Warning: spoilers are ahead for the Season 7 premiere of The Good Doctor on ABC, called "Baby, Baby, Baby."
The Good Doctor is back for one last run in the 2024 TV schedule, and the final season picked up not too long after where Season 6 left off with the birth of Shaun and Lea's son, Steve. The two young parents were doing well enough in their new status quo, but that got more complicated when Shaun went back to work while Lea remained home with the infant. They had different thoughts on how rigid to be with Steve's schedule, which resulted in some sleepless nights. On the plus side, it also resulted in a kind gesture from Dr. Glassman, and co-showrunner Liz Friedman opened up about what happened... and whether it will last.
"Baby, Baby, Baby" made it clear that caring for an infant is a full-time job, and Shaun and Lea learned some lessons about parenthood the hard way. At the end of the episode, after an exhausted Lea handed a crying Steve off to Shaun and he retreated to the hall to let his wife sleep, Glassman came home and saw that Shaun really needed help. He took Steve from Shaun and sat with the baby to introduce himself.
It was a very sweet moment to end the episode, and also a surprise after he was still icing the little family out earlier in the episode. Co-showrunner and executive producer Liz Friedman spoke with CinemaBlend about what motivated Glassman's thaw, saying:
I think his turn is very close to that moment, although certainly the foundation is laid with Lea encouraging him to come [and] to rejoin the family, telling him that Steve's middle name was Aaron. But it's really when he comes around the corner of that hallway and sees Shaun trying to take care of Steve, being so dysregulated, clearly just needing somebody to help.
Lea made the effort to reconnect with Glassman earlier in the episode, and he softened a bit towards her, but her husband was the one he was really upset with. When he came home and saw Shaun desperately trying to talk Steve into sleeping, Glassman provided the help that Shaun needed. There was no fanfare or heart-to-heart, and he just spent some time with the baby while his parents slept, introducing himself to Steve as "Grandpa." Liz Friedman continued:
I think much in a way as when parents can be really helpful when their grandkids are first born, you just need somebody else to give you a hand who you can really trust. And I think just at that moment of Shaun being sort of at his weakest and really in need, that it just is a breakthrough moment for Glassman. But as we'll see going forward, it's not just all resolved all at once.
Alas, the very sweet scene with Glassman and the baby wasn't a sign that the conflict between Shaun and his mentor/father figure was completely over. It may have been too much to hope for, considering that Glassman holds Shaun accountable for putting an end to his surgical career. Liz Friedman confirmed that babies can "be a bridge to the way, but it doesn't take care of everything."
The Season 7 premiere also had high stakes for some babies other than Steve, as Eden desperately needed a new heart valve... but she wasn't the only baby who needed a new heart to survive. Luckily, Shaun found a solution that the surgical team pulled off, giving a happy ending to a very stressful case. Liz Friedman commented on the episode ending happily, saying:
We are a pretty hopeful show. It doesn't mean that there are happy endings all the time, and I think that's important. But I want to keep people invested in those stories and wondering how it's all going to work out. That's where having Shaun Murphy on hand is really helpful because you can come up with a medical dilemma that only has a very, very narrow bandwidth of being able to solve it and you can believe that Shaun's gonna get you there.
Given that The Good Doctor was cancelled prior to the return for Season 7, I know my fingers are crossed that this continues to be a "hopeful show" as it builds toward the final episode. There are still more questions than answers about the final batch of episodes (including whether that Season 6 finale farewell will stick), but the promo for next week sheds light on what's on the way sooner rather than later:
Tune in to ABC on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET for new episodes of The Good Doctor's final season, following The Rookie at 9 p.m. and Will Trent at 8 p.m. You can also revisit earlier episodes of the series streaming now with a Hulu subscription.
