State of the Shea, Pt. 91: The Long and the Short of “Goodbye” (Part 1)
I haven’t yet dug into all the interviews and writeups about The Good Doctor’s series finale, but I DID read one— this piece from Parade.com that has showrunners David Shore and Liz Friedman explaining some of the decisions made for this last episode— and this exchange in particular caught my eye:
**
Q: Would you have done anything differently if you’d had more time?
David: I don’t think in this episode. Although ABC was good to us and gave us two-and-a-half extra minutes.
Liz: Yes, that’s right, we have to be grateful for that. We got to let things play out when we really wanted them to.
**
Two and a half extra minutes.
Isn’t that something? We’ve been bemoaning ABC’s handling (or mishandling) of TGD all season, yet the ones in charge of TGD itself made a point to thank the network publicly for giving them an extra 150 seconds to “let things play out when they really wanted them to.”
It could simply be a conscious choice to take the highest of high roads, for another Shore or Friedman creation could be in need of a home in the future. But two-and-a-half bonus minutes in an hour-long drama really is decent chunk of time, especially when you consider the average TGD scene runs between :30 and 1:30.
In any case, you’ve gotta love the irony of it all… a series cut short by at least 10 to 30 episodes is buoyed at the end by the time it takes to make a cup of tea!
Having said all that— I am NOT limited by ABC, or anyone, in how long I choose to continue talking about this show!
(Though if y’all keep coming to read what I write, that will help!)
So PART 1 here is a lot like I did with the S6 finale last year— an act-by-act, scene-by-scene narrative of the “Goodbye” episode, punctuated here and there with a few notations (usually in italics) that I’ll likely touch on in a later post.
But as always… I look forward to reading your OWN notations in the comments!
Let’s dive in…
ACT 1:
A: Shea Loft. Glassy is there with Shaun and Lea (and Steve), talking w/Lea about his terminal diagnosis. Shaun is sitting in a corner, ignoring them, taking notes as he looks at what we presume is medical info about Glassy’s condition. Lea asks if there’s surgery or chemo to happen and Glassy lays out his “plan”:
“You. You’re it” (looking at Steve). “You’re the plan… and you (Lea)... and that one (Shaun). And maybe some bowling.”
Shaun clicks his pen shut and says “I have to go to work.” As he passes Glassman, he adds “Last time you also said it was inoperable… goodbye!”
Lea notes that Shaun took Glassy’s medical file. Because of course he did.
Lea and Glassy share a tender embrace before we go to TGD opening credits for the final time (with one of the “softer” variations on TGD’s theme music)
B: Claire’s hospital room, where she was returned after passing out in Kalu’s presence post-wedding reception. Her post-op infection (which apparently triggered all this) is still progressing despite administrating meds. They are currently thinking she has MRSA (a kind of staph infection) and discuss a plan. After Lim leaves, Kalu brings up the “more than a one-night stand” thing from last night… if she’s talking about something longer-term for them, what does that look like? (For the fact that she now has a career in Guatemala hasn’t eluded him in the slightest.) She doesn’t know yet. Kalu is called away…
C: …By Shaun, who is in the Rez Lounge with all sorts of scans up for everyone to see; he has summoned every doc we know (and Charlie & Dom). Intros the case as “a 68-year-old man” but five seconds don’t even pass before Lim deduces it’s Glassman. Shaun doesn’t confirm that, nor does he share how he’s feeling (about this thing he won’t confirm), but everyone’s immediately concerned… especially because they realize this is happening without Glassman’s blessing. Lim sends Jordan and Kalu to take care of Claire.
“I’m sorry, Shaun. I can’t.” Lim leaves. The only ones left are the students, Morgan, and Park. Shaun looks annoyed, but in a few moments he picks up where he left off…
D: Meanwhile, in the President’s Lounge (final scene in this location), Glassman is shooting pool.
(NOTE: I’M GLAD THIS POOL TABLE STAYED THROUGHOUT THE SEASON RATHER THAN AS A SINGLE-EP SIGHT GAG).
When Lim enters, Glassy asks about Claire’s condition…but when Lim follows with an uncharacteristic “rack ‘em up,” he knows she must know about his illness. She reveals Shaun’s current status, which clearly irritates him. They share a few kind and compassionate words before he closes it down with a gentle “shut up and rack’em.”
