7 Reasons The Good Doctor’s Series Finale Nailed The Landing
Summary
- The emotional series finale of The Good Doctor wrapped up completely, honoring key character deaths with sensitivity and depth.
- Shaun’s grief and development all through the series have been handled beautifully, enabling for a poignant final storyline.
- The show’s concentrate on minor characters’ content endings reinforced its core message of valuing every person, even in a healthcare setting.
For quite a few motives, The Good Doctor‘s extended-anticipated series finale wrapped the series up completely. The Freddie Highmore-led series changed the tv landscape for autistic characters by depicting autism differently. The Good Doctor was confirmed as ending right after season 7, top to speculation about how it would wrap up. The Good Doctor season 7 trailer promised heartbreaking final episodes, and the series created superior on that guarantee. Halfway via the final season, healthcare resident Asher Wolke was murdered in a hate crime, and quite a few episodes have been devoted to the characters’ grief more than his passing. Dr. Glassman also revealed in the penultimate episode that his brain cancer had returned and was terminal, setting up an emotional final storyline.
Ending The Good Doctor with this heavy storyline was risky, as it could have led to a depressing series finale that left these fans who stuck with the series to the finish with a unfavorable final impression, as a segment of the fanbase feels occurred with House, which was produced and created by the similar men and women. However, The Good Doctor handled this and other storylines sensitively in preparation for an inspiring and upbeat ending. Here is a list of seven motives that The Good Doctor’s emotional finale wrapped the show up completely.
Major Characters Who Died During The Good Doctor’s Run |
||
---|---|---|
Character Name |
Episode Name |
Date |
Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) |
“I Love You” |
March 30, 2020 |
Asher Wolke (Noah Galvin) |
“Who at Peace” |
April 2, 2024 |
Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) |
“Goodbye” |
May 21, 2024 |
7 Shaun’s Grief On The Good Doctor Was Handled Beautifully
Shaun Went Through All The Stages of Grief As Glassman Prepared to Say Goodbye
The Good Doctor discovered from the error it created in the course of “Frontline,” which depicted the starting of the COVID pandemic in such realistic and graphic detail that a segment of the fanbase was also uncomfortable to watch the complete episode. Cancer stories are even tougher to depict sensitively for the reason that the finish stages of the illness are horribly painful. However, The Good Doctor did not include things like any on-screen depictions of Glassman’s final days. Instead, the series wisely focused on Shaun’s troubles in accepting Glassman’s terminal prognosis.
This concentrate permitted Shaun to go via all the stages of grief and to in the end be capable to honor what Glassman meant to him and to the planet. Shaun refused to accept that no remedy could prolong Glassman’s life and lashed out in anger that Glassman would not accept experimental remedy, but at some point forgave Glassman for surrendering to his illness and honored his memory by building the Neurodiversity in Medicine Foundation. This grief mirrored what a segment of the audience was feeling as it became increasingly clear that there would be no miracle remedy in the course of the wrap-up.
6 Morgan’s Goodbye Scene With Glassman Humanized Her
Morgan Wasn’t Always Sympathetic, But She Acknowledged An Important Moment
Morgan’s goodbye with Glassman was 1 of the most emotional moments of the series finale. Glassman provided Morgan any of his possessions, but she just asked for a paper clip. This odd selection turned out to be symbolic of her memory of how Glassman had helped her when she was 1st diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and he helped her really feel much less overwhelmed.
This poignant moment was excellent for several motives. Morgan’s rheumatoid arthritis storyline was 1 of her ideal stories in earlier seasons, as her situation forced her to give up surgery. Bringing the memory up now reinforced the concept that Glassman touched everyone’s lives at the hospital and was also a reminder of Morgan’s extra human side. Morgan normally comes across as sarcastic and selfish, but enabling her to show extra vulnerability left a extra good impression and was a robust set-up for her content scene with Park and their daughter in the flash-forward at the finish of the episode.
5 Shaun and Glassman’s Relationship Ended on a Positive Note
The Two Had Often Butted Heads, Including Over Glassman’s Cancer Decisions
Shaun and Glassman had a key rift in the course of The Good Doctor season 6 that took a extended time to resolve. Shaun’s issues about Glassman’s overall health led to the discovery that Glassman had mini-strokes that created it not possible for him to continue performing surgery. That rift had ultimately been healed right after infant Steve’s birth, but Shaun’s anger at Glassman for not pursuing cancer remedy threatened to tear it wide open once again.
Shaun refused to speak to Glassman for the reason that Glassman had selected not to pursue additional remedy, and it would have been terrible if he had kept that up till Glassman’s death. However, Shaun and Glassman not only created up, but resolved their connection in a wonderful way just before Glassman’s death. Glassman created 1 final sacrifice for Shaun when he treated Claire in defiance of the FDA selection and, in return, Shaun took Glassman to the carousel that Maddie had loved as element of spending their final days collectively, cementing their adore for every other just before Glassman passed away.
4 Claire Had Her Happy Ending
Allowing Her to Survive And Thrive Prevented The Finale From Becoming Depressing
Claire’s season 7 return to The Good Doctor led to speculation that the character would die at the finish of the series, and the story appeared to be going in that path. Claire created a severe infection right after her lumpectomy that was resistant to antibiotics and threatened to kill her, and her storyline drew an intriguing parallel with Glassman’s. Shaun refused to say goodbye to her just before she went into a medically-induced coma that she may well not survive, and later Lim was determined to discover a option that did not involve amputating her arm, even although that was Claire’s ideal choice.
