Tonight on NBC their new medical drama “The Good Doctor” airs with an all-new Monday, January 22, 2018, episode and we have your The Good Doctor recap below. On tonight’s The Good Doctor season 1 episode 13 as per the ABC synopsis, “Dr. Shaun Murphy suspects his patient is lying about the reason for her injury and makes a controversial assumption about her motives. Meanwhile, Dr. Neil Melendez’s personal life could be affecting his work and, ultimately, his patient’s lives.”
So make sure to tune in between 10 PM and 11 PM ET for our The Good Doctor recap! While you wait for our recap make sure to check out all our television spoilers, news, recaps, videos & more, right here!
Tonight’s The Good Doctor recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) leaves his apartment and knocks on Lea’s (Paige Spara) door, remembering she has moved and then heads to the hospital. At the hospital, a mother is reassuring her son that he did the right thing calling 9-11. They are told he had a stroke and Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas) promises they will take good care of him as they take him into the OR.
Dr. Marcus Andrews (Hill Harper) brings Shaun and Dr. Jared Kalu (Chuku Modu) to their next patient, Nasha Modi who is a 28-yr-old, with a burn to her hand from a cooking accident; Shaun asks if they are being punished as it is not a very interesting case but Dr. Andrews tells him Lesson 1 is not to suggest to the Head of Surgery that working with the Head of surgery is a form of punishment. Dr. Murphy says that Dr. Neil Melendez (Nicholas Gonzalez) is very unhappy with how Jared got his job back and unhappy with Shaun for taking 2 days off, but Andrews walks away and they deal with their burn patient.
Once they suggest Nasha will be okay with minimal scarring, she begins to have difficulty breathing, and Dr. Andrews orders a chest x-ray and wants her on oxygen. Dr. Murphy smiles and says her vitals are stable, they look at each other as Dr. Andrews wonders what is going on and Shaun says he doesn’t know but this case IS interesting.
During surgery, Claire comments on how she feels sad for the son if he loses his father but then she is shocked to learn from Dr. Lim (Christina Chang) that Dr. Matt Coyle (Eric Winter) who sexually harassed her not only got transferred, he also got a raise.
Dr. Shaun Murphy and Dr. Jared Kalu reveal to their patient that she has considerable lung inflammation, asking if she inhaled smoke. When they leave the room, Shaun asks Jared to explain how the situation doesn’t make sense. Nasha initially told them that she forgot it was hot and that is how she burned her hand but now she is saying she could have burned her lungs from the smoke of a grease fire.
Claire confronts Allegra Aoki (Tamlyn Tomita) demanding to know why Dr. Coyle wasn’t fired. She says his story was different than hers and even though she believes her story, it is her word against his and after her boyfriend assaulted him, it took any leverage she had over him. Allegra admits she got him a job with as little human contact as she could but that was the best she could do and if Claire has any better ideas, she is all ears.
Dr. Lim comes to tell Tessa that her husband will be okay, they will keep him for observation for a couple days; she is paged for another patient and says she will give her an update tomorrow. Dr. Browne shows her scans of Cole Carpenter and they reveal that have to do surgery on him again or he will not survive.
Dr. Melendez performs the scope into Nasha’s lungs with Jared and Shaun observing. Jared insists he deserves another chance while Shaun wants to know if breaking up with his fiance, Jessica Preston (Beau Garrett) was traumatic; like everyone was asking him if he needed time off when he saw someone getting shot, wondering if Dr. Melendez needs time off too. They don’t see any smoke damage and Shaun says that makes sense because he didn’t believe her story in the first place. The scope reached her bronchial wall and she is hemorrhaging and he orders them to prep the OR as Shaun says, “this is bad!”
During surgery, Shaun asks Melendez if he and Jared are even now that he made a mistake too; commenting that the breach was his fault and asks if that was traumatic? Shaun comes to Dr. Aaron Glassman’s (Richard Schiff) office informing him that he had breakfast by himself and wants to know where he was. Shaun asks about the procedure and wonders if he needs to report Dr. Melendez, saying the protocol is very clear but worries about how he will be treated. Aaron tells him to make the decision for himself as that is what they had agreed upon.
