Lea Dilallo

**Lea Abigail Dilallo** is a main character on *The Good Doctor*. For part of Season 1, she lived next door to Shaun Murphy, in Apartment 34. The two soon became roommates in Season 2 and later a couple by the end of Season 3. At the end of season 5, Shaun and Lea got married. In season 6, Lea became pregnant with a boy and at the end of the season, she gives birth to a healthy baby boy named Steven Aaron Murphy.

## History

### Background

Lea was born in Hershey and is the daughter of Pam and Mike and sister of Donnie. Unfortunately, her parents weren’t good to her; Mike tended to be rather stubborn and once returned a dog Lea got, Tessa, after it peed on Mike’s briefcase. Pam, meanwhile, was flaky and constantly forgot to collect her from school. Lea also made some mistakes which were all that her parents remembered her for and had a lot of relationships that didn’t last long. However, she soon went on to marry her childhood neighbour but their marriage didn’t work out and they soon separated.

According to Salen Morrison in "Piece of Cake", Lea went to the University of Pittsburgh, got her degree in three years, designed and built cars, desktops and entire coding systems from the ground up.

In 2016, Lea’s Grandpa Rod passed away and she was given his “striped tomato” car. She soon moved from Hershey to San Jose.

### Season 1

Lea met Shaun after asking him for some batteries, stating that she was in the middle of *Uncharted* and Shaun replied by giving her the batteries. Later, he mustered up courage and asks her the batteries back, and she gave them to him before telling him her name and vice versa.

The two soon started a friendship, with Lea giving Shaun a ride home after he accidentally missed his stop. Unfortunately, their building’s landlord cut off the power to Lea’s apartment after her music was playing too loudly. She soon ate Shaun’s only apple and later stormed off when he didn’t take her side, but then offered him an apple as a sign of peace to him. Meanwhile, he told her that he’d made a mistake during a shooting and someone got hurt which led to Lea comforting him.

Lea soon appeared to start showing feelings for Shaun and jokingly called him an a\*\*hat, though he took it as her not liking him until he was told otherwise. Shaun attempted at flirting with Lea, but it did not come out right (he told her she looked absurd in her sweater). Luckily, Lea understood his attempt and invited him into her apartment to eat green apples.

After Shaun became stressed due to decisions his boss, Doctor Glassman, tried to make him agree to, Lea took Shaun on a road trip to clear his mind. During it, she let him drive her car (though he hit it against a rock after he forgot to take his foot off the gas) and also introduced him to music, alcohol and karaoke (which he gained a liking to). After they walked back to their motel room, still drunk, Lea showed Shaun the proper way to end a date and they kissed (which Shaun felt excited and nervous about). Lea soon decided herself to move back to Hershey to help her grandfather’s old car shop to be more fulfilled with her life, which upset Shaun who returned home by himself.

All the same, the two ended up in a good place. Shaun helped Lea pack up her apartment for Hershey and stated that he wanted to move his residency to Pennsylvania to be with Lea. However, Shaun ultimately decided to stay, bidding farewell to Lea, who let him *borrow* her signed baseball. She then kissed him for the final time and left for Hershey.

Although Lea was not seen, she messaged Shaun, sending him a song playlist and a photo of pine trees with the following statement: "Thinking about pine trees...and you." Shaun listened to playlist on the bus, feeling saddened by the absence of his only friend outside of work.

### Season 2

Unfortunately, when Lea returned to Hershey, her and Donnie’s efforts to save their grandfather’s car shop didn’t go well. They lost the shop and her relationship with Donnie suffered, so she decided to return to San Jose. She went to see Shaun, hoping to get some comfort. She waited for him outside his apartment to surprise him and they saw each other again.

She moved in with Shaun briefly, planning to leave once she gets on her feet again, but Shaun's distress at being reminded of her from seeing her baseball led to him not being good to her. Lea, meanwhile, became hurt at him not showing any care to her - including not asking about Hershey - and was still angry with him while he tried to apologise. When she yelled at him over this, he asked her about Hershey since he cared that she cared and they made up. They also moved into an apartment together as roommates.

