"Pipes" is the fourth episode of Season 1 of The Good Doctor, and aired on October 16, 2017.
Synopsis[]
Dr. Neil Melendez and the team have to wade through legal waters when a husband and wife have to make a life-changing decision about their unborn child. Meanwhile, Dr. Shaun Murphy struggles to adjust to his new environment at home and makes a huge step forward with his colleagues.
Summary[]
Shaun is trying to sleep but is struggling due to the water dripping from the faucet. He searches everywhere in the apartment, frantic, even calling Dr. Glassman over in the middle of the night as he can’t find his star-tipped screwdriver. Glassman tells him there is a hardware store up the street but Shaun wants his own and panics, leading to Glassman yelling at him but he quickly apologizes. He then finds the screwdriver, while acknowledging that Shaun is overwhelmed and stressed. Glassman reminds him to call the superintendent to fix things and then to go back to bed. At the hospital, Neil informs Jared and Claire about Barb Allen, a woman who has a tumor and is 26 weeks pregnant after 3 miscarriages. Shaun runs in saying she needs an ultrasound and an MRI to measure the tumor's growth rate. Neil questions how Shaun is showing up tired after having 12 hours off, though Claire defends him which irks Neil.
During the ultrasound, they discover the tumor is half the size of the fetus. Neil informs Barb and her husband Mark that the safest course is to terminate the pregnancy, though they say they want to do whatever it takes to save the baby, asking about fetal surgery. Neil informs Barb of the dangers to her because of her own condition and could have fatal consequences. The couple talks about it, with Mark saying they could try again for a baby, but Shaun says they can use other medications to save the mother too. This again annoys Neil as he believes that Shaun is correcting him (despite Shaun saying otherwise), while Claire also chimes in and Neil tells them to get Barb prepped. Dr. Andrews is covering the ER for Dr. Lim and needs someone to lance a boil, so Neil sends down Claire and Shaun. When Claire protests, saying it was their idea that convinced him to do the surgery and now he is punishing them for that, Neil says he is only punishing Shaun for being late and she needs to go with him because she defended him.
When Shaun and Lea get to the ER, they learn the "boil" on their patient, Oliva Hartman, is on her labia, but Claire wants to take a look. Olivia is experiencing pain which isn't normal for a boil and Shaun suggests she could have flesh-eating bacteria. Neil speaks to Andrews about the surgery on Barb, and after questioning if his judgement is clouded, Andrews agrees. Claire is examining Olivia, with Shaun thinking she just has Chlamidia while also beginning to visualize everything as Olivia shrieks in pain. Shaun tells Claire to go on a more upward angle and he offers to try. Claire tries to offer to call Olivia’s parents while telling her there is nothing to be embarrassed about as Shaun says 25% of college students contract an STD before graduation. Oliva says she gets tested for STDs every 30 days, as she does porn. Neil talks to his whole team, about how vitally important this surgery is but is interrupted when Jessica calls him out of the OR. He meets with Mark who says he doesn't want the surgery, but Neil tells him that he doesn't have a veto over Barb's medical condition. Jessica informs Neil that a husband cannot stop him from operating on his wife but a dad can stop him from operating on his baby.
Jared and Claire are talking about Olivia's role in porn when Shaun pipes in, shocking Jared that he watches porn. Neil tells them to go home and get some rest and Shaun to stay away from whatever was keeping him up, while also telling Jared to go home too since the fetal surgery was put on hold. The board meets to discuss their options but they know if they do nothing, the fetus will die inside Barb and so will Barb. However, Aoki states that if they do something legally complicated, they could both live. When Neil returns to share the news with Barb and Mark, Barb tells Mark that if he loves her, he won't protect her and she needs his support while Neil states that the surgery was happen in the morning. Claire talks to Jared in bed, saying it's hard to believe her patient does porn as she doesn't seem the type. She tells him about working in a youth shelter and all the sex workers there had this certain vibe. Jared thinks it's a huge deal that Claire shared some personal stuff with him, while she kisses him to shut him up. Meanwhile, Jessica and Neil talk about Barb; Jessica wonders if Barb is of sound mind and could adopt if she wants a child that bad. She thinks it's selfish to put Mark through so much to have a certain experience when there are other ways, to which Neil wonders if Jessica wants to have kids naturally with him. He's trying to be serious but she says when they are in meeting, he is to never call her ideas ridiculous.
On the bus, Shaun notices all the ads with women dressed in lingerie and remembers when he found his brother, Steve, looking at a "Peepers" magazine he got from a girl, Colleen. Shaun stands up, yelling that he missed his stop, so the driver lets him off, while Shaun unwraps the plastic scalpel his brother gave him as he stands in terror and confusion at the side of the road. Lea is nearby and stops her car, noticing Shaun, while offering to drive him home, telling him she is horrible with directions too. She is talking about going to the gym when Shaun blurts out she stinks. While she comments about how his anxiousness kept her up, she states that he is funny and is opposite to most guys as he says what is exactly on his mind and it's nice. She says goodnight to him and tells him not to fix any faucets as it's the superintendent's job. Shaun goes to the superintendent Armen’s apartment, making him furious for waking him up in the middle of the night but takes the list. The following morning, Glassman comments about Shaun taking what he said literally. He also says Shaun is smart and needs to make sense of what people say, as well as navigating how things go. He tries to suggest that Shaun have a Personal Support Worker, but Shaun attempts to refuse the idea. Glassman says they will have to talk about it another time and for them to enjoy their breakfast. Mark talks to Neil, knowing why Barb is desperate for the surgery but wants to know why Neil is. Neil wants to know what happens if she lives, while also saying he isn't desperate; he is confident, which should make him feel better while Mark walks away.
