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'The Good Doctor' Season 4 Episode 2: Nurse Patringa dies of Covid-19, heartbroken fans want her back as ghost

It was a powerful and emotional episode as the resonating theme was: love, loss and overpowering grief in the time of Covid-19 that has kept the world in a steel grip for the past one year

It was a tearful episode of 'The Good Doctor' as doctors and fans had to bid goodbye to the ever-grumpy, yet much-loved Nurse Petringa, who succumbed to Covid-19. Till the last minute fans were praying that she would miraculously pull through, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Nurse Petringa was surrounded by all those who loved her, especially Morgan. It was a powerful and emotional episode as the resonating theme was: love, loss and overpowering grief in the time of Covid-19 that has kept the world in a steel grip for the past one year.

Fans tearfully bid goodbye to Nurse Petringa. "oh COME ON! WHY NURSE PETRINGA?!?! WHY?! #TheGoodDoctor," a fan tweeted.

"@KarinKonoval.Going to miss you. Petringa was my fav recurring character. By the way, was her first name Deena or Donna," another fan wrote.

"YOU TOOK NURSE PETRINGA, NOOOOOOO same Morgan, same #TheGoodDoctor," another fan wrote.

"@gooddrwritersyou monsters!!! How could you do this do us?!?! Nurse Petringa," #TheGoodDoctor," a fan tweeted.

"Noooooo!! Not Nurse Petringa! Okay it’s official: I am bawling so hard now. @FionaGubelmann@_ChristinaChang
this scene just broke me. #TheGoodDoctor@GoodDoctorABC," another wrote.

"Not sure what broke me more: the fact that Melendez said “we’ll never see how our story could’ve ended or Nurse Petringa passing away..@gooddrwriters sure do know how to hurt a fan’s spirit #TheGoodDoctor@GoodDoctorABC," one tweeted. Others hope for a ghost Petringa, as there's a ghost Melendez giving advice to Claire in the show too. "I would now like to know if we can have a Ghost Petringa that can haunt Morgan whenever her bitch is dialed to 11. How 'bout it, @gooddrwriters? #TheGoodDoctor," a fan wrote.

In an interview to TVLine, executive producer David Shore explained why Melendez turned up again. "Claire’s storyline is very much about trying to bring solace to people who have lost somebody [and] doing what you can do. Melendez is one of those people [for Claire], more so than anybody else in our hospital at that moment, given the way we ended last season. Of course, we did not anticipate any of this at the end of Season 3. Liz Friedman, who co-wrote the episode with me, called me up one day and said, “I think we should see Melendez,” and I went, “That’s a good idea.” We’ve done this before, obviously, with Shaun and his brother, and it seemed like an interesting way for this [grief] to manifest."

'The Good Doctor' airs on ABC on Mondays at 9 pm.