The two soon decided to get a pet, a fish named Hubert, but he died and Lea blamed herself over it. However, Shaun was able to prove scientifically that Lea had nothing to do with Hubert's death and he forced the pet store to give Lea a free replacement fish, cheering her up. Lea also taught Shaun to drive and had to drive Glassman to get an MRI while Shaun was busy at the hospital, only to find that his cancer had apparently returned. After Glassman discovered that he has meningitis instead of his cancer returning, Lea argued with him over telling Shaun the truth, finally convincing Glassman to do the right thing.

After Lea took out Glassman and Shaun for a day of fun, she soon gained a boyfriend, Jake, who she feared Shaun would feel uneasy about but he supposedly wasn’t (when he actually was). When Shaun was transferred to pathology, Lea tried to support him but he kept feeling uncomfortable in his new position and eventually got fired over it. When he got hospitalized following an incident while he was depressed, Lea and Glassman were later by his bedside where Glassman attempted to tell her about how much Shaun likes her. The two were later with Shaun when he awoke and after finding Shaun dressed up with chocolate and flowers, she expected Shaun to ask her out. To her surprise, Shaun simply asked Lea for her opinion on his appearance before departing to successfully ask out Carly from pathology, having apparently moved on from Lea, or at least trying to.

### Season 3

While Shaun was with Carly, Lea regularly helped Shaun with what to do while with her (including dating advice and flirting with her). When Shaun was informed that his abusive father, Ethan, was dying of Cancer, Lea accompanied Shaun alongside Glassman at Shaun’s request and encouraged Shaun to see Ethan when Shaun was nervous about doing so. However, she still nonetheless held a dim view over Ethan concerning how he treated Shaun. She also mostly agreed with Glassman but still was somewhat at odds ends with him, including allowing Ethan some empathy and when Lea submerged herself into a lake to try and get Shaun to join her. When Shaun soon came to make peace with Ethan, he turned venomous against Shaun. After he died, Lea soon came to see Shaun and comforted him over what had just happened and they fell asleep hugging.

Since Shaun had felt uneasy about lying together with Carly and yet did so very easily with Lea, she agreed to move out to not make Carly uncomfortable. Following this, Lea felt that she was stuck in a rut in her personal and professional lives and wanted to move on from her current job (which she was dissatisfied with). Shaun soon came to have lunch with Lea secretly without telling Carly, seeking her advice on how a patient's symptoms compare to an ice cream headache. When Lea attempted to tell Shaun about how she felt, Shaun was too distracted from the sensation of having an ice cream headache when he succeeded in getting one. All the same, he later suggested that Glassman hire Lea as his assistant due to how good she is with technology and how much he struggles with it. Glassman soon reluctantly interviewed Lea, though she knew that he didn't really want her there. As Lea was leaving, she listed off all of the things Glassman has missed or that could be potentially problematic, causing him to change his mind and call Lea back a moment later.

While Lea was having lunch with Shaun, she stole food from his plate which appeared to Morgan as if Lea was claiming territory. Though Carly claimed to be fine with Shaun and Lea's friendship, both Morgan and Lea herself expressed doubt. During a confrontation in an elevator, Carly assured Lea that she was fine as she knows with Shaun, Carly knows she can trust Shaun to be telling the truth about his feelings for Lea. That night, while Lea and her current boyfriend were at a bar, they joined Shaun and Lea which led to the four hanging out together and singing karaoke. Shaun and Lea ended up dominating the singing, leading to a charged moment between them that does not go unnoticed by Carly.

After Lea was informed that Carly had dumped Shaun, he kept trying to tell her something but he was scared at times to tell her. He soon finally confessed his love for Lea that night at his apartment. Lea admitted that she loves Shaun too, but claimed she didn’t think she wouldn’t be good for him because of her issues and that he would be overwhelmed by them due to his Autism (but actually didn’t think she could date him because she feared that they were too different and about public opinions of them both, though she was upset over this). Shaun then tried to prove to her that he could adapt for her, but she still refused, while telling Shaun that she had a problem with his Autism and that he couldn’t "fix" that. This led to Shaun becoming depressed and he even considered smashing up Lea’s striped tomato car to hurt her just as she hurt him. However, he instead tearfully yelled at her about her flaws which left Lea in tears as well.

