Tonight on NBC their new medical drama “The Good Doctor” airs with an all-new Monday, January 15, 2018, episode and we have your The Good Doctor recap below. On tonight’s The Good Doctor season 1 episode 12 as per the ABC synopsis, “The twins suffer complications from their surgery forcing the team at San Jose Boneventure Hospital to make a life-changing decision. Meanwhile, Dr. Shaun Murphy returns to the hospital after his trip with Lea and decides he needs a more permanent change and gives Dr. Aaron Glassman his two weeks’ notice.”
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Tonight, The Good Doctor begins with Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) glad to see that Jenny Kunkler (Emily Hinkler) has woken up from the separation surgery and is alert; her twin sister, Katie (Elizabeth Hinkler) hasn’t woken up from surgery, so it is too soon to tell about her.
At the nurses’ station, Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) tells Dr. Ko (Necar Zadegan)that they must have missed something during the surgery because there is no alpha nor beta brain activity with Katie. Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) says they both had the exact same vitals and stats but Katie got the graft valve, but an angiogram could tell them if the graft is open or not.
Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) suddenly arrives and says he will start with the test, but Dr. Andrews stops him, saying he was gone for two days and just because he spoke to the President, doesn’t mean he can take time off. Shaun says the next time he needs time to take a road trip with his girlfriend he will talk to Dr. Melendez. Melendez questions him since Dr. Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) said he was off dealing with a personal crisis.
Dr. Melendez is not impressed and goes to see Aaron, saying he needs to talk about Shaun. Aaron again says Shaun is out on a personal matter but Melendez says that isn’t what Shaun says who is down in the surgical unit. Meanwhile, Shaun and Claire perform the tests on Katie’s brain. He tells Claire that he kisses Lea (Paige Spara) and Dr. Glassman is mad at him. They look at the scans and see that Katie is getting almost no blood to their brain but are interrupted when Aaron comes in and asks Shaun to speak to him.
Shaun doesn’t think Dr. Melendez is mad at him, but Aaron assures him he is angry at both of them. He wants to know why Shaun ran away and if the trip away with this girl helped. Shaun nods and smiles at Aaron and tells him he would like to give him “2 weeks notice!”
Jenny asks her mother (Kerry Sandomirsky) to get her some more ice chips, but the second she leaves, Jenny panics. When her mother comes back and offers to call a doctor, she tells her it is okay, it was that for the first time in her life she was entirely alone and it felt cold, but someday she will get used to it and maybe even like it.
In Jessica Preston’s (Beau Garrett) office, she meets with Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu) lawyer who has paperwork for wrongful termination. She feels he doesn’t have a leg to stand on but he encourages her to read on as there is more to the story. She says she doesn’t tolerate staff members personal relations. He interjects again, saying she does and tells her to continue reading.
Melendez, Ko, and Andrews talk about opening Katie’s brain back up, but feel it could be too risky; Shaun visualizes using a stent, which would lower the danger of a stroke and Dr. Ko asks Shaun if he would like to assists. He agrees but before he goes to prepare, he asks Dr. Melendez if he will write him a letter of recommendation.
In the OR, Dr. Ko tells Shaun, he is the one making everyone nervous because he has a real gift. She says surgeons like to judge themselves against their peers and right now Shaun is winning. The stent is damaging her artery and they withdraw but Katie’s brain is starving when Jenny learns what is happening; Jenny needs to see her and says no one understands her. They have to check Jenny’s heart to see how it is doing, but suddenly the room goes quiet.
In the boardroom, the doctors realize that Jenny needs a new heart. They couldn’t see how sick her heart was because Katie’s heart was doing all the work for Jenny. Dr. Melendez says there is no way they can find a match in time for Jenny but Shaun says they already have a perfect genetic match in Katie. Dr. Melendez says Katie is still alive but Dr. Ko says she is unresponsive and she predicts she won’t be coming back but Melendez says she could come back in days, weeks or 20 years from now, but only if Katie stays on a ventilator. Jenny won’t make it through the night; Dr. Ko suggests they propose this to their mother.
Mrs. Kunkler sits as Dr. Ko says there is very little hope for Katie, and Dr. Melendez says without Katie’s heart Jenny will die for sure and if they don’t do anything, Jenny’s heart will stop before the morning. When she asks if it will be painful, Dr. Andrews explains the procedure of how Katie will peacefully pass. She signs the paperwork but tells the doctors not to tell Jenny about this, saying it will destroy her if she knew. She will tell her Katie died.
Dr. Glassman reads Dr. Melendez’ recommendation, saying he will not stop Shaun from doing what he wants, reminding him there is a signature next to his for Aaron to sign. Meanwhile, Jessica meets with Allegra Aoki (Tamlyn Tomita) who used to be in her position, she sanctioned both the doctors who did what Dr. Kalu did, but they were white but Dr. Kalu is not, and was fired. It looks like a racial matter, so Jessica questions it. Allegra says they were star doctors bringing in enough donors, so it was okay to assault people; Allegra tells her to settle.
Claire meets Aaron in the elevator and they talk about Shaun leaving the hospital. She tells Aaron that if he doesn’t sign it, it will reinforce that Shaun believes Aaron is mad at him; but if he does sign, it will remind Shaun that Aaron believes in him.
Mrs. Kunkler is allowed in the OR to say goodbye to Katie as they turn off the ventilator and watch the monitors, waiting for her heart to stop beating, but suddenly she starts to stabilize and Dr. Andrews tells her mother that Katie is not ready to go.
Outside the OR, Dr. Ko says when a ventilator is removed, it is rare for life to continue but it can happen. Claire worries that this means a lifetime vegetative state for Katie, so Dr. Melendez says they need to start a remedy for Jenny’s heart. Shaun begins to walk and think, visualizing things. He says they should re-conjoin them by their thighs.
