State of the Shea Pt. 54: “Potluck”’s Oddest, Best Couples

NOT AN ODD COUPLE ON THIS EPISODE… But inevitably, this is how we’ll remember #Shea in “Potluck”

If memory serves me correctly, there’s at least one blog post out there referring to TGD’s “Potluck” episode 5x14 as “filler.” I only saw the lede lines that accompanied the tweet promoting said blog– so my apologies if the writer of that blog is reading this one– but the vibe I got, while still quite positive, was dismissive by way of the word “filler.”

Superficially, I see it– “magic mushrooms” find their way into a St. Bon’s pot luck lunch, and next thing you know, unnamed staff are vomiting and/or laughing deliriously and/or practicing yoga moves on gurneys… and named staff is acting like, well, anything but their named staff self.

Hijinks prevailed, that’s for sure. But plenty more happened as well, most of which will play strongly into the tone for the remainder of the season.

It was revealed last week that TGD will only air 18 episodes for S5, which is two episodes less than we got in S3 or S4. While my instinct is to blame ABC for toying with the time slot– putting the ill-fated Promised Land in TGD’s place for a month surely did it NO favors– the fact is TGD only has eight episodes rather than the expected ten to deal with St. Bon’s post-Salen recovery… and oh, yeah, get Shaun and Lea to the proverbial church on time (as earlier TGD S5 promos teased relentlessly).

I’ve seen the remaining episode titles for S5, and based on what’s being introduced in the “My Way” episode airing this week, I have my speculations as to what the next month will bring us. But for now, my focus is on the brilliance that was TGD’s “Potluck” episode… and what I’m referring to specifically are the unexpected couplings of characters that took the standard of hijinks to another level. Even Jordan and Jerome, the two characters “unpartnered” in this episode (I’ll explain what I mean about Jerome in a minute), were absolutely vital to the success of “Potluck.”

#Shea was NOT a critical part of the episode, but they remained freakin’ adorable during their limited screen time… so here’s a couple of photos in honor of their efforts.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Freddie Highmore has GOT to be glad in scenes like these that Shaun is totally “in character” by breaking eye contact… ‘cause I’m not sure any amount of incredible professionalism can contend with the hilarious expressions Paige Spara was pulling off in this scene, and so many others.

OK, so many others *with Morgan*…

**Odd Couple 1: Lea and Morgan**

PREVIOUSLY ON TGD… these two knew of each other without really knowing each other. In early seasons, Morgan called Lea out for not treating Shaun as more of a pet than a grown man; that evolved into claims that Lea was marking her territory when Shaun and Carly were at the height of their relationship. Lea, in turn, called Morgan “one twisted beeyotch” as she denied her claims. All this, mind you, with the two women barely spending a moment in each other’s presence.

NOW… Things have softened with them in more recent seasons now that Shaun and Lea are together– when we’ve been privy to scenes with them, that is. “Potluck” not only made up for lost time with these two, but found Morgan turning to Lea for relationship advice in spite of the latter’s altered state of mind…

Or, maybe because it offered a chance that Lea would not remember it later. (Morgan was feeling vulnerable, but she’s never stupid.)

Meanwhile, these two also had the very real job at hand of determining what tripped everyone up– and when they got it narrowed down to the ingredients of Asher’s sweet potato casserole, I STILL couldn’t stop laughing at Lea trying to play exacerbated staff member while continuing to come down from her own mushroom high.

**Odd Couple 2: Park and Asher**

PREVIOUSLY ON TGD… Park and Asher have had a friendly-but-hardly-noteworthy relationship as senior and junior residents. In fact, when I saw a brief shot of them chumming it up in a recent promo, I was intrigued by its unique nature… turns out they took that shot from the “Potluck” episode.
NOW… Bonding between the two incapacitated men came quickly when their cots were placed side-by-side in the makeshift staff recovery area, and the “insecure babbling” of Asher ensured Park’s awareness that Asher felt rejected by Jerome’s decision to leave him out of his upcoming hangout with old buddies. Next thing we know, Park’s lingering irritation about Morgan’s recliner rejection– I’m guessing that beauty must bear some resemblance to the one that belonged to *Frasier’*s dad– means that Park felt Asher’s pain. Deeply. “A Thousand Miles” deeply, it turned out…

And the scene of the night ensued, with shirtless Asher *and* Park barricading the door and dancing their rejected little hearts out.