While Lea was at a charity event, she was caught in a building collapse during an earthquake. Shaun was part of the rescue team from the hospital and tried to help her, hearing her calling out for help. However, Lea was rescued and Shaun instead found a trapped young woman named Vera who was suffering a similar heartbreak. While Shaun had a walkie talkie which was on the whole time, Lea overheard Shaun (who didn’t know she was listening to him) tell Vera about how Lea made him feel “more”, his regrets that he make her feel the same but that she would want to be with him if he did.

After the part of the building where Shaun and Vera were started filling up with water, Shaun decided to perform an amputation on Vera’s leg which was trapped and couldn’t be freed while having Lea count to three minutes while he carried it out. After Lea became concerned for Shaun when he didn’t respond when the three minutes were up, she attempted to rescue him when it was revealed that he and Vera had been retrieved. Although Shaun had promised Vera that he would move on if she didn’t survive, Lea kissed Shaun while admitting that she was an idiot for not realising how much she loves him (and even admitted that he makes her more) and they became a couple.

### Season 4

Lea regularly came over to Shaun’s apartment to visit him, but her constantly leaving her items behind there led to Shaun trying to convince her to stay over with him. Lea agreed to Shaun’s request, but they were separated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The two kept in contact via FaceTime but as time went on, Shaun became frustrated with being so far from Lea. Ultimately, Shaun and Lea spent time with each other by having a door between them. Later on, Lea caught a sore throat and was tested for COVID. Although Shaun was worried, it turned out negative. Thankfully, the two were reunited weeks later.

While Shaun was training the new residents, he accidentally over-shared his personal information, such as his opinion that Lea’s breasts are excellent, is thrilled by every part of her body and unfortunately, a backhanded compliment where he said that he isn’t even bothered by her adenoidal voice. Lea thought that Shaun was insulting her while also complimenting her breasts in a sexual way which made her angry with him. However, he was able to make things right with her and told her about why he loves her despite her flaws (for which she thanked him).

Lea kept avoiding Shaun attempting to get her to move in with him as she felt that living together as a couple meant a bigger commitment and more trust, and she didn’t think they were there yet. She soon told him that one of the reasons she is with him is because Shaun is different and she couldn’t see herself with anyone else. She soon agreed to moving in with him, though unsure about it. Nonetheless, she was happy to do so with Shaun stating that her being with him isn’t the same as he thought it was, but better. Shaun later threw Lea a birthday party with their hospital coworkers.

Lea tried to introduce shower sex to Shaun, who was rather uncertain about it. She soon heard at work about Shaun having done a poll concerning shower sex and had to field some questions. Back at their apartment, Lea found the exercise equipment from her ex-husband and assembled it in order to sell online. After Shaun found out about her former husband, he tried to address this but Lea told him that it wasn’t important. While Shaun soon told Lea that he is ok with having sex in the shower, he got a cow bell to ring in an emergency in case they head in different directions.

Lea started panicking when her parents announced that they would be visiting and wanted to meet Shaun, considering how judgemental they were and her uncertainty about whether Glassman (who she perceives as Shaun’s father) likes her. After a failed practice dinner where Shaun revealed to Glassman about what Lea believed, Shaun and Lea had dinner with Pam and Mike. Although it appeared to not go so bad, Lea was texted that they didn’t think she should’ve been in a challenging relationship. When he took it calmly, she noted about how much more a mature person than she is, but she wasn't sure that that would work for her. Dr. Glassman also assured Lea that he does like her, albeit with a strained effort, but was just afraid of something happening to Shaun remains so high that his fear of the worst had him avoiding Lea’s actions when she was at her best. Shaun, meanwhile, was able to get Lea’s parents to accept him and make amends with her and they soon came to their apartment to do so.

After Lea had to help Shaun through a work crush he had on one of the radiologists, Dr. Cintia D'Souza, she found out that the hospital had been hit by a cyber attack and had to work with Glassman through it. Unfortunately, she felt unease at him and Shaun because she felt that they were being sexist and didn’t respect her. However, Shaun gave her the courage to stop the hackers and told her that he does respect her (which she greatly appreciated).

Lea soon found out that she was pregnant, but didn’t initially tell Shaun. Unfortunately, her pregnancy caused her to behave somewhat “crazy” and got mad when her car got towed by a sleazy tow truck driver whom Shaun didn’t appear to see was in the wrong. While Lea tried to find something about the man that she could expose him for, she accused Shaun of not being a good boyfriend for not defending her. He soon worked to apparently help steal back her car, while Lea confessed about her pregnancy.