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When the FDA denied Claire’s remedy, it place Shaun in the position of either sacrificing his profession by defying their orders and administering the experimental virus anyway or enabling his ideal pal to die shortly just before Glassman did. That would have been a bleak ending. Glassman producing the sacrifice alternatively created excellent sense and permitted Claire to survive, but what created it excellent is that the time jump afterward showed that she and Jared had kids collectively and she worked with Shaun on building the Neurodiversity Foundation.
3 The Good Doctor’s Jump Into The Future Showed Shaun Coming Full Circle
Shaun Not Only Honored Glassman’s Memory But Was Successful In All The Ways That Mattered
The time jump at the finish of The Good Doctor was all the things the finale necessary for a excellent wrap-up. Immediately right after Glassman saved Claire, the series jumped ahead 10 years to Shaun providing a TED Talk in which he introduced the Neurodiversity in Medicine Foundation and explained the good influence Glassman had on his life that he wanted to spend forward. This tribute to Glassman reinforced the series’ concentrate on supporting and accepting autistic men and women and enabling them to attain their prospective.
The flash-forward revealed that Shaun was now Chief of Surgery, finishing the journey he had begun when he was a young resident eager to prove he could be a medical professional regardless of others’ skepticism about his autism. His final reflections that he had gotten all the things he had wanted in life and owed a debt of gratitude to Glassman for his assistance was a wonderful affirmation not only of Shaun and Glassman’s connection but of Shaun’s potential to obtain his dreams as an autistic particular person.
2 Even The Good Doctor’s Minor Characters Got Happy Endings
The Flash Forward Showed Jerome and Perez’s Futures
The time jump integrated glimpses into everybody’s futures. The key characters all had content endings, not counting Glassman’s inevitable death, but The Good Doctor did not quit there. It also took the time to acknowledge some extra minor characters as it wrapped up everybody’s stories. There have been two moments that have been especially poignant.
The time jump montage integrated a short glimpse of Jerome, smiling and content with a further man. This recommended that Jerome had discovered new adore right after the heartbreak of Asher’s death. This was a relief for the reason that Jerome had been depressed and was discovering it really hard to continue operating right after Asher was killed. Additionally, Daniel Perez created a cameo look in the course of the montage, dancing briefly with Jordan. Perez had left the hospital to make certain his sobriety, and he and Jordan have been discovering a extended-distance connection challenging. It was heartwarming to know that they ended up collectively at the finish, particularly given that Jared and Claire reconciled, leaving no hope of a connection involving Jared and Jordan.
Finally, Dom was shown operating in a clinic. The moment demonstrated that he had discovered his footing as a medical professional regardless of his emetophobia and tendency to faint at the slight of blood. This glimpse of Dom’s future also reinforced the theme of men and women becoming capable to succeed in the healthcare field regardless of mental overall health situations.
These nods to minor characters’ happiness also reflected The Good Doctor’s core message that every person has worth, no matter who they are. The series could have simply left minor characters out of the wrap-up and focused only on the key characters’ futures. Thus, their inclusion reinforced the concept of treating all men and women as significant no matter who they have been.
1 Shaun Naming His Daughter After Maddie Was a Poignant Moment During the Wrap-Up
The Name Honored Shaun’s Relationship With Glassman In a Touching Way
The flash-forward revealed that Shaun and Lea had a second infant, a tiny girl. Although the youngster was unnamed in the course of the episode, showrunners for The Good Doctor confirmed their daughter was named right after Maddie, Glassman’s late daughter. Maddie had died of a drug overdose shortly just before a teenage Shaun met Glassman, and Glassman became a surrogate father to Shaun partially for the reason that of his grief.
Glassman hallucinated that Maddie was there and worked via his grief with her though obtaining chemotherapy in the course of The Good Doctor season 2.
The clear explanation for this selection at the finish of The Good Doctor is that Shaun desires Glassman’s memory to reside on. His son’s middle name is right after Glassman, so it tends to make sense that his daughter would be named right after Glassman’s daughter. However, there is also a deeper, extra poignant which means to this selection. Shaun naming his daughter right after Maddie cements the concept that she was Shaun’s late sister who he never ever met. Additionally, Glassman’s deepest discomfort was his daughter’s death, so providing her name to Shaun’s daughter enables her to reside on, as Glassman yearned so deeply for.
The Good Doctor season 7 streams on Hulu.
The Good Doctor
The Good Doctor is a healthcare drama tv series that tells the story of Dr. Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon who has autism, as he navigates his profession and individual life at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Freddie Highmore plays the title part. The series premiered in 2017 on ABC.
- Cast
- Freddie Highmore , Nicholas Gonzalez , Antonia Thomas , Chuku Modu , Beau Garrett , Hill Harper , Richard Schiff , Tamlyn Tomita , Will Yun Lee , Fiona Gubelmann , Christina Chang , Paige Spara , jasika nicole
- Release Date
- September 25, 2017
- Seasons
- 7
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu