Sacrifice

"Sacrifice"

Episode Information

Season 1

Episode 10

Overall 10

Airdate:

December 4, 2017

Viewers:

9.03^[1] million

Writer:

Lloyd Gilyard Jr.

Director:

Michael Patrick Jann

Episode Chronology

Preceded by:	Followed by:
"Intangibles"	"Islands: Part One"

"Sacrifice" is the tenth episode of Season 1 of The Good Doctor. The episode aired on December 4, 2017.

Synopsis[]

Members of the hospital's surgical team are initially impressed with a charming young doctor, but his true character puts one of them in an awkward position at work. Meanwhile, Dr. Glassman feels Dr. Shaun Murphy needs a little more support with his personal life and suggests he meet with a therapist. However, Shaun is determined to show him that he can do it on his own.

Plot[]

Shaun and Jared are assigned to Bobby Ato, a champion video gamer who needs surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left arm (from over-excessive gaming), while Claire is working with fellow resident Dr. Matt Coyle on a double-leg fasciotomy. Unfortunately, Dr. Glassman is still trying to get Shaun to see a therapist, Melissa, despite how uncomfortable Shaun is about it. While Shaun, Jared, Neil and Andrews are seeing to Ato, he notices how the other doctors treat Shaun "like a noob" and encourages him to stand up for himself.

Claire soon meets with Coyle concerning Hazel Mitchell, a software engineer with Compartment Syndrome, causing swelling on her legs. While Shaun and the others are working on Ato, Shaun attempts to suggest a nerve conduction test but Neil shoots it down. Claire and Coyle are still working on Hazel when Coyle sounds a bit too friendly (especially with Claire). That evening, Shaun is waiting for his bus only to go back inside the hospital due to still being uncomfortable about seeing anyone and hides out in the custodian’s closet. When he sees Glassman the next morning, Glassman realizes that Shaun didn’t see Melissa. Although Glassman states that Shaun is a grown man, he still tries to get Shaun to get Melissa while offering to get him a surround sound system for his TV if he does.

While Claire and Coyle are working with Hazel again, they find the swelling isn’t going down but can help her when Coyle appears to continue being friendly with Claire. She then tries to switch with Shaun and Jared, but Jared just thinks that she’s blowing it out of proportion and Shaun likes the advice Ato is giving him. While working on Ato, Shaun suggests that they should get an MRI but Neil still refuses until Jared speaks up. During the MRI, Bobby still tries to encourage Shaun to stick up for himself as that’s how he became famous. As a result, Shaun still decides to avoid meeting with Melissa. While Jessica and Neil work out dinner plans with Jessica’s father, Shaun and Jared discover cancer from the MRI that they might be able to remove. However, Neil meets with a colleague who states that she knows Ato as he also came in three years ago with cancer. When Neil grills Ato on why he kept it a secret, Ato admits that his cancer diagnosis has affected his gaming and he would rather spend his days living rather than dying.

Claire is working on her own with Hazel, who states that she was hospitalized after male investors at her spin class made sexist remarks about her. Her sister Grace tries to get her to get away from the men, only for Claire to make remarks about agreeing with Hazel who begins gasping for air while Claire and Coyle work to help her. While Shaun and Jared look over Ato’s cancer which is in his brain, Neil becomes surprised when Glassman agrees with Ato not telling them due to being in denial. Shaun, Jared and Neil tell Ato that they can’t remove the cancer, which he accepts. However, Coyle makes unwanted sexual advances toward Claire which she refuses and attempts to call him out over it (which he doesn’t take kindly).

Neil and Jessica soon have dinner with Jessica’s father, who offers to organize their wedding despite Jessica turning down his offer. Shaun also continues to hide out in the custodian’s closet when a janitor finds him. Shaun questions if the man is happy and he states that he is as he’s had a good life. Unfortunately, Jessica’s father tries to push her to quit her job to have a family since they’ve got the family trust and he doesn’t see why she has to work. This leads to Neil calling him out over wanting her to apparently be a parasite as opposed to trying to finding her own way, which Jessica’s father doesn’t take kindly to and he and Jessica leave.

Glassman doesn’t feel any better about how Shaun is refusing to see Melissa, while demanding that they continue this discussion later. Claire also tells Jared about Coyle, while stating that she can’t report Coyle or her gender and skin color will lead to her getting the blame while yelling at Jared for downplaying the issue. Glassman tells Ato he can remove the cancer if he is willing to make a sacrifice; in order to access the cancer, the doctors have to remove part of his brain stem which would paralyze his left side of his body. Despite this potentially ending his gaming career, Ato agrees without hesitation. Jared also confronts Coyle over what he did, while Claire works to treat Hazel who praises her for standing up to Coyle.

The surgery on Ato is successful, while he reveals to Shaun that he "wasn't good at jack" until he found video games and became the best in the world. As a result, he convinces Shaun to stop letting people tell him what he can and can't do. Neil also apologizes to Jessica for his remarks and learns that she doesn’t want children, while Glassman tries to force Shaun to go to his therapy sessions. However, a confrontation with him in the hospital lobby leads to Shaun having a meltdown, causing him to strike Glassman in the face and run out of the hospital. Claire also attempts to report Coyle, only to find out about Jared assaulting him while Claire yells at him over this. Unfortunately, Jared reveals that his actions have just got him fired. Meanwhile, Glassman and Melissa try to find Shaun, but he’s not in the hospital or his apartment and he’s taken the photo of him and Steve. This makes Glassman think that Shaun’s not coming back.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy
Nicholas Gonzalez as Dr. Neil Melendez
Antonia Thomas as Dr. Claire Browne
Chuku Modu as Dr. Jared Kalu
Beau Garrett as Jessica Preston
Tamlyn Tomita as Allegra Aoki (credit only)
Hill Harper as Dr. Marcus Andrews
Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman

Guest Starring[]

Manny Jacinto as Bobby Ato
Eric Winter as Dr. Matt Coyle
Rhona Rees as Hazel Mitchell
Andrew Airlie as Jessica Preston's father
Erin Matthews as Melissa Bourne

Co-Starring[]

Kayla Wallace as Grace Mitchell
France Perras as Jen Clavet
Faustino Di Bauda as Paul Buendia
Lissa Neptuno as Nurse Roberta Ocampo
Parveen Dosanjh as Scrub Nurse #1
Kylie McKay as Scrub Nurse #2
Chad Matchette as Bus Driver

Trivia[]

Shaun suffers two meltdowns in this episode. The first one is in the elevator after meeting Melissa and the second is during his confrontation with Dr. Glassman and he slaps him.
In the scene where Dr. Glassman is operating on Bobby Ato, the Latin phrase that Dr. Glassman recites, "Aut libertatem aut mortem mihi da," means "Give me liberty or give me death."
This episode serves as the winter finale for Season 1.
In the Turkish adaptation, there was no counterpart of Dr. Matt Coyle that made sexual advances on Nazli (Claire's counterpart), nor did Demir (Jared's counterpart) get fired for assaulting him. Ali (Shaun's counterpart) also doesn't have a meltdown over Adil (Glassman's counterpart) demanding he see a therapist after taking lightly his patient Bobby Ato's advice to stop letting people dictate his life.