| “ | That room is filled with stories that were cut short, like ours. But you - you have an amazing story ahead. I can't wait to see it.
|
„ |
| ― Dr. Neil Melendez |
Dr. Neil Melendez was an Attending Physician and Board-certified in Cardiothoracic Surgery at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital and a main character throughout the show's first three seasons. Neil was notoriously arrogant with his residents, but still cared for them and others.
At the end of Season 3, Neil suffered injuries in an earthquake that damaged his bowels beyond repair and subsequently died. In the first two episodes of Season 4, a grieving Claire hallucinated him.
History[]
Early life[]
Neil had a sister, Gabrielle (“Gabi”). At some point when they were young, a fall out of a tree resulted in her having a brain injury that left her disabled.[2] Due to his family's lack of wealth, they were unable to pay for Gabi's medications or treatments[1] so Neil took care of his sister by brushing her teeth, combing her hair and helping her eat.[2]
Neil wanted to be an astronaut when he was a child, having been inspired by Star Trek. After Gabby ended up in a group home, Neil worked with foster kids. His best friend was Tom F. Kennedy ever since 2007. He even became Prom King in high school, while his date was the queen. Neil soon went on to work at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital where he did his residency under Dr. Aaron Glassman. One of his fellow residents was Audrey Lim, who always was better than him and he kept competing against her until he realized she wasn’t competing back.
Neil soon became an attending cardiothoracic surgeon, his first patient during which was Hunter Denoble who had become disabled which Neil informed him about.[2] He also once treated Marta, a woman who had a tumor which was in her spine and removed while she had screws in her spine. Amongst Neil's residents were Claire Browne and Jared Kalu. For a while, Neil was in a relationship with Jessica Preston (a member of the board and the hospital's founder's granddaughter).
Season 1[]
While Neil, Claire and Jared were working on a bypass surgery of Callum Reilly (who was found to have a mass of pus from having had TB), they worked on Adam, a young boy who was injured from shards of glass in his chest. Neil took note of how Adam had a homemade one-way valve in him when Claire suggested that they do an echocardiogram. Neil initially doubted doing so, while Claire revealed that a "weird guy" who helped Adam kept asking for it. They soon found the young man, Dr. Shaun Murphy who was actually another resident at the hospital and helped in treating Adam.
Although Neil saw how smart and good Shaun is, Neil had no interest in having him do more than suction and scut work due to Neil's general strict nature about work matters and concerns about difficulties related to Shaun's autism (even though Glassman tried to convince him otherwise). This only led to Neil constantly putting Shaun down, only for a concern he had about a young girl being proven to be correct and Neil was forced by Dr. Marcus Andrews (the Chief of Surgery) into treating Shaun the same as the rest of the residents.
Although Neil still had some low opinions of Shaun, he started to gain respect for him as the two ended up working together on Liam West (a young man who also has autism) when Shaun faced discrimination from Liam's parents. Neil stood up for Shaun, acknowledging how hard he had been on Shaun but recognizing that Shaun had proved him wrong to the point that Neil threatened to not do the surgery if Shaun couldn't be part of it.[3]
Neil and Shaun ended up working to help Gabriel, a young boy from the Republic of Congo who had come to the hospital on a humanitarian mission and with severe heart abnormalities. While they were having a hard time doing so, Neil related his experiences being poor and unable to help Gabby to Gabriel's mother. She then asked him if he accepted what he had to deal with, which motivated him into helping Gabriel. He also went out for dinner with Jessica and her father, only to take offence when Jessica's father tried to get her to quit her job as opposed to being financially independent.
While Neil was working on a case of Jenny and Katie Kunkler, conjoined twins that were in for a separation surgery, Neil had to deal with Jessica not wanting kids unlike him and when Shaun didn't show up for work. When it turned out he took an impromptu road-trip with his neighbor Lea, Shaun stated an intent to transfer to a hospital in Pennsylvania. While Jenny ended up dying due to the surgery and Shaun just wanted to transfer because he wanted to be with Lea who was returning to her home in Pennsylvania, Neil (despite seeing it as insane) wrote and signed a letter of recommendation for Shaun who ultimately stayed.