While Shaun tried to offer Lea support through her pregnancy, she was unsure about whether to have the baby or not. They eventually decided to get an abortion, but soon decided against it and to have the child. While Lea was going through he pregnancy, Shaun tried to help her. Unfortunately, he admitted that he felt disconnected from her and the baby, and realized that he was making her mad at him a lot recently. Lea chastised him for how he was acting selfish, considering everything she was doing for the baby. When Lea saw that Shaun was scared like her, she expressed this to him and tried to get him to connect to the baby. Unfortunately, he failed to do so and his comments made her think that he shouldn’t be at the ultrasound or he’d make things worse. However, he soon did (which she was happy about) and the two were really happy.

Shaun and Lea were soon revealed to be having a girl, though they went through some complications including getting kicked out of their birthing class and Lea getting a doula when Shaun thought that he could do her massages for her. When a protest that was happening near the hospital led to two young boys getting shot, Shaun was called away after Lea was finished with her tests while Lea waited with the mothers of the boys. Lea tried to offer support to the two woman, only for fighting to break out between them when they realised that they were on opposite sides of the protest. Lea also got pushed over by one of the mothers when Lea tried to comfort her before realising that Shaun and Lea are together. While both of the boys survived their surgeries, Lea was told by the same woman that she’d made a great mother. Unfortunately, while Shaun and Lea were outside, both feeling very lucky, Shaun held Lea who suddenly collapsed and was taken inside.

It was revealed that there was a clot in the umbilical cord which led to Lea suffering a miscarriage and losing the baby. Lea struggled with depression in the aftermath of her miscarriage and the well-wishes of her colleagues. She also avoided telling Pam the news, but Shaun accidentally did in a moment of stress of grief. He later held Lea as she broke down after getting advice from both Glassman and Andrews. Shaun soon surprised Lea with a camping trip, but things went badly, resulting in Shaun seriously injuring his ankle. Under Shaun's guidance, Lea was forced to perform emergency surgery on Shaun using a tent repair kit and a fishing hook, stabilizing Shaun until he could be transported to the hospital for proper treatment.

When Shaun was part of a medical mission to Guatemala, Lea accompanied him and helped out the rest of the doctors. Unfortunately, she couldn’t help but feel depressed as everything in the hospital they were working in kept reminding her of her and Shaun’s lost child. She expressed this to Shaun and told him that Pam and Mike had been trying to suggest that she return to Hershey for a while. While Lea bonded with the mother of a baby in the hospital, she and Shaun worked to save the baby which Lea held in her arms at the mother’s request. Rather than going back to Pennsylvania, Lea proposed to Shaun, and they got engaged.

### Season 5

Lea decided to take it upon herself to single-handedly plan her and Shaun’s wedding, though she kept suffering nightmares if it going wrong. After their engagement party got wrecked by Glassman making jokes about how long their marriage would last and revealed that his wife had left him, Shaun stated his intent to help her with their wedding.

After Salen Morrison and her company Ethicure Medical took over the hospital, Lea was surprised to find Shaun adapt to the changes rather well. Unfortunately, they soon became too much for him and Lea had to help him through them. One of them was a system where the patients could rate and review their doctors, but Shaun’s scores weren’t very good. After both Shaun and Lea failed to call Glassman, Lea couldn’t help but go behind Shaun’s back and delete some of his bad reviews to boost his scores.

Lea soon realised that Glassman had gone to Montana with the intent on relocating there, since no-one knew him there and he thought that Shaun didn’t need him anymore. He also tried to encourage Lea that she and Shaun are perfect for each other. Unfortunately, Lea soon confessed the truth to Shaun and he found it hard to forgive her. She soon found him in the pharmacy, upset after having accidentally killed the baby of a young woman Shaun had performed a circumcision on after injecting medication that he didn’t know was expired due to cutbacks Salen had made. Lea tried to comfort Shaun, but he pushed her away, telling her that he couldn’t trust (let alone marry) her, to her dismay.

While Lea tried (but failed) to get Shaun to reconsider, she soon became part of a resistance led by Lim to expose Salen whom Lim had realised wasn’t good for the hospital. Although Shaun came to forgive Lea, he couldn’t help but question whether she thought he was good enough for her (considering her previous insecurities about being with him). Unfortunately, this made Lea think that Shaun didn’t think she was good enough for him and stormed off while staying with Jordan for a while.