Dr. Lim meets with Dr. Andrews, who says the only specialist who is available to operate on the father who has already had the two aneurysms is Dr. Coyle. She talks to Claire who says absolutely not, and he should have been fired for what he has done. Jessica approaches Melendez, asking him if he was upset during a procedure, wondering if Murphy told her he was traumatized by her dumping him. She needs a statement from him, he says he wasn’t distracted and didn’t screw up and gets on the elevator, leaving her in the hallway.
Jared explains to Nasha what happened during the procedure, but Shaun wants to know why she lied; but as he questions her, she says she was confused and says her belly is upset and she begins to vomit; Jared orders a whole series of blood panels and an ultrasound.
Dr. Lim and Dr. Browne meet with their patient’s wife, explaining the procedure will seal off an aneurysm but they are certain of some brain damage; but without the surgery, he will certainly die. She looks at her son and refuses the surgery, revealing that her husband made it clear that he would not want to live in any sort of coma or paralysis.
Shaun has breakfast with Claire, says people lie for at least 7 reasons, wondering if people ever lie without a reason. He says reason #6 is people lie to avoid a conversation, and grabs his food tray to leave, saying she just lied. She apologizes, saying she is preoccupied with her patient’s decision to not do the surgery. Shaun says the wife is lying for either reason # 4, but Claire says she isn’t lying because she loves him. Shaun says he isn’t good at reading people and they shouldn’t read people because it gives into personal biases, he insists she is lying because if you love someone, you would do anything to prevent their death.
Jessica meets with Neil again, saying there is a conflict of interest and wants to bring someone else in from legal to handle this. He agrees, feeling she shouldn’t be trusting Murphy’s judgment over his; but she wants him to just admit that he screwed up and just deal with it. He says he screwed up in his life but this is not one of those times.
Claire meets with the wife again, saying she must love him very much to sacrifice and let him go, or there could be another explanation – either she loves him enough to let him die or she hates him enough to let him die. Claire explains what Dr. Coyle did to her and says she couldn’t imagine what she would do to him if he actually got to hurt her; she wants to know what he did to her. She gives her domestic violence pamphlets and says that her son is better off with memories of loving father than the truth and tells her to let him die.
Shaun reveals to Dr. Melendez that methanol is causing Nasha’s abdominal pain, which Jared says doesn’t make sense she is Muslim. Shaun says there are other ways to explain the methanol, its also produced by the liver when the body is exposed to certain caustic chemicals if inhaled it could also inflame the lungs and burn. He narrowed it down to a caustic chemical used in either the Pharmaceutical industry, water treatment, industrial pesticides and chemical weapons. She is a school teacher and he wonders if she could be a terrorist too.
Dr. Lim talks to Dr. Browne, asking her to talk to the wife to change her mind about the surgery, or they will take it to court. Claire is annoyed that they will send the husband home to continue abusing his wife. Dr. Lim calls the wife a “world-class liar” and for all, they know she wants to run off with her lover. Claire says she will get her to sign the consent forms.
Jared and Shaun are giving Dr. Melendez an update when he pulls them into a room. He confronts Shaun feeling that he thinks since she is a Muslim that she is a terrorist. Shaun says he thinks she is a terrorist because it is the easiest way to explain her symptoms and her lie. Melendez feels she simply had an accident and it scared her, and this whole place scares her and this is why she lies. Shaun wants to know why they have to report a gunshot wound but not someone who might be making chemical weapons? He insists that Shaun is wrong and reminds him that she is not making any bombs while she is in their ICU.
Claire meets with Tessa, informing her they need her consent, and begs her to leave him and start a new life. She says this isn’t the answer because if she doesn’t sign, they will go to court and she will tell them what they know and her son will know the truth as her husband is her patient, not her; she reluctantly signs.
Shaun goes to see Nasha, informing her that the treatment is working. He says all her symptoms are consistent with exposure to dimethyl sulfate; she has never heard of it. He tells her it is used to make chemical weapons. She asks him if he has experienced bigotry and says he isn’t so different than most people. She begins to sweat and he says that is a sign of dishonesty. She begins to grab her chest and he looks at the monitor and says chest pain can be brought on be anxiety, but the monitor alarms and he says this time she IS having a heart attack and calls for an EKG stat!
