'The Good Doctor' Season 3 Finale: A tear-jerker episode without much substance leaves us hungry for more
Another year of ABC's 'The Good Doctor' ended today, leaving us pining for some lost characters, hopeful for new romance, but overall, making us emotional.
An intensely dramatic episode, the finale explored tormenting times for some of our favorite doctors like Dr Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore), Dr Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez), Dr Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas), Dr Alex Park (Will Yun Lee) and Dr Audrey Lim (Christina Chang).
Shaun was fighting his emotions and for his life, while trying to save an earthquake victim, Neil suffered a fatal injury and decided to opt out of surgery and die instead, Alex tried to save a young boy but lost him, and so on.
Yes, in simpler words, it was the ultimate tearjerker episode, probably the only one across the entire season. While some scenes made us break into tears, some broke our hearts, and the rest, well, did not do much. And that exactly is the point of discussion.
With the entire season of 20 episodes culminating into one, big, grand finale, we expected much more to happen on the story front, instead of only exploring two main character arcs.
For instance, after Dr Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann) had her RA surgery, she broke all protocols and instead of staying back to heal herself, decided to take on an urgent case and operate on a complicated pregnancy.
Dr Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) did stop her halfway through and explained why she shouldn’t have tried to be a hero. This is where we had expected a little more of Morgan's character evolution.
Throughout the season, Morgan had displayed various shades of her character — passive aggressive, aggressive, sentimental, and bold, but every time, she proved herself to be an incredible doctor.
At this junction of the story when she will be stopped from pursuing her passion as a surgeon and limit herself to consulting, it would mean a heavy blow on her character. It would have been comforting to see her emotional arc.
Similarly, we also wanted to see how Audrey took Melendez’s death. Yes, we are not denying the fact that she held herself strong and powerful even in the face of such a traumatic situation.
However, considering her and Neil had a good relationship and despite being broken up, her sentiments for a good colleague and ex-lover couldn’t have been so strained. We never got to know how she actually felt losing Neil.
Apart from Neil’s tragic death and Shaun finally winning Lea back, there weren’t any other plot points to talk about. A few questions like - Why was Dr. Carly Lever (Jasika Nicole) not there when Shaun’s life was in danger?
Why did Alex suddenly decide to move back contrary to how his character was evolving? Does it mean his character’s journey will end with season 3? Will Marcus allow Morgan to continue working at the hospital since she broke protocol? And more, continue to haunt us.
As an episode finale, we had anticipated a lot more to happen, how the main characters dealt with the crisis and survived the day. Instead, it turned out to be an episode centered on the end of one main character and the start of a new chapter for another, leaving us hungry for more.
'The Good Doctor' will be back with an all-new Season 4 soon. Stay tuned for the latest updates and information on the upcoming season of ABC's most popular nighttime drama.