State of the Shea, Pt. 82: Steve & Eden & Jack (Baby, Baby, Baby)
As I got ready for The Good Doctor’s extra-long awaited Season 7 premiere– slowly churning through the late afternoon/evening hours until 9:55 Eastern time, and then jumping to 9:59 in half a blink–I thought to myself Wow, in a way, it feels like no time has passed.
But it was, by far, the longest wait we’ve ever had…
The gap between end S1/start S2: 6 months
S2 and S3… 6 months
S3 and S4… 7 months (COVID)
S4 and S5… 3.5 months
S5 and S6… 4.5 months
S6 and S7… 9.5 months (STRIKES)
… which makes this quick, final 10 weeks of new episodes all the more bittersweet.
OH, HOW MUCH WE WILL MISS THIS. That’s another thing I thought to myself.
Enough of that recurring theme for now. S7 Episode 1 got us back into the world of St. Bons two weeks after we left it last May; a world where Andrews had just resigned, Perez had just returned home to Texas to rehabilitate amongst his family, #Parnick had finally reunited, and Shaun and Lea might have finished unwrapping all the onesies and rompers with which they were gifted on Steve’s behalf.
Where from there? We kind of knew, even without the half-dozen previews and sneak peeks provided in the days leading up to last Tuesday. Because when a show endures as long as TGD has, the plotlines can often be foregone conclusions. It’s How things get resolved amongst characters we know and love that gets us tuning in.
With time as limited as it is this season, I’m gonna try and track my wish list (which you can find HERE) as I recap. Let’s give this a shot…
📜 From the List… MAKING AMENDS (SHAUN & GLASSMAN)
Note to anyone out there who wants the Shaun/Glassman glacier to thaw as s l o w l y as possible: you might want to keep your thoughts to yourself. Yes, it’s complicated, and yes, it will likely take “some time” (by TV episodic standards). But watching these two pass in a hallway without acknowledging or even looking at each other– as they did at the top of the “Baby” episode– was agonizing enough to make me wish I could summon a mediator… stat!
Lest we forget, though, these are two of the stubbornest men St. Bons has to offer. Granted, Shaun is merely “leaving Glassman alone” for now as per Glassy’s own direction… but as we saw in the promo for the next episode (“Skin in the Game”), Shaun’s had a few weeks to process his surrogate father’s ill-timed abandonment. He’s angry too. And an airing of grievances may be the only step forward they make in episode 2.
But when stubborn meets stubborn, you can always count on an innocent new life to melt the ice just a little. The handoff of Steve to “Grandpa” at the end of episode 1 was a thing of beauty, all the more so because it happened in that very same hallway. And the bewildering weight carried in Shaun’s line I don’t know what to do– the very words he uttered when Glassman rained down on him at the end of S6’s “Beautiful Day”-- served as a gentle reminder that Shaun is a little more lost than most when he doesn’t have the answers at the end of his very thorough,detail-oriented fingertips. Kudos to Glassman for cutting him some slack this time. (He wouldn’t have dared just walk into his apartment without comment… would he?)
📜 From the List… PARNICK OR BUST
I’ve heard that when a couple reunites after breaking up, a moment often comes, early on, where one or both of the people involved say to themselves Oh, right, THAT’S why we don’t work as a couple.
It wasn’t long into the episode before I wondered if Park already had this vibe, for Morgan was either acting dismissively (“You can bring the ___” as she took Eden to get checked out at the start of the hour) or as if he wasn’t there at all (Park having to introduce himself to Jack’s parents in the waiting room when Morgan failed to do so).
But #Parnick 2.0 has to be a more mature couple than OG Parnick to survive (and eventually thrive), and that’s what I saw in Park when it came time for him to speak up for himself. Yes, he was firm with the important stuff (“remember I love Eden like she was my own and we’re in this together”), but he said it in a loving manner, not an angry one. He even reiterated (gently) to “eat something before she passed out” before he was done.
As for Momma Morgan, her thorough pre-occupation in “Baby” was expected and understandable, and of course turning “I” into “We” as the good news came in about Eden was as important as anything else she did in the episode. Let’s see how she fares during Park’s next personal challenge…
📜 From the List… PRESIDENT’S DAY
I’m not sure why I expected this issue to be back-burnered for a while (guess I presumed the interim prez would be entirely off-screen?), but there they were– Lim and Glassman, two people who couldn’t want the title LESS, finding to their dismay that they’ve been chosen to share said title. What could go wrong? I still feel (as I said in the wish list post) that Glassman will be the permanent replacement, but until then… I can’t wait to find out.
Longtime fans of the show know that both the St. Bons presidency and its Chief of Surgery positions have changed hands many times since 2017. (If one of you wants to articulate the changes in the comments section, feel free!) But with Melendez killed off in S3, Salen Morisson sent packing in S5, and now Andrews “quitting” (the storyline still feels flimsy to me, but I’m cutting TGD writers a break because Hill Harper’s Senate run put them in a tight spot)... that means Lim and Glassman are the last two standing.
And I couldn’t be happier about that, for these two share a unique connection that rolls between the hilarious and the poignant at the drop of Glassy’s ever-present fedora. (A bond quite different from the unique connection he now shares with Lea, I should add.) What’s more, this joint presidency will likely bring Glassman some levity to balance out the drama to come between he and Shaun. Get that popcorn ready!