E. Next, we’re in an O.R. with Kalu and Jordan doing a debridement on Claire. “Looked like you two were reconnecting last night,” Jordan says, admitting it caught her off guard and wishing he would have told her that he and Claire had unfinished business. He points out Perez of course; she says “Danny and I are texting a lot, and yes, I do hope and pray my future is with him…” That’s why he backed off, Kalu reminds her. They are friends (and nothing more). But she points out that being friends means no holding out, which is what she feels like he did (regarding Claire), even though he knew all about Perez. “Deal. To both,” he says.
F. Back to the Rez lounge. Shaun is pacing; Park looks around and sees the med students aren’t into it (the research Shaun’s requesting). Park then suggests Shaun call Cleveland Clinic and a couple other places to ask about GBM trials. Shaun likes that idea and heads to his office; Park uses the time to try and pep talk who’s left. Dom says he ran out of ideas an hour ago.
(Would a med student really be tapped for this? Would any of them, on hospital time?)
Morgan wonders how long “they should keep doing this?” “Until Shaun accepts what we already know,” Park tells her. They look through the glass and see Shaun on the phone…
G. Lab. Lim comes to check on Kalu’s progress, but he says (with a few dozen Petri dishes of results in front of him) that he can’t find anything working to treat Claire’s condition… which is NOT MRSA after all. (But they’re unsure what it is, which is worse.)
ACT 2:
A: Claire’s hospital room. Lim tells Claire she has acinetobacter, a.k.a. an organism “that’s resistant to everything,” and they’re counting on her immune system to do most of the work to fight it off. Claire dodges Lim’s question about being scared by changing subjects and talking about Glassman, for she assumes the full presidency will now be offered to Lim. Lim shares that “there’s another offer” on the table— Chief of Surgery at the hospital where Clay’s doing his fellowship in Chicago. But she then asks Claire: “How did you know it was the right choice to move to Guatemala?”
(OOF. Raise your hand if you wanted to Claire to respond “Because YOU convinced me it was, Audrey…Our talk on the bus right after they made me an offer? REMEMBER?”)
But that bit of “reality” apparently didn’t serve the purposes of this scene… so instead, Claire says “It was so terrifying, but in an exhilarating kind of way.” Which Lim has to tuck away as food-for-thought LATER, because at that moment she notices Claire is sweating. Which, in her condition, must mean she’s going into septic shock (that’s what is stated a few scenes later, anyway).
B. Glassman’s office; he’s packing up. Morgan shows up; he says she can scavenge anything but his scotch. Asks about his bucket list: “Backpack the Serengeti with a backpack and pitch tent… wrestle an alligator and win… or go bowling.” She mentions she and Park were in a league, and again I start to think about all the subplots we’ll never see… (though I was sure with all this bowling talk in this episode we’d see some of them in an alley)
All this turns into a nice 30 seconds reference to when Glassman was diagnosing her RA and working out a treatment plan, and I’m glad they took the time to do that. Again, I wonder if anyone watching now that wasn’t watching in S3 is even aware of the reason we never see her performing surgery… well, now they won’t have to wonder.
C. Rez lounge. Morgan returns there, and everyone’s still bent over books looking for solutions. Park starts to try and coax Shaun into understanding there’s nothing to be done, when… Charlie sticks up hand and shouts “I found something!” (We get Shaun giving Park as much of a look as he can that says “See?”)
Next, we see Shaun presenting Charlie’s findings to Glassman, with Charlie stepping on some of his “lines” of course. The rest of team sits behind him as he talks; Shaun adds that there may be more side effects, but his remedy for that is simple: “We could take more edibles together and eat Mallomars” (with the most nuanced, thoughtful little “hmm” behind it). And if you haven’t seen the absolute gem of an episode from S2 (entitled “Faces”), stop reading right now and get to it.
Or at LEAST watch this scene from “Faces,” which covers the edibles part if not the Mallomars.
Anyway, Shaun concludes that all this treatment could buy Glassman as much as a year, maybe more if he responds well. Glassman remains silent during all this, including when he takes his file back from Shaun. Then the notification comes in that Claire is in septic shock, and Shaun has to go. But “I will be back later to answer any questions,” he tells a (visibly frustrated?) Glassman.
D. Claire’s room, with Lim/Kalu/Shaun. They discuss options. Claire is all “Hey, guys, it’s time to put me in a coma” and Lim and Kalu are all “No, not yet” but then Shaun says yeah, Claire’s right. (Shaun NEVER says “yeah,” but you know what I mean.) She knows that once they put her under, they may never get her back… “but this is my best chance to beat this thing,” she acknowledges.
