Shaun Murphy

* Adult
* Late Teens
* Early Teens
* Child

**Shaun Robert Murphy** is the main titular protagonist of *The Good Doctor*. As an attending surgeon at St. Bonaventure, he must learn the ropes of hospital work and how to be a good mentor for residents, while facing unique challenges and embracing his strengths due to his diagnoses of autism and savant syndrome.

## History

### Early life

As a young child, Shaun was raised alongside his younger brother Steve by their mother Marcie and father Ethan.

Shaun's childhood was very troubled; he has Autism and Savant Syndrome, though it's unknown when he was diagnosed. Nonetheless, the fact that he wasn't like normal kids his age meant that he was bullied and teased by them. At least some of his teachers were better, but one of them Mr. Carl accidentally made things worse for him while trying to help stop him from being bullied. He also got abused by Ethan who was a resentful alcoholic and didn't want Shaun while Marcie stood by without intervening. Ethan's method of child-rearing eventually turned violent, ultimately resulting in him killing Shaun's rabbit when he was fourteen. Shaun and his brother ran to the nearest "doctor place" (as Steve called it), where they met Aaron Glassman for the first time.

The two ran away together and lived in an abandoned school bus together, where they were given furniture from their local town's people. Steve took care of Shaun, even giving him a small toy scalpel that would be treasured for years to come and a library copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. Unfortunately, Steve accidentally died while playing in an old building with a group of other children. Shaun was picked up by a police officer who tried to take him back to his parents; at this point, he fell apart in the back of the squad car, screaming and crying about Steve's promise to him. As a result, Shaun didn't see or speak to his parents again following Steve's funeral.  Ultimately, Glassman took Shaun in, and raised him like a son. At one point, Shaun lived in foster homes, one of which was with a distant foster mother, Sybil, who was fond of saying "tough titmouse" in response to a challenging situation. After Sybil got diagnosed with a terminal illness, she sent Shaun away again. It was shown that despite her distant attitude towards Shaun, she truly cared about him and was devastated to have to send Shaun away.

He lived independently in Casper, Wyoming for some time (though both Glassman and Shaun note that his neighbors provided much-needed help). With Glassman as his mentor, he managed to develop his skills to be a doctor and to later control his emotions and remain calm in tough situations. Later, he moved to San Jose to begin his residency at St. Bonaventure.

### Season 1

Shaun came to San Jose to apply for a job as junior surgical resident at St. Bonaventure Hospital, a job that he was only being considered for because Dr. Glassman fought for it and was the hospital’s president.

On the way to San Jose, arriving at the airport, Shaun was witness to a freak accident that injured a boy, Adam. Shaun immediately came to the rescue and instructed a fellow doctor how to perform life-saving measures, making on-the-spot diagnoses that seemed unusually pertinent but ultimately saved Adam’s life. Riding along in the ambulance, Shaun noted abnormalities in the ECG that the EMT and later the doctors at the hospital explained away as irrelevant. However, Shaun realised that Adam needed an echocardiogram, but he was pegged as obnoxious by Dr. Claire Browne (one of the residents), thrown out of the hospital and prohibited to re-enter.

Shaun refused to leave, and luckily was sought out by Claire and the surgical attending Dr. Neil Melendez who acknowledged that Shaun was possibly on to something. Shaun was allowed back into the hospital and helped them diagnose pericardial effusion, watching the ongoing surgery from outside the OR doors. He was eventually allowed to speak in front of the board, and his moving speech had the board members agree to have him. He was then welcomed into St. Bonaventure’s residency program with Glassman promising that if Shaun was anything less than excellent, Glassman would give up his position as hospital president.

Although Shaun found his new position somewhat hard at first because he couldn't help but not send patients home because he thought they could still be sick (and instead was assigned the suction on surgeries and the non-surgical scut work by Neil), he started to prove himself after he suspected a young girl had more than stomach problems as previously believed. While he lived in a small, somewhat dinky apartment, he met one of his neighbors Lea who knocked on his door to borrow batteries for her PlayStation controller that she urgently needed to finish her *Uncharted* game. They continued to keep running into each other on occasion, such as when she picked him up in her car when he missed his bus stop and had to wait to get the bus in the other direction (with Lea taking an instant liking to him).

As Shaun kept honing his medical skills, Neil had a change of heart eventually about Shaun never doing anything more than suction. Shaun managed to prove his surgical worth and was being allowed more and more surgical work, although he still struggled with the emotional and social aspects of patient care. As he kept learning, he was supported by Claire and Dr. Jared Kalu, another junior resident, with Claire taking a particular interest in befriending Shaun, trying to understand how he operates and how she could connect with him. Shaun soon started to encounter some interesting cases, including Evan, a boy who looked uncannily like Steve and was revealed to have terminal bone cancer that Shaun wanted to help with, and Liam, the first autistic person he met and who had grown up very sheltered by his parents, much unlike Shaun.

After Lea burst into Shaun’s apartment and stress-ate his last apple, complaining vocally about how the landlord shut off her power the night before because she was playing her music too loud, Shaun went to a nearby grocery store to buy more apples and got held at gunpoint in a robbery. Shaun’s ASD caused him to act somewhat erratically, not able to follow the thief's commands, which led to a young woman getting shot. He was able to save the woman and later got an apple from Lea who hugged him after finding out about what had happened (which Shaun seemed comfortable with), but Glassman got increasingly worried that Shaun was not equipped to live on his own and suggested an aid, or rather a therapist to help Shaun with everyday life tasks and challenges. While Shaun may have thought Glassman had well-meaning intentions, he was uncomfortable and couldn't help but think that Glassman was doing this for himself and not for Shaun. He then ran off after accidentally hitting slapping Glassman in the mouth in frustration.

Knowing he messed up, Shaun subsequently packed some of his things and sought refuge at Lea’s apartment where he hid under her bed when Glassman came looking for Shaun. Lea lied for Shaun in front of Glassman and sat Shaun down to tell him he needed to clear his head before he decided something rash. Together, the two took an unsanctioned road trip in Lea’s vintage car while Glassman worried about an AWOL and radio-silent Shaun.

The road trip was very eventful for Shaun, with Lea offering him several "firsts": giving him the opportunity to drive her car (though it didn't go well), drink alcohol at a bar, sing karaoke and after their first "date", he even kissed her (his first kiss) at her encouragement. Unfortunately, he couldn't help but lament over how he made a mistake and he would never be good enough for anything. Lea tried to tell him that he should be embracing life and that he’ll never be happy if he constantly lives in fear. Over breakfast that morning, Lea told Shaun that the road trip was good for her too, because she had decided to leave San Jose and go back to her home in Hershey for the dream job she always wanted – to fix up old cars together with her brother Donnie rather than work in a 9 to 5 tech job that wasn't fulfilling for her.

Shaun took this news hard, considering that he would be losing his friend. He later considered moving to Hershey to be with Lea and returned to an angry Glassman to whom Shaun stated his intents. When Glassman realized that Shaun’s decision had to do with wanting to follow Lea, he told Shaun he didn’t want him to leave and promised to back off if Shaun stayed in San Jose. Lea also told him she didn't want him to go to Hershey just to run after her. Shaun eventually decided to stay in San Jose. As a farewell gift, Lea gives him the baseball signed by Hunter Pence as a memento to remember her by, asking Shaun to come visit when he can. She gave him a last kiss before she stepped into the elevator. Shaun put the baseball on display on his shelf, next to the framed photo of him and Steve.

While Shaun clearly missed Lea, he met a man named Kenny who moved into her apartment and was slightly shady with potentially malicious intentions that Shaun was completely blind to (even taking advantage of this several times). However, Kenny also helped Shaun once in breaking into a pool when Shaun wanted to see what it was like to just float on water after a patient had told him it was a liberating feeling. Across his first year of residency, Shaun continued growing as a surgeon, working closely with Neil and his fellow junior surgical residents on a number of interesting cases, his savant syndrome and eidetic memory often helping to recall medical details and visualizing complex medical circumstances and procedures.