📜 From the List… (OK, it’ll be a while for these two so I’m not picking a hashtag anytime soon)
Funny that there is already interesting backstory with these two…
Several episodes ahead of Dr. Danny Perez’s exit last season, Dr. Jared Kalu returned to the show– a familiar face to many, but not to Jordan (who began her residency in S4). She wasn’t impressed with him at first; he came from money, took a cushy job as a “concierge doctor” rather than finish his residency once he left San Jose, and carried an aloof air when he first got back in the game.
But he started to win her over– in more ways than one– when her hopes for love with Perez languished amidst his addiction issues.
Then, just as she and Perez seemed ready to forge a relationship amidst numerous land mines, BOOM came the serious accident that put her in the absolute worst of positions: administer the meds to take his unbearable pain away (but also send him back to square one of addiction recovery)... or keep her “no opiates” promise to him, and deal with the consequences (which, to her mind, included going into shock)? As we all know, she went with option #1. Perez was (understandably) very upset with her choice, but was apparently at peace with it by episode’s end. Which is to say, he’s now gone and in the midst of closing the book on himself and Jordan… doing so in a relatively peaceful manner.
But who counted on Kalu carrying a grudge against Jordan for all this? Not I, said the blog-writer…
And I admit that this part felt a tiny bit forced for my liking– mostly because a) I didn’t see Kalu and Perez develop the kind of fast friendship that merited Kalu’s deep concern for Perez’s well-being, and b) I don’t see reason in Kalu’s past (e.g. family-related addiction of his own) to cause him to become the Morality Police at Jordan’s expense.
To be fair, though, it’s not like he and Jordan hugged it out at the end of the “Love’s Labor” episode. As you probably recall, Kalu spent the last part of the episode meeting Baby Steve and taking the “first family portrait” while Jordan had her weird but long-awaited candlelight “date” with Perez in his hospital room. (Still shoulda been with the others meeting Steve, I say… but no more digressing about that.)
In any case, it was a loose end that got addressed quickly in “Baby”... and if the whole point of this initial S7 friction is to develop a proper re-set for Jordan and Kalu that turns into something a little less proper (ahem), I’m definitely on board.
NICE TOUCHES in “Baby Baby Baby”
Brief explanations of both Andrews’ new whereabouts and the state of communications between Perez and Jordan. (I wasn’t sure what they’d do in either situation— particularly with Perez— but the fact that action restarted only two weeks later allowed the explanations to make more sense.
Having the diaper-changing montage set to the 70s classic “Takin’ Care of Business.” Or as I always hear it… Bacon-Carrot Biscuits. (And now you’ll hear it too. YOU’RE WELCOME!)
Lim now going cane-free… how wonderful that PT happened to OK this development in the past 2 weeks (wink).
Glassman still being Glassman, e.g. the Mao/Basil Fawlty reference, not stating Lim’s “representation” correctly (“You’re a diverse woman!” “People are not diverse!”), and of course his declaration about rotary phones. Yes, he’s still bitter about the current changes in his life, but it’s not carrying over into the majority of his relationships. (At least not in this episode.)
Shaun getting called “Papa Murphy” by Kalu… but gee, why am I suddenly craving a take & bake pizza…?
Lea still calling Steve “Peanut”! (Don’t worry, more about #Shea in general to follow.)
EYE-CATCHING (and sometimes HEAD-SCRATCHING) DETAILS…
Lea, a.k.a. the tech genius of the family, not knowing how to disable the app speaker.
(Should we attribute it to new-mommy brain?)
All the nursing paraphernalia up on the kitchen island. It’s been a couple decades since I worked with all those bottles, pumps, and sterilizers, but I still recognized it…
I was going to call a continuity blooper on the patterned blanket being at the #Shea loft and Shaun’s office at the same time, but I studied them closer. Different blankets indeed! Carry on, everyone…
THAT ELEVATOR at the apartment complex! (When the heck did that get there?? And how did that scene with Lea, Steve, and Glassman take me right back to the Glassy/Lea elevator dialogue in S4’s “Decrypt”?) In any case, nice to see that after 5+ years the apartment set got an upgrade!
When Glassman introduced himself to Steve at the very end, did anyone else notice that the two of them did, indeed, appear to be “grunting and making strange faces” at each other just as Lea had predicted in the elevator scene?
Last but not least… a brief update on the (actual) STATE OF THE SHEA…
(I loved this “3-way shot” they did, BTW)
I said at the beginning of this that it’s the way these characters get to their inevitable destinations that we enjoy so much, and perhaps that’s never truer than when Shaun and Lea are on the screen. Was it predictable that Shaun would want to schedule Steve’s days down to the minute? Of course. Were we certain Lea would be more “go with the flow”? Certainly. We even knew that Shaun would initiate a compromise by the episode’s end.
But I, for one, still don’t want to miss a single time Shaun explains himself… or Lea talks to herself… or the way they are already handling the what-happens-when-Shaun-absolutely-needs-to-sleep-for-an-important-surgery situations.
When Shaun comes home, observes Lea for 10 seconds and says You look terrible, yet she smiles ruefully and thanks him… that’s the love language #Shea Nation lives for. It’s also a great stamp of approval on Shaun and Lea being as strong as ever.
What did you enjoy most about “Baby, Baby, Baby”? What details will you remember? Are there elements of it you’d rather forget? The comments await your contribution…
