S06.E20: Blessed

[Whimsy]

Quote

Dr. Marcus Andrews introduces some of the team to a patient whose optimism and faith seems to cause Dr. Asher Wolke the most skepticism in light of his own relationship with religion.

Original airdate 4/17/23

[KaveDweller]

Shaun, I don't think you should have gone to Lim like that. You should have talked to Glassman again and told him what you realized about the stroke.

Baby Eden is adorable.

Asher needs to workout his childhood issues with people who are religious.

[Annber03]

Wow, been a while since they lost a patient. 

Wonder whether Asher and his boyfriend will break up or propose by the end of the season, 'cause there were moments towards the end there where it seemed like it could go either way. As valid as the criticism of Asher was, maybe not drop it on him right after he's dealing with losing a patient, and Asher, when your guy's out with his friends after you've had a fight...maybe don't crash the gathering? 

So Glassman's memory issues might be tied to an injury from a ball? On the plus side, that seems to indicate that he won't be killed off, but on the downside...if he's not doing surgery anymore...will he stick around? 

Park and Morgan getting back together in three, two, one...

[Starchild]

30 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Park and Morgan getting back together in three, two, one...

Please no.

===

When that guy died my friend and I speculated he may have found a way to commit suicide, which would throw a lot of wrenches into the various (un)faithful. But since nothing like that was suggested, our next thought was...mercy killing! Stay tuned...

Come on, it would be a great cliffhanger for the season.

By the way, did Jordan and Daniel just agree to jeopardize his recovery by unpausing their relationship? I mean, that rule is there for a reason right? Proven?

Edited April 18, 2023 by Starchild

[possibilities]

Andrews badmouthing Lim to her residents is very bad form and shows he really hasn't changed that much. He's just saying what he thinks will get him what he wants with the nurse. 

I was hoping Shaun would be wrong for once, and Glassman would be fine.

[bros402]

Shaun should not have gone to Lim like that - he should've talked to Glassman instead of doing that to him. So this is going to lead to a schism between the two - and it'll probably be mended when something happens with the baby, probably when Lea is in labor and there are complications (at least I am guessing that is what will happen).

Andrews is backsliding badly - like he hasn't been this horrible since the first couple of seasons.

I hate that Shaun is always right - why can't Lea be right and it is just age like she suggested? Or is it going to be proven to be the right idea by Glassman having a stroke at the end of the penultimate episode (or as the finale cliffhanger?)

also, oh my GOD I was hating the "wow this guy is an inspiration!!!!!" part - everyone doesn't have to be inspiration porn!
 

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

So Glassman's memory issues might be tied to an injury from a ball? On the plus side, that seems to indicate that he won't be killed off, but on the downside...if he's not doing surgery anymore...will he stick around? 

No - it's that he had a mini-stroke. Shaun was just thinking of a baseball because of the texture of a baseball.

Wasn't Glassman not doing surgery for a season+ while he was running the clinic?

[Jim Marlowe]

5 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Shaun, I don't think you should have gone to Lim like that. You should have talked to Glassman again and told him what you realized about the stroke.

Baby Eden is adorable.

Asher needs to workout his childhood issues with people who are religious.

Glassman isn't listening and isn't reasonable. Being a doctor, a surgeon, and even more a neurosurgeon, Glassman should have been the first to investigate on his problems, but he is just being belligerant and downplaying it.

[tennisgurl]

Ouch, its been awhile since we lost a patient and had such a downer of an ending. Everyone on this show needs to learn how to put all of their shit on their patients, people need a special waiver to sign where they make doctors promise not to let their doctors childhood trauma or parent issues affect their medical care. Asher really needs to deal with his issues surrounding religion, its perfectly fine that he isn't religious and his issues are valid, but he cant lose his shit every time someone, especially a patient, says something about god. He and Jerome have some real issues they need to deal with, neither of them handled this very well. Jerome should have told Asher right away that he hurt his feelings instead of sulking for days and he picked a pretty bad time to bring it up with Asher after his patient just died, and Asher shouldn't have shown up in the middle of dinner with Jerome's friends to make a big speech. 