After their differences about children made Jessica break up with Neil, Shaun couldn't help but report him when it appeared that Neil possibly made a mistake because of his dismay at being dumped while they were working on Naja Modi (a patient with severe burns, though Neil never did anything wrong). After one of the other attendings Dr. Matt Coyle got transferred due to sexual misconduct allegations made against him, they were given a couple of his residents; Morgan Reznick (whom Claire developed quite a rivalry with) and Alex Park.
Following a liver transplant Neil was involved in from convicted murderer Boris Tiryan (who suicided) to Eric Bertrand, an eight-year-old boy, Hunter once returned to the hospital with his wife Cora while complaining about neck pains when Hunter suddenly felt pain in his legs. This soon led to considerations over Hunter having a surgery that would've possibly given him the ability to walk again. When Hunter agreed to have it despite the risks of death which caused a rift between him and Cora, Neil saw that Cora was upset at Hunter possibly no longer needing her. They later made amends, though the surgery on Hunter was a failure but strengthened his and Cora's relationship.
Neil led a surgery on college student Caden Hauley, only to have to leave and had Shaun finish it. Caden soon started suffering from bleeding later on which appeared to be because of Shaun. It turned out that he was distracted as Glassman was supposedly dying of brain cancer. Although Neil was upset and had to deal with the team divided over whether to stick to the protocol and report it or not and save Shaun from unfairly getting fired, Neil organized them into helping Caden and together facing up to if he didn't survive. They opted to go along with an idea Shaun had. Neil was about to finish it when Shaun asked to, not wanting Neil or anyone else to be responsible for Caden dying due to Shaun's idea. Neil replied that everything in the OR was already his own responsibility and offered to do it together, possibly making them friends. Caden ultimately survived the surgery, while Neil said that he was proud of the team and took them out for drinks to celebrate how they got lucky. However, he still confronted Morgan who wanted to report Shaun's error to try and get rid of him and hoped someone believed in her someday.
Season 2[]
Neil was part of a surgery on Melanie Arnott, who had pulmonary hypertension while later getting annoyed when Andrews told the news about the surgery. Although Neil was nervous about doing it, he was encouraged by Andrews and was successful. He also took part in a surgery on Gina Porter, a pregnant woman suffering complications and ended up fighting with Claire and one of the nurses (Nurse Flores) when he made sexist remarks about Claire and her attitude during the surgery.
Neil, Shaun and Park soon worked to help Mac, a disabled boy, and his mother, Nicole, who saw that she had to send Mac to a group home, which Neil was sympathetic over and was encouraged into visiting Gabby in her group home. Unfortunately, he ended up in conflict with Claire while they were treating Louisa DeLeon, an anorexic woman who wouldn't have been able to survive a required surgery. Claire tried to suggest a procedure she knew of to help, but ended up going behind Neil's back and offered it to Louisa when Neil rejected it. He still supported it and they helped Louisa, but Neil didn't like what Claire had done and kicked her off the team.
While Neil had to deal with Morgan who got upset over how her somewhat rivalry with Shaun cost a young violinist, Jas, her career and compare it with his "rivalry" with Lim, he still was hostile with Claire, even while they were giving cancer treatment to her college roommate Kayla (though Claire thanked him for it). However, Andrews convinced him into forgiving Claire or it would've been hard for Andrews to appoint him Chief of Surgery. He also began a burgeoning romance with Dr. Lim, getting drinks with her a few times, particularly after they were both passed over for Chief of Surgery in favor of Andrews keeping the job himself. They even slept together, but agreed to keep their relationship professional before a viral outbreak quarantined the ER. He also had to perform a risky bone marrow transplant and ignoring his patient Chris' DNR while concerned for Lim who fell ill but survived.
Following the quarantine, Neil became frustrated when Lim rebuffed even his friendly concern as a colleague. They both later admitted to having feelings for each other but were afraid due to their past failed relationships. As a result and because they and Shaun were facing a possible license suspension for their actions during the quarantine, they decided to maintain a secret relationship which persisted for some time.
