Newbies

## Episode Chronology

**"Newbies"** is the third episode of Season 4 of *The Good Doctor*. It is the fifty-ninth episode overall, and aired on November 16, 2020.

## Synopsis

With several candidates vying for residency at St. Bonaventure, Chief of Surgery Dr. Audrey Lim tasks Dr. Shaun Murphy, Dr. Claire Browne and Dr. Alex Park with mentoring the top first-year resident contenders. As their mentees shadow them for the day, Shaun and Park meet with Andrews to discuss a difficult surgery scheduled for a minor. Later, Shaun inadvertently insults Lea while discussing the pros and cons of the controversial surgery. And elsewhere, Dr. Morgan Reznick seeks out Claire and Lim’s help on a consult.

## Plot

Some time after the Covid-19 pandemic, things are back to normal at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Dr. Lim explains how the hospital currently has six finalists for four resident openings. They will be shadowing Shawn, Alex and Claire for two days. So Dr. Lim asks her senior residents to give them the grand tour, show 'em the ropes and encourage the trio to turn up the heat a bit to see how the six resident applicants work under pressure. However, she does remind them how they will be responsible for supervising them, thus she is fully expecting the trio’s honest input before she makes any final decision.

Following an initial round of interviews, the six applicants shadowed Shaun, Park and Claire. Among them was Will Hooper, who describes himself as technically being a professional athlete first and foremost. Although it is in rowing, a sport nobody really pays attention to. In addition, he reveals that the stipend barely covers his training expenses. But he is proud to be part of the U.S. National Rowing Team Men's Eight. Next is John Lundberg, who hails from Des Moines, Iowa, where he worked every summer since he was 16 at Camp Hope Heartland, a summer program for kids with cancer. During Asher’s interview, he mentions that when he was 18 he left the Hasidic community that he was raised in after realizing that if there really was a God, it had to be a cruel being that he felt nothing but contempt for. That’s also the point in his life when he decided to go to med school, and subsequently start dating men. Other applicants included Olivia Jackson, who initially, all she says is that she's 25 from Chicago, and plays ragtime piano alone in her apartment. Jordan Allen during her interview mentions how during her first year in med school she designed an ankle brace that monitors extent of immobilization via a phone app. She eventually licenced her invention, which allowed her to pay off half of her student loans. Lastly, there is Enrique, who all he can talk about is how he spent last summer in Costa Rica, where he learned to surf, which he is totally obsessed with now. He goes onto reveal how he had a pretty interesting encounter with a saltwater crocodile. Eventually, Shawn interrupts the interview to ask Enrique why he is wearing a swimsuit. But Enrique explains that what he is wearing are actually called hybrid boardshorts because he likes to work hard, and it is easier to do that when one is comfortable. In addition, he thinks that the casual dress puts patients at ease. Upon seeing the weird looks from the trio, he does state that Dr. Lim said it was okay for him to wear them.

Elsewhere in the hospital, Morgan admits to Dr. Glassman that she finds internal medicine boring. Between smokers, and obese diabetics, she feels like all she is really doing is protecting people from themselves. He warns Morgan though that if even just another nurse complains about her, there will be some serious consequences for her.

The case Dr. Andrews team shadowing is a breast enhancement surgery for 17-year-old patient Monica. Everything is going swimmingly until Jordan pipes up subtly disapproving of a minor going through such a kind of surgery. Shaun immediately leaps to the patient's and Andrews' defense but it's settled by Monica herself who tells them that it's her choice and ultimately, this is what she wants. Monica goes on to say how she has thought about the breast enhancement surgery since she was 13. As expected, Dr. Andrews does not like the undermining of his authority going on in the room. But in spite of this, Jordan maintains her ground by explaining to the patient that there's nothing to fix with her breasts. She also not-so-subtly notes how cosmetic surgery is dominated by male surgeons who, whether they admit to it or not, have a sexist bias. Dr. Andrews doesn't directly respond to that statement but does tell her to do less of the lecturing and more of the listening. In addition, Dr. Andrews also proceeds to tell Shaun to be a better mentor to these newbies under his care.