E. Glassman is waiting in Shaun’s office. He tells Shaun he’s not going to do the plan. “I don’t want to spend my remaining days sick or in pain,” he says. “I might not be able to talk normally, or walk normally…there could be memory loss…”
“But it could give you more time,” Shaun counters yet again.
“But I’d spend half of it in and out of hospitals… or, I could get 6 good months with you, and Lea, and Steve.” He sets his file down, squeezes Shaun’s shoulder gently, and leaves.
ACT 3:
A. Shaun’s office, now with one desk devoted to Glassy and one to Claire. Brief sequence showing him with the timer on his phone, doling out 15 minutes to each “table” at a time. Park comes in (hey, it’s his office too), watches Shaun sympathetically for a few moments. Shaun assesses (based on him “just standing there”) that he wants to tell Shaun to give up on the Glassman stuff. (BTW what he’s doing now is taking each of Glassman’s stated concerns and trying to find ways around them.) Park gently says no, that’s Shaun’s decision to make (if and when to give up). Then he gets his bag and coat and exits, also giving Shaun’s shoulder a squeeze. (I wonder if it was deliberate, to have both men squeeze a shoulder… showing in another small but significant way how far Shaun has come with touch, and friendships, trusting people, etc.)
B. Claire’s room again (now nighttime), w/Lim and Kalu. Lim reviews what’s about to happen, then asks if she’s ready. They hug tearfully, then Lim claims to have forgotten something so Claire can have a moment with Kalu. “Can’t say goodbye- I just got you back,” he tells her. Then she says she loves him, and she’s sorry they wasted so much time. He says they needed that time to get back here; they weren’t ready before… too dumb. So dumb. He loves her too.
Where is Shaun? She then wonders aloud.
C. Shaun is still in Shaun’s office, doing the same 15 minute increments as before with regards to Glassman and Claire. Lim comes and tells him Claire’s asking for him. He explains what he’s doing. She reminds him Claire might not wake up… “I will find a way to save them both!” he declares in response. He starts to talk about Glassy’s tumor in great detail till Lim manages to cut him off by being blunt– “your very good friend, who might die, is asking for a few minutes of your time… but you’re too busy ignoring the expressed wishes of your other friend who’s dying!” Adds she knows he’s scared, “but you’re being a bad friend when the people you love could really use a good one!” Shaun seems to pondering this, but insteasd it turns out to be a final round of ShaunVision… Claire and Glassy on either side of him, and it looks like the animation shows bad parts of Glassman’s brain being sucked out by little bugs that then fly into the sick parts of Claire’s body and make them well again. “I know how to save Claire!” he then exclaims.
(Lim is at a loss…his ability to focus so intensely like this is what has saved Shaun’s patients in the past. Will it work this time… and if it doesn’t, will he forgive himself for not peeling himself away to see Claire?)
D. Next morning in the Rez Lounge. All the same docs/students are gathered as they were before; this time Shaun zooms in with a rolling table and immediately after “Hello” he goes into how they are going to save Claire (has a whole lot to do with bacteriophages and finding the “right” bacteriophage to fight her infection). Of course, he has handouts…
(Love the needle/haystack analogy and how Shaun tries to go with it– hey, he just used his first metaphor a couple episodes ago, right?-- but then says “the metaphor is not helping” and ditches it)
Charlie is somehow aware that they’d need a compassionate use authorization from the FDA…”But that’s tomorrow’s problem,” Lim says. (Or at least a couple acts from now. Which, as it turns out, will be “tomorrow.”) She seems all in on Shaun’s plan. Shaun goes on to explain their best resources for the phages, which include swamps, farms, storm drains, and sewage plants… whew. Talk about dirty jobs!
E. Claire’s room. Kalu’s there w/Lim (and a now-comatose Claire)… and there’s an ongoing problem with Claire’s left arm. Lim wants to try a thrombectomy (surgery to remove a blood clot) first.
F. Glassman’s office. He’s still packing up when Shaun enters, declaring he’s taken Glassman’s concerns into account and drawn up a new treatment plan… which he sets down in front of him. Glassy tells him again— he’s not doing any course of treatment this time. Shaun remains so sure he’ll convince Glassy (or so desperate to do so) that he starts unpacking items already in boxes. Glassman tries to explain that this act of love/perseverance from Shaun could be replaced with something else. Like taking them bowling. (Yet again with the bowling..!)