Neil soon considered making his and Lim's relationship public, particularly after the new Chief of Surgery Dr. Jackson Han got them and Shaun out of trouble with the medical review board, but Lim refused. Neil soon led a team to remove a 200-pound tumor from a man and argued with Han about bringing in Shaun, who had been transferred to pathology by Han, to help. Han eventually agreed to let Shaun consult but not take part in the surgery and Shaun provided them with a solution that allowed the team to successfully remove the entire tumor. After being confronted by her fears of commitment and being vulnerable, Lim decided to make their relationship public and went with Neil to see Andrews.
After the couple made their relationship public by unprofessionally kissing in the middle of the ER, Shaun was found to have been injured from having been beaten up by a man who ended up as a patient in the hospital and then collapsed from his injuries. When it was revealed Shaun had figured out what the man actually had, Lim, Neil and Claire then struggled to figure out what Shaun knew. Neil also tried to get them to be able to figure it out themselves without Shaun's help. At the end of the day, Andrews fired Han and rehired Shaun, leaving the position of Chief of Surgery open. This potentially put their relationship in jeopardy due to one of them ending up in a position of power over the other, Neil turned it down in favor of Lim.
Season 3[]
Lim's new job as Chief of Surgery made her and Neil consider breaking up and they went to HR to officially do so, not that the HR director believed them. While Neil also listened along with Shaun's friends as he described his first date with Carly Lever which Shaun called a disaster when it was just eventful but still was sympathetic because of how Shaun felt, Neil, Shaun and Claire worked to help Suzanne, a newlywed bride who was discovered to have extensive cancer. Neil made Shaun inform her of the news while Shaun proposed a radical surgery to save Suzanne who would have almost certainly died otherwise. After Shaun's bluntness made Suzanne and her husband Alex confront their fears, they agreed to the surgery which Neil and his team performed. Though they successfully removed all of the cancer, complications meant that Suzanne would require an ileostomy bag for the rest of her life which Alex promised to support her with.
Neil once performed a surgery on Braden Cantrell, an infant who was brought back to the hospital by his worried parents Dina and Tom when Braden began displaying the same symptoms again. Neil got accused by Dina and Tom of having made a mistake in the surgery, which led to a clash between Lim and Neil (who was still sympathetic) when Lim sided with Dina and Tom and took over the case herself at their insistence. However, Lim, Park and Morgan discovered that Braden had a second unrelated condition that caused the same symptoms as the first which they wouldn't have even known about without the first surgery, exonerating Neil. He also supervised the treatment of a teenager named Michelle whose gallbladder removal was potentially Claire's first surgery as lead doctor.
Neil was soon assigned by Lim on the surgery of Patty Fields, a woman looking to become pregnant. Unfortunately, Patty didn't survive giving birth which Neil thought he was to blame for. He also believed that Lim was at fault as he saw that she only had him do the surgery since they were together, causing conflict between the two as he helped Tara (a woman with no immune system) and Wren (an aspiring astronaut). Their constant fighting eventually led to them getting into trouble with Glassman and eventually breaking up, all the while he was sympathetic to Claire who was slapped by a woman who was the wife of a man Claire had been sleeping with while not knowing that he was married.
After he helped football player Art Kelman who had broken his back weight-lifting, Neil was still supportive of Claire when it appeared that she was suffering from PTSD and thought she helped a patient whom she couldn't've. The two soon began a burgeoning friendship, going on runs together with Neil even possibly developing feelings for Claire. Unfortunately, an anonymous favoritism complaint was made against him which made Neil doubt himself, think about not spending time with Claire outside of work and he got on Lim's bad side when she felt he was telling the residents to not come to her when he said they could come to him about any issues they had. However, he and Claire got through it while they and Shaun worked to help Alice Gottfried, a woman who could barely walk without falling until Shaun suggested an idea to help her which Neil gave him the lead on. Unfortunately, Shaun liked Lea who rejected him constantly despite his efforts which left him in a state of depression and then things didn't help when he was forced back into work until Neil forced him to deal with his feelings while helping Finn, a salesperson with dwarfism. He was also happy for Claire when she appeared to like her friend Dash.