Eventually, Shaun informed Lea that he couldn’t help but think that her changing his scores made him feel as if she had set him up for failure and that he had already gone through that before; his gym teacher tried to help Shaun while he was being bullied, but his efforts (including giving him a B regardless of if he went or not) just worsened everything for him. He then said that he does think that she’s good enough for him, which Lea was all to happy to reciprocate but told him about how they would need a lot of hard work for their relationship.

While Glassman joined Lim’s team to try and stop Salen, he and Lea tried to convince Shaun to not get involved because of his vulnerability due to his autism. Unfortunately, Glassman, Lea and Lim got fired by Salen for their attempted rebellion and then blackmailed them into doing anything further by threatening to reveal Lea changing Shaun’s scores alongside Glassman and Lim’s own transgressions. Shaun then insisted that he get involved, which Lea accepted. However, Dr. Andrews forced Salen to stop and she did.

After Shaun and Lea failed to plan their wedding, they decided against having it for a while. However, Shaun was put in charge of caring for a young girl, Isla, who pointed out that Lea didn’t even have a ring on her. Shaun soon officially proposed to Lea that night with a ring he made himself. Lea also felt that she and Shaun were going through a “dry spell” that they were having concerning their sex (which he attempted to help with), worked with Jordan on a sensor project and became a victim of some magic mushrooms during a potluck at the hospital.

Lea was called in to help fix an iron lung of an elderly woman, Joan, and worked with Joan’s niece, Sophie, to do so. After they were successful, Sophie approached them about how she was working on a show about atypical couples and offered to plan their wedding for them if they starred in it. They agreed and it started off somewhat well, but Lea felt at times that they were taking advantage of Shaun’s autism (including after they caused him to make a mistake with a patient), but he was able to get through it while Sophie apologised for what had happened. Lea also confessed about the true reason for her not wanting to be with Shaun, which Shaun complimented her on.

Unfortunately, the extravagant wedding thrown for Shaun and Lea by Sophie proved to be too much for them and so they ran away from it. The two soon agreed to get married at a courthouse which Shaun booked them for, but Lea began to miss out on everything she was looking forward to for their actual wedding and she and Shaun were thrown one by their family at the hospital.

### Season 6

At their wedding reception, Shaun and Lea learnt that Lim and her friend Nurse Villanueva had been stabbed by Villanueva's violent ex-boyfriend and rushed to their aid along with Jordan. This left the hospital in lockdown, so Lea was enlisted as a circulating nurse, helping both surgical teams as they desperately operated on Lim and Villanueva. When Lim started crashing, Shaun went into a panic and became unresponsive until he was helped by Lea and saved Lim. Shaun later told Lea that he saw Steve earlier and had encouraged Shaun to accept that it wasn't his fault that he died which Shaun is trying to do. Lea's critical help at such a desperate time made Shaun love her even more than he did before.

Lea became annoyed when she thought Shaun was being critical of her habits, causing great frustration in the couple before Shaun took the advice of a marriage counselor who was one of his patients to show how much he loves her. She later tried to help Shaun after Lim severed all personal ties with him in anger when the surgery he did on her made her disabled from the waist down, while also devastated that Glassman was taking Lim's side. When Shaun attempted to take responsibility by working out a surgery to help Lim, Lea found that Glassman was still in a foul mood and confronted him over his attitude. She also had to help convince a man to give a transplant to his daughter whom he barely knew and work with Glassman to restore power to the hospital during a blackout.

After having finished her treatment for the condition that had caused her miscarriage, Lea was excited to try for another child with Shaun. However, she was devastated when her doctor determined that the damage Lea suffered meant that it was possibly not safe for her to get pregnant again. She and Shaun then argued over her desire to buy a fixer-upper, eventually agreeing to find a house that they both love. After injuring her hand, Lea sought treatment for it, only to discover that she was pregnant again in the process. Despite her fears, she made it through the first trimester of her pregnancy. However, there was a weakness in her uterine wall caused by her miscarriage which could've caused some complications down the line. Shaun then kept being overprotective of her but soon allowed Jordan to visit Lea, lifting her mood.

