Broken or Not

## Episode Chronology

**"Broken or Not"** is the ninth episode of Season 6 of *The Good Doctor*. It is the hundred-and-third episode overall, and aired on December 12, 2022. It is the mid-season finale.

## Synopsis

Dr. Shaun Murphy unknowingly creates a competition between Drs. Danica Powell and Daniel Perez when he introduces a new performance rating system. Dr. Morgan Reznick may have crossed a line with Dr. Alex Park.

## Plot

Shaun and Lea goes to an open house. Lea likes the house and tries to convince Shaun she can handle the repair but he thinks it is dangerous. Lea doesn’t give up and makes an appointment for Shaun with the mortgage broker to discuss their chance of being homeowners.

On the other hand, Perez and Allen have a talk about what their kiss meant and Perez invites her to dinner at his place. He promises to talk and give her some clarity about the status of their relationship.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Shaun, Glassman and Andrews approach Lim with a new surgery plan. Glassman realized that Lim has muscle movement in her spine so there is a possibility that she can walk after they perform surgery. Lim is not sure if she is ready for another surgery and asks for time to think it over.

Later, Glassman talks to Lim to find out what is holding her back. Unfortunately, Shaun disrupts their conversation to ask Glassman about what he should do about the house. Glassman tells him that maybe Lea needs a distraction especially after learning they need to wait to have kids. He asks Andrews to assign a new project to Lea to distract her. Lea gets angry that he made that call but understands where Shaun is coming from.

She asks Shaun to reconsider making an offer for the house so that they can move forward and Shaun promises to try. Shaun mulls it over and decides to get the house for Lea but she reconsiders and asks him to wait until they find a house they both like.

Shaun is also excited about his new system for first-year residents. He tells Powell and Perez the system will assess everything they do and make them aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Powell and Perez consider it a competition and do their best to impress Shaun.

Their first patient is Teddy who hit his head, upon further examination, he also has a  strangulated hernia and needs immediate surgery. During the surgery, Teddy develops complications which lead the doctors to believe he has another underlying medical condition. Shaun promises to give extra credit to the resident who quickly and accurately diagnoses it.

Perez and Powell call for a truce and agree to bounce ideas off each other and help the patient. They present their ideas to Shaun but they are both wrong. Shaun diagnoses him as bulimic and refers him to a clinic for eating disorders. Perez asks Shaun to let him talk to Teddy as he needs immediate help. Shaun warns him that points will be taken for arguing with him but Perez insists.

Perez tries to talk to Teddy and forces him to tell his brother about his bulimia. The brothers have an honest conversation that leads to a fallout. Teddy has a esophageal rupture in the hospital’s toilet. They rush him to surgery and Perez comes up with an approach to save him, getting back into Shaun’s good side. Shaun gives Perez the opportunity to perform the procedure but he lets Powell do it instead. The surgery is successful and Perez talks to Teddy’s brother about the best way to help Teddy. The brothers make up and start mending their relationship. After Teddy’s surgery, Shaun decides to retire the new rating system without telling Powell and Pere who won.

Elsewhere, Park’s date with a woman named Lily turns into a disaster after she starts having a nosebleed and faints.  He rushes her to the hospital where Morgan, Allen and Asher take over her case. As Asher and Allen run tests on Lily, Asher asks Allen to let him introduce her to a new guy. Allen turns him down and tells him about her kiss and upcoming dinner date with Perez. Asher asks her to be careful as he doesn’t want her to get hurt.

Lily is rushed to surgery as the tests reveal that she has a severe abscess and an infection that has gone to her brain. Asher is interested in learning how Park obtained permission to operate on Lily, but Park claims they only had two dates. Morgan visits Lily's room after the procedure to act as Parks hypewoman.

Morgan asks Park to move on and tells him she is happy for him. Meanwhile, Lily’s infection refuses to respond to antibiotics. Park and Morgan argue over the next approach to take but Park decides his approach is safer. The surgery has some complications but luckily, Morgan comes up with another approach to save Lily. After the case, Lily ends things with Park as she can sense he is still into Morgan.

Lim feels troubled about whether to agree to the surgery or not. She confides in her boyfriend that she is scared of bursting out of the perfect bubble. He tells her that the surgery will only change her and not their relationship. She agrees to get the surgery and he proposes to her.

The episode ends with Lea and Shaun finding out they are pregnant and Allen breaking into Perez’s home after seeing him lying passed out on the floor. He, unfortunately, used again and has overdosed.

## Cast

### Starring

* Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy
* Fiona Gubelmann as Dr. Morgan Reznick
* Will Yun Lee as Dr. Alex Park
* Christina Chang as Dr. Audrey Lim
* Paige Spara as Lea Dilallo
* Bria Samoné Henderson as Dr. Jordan Allen
* Noah Galvin as Dr. Asher Wolke
* Hill Harper as Dr. Marcus Andrews
* Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman

### Guest Starring

* Savannah Welch as Dr. Danica Powell
* Brandon Larracuente as Dr. Daniel Perez
* Michael Patrick Thornton as Dr. Clay Porter
* Juani Feliz as Lily
* Michael Delleva as Teddy
* Kian Talan as Simon

### Co-Starring

* Lauren Bradley as Tori Vargas
* Teana-Marie Smith as Nurse
* Emily Schoen as Ferguson (credited as "Tech")

## Trivia

* This episode serves as the winter finale for Season 6.

## Multimedia

### Videos

The Good Doctor 6x09 Promo "Broken or Not" (HD) Winter Finale