Marcus Andrews

Marcus Andrews
Biographical Information
Born:	c. 1977-1978 (age 42-44)
Status:	Alive
Alias:	Dr. Toilet Seat
Profession:	Attending Plastic Surgeon Chief of Surgery (formerly) President of St. Bonaventure Hospital (resigned)
Workplace:	San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital
Title(s):	M.D. F.A.C.S.
Relationships
Family:	Unnamed mother Unnamed father † Unnamed sister Olivia Jackson (niece) Winn (aunt)
Significant Other(s):	Isabel Barnes (ex-wife) Salen Morrison (ex-girlfriend) Dalisay Villanueva (ex-girlfriend)
Appearances
Portrayed by:	Hill Harper
First appeared:	Burnt Food
Last appeared:	Love's Labor

“	Very few things that are worthwhile in life come without a cost, Shaun.	„
	― Dr. Marcus Andrews

Dr. Marcus Andrews was an attending plastic surgeon and former president of San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. He served as the head of the hospital's surgical department, and then later served as the president of St. Bonaventure when Dr. Glassman stepped down due to his poor health. He was later fired for firing Doctor Han against the wishes of the board to save Shaun's job. However, he is rehired as a new surgical attending by Dr. Lim. In season 4, his niece Olivia became one of the new surgical residents. In Season 5, he became the president of St. Bonaventure Hospital after Salen Morrison was forced into handing it over to him. However, after hearing that the board was calling an emergency meeting to discuss his second mandate, he decided to resign at the end of Season 6 rather than allowing the hospital to fire him again.

History

Before the show

When Andrews was in freshman year of high school, he gained a crush on a girl in his biology class, Isabel Barnes. He always had a pit in his stomach while around her which made him feel excited, even during all the years that they were married for.

Andrews soon went on to study medicine and got a job at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital, being mentored by Dr. Paul Nakano and working at one point under Dr. Wilmet Fortingale who was rather arrogant but Andrews was no better; he once pointed out that Fortingale had made a mistake, but then also made one a couple of days later. Although he didn’t mention them by name, Andrews said that he once stood up to his boss in front of his residents. He eventually became the Chief of Surgery but jealously kept trying to get the position of President which was then held by Dr. Aaron Glassman.

Season 1

When Dr. Glassman tried to hire Shaun Murphy, an autistic savant, Andrews used his position as Vice President to fight the appointment before the entire hospital board. Even after Shaun saved a patient before even reaching the hospital, Andrews was against Shaun becoming a surgical resident. It was only after Dr. Glassman promised to resign if Shaun did not live up to expectations, thus possibly giving Andrews the position he wanted, did Shaun get hired.

As Andrews never initially wanted Shaun at the hospital, he tried to set up Shaun for failure by getting him off the scut work the attending surgeon Neil Melendez put him on. He also considered that if Shaun did succeed, then Andrews could use it to his advantage by claiming himself as the one who had faith in Shaun. He also didn’t take kindly to how Jared used his rich status to help use tilapia skins (which were experimental) for Celez (a burns victim from a wedding bus crash).

After the specimen from Elisabeth McLaren (a woman who possibly had throat cancer) went missing, Andrews completely blamed the staff which Isabel got annoyed at as he was no longer the loving husband she married and his bid to become president led to him not coming home for dinner. Feeling bad, he offered to help resident Claire Browne and lab worker Carly Lever find Elisabeth’s specimen which ultimately proved she didn’t have cancer. He also fired resident Jared Kalu for assaulting Dr. Matt Coyle, an attending who was sexually harassing Claire. Jared later tried to take responsibility, but Andrews couldn’t do more than write him a letter of recommendation. After Jared sued the hospital for apparent racial discrimination, Andrews lost respect for how he set back racism.

When Andrews and Isabel had problems with becoming pregnant, Andrews felt some resentment to Isabel over how it appeared it was her fault and later got upset when it was suggested that it was because of him due to having a low sperm count. As he worked with Allegra Aoki (the Vice President of the company that controls the hospital) on a gala the hospital was due to have and offered advice to Shaun about a tuxedo he should get, he worked on Emma Newton (a woman who soon died due to an infected cheek implant) while he and Isabel still tried to get their sperm count up but were unable to.

After working on Gretchen Milman (a young woman with Moebius Syndrome), Andrews heard about Caden Hauley, a college student who suffered complications following a surgery he had. Andrews later met with Aoki who discussed Shaun’s progress at the hospital, seeing that he’d done well. Eventually, Shaun and Glassman went to see Andrews to admit that Shaun (who was instrumental in helping Caden) had accidentally caused Caden’s complication.