As Dr. Andrews praises Shaun for his work with the pelvis exam, he begins to realize he doesn't like being hugged. He also asks if Shaun has ever had a girlfriend, to which Shaun wants to know if Andrews is encouraging or mocking him. Andrews says he wants to know when is the right time for either, while Shaun is curious to know when it’s a good time to mock Andrews. They see how bad it is for Olivia when the swelling isn’t going down because there is a mass behind the abscess and surrounding the nerve. Shaun and Claire come to see Olivia, revealing they were able to drain the abscess but there is a fibroid tumor that isn’t cancerous but is wrapped around the nerve; they have to remove the tumor but that means it will sever all feeling in her genitals. She feels God is punishing her, revealing that she used to be religious but hasn’t thought about God in a really long time. Claire offers to call her parents because that’s what they are for – to support their kids. She asks Claire if she could tell her father she is a whore, to which Claire says it’s only a mistake.
Neil begins the surgery when his whole surgical team says they are ready. Just as Jared cuts into the uterus her heart drops. Surgery immediately stops and Neil informs Barb that she formed a blood clot in her heart but her baby is stable. She feels they are right back where they started, while Neil says she just had a heart attack. They also don’t have an option, so they need to terminate the pregnancy because the clots will overwhelm her heart and brain but Mark just states they need to try again. The board meets again, with Andrews saying Neil is at fault because had he not offered hope they wouldn’t be in this position. Jared comes to see Barb who says her heart feels fine and the incision pain is only a 5/10. Neil tells the board they could put Barb under for the surgery and then remove the baby, while Jessica and Andrews tell him they are pretending they didn’t hear that. They want him to do the surgery again, while Jared interrupts with an idea that they kill her before she kills herself. Neil and Jared explain that they can stop Barb’s heart, which won’t eliminate every risk but it does reduce the biggest one. She thanks them, as they prepare for surgery in the morning.
Shaun returns home and notices his faucet isn’t leaking anymore. He knocks on the Armen's door, late at night, and tells him he fixed the sink, but it wasn’t on the list and he wasn’t supposed to touch it. He is confused as Shaun explains he fixed it himself already, it has to drip at a certain rate and vents his complaints which angers Armen. Neil and Jared both work overnight on a plan for the surgery as Shaun, who also cannot sleep, visualizes the pipes in his apartment. In the morning, Neil watches as Mark kisses his wife and they wheel her off to the OR. Claire and Andrews come to see Olivia for her surgery to sever the nerves in her genital area, while Shaun comes rushing in saying how they can connect the nerves, asking if she prefers to lose nerve feeling in her thigh or genitals and Andrews thinks it can work. They do the surgery and Andrews congratulates both Shaun and Claire for their good work. In the other OR, Jared flushes Barb’s heart and as soon as it is stopped, they prep her for a c-section.
Dr. Andrews says surgery was a success but when Olivia says she can’t feel anything, Shaun interjects saying it will take 6 months to a year for her to regain sensation. Claire says she is going to be fine while Olivia asks Claire for a favor; she asks for her parents to be called. Meanwhile, Glassman is in his office and does some research on an Autism Support Chain. In the OR, Jared is mesmerized by the tiny fetus, Neil removes the tumor and as he is putting the fetus back, he calls it a "Baby" which Jared takes note of. Neil ruins the surprise and calls the baby a boy as the parents smile. After the day is done, Jared and Claire are going out drinking and insist on bringing Shaun. Although he says he has to go home, Claire assures him they won't stay long. He has a flashback to when he Colleen came to see him, asking about the pornographic magazine saying it was nothing to be embarrassed about. She told him she apparently thought he was really cute and he complimented her back. She took to the bushes where she tried to get him to show his privates, only to reveal it as a cruel joke Steve had to help him with. Back at the bar, he cheers both Jared and Claire for the great day they had at the hospital.
Cast[]
Starring[]
Guest Starring[]
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Co-Starring[]
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Trivia[]
- Shawn Mendes' song "There’s Nothing Holdin' Me Back" plays in the background at the bar scene.
- During the surgery, Jared notes that Neil, for the first time, has called the fetus a 'baby'. This is similar to a situation in the House episode, "Fetal Position" where House also started to call the fetus "baby" after it seems to grab his finger during the operation on the pregnant patient.
- Dr. Audrey Lim is mentioned for the first time. She first appears in "Not Fake".
- This is the first time Shaun’s brother, Steve, is referred to by name.
Multimedia[]
Gallery[]
Videos[]
References[]
External Links[]
- "Pipes" at the Internet Movie Database