation, as times changed and autism became much more widely publicly understood. 

He didn't think that there was anything wrong with him, there was nothing to look into.

He was a surgeon, the branch of medicine that requires the least empathy, and he enjoyed his work.  What he said about his mother reminds me of my English in-laws.

23 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Shaun and Leah becoming parents is perhaps one of my least favorite storylines.  These writers.....

Same.

[possibilities]

I'm not saying there's something wrong with being autistic. I'm saying that autism is in the public consciousness, a person might notice how everything about it sounds like them. But I guess that doesn't make the script work.

[Zoe]

Wow, Matt finally got puberty!

[bros402]

23 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Haha, I was thinking the same thing :p. 

 

5 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

That bothered me so much. I've never been in a doctor's waiting room where they call your name once and then disappear. I get they wanted to have a dramatic scene, but it really took me out of the scene.

Me either, and I have been in a lot of doctors offices - never see that happen.

Well, one time I was at a doctor and I got up and the nurse thought I was following her, but I was still getting up, so I stood at the door waiting for her to reappear. But that is the closest I have gotten.

You think they would've had the nurse look around the corner, see the two of them having an emotional moment, and walk back into the hallway.

[tinkerbell]

9 hours ago, possibilities said:

I'm not saying there's something wrong with being autistic. I'm saying that autism is in the public consciousness, a person might notice how everything about it sounds like them. But I guess that doesn't make the script work.

I took it as him being in denial. 

[statsgirl]

16 hours ago, possibilities said:

I'm not saying there's something wrong with being autistic. I'm saying that autism is in the public consciousness, a person might notice how everything about it sounds like them. But I guess that doesn't make the script work.

ADHD is also now in the public consciousness (many thanks to Harvey Mandel among others) but every year I tell one or two adults "you should get tested for ADHD" and I'm right. Neither they nor their families had any idea, it was "that's just who X is".

[possibilities]

7 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

ADHD is also now in the public consciousness (many thanks to Harvey Mandel among others) but every year I tell one or two adults "you should get tested for ADHD" and I'm right. Neither they nor their families had any idea, it was "that's just who X is".

Are these people in the medical profession? 

I kind of get it about lay people, but it struck me as implausible for someone who spends all their time in medicine.

[statsgirl]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Are these people in the medical profession?

Some are medical adjacent meaning that they have doctors in their family.  One had doctors for both parents, one of whom had undiagnosed ADHD himself which probably contributed to not noticing it in his child.

Doctors are trained to look for physical things, rashes, breathing problems, trouble with moving, not psychological issues especially when someone is as high-functioning as Chambers.  Shaun spotted Chambers as being on the spectrum because he himself is. I doubt that any of the other doctors on the show would have caught it. They would have written Chambers off as a quirky and difficult surgeon who is used to having things as he orders. Surgery is a good specialty for someone on the spectrum because it requires precision and doesn't require much as empathy as other specialties.

[rmontro]

On 3/23/2021 at 12:28 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

I suspect the show will go the normal route of there being a miscarriage.

Even if they don't go the miscarriage route, you just know there is going to be some sort of complication with the pregnancy.  I can just see the conversation Shaun and Lea have with their kid 10 years from now:  "Yeah, we had decided to have you killed, but at the last moment we changed our mind.  We're so glad we did".

The Dr. Chambers character was interesting, and it was nice to see him come around to appreciate Shaun.  His last scene showed his struggle, while still showing his attempt to change.  He was kind of snippy about accepting the referral, saying he could do it himself.  But then stopped to thank both the doctors on the way out.

[bros402]

5 hours ago, rmontro said:

Even if they don't go the miscarriage route, you just know there is going to be some sort of complication with the pregnancy.  I can just see the conversation Shaun and Lea have with their kid 10 years from now:  "Yeah, we had decided to have you killed, but at the last moment we changed our mind.  We're so glad we did".

I can picture Shaun blurting that out in an argument. Then saying "We're glad we did" as an apology.

Edited March 25, 2021 by bros402

[Leeds]

13 hours ago, possibilities said:

Are these people in the medical profession? 

I kind of get it about lay people, but it struck me as implausible for someone who spends all their time in medicine.