Later, it becomes evident that Morgan still hasn't moved on from giving up practicing surgery. So when she finds out that her patient Josh has a tumor on his heart that needs surgery, she does everything she can to butt in; much to Claire's annoyance. One thing the two can agree on is that Will is barely tolerable after he tries to diffuse the tension between the two of them by mansplaining.

After debating the best way to get the tumor out, Claire finally told Morgan to butt out. Morgan, however, insists that she has sway over the case since it's her patient. That’s when Will decided to mansplain which department the authority defaults to. After that, he was promptly told to shut up by both Morgan and Claire. And in the end, they went with Claire’s approach.

Later on, while having lunch, Shaun does try to be better by getting to know the resident applicants with Lea's help. Instead of bonding with them though, Shaun ends up having too many moments where he shared too much of his personal information. Like when he said he liked Lea's breasts very much. But unfortunately, he also admits that he doesn't like Lea’s voice very much.

While Dr. Lim and Claire were operating, Morgan got to know the recruits by asking the most asked professional question of all time: why are you in the business? Will basically said the standard "I want to help people" stuff. Whereas Asher brings up how he was once part of an orthodox Jewish sect but since he separated himself from it and went to med school, he stopped believing there was a God. Since then, he believes that it was on us to help each other. As he said, "No benevolent higher power is going to save us so we have to save each other." Before Olivia could say her piece though, something goes wrong with Josh's operation. Dr. Lim and Browne can't get the tumor out.

Since there was no way to access the tumor without injuring Josh's heart, Morgan suggests taking the heart out, cutting off the tumor, and putting it back in. This method could work but only if the tumor hasn't gotten into his major arteries. While checking the MRI, Browne asks for the newbies' opinions. Olivia starts but Will interrupts her almost immediately. Irked, Morgan promptly gives Will another lecture. Then she turns to Olivia, and is surprisingly quite nice and caring towards her. Olivia states that the pulmonary artery is right behind the vessel, which is causing radiographic scatter in the area they are looking on the scan. She explains that the haze is just an artifact, and his arteries are clean.

Meanwhile, back in Dr. Andrews' OR, Monica suffers from a complication. Though her breast enhancement was successful, she flatlines and recovers but doesn't regain consciousness. The team checks on everything but it all seems normal. Drawing on his wide travel experience, Enrique suggests doing a nuclear perfusion scan which might be the only thing that could catch what's wrong.

After a long day, the senior residents and the newbies get together over some drinks in the resident's lounge to celebrate their successes that day.

Shaun tries his best to strike up a conversation with his team of newbies. Although it's still rocky at best, he has improved tremendously and is asking the questions that matter. He seems particularly interested in Asher, by asking him if he had a boyfriend and about his religious beliefs. Although Asher was more than accommodating to the questions, John wasn't. He felt that personal things shouldn't be brought into work. In the midst of that conversation, Jordan also made it clear that Shaun might've upset Lea by their earlier lunch conversation. Checking in on Lea later, Shaun finds out that Jordan was right.

On the other hand, the tension between Morgan and Claire comes to a head when Morgan books an anaesthetician without Claire's consent. It ends with Morgan telling Claire to deal with it and walking out the door.

While scanning Monica, Shaun asks the newbies he is in charge for advice on what he should do with Lea. Strangely enough, it's Enrique, the guy who looks like he doesn't take anything seriously who gives the most logical answer.

He tells Shaun that he might've made Lea feel insecure over something he said, but that it's not his fault. Enrique explains how we all have stuff that we're insecure about, and that's why it's so risky falling in love. But goes on to say how we all hope that when we let our guard down, it's for the one person that doesn't see our flaws. Thus his advice to Shaun ends up being for him to figure out what would make Lea feel secure in the relationship again.

Shaun turns to the other two but Jordan says she is single and John just refuses to answer the question. Instead, John figures out why Monica's not waking up. There's a clot in her brain. It's difficult to remove but Shaun figures they could do it with a stent retriever. In the end, that does the trick.

On the other hand, Lim and Browne's operation on Josh isn't going as well. They've removed too much tissue to get a good margin but now there's not enough to reconstruct his heart's inflow chambers. It's not helping that Morgan’s trying to tell them what to do from the gallery too. Finally fed up, Lim kicks Morgan out.

