Tonight on NBC their new medical drama “The Good Doctor” airs with an all-new Monday, March 30, 2020, episode and we have your The Good Doctor recap below. On tonight’s The Good Doctor season 3 episode, 20 Finale called, “I Love You” as per the ABC synopsis, “Disaster strikes as a huge earthquake rocks the city of San Jose, leaving the hospital staff on high alert and lives under threat.”
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The Good Doctor begins tonight with Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) being transported to the hospital with Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) sitting beside him in the ambulance. She informs him that when they get to the hospital he will be getting a CT scan and will not go back to treating patients. He is sure he is fine, but she says the doctor without injuries will make the call. Meanwhile, Dr. Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann) is in surgery, insisting she is able to help with her own hands. Dr. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee) and Dr. Audrey Lim (Christina Chang) work on a patient at the accident site. Lim suggests another way to perform surgery as the way they are going will be impossible.
Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) is in a room-filling with water, attempting to talk to Lea Dilallo (Paige Spara) on the two-way radio. He is confused she is staying on the line, insisting she can help. He wants a rescue worker, knowing they have an hour before they drown in the room, but he informs the patient that he won’t necessarily drown as he could just leave, causing her to look puzzled. Shaun is determined to cut the bar to free her, giving her meds, saying the movement from the cutting will cause her a lot of pain. He tries to distract her, talking about heartache and questions whether if she loves him, maybe she can’t fully move on.
Neil is in the scanner, learning his brain is fine. He sits up but confuses his words raising concern for her. He moves his gown and they realize he is bleeding internally. Morgan is trying to keep her makeshift OR as sterile as possible when Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) confronts her about performing surgery against Dr. Aaron Glassman’s (Richard Schiff) orders. She insists the patient would have died, but he feels she only did this to be a hero and demands her to get her hands out of the patient and she needs to go to her room as he will finish the procedure. Morgan leaves with her hands badly damaged from the earthquake. Lim talks to Park about their options, neither of which are good so Park tells her to go back to the hospital and he will stay with the boy.
Lim learns that Andrews is in charge when she is given several patients’ charts. Claire comes and shows her a scan done on Melendez, shocking her. Alex sits with the boy, Casey. Casey wakes up and he reveals they could not fix things and once they remove things his bleeding will be uncontrollable and he will die. He absolutely insists that it is not possible as Park says they will keep him comfortable until his dad arrives. He wants his dad, saying he is not in pain. He asks for his dad.
Shaun continues to talk about “moving on” and if it truly can happen; they disagree about acknowledging failure and moving forward. Audrey meets with Melendez, revealing he is still bleeding; but if they open him up there are serious risks. He is aware of all the options and decides away but Claire disagrees, worrying that if the bleed isn’t from the pancreas they could be poking around in the wrong area. He doesn’t like to do surgery but knows that Claire is right.
Park is able to set up the satellite phone to his dad, where Casey apologizes to his father. The connection is really bad, causing Casey more grief. Once the connection is lost, Alex demands they get the call back even though the dad is caught in a plane in a bad storm.
Neil is on the operating table, saying Claire made a good call. They work quickly on him when Dr. Lim shows Claire there is something above his small bowel. Shaun attempts to seal the leaking pipe, saying he needs to slow the water down, not stop it. She knows he is good at adapting to changes. She reminds him that his goal is not to stop the water but to save her, just like his goal is not Lea, it is love. The building begins to shake from the aftershock and now the pipe is completely separated; they exchange scared looks.
Melendez is awake, checks his huge scar on his belly, saying it will work with his tattoos. Lim informs him that they found several injuries. Claire says they are sure they stopped the bleeds as Lim tells him there has been some failure of the bowel wall already from the damage. They are going to test him again, but all are concerned there will be more bacterial leakage from the bowel; which will, in turn, mean septic shock. Lim assures him they are not there yet.
Lea learns from first responders that it is going to be a while before they get to Shaun. She tells him that Shaun told her they will drown in 15 minutes and needs to know if it will be before that. She is informed that the last shock has made it too unstable for them to go down. He needs to secure the scaffolding and he tells her to convince Dr. Murphy to get out of there.
Alex tries to talk to Casey who is just tired. Alex wants him to know why he is sorry as his father will not be mad at anything he did. Alex reminds him that fathers will never stop loving their children no matter how bad things get; Casey confesses he killed his mother. Shaun tells Lea he cannot leave, continuing to saw the pipe. She tells him the firefighter told her that he needs to get out of the way as they need to make headway without him. He confronts her on lying while his patient insists he should go. He says if he leaves her, she died but she reminds him if he stays, they both die as he won’t be able to cut through. Shaun pauses for a moment, coming up with the idea to cut through her leg instead of the bar.
He says his scalpel is sharper and the saw is pristine to cut through her bone. She doesn’t consent to the procedure; making him promise if she doesn’t make it he has to move on. He deserves to find love and move on. She says that is her risking her life for him; which he promises and she consents.
Neil talks about going through hostels and backpacking when he took the year off before med school. Claire listens as he speaks about it. He wants to know how high and she informs him it is “high”. She has tears in her eyes as he wells up with tears.
Casey says it was not a big accident, it was enough to mess with his mom’s neck and caused her a lot of pain. Park learns that Casey went through his mom’s purse one day after the accident and found 3 prescription bottles there. She had gotten hooked on pain meds. He didn’t do anything about it, didn’t say anything to anyone as he didn’t know what to say; three weeks later she overdosed in her sleep. Casey feels they would have gotten her help if he had said something. He needs to tell his father the truth; Park promises he will get to tell him.