Shaun points out Glassman didn’t give up the first time, and consequentially saw Shaun get married, have a son, and save more lives. “You are wrong then, and you are wrong now!” he tells him. Glassman has to get tough, which in ShaunSpeak means presenting THE FACTS about his inoperable tumor… or rather, making Shaun admit certain facts about it. Shaun sticks to the “need to buy more time” rationale… but Glassman’s patience has worn out. Though he keeps his cool for much of the episode (or literally doesn’t have the energy to argue these days), he snatches a box back from Shaun, says “I shouldn’t have told you,” and slams a book into the box.
With this, Shaun’s patience wears out too. “You are being selfish. And you are a coward,” Shaun says. “You could keep fighting and have more time with me and with Lea and with Steve, but you are giving up. You are giving up on ALL of us!
“And if you are giving up on me, then I have to give up on you,” Shaun says before leaving.
WOW that felt like a long segment for a show that always goes by so fast. (but it wasn’t much longer than the previous segment, to be honest.)
ACT 4:
A. Lim’s office. Shaun, Kalu and Lim discuss the options regarding Claire’s deteriorating arm. Kalu gives an impassioned rationale for amputation, even though it means she’d no longer be a surgeon. Lim finally relents, telling them to prep the OR.
B. Glassman’s office, which is pretty much just Glassman with a bottle of scotch now. Lea brings Steve by for baby snuggles, and he fills Lea in on his saying no to Shaun twice. He laments that he still “hasn’t prepared Shaun enough” for when he’s gone. Then it’s time for Lea to give some advice:
“Glassy, you are the first wisest and second smartest person I know. If you think you haven’t done enough for Shaun, I’m sorry, but you are a ginormous idiot. Look at who you’re holding. That baby is here because of what you did. I’m here because of what you did. You saw who he was, who he could be. You saved his life, and he knows it. He will come around… eventually.”
C. The OR, briefly, as Lim and Kalu as they begin the process of amputating Claire’s arm.
D. Rez Lounge, now partially converted into a lab, with Shaun doing all the phage studies as #Parnick show up with barnyard samples… nothing is working so far, Shaun reports. Lea enters and needs to talk to him (sans Steve; Grandpa Glassy’s got him no doubt), so Park and Morgan clear out…with exit lines that scream That’s so #Parnick:
Morgan: I know a slaughterhouse we can go to.
Park: You know a… slaughterhouse??
Morgan: Mmm-Hmm.
Back to Lea, who starts by telling Shaun he can’t simply shut Glassman out of his life. (He’s rejected two plans, Shaun counters.) That’s his choice, she says. (His choice is wrong, he says.) She pulls up a chair. Time for more advice:
“I know how hard it is for you to accept, and you don’t want to face any of this, but… Glassman is dying, Shaun. And all this work you’re doing to try to save him is really for you.
(Shaun sits completely still from this point of Lea’s speech onward.)
“You need a new plan– a plan to say goodbye. Right now you can’t make yourself feel okay about Glassman’s decision, and that is okay. You don’t have to. But… he is going to die, and if you are not with him in his final days, you will regret it for the rest of your life. So… you need to plan for your final days with your father.”
She takes his arm, kisses his cheek, presses her head to his, and leaves.
E. Claire’s room, where Shaun appears next. “You are a very good friend,” he says through tears. “I should have come earlier. I am sorry.” He steps closer, takes her hand. “Goodbye, Claire.”
(It was like Shaun took what Lea said and applied it first to Claire, in a delayed reaction to Lim’s earlier words to him. She was, after all, the one closest to dying in that moment.)
(Though I believe his original logic was “I’m not going to say goodbye because if I keep pushing for a solution, she will live. Therefore, ‘goodbye’ is not necessary…)
(We’ll get more into the nuances, likes, loves and all that sort of thing in part 2.)
ACT 5:
A. Claire’s room, where Claire remains comatose and Shaun is asleep in the chair beside her when Charlie bursts in. “We’ve got it!!” she shouts, waking him up. “We’ve got it!”
“The bacteriophage?”
“Yes!”
“The right bacteriophage?”
“I said ‘We’ve got it,’ what else would I have meant?”
“Oh yee!” He leaps up, now as elated as Charlie, and starts to leave with her…but first we return to the POV of his “goodbye Claire” shot, which I thought was a nice touch: “I told you!” he tells his friend. “I was not wrong! I was not wrong to not say goodbye! I will see you very soon!”
B. Entrance of something made to look like a San Jose branch of the FDA, with Shaun and Charlie both dressed to mean business (and showered, I’ve gotta hope) as they make their case for Claire in person… but for whatever reason (it happens offscreen), they don’t get FDA approval. Charlie leaves the building talkative and angry; Shaun is silent and stoic, tugging a bit at his collar (constrictive ties aren’t his thing, even though he wore one for this occasion). He eventually directs her to return to the hospital and prep Claire for the bacteriophage treatment (the one they were just told they couldn’t do).