Shaun attempted to rekindle his and Glassman's friendship, but Glassman felt that they couldn't if he backed off Shaun (which later came back to bite Glassman). Nevertheless, Shaun set up Glassman with Debbie Wexler, the hospital barrister whom Shaun saw Glassman was attracted to. Unfortunately, Shaun was dismayed when Dr. Glassman revealed that he had brain cancer and only 12 to 18 months to live. This distracted Shaun to the point that he made a mistake during surgery and nicked an artery which caused the patient to have potentially life-threatening complications. At the same time, Shaun urged Glassman to get a second opinion, more tests and more imagining to truly confirm the diagnosis. After a bit of a journey, it is finally determined through a biopsy Glassman was reluctant to get that he had an operable low-grade glioma that was treatable with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy (which pleased Shaun to the point of giving Glassman a rare hug and making amends).

Following Shaun’s surgical mistake, the medical team deliberated whether to report the error, knowing full well it could've cost Shaun his job and also likely cost Glassman the hospital presidency. In the end, Shaun himself decided he wanted the error reported, and he and Glassman went to Andrews’ office together to make a statement. On the way up the stairs, Shaun told Dr. Glassman that he loves him, echoing the exact phrasing that Glassman had shared with Shaun that his daughter Maddie had used as a child to voice her love to her father.

### Season 2

After Shaun said goodbye to Jared who went to work at another hospital, he was forced to deal with the unexpected return of Lea. While he cares a lot about her, he struggled with her renewed presence in his life, now living in fear that she would leave again like she did the first time. Shaun thus being evasive and distant upset Lea who returned to San Jose in hopes of finding support from her friend after a bad experience in Hershey. The two ultimately reconciled and moved in together. Though they experience some problems adjusting to being roommates, the two were able to find solutions and maintain a supportive platonic relationship.

At the same time, Shaun had to deal with Glassman's cancer diagnosis and the various problems that came with it, particularly Glassman's increasing memory loss. Shaun was left torn between being a supportive friend and what the rules say he must do, leading Shaun to take away Glassman's driving license. However, after learning just how badly this action hurt Glassman, Shaun learnt how to drive with Lea's help so that he can drive Glassman around instead. Although Shaun initially experienced problems with driving, Lea was able to help translate driving into medical terms and Shaun succeeded in learning the skill.

When a viral outbreak happened in the ER at Christmas time, Shaun got trapped in the emergency room department along with Morgan and Lim. While dealing with issues that Morgan and Park were able to help with, he had to treat pregnant mother-to-be Viola who suffered complications requiring a C-section. With no other doctors available, Shaun was forced to perform the C-section himself as his first solo surgery with Dr. Garcia supervising from outside the ER and only Nurse Deena Petringa assisting him. Although Shaun continued to struggle, he fought through it and delivered the baby. When both mother and baby suffered complications, Shaun treated them both at the same time with the help of Dr. Alex Park’s son Kellan. Shaun succeeded in saving both of his patients and later shared a rare hug with Glassman who was revealed to have meningitis. They and Lea soon spent a day together at her job, though Shaun remained concerned about Glassman who decided to leave the hospital early after his meningitis surgery. Glassman intended to speed up his cancer treatment and recognized that Shaun still had feelings for Lea, but Shaun couldn't tell her when he returned home as he was surprised and upset to discover that Lea got a boyfriend.

After Shaun communicated to the mother of a child with severe birth defects that her actions during pregnancy were possibly the cause behind her child’s defects (though the child was saved because of Shaun), he got into serious trouble with the new Chief of Surgery, Dr. Jackson Han who thought it best to transfer Shaun to pathology (despite Shaun and his friends attempting to say otherwise). Although he proved to be exceptional and gained a crush on one of the workers, Dr. Carly Lever, he was uncomfortable and tried to get Dr. Han to give him his job back. When he refused, Shaun attempted to stand up for himself but unfortunately got fired for apparently acting irrational. He then accidentally broke the scalpel Steve gave him and Claire sat with him, not knowing what to do.

Glassman got Shaun a job interview at San Jose General, but Shaun was too depressed to go and instead went to a bar to get drunk. While there, he met another man, Zack Cordell, whom Shaun accidentally angered when Shaun questioned if he too was sad and then got beat up until Zack collapsed. After escorting Zack to the hospital, Shaun evaded questions about how he found Zack, although Claire quickly figured out the truth on her own. Shaun took flirting advice from her and secretly sought treatment for his injuries with Carly's help. While visiting Zack, Shaun realized that he was been misdiagnosed and actually had treponema, though it was misheard as "trampoline" before Shaun collapsed due to his injuries. He was then left unconscious and on a ventilator for a brief period. When he regained consciousness with Lea and Glassman beside him, he initially started panicking about Zack until Claire revealed that she figured out what Shaun actually said. After he was later visited by Andrews, Glassman used Shaun's ability to inspire Claire to look through his eyes and save a life as proof that Shaun does communicate, even if it is not in the way others do. Andrews also chose to fire Han in order to be able to rehire Shaun who got his job back despite the fact that it possibly destroyed Andrews' career at the hospital. That night, Shaun visited Carly and successfully asked her out, though he forgot to give her his chocolate and flowers in his excitement.

### Season 3

Shaun and Carly’s first date was eventful and had a lot of mishaps, but Carly ultimately told Shaun that she had a good time. Unfortunately, Shaun was oblivious to that and didn’t have a good time because of how overwhelmed he was. He soon helped Neil treat a newlywed bride who was revealed to have extensive cancer. Through a lot of work, Shaun suggested a radical surgery which removed the bride's cancer, but complications from the surgery meant that she would need an ileostomy bag for the rest of her life (for which the couple agreed to work through their problems together). While giving Claire advice about her relationship with her mother, he told his friends about his date with Carly though they didn’t understand why he though it a disaster. Despite Claire attempting to give Shaun dating advice and seeing two couples who share such a relationship despite their trials, Shaun was left with uncertainty about whether or not his relationship was worth pursuing.

Shaun had to work with Andrews and Claire on the case of a Good Samaritan. Although it appeared that they weren’t able to help the man, Shaun reminded Andrews of his own selfless act and the two attempted to try and find a solution (even after going home). While Shaun continued to struggle with his relationship with Carly, he was given advice from Lea, Glassman and Debbie and soon confessed to Carly how he felt about their date. Carly then visited Shaun at home to talk and while going on a walk together, Carly explained that she understands Shaun so well; her little sister is autistic too and she had her own questions about their relationship, but she wanted to spend time with him so they could figure it out together. Shaun ultimately ran off in the middle of the conversation after coming up with the solution to his case and successfully worked with Andrews and Claire on it to help the man. Afterwards, Andrews privately approached Shaun and admitted that he had been driven by his own doubts and anger over the repercussions of Andrews' choice to save Shaun at the cost of his own career. However, Shaun's actions that day made Andrews proud of his sacrifice which he thanked Shaun for. He later visited Carly in the pathology lab and they had a more relaxed informal date they enjoyed.

Shaun went on another date Carly where he asked her several questions, mostly (albeit unintentionally) invasive for so early in their relationship. While Shaun was helping Claire on her first lead surgery (which was a success), she made him realize that he and Carly didn't kiss at the end of the date, nor did they plan their next one which caused doubt in him. Claire eventually spoke to Carly who admitted that she enjoyed Shaun asking so many questions as Carly hates small talk. After realizing that Claire was responsible for Shaun's doubts, Carly bluntly told her to butt out of their relationship.

Shaun struggled with Carly's desire to hold hands as he didn't like it. At the same time, he treated a conspiracy theorist who Shaun realised had been inadvertently poisoning himself with herbs he was taking for virility. While Glassman was having cold feet regarding his approaching marriage to Debbie, he sought Shaun's advice for the first time. Although Shaun was excited, he didn't have anything to offer when he pointed out something; Glassman already seemed to have made up his mind as he now referred to his ex-wife as his first one, suggesting that he already had a second wife in his mind. After deciding to go through with the wedding, a small civil ceremony at City Hall, Glassman invited Shaun and Carly to attend. During the ceremony, Shaun and Carly crossed wrists as a compromise to Shaun's aversion to holding hands which pleased them both.

Shaun was assigned the case of Beth Eckert, a chef with esophageal cancer as his first lead surgery. As it approached, Shaun had dreams of Steve encouraging him as well as Glassman giving him an orange cap that had helped Glassman during his own first lead surgery. Shaun saw something during the surgery and remembered how he had earlier discovered a Japanese procedure that would fix the issue, but his failed attempts to communicate it made everyone but Park think that he was dealing with a meltdown and panicked in the hallway. He was able to calm down and explain, though Lim and Andrews had to do it instead while Shaun guided them through it and was offered by Lim to put in the last stitch. At the same time, Shaun and Carly continued their at-home movie dates. However, Shaun refused to kiss Carly more than every twelve minutes during the movie since he was uncomfortable touching more than one thing at once. After Shaun followed advice from Lea that Carly admitted was good, she had him touch one of her breasts for the first time, exciting Shaun who tells Carly that she has no sign of lumps. After he got off work, Shaun visited Carly and asked to touch her other breast to Carly's pleasure.

Shaun got another chance at leading a surgery in the form on an appendectomy. Unfortunately, he was pointed out that Carly didn't invite Shaun to spend time with her friends and she had not officially defined their relationship as that of boyfriend and girlfriend (which continued to haunt him). Though the surgery appeared to go off without a hitch with Shaun doing well, he got into an argument with one of the nurses, Nurse Hawks, about the way she handed him an instrument, ending with Shaun kicking her out of the operating room. After he failed to apologise when he believed he didn't need to, a formal complaint was put on his record and he was told to not do so again or his employment would be terminated, leaving Shaun distraught. Carly eventually admitted that she thought her friends would’ve had trouble accepting Shaun, but realized that she was wrong and apologized. While Shaun forgave Carly and declined her invitation to meet them the following weekend, he was excited when she officially define their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend.

When Carly went away on a business trip, Shaun hesitated to text with her. At the same time, Shaun helped treat Tara, a young woman with no immune system who had been isolated most of her life as a result. Shaun's ability to relate to Tara due to them both being outsiders for most of their lives led to him greatly empathizing with Tara and forming a friendship. When she hesitated to take gene therapy that could potentially cure her condition, Shaun related to her his own struggles with being alone and how his life is much better now that he has friends in his life and convinced Tara to take the treatment. Inspired by his experience with Tara, Shaun began properly responding to Carly's texts.

While Shaun and Park were treating Rosalind, a doctor who pushed away everyone in her life while advancing the field of leukemia treatment (and soon died of heart failure with her ex-husband with her) and Jeanie (a young woman who had to lose the ability to have sex to save her life from tumors), Shaun had trouble experiencing increased intimacy with Carly, causing her to become greatly frustrated (though he did try at times). He sought help from Park (who made him understand that much of his issues come from fear) and Glassman (who distanced himself from the issue on Debbie's advice). Shaun eventually realized that he had trouble being intimate and vulnerable and after they shared their own fears, the two at Carly's request simply held each other, with Shaun going so far as to actually hold Carly's hand, but he quickly became uncomfortable and had to leave. Upon returning home, Shaun was greeted by Glassman who received a call from Marcie; Ethan had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, with only had a few days left to live and wanted to see Shaun.

Shaun returned to Wyoming to visit Marcie and Ethan, though his and Ethan’s initial reunion didn't go well with Shaun exploding at him and blaming him for Steve's death. After a conversation with Marcie, Shaun decided to hear Ethan out, but he only proved to have venomous words for Shaun at the end, devastating him. Glassman brought the news that Shaun's father had died a short time later and as Shaun cried, Lea comforted him, holding Shaun in her arms with Shaun showing none of the hesitation or trouble he had with Carly.

After returning to work, Shaun worked with Morgan to treat Kerry, a woman with a badly broken leg who constantly refused anesthetic due to being an opioid addict. After an attempt at a painless surgery failed, the team went with the original more painful option which they tried to sooth using restraints and music. When the pain became too much, Kerry broke free and grabbed Shaun's hand, but he chose to allow it as it distracted Kerry from the pain and the surgery was successful. Unfortunately, Shaun’s night with Lea left him unsure about who he should be with and he kept avoiding Carly, hurting her in the process and then even more when Shaun revealed the truth. Shaun began seeking advice from his friends about it, but he later suffered an emotional breakdown in Glassman's office out of fear that everyone will get sick of him and ultimately leave. Getting emotional himself, Glassman assured Shaun that he would get through it and is an extraordinary doctor who Glassman could not be more proud of. After getting off work, Carly found Shaun and said that he might be the most genuine person she has ever known. Despite being hurt by the truth, Carly appreciated it because Shaun's honesty is what she liked about him and didn't want to lose him. Worried that she would possibly get hurt in the same way again, Carly asked Shaun to move out of his and Lea's apartment as she didn't know how their relationship would work otherwise and that he agreed, stating that he loved Carly.

Unfortunately, Carly and Shaun continue to struggle with intimacy due to Carly still being upset over Shaun and Lea's night in Wyoming. At the same time, the two worked at Lim’s request on James McDougall who had swelling due to fluid build-up. They saves James' life and had sex for the first time. Lying in bed with Carly afterwards, Shaun smiled in excitement at having had his first time. Unfortunately, Carly didn’t enjoy their sex because Shaun didn’t give her an orgasm. While he was working with Neil to treat Oliver, a man who had a tumor that was removed, he like the other doctors was intrigued by the presence of Morgan's mother Caroline as a patient and the insight into his friend's past. Shaun dedicated himself to figuring out how to pleasure Carly, though without much success. Lim eventually helped Shaun figure it out by comparing his focus on sex to Shaun's focus on surgery, which pleased Carly as Shaun slept next to her.

Unfortunately for Shaun, he was treating Kayley (a social media influencer) when she made him famous. Although he was unsure about spreading his story because he felt uncomfortable, he ultimately said that he wanted to be a good doctor and not a good autistic doctor. While meeting with Lea, she told him that she felt unfulfilled with her life after he asked her to move out and he suggested that she work for Glassman in the hospital’s IT Department (which Glassman reluctantly accepted to). Although Carly felt uncomfortable, Shaun assured her that he likes her and not Lea like that. However, while Shaun and Carly were singing karaoke with Lea and her then boyfriend, Carly noticed about how much Shaun liked her more. While Shaun attempted to state that he likes Carly, she knew the truth and dumped him so that he could be with Lea.

After a while, Shaun accepted that Carly was telling the truth and wanted to confess his feelings for Lea. Unfortunately, he kept fearing about Lea possibly not reciprocating how he felt which meant that they couldn’t be friends (let alone together). After a woman suddenly died at the hospital, Shaun attempted to find out why and any family she had. Although most of his friends thought he was still upset about Carly, he convinced Park to help him and they were able to find the woman’s son. Unfortunately, he kept avoiding them because he thought his mother didn’t love him and Shaun was arrested but bailed out by Glassman while banned from going near the man. When he convinced Carly to help him, the two found that the woman had a disease which her son could’ve inherited. While Shaun was able to warn the man and convince him that his mother probably did love him, he was encouraged by Carly and Glassman to tell Lea the truth. He did and while Lea reciprocated his feelings, she felt that they couldn’t be together because of how she apparently wouldn’t have been good for him because of her issues and his autism.

Shaun tried in vain to get Lea to see that he could adapt for her, but she wouldn’t listen and just outright told him that he “can’t fix” his autism. This devastated Shaun and he didn’t come to work for three days. When he did, he constantly acted like a jerk around a man with dwarfism that he, Claire and Neil were treating. When the man’s girlfriend destroyed his car after realising that he had cheated on her, Shaun considered doing the same to Lea’s striped tomato car but instead yelled at her about her flaws which left them both in tears.