I really wish that Lea had been right and Glassman was fine, just getting older, but of course Shaun has to always be right. I did feel for him though, he's obviously worried and is stuck in a bad place, going to Lim is going to really piss Glassman off, but he's being stubborn even in the face of evidence that something is wrong and he could end up getting worse or accidently hurt a patient. 

[chitowngirl]

It’s nice that on duty surgeon Shaun had absolutely nothing to do all day but follow Glassman around.

[thuganomics85]

Fun seeing Richard Harmon in a role that brought his normal snark and wiseass attitude, but wasn't a bad guy for once.  I bet being under all that prosthetics and make-up though wasn't fun though.  And go figure that he would finally be the patient that actually dies on this show.  Well, it was fun while it lasted!

I remember when they did an anti-religion thing with Claire as well back in the day, but Asher definitely took it to a whole new level here.  I agree with Jerome that it makes sense due to his upbringing and parents, but it really is just a symptom of a bigger problem in that Asher always has to right no matter what and will bulldoze over others to get there.  Glad he admitted it at the end to Jerome (although, he kind of picked a bad time to do it), but if he actually doesn't make strides to change this about him, it could end up really hurting him on an interpersonal level.

Yeah, it's hard to buy Andrews big speech at the end after we literally hear him snarking on Lim earlier this episode.  It just felt like it was all about him wanting to say the right things in order to get back into Villanueva's good graces.

Figured Reznick was going to end up adopting Eden and end the whole IVF story.  And it seems like a set-up to bring Park back into her life since he's going the extra mile to help out as well.

Definitely looks like something really is going on with Glassman.  You just know Shaun telling Lim is going to cause more issues between them.  Things are never easy on this show!

[rmontro]

17 hours ago, bros402 said:

No - it's that he had a mini-stroke. Shaun was just thinking of a baseball because of the texture of a baseball.

And I thought he was thinking of a baseball because of the shape of the injured area.  Maybe they should have done a better job of explaining that, since we all seem to be coming away from it with different conclusions.

If Glassman can't do surgery, you have to wonder what his future is on the show?  Could he still do administration, or would his mental deficiency interfere with that?  Shawn's neighbor and babysitter?

[KaveDweller]

15 hours ago, Jim Marlowe said:

Glassman isn't listening and isn't reasonable. Being a doctor, a surgeon, and even more a neurosurgeon, Glassman should have been the first to investigate on his problems, but he is just being belligerant and downplaying it.

Glassman was being unreasonable because Shaun had no evidence and was just stuck on missing screws. If he showed Glassman the scan and explained about the jagged edges, it may have made a difference. If not, THEN he goes to another doctor.

[possibilities]

I did like how Shaun's entire face changed and showed joy when Glassman made a good plan during the surgical crisis. Just a nice bit of acting there.

[PurpleTentacle]

So the whole stakes about Glasman were if he should or shouldn't do surgery anymore? I mean he is retirement age anyway. Big whoop.

22 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Asher needs to workout his childhood issues with people who are religious.

He does go overboard a bit. But then again, I can't help but like him, because overly religious people can get quite annoying. It's like a grown adult constantly telling you how great Santa is.

10 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I really wish that Lea had been right and Glassman was fine, just getting older

 

I mean even then he shouldn't operate anymore. There really is no difference. This mini-stroke left mini damage, so it's really not a big deal, other than that Glasman can't operate anymore, which would be the same if the symptoms were due to old age.

It might be different if we were to assume that he was going to have more strokes, but this was in the place where they cut out the tumor, so I assume that was the reason and he isn't particularly prone to strokes in general.

3 hours ago, rmontro said:

If Glassman can't do surgery, you have to wonder what his future is on the show?  Could he still do administration, or would his mental deficiency interfere with that?  Shawn's neighbor and babysitter?

He has very, very, very small impairment, that let's him sometimes forget something. Overall he seems to be functioning better than I do in my 30s. The impairment could be dangerous during surgery, but not during administrative work. He can even still do everything else a doctor does, just not do surgeries.

Blonde doctor can't do surgery anymore and she is still on the show.

[bros402]

6 hours ago, rmontro said:

And I thought he was thinking of a baseball because of the shape of the injured area.  Maybe they should have done a better job of explaining that, since we all seem to be coming away from it with different conclusions.