Marcus looks at Morgan’s hands, as she is now the patient. All her fingers have stitches on them and while he inspects each of her fingers he talks about “ego” and how his own superior gave him trouble for having such an ego; reminding her when they are residents they seem to know everything. She apologizes for not telling him about her diagnosis. He says by her not telling him, it showed that she didn’t respect protocol nor superiors or her patients and she only cared about her own career. He was wrong, saying what she did today for her patient was remarkable and she made it clear that her priority is saving patient’s lives. Unfortunately, it might have cost her her career as being a surgeon as she messed up her hands. He cleans her wounds, apologizing.
Neil says he is not afraid to die as he was raised a good Catholic and a true believer until he went to college. Maybe it is just now that he is staring in the yawning void, but all of that is coming back to him now, like an old friend with a warm mug. Claire wipes away a tear, pauses before she tries to tell him something, but he stops her. He wants her to go as the hospital still has a crisis going on. Claire rises from her chair and they exchange “goodbyes”.
Alex tells Casey his body temperature is dropping but feels a lot colder. Alex begs him to stay with him a little longer. Casey goes silent for a few moments before opening his eyes and calling Alex “Dad.” Alex tells him he is right there.
Shaun gives his patient an injection of morphine, telling Lea to count off the seconds, wanting to know how long he has for 3 minutes, as this will distract her from the screaming. Shaun puts the scalpel in the water and begins to cut; Lea begins to count through the screams.
Aaron finds Lim, who wants to go back in. She admits it is a big surgery and there is no guarantee. Aaron stops her, knowing it is Melendez and they know the numbers. He reviews everything saying if by some miracle Neil survives the surgery, he would be tube fed, a diabetic, waiting for a liver transplant. She remains mum as he tells her to stop being a doctor and be a friend.
Casey tells Alex (Dad) that he knew about his mom and the drugs and should have told him. Alex says he knew too, as Casey looks at him. He says when you love someone, you know when something was wrong. He says he did what he thought he could as sometimes you can help them but sometimes there is nothing you can do. He wants Casey to know this responsibility doesn’t lay on his shoulders and as never his fault.
Shaun made it to the bone, begging Vera Bernard (Marin Ireland) to stay calm as he tells Lea to keep counting. Audrey goes to sit with Neil, apologizing as she feels she could have done more, faster and better. He knows she wants to find blame as there is sometimes the reason for blame but this time there just isn’t. He is pissed off about it too as he could have spent a lifetime drinking whiskey with her. She wants to know what’re they to do. He says, “No blame!” Both cry and hold hands, comforting each other.
Shaun continues to saw at her leg as Vera is underwater. He tells her to exhale as she is fully submerged. He goes down to give her some air. Lea shouts that it is three minutes, calling out for Shaun, terrified something happened. She pleads for him to answer her.
Casey tells Alex it is so cold, wishing he could go snowboarding. Casey still thinks Alex is his dad, revealing how much he love shim. Alex tears up, telling Casey he loves him too. Casey is unable to say anything more and his hand falls; Casey dies as Alex touches his hair and kisses his forehead, falling to pieces. The first responder returns, saying Casey’s dad is in the squad car and they have him on the line now. Alex wants to get the bar off him, taking the phone to speak to Mr. Taylor.
Lea is told to go and get checked out, but she can’t. Suddenly on the radio, she hears they found something and she rushes to the building.
Aaron comes to see Melendez, both unsure what to say. They speak about Theresa Adams and how they thought it was a gall bladder but it was Neil that saved her. He wants Neil to know that he was the best Aaron ever worked with. Neil begins to cry, as they joke about a sucker bet; Neil says it is his funeral as Claire walks in. Aaron shakes his hand, saying he looks forward to that scotch. Claire brings him his silver crucifix as he smiles at her, no words needed.
Lea spots that they have just brought up Vera and Shaun is standing right behind her; she is breathless. Claire sits with Neil telling him that he saved her. He feels he was just in the right place at the right time, but it was all her. He insists she will be okay as she feels there is something she needs to tell him, but he wants to go first.
Neil tells her she is a terrible bowler, both laughing as he says she is the worst she has ever seen. She tells him she hates his tattoo; both smiling through the tears. She blurts out that she loves him as he nods, saying he loves her too. She rests her head on his chest as he gently touches her face.
Shaun walks with Vera, who feels this is the start of a new day; both truth and metaphorically. Shaun spots Lea as Alex looks at his phone, calling Mia. He insists he is fine but just tired. He feels he has to be closer to them and wants to move back. He needs to hear his son’s voice, crying when Kellan answers the phone.
Claire walks out of Neil’s room, spotting Lim she walks out, breaking down into her arms; both women comforting each other; Melendez has passed away. Lim tells Claire they should go for drinks sometime; Claire agrees. Meanwhile, Lea rushes to Shaun, immediately kissing him. He doesn’t know what that was not sure if it was a practice, pity or goodbye kiss. Lea excitedly tells him it is an “I am such a stupid idiot for not seeing it, but I love you” kiss and kisses him again. Shaun tells her that Vera didn’t die so the promise doesn’t count. He leans down and kisses her again, holding her tightly.
THE END!