Dr Ko laughs, saying it is funny she didn’t think of it. As long as they are attached, Katie’s heart will beat for Jenny and when Katie dies, they can sever the femoral connection and transplant Katie’s heart into Jenny. Dr. Melendez scoffs, saying they just spent 40 hours separating them and now they want to put them back together.
Jenny, meanwhile, is furious at her mother, feeling she tried to kill Katie but she explains that it was a mercy to keep Jenny alive. Dr. Andrews says that Katie is only alive for the organs right now, but Jenny says he was wrong before and how does she know he isn’t wrong this time too? Jenny refuses to ask Katie to be her “life support machine.”
Claire asks Dr. Andrews if they could put the sisters in the same room overnight because she doesn’t think Jenny sees herself as an individual yet and maybe them being close could help her change her mind about having Katie help her.
Shaun and Lea are packing up her apartment, where she questions him if he is only doing this to be with her. She tells him that Dr. Glassman is only trying to help him, and asks him what if he needs help. He asks her, how will he know if he needs help if he doesn’t go? At home, Jessica suggests to Neil that they should book a trip, they quickly get into a competition over folding underwear and then get playful as he tells her she is the only good thing about his day.
Jenny sits up in her bed and inches so that her head is right against her sister Katie’s and holds her hand as Claire looks from the window. Jenny tells the doctors she couldn’t sleep all night until she could feel Katie’s heartbeat in her hand and if she does, at some point Katie’s heartbeat will be from inside her and wherever she goes, Katie will always be with her. She finally agrees to do it and they immediately take her into surgery; Jenny is awake for the surgery and can tell the exact moment it is done and she is told she did great!
Dr. Glassman talks to Shaun, who tells him Lea is moving to Hershey. He signs the recommendation letter, admitting he brought Shaun there because he thought Shaun needed him. Aaron gives it to him but says he doesn’t want him to go; it he stays he will back off and let Shaun make his own choices and his own mistakes. Shaun looks at the letter, reads it over as Aaron tells Shaun he believes in him before he walks away.
Shaun is looking at Katie’s monitors as her mercury drops a little, they are concerned that Katie’s heart isn’t able to do the work they expected. Suddenly Katie whispers Jenny’s name, and her sister tells her she is right there; everyone is shocked at the miracle. Dr. Menendez tells Claire he wants a complete workup done on Jenny.
In the hallway, Dr. Ko and Dr. Andrews and Dr. Melendez inform Mrs. Kunkler that Katie is doing remarkably well, but they don’t know what caused this. She tells them she knows – they needed each other and always have. Dr. Andrews and Melendez tell her they don’t know how long Katie’s heart can tolerate the strain of Jenny’s circulation and they need to find a donor heart ASAP.
Dr. Kalu declines the settlement offer, saying he doesn’t want them to hurt; he wants his job back and won’t settle for anything else.
Claire asks if Lea knows that Shaun is moving to Pennsylvania because she is moving there? He says he isn’t but Lea makes him happy; Claire reminds him that Lea isn’t the only one who can do that and admits she is going to miss him.
Shaun and Claire get the test results and they rush upstairs because they realize now that Jenny is killing Katie because the protein levels are for two hearts instead of one. The surgical team rush to the OR, but the twins say they can’t separate them, saying they are in this together, like they have always been, this is the way they were meant to be. Before the surgical team can get in the OR, the alarms sounds, Jenny codes as Katie cries holding her hand.
Claire comes to see Mrs. Kunkler, who says “Its Jenny!” and Claire says her heart had nothing left to give. Katie is stable and her vitals are good, but they need her help as she won’t allow them to separate her from Jenny, and if they don’t act fast, Katie will clot and die. Her mother comes into the OR, the surgeons clear out to give her some privacy, as she tells Katie to let her go. She tells her mom she never wanted to do this in the first place, reminding her that she always said they were made like this for a reason and she won’t let them do this, even if it kills her. She is told to look at her sister and says she can’t lose both of her daughters.
Jared tells Dr. Andrews he checked out the twins’ file and it is an amazing case; Dr. Andrews makes it clear that he doesn’t want him there. Jared says he presented the truth to Ms. Preston and Dr Andrews understands that, but the problem doctors should have been dealt with a long time ago but Jared compromised his integrity; the incident with Dr. Matt Coyle (Eric Winters) had nothing to do with skin color, but that is what Jared and his lawyer sold for leverage and misrepresented racism for something it wasn’t.
Katie finally agrees for the separation surgery and Jared is put on suction. Mrs. Kunkler covers Katie up when she wakes up cold in her own bed. Shaun comes to see Dr. Glassman in his office, saying he spoke to Claire and puts the envelope back on his desk. Aaron opens his desk and puts it in his desk drawer.
Neil returns home to find Jessica sitting at her desk, she tells him she wants to break-up. She loves him but wants him to have everything in his life which includes kids. She knows he will regret the decision to stay with her when she doesn’t ever want to have any. She tells him it would be more devastating to be resented by him than to have her heartbroken. She takes his hands and says he is going to be a great dad.
Lea is going on the elevator but hands Shaun the signed baseball, she says he can borrow and bring it when he visits. She asks if she can put her arms around him. He puts the ball on the ground and she wraps her arms around his neck as she asks him if he is a good doctor; because when she thinks of him, he is. She kisses him on the lips, grabs her bag and leaves, reminding him that she said he could “borrow” the ball.
Once inside his apartment, he takes the ball out of the case and places it on his mantle beside the photo of him and his brother when they were living on the bus.
THE END!