Neil soon went to a brewery where a charity event hosted by Marta and her wife Noreen was being held. Unfortunately, Neil was injured in an earthquake, though he brushed it off to work with Claire on saving Marta who was trapped under a beam. They were successful thanks to Claire, but Neil suddenly vomited and collapsed while taken to the hospital by Claire (despite his protests). She found out he had internal bleeding and agreed to Claire's suggestion of a surgery, which proved to be wise as the bleeding was from his superior mesenteric artery, not his pancreas as Neil and Lim believed. However, during the surgery, it was found that his bowel had been too badly damaged and Glassman knew that any possible solution, if successful, would have left Neil in a debilitated state for the rest of his life. Neil and Lim made peace over their former relationship and Glassman expressed his admiration for Neil and his skill. Claire and Neil admitted their love for each other and Claire spent the night at his side, while he died the next morning and Lim and Claire comforted each other over their loss.
Aftermath[]
Claire and Lim continued to mourn the loss of Neil together a few weeks after his death, though they and everyone else were then kept overwhelmed from the COVID pandemic. Claire soon started looking at the personal belongings of the deceased COVID patients when she started seeing a vision of Neil. She then kept hallucinating him talking to her as she attempted to find the owner of a set of dog tags left behind by a deceased patient. Despite Neil's pessimism about her search, Claire eventually succeeded in finding the owner of the dog tags which she returned. He then commended her for what she did, while also stating that she had an amazing story ahead and encouraged her to live it, as they said goodbye. Claire later told Lim that while she was not ready to move on, she suggested that they stop meeting to mourn Neil. He would still be with them wherever they are and Claire felt that he changed her which is something that is never going to go away.
Neil was still remembered; Morgan indirectly mentioned him while referring to Claire's failed relationships with him and Jared (whom she also used to be with). Claire also stated his knowledge of her PTSD when she found that Lim was also suffering from the condition and decided to inform Glassman when Lim wouldn't get help. On separate occasions, Shaun and Lim called him a good friend. Lim also mentioned their bond concerning the Spiderman films, especially Spiderman 2 which she watched with Andrews who is also a fan of the superhero.
Shaun would soon become an attending, but has had tendencies of not being understanding with his more tough residents even though they were a lot like him when he first came to the hospital. This was especially concerning Charlotte Lukaitis, who also has autism and whom Shaun couldn't help but treat similarly to how Neil treated him.
Personality[]
Neil was an arrogant but highly-skilled person who didn't mess around; he was frequently tense about work/business matters and expected perfection from himself and his residents. However, he did have a lighter and sometimes humorous side, which occasionally appeared when he was not tending to work matters. Also, despite frequently being stern, he was often supportive, especially of his sick patients and their loved ones.
In the pilot, it's suggested that Neil was once more rebellious when he first started working at the hospital. He brushed it off as being young and stupid.
Like a lot of people at St. Bonaventure, Neil didn't want to give Shaun a chance but would later defend his involvement in surgeries and called out Morgan for her attitude towards Shaun. He also saw that since Shaun was able to survive St. Bonaventure (which Neil saw was no easy feat), then he could've survived at another hospital. Although Neil appreciated Shaun's offer to finish Caden's surgery out of not wanting the burden of Caden's death to be on Neil's conscience, Neil didn't appear to know and reciprocate how Shaun saw Neil as his friend.
Trivia[]
- Nicholas Gonzalez's father and older brother are doctors, inspiring him to take the role.
- It's never said, but FACS means he was board-certified in Cardiothoracic Surgery.
- Many fans have hated that Neil was killed off. Gonzalez has retweeted to fans who feel this way, which appears to suggest that he didn't like it either.
Appearances[]
| Ep. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| S2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| S3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| S4 | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| S5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| S6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| S7 |
Gallery[]
Promotional Photos[]
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References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Intangibles": Season 1. Episode 9. Karen Struck (writer) & Bronwen Hughes (director). [November 27, 2017].
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Pain": Season 1. Episode 16. William L. Rotko/David Renaud (writer) & Allison Liddi-Brown (director). [March 12, 2018].
- ↑ "22 Steps": Season 1. Episode 7. Johanna Lee (writer) & David Straiton (director). [November 13, 2017].