"Frontline: Part Two" is the second episode of Season 4 of The Good Doctor. It is the fifty-eighth episode overall, and aired on November 9, 2020. It is the second part of a two-hour season premiere.
Synopsis[]
In the conclusion of the two-part season premiere of ABC's "The Good Doctor," Dr. Shaun Murphy and Dr. Marcus Andrews determine that their patient has been infected with COVID-19. As they struggle to understand and get ahead of a constantly evolving virus, Shaun has a hard time balancing his fears and concerns about potentially jeopardizing Lea's health and wanting to be with the woman he loves. Meanwhile, Claire looks for a way to grieve Melendez’s death through her patients. In the COVID-19 ward, Dr. Morgan Reznick softens a little while tending to Nurse Petringa (Karin Konoval), who imparts a bit of wisdom from her 40+ year nursing career. Elsewhere, Dr. Alex Park and Mia (Jennifer Birmingham Lee) discuss their future together.[2]
Plot[]
State of Emergency Week Eight, Shaun and Lea have been sleeping together over Zoom chat. Meanwhile, Morgan is back at the hospital reporting for work after getting tested twice for COVID-19, after her and Nurse Petringa's previous exposure to COVID-19. Petringa reports to the hospital after she tells Nurse Villanueva that she woke up with a temperature of 104 and needs heated, humidified oxygen she can use at home. Nurse Petringa jokes that Morgan was always the overachiever. Unfortunately, their moment gets cut short when Villanueva reports to Morgan that Petringa's pulse ox is 90. Which in turn means that they have to admit her into the hospital. Deena’s son asks Morgan if his mother is going to be alright, though Morgan hesitates to answer.
Claire gives Lashelle back Mildred's cross, while continuing to hallucinate Neil who tells Claire that all the the belongings of the deceased Covid patients are just meaningless stuff now. Claire disagrees and says that each of the items tell an interrupted story. As Neil continues to comment on this, Claire finds some dog tags on the floor. Meanwhile, Martin has a blood clot that is interfering with the equipment they are placing on him. Park continues talking with Ambar who is also on ventilator and undergoing an experimental treatment. At the same time, Glassman is awake at three in the morning playing video games. One of the people he is playing with turns out to be a fifteen year old, who tells Glassman he needs to apologize to Debbie.
Back at the hospital, Petringa’s oxygen levels continue to decline. She and Lim joke about the people out on the streets protesting to get the state opened back up when there are still people dying of Covid. Petringa then begins to cough, while Lim gets an alert and has to leave. Meanwhile, Claire has no luck finding out more info on the owner of the dog tags she found. Her vision of Neil tells her that it's not healthy to get fixated on dead people. A frustrated Shawn then comes in and confides in Claire that Lea is not answering her phone despite not being an essential worker.
One after the other, Lim turns the machines off several Covid patients after their loved ones say their goodbyes to them. Each time taking a mental toll on her until one day, she is just sitting down in bed motionless as the sun comes up. Park and Shaun are sitting down drinking coffee, while Shaun asks Park what he loves about Mia. However, Park just realizes that he isn't necessarily still in love with Mia; he just loves their son Kellan. Meanwhile, Lea calls while admitting to trying not to upset Shaun about whether she has COVID (which isn't helpful).
Morgan checks in on Petringa, who tells her that there are a lot of different approaches to being "nice". Otherwise she would not have lasted forty years as a nurse. She tells Morgan that she will have her own form of nice. Meanwhile, Park tells Kellan that unfortunately he doesn't think he will make it down to Phoenix to his graduation. Frustrated, Kellan hangs up on his father. Meanwhile, Martin's wife Lucy calls Shaun and Andrews useless for stating yet another way her husband might die. Equally frustrated, Shaun tells Lucy that Martin never left the apartment. So if she wants to blame someone, she should blame herself since she was the one leaving the apartment. Afterwards, Andrews chastises Shaun for his bad bedside manners and taking out his feelings on her.