“Are you going to…?”
“I don’t know,” he says simply. “I need to think.”
He walks away. and we see a line animated in front of him similar to the one we saw in the early moments of the pilot episode.
(If you’ve got a theory on why they chose to bring “the line” back in those moments, please share!)
C. A St. Bonaventure conference room… it’s the same one (or intended to be) where Shaun’s potential employment there was debated, seven years ago. Shaun stands in there alone, but is soon joined by Lea and Glassy (guess little Steve was off charming the nurses again) as Shaun has requested their presence. He soon explains…
“On the day the copper pipes in the old building smelled like burnt food, my brother taught me that just because you love somebody doesn’t mean you get to love them forever. But I was okay because I had you, Dr. Glassman. And on the day that… on the day that you go to heaven, I will have Lea. I will have little Steve."
“And on the day the carousel smelled like oil, the carousel you used to go to with Maddie…I told you I would go there to think of you after you’d gone. And I will. But I want to go before then, too. (Tearing up. OK, they’re ALL tearing up.)
“I will go there with you. And I will go bowling- I will go bowling with you. And I will make a plan. But I can’t today, because… on the day you stood up for me, I met Claire… and she believed me. And I spoke to people in this room, and I told them I wanted to save people so they could become adults and have children and love those children. But I don’t… (voice breaks) I don’t need to save everyone. I just need to save Claire.
“The FDA did not approve her treatment. But I am going to give it to her anyway, and then I won’t be a doctor anymore. And… that’s okay.”
He starts to walk away (likely on his way to administer said treatment), but Glassman stops him. “No– no, Shaun, that’s not okay.”
D. Next we’re back in Claire’s room one more time. The treatment is underway– but of course Glassman is doing it, not Shaun (because Glassman has one foot out the door anyway… no medical license needed after this). Lim, Shaun, Kalu, and Charlie are all there, looking on. “Thank you,” Shaun says simply (to no verbal response) as they watch the process begin.
ACT 6
“10 Years Later” (the screen tells us)
We see Shaun stepping into focus; he’s now in his early 40s with a slightly receding hairline and flecks of grey. Still wearing blue shirts, unbuttoned at the collar… and a blue-grey suit…and a wireless microphone. “I am Dr. Shaun Murphy,” he states. “I am Chief of Surgery at St. Bonaventure Hospital.” (Nice!)
We then see he is facing an audience of hundreds, all applauding, for we are witnessing a TED talk. As the applause dies, he taps a clicker, and the screen behind him shows the name Adam Barclay. (Has anyone checked yet to see if this was the name of a patient in S1?)
Shaun continues: “I have Autism Spectrum Disorder, which is part of the reason I remember the names of all 1,524 people whom I’ve helped save. (He taps the clicker again, and names start scrolling.) There were a lot of people who did not want me to be a surgeon, at St. Bonaventure hospital or anywhere. Because I was different– I couldn’t make eye contact, I didn’t know how to lie, I made people uncomfortable. But someone believed in me…”
After a small, thoughtful pause, we hear “Known” by The Dramatics tiptoe into the background as he says “Dr. Aaron Glassman was my friend…”
In a blink we’re at The Carousel, back to present day. Shaun and Glassman sit together, and familiar affirmations follow:
“I love you, Dr. Glassman.”
“I love you more, Dr. Murphy.”
The camera pans left to the carousel horses for several seconds, then returns to the previous shot… except Shaun is now riding alone, looking wistful and sad (in a very Shaun way).
Next, we see Lim at home, packing amid luggage and crates reading SURGEONS FOR A BETTER WORLD (which feels like a DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS thing). She’s on a video chat with mom Eileen. “But you don’t even speak Ukranian,” she says. (She’s headed to Ukraine??)
“They have translators, Mom.”
Mom gives a big, smiling sigh. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks.”
The music continues as we go to a montage of dialogue-free scenes that spans the next decade…
Park, Morgan, and Eden (now looking about 2 years old) as they play on the carpet. The camera pans to a framed Certificate of Adoption for Eden. (I looked, but could not find a date on it.)
A stand-alone building in a neighborhood–the front reads Hubank Community Health, and it appears to be run by both Dominick and his brother (who he mentioned on the show a time or two). We see Dom treating a girl’s bloodied knee, looking every bit a doctor that’s NOT about to black out.