"Physician, heal thyself".

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/281850.html

[Starchild]

On 3/23/2021 at 1:51 AM, bros402 said:

Reznick illegally evicting Park is not a good look at all - she needs to give proper notice, he's a tenant.

Is he a tenant, or just a roommate? Did they have a contract? Even if he could sue, he does still have to work with her and that would really complicate things. I can see him forgoing a lawsuit even if he had standing, he's that kind of guy.

 

On 3/23/2021 at 10:01 AM, preeya said:

The first word looks like autism, I couldn't make out the rest.

Wasn't it a duplicate of his original mug? Since he was in denial about his autism I doubt it would say that on his favourite mug.

ETA: I did a freeze frame. It says "World's Greatest Dad"

Edited March 25, 2021 by Starchild

[rmontro]

5 hours ago, Starchild said:

ETA: I did a freeze frame. It says "World's Greatest Dad"

That's odd, he didn't have any children that I'm aware of.  And he said his dad used to bring him mugs from his travels, and that's where he got the habit.  Maybe the mug belonged to his dad, and he took it as a memory of him?  Or maybe he bought it to remind him of his dad?  Kind of brings up more questions than it answers.  

[bros402]

13 hours ago, Starchild said:

Is he a tenant, or just a roommate? Did they have a contract? Even if he could sue, he does still have to work with her and that would really complicate things. I can see him forgoing a lawsuit even if he had standing, he's that kind of guy.

 

Wasn't it a duplicate of his original mug? Since he was in denial about his autism I doubt it would say that on his favourite mug.

ETA: I did a freeze frame. It says "World's Greatest Dad"

They're in CA - if he paid her rent and has mail there, he is a tenant

[Starchild]

18 hours ago, rmontro said:

That's odd, he didn't have any children that I'm aware of.  And he said his dad used to bring him mugs from his travels, and that's where he got the habit.  Maybe the mug belonged to his dad, and he took it as a memory of him?  Or maybe he bought it to remind him of his dad?  Kind of brings up more questions than it answers.  

It looked to me to be handmade (or at least hand-decorated). That suggests to me that he made it for his dad, perhaps as a Father's Day or birthday gift. It may have become his dad's favourite mug, since it was a gift from his son. He would have kept it after his father died as a representation of that bond between himself and the one other person in the world that understood him.

[rmontro]

On 3/25/2021 at 12:07 PM, Starchild said:

Is he a tenant, or just a roommate? Did they have a contract? Even if he could sue, he does still have to work with her and that would really complicate things. I can see him forgoing a lawsuit even if he had standing, he's that kind of guy.

  Legalities or not, that was a pretty crappy thing to do to expect him to be moved out that same day, especially after working a full shift.

[PaulaO]

On 3/22/2021 at 10:05 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

Shaun and Leah becoming parents is perhaps one of my least favorite storylines.  These writers.....

I totally agree.  I'm no longer watching.  Tired of that trope.

[Janie430]

OK, so I have to giggle.  This is the second doctor who has decided that surgery isn't for them.  So two of the characters they thought were going to be such better surgeons than Rowing guy are already out of the program in less than a year.  A part of me wants all four to leave so that Lim and the selecting surgeons end up in front of the hospital board saying "So why don't we have any second year residents for the next year?" and possibly have to oversee hiring for next year as well.

[Tdoc72]

On 3/24/2021 at 1:27 AM, bros402 said:

 

Me either, and I have been in a lot of doctors offices - never see that happen.

Well, one time I was at a doctor and I got up and the nurse thought I was following her, but I was still getting up, so I stood at the door waiting for her to reappear. But that is the closest I have gotten.

You think they would've had the nurse look around the corner, see the two of them having an emotional moment, and walk back into the hallway.

I guessed they were used to it since tv always has someone going to the clinic then changing their mind.  🤷🏻‍♀️

On 3/26/2021 at 4:41 PM, rmontro said:

  Legalities or not, that was a pretty crappy thing to do to expect him to be moved out that same day, especially after working a full shift.

He really only had one suitcase. Not much to pack but yes, that was shitty of her. But I find her a shitty person.  

Edited May 12, 2021 by Tdoc72