If Glassman can't do surgery, you have to wonder what his future is on the show?  Could he still do administration, or would his mental deficiency interfere with that?  Shawn's neighbor and babysitter?

at least I think that is what it was - since the text said something like "smooth surface, rough edges" and Lim pointed that out about the edges of what was showing on the MRI, then Shaun countered with whatever and Shaun said it can look like that in people with radiation

It seems like he could probably still practice medicine, just not as a surgeon. If Hill Harper leaves, they could slot Glassman back into hospital President

[possibilities]

49 minutes ago, bros402 said:

If Hill Harper leaves,

Is that something that's been floated as a possibility? 

 

[Jim Marlowe]

14 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Glassman was being unreasonable because Shaun had no evidence and was just stuck on missing screws. If he showed Glassman the scan and explained about the jagged edges, it may have made a difference. If not, THEN he goes to another doctor.

It wasn't just missing screws, one of the 2 biggest lateral panels of the crib was barely attached, when Shaun checked in the last scene of the previous episode.

And if you observe their discussion/argument during the beginning of this monday's episode, when Glassman was screaming, he confessed having trouble to follow the instructions. A surgeon unable to follow sequenced instructions, it is a problem. It's not rocket science, it's a simple crib, you can assemble  with your eyes closed. He shouldn't have problem to build it.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Jim Marlowe

[circumvent]

6 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

He does go overboard a bit. But then again, I can't help but like him, because overly religious people can get quite annoying. It's like a grown adult constantly telling you how great Santa is.

I am not crazy about the character but agree with you. As a non believer, it is really annoying that everything, everywhere, has a touch of religious and when you say you don't believe in god or any of that, more times than you might think, people just say: I will pray for you. That and popular culture, community events, if you want to join a volunteer group just to help. Religion is everywhere and people just assume god is the truth for everyone. So, he apologized for being a dick. Jordan doesn't apologize for being a prozelytizer, does she? Same dickness, imo

[Daff]

On 4/18/2023 at 1:02 AM, bros402 said:

Shaun was just thinking of a baseball because of the texture of a baseball.

Yes, that, as we saw the image. But he also made a pun (rudimentary humor) by saying that image threw him a curveball. Have we heard him purposely tell a joke in conversational context? I’m sure he can recite jokes he might have memorized, but I don’t think he’s ever just put one in conversation.

[circumvent]

35 minutes ago, Daff said:

Yes, that, as we saw the image. But he also made a pun (rudimentary humor) by saying that image threw him a curveball. Have we heard him purposely tell a joke in conversational context? I’m sure he can recite jokes he might have memorized, but I don’t think he’s ever just put one in conversation.

If they are writing Shaun as an autistic who cannot tell jokes, the "consultants" are worse than I imagined. A pun is basically word pay and a lot of autistic people have an uncanny ability to play with words (or shapes, numbers, etc)

[possibilities]

Shaun's concern over Glassman started when G incorrectly stitched a patient who then had a post-op bleed. So I guess that I should have known it would turn out that he was right that something was wrong with G and his perseverance and attention to detail would eventually diagnose it (plus that he's the main character on the show and is always shown to be right eventually).

 

[KaveDweller]

20 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

So the whole stakes about Glasman were if he should or shouldn't do surgery anymore? I mean he is retirement age anyway. Big whoop.

He does go overboard a bit. But then again, I can't help but like him, because overly religious people can get quite annoying. It's like a grown adult constantly telling you how great Santa is.

I tend to agree. But if talking to someone who is religions, don't tell them they are an idiot, especially if you are dating them.

16 hours ago, Jim Marlowe said:

It wasn't just missing screws, one of the 2 biggest lateral panels of the crib was barely attached, when Shaun checked in the last scene of the previous episode.

And if you observe their discussion/argument during the beginning of this monday's episode, when Glassman was screaming, he confessed having trouble to follow the instructions. A surgeon unable to follow sequenced instructions, it is a problem. It's not rocket science, it's a simple crib, you can assemble  with your eyes closed. He shouldn't have problem to build it.

In the last scene of the previous episode, what I saw was that Shaun checked because of the screws and it looked fine. If it had been barely attached, he would have mentioned it when talking to Glassman or Leah.