Thinking through their options, Lim realizes they could try to make up for the missing tissue with pig bladder tissue and sends a nurse to get it. Up in the gallery, Asher slips away. He soon returns to the operating room doors with the pig bladder tissue. And because of that, Lim allows him to scrub in and watch right beside the scene of the action. After patching it back up and reconnecting it to Josh's body, they get his heart beating again.

At the end of those two days, Lim asks for the team's assessment of the newbies. There are six of them but only four of them can get in. And since the beginning, Lim has been going on and on about how Will was at the top of all programs so it seems that he's guaranteed a spot. The other three favorites were Jordan, Asher, and John.

Right off the bat though, Lim tells everyone that John has resigned before the selection process even began. He thought everyone there was unprofessional with all the drinking and sharing of personal information. That leaves room for only Enrique or Olivia. Claire votes for both. Unable to take it any longer, she lists down every reason Will shouldn't get in. Shaun and Park could only nod in agreement. In the end, Lim agrees.

It was all just a test to see how honest they would be. Dr. Lim goes onto say that Will was the worst of them all. In the end, he's just your typical boy with rich parents, a cute face, and a humongous ego. Now that the team has been decided though, new responsibilities await Claire, Shaun, and Park. Now, it's on them to prevent their underlings from killing anybody.

On the other hand, Shaun also makes up with Lea. He takes Enrique and Glassman's advice together and tells Lea why he loves her despite her flaws. More specifically, he tells her that he doesn't just like her body because it's excellent. That he likes it because it's Lea's. Then he admits that when he hears her voice, especially after a difficult day, he finds it comforting.

## Cast

* Antonia Thomas as Claire Browne
* Fiona Gubelmann as Morgan Reznick
* Will Yun Lee as Alex Park
* Christina Chang as Audrey Lim
* Paige Spara as Lea Dilallo
* Hill Harper as Marcus Andrews
* Richard Schiff as Aaron Glassman
* Bria Samoné Henderson as Jordan Allen
* Noah Galvin as Asher Wolke
* Summer Brown as Olivia Jackson
* Michael Liu as John Lundberg
* Sam Robert Muik as Will Hooper
* Samer Salem as Josh Bunker
* Sophia Bucior as Monica Torres

## Trivia

* Doctors Asher Wolke, Olivia Jackson, Jordan Allen and Enrique "Ricky" Guerin are chosen as the new surgical residents.
* Park reveals that he once sparred with Mike Tyson.
* On November 9, 2020, David Shore explained that beginning with this episode, the show has decided to be set in a post-COVID world for practical reasons.
	+ Since the real world is not back to normal, one worry David had was being seen as endorsing not wearing masks, or endorsing not social distancing. The compromise they've reached is they are going to have a statement [by Freddie Highmore] before upcoming episodes saying that this episode takes place in a post-COVID world — that this episode represents their hope for the future.
* On November 16, 2020 Richard Schiff announced that he had been hospitalized after previously announcing he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was being treated with Remdesivir, oxygen and steroids, but two days later he posted an encouraging update on his COVID battle Wednesday afternoon. He went onto reveal that he was just taken off Oxygen.
	+ His markers are also down. He remains cautiously optimistic for a release from the hospital soon. He also revealed that his wife Sheila Kelley is also doing better as of Wednesday afternoon.
	+ As of November 20, 2020, It was reported that Richard Schiff had been released from the hospital after undergoing Covid-19 treatment.

## Multimedia

### Videos

The Good Doctor 4x03 Promo "Newbies" (HD)Dr. Audrey Lim Tests the Honesty of Her Surgical Residents - The Good DoctorDr. Alex Park Leads an Icebreaker for the New Interns - The Good DoctorShaun Encounters a Downside to His Candor - The Good Doctor
## References

1. ↑ The Good Doctor S4, E3: Newbies live ratings - Showbuzzdailys
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thomas L. Moran on Twitter
3. ↑ "The Good Doctor - Episode 4.03 - Newbies - Press Release"
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Good Doctor EP on the Decision to Kill Off Nurse Deena Petringa, Bring Back Melendez and Move Past the Pandemic - TVLine
5. ↑ ‘The Good Doctor’ Star Richard Schiff Improving, Remains Hospitalized With COVID-19 Update - Deadline
6. ↑ ‘The Good Doctor’ actor Schiff released from hospital after COVID-19 treatment - The Star