Season 2

After Glassman was revealed to have cancer, Andrews still became the President of the hospital. However, he also maintained his job as Chief of Surgery. Andrews soon informed the news about a surgery being done at the hospital on a woman, Melanie Arnott, which Neil was a part of (to Neil’s annoyance) but was reluctant to do it. However, Andrews encouraged him and it was a success while finding out that Shaun and Jared had brought in a homeless man, Harry, which Andrews got annoyed at as he thought Jared was arrogantly trying to prove himself before he was due to leave to work at Denver Memorial Hospital. When Harry was brought back in which Andrews blamed on Jared while attempting to follow through with a threat to make Jared’s future life difficult, Jared stated that it was Shaun who figured out Harry had a tumor. After noting Jared stand up for Shaun who was able to communicate with Harry and Jared was proud of him, Andrews admitted that this made him think differently about how Jared never appeared to direct the fight that he had in him in the right way and Andrews regained his respect for Jared before he left.

While Andrews was trying to consider a new Chief of Surgery, he initially considered giving it to Lim but thought differently upon finding out that she was treating Mara, a young girl who was circumcised supposedly by her parents. When Claire wasn’t too pleased with a new 36-hour shift the hospital gained, she tried to convince Andrews about it not being a good idea but he wouldn’t consider otherwise. He later had to break up a fight between Claire, Neil and Nurse Flores (one of the nurses) who were working on Gina, a pregnant woman suffering from complications.

After Neil kicked Claire off his team for going behind his back concerning a surgery they were doing on an anorexic woman, Louisa, Andrews convinced him to do otherwise or it would’ve been difficult for Andrews to consider him the position of Chief of Surgery. Eventually, Andrews was unable to choose between Lim and Neil for who should’ve been Chief of Surgery and so decided to keep the title himself. After a viral quarantine in the hospital, Andrews was informed that Lim and Neil took actions and Shaun became overwhelmed during the incident and they were facing possible license suspensions. He also realized that his double position was being called into question as well.

Eventually, Andrews hired Dr. Jackson Han as the new Chief of Surgery. Unfortunately, Han had issues with Shaun’s autism and ultimately fired Shaun, which Andrews attempted to change his mind about without success. After talking with Shaun and listening to Glassman fighting for Shaun at a board meeting, Andrews unexpectedly backed Glassman up and fired Han using his power as President of the hospital so that Shaun could be rehired. Unfortunately for Andrews, he too got fired from the hospital.

Season 3

While Andrews tried to search for a new job, Lim sought his advice in her new role as Chief of Surgery after struggling with the job. Lim, after following Andrews' advice, returned and offered to rehire him as St. Bonaventure's new surgical attending, replacing herself. Though he hesitated at first, Andrews accepted the job and was introduced to Melendez and his team as the new attending to their pleasure.

Andrews couldn’t help but resent Shaun and consider whether sacrificing his career for him was worth it, including while they were treating a young man named Josh who had the side of his face destroyed after selflessly stopping a stranger from being groped on the subway. Andrews ended up treating him differently to anyone else, which pushed him into working on an experimental surgical idea with Shaun. Lim knew the truth, but still went along with it and they were able to help Josh. Andrews later admitted to Shaun that Lim was right, but also that working with Shaun made him proud of it.

Andrews worked concerning Claire’s lead surgery and then what should’ve been Shaun’s. Andrews accused Lim when she chose a relatively easy case for Shaun (a woman, Beth, who had esophageal cancer), but was still part of Shaun’s team for the surgery and supported him until Shaun suddenly appeared to have a meltdown but really had difficulty communicating a method he found from a video he had had seen. While Andrews and Lim soon did the surgery with Shaun walking them through it, Andrews saw that Shaun had failed but Lim tried to get him to see otherwise. When Shaun tried again, Andrews supervised and was initially impressed with Shaun’s overall performance. Unfortunately, Shaun's perfectionism led to a conflict with Nurse Hawks, ending with Shaun kicking her out of the OR. Andrews didn't intervene, nor did he interject when Lim read Shaun the riot act for his behavior, explaining that she has her way of dealing with Shaun while he has his. After Shaun's failure to properly apologize escalated the issue, Andrews watched as Lim disciplined Shaun, pleased with the lack of coddling finally but somewhat sympathetic to Shaun's distressed reaction.

While also working concerning Morgan’s first lead surgery and had to encourage her when she seemed nervous about it, he was surprised when Shaun came to him for romantic advice when he was having troubles and Andrews proudly told him about his love for Isabel. After a social media influencer made Shaun famous and Andrews was involved in a meeting concerning whether they should’ve gone along with it and being able to coach Shaun in getting him to say the right thing.

Andrews and Lim ended up working on Tyson, a farmer Lim knows and got his arms torn off in an accident. She and Andrews then ended up in conflict about whether to help Tyson with his arms or give him prosthetic ones, with Andrews becoming smug when they were forced into going with the latter option. He also found that Morgan has rheumatoid arthritis and then intended to have hand surgery on herself, which he wasn’t happy with.

