‘The Good Doctor’ Season 3 Finale: Here’s our theory why Dr Neil Melendez is NOT DEAD
The third season of ABC’s hit primetime drama came to an end with a dramatic finale. It was profound, heartbreaking, upsetting and all that one can think of when describing an intense episode. When the two-part finale started with a disaster, we knew it is going to be emotionally disturbing. But little did we know it will also mean killing our favorite characters.
We are talking about the only focus of this ending episode: The death of Dr Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzales). When he was hurt in the part one of the finale, we knew that it will create a scenario where Dr Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) will end up admitting her feelings for him and perhaps vice versa. But we definitely didn’t expect Neil to die!
It was shattering to see such a character leave us hanging halfway through his journey. We believe (as do many other fans) that there’s lot more we could have from him and it doesn’t seem rational enough to kill him so early in the story.
His character has been a strong one, all through the last three seasons and especially in Season 3 he went through quite an upheaval; from breaking up with Dr Audrey Lim (Christina Chang) to losing a patient mid-surgery, losing confidence in his surgical skills and then rediscovering himself and so on. So, come to think of it, it only makes more sense to keep him alive than dead. Also, we did not “actually” see him die. All we were shown is Claire and him both in tears, finally professing their love for each other, followed by Claire leaving the room and hugging out her emotions with Audrey. So, unless we see Neil “dead”, he’s technically not dead and this could mean that there’s hope.
Then, there’s also the angle of Dr Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) who has not yet seen Neil in his current condition. He didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. For all you know, once Shaun comes to know about Neil, he might just work up his genius diagnosis and come up with a solution. After all, he is the boy wonder of St Bonaventure and has a history of doing miracles with patients.
In case you thought it’s our mind conjuring up such wild ideas because we lost one of our favorite characters, it’s not just us, coming up with such theory. One fan of Dr Melendez also has a similar theory. He says, “Just a theory: Melendez didn’t die, Claire cried in Lim’s arms because she thinks there is no hope. BUT season 4 episode 1 will open with a way to save Melendez.”
And this fan shared the same thoughts as us: “Very unlikely but we technically never saw melendez die... is it possible he somehow didn’t? #TheGoodDoctor”
With the journey of Neil Melendez ending, there has been a lot of flak from fans and viewers on Twitter, who are slamming the show for such a brutal season ending. So, if all these were to be taken into account, the writers of ‘The Good Doctor’ might reconsider bringing back Neil to the show in the next season.
Until then, we would like to stick to our theory that Neil Melendez’s character is right now in an uncertain zone. Neither are we saying he is alive nor we want to admit that he is dead. And let’s just leave it at that, until Season 4.
Stay tuned for more updates on ‘The Good Doctor’ Season 4 and more.