Even *this* scene, as amped-up ridiculous as it appeared at first glance, proved pivotal when both men crashed to the floor– giving Asher an excuse to discuss the “boyfriend” issue a little more with Jerome while the latter patched the former up, and Park a legit reason to later need emergency surgery (hello, rookie lead surgeon Jordan).
Asher’s antics– mostly involving different realizations about Jerome– were indeed priceless throughout “Potluck.” But for my money, Will Yun Lee (as Park) was the revelation of the episode. I mean, we *knew* Paige Spara was capable of a wealth of comedic moments, and she didn’t let us down one bit. But how often has Lee had such an opportunity? Hats off to Mark Roseman for this entire episode he wrote, but particularly for giving “Park” some of the best lines of the episode– with “You look like a Disney princess, but you’re mean– and that’s so… HOT!” leading the way.

**Odd Couple 3: Shaun and Glassman**

On paper, that kind of looks like a typo– Shaun and his mentor/surrogate dad have been the team that needs each other more than they realize for years, haven’t they? On a personal level, yes. Absolutely. But not the one they broached on “Potluck.”

PREVIOUSLY ON TGD: In five seasons, we’d never seen Dr. Glassman, brain surgeon extraordinaire, actually work alongside his protege. How can that be? Well…

In Season 1, Glassman was primarily busy with his duties as St. Bon’s President– and while very immersed in Shaun’s brave new world as a first-year resident on the ASD spectrum, his presence in any OR was minimal to non-existent. (I haven’t made time to go back and check for exceptions to this rule; that’s why I’m leaving open the possibility he put in an appearance or two.)
In S2, Glassman found himself in the fight of his life as he battled cancer- which put him and Shaun in the thick of it personally, but not professionally.
In S3, Glassman gradually made his way back to the OR, but spent most of his working hours embracing his new lease on life via his pet project (St. Bon’s free clinic for the economically challenged).
And in S4, we saw more of Glassman in his office than we did anywhere else– especially when it came to his screen time with Shaun. Professional consults between the two were many. Personal consults, probably even more so. But working together in the OR still wasn’t a thing.
Even in S5, during the most pivotal OR scenes of the season (in the winter finale “Expired”), Shaun and Glassman were operating in two very different worlds… both literally and figuratively, with Shaun’s world coming apart just as Glassman was getting his surgical mojo back (see what I said about it at the time…)

NOW: The not-so-funny thing about this “couple” is that they were contending with much more than different OR styles and seniority levels. They had the very real problem of being too close as people, much as Park and Morgan might have if Morgan was still a surgeon, and Lim and Melendez did have when they were an item (might as well name them here, as Melendez haunted the back half of this episode anyway. I’m getting to that part, of course…)

So in their first OR scene/clash, we got the vibe of a senior surgeon who did NOT appreciate a senior resident disrupting the mood in his playpen…

And in their later argument, we got Shaun’s aggressive righteousness threatening to hijack the conversation (that “no,no!” at the end of Shaun’s line made me cringe)...

Until Glassman’s professional seniority + surrogate dad vibes came together for that “*Take a walk…”*

*NOW!!!”* That left us all a little shaken.

But with one helluva support from Jordan– who was later rewarded for her efforts (indirectly) by way of her first lead surgery, on Park-- we were eventually privy to Shaun and Glassman “evolving” (Glassy’s words) all the way to Glassy handing Shaun the reins on the “wandering spleen” patient.

It’s hard to say what brought more of a smile to my face… the pride of watching Glassman stand back and give Shaun room, or the joy of Shaun being invited to join Glassman for an 8AM scotch after their all-nighter. But I’ll go with the latter since demonstrations of joy on Shaun’s part are so uniquely him. (Here he is giving his clean-up towel a liberated shake after getting Glassman’s invite; he was folding it up neatly until that moment.)

I’ll readily admit that when I first heard these two would be working together throughout “Potluck” I was hoping it would trigger a conversation that harkened back to the first half of the season, when Glassman was for all intents and purposes abandoning St. Bon’s (leaving Shaun feeling abandoned on a deeply personal level, as we saw at the end of “Expired”). But I quickly tabled those hopes, realizing the pace of the episode would never give way to such a talk. I remain hopeful we’ll witness it at some point; to have Glassman apologize for his “Potluck” behavior while still awaiting a show of remorse for much more egregious behavior feels weird.