After the hospital ended up taking in patients caught up in an earthquake, Andrews didn’t want Morgan’s help as he saw that she only cared about herself but nonetheless accepted it as she led the nurses. Andrews eventually caught Morgan carrying out a surgery alongside Nurse Petringa on a woman with an ectopic pregnancy which Andrews wasn’t happy with as he saw Morgan was trying to play the hero. He finished the surgery, but soon saw that Morgan did care about the woman while sympathetic when Morgan destroyed her hands in the process.

Personality

While he does have a personal life outside of work, Andrews often times spends much of his time and energy focused on work. He has very high standards and is always on top of everything that happens in his surgical department. He also displays a big ego, while often showing a fair amount of tension and stress, and rarely has a sense of humor, as a result of this. This work focused demeanor and lack of control of his ego caused tension between Andrews and his wife. However, he is shown to be dedicated to his staff, particularly when he was President of the hospital and had been seen to fight for them multiple times, such as when Lim, Neil and Shaun faced a possible license suspension for their actions during the hospital quarantine. Andrews defended their decisions to the governor's investigator who planned to propose the suspension to the medical review board.

He originally has a major distrust for Shaun, using this as a means for wanting to take Dr. Glassman's position as head of the hospital. However, over time, Andrews slowly changed his mind about Shaun, even after the latter made a mistake that nearly cost a patient his life which gave Andrews the promotion he wanted. After Shaun got fired, Andrews fought with Dr. Han to rehire him, but Han refused. During a board meeting, Andrews showed his complete change in attitude towards Shaun by admitting that Glassman is right and firing Han so that Shaun can be rehired, inspired by Shaun's wisdom from his deceased brother Steve and doing so despite the fact that he ruined his own career at the hospital in the process. After getting fired and later rehired as a surgical attending as a result, Andrews was left with doubts and rage over the unfairness of it all. After working with Shaun to save Josh’s face, Andrews realized that it was worth it and admitted to Shaun's actions that day making Andrews proud of his sacrifice for the young doctor.

Unlike Lim, Andrews refused to coddle Shaun which he felt would just cause more problems as Shaun thrived when he was faced with difficult situations. Andrews repeatedly clashed with Lim over her treatment of Shaun as his first lead surgery approached, stating at one point that Lim was ruining Shaun with her behavior and expressed concern that Shaun was simply not ready for the pressures yet. When Shaun finally had his lead surgery, Andrews supervised, but stood back and allowed Shaun to handle it completely on his own even when a complication arose, enabling Shaun to come up with his own solution that pleased Andrews rather than having it handed to him. After Shaun proved himself extremely capable as lead surgeon, Andrews was visibly amazed and even admitted that he was possibly wrong. Due to his approach with dealing with Shaun, Andrews refused to intervene when conflict erupted between Shaun and a nurse, preferring to let Shaun make his own mistakes and face the consequences rather than try to stop him as Lim might. Andrews was ultimately left pleased when Lim stopped coddling Shaun and disciplined him for his behavior, but did appear sympathetic to the young man's distress over the result. By the later years of Shaun's residency, all of Andrews' hesitancy towards the young doctor vanished and Andrews often came to rely on Shaun and his skills in difficult situations. In "Letting Go," Andrews was dubious about Shaun's claims that his old mentor Dr. Paul Nakano made a mistake and pointedly sent him home due to Shaun's brash accusations. However, Andrews cut Shaun some slack due to Shaun recently losing his child to a miscarriage. Shaun ultimately proved to be wrong that Nakano made a mistake, but right that there was a problem.

When Shaun completed his residency, Andrews was shown to have no issues making him an attending, having lost all of his previous hesitation and concerns about the young man's ability. Much like when Shaun was a resident, Andrews refused to coddle him, but also treated him as friend and an equal at the same time. When Lea experienced complications with her second pregnancy and faced a possible second miscarriage and hysterectomy, Andrews was the first of Shaun's friends to join him in sitting vigil for his wife, silently providing his support through the tough time as Glassman and Lim tried and ultimately succeeded in saving both Lea and the baby.

Andrews "[helped his] patients to the best of [his] ability because it's meaningful and to [him] the downside is purely financial. For friends [he’d] risk a little bit more, but the only people [he was] risking life and limb for are [his] family." He even saw that the hospital is his home and the staff is his family. He’s also a fan of Spider-Man, having been dragged to the first movie by Isabel and saw something of himself in the superhero, and the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, specifically Cousin Carlton Banks.

Trivia

• According to Andrews, he once stood up to his boss in front of his residents, causing him to admire Melendez for doing the same to him when Andrews was constantly hovering around.
• According to the pilot synopsis, his first name was suppose to be Horace, but the writers decided to change it to Marcus.
• As revealed in "Waiting," Andrews became a card-carrying member of the NRA after he and his wife were robbed at gunpoint.
• Andrews is dyslexic.
• Oh brother. This guy STINKS.

Appearances

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Gallery

Promotional Photos

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Episode Stills

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3