Who At Peace

"Who At Peace"

Episode Information

Season 7

Episode 5

Overall 121

Airdate:

April 2, 2024

Viewers:

2.56 million

Writer:

Adam Scott Weissman & Peter Blake

Director:

Dinh Thai

Episode Chronology

Preceded by:	Followed by:
"Date Night"	"M.C.E."

"Who At Peace" is the fifth episode of Season 7 of The Good Doctor. It is the hundred-and-twenty-first episode overall, and aired on April 2, 2024.

Synopsis[]

Asher’s views on the construct of marriage complicate his future with Jerome. Meanwhile, Asher also briefly revisits his religious past to aid a patient’s conversion to Judaism for his fiancée.

Plot[]

The chapter begins with Steven crying in his crib. Lia insists on going to see him, but Shawn insists on letting him cry, as it is part of human instinct. Still, Lia ignores Shawn and goes to see the baby. Then we have a scene of Dr. Glassman and Eileen Lim lying in bed in the morning, implying that they had relations. The scene changes again, and we have a meeting with Audrey Lim, Aaron Glassman, and Shawn Murphy, where they ask him to give Charlie Lukaitis a chance. Shawn insists he can't, and Glassman tells him to stop pointing out his mistakes and focus on the things he does well.

We change scenes, and Audrey is talking to her mother about her relationship with Aaron and hopes it doesn't bother her. Audrey says she's an adult and can do what she wants.

Next is Dr. Park and Asher examining a 75-year-old man named Scott, who fractured and dislocated his hip, requiring surgery. His companion, a young girl named Ronit, who Asher initially thought was his daughter, turned out to be his fiancée, and they will marry in a while.

We move on to Shawn's patient, Lucy, a 14-year-old girl with morbid obesity who started vomiting after a walk with her mother before school. After a brief inspection, Shawn diagnoses her with Murphy's syndrome, and Charlie remarks on the great coincidence that it was Shawn who said it, to which Shawn mentions it's not great because she needs her gallbladder removed. Lucy's mother asks why remove it, and Shawn coldly comments on her morbid obesity.

We go to the operating room where Dr. Park and Jerome are repairing Scott's hip. Asher comments that he feels bad for assuming something so quickly and has a small debate with Jerome about the age difference between the couple, as well as Asher assuming the girl is with him just for his money.

We return to Shawn's surgery, where he realizes that Charlie is arranging the instruments in reverse order, to which Kaloo tells him that he asked him to do it. Shawn criticizes her mistake of doing it in a different order, but praises her for organizing them anyway. Kaloo tells Shawn he shouldn't have been so cold with Lucy, as he embarrassed her in front of everyone with his comment, unconsciously encouraging her to eat even more. Charlie tries to join the conversation, but Shawn again insists that she interrupts too much and that he did a better job when she didn't interrupt. In that moment, Dr. Kaloo notices through the camera that Lucy's liver has diffuse yellow deposits and fibrosis, a symptom of advanced fatty liver. Shawn comments that if she keeps gaining weight, she'll need another liver or she'll die.

We return to Asher where Scott has come out of surgery. They tell him he will take time to fully recover mobility, but they will still be able to marry without problems. Asher asks how they met, and Scott says he lost his wife, July, to Covid, and they met at the school where he teaches English. Suddenly, Ronit starts feeling discomfort in her stomach. The girl tries to ignore her pain and says that Scott wants to convert to Judaism, asks Asher if he knows how long it would take, and if he is Jewish. Asher responds with a cold no, and Jerome stares at him, but before they could say anything, Ronit starts feeling nauseous and vomits in a trash can, finally passing out.

We change scenes to Asher, Jerome, and Park doing an MRI on Ronit. Jerome asks if he's ