People who make better friends than roommates are sitcom gold. (Does anyone remember The Odd Couple?)
The Good Doctor isn’t a sitcom, but a new major story is going in that direction.
The Good Doctor Season 6 Episode 12 spoilers have Glassman moving in with Shaun and Lea. There’s even a silly clip involving Lea walking in on Glassman in the shower. How is this going to work out?
Hopefully, the Glassman stuff won’t take up more of the hour than it deserves. This kind of silly situation is acceptable as a side plot, but as the main story of the hour, it will fall flat.
Too many awkward situations with Glassman and his new roommates will make the episode overly lighthearted. Even if there are some serious medical stories, it won’t be enough to restore the balance.
Glassman has always been a surrogate father to Shaun, so much so that Lea told Glassman to “make up with his son” when he and Shaun were fighting over the Lim situation.
But they’ve never lived together before, and Glassman moving in. no matter how temporary it is, will somewhat change the dynamics of their relationship. Glassman tends to be rigid and doesn’t tolerate dissent in his personal life, which killed his marriage to Debbie.
Shaun also refuses to give an inch and can be impossible to live with
The two of them sharing the same space, even if only for a few days, is not going to be pretty.
And isn’t Lea supposed to be reducing her stress throughout the remainder of her pregnancy? This seems like the opposite of low-stress living!
Fortunately, there’s a bona fide medical storyline to counteract this nonsense. According to a clip in the spoiler video, Shaun gets into a significant disagreement with Jordan over a thirteen-year-old patient.
The patient has a tumor caused by a mutation in a fertilized egg. This wasn’t on my list of “things that can go wrong with a young teenage pregnancy,” but here we are.
Jordan thinks that this is a mandatory reporting situation since thirteen is below the age of consent. However, the father of this child’s baby appears to be no more than thirteen or fourteen himself, so Shaun doesn’t see an issue.
This sounds like a compelling controversy.
Shaun is a by-the-book kind of guy, thanks to his Autism. So as far as he’s concerned, if the law says that two thirteen-year-olds having sex isn’t a problem, then that’s the end of the story.
Jordan will think otherwise — in her mind, these children are still children, and someone did something inappropriate.
Shaun’s position makes sense from the limited information in the promo. There’s a huge difference between two thirteen-year-olds having sex and an adult molesting a young teen.
If the team reports this, it could ruin the boyfriend’s life for no good reason. Should a thirteen-year-old who got his girlfriend pregnant be required to be on a sex offender registry for life because they were both underage?
A lot depends on the specific circumstances. It is possible that the boy forced or coerced the girl. That’s still sexual assault, even if the kids are underage.
It’s also possible that he’s only pretending to be the father and that an adult had sex with the girl, which falls into the mandatory-reporting column.
Jordan will probably frame this as Shaun not understanding how serious the issue of sexual assault is. If she does, is that fair?
Granted, Shaun’s strongest mentor is Glassman, who tends towards sexist attitudes. Lea’s had words with Glassman over his outdated beliefs more than once.
Still, sexual assault is not the same as two kids experimenting with sex while they’re still children and aren’t ready to deal with the consequences.
If Jordan pushes to report a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy for having consensual sex, she may cross the line into interfering with other people’s lives.
That could be problematic, especially if the kids’ parents don’t agree with Jordan’s decisions.
Where are the parents, anyway? Are these thirteen-year-olds emancipated? If they’re not, then their parents should have something to say about the care the girl is getting at the hospital and the issue of her having had sex at thirteen.
Although it’s not mentioned in the video, another spoiler is that Morgan has to make a decision that affects her life and career.
She already turned down the prestigious fellowship in New York, so it’s unlikely she’ll get a second chance at that. If she does, she should take it — but she probably won’t now that she and Park are in a decent place.
She recently tried to have IVF to have a baby and become a single mother, only to learn that the implantation didn’t take. Instead, she had what sounded like a chemical pregnancy where she was pregnant and then she wasn’t.
Whatever big decision she has to make likely has to do with her dream of becoming a mother.
She might have the opportunity to adopt a child or undergo an experimental procedure to get pregnant.
She might also be offered a new role within the hospital that would take a lot of time and be incompatible with her dreams of motherhood, leaving her to make a heartwrenching decision.
What do you think Morgan’s decision will entail? Who do you think will be right about whether this young girl’s sex life needs to be reported to social services?
And will Glassman moving in with Shaun and Lea be a fun story or over-the-top silly?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button, and let us know your thoughts.
Don’t forget that you can watch The Good Doctor online while waiting for the new episode to air.
The Good Doctor airs on ABC on Mondays at 10 PM EST / PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.