After an earthquake, Shaun was made part of the team at the hospital trying to rescue the people trapped at a brewery. When he heard Lea calling out for help, Shaun desperately tried to reach her without success. Instead, he found a trapped woman named Vera who was also left heartbroken by a relationship while Lea was rescued by the rest of the workers. While Shaun’s comms were open, he told Vera about his love for Lea which unknown to him were being overheard by Lea. An aftershock then caused a nearby pipe to burst, leaving Shaun and Vera in danger of drowning.

When Shaun was unable to saw through the rebar stuck in Vera's leg and rescue workers couldn't reach them in time, Shaun decided to try to perform an amputation. The two were both submerged underwater but Shaun succeeded in saving Vera and both were lifted out of the basement by the firefighters. In the aftermath, Lea kissed Shaun, having realized just much she loves him after almost losing him and they became a couple.

### Season 4

Shaun regularly had Lea visit him, during which she kept leaving belongings of hers behind. When she accepted to staying the night with him, he was kept very busy during the COVID-19 pandemic and he and Lea were separated which Shaun struggled with. With Lea still living in her own apartment, Shaun temporarily invited Dr. Alex Park to move into the guest room and they lived together for several weeks. However, Shaun refused to acknowledge that he missed the physical intimacy with Lea. But after failing to connect with the imaginative aspects of phone sex, he finally came to the realization how much he missed having Lea near him. After the state of emergency in California was lifted and life returned to a semblance of normalcy, Shaun allowed Lea to visit again in person and invites her for a hug when she comes to his apartment.

When Shaun was asked to help evaluate the six new resident applicants, he struggled with connecting to them on a more personal level. In the process, he inadvertently made Lea think that he was making sexual comments about her and insulting her. She was then upset with him over this and how he failed to see where he went wrong since in his eyes he was making her a compliment. They talked it out and at the end they hugged with Shaun telling Lea he loves her and Lea telling Shaun that she appreciates his honesty. He also tried to get Lea to move back in, but she was reluctant since she believed it would be different if they live together as a romantic couple because she wasn’t sure that they had a high enough level of commitment and trust yet. Lea eventually decided that she wants to be with Shaun for the long haul and that their living together would be inevitable. While Lea moved back in, Shaun said he thinks having her back in the apartment is not the same as when they were roommates; it’s better.

With the four new first year residents under their wing, Shaun’s role as a seasoned resident was also to teach and mentor. Unfortunately, he missed non-verbal cues when Asher Wolke was unsure about a diagnosis and Shaun should have double-checked Asher’s medical assessment. This eventually resulted in a patient’s death, with both Asher and Shaun blaming themselves for their errors in communication. While Glassman told Shaun he can’t be perfect all the time and that everyone makes mistakes, he also advised Shaun to find comfort in Lea who loves him, accept the loss and move on after learning from the mistake.

Lea pitched an idea about shower sex to Shaun but he was initially resistant because he felt it unsafe and inconvenient. He enlisted the opinion of several hospital colleagues, even setting up a poll to hear thoughts from a larger audience. At an opportune moment, Lea divulged to Shaun that she had an ex-husband whom she no longer has any contact with. They got married right out of high school and soon realized it was a mistake and divorced. This made Shaun question how much trust they have, seeing how Lea had not told him this important piece of information until now. Shaun came to the realization that it’s inevitable that people will change, but that it’s most important that people change as a couple in the same general direction and agreed to try shower sex with Lea.

When Lea’s judgemental parents Pam and Mike came to visit San Jose to see their daughter and meet her new boyfriend, he had to deal with their prejudices against him and convince them to mend their strained relationship with her (which worked). Unfortunately, Shaun was working on the case of a transgender man who was pregnant when he became somewhat flustered by the idea that he had an irrational crush on radiology resident Cintia D'Souza and Lea had to help him through it. He also unintentionally interrupted Lea while she was trying to stop hackers from stealing the hospital's information, which made her think that he was being sexist to her. However, he soon made up for that and gave her the encouragement to stop the hackers.

While Lea got her car towed by an extortionist tow truck driver, Shaun noted that she'd been acting somewhat erratically and was on the receiving end of it when she got mad at him not defending her. While Shaun was also at odds ends with Morgan over a man's comatose wife who soon died, he was advised by Claire to support Lea who plotted to get back at the man for his coercive practices. He did and later found out that Lea's behavior was because she discovered two days ago that she was pregnant.

Shaun wanted to support Lea, who was plagued by doubts whether having a child then was the right thing to do and that they needed to consider it. He was soon presented with a patient and fellow surgeon, Dr. Chambers, whom Shaun concluded is on the autism spectrum. Unfortunately, Dr. Chambers was offended by the suggestion but nonetheless was persuaded to take an autism test that indicated he is very likely to be on the spectrum. While the two were able to reconcile their friction and shared experiences of their lives with Autism, Shaun also sought advice from Claire concerning whether he could ever be a good father; he had doubts that he could offer the right kind of emotional support to his own child. Claire reassured him that she thought he would be a great father because he cares and will strive to always change for the better. While Shaun and Lea thought over the pregnancy, they agreed to abort the pregnancy until they decided against that and held each other.

While Lea was progressing with her pregnancy and dealing with her issues, Shaun, in turn, struggled with Lea’s somewhat unpredictable mood swings and the changes to the dynamic of their relationship. He also had trouble forming an emotional connection to his unborn child that was so far only a somewhat abstract concept of a small fetus in Lea’s womb. This caused resentment between with the idea that Shaun would not be able to connect with the baby during the pregnancy. However, Shaun did finally accept the idea of Lea carrying a little growing human inside her when he joined her for her OB-GYN appointment and together they see and hear the baby’s heartbeat on the ultrasound.

Lea and Shaun made plans to go to birthing class and also learnt that their baby was going to be a girl. Attending the birthing class, they ended up being thrown out when Shaun kept interrupting the instructor with unhelpful medical details about the birthing process that disrupted the class and disconcerted the other couples in attendance. Lea decided that she wanted a doula for the birth because there are some things that Shaun could not help her with, such as a massage or other emotionally supportive aspects. Although Shaun was initially against it because he thought he could learn to do that for Lea, he decided that it’s okay not to be good at everything and that he would need help in order to give Lea everything she wanted. He invited a doula to their home while also promising to raise their daughter to be strong with all the love and support they could give.

Shaun was assigned a case of a young boy with bullet shrapnel that traveled to his brain and would possibly result in his death. Through working with Dr. Glassman (who felt that this was personal to Shaun since he would soon be a father), he was all the same able to help the boy. While happy, he was accompanying Lea home but she collapsed outside of the hospital with intense lower belly pain. It appeared that the source of the pain was harmless, but Shaun still had Claire run a battery of tests on Lea. They found out that Lea had vasa previa, which was subsequently surgically corrected. However, he wasn't allowed in the surgery for fear of being too emotional. In post-op, Lea developed a pulmonary embolism and had to have more surgery to prevent further complications. After more tests in the wake of this, Claire delivered devastating news to Shaun that there was another blood clot in the umbilical cord and there was no way the baby could've survived. The two were then forced into agreeing to have the pregnancy terminated, which left the two in a lot of grief.

Shaun tried to work through the loss of their child, which affected him in unexpected ways. He even fixated on a random patient who wasn’t even his to treat, antagonizing an important cardiac key opinion leader who was brought in to consult on a case (but he was able to help with). With both him and Lea struggling with the loss of their baby in different ways, Shaun realized he needed to be there and support Lea and let her grieve in her own way.

Shaun suggested he and Lea take a camping trip in an attempt to have a change of scenery and provide some much needed reprieve. Although they had to deal with a lot of problems, they tried to make the best of their bad situation but Lea was ultimately not happy with it. The next day they agreed to at least go on a hike before heading home. In an unfortunate turn of events, Shaun fell off a toppled over tree and dislocated his ankle, rupturing an artery in his foot. With not enough time to call for an ambulance, he instructed Lea how to do impromptu field surgery on his foot with the emergency first aid kit he packed. Though Lea reluctantly agreed, Shaun lost consciousness halfway through the procedure but Lea successfully managed to restore blood flow to Shaun’s toes (for which Shaun was very grateful to Lea).

