Faces

"Faces"

Episode Information

Season 2

Episode 14

Overall 32

Airdate:

February 4, 2019^[1]

Viewers:

5.96^[3] million

Writer:

David Hoselton^[2]

Director:

Allison Liddi-Brown^[2]

Episode Chronology

Preceded by:	Followed by:
"Xin"	"Risk and Reward"

"Faces"^[1] is the fourteenth episode of Season 2 of The Good Doctor. It is the thirty-second episode overall, and aired on February 4, 2019.

Synopsis[]

Dr. Andrews tries to convince a grieving family to donate their teenage daughter's face to another young girl whose face was horribly disfigured in an accident.^[2]

Plot[]

Shaun is still trying to help Dr. Glassman, even taking the day off to do so, while Dr. Andrews and Claire are explaining a surgery to their patient Molly who was disfigured in an accident to realign her eyes. Concurrently, paramedics are bringing in Karin Tindle, a 14-year-old girl who sleeping in the back of her mother Shannon’s car when a trucker fell asleep and collided with them. It appears she has a bleed in her brain and is sent to an OR.

While the surgical team opt to check Karin for brain damage, Glassman is moping about how he’s “sitting on [his] ass all day” and has gone from being President of the hospital to dealing with keeping his food down and his bowel movements. As Shaun goes to get Glassman’s medication, Karin’s surgery is underway while Shaun realizes that Glassman’s medication is medical marijuana. Although Shaun is cautious, Glassman has some while Shaun asks to try as he met someone who said that it can improve autism symptoms. He and Glassman then work to test it.

Unfortunately, Neil realizes that Karin is brain dead. While high on the marijuana, Shaun and Glassman end up wrecking Glassman’s home while golfing as Dr. Lim reports Karin’s death to Shannon who is devastated. Glassman soon asks about Lea and believes that Shaun likes her, which Glassman tells Shaun that he can talk about while they are stoned. Glassman also offers Shaun food and suggests that they get mallomars.

While everyone is upset about Karin, Dr. Andrews talks to Shannon about donating Karin’s face to Molly. Shannon initially refuses, only to then see Molly in the elevator. At the same time, Shaun and Glassman are unsuccessful in their venture and Shaun tries to get their Uber driver to take them on a long trip. When the driver states that she feels like she’s being exploited, Glassman admits that mallomars were the favorite snack of a girl he had a crush on in high school, Robyn Demayne. The Uber driver then offers to help find Robyn, seeing that Glassman still has feelings for her.

Andrews addresses the face transplant surgery to Molly who agrees to it. Andrews tells the staff that they are on the clock as Karin’s heart is compromised, making the transplant the hospital’s main priority for the next two days. Shaun and the Uber driver try to work with Glassman to find Robyn, though he thinks it’s somewhat pointless. The surgical team works around the clock, as do Glassman, Shaun and the Uber driver who are having less hope to finding Robyn. The latter are about to give up when Glassman remembers Flake, a friend of his who would know where Robyn is.

Claire sees Molly who is unsure about how she can accept the gift of a new face, only to get annoyed because she and Claire have made jokes about how appearances don’t matter and yet Claire is trying to advise Molly about it. Claire then states that people aren’t going to stop staring at Molly for her face but the surgery will change that. Glassman also reunites with Flake (Finlay Lake) who is a janitor.

While Shannon says goodbye to Karin who is given a Walk of Honor for her donation, Flake states that Robyn has married and moved out of state (to Glassman’s annoyance). Shaun finds her in Portland, Oregon; an 11 hour drive which Glassman and the Uber driver agree to. The face transfer surgery soon happens, but the Uber driver thinks that Glassman will soon not want to do this.

Lim and Claire are soon sent on a break to talk to Molly’s parents, while Glassman arrives at Robyn’s house and admits that he feels guilty; he wrote a mean comment to her in her yearbook while upset that she didn’t appear to reciprocate his feelings for her, only to regret it when she was revealed to have written that she actually did like him. Molly’s parents Lori and Dean want to know about Karin, so they’re introduced to Shannon who claims that she killed Karin.

While Lim is annoyed because Neil never thought anyone in the OR but him was right and yet he thought Lim was about Karin’s surgery because of their relationship, Shannon states that she believes that she caused the car accident for leaving early and not making sure Karin was wearing her seatbelt (as she wasn’t). When Claire tells Shannon that she wasn’t to blame, Dean claims responsibility for Molly’s accident as she shot herself with his gun and so he blames himself. He also thanks Shannon for Karin’s donation.

Glassman soon reunites with Robin, whom the Uber driver tells about his crush on her. Glassman apologizes for what he wrote in her yearbook which she accepts, while Glassman and Shaun have mallomars. Surgery on Molly is almost finished as Shaun and Glassman leave, while Andrews and Claire see Molly who sees her new face. Neil later apologizes to Lim, who accepts but believes that their relationship is making things complicated. However, they agree to not end it.

Claire sets up Molly with therapists to help her once she’s better, just as Shannon comes in and gives Molly a picture book of Karin while saying goodbye. Shaun and Glassman soon return home to Glassman’s house which is wrecked. Glassman decides to deal with the mess the next day, while glad he apologized. Even though he never got to be with Robin, he’s glad that he knew her. Shaun also confesses to liking Lea, though he can’t tell her that as Shaun and Glassman say goodnight.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy
Nicholas Gonzalez as Dr. Neil Melendez
Antonia Thomas as Dr. Claire Browne
Tamlyn Tomita as Allegra Aoki
Will Yun Lee as Dr. Alex Park
Fiona Gubelmann as Dr. Morgan Reznick
Christina Chang as Dr. Audrey Lim
Paige Spara as Lea Dilallo (credit only)
Hill Harper as Dr. Marcus Andrews
Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman

Guest Starring[]

Chloe Csengery as Molly / Karin Tindle
Bronwen Smith as Lori
Kurt Evans as Dean
Lilli Birdsell as Shannon Tindle
Elizabeth McLaughlin as Robyn Demayne Scaplin
Michael David Simms as Flakey
Mo Gaffney as Uber Driver
Karyn Halpin as 30 Year Old Robin
Guyle Fraizer as 50 Year Old Male Robin
Christi La Liberte as 60 Year Old Grandmother

Also starring[]

Karin Konoval as Nurse Deena Petringa

Trivia[]

Glassman wrote in Robyn’s yearbook, “Robyn, without a gap in her teeth or acne”.
Shaun is confirmed to like Lea.
In a deleted scene, Shaun and Glassman returned to find police officers who were informed about what Shaun and Glassman had done. Their Uber driver also revealed that the trip cost $1,844.