And without seeing the instructions, I can't say if a surgeon should have been able to follow them or not. Some of those furniture kits really do have bad instructions, and surgeons don't typically operate by following a written instructions doc. They spend years training in an OR with experts advising them. 

But I'm not saying Glassman doesn't have issues, I just think Shaun should not have gone over his head to Lim without telling Glassman first.

 

[Jim Marlowe]

45 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

I tend to agree. But if talking to someone who is religions, don't tell them they are an idiot, especially if you are dating them.

In the last scene of the previous episode, what I saw was that Shaun checked because of the screws and it looked fine. If it had been barely attached, he would have mentioned it when talking to Glassman or Leah.

And without seeing the instructions, I can't say if a surgeon should have been able to follow them or not. Some of those furniture kits really do have bad instructions, and surgeons don't typically operate by following a written instructions doc. They spend years training in an OR with experts advising them. 

But I'm not saying Glassman doesn't have issues, I just think Shaun should not have gone over his head to Lim without telling Glassman first.

 

But that the point of the story with Glassman, he can not follow sequential instructions given anymore, reason why he was unable to finish the suturing, reason why he was unable to finish the assembling of the crib. Surgeries are not improvisation, they follow an etablished plan, reason why surgeons practice before doing the actual surgery.

A reasonable surgeon would have tested himself to evacuate any doubt. Glassman isn't reasonable now, the first thing he did during the breakfast discussion was going personal against Shaun then the runaway card. Not a sign of confidence.

So you saw what happened when someone talked to him about any of his medical problems: Shaun, Blaze, Debbie, Lea, they all faced his anger.

 

And about the crib, watch again, the side panel opposite to Lea and the moment when Shaun tests it after finding the remaining screws.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Jim Marlowe

[PurpleTentacle]

16 hours ago, circumvent said:

I am not crazy about the character but agree with you. As a non believer, it is really annoying that everything, everywhere, has a touch of religious and when you say you don't believe in god or any of that, more times than you might think, people just say: I will pray for you. That and popular culture, community events, if you want to join a volunteer group just to help. Religion is everywhere and people just assume god is the truth for everyone. So, he apologized for being a dick. Jordan doesn't apologize for being a prozelytizer, does she? Same dickness, imo

I thankfully live in a protestant german state, so people usually keep their religion to themselves (if they have any). It's not like in bavaria where they are nailing crucifixes to every classroom wall.

That makes it all the more jarring when you meet an overly religious person who just won't shut up about god (weirdly americans seem to be more into "Jesus" and germans more into "God", even though technically they are the same entity). I agree, Jordan is a very serious case of this and somehow she doesn't feel the need to apologise for it and the show doesn't think she should have to. Pretty big double standard here.

2 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I tend to agree. But if talking to someone who is religions, don't tell them they are an idiot, especially if you are dating them.

Has Jerome ever outed himself as a christian? It didn't seem like Asher was aware that he might have hurt his feelings with the comments about christians being stupid. Even his apology was about the steamrolling and always having to be right, not the christian stuff.

I agree, you shouldn't call your partner stupid for being religious, you should only think it. 😜 But then again, the question is if you are actually compatible. I'm not sure if I could long term be with somebody who takes that whole thing seriously.

[Diana Berry]

On 4/17/2023 at 11:03 PM, KaveDweller said:

Shaun, I don't think you should have gone to Lim like that. You should have talked to Glassman again and told him what you realized about the stroke.

Baby Eden is adorable.

Asher needs to workout his childhood issues with people who are religious.

Cutest baby ever.  She even resembles Resnick.

[KaveDweller]

3 hours ago, Jim Marlowe said:

But that the point of the story with Glassman, he can not follow sequential instructions given anymore, reason why he was unable to finish the suturing, reason why he was unable to finish the assembling of the crib. Surgeries are not improvisation, they follow an etablished plan, reason why surgeons practice before doing the actual surgery.

A reasonable surgeon would have tested himself to evacuate any doubt. Glassman isn't reasonable now, the first thing he did during the breakfast discussion was going personal against Shaun then the runaway card. Not a sign of confidence.