A medical relief mission took Shaun to Guatemala, along with Lea and some of his colleagues, to provide a rare opportunity to the locals to receive life saving surgery that otherwise wouldn’t be offered to them out in the rural area they live in. Although several of the patients had to be turned away for various reasons, Shaun enjoyed the challenge, the new experience and surroundings and the rare opportunity to apply his perfect Spanish. Unfortunately, Lea was not having as great a time and still struggled with the loss of their baby, particularly when a young mother came to the clinic in hopes of saving her baby’s life that hung in the balance.

While Shaun supported an offer from Lea’s parents to have her return to Hershey for a while, he was saddened that Lea was so unhappy. Thankfully, the time in Guatemala helped Lea greatly to come to terms with her grief, and she realized that she would not have been able to get there without Shaun. After he said goodbye to Claire who stayed behind to work there, Lea made a spontaneous decision and proposed to Shaun, which he agreed without a moment's hesitation.

### Season 5

Shaun left the wedding planning to Lea because she had said she wanted it to be perfect and Shaun didn’t want to interfere. Though he found that she was somewhat stressed out, she insisted to Shaun that everything was fine (even though she kept flip-flopping between wanting to cancel the engagement party or not). When the party eventually took place, it was less than perfect and ultimately ruined by an awkward, drunken speech Glassman gave where he revealed Debbie had left him. The next day, Shaun offered to help Lea plan the wedding, so that they could share the blame or credit depending on the outcomes.

When business woman Salen Morrison and her company Ethicure Medical took over the hospital, Shaun initially felt that the changes implemented by Salen weren’t necessarily bad. Unfortunately, he found himself starting to struggle with the continued disruption to his routines. When he and Lea were planning their wedding, he thought he had to invite Marcie (even though he was uncomfortable about doing so). While he proved to be able to stand up for himself to some of Salen's changes, he was also pleased when Lea said she didn't want Marcie at their wedding anymore than Shaun did to not make things awkward.

Shaun with Lea continued to face more challenges with other changes Salen made to the hospital. These included a large billboard she put up outside the hospital that used him and his ASD status as a literal poster boy for diversity hiring at the hospital (which he felt uncomfortable about until he treated a young girl who said she had been inspired by him) and a new patient satisfaction scoring system where physicians were rated by patients how well they are performing. Shaun’s scores were unsurprisingly low due to his sometimes brutally honest and no-nonsense bedside manner, so he tried to work to get them up and they did (though not in the way he thought).

While Shaun butt heads somewhat with Park concerning a heart transplant, he had to deal with Glassman (his best man) refusing to pick up as he felt that Shaun didn't need him. He and Lea also had to help Alma Garcia, a pregnant woman with an acute cardiac problem who was caught up in a car crash. At the hospital, Alma at Shaun's suggestion asked that a C-section be performed on her. Unfortunately, Lea confessed to Shaun the truth about his scores; she actually deleted the bad reviews left about him to try and make him feel better. Like with Mr. Carl, Shaun couldn't help but feel that Lea had just made things worse for him through her good intentions. What's more is that while Shaun was carrying out the C-section on Alma, her baby required medication but it transpired that everything in the pharmacy had expired due to budget cuts Salen enforced there and the baby died. While Shaun was upset, he pushed Lea away and called off their wedding. He also got upset with Glassman whom Shaun thought was abandoning him despite promising he wouldn't and he completely broke down, with only Glassman being able to comfort him.

Although Shaun soon came to understand Lea's motivations, a man at the hospital who got hurt because a woman he liked didn't like him in return made Shaun question whether Lea though he was good enough for her. This unfortunately made Lea think that Shaun didn't see her as good enough for him and stormed off. However, when he explained the truth to her, they both said that they thought the other is good enough for them and they reconciled. He was later part of a surgery on former country singer Nellie Current, which Shaun knew would be dangerous but Andrews refused to listen and instead impress Salen. The surgery was only barely a success because of Current's unusual clotting factors, but Shaun saw that Salen wasn't good for the hospital and quit.

While Lim, Lea and Glassman were part of a team to try and stop Salen, Shaun was convinced into not getting involved because of his vulnerabilities and instead return to the hospital for his work (which Salen reluctantly accepted, since Shaun being fired would've been a PR disaster). Unfortunately, Salen found out about this, fired Lim, Lea and Glassman and then Park quit since barely anyone else wanted to stand up to Salen. Shaun then insisted that he get involved in their fight, seeing that they stood up for him and wished to do the same with them. However, Dr. Andrews ended up being the one to stop Salen.

While Shaun and Lea decided to put their wedding plans on hold and live in the moment, he had to take care of a 10-year-old patient, Isla, whom he bonded with. After Isla pointed out that Lea had no engagement ring, he couldn't help but get stressed out a bit by the lack of plans. After he had to comfort Isla who felt guilt to having caused an accident she and her parents were in and save her, he made a ring for Lea while also re-proposing to her. He also tried to help with a dry spell that Lea claimed they were going through concerning their sex (which he feared for a while was due to a problem in their relationship) while allowing for a patient who had never had sex have some with her visiting boyfriend.

Shaun soon treated Trent (a biohacker with a strained relationship with his mother), tried to help deduce why everyone was acting crazy during a potluck when it turned out that magic mushrooms had accidentally got into the brownies there and treated Joan, one of his polio survivor patients living in an iron lung. When Lea had to be called in to fix it, their relationship was noted by Sophie (Joan's niece) who said she was developing a reality show that features atypical couples and wanted Shaun and Lea for her pilot. After some deliberation since Sophie offered to pay for their wedding if they did, the two of them finally agreed that it would be a great way to advocate for neurodiversity and be an inspiration to others who feel like they’re different and don’t fit in.

Shaun and Lea’s life was accompanied by Sophie’s crew and her camera operators, showcasing their everyday life and how the wedding preparations are going. Unfortunately, the cameras distracted him while he was trying to treat a woman with burns to her face and accidently misdiagnose her. Although Shaun was disappointed in himself, Jordan said that his mistake was an inspiration to her which made him feel better and he was able to treat the woman. During a party celebrating their wedding, Shaun was reunited with Claire who brought a young boy with a tumor that needed surgery to be provided by the surgical team at St. Bonaventure. Although it appeared that they weren't able to treat the boy, Shaun and Claire all the same able to do so. However, Shaun and Lea felt that the wedding Sophie planned out for them wasn't what they wanted and they left the venue.

While Shaun and Lea were enjoying their fake honeymoon, Shaun remarked about how bad they were at getting married and suggested they just get married at the courthouse the next day. Lea seemed happy with that, but admitted to Shaun later that she was also disappointed that she wasn't going to have a more ceremonial white-dress wedding. When Glassman and Jordan realized this, they surprised Shaun and Lea with a new plan; to get married on the roof of the hospital in classic tux and wedding dress with Dr. Andrews officiating. Shaun and Dr. Glassman shared an intimate moment when Glassman handed Shaun heirloom wedding rings that were meant for Maddie, a meaningful symbol that Shaun knew how to appreciate and the two said that they love each other. Shaun and Lea’s wedding on the hospital roof was beautiful, with Glassman managing not to botch the speech this time and talks about how much Shaun means to him and they happily danced with most of their closest friends and colleagues in attendance.

### Season 6

Eventually, Shaun and the rest of the hospital staff were informed that Lim and her friend Nurse Villanueva had been stabbed by Villanueva's violent ex-boyfriend. When Shaun saw what had happened, he couldn't help but see flashbacks of him losing Steve. Shaun was part of the team to operate on Lim when Glassman ordered part of Lim's liver to be removed, but Shaun knew that it would’ve cut down her lifespan. Unfortunately, he was ordered to do so all the same as there was barely any other option. Shaun appeared to agree with this when Glassman left to help Andrews with Villanueva, during which Shaun realised that Lim’s liver didn’t need to be removed and they did an angio-embolization he thought of. Although Glassman wasn’t happy about this, Shaun proved to be correct in his course of treatment and he managed to save Lim's whole liver.