Melendez meets with the hospital’s legal department, who thanks him for meeting with her. She says it’s good he is handling it better. Dr. Lim and Dr. Browne are in the OR, when his blood pressure spikes, they have to terminate the procedure in order to prevent a stroke. They have to stabilize him before they retry the procedure which means they have to figure out what they missed. Dr. Lim tells Claire to run a full work up to figure out what they’re missing.
Shaun figures out that Nasha’s heart is literally burning from the caustic chemical. It is going through her system, unlike thermal burns, chemical burns get worse over time. It explains the bronchial walls thinning too, revealing that Dr. Melendez didn’t make a mistake either. Jared feels he has a good idea but shuts up, so Shaun says that the treatments are diametrically opposed. If they use antibiotics, and they need steroids, it will suppress her immune system and kill her but if she needs steroids and they give her antibiotics… Melendez says they better be right.
Jared suggests they bring in another Senior attending to consult on the decision – if Shaun is right, he is exonerated but if Jared is right, Melendez may have made a mistake that had killed this woman. Melendez says it is possible he made a mistake and suggests they put her on a broad spectrum of antibiotics. Shaun objects, saying he is wrong and very arrogant to make a decision on the assumption that he made a mistake. He says, fortunately, he doesn’t need Shaun’s approval and walks away.
Dr. Lim and Dr. Browne inform Tessa what they discovered, that her husband hasn’t been taking his medications. Dr. Lim confronts her, saying she might have replaced his meds with salt, to end her nightmare. Tessa tries to deny it but Claire looks before she asks if it is possible her son knows more than she thinks he does. She covers her mouth realizing what he might have done.
Shaun and Jared are in Nasha room when Jared decides to push the steroids. Jared says this is on him, Shaun looks at him and tells him “I know!” Dr. Melendez rushes into the room as Jared reveals that he switched from the antibiotics to steroids. Shaun informs Dr. Melendez he was wrong. Jared says he was only wrong about the treatment choice, not in the OR. Melendez tells him to “kiss my ass!” Shaun tells him Jared saved her life and if he hadn’t acted so quickly, she would have died and that would have been Melendez’ fault. He tells Melendez to thank Jared, and he does.
Outside Cole’s room, Tessa speaks to her son about what happened and learns the awful truth, she hugs him as Claire watches.
Shaun returns home after the long day at the hospital. He knocks on Lea’s door before going to his own apartment and is shocked when a man opens the door. He asks Shaun to come in for a beer, but he declines.
Dr. Lim gives Dr. Browne the honors of telling the family about the surgery, she says this is the first time she isn’t looking forward to saying it went well. She goes to the waiting room and finds it empty and smiles.
Jared, Shaun, and Melendez inform Nasha everything went well. Shaun asks her if she is a terrorist, and she finally confesses that her brother works for a drug company and stole some of their dimethyl sulfates for her so she can make some perfume. She gives Shaun a sample, he says it is beautiful but very stupid! He says protecting someone is reason #3.
Jared asks Melendez if they are okay, he says he isn’t sure if it really matters because he can only take on 3 residents next year and since Dr. Coyle has transferred he has to take on his too. Jessica runs into Melendez, they both apologize to each other. Jessica feels they made a mistake but he feels what they had mattered but that doesn’t mean they were good for each other.
Claire meets Kristen outside the hospital, she is doing some research on Dr. Coyle and the women who worked with him and quit. She admits she was harassed by him and believes Kristen was too, assuring her that doing the right thing can make you feel better and hopes they can do it together, They sit on the bench and talk.
Shaun walks into Aaron’s office, talking about his new neighbor. Aaron turns him down for breakfast again. Shaun says he doesn’t need a father, as he hates fathers but needs a friend. Shaun eyes well up as he tells Aaron that he should be his friend. Aaron looks at him but doesn’t respond so Shaun leaves broken-hearted, closing the door behind him.
At home, Shaun opens a pine tree car freshener that reminds him of his road trip with Lea. He holds it and thinks of her.
THE END!