At his home, Glassman apologizes to Debbie for everything but it does downhill fast, when Debbie catches onto him not being sincere. Meanwhile, Claire is trying to find out anything she can about Donald Sulkin to find that he wasn't a patient; she's looking for Greg Lavin, who served alongside Sulkin in the military. Lim and Petringa have a talk, reminiscing about Dr. Pitcairn (or "Pitstain" as they called him) was always on Lim's case. She was one of two women, and the only person of color. But at one point Petringa stepped in when Lim was on the verge of crying in front of the aforementioned doctor. This gave her enough time to compose herself. She asks Petringa to give her enough time to nurse her back to health.
Glassman is about to eat a sandwich when he notices Shaun is about to throw a rock at his window. Shaun admits that he wants the pandemic to be over, so Glassman advises him to be kind to himself and to others. Shaun checks up on Martin while Lily is also on call and she admits that she probably did give Martin the COVID, though Shaun sympathizes how difficult it is to see a loved one in a similar state. He also points out that Martin has a blockage in his artery. Petringa's numbers continue to fall, and Morgan explains that she needs to go on a ventilator. She opens the door to Petringa's room and hikes up the blinds on the window to reveal that there are many doctors there showing her how much she meant to them. She then agrees and is put on the ventilator.
Glassman and Debbie make peace for their fight, while Kellan apologizes to Park for getting angry at him, and admits that he wants to know that he is more important to him than his job. In turn, Park admits to loving his son very much. Lucy is soon informed by Shaun that Martin's foot and ankle had to be amputated, but he's at risk of bleeding. However, Lucy is glad that Martin is alive as Park brings Ambar's baby to her and she awakens.
Neil's hallucination says Claire's plan to call every D. Sulkin in North America to return the dog tags is futile and she only wants a happy ending for him because she didn't have one with Neil. They never knew how their story could have ended and he says it won't change anything, to which Claire lashes out saying it does. It helps her to not feel sad as everything in the world sucks with people dying from Covid and Neil being gone and she can't do anything about it. He tells Claire that it has to hurt for her to heal. That unlike when Breeze died, Claire isn't running away. She's facing it, grieving and healing.
Sadly, Petringa dies as a result of Covid-19, and both Morgan and Lim are there as the ventilator machine is turned off. They have her son Jimmy on a video call, while he tearfully states that he loves her as he says goodbye. Three weeks later Martin has got better and is escorted out to the applause of the doctors and nurses. Ambar also calls her baby "Aria" while Kellan and Mia call Park about Kellan's graduation and Jimmy talks about how fondly Petringa talked about Morgan.
Claire finds Donald and gives him the dog tags. He says he gave them to Greg, his friend, at the end of the war and thanks Claire. She tells him he's welcome before heading off. Neil's hallucination acknowledges that like Donald and Greg and the room full of the deceased patients' belongings, his and Claire's story had been cut short. He also assures her that her own amazing story is still ahead of her. Park and Mia decide it is in their best interests not to reconcile, while Claire asks Lim if she is okay if they stop coming to the bench. She admits that Neil changed her, and that is not going away. Shaun and Lea are reunited after Lea arrives at Shaun's place with three consecutive negative COVID tests.
Cast[]
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Trivia[]
- Nurse Deena Petringa and Morgan Reznick both got COVID, but Morgan recovered off-screen between parts 1 and 2.
- Petringa is revealed to have a son and granddaughter. She was a nurse for 40 years, including when Audrey Lim was a resident.
- This episode has an identical title card to part one.
- Morgan has changed specialties and is now an internist meaning she's specializing in internal medicine.
- Petringa dies of the virus, but Park, Shaun and Andrews' patients recover.
- Park decides to end his romantic relationship with Mia, Glassman opens up to and reconciles with Debbie, Andrews decides to spend time with his wife again instead of sleeping in the garage and Shaun allows Lea to spend time physically again.
- This episode marks the final appearances of Neil, Nurse Petringa, Kellan and Mia.
- On November 10, 2020, it was revealed that Richard Schiff and his wife Sheila Kelley both tested positive for COVID-19. Production on The Good Doctor in Vancouver has continued while Schiff and Kelley are self-isolating, with the filming schedule reworked to accommodate their temporary absence. The duo are believed to have contracted the virus outside of work.[3]
- The scene near the end of Shaun and Lea together on the couch is similar to a promo image of Norman Bates and his mother Norma from Bates Motel, Freddie Highmore's predecessor show.
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