So you saw what happened when someone talked to him about any of his medical problems: Shaun, Blaze, Debbie, Lea, they all faced his anger.

 

And about the crib, watch again, the side panel opposite to Lea and the moment when Shaun tests it after finding the remaining screws.

I just rewatched the scene. Three times actually. The crib looks fine. The side panel moves slightly when Shaun shakes it, but most cribs have a panel that moves, so that is expected. It is fully attached. If Shaun thought Glassman didn't finish the crib or built it unsafely, he would have said that when talking to him about the missing screws.

But all I'm saying is Shaun should have said something to Glassman before going to his boss to get him banned from performing surgery. He previously just went to him and said there were extra screws. Glassman was a jerk about it, but no one would take that seriously by itself. But Shaun found something in Glassman's scans and didn't even do him the courtesy of telling him. We'll never know how Glassman would have reacted to him doing that. 

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Has Jerome ever outed himself as a christian? It didn't seem like Asher was aware that he might have hurt his feelings with the comments about christians being stupid. Even his apology was about the steamrolling and always having to be right, not the christian stuff.

I agree, you shouldn't call your partner stupid for being religious, you should only think it. 😜 But then again, the question is if you are actually compatible. I'm not sure if I could long term be with somebody who takes that whole thing seriously.

We see so little of Jerome and Asher, it is hard to know. Asher seems like the type to disregard Jerome being religious because of his rant. But Jerome's argument to Asher was more about steamrolling him and not about being offended by the religion comment.

I agree it would be very hard to have a long term relationship with someone with very different religious beliefs, especially if you plan to have kids together.

[bros402]

22 hours ago, possibilities said:

Is that something that's been floated as a possibility? 

The Good Doctor's Hill Harper Eyes U.S. Senate Run and looking at an article a few days ago it looks like he might be going for it.

[possibilities]

I think that it's not just their difference about religion that is a problem. It's also the cultural or personality difference in terms of some people are highly conflict averse and other people are more of the school of "dive in, wrestle, work it out". They are playing it as Asher is a jerk because he makes a passionate case for his point of view, and his boyfriend is feeling steamrolled. But Asher might be fine with his boyfriend coming back at him just as hard with his own argument for his own point of view. He might welcome it, and listen to what he's saying. I would not call someone an idiot, but it's unclear if Asher knew his boyfriend didn't share his viewpoint about religion and would take that as a personal attack (Though if he is religious, Asher ought to know-- Do they talk at all??) or if he was just ranting about something that was important to him, which he assumed they agreed about because lots and lots of gay people do have horrible experiences with religion*-- and I don't think getting worked up about an issue and ranting about it to your significant other is inherently wrong behavior. People need to vent about stuff that matters to them. If they don't know you disagree, they might not be tactful about it, or they might just expect you to dive in and argue back.

I really don't want them to be saying that Asher is the only person in that relationship who needs to grow. His boyfriend needs to be more assertive and communicate more, and Asher needs to learn when to chill out and listen and be open to his boyfriend's point of view-- which he was, once it was expressed.

I think it's pretty insulting that his friends described Asher's behavior as crazy and the dude agreed. He was apologizing very sincerely and his barging in wasn't great but he didn't linger or expect them to invite him to join them, and he didn't ask to have his apology immediately accepted, either. It wasn't the most suave move ever, but it wasn't totally terrible. He knew his BF was very upset with him and he reacted very humbly once he understood why.

He does go off a lot, but he's not the only one in the ensemble who does. Jordan is also constantly judging everybody and inserting her opinions (and she and Asher are close! It fits in that they are both headstrong and highly opinionated even though they often have opposite opinions)-- and she's currently the most sought after love interest on the show--, and Shaun goes off and has outbursts-- and he has people who respect and love him-- and Glassman is irritable and defensive and yells at Shaun and he also yelled at his ex-wife ,and freaking Andrews was insulting Lim two eps in a row. Nobody on this show is being portrayed as perfect.

Asher's boyfriend may think he's the sane one, but being passive and bland doesn't make you sane, it might only mean you're hiding, or you don't really know what you think well enough to assert it. He hid his HIV status because he was afraid, he's got a pattern of not speaking up even when he should, so he can't really be smug about how sane or mature Asher is or isn't, and think he has a high horse to sit on.