Back to The Carousel we go; it now has Shaun and a pregnant Lea with adorable toddler Steve between them.
Jordan, singing in her church choir with Perez at her side. (I took this as a nod to their bonding moments at the end of S6’s “365 Degrees” episode.)
Charlie (in some later year of her residency? Ooh, which means Shaun was involved in hiring her, correct?) leading a small group of young residents around St. Bons.
Back to Carousel for the fourth and final time… and we are “back” to 10 years later, with Shaun’s flecks of grey and Lea with long hair again and Steve between them (10 years old, of course) and a daughter (whose name is “Maddie,” though we never hear it spoken). She is 5 or 6 years old, and sits on Shaun’s lap with him holding her hands. “We have to go,” Shaun tells them as the music fades and the carousel stops. (IT’S HIS TRADEMARK “I HAVE TO GO” …EXCEPT NOW PLURAL!)
Cut back to Shaun at the TED Talk, looking back at the scrolling names. He stops the scroll on the name “Claire Browne.” (by keeping her out of that montage they were clearly trying to make us wonder if the treatment worked or not… duh, of course it did, it was Shaun’s idea.)
“Dr. Claire Browne… is my friend,” he says, looking up at her name on the screen before he turns back and we rack focus to see several familiar faces sitting together including Dom/Charlie/Perez/Jordan (top row), Lim/Kalu/Claire with daughter (mid row), and of course Steve/Maddie/Lea (bottom row). “Hello,” Shaun says softly to Claire. She beams back.
(The song that plays from this point to the end is “Leaves are Changing” featuring Tristan Bushman.)
“Dr. Glassman and I saved her life. Dr. Glassman saved over 4000 lives…he would say less, but I give him credit for all the lives that I have saved, because he taught me:
A mnemonic for remembering the effects of organophosphate poisoning…
And he taught me that if you just palm grip the needle driver, you will get way more maneuverability and force control. (does his little smile and shrug thing, which Jordan chuckles at)
And he taught me… that when you touch one life, you don’t just touch one life. You touch every life that life touches. (Shot here of Jerome with a new partner)
“Dr. Glassman taught me many wise things. Yes. And over the years I have tried to write them down… (We see the whole stage again as Shaun crosses to a barstool; the names of lives he saved are scrolling once again.)
The barstool has a glass of water and a small notebook; he sets the clicker down and takes up the notebook, from which he reads:
“‘Think about what people can do, not what people can’t do.’”
“‘Hear what I have to say, and then decide if it’s bad advice.’”
“‘Questions are good– leads to awareness and understanding– and, who knows, maybe even acceptance.’”
(Shaun waves his ancient Casper Public Library bookmark as he speaks; I think it should have been laminated at this point but that probably would’ve taken away from its charm!)
“And when he wanted the Board to hire me, he said ‘We will be a better hospital for hiring him; we will be better people for hiring him.’
(Shot of Lim looking wistful; I think we’re supposed to pretend she was in the room for that speech of Glassman’s even though she wasn’t on the show yet.)
“And then he slammed the desk with his hand, because that is how you communicate that you really mean what you are saying!” (gets a ripple of chuckles from crowd)
“He always knew people were looking to him; that they might take lessons from him. And if they did, he always wanted that lesson to be…” (pauses and takes a look in his notebook again)
“Don’t be an ass.” (more laughter; he’s so deadpan with it it’s perfection)
He goes back to the barstool and very deliberately hits it with his fist before pointing out at the crowd. “Don’t be an ass!”
(Still more laughter; Shaun laughs a little too.) “It’s not always easy,” he adds as he sets his notebook back down and picks up the clicker again.
“Together we planned… and after he died, six months later, I started The Dr. Aaron Glassman Foundation For Neurodiversity in Medicine, which is today run by myself and Dr. Claire Browne, and has affiliations with 17 hospitals and 32 Medical schools.”
(And the crowd went WILD!)
Finally, we see the St. B gang descending the staircase, post TED talk, hugging and going their separate ways as Shaun continued to speak via voiceover…
“I wanted to help people and save lives. And I wanted to make a lot of money so that I could buy a television.
“But because of Dr. Glassman, I have much more than that. I have many friends…and I have a family.
“And I have two televisions.”
THE END!
That’s all I’ve got to say about “Goodbye” for the moment, but stay tuned for the next intallment of course!
In the meantime… LET’S HEAR FROM YOU! The comments section awaits. What did you think?