Unfortunately, Lim went into distress due to previously undetected damage to her heart. Both Lim and her attacker Owen (who had attempted suicide by cop) required heart bypass, leading to Shaun arguing that they give it to Lim even if Owen had to die, but he was overruled by Andrews and Glassman. Shaun suffered a meltdown during the surgery, consumed with guilt over his failure to save Steve and inability to save Lim. Steve appeared to Shaun, reassuring his brother that his death wasn't Shaun's fault and urging Shaun to let go of his guilt over it. Steve and Lea were able to get Shaun to focus and he was able to determine the problem and save Lim's life. He then thanked Lea for helping him and told her that he loves her more than he already did. However, when Shaun, Andrews and Glassman checked on a recovering Lim, they discovered that her injuries have left Lim paralyzed from the waist down.

Three months later, Shaun was made a surgical attending while sharing an office with Park. On his first day as an attending, Shaun clashed with new resident Dr. Danica "Danni" Powell who is chosen by Shaun for his team along with Asher Wolke while Park got Jordan and Daniel "Danny" Perez. Shaun and Danni's difference of opinion over a xenotransplant nearly led Shaun to fire her before changing his mind after getting some advice from Lim. However, Shaun found it surprisingly difficult when it came time to personally slaughter the pig, Wilbur, before Jerome interrupted with the news of the arrival of a compatible human donor, much to everyone's relief.

While Shaun, Asher and Danny were treating Julianne (a famous marriage counselor with a brain tumor), Shaun struggled with his differences of opinion about household habits with Lea, especially after Julianne warned him about such habits becoming permanent for the rest of the relationship. Although Julianne ultimately died because of a second tumor, Shaun ended up taking her advice to let Lea know how much he loves her. At the same time, Lim had conducted investigations herself into her paralysis and came to the conclusion that Shaun was indeed responsible for it, her blood pressure having dropped during his surgery and causing her spinal cord ischemia. When she finally confronted him about it, she ended her friendship with him despite his attempts to say that he saved her.

While Shaun, Asher and Danni were treating Charlie, a military reenactor with shrapnel in his arm, an unexpected secondary detonation during surgery caused even more damage. Although Asher and Danni thought that Charlie's arm had to be amputated, Shaun refused to give up and he eventually managed to find a surgical solution that saved Charlie's arm. Unfortunately, despite claims that he was fine, he appeared to be anything but and kept repeatedly moving around his and Park's office furniture and moving out of their shared office into a disused storage closet for privacy. Unfortunately, Glassman had sided with Lim and soon confronted Shaun whom Glassman accused of isolating himself and insisted that Shaun must take some kind of responsibility for his actions. Although Shaun got upset with Glassman over this, he tried nonetheless to work with Glassman on a surgical solution to fix Lim's paralysis.

However, Glassman kept refusing to even consider Shaun’s ideas since he thought that they would all end badly. Shaun, on the other hand, thought that Glassman was letting his anger get the better of him, to which Glassman confessed that he was. All the same, Glassman said that he still loves Shaun and thought his ideas had some potential. Unfortunately, Lim rejected the surgery out of concern that it was too dangerous. Although upset, he agreed to a request by Park to talk to a disabled young man and his brother who were both patients of Park about him and Steve.

During a heatwave at the hospital, Shaun and Danni were working together which he found hard after finding out that she had advised Lim against having the surgery and she kept contradicting him while he kept shooting down his ideas. All the same, Shaun was encouraged to find common ground with her and they were able to work out their issues. He was also working with Danny on treating a baby born a sextuplet when he kept remembering Lea’s miscarriage, but was able to get through it. He also had to comfort Lea who was upset when it appeared that she could no longer be pregnant and was encouraged by Glassman to make amends with Lim, whom he told that he was sorry that he had put her in pain (though not about what he did) and that he missed her (which Lim reciprocated).

While unintentionally putting Danni and Danny in competition with each other with a rating system he introduced (and later got rid of), he worked with Lea to get a house that they both liked before learning that Lea was pregnant again. He got Glassman and Lim to help Lea with her pregnancy, but he couldn’t help but be overprotective of her to the point of isolating Lea until Asher convinced him otherwise. Nonetheless, Shaun was proven correct when it was revealed that Lea was suffering from internal bleeding. Thankfully, it turned out the cause was just from Lea’s previous pregnancy and the two were soon revealed to be having a boy.

While Shaun and Lea were on their babymoon, they saw a dog get hurt and Shaun was convinced by Lea (who had become attached to the dog) to help fix it. Shaun soon noted that Lea was stressed out, to which she confessed that she was worried about how good a parent she would be. While he tried to help her, Shaun too couldn’t help but get attached to the dog while healing it until it’s owners came for it. He and Lea also had Glassman stay with them for a while after his house got infested with termites and then burnt down, all the while having to work through his and Lea’s differences concerning their unborn son until they and Glassman started to think about looking forward to their family life.

However, Glassman soon became too much for Lea to deal with which Shaun expressed to Glassman, who was nonetheless pleased that Shaun saw him as his unborn child’s grandfather and moved into an apartment near him and Lea. Shaun was also excited by the return of Jared, who was now a concierge doctor. He returned to the hospital specifically in search of Shaun's help to treat his client Roland Barnes to whom Jared had spoken very highly of Shaun. Together, Shaun and Jared discovered that Roland had a tapeworm larva in his brain and successfully treated him. Throughout the case, Shaun encouraged his old friend to return to surgery. Jared was soon granted a position on Shaun's team, albeit as a first year resident again.

Shaun soon received news that he was being sued for medical malpractice by Bob Patton, a man whose hand Shaun thought that he had to amputate while trying to help him when he and Park found him injured. Glassman and his lawyer, Janet Stewart, tried to convince Shaun to settle, only to meet Joni DeGroot, a young lawyer with OCD whom Shaun chose to represent him. Though through a lot of work, Joni was able to defend Shaun from any wrongdoing he was accused of.

Although Shaun became somewhat frustrated when Jared’s zeal caused him to cut corners, the two were able to come to an understanding and work together. Unfortunately, Shaun soon found out that Glassman had missed a couple of sutures on a surgery he had just finished and began to worry that his cancer was back. Although it turned out it wasn’t, Shaun realised that Glassman had missed a step while he was putting together Shaun and Lea’s baby’s crib. With Lim, Shaun found that Glassman had suffered a mini-stroke and has permanent brain damage which meant that he shouldn’t continue surgery.

Shaun was part of a team to perform surgery on a man who appeared to have gone through a personality shift due to a tumor in his brain that would’ve killed him if it wasn’t removed. Although the man was reluctant since he had become a better father to his daughter due to the tumor, he agreed to it after Glassman convinced him to. Unfortunately, Shaun kept being over-protective of Glassman due to being worried about him making a mistake during the surgery. This led to Glassman removing Shaun from the surgery, though Glassman was sadly unable to complete it. While the tumor was removed and the man appeared to have at least some of his new personality with him, Glassman felt that Shaun had betrayed him and demanded that Shaun leave him alone.

Soon enough, Shaun was informed by Lea that their baby was coming early. While he was trying to be there for Lea, he was called to a surgery on a young girl who was injured in a massive vehicle pile up in a tunnel. Shaun and Asher were able to help the girl, but the father of the family suffered similar complications and unfortunately died. Shaun then told the mother about when he lost Steve but had Glassman with him (though Shaun was worried about losing him as well) and to be strong while losing a loved one to continue being there for those that are still around. He was then there for Lea while she was giving birth and pleased when their son (whom Shaun named Steve) was born. They were soon joined by their family at the hospital, apart from Glassman who all the same had a blanket delivered to them which had the baby’s name in it (knowing what Shaun would’ve named him). Later, Shaun fully named his and Lea’s child Steven Aaron Murphy.

## Personality

Shaun has "almost perfect recall," extraordinary and genius-level intellect and the excellent analytical abilities that allow him to make highly accurate diagnoses. He is highly perceptive and often bluntly voices these perceptions, such as noting that Neil, his superior, was "arrogant" on the first day that they met. Notably, Shaun was the only person in the entire hospital to suspect that Dr. Marcus Andrews would choose to remain Chief of Surgery instead of choosing a new one, resulting in Shaun winning the betting pool everyone created on the decision. During hospital scenes, Shaun's thought process is frequently captured in an overlay for viewers, demonstrating his eidetic memory. This shows that he is a highly visual learner. Over time, Shaun's unique visualizing process has become evident to those around him to the point that they have realized what he is doing simply by looking at him. After hearing a patient describe what Shaun looked like in "Trampoline" before he collapsed, Claire immediately realized what had happened without having been witness to it for herself. Shaun's unique diagnostic skills are noted by many characters, including Dr. Jackson Han who displayed prejudice against Shaun for his autism. Jared Kalu expressed fondness for it years after last seeing Shaun with Asher Wolke commenting that it's the highlight of his day to watch Shaun do it.

His autism is depicted as obvious to many of the people he interacts with. He displays several traits of his condition, including heightened sensory sensitivity, abnormal inflection when speaking, lack of interest in eye contact and heavy reliance on routine. Additionally, he becomes fixated on certain objects at times, most notably the toy scalpel that Steve gave to him. He insists on eating the same thing for breakfast every day: yogurt and a green apple except for Mondays when he has breakfast with Dr. Glassman at the hospital. He loves to eat chocolate chip pancakes with a glass of milk. While Shaun was clearly uncomfortable treating Liam (the first autistic person he met), his unique insight into the young man's condition allowed him to recognize that he was autistic and not psychotic as was originally believed, help calm him through most of an MRI and figure out what was wrong with him. He was also able to get Liam’s parents (who initially discriminated Shaun because of his Autism) to see that they had caused their son to get sick and they subsequently began listening to their son rather than unilaterally making decisions for him. When a buzzing light and the stressful situation caused Shaun to go into sensory overload and collapse into the fetal position, Morgan was able to get him through it by getting him focused on surgery and Park realized what was causing Shaun’s distraction and eliminated the source by smashing the light. When Shaun went into sensory overload again during a C-section, his first solo surgery, he was able to fight through it and come up with a solution to the problem.

Despite Shaun's troubled childhood, he maintains a generally positive outlook on life, choosing to pursue medicine in the hopes of improving the lives of others. However, he was wary of forming deeper relationships with people after the death of his rabbit and younger brother. Shaun is revealed to have a great degree of proficiency, if not fluency, in Spanish. He also mentions an interest in football in at least one episode. Among the things Shaun dislikes are pickles, mushrooms, anchovies, olives, garlic, mayonnaise, walnuts, Chinese food, bread with cinnamon, nuts, seeds or berries in it, the way coffee makes him feel, confrontation and direct questions. He has an aversion to physical touch unless he is the one to initiate it and/or it comes from people he is very comfortable with. After he started dating Carly, Shaun was comfortable with her kissing him, but not with holding hands and only liked touching one thing at a time. He is shown as being fond of cats.

As a result of his autism, Shaun has trouble with cognitive empathy (discerning why people are upset), but is fine with emotional empathy (being able to see that they are). This is something that he himself notes. As a result, he may make a decision that is rational and by the rules, but morally wrong or otherwise harmful such as taking away Dr. Glassman's license due to the rules dictating it while not understanding why Glassman was angry with him (though it was clear to him that he was upset). This is something Shaun was shown working on such as learning how to drive to make up for taking away Glassman's ability to drive himself places by driving Glassman instead. Another example is how he treated Lea after her return due to being hurt over her leaving in the first place which made Shaun rude and mean to his friend. At one point, Shaun advocated against giving a patient surgery to fix a dent in his forehead as the surgery was cosmetic and unnecessary. After hearing the young man's story, Shaun actually empathized with the patient and came up with a simple and ingenious solution that fixed the problem while also saving costs. Shaun came to feel he made the wrong decision as the patient suffered a complication that almost killed him, but Park revealed that Shaun's actions actually saved the young man's life as he had been planning suicide beforehand. Shaun's trouble with empathy and communication led to him telling a mother that her anti-depressants possibly caused her infant daughter's severe birth defects, something that it was pointed out that no other doctor would have ever said. However, Shaun's bluntness at times has proven helpful; he once pointed out a couple's doubts, causing them to confront those doubts and reach a resolution. Carly even stated that she found Shaun's bluntness and obvious care for his patients cute when they had first met, a contrast to many people who are put off by that bluntness. She and Lea have both also believed Shaun to be the most genuine and honest person they know. He’s even had patients ask that he talk to them because they know he’ll tell them the truth.

Shaun's communication issues led to him failing to catch the cues that Zack Cordell was angry with him at a bar, while further angering Zack when Shaun said that he doesn't like to be touched. As noted by Glassman, Shaun all the same showed mercy to Zack despite his cruel and violent actions which is extraordinary in and of itself. Even more extraordinary is that Shaun's statement that Zack was misdiagnosed before collapsing from his injuries led Claire to successfully replicate Shaun's thought processes to see through his eyes and save Zack's life. In doing so, Shaun made Claire a better doctor because of how he inspired her. According to Glassman, this is proof that while Shaun may not communicate as others do, he does communicate and is heard and inspires others. Shaun also inspired Andrews - who was once the most reluctant to hire him - to stand up to Han and fire him so that Shaun could be rehired by offering Andrews advice that Steve had once given to him. Claire even thought of Shaun as a role model on certain things and sought his advice on how to deal with her mother.

Another problem Shaun often has is with romantic relationships. He was immediately attracted to Lea when they first met, even though he did not know much about relationships and was rude and mean to Lea when she returned. After their relationship resumed platonically, Shaun had trouble adjusting to Lea having a boyfriend and showed signs of possibly being in love with her. Shaun appeared to have possibly moved on from Lea or was at least trying to as he decided to ask Carly out instead, getting coaching from Claire on how to do so. Despite his “disaster” of a date, Shaun had genuine feelings for Carly who understood Shaun on a level that most people don't due to having an autistic sister and as such, isn't immediately put off by Shaun's blunt and potentially hurtful answers that are given in the moment. As a result, after talking about their doubts and getting advice from multiple people, Shaun chose to continue his relationship with Carly by seeking out a more relaxed informal date that wouldn't be so overwhelming to him and had been described by Claire as something she greatly enjoyed when Claire was using her own dating experiences as an example. Subsequently, the two continued with more informal dates, but Shaun struggled with the effects of his touch aversion upon their intimacy.

After spending the night sleeping comfortably with Lea and having a brief meltdown over the potential of being alone, Shaun appeared to lose some of his aversion to touch. When Glassman comforted him, Shaun initiated a hug that he only broke because he had to go into surgery and was late. During the subsequent surgery, when the patient grabbed his hand hard due to the immense pain she was in, Shaun did not stop her and instead told the other doctors to allow it as it distracted the patient but to hurry though he is clearly uncomfortable, though this was likely at least in part due to how hard the patient was gripping his hand. Just before admitting his love for Carly, Shaun took and held her hand for a brief time despite his previous aversion to holding hands with Carly at all. He even took her hand again rather than the crossing wrists compromise he had had to use previously. He also completely lost his aversion to physical intimacy with Carly with their first attempt at sex ending due to Carly's hesitations rather than Shaun's.

Although he temporarily feared that he drives everyone away from him, he is grateful in having gained the friends he has. In particular, Shaun became close friends (even brothers) with Alex Park and, although the two have clashed professionally, the two choose not to let it affect them on a personal level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shaun even allowed the homeless Park to be his roommate for a time. Shaun also quickly developed a close friendship with Claire who proved to be one of the first people to understand and relate to Shaun, while Jared (despite not knowing Shaun for as long as his other friends) had faith in Shaun's abilities to the point that he specifically sought Shaun out for help years after leaving the hospital and had described Shaun as being the best to his client. He was saddened by Claire leaving, as well as supposedly with Jared’s own departure and Neil’s death. He was also pleased when Jared and Claire returned and has shared a very easy working relationship with them, quickly falling back into working together and bouncing ideas off of each other like no time at all had passed.

In the later years of his residency, Shaun's greater experience with patients leads to him becoming more visibly empathetic and less blunt, at one point only agreeing to deliver a bluntly honest diagnosis because Lim, as his boss, orders him to do so. Despite his initial reluctance to form personal connections with his patients, he became close with Tara (who had grown up like him, an outcast, and was able to get her to take gene therapy to help her) and Isla Liu, opening up to her about his guilt over Steve's death to help Isla with her own guilt. While Shaun admitted that it isn't terrible to become close to a patient, he still doesn't want to do it moving forward. His combination of empathy and blunt honesty resulted in his patient and his mother reconciling with each other, impressing Lim who stated that conflict resolution is an important quality for an attending physician. Asher Wolke (who was estranged from his family for years, his father in particular), jokingly suggested having Shaun help Asher and his father resolve their issues with each other as a result. Unlike Park, Shaun is unable to see young patient Nathan as anything more than a patient despite Park looking at the case from the perspective of a parent as well as a doctor. However, Shaun helps Park find a solution for Nathan that can be done in a single surgery rather than multiple ones. Shaun later displayed a moment of empathy for Nathan by wrapping his toy dog's head in bandages after the young boy had wanted the toy to undergo surgery with him in order to feel better. Although Shaun had earlier not seen the point in such a gesture, he did it on his own specifically for Nathan after Park had explained why it was so important to the young boy.

As a senior resident, Shaun was called upon to help train new residents, something that visibly made him nervous when it was first announced. At first, Shaun struggled with being a leader to his residents, causing him to make a number of mistakes (which Andrews was concerned about). This made Shaun refuse to continue training residents until Lim talked him into continue trying. Eventually, Shaun adapted and proved himself to be a capable leader and teacher who is greatly respected by Asher and Jordan Allen as well as Olivia Jackson and Ricky Guerin before they left the hospital. Shaun has developed a good rapport with his residents despite his initial struggles with Jordan and Asher both learning from him and supporting him as Shaun learnt from and supports them in turn. Jordan in particular proved to be good at working with his moments of uncertainty, even encouraging Glassman to learn from Shaun rather than their relationship being of Shaun only learning from Glassman. She even told Shaun after he made a mistake that she follows his lead because she trusts his judgment and the fact that Shaun made a mistake only makes him more inspirational to her.

In the later years of his residency, Shaun became more assertive and sure of himself, although sometimes this resulted in slightly disastrous results when Shaun argued with his superiors. He rather brashly accused Dr. Paul Nakano of making a mistake with his behavior getting to the point that Nakano claims that in Andrews' position, he would've fired Shaun. While Shaun turns out to be wrong about Nakano having made a mistake, he was correct about there being a problem and he stopped the surgery in time to save the patient. Shaun's intervention and solution of the problem earned him Nakano's respect with the older doctor going so far as to ask Shaun to join him in the surgery and then later tell him that it was nice operating with Shaun. While working with Glassman when most of the staff were affected by magic mushrooms, their differing styles in the operating room caused Shaun to go so far as to publicly argue with Glassman over the matter, leading to a falling out for a time and Shaun getting into trouble for his behavior. After Jordan urged Glassman to try to learn from Shaun, Glassman gave him the lead on a surgery after Shaun came up with an innovative solution and took the chance to learn from Shaun, rather than remaining in charge himself. In turn, Shaun tried to be more accommodating to Glassman's way of doing things during the surgery which Glassman appreciated.

Due to emotionally connecting so much with his colleagues, Shaun took it very badly when Lim was severely wounded and constantly disagreed over the best course of treatment. A large part of this was that Lim's situation reminded Shaun of Steve's death and his inability to save his brother and Shaun's guilt over it. The worse Lim got, and the closer Shaun was to losing her, the more irrational his behavior got, resulting in a breakdown. However, a vision of Steve urged Shaun to let go of his guilt over his death, reassuring Shaun that it wasn't his fault. Steve and Lea helped Shaun to focus and he was able to save Lim's life. The incident and Lea's unwavering support of him throughout it caused Shaun to only love Lea even more. He also told her that he's trying to accept that Steve's death wasn't his fault. Notably, during this ordeal, despite Shaun's behavior, his friends recognized that it came from his concern for Lim and (despite Shaun arguing with them and at one point completely going against Glassman's orders) they didn't hold it against him. Glassman went so far as to praise Shaun's save to Lim despite his initial anger and later told Jerome that Shaun was the one that they needed, not himself. After Shaun snapped out of it, Andrews, Glassman and Jordan trusted his judgment to the point that they followed his directions with a simple explanation of how he came to his conclusion on the issue.

As a surgical attending, Shaun proves himself to be an effective leader of his own team and good at dealing with his patients, both of which had been a concern that Andrews had raised while arguing against hiring Shaun as a resident, although Shaun still turns to his friends and mentors for advice. He had difficulties with Danni when she was a new resident and Jared when he became a first year again, while apparently forgetting that they were like how he was when he was new to the hospital. As a result, Shaun and Danni clashed several times and did the same with Jared initially, although Shaun and Danni were able to work together during Danni’s time on Shaun's team.

Although on the outside Shaun appeared to be unbothered by Lim ending her friendship with Shaun, he began manifesting strange behavior that worried Lea who believed that Shaun was more hurt than he let on. Shortly after Lim ends their friendship, Shaun kept clashing with Park by rearranging their shared office furniture before seeking privacy in an old storage room and shutting himself away. This led to Glassman accusing Shaun of acting childish and isolating himself like he did in high school and the beginning of med school. Shaun appeared visibly bothered about what Glassman said and whether or not he was right about how Shaun was behaving, he did genuinely appear to be bothered by having potentially caused his friend's paralysis and the fallout for it to the point that it literally keeps him up at night on at least one occasion.

When Lea got pregnant again, Shaun went somewhat overboard in preparation for the baby (even becoming overprotective of Lea, to her irritation), some of which was justified as Shaun and Lea had been warned by Lea's doctor that it may never be safe for her to get pregnant again after Lea's earlier miscarriage. Shaun's caution proved to be warranted as she experienced internal bleeding as a complication of her earlier miscarriage. Glassman subsequently credited Shaun's keeping Lea in the hospital for saving her life. With Lea's pregnancy now safe, Shaun lost much of his overprotectiveness and instead excitedly prepared for the impending birth of his son. Unlike with Lea's first pregnancy, Shaun lacked the clinical detachment that he'd had at first, such as Shaun referring to the first baby as just the fetus for awhile.

## Trivia

* Freddie Highmore, the actor who portrays Shaun, studied Spanish, which his TV series character is fluent in.
* Dr. Glassman states that he has known Shaun for 12 years, they met when Shaun was 14, making Shaun’s current age 26.
* Shaun may know Japanese as in "First Case, Second Base," he watched a procedure in the language and knew the procedure well enough to walk Andrews and Lim through it later. When Shaun watched the video, there was no sign of English subtitles that could've been guiding him.
* After a patient makes him famous through the Internet for saving her life in "Influence," the patient tells Shaun that he's already gotten over seventy marriage proposals which he doesn't find comforting.
* In "Venga," Shaun is revealed to be fluent in Spanish. However, as he puts it, he still has communication problems in two languages.

## References

1. ↑ "Heartfelt": Season 1. Episode 15. Thomas L. Moran/Johanna Lee (writer) & Regina King (director). [February 26, 2018].
2. ↑ "Burnt Food": Season 1. Episode 1. David Shore (writer) & Seth Gordon (director). [September 25, 2017].
3. ↑ "Incomplete": Season 3. Episode 9. [[]] (writer) & [[]] (director). [, ].