'The Good Doctor' Season 4 Episode 1: How will Claire cope with not having Melendez around?
Spoilers for Season 4 Episode 1 'Frontline Part 1'
Amid the ongoing influx of patients due to the early stages of Covid-19 in America, 'The Good Doctor' sees its frontline workers grappling in the Season 4 premiere. There are elderly women dying, pregnant women in labor and the occasional middle-aged patients developing complications totally unpredictable and unforeseen, even by pandemic standards. Razzled and exhausted, our doctors at St Bonaventure Hospital are already going through the utmost, but for Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas), there is also ample crisis in the form of her recent loss — Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez). Coping with the trauma and grief of his sudden death, Claire latches on to some unhealthy mechanisms. But something tells us everything will be okay.
The Season 3 ending left fans blindsided when Melendez died all of a sudden from succumbing to his severe injuries. Melendez had gotten wrapped in a massive San Jose earthquake and ended up losing his life, right after he proclaimed to Claire that he is in love with her. The loss has been brutal on the fourth-year resident, and watching patients die from Covid-19 only amplifies the trauma she endured. Oftentimes in the November 2 premiere of Season 4, titled 'Frontline Part 1', Caire ended up losing her patience. She snaps at Shaun Murphy (Freddy Highmore) for seemingly enjoying the rush and the crisis while others blatantly asked her to be rational and not end up turning against each other. It wasn't until the end of the episode that Claire could finally see sense.
Right at the end of the episode, in all the commotion, Claire hears a familiar voice — one that she adores too much and was struggling to go on without. "Things will be OK," a man's reassuring voice tells Claire and she then sees her dead beau standing right in front of her. It almost sounds like a setup for Episode 2, but to bring back Melendez as a figment of Claire's imagination — joyous as it might have been for fans — also made his death pretty final. Looked like Claire too realized that she is not completely alone in this pandemic, despite the loss being so fresh and raw still. Watching other people lose their loved ones surged a sense of empathy in Claire, helping her understand and heal from the loss better. Maybe she will warm up to Shaun and the rest of the team now that she knows Melendez is never really gone from her life.
'The Good Doctor' Season 4 will air on Mondays at 10 pm only on ABC.