 

---
*not all gay people and not all religions. I'm a lifelong lesbian and I've had really good experiences with religion. But there are plenty of religions that are shitty to us and plenty of us who have totally lost patience with the entire subject, for reasons I respect

Edited April 20, 2023 by possibilities

[Jim Marlowe]

 

 

5 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I just rewatched the scene. Three times actually. The crib looks fine. The side panel moves slightly when Shaun shakes it, but most cribs have a panel that moves, so that is expected. It is fully attached. If Shaun thought Glassman didn't finish the crib or built it unsafely, he would have said that when talking to him about the missing screws.

But all I'm saying is Shaun should have said something to Glassman before going to his boss to get him banned from performing surgery. He previously just went to him and said there were extra screws. Glassman was a jerk about it, but no one would take that seriously by itself. But Shaun found something in Glassman's scans and didn't even do him the courtesy of telling him. We'll never know how Glassman would have reacted to him doing that. 

The crib didn't have this option, the side panel wasn't supposed to move.

And Shaun during the attempted breakfast, clearly described his modus operandi to Glassman, that he would gather proofs if Glassman is fine or not and will inform Lim. That the reason and the moment when Glassman got angry.

And honestly, we perfectly know how Glassman would have acted and reacted if Shaun would have told him: angrily.

[possibilities]

I don't think you get to go behind a friend's back just to avoid them getting angry. If Shaun needs to go to Lim, he needs to go to Lim. But he should go to Glassman first. How does he get access to Glassman's medical records without G's consent, anyway? He's not G's doctor. He'd be ripshit if Glassman, or anyone, did that to him.

If he had concerns, such as after the stitches were done wrong and the patient had the bleed, that's legitimate and he should have told Glassman and then gone to Lim then, and gotten an investigation done through proper channels. But to go rogue like that is really a bad precedent. Do we want all the doctors sneaking around and independently investigating other doctors and reportng them to their supervisors without informing them of the results and without any regard to process?

Not that TV ever observes rules, of course.

Edited April 21, 2023 by possibilities
typo

[Jim Marlowe]

Isn't exactly what Lim herself did against Shaun in the beginning of this season, the same Shaun who saved her life?

And Shaun already worked with Glassman on his medical records, reason why he had access to his medical files and commented about them, you know, the moment when he discovered that Glassman didn't do maintenance chemotherapy.

[racked]

I like Asher quite a lot and find his boyfriend annoying so I wouldn’t be sad if they broke up at the end of the season. The Asher finds religion annoying well has run dry though. We have seen him go through this with Jordan and find a way to be respectful. But if his boyfriend is a devout Christian and he’s just discovering it now they have other problems. 

[bros402]

19 hours ago, Jim Marlowe said:

Isn't exactly what Lim herself did against Shaun in the beginning of this season, the same Shaun who saved her life?

And Shaun already worked with Glassman on his medical records, reason why he had access to his medical files and commented about them, you know, the moment when he discovered that Glassman didn't do maintenance chemotherapy.

I believe Shaun had access to it because Glassman accessed his own records through the hospital database before it was released to him.

[jabRI]

I don't understand Jordan's appeal to all these guys, to me she doesnt' have much of a personality and certainly hasn't shown much warmth to anyone, even her female friends.

[Court]

I hate the Glassman storyline so much. 

[cinsays]

22 hours ago, jabRI said:

I don't understand Jordan's appeal to all these guys, to me she doesnt' have much of a personality and certainly hasn't shown much warmth to anyone, even her female friends.

well, if was between her and resnick, i would find jordan much more appealing

[bros402]

9 hours ago, cinsays said:

well, if was between her and resnick, i would find jordan much more appealing

i'd probably be celibate if I had to choose between those two

[KaveDweller]

15 hours ago, bros402 said:

i'd probably be celibate if I had to choose between those two

Well anyone who picks Jordan will have to be celibate too, she's said she's abstaining until marriage.

[bros402]

8 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Well anyone who picks Jordan will have to be celibate too, she's said she's abstaining until marriage.

hahahahahahaha this made me laugh more than it should've