Marcus Andrews

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

## History

### Season 1

After Glassman tries to hire Dr. Shaun Murphy, an autistic savant, Andrews uses his position as Vice President of the hospital to fight the appointment before the entire hospital board. Even after Shaun saves a patient before even reaching the hospital, Andrews fights against Shaun getting to be a surgical resident. It is only after Glassman promises to resign as President of the hospital should Shaun not live up to expectations, thus giving Andrews the position he wants, does Shaun get hired.

When he and his wife have trouble conceiving, Andrews becomes upset when the therapist suggests it may be due to a fertility problem in him. They also argue over Marcus using his distrust in Shaun in wanting to get Dr. Glassman booted out, for Andrews to have the hospital president position himself. Marcus also gets into a disagreement with Dr. Claire Browne, when he forbids her to apologize to a patient for misplacing a lab sample. Despite the frequent tense and egoistic behavior, he does occasionally show a caring, soothing side. This allows him to maintain his relationship with his wife, and to generally maintain relationships with Melendez and the surgical residents.

As the first season goes on, he forms a great deal of trust and belief in Shaun. Andrews even eventually confronts Neil Melendez about his lingering distrust in Shawn. At the end of the season, after Shaun's mistake nearly kills a patient, he decides to confess to Andrews alongside Glassman despite the deal they made to get Shaun working at the hospital could cost Glassman his job.

### Season 2

In season 2, Andrews has become the President of the hospital, but maintains his job as Chief of Surgery as well. As the season goes on, Andrews receives pressure to find a new Chief of Surgery, but ultimately decides to keep the position himself when he can't choose between Lim and Melendez.

After a viral quarantine in which Lim, Melendez and Shaun take actions that result in them facing possible license suspension, Andrews hires Dr. Jackson Han as the new Chief of Surgery. Han immediately clashes with Shaun, displaying many of the concerns that Andrews had about the young man but with none of his patience. After Han fires Shaun, Andrews attempts to change his mind without success. After talking with Shaun and listening to Glassman fighting for Shaun at a board meeting, Andrews unexpectedly backs Glassman up and fires Han using his power as President of the hospital so that Shaun can be rehired. While discussing Andrews' decision later, Lim and Melendez speculate that Andrews may have destroyed his career at the hospital in the process and Lim is promoted to replace Andrews and Han as the new Chief of Surgery.

### Season 3

In "Disaster," Andrews has been fired from St. Bonaventure for his actions and is searching for a new job. However, Lim seeks his advice in her new role as Chief of Surgery after struggling with the job. Lim, after following Andrews' advice, returns and offers to rehire him as St. Bonaventure's new surgical attending, replacing herself. Though he hesitates at first, Andrews accepts the job and is introduced to Melendez and his team as the new attending to their pleasure.

In "Debts," Andrews treats a young man named Josh who had the side of his face destroyed after selflessly stopping a stranger from being groped on the subway. To the team's dismay, the damage proves to be too severe to repair and they will have to wire Josh's mouth shut for the rest of his life. During the procedure, Shaun reminds Andrews of his own selfless act to save Shaun's job and Andrews is inspired to find a way to save Josh's face, even if they have to invent a new procedure to do it. Shaun eventually comes up with a way though it carries dangerous risks. Lim urges Andrews to step back and leave it be, believing that he is doing it out of guilt over the repercussions he faced from his own heroic act.

With Lim refusing to order him to stand down, Andrews proposes the procedure to Josh who accepts. Despite a complication, Andrews, Shaun and Claire successfully pull off the surgery. Andrews later visits Shaun in the locker room and admits that Lim had been right about his motivations, that he was angry over what he suffered for helping Shaun and he resented Shaun and the universe for it. However, Shaun's actions that day made Andrews proud of his sacrifice and he thanks Shaun for it which Shaun accepts. Andrews tells Shaun that very few things in life that are worth it come without a cost before leaving.

In "Claire," as Claire prepares for her first surgery as lead, she and Shaun observe a surgery performed by Andrews from the gallery above. Andrews points out a possible complication Claire should be prepared to deal with when she does her own surgery, causing Claire to obsessively study in case it comes up.

In "First Case, Second Base," Andrews works with Shaun and Park on the case of a woman named Beth that has esophageal cancer which Lim has assigned as Shaun's first surgery. However, Andrews saw that it was originally Park's case and realizes that Lim is coddling Shaun with a kind patient and relatively easy case which Andrews disagrees with. After its discovered that Beth will need a feeding tube for the rest of her life, Andrews goes against Lim's orders and forces Shaun to deliver the bad news. As a result, as the two practice for the surgery, Lim delivers the news that the patient wants Shaun off the case, distressing the young man. After Lim gets Beth to change her mind, a worried Andrews confronts Lim, feeling that Shaun still is not ready to take lead, only to realize that Lim handpicked Shaun's surgical team. Still concerned, Andrews warns Lim that she is ruining Shaun through all of her coddling.

Andrews acts as part of Shaun's surgical team along with Park. However, Shaun apparently has a meltdown, claiming that they can't do the surgery and runs out. Andrews has Lim called in and initially believes that Shaun's behavior comes from being unable to handle it. However, Park recognizes that Shaun might've seen something and is simply having trouble communicating it. With help from a hallucination of Steve Murphy, Shaun calms himself down and explains that he had earlier discovered a Japanese procedure that could fix the problem and make it so that Beth would not need a feeding tube for the rest of her life. However, the procedure is too complicated for Shaun himself to perform. Instead, Shaun walks Andrews and Lim through the procedure which is successful, but results in Shaun not getting his first lead surgery. Afterwards, Andrews tells Lim that he feels Shaun failed: while Shaun did something incredible as a diagnostician, he failed as a surgeon by having to walk out. Lim reminds Andrews that they are a team and it was a team effort that saved Beth's ability to eat. Lim reminds Andrews of his own contribution, something that leaves Andrews thoughtful: Andrews believed in and fought for Shaun without which he never would've been there in the first place.

In "45-Degree Angle," Andrews is dismayed to find Shaun studying for his second chance at a first surgery with the entire nursing staff and Morgan and confronts Lim over her continued coddling of Shaun. Lim effectively orders Andrews to butt out of the matter and let Lim make her own mistakes. During Shaun's first lead surgery, an appendectomy, Andrews supervises, though he doesn't intervene even when a complication arises, appearing pleased by Shaun's immediate solution to the problem. Andrews is left amazed by Shaun's performance, commenting that he may have been wrong after all. However, Shaun's perfectionism leads to a conflict with Nurse Hawks, ending with Shaun kicking her out of the OR. Andrews doesn't intervene, nor does he interject when Lim reads Shaun the riot act for his behavior. Lim points out Andrews' lack of interference in the matter and he simply explains that she has her way of dealing with Shaun while he has his. After Shaun's failure to properly apologize escalates the issue, Andrews watches as Lim disciplines the young man, pleased with the lack of coddling finally but somewhat sympathetic to Shaun's distressed reaction.

## 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. He often shows 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 causes tension between Andrews and his wife. However, he is shown to be dedicated to his staff, particularly as President of the hospital and has been seen to fight for them multiple times, such as when Lim, Melendez and Shaun faced a possible license suspension for their actions during a 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 Shaun made a mistake that nearly cost a patient his life which gave Andrews the promotion he wanted. After Shaun gets fired, Andrews fights with Dr. Jackson Han to rehire him, but Han refuses. During a board meeting, Andrews shows 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 may have ruined his own career at the hospital in the process. After getting fired and later rehired as a surgical attending as a result, Andrews is left with doubts and rage over the unfairness of it all. After working with Shaun to save the face of a young man who was violently assaulted for trying to stop a groping, Andrews realizes that it was worth it and admits to Shaun's actions that day making Andrews proud of his sacrifice for the young doctor.

Unlike Lim, Andrews refuses to coddle Shaun which he feels will just cause more problems as Shaun thrives when he is faced with difficult situations. Andrews repeatedly clashes with Lim over her treatment of Shaun as his first lead surgery approaches, stating at one point that Lim is ruining Shaun with her behavior and expressing concern that Shaun is simply not ready for the pressures yet. When Shaun finally has his lead surgery, Andrews supervises, but stands back and allows Shaun to handle it completely on his own even when a complication arises, enabling Shaun to come up with his own solution that pleases Andrews rather than having it handed to him. After Shaun proves himself extremely capable as lead surgeon, Andrews is visibly amazed and even admits that he might've been wrong. Due to his approach with dealing with Shaun, Andrews refuses to intervene when conflict erupts 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 is ultimately left pleased when Lim stops coddling Shaun and disciplines him for his behavior, but does 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 has vanished and Andrews often comes to rely on Shaun and his skills in difficult situations. In "Letting Go," Andrews is dubious about Shaun's claims that his old mentor Dr. Paul Nakano made a mistake and pointedly sends him home due to Shaun's brash accusations, including going behind Andrews' back to the patient. However, Andrews cuts Shaun some slack due to Shaun recently losing his child to a miscarriage. Shaun ultimately proves to be wrong that Nakano made a mistake, but right that there was a problem.

When Shaun completes his residency, Andrews is 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 refuses to coddle him, but he also treats him as friend and an equal at the same time. When Lea experiences complications with her second pregnancy and faces a possible second miscarriage and a hysterectomy, Andrews is the first of Shaun's friends to join Shaun in sitting vigil for his wife, silently providing his support through the tough time as Glassman and Lim try and ultimately succeed in saving both Lea and the baby.

According to Andrews in "Debts," "I help my patients to the best of my ability because it's meaningful and to me the downside is purely financial. For friends I'll risk a little bit more, but the only people I'm risking life and limb for are my family." In "The Family," Andrews tells Glassman and Lim that the hospital is his home and the staff is his family.

## 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 a Spider-Man fan, as was revealed in Potluck. According to him, Isabel dragged him to the first movie and he loved it, claiming "Peter Parker reminded [him] of [himself] at that age. Science nerds unite."
* As revealed in "My Way", Andrews likes the character of Cousin Carlton from the tv show 'Fresh Prince', which he describes as "honest, hard-working, tremendous fashion sense. Hell of a dancer, too."
* The episode "My Way" also revealed that Andrews is dyslexic.

## References

1. ↑ Venga
2. ↑ "Oliver": Season 1. Episode 3. William L. Rotko (writer) & John Dahl (director). [October 9, 2017].