However, Lea experienced internal bleeding and was rushed into emergency surgery, facing a possible hysterectomy if Lim and Glassman couldn't fix the issue. Andrews, Villanueva, Morgan, Park, Asher, Jerome, Danny and Jordan gathered to sit vigil with Shaun as Glassman and Lim desperately tried to save Lea and the baby. Thankfully, Glassman found the bleeding was caused by the miscarriage and he and Lim succeeded in saving both Lea and her child, which was revealed to be a boy.

Although Lea was excited about being a parent, she couldn't help but fear about whether she would be a good parent or mess up like her own parents did. These feelings increased when they were on their babymoon and they found an injured dog that Lea grew an attachment to (even naming it "Buddy") and got Shaun to help. While Shaun tried to help Lea with what she was going through, Glassman soon came to help the dog and gave Lea good parenting advice while she became less scared. When Shaun also became attached to the dog, a family who are it's owners came which Lea was happy for.

After Glassman's house got infested with termites and then was destroyed in a fire sometime afterwards, he ended up staying with Shaun and Lea for a while. During his stay, Lea was initially grateful for him helping them but started to notice that he and Shaun shared a lot of similarities. She and Shaun, meanwhile, had to deal with differences with how they would raise their son but soon joined Glassman at the wreckage of his house while having hope for a new future as a family. Unfortunately, Lea soon became irritated when Glassman attempted to help in preparation for their child. She was dismayed when Shaun told him about this, only to find that Glassman had moved into an apartment across the hall to them.

While Glassman continued helped the two prepare for their baby, Shaun became worried about him when it soon appeared that he suffered permanent brain damage and shouldn't be doing surgery anymore. Meanwhile, Shaun and Lea's baby came early and Lea tried (in vain) to talk to Glassman who was shutting himself off from Shaun whom Glassman felt had betrayed him. Lea soon gave birth with Shaun by her side, which she was pleased with. While their friends at the hospital came to visit them, Glassman was still absent but had a blanket sent to them which had the baby's name embroidered into it; Steve, while Shaun middle-named him Aaron after Glassman.

## Personality

Lea is severely flawed, has a tendency to be messy, stubborn and flaky (having had difficulties in keeping both a job and a boyfriend) and is very different to Shaun, but is overall the best person for him to be with (and him to be with her). She’s also the first person to treat him as an equal, hating that he was being coddled as opposed to being treated as an adult.

Lea is scared of Foot Fungus, tends to stress eat, is a fan of the rock band “Death Cab for Cutie” and “Florence”, the “Star Wars” franchise  and is passionate about video games and fixing vintage cars.

Lea has always deeply cared about Shaun, having seen him as her best friend and didn’t want to jeopardise their friendship if they became roommates and then a couple (though they did soon become them both). She has also tended to bicker with Glassman a lot due to feeling that he has a constant bad attitude and that he may be sexist towards her while only agreeing with him a few times, but still cares about him because he’s Shaun’s father figure.

## Trivia

* She's allergic to cats.
* She has short brown hair sometimes pulled into a half up half down style in Season 1. In season 2, her hair appears to be darker. In Season 3, her hair looks as if light brown highlights had been applied.
* According to David Shore, he had interest in seeing Shaun and Lea getting together, as said in this interview.

## References

1. ↑ https://the-good-doctor.fandom.com/wiki/Islands:\_Part\_Two Islands: Part Two
2. ↑ "Quarantine: Part Two": Season 2. Episode 11. [[]] (writer) & [[]] (director). [, ].
3. ↑ "Pipes": Season 1. Episode 4. Thomas L. Moran (writer) & Steven DePaul (director). [October 16, 2017].
4. ↑ "Apple": Season 1. Episode 8. David Renaud (writer) & Nestor Carbonell (director). [November 20, 2017].
5. ↑ "Aftermath": Season 2. Episode 12. Thomas L. Moran (writer) & Dawn Wilkinson (director). [January 21, 2019].
6. ↑ "Growth Opportunities"
7. ↑ "Friends and Family": Season 3. Episode 10. [[]] (writer) & [[]] (director). [, ].
8. ↑ "Hubert": Season 2. Episode 7. David Renaud (writer) & Marisol Adler (director). [November 12, 2018].
9. ↑ https://tvline.com/2019/03/11/the-good-doctor-recap-season-2-episode-18-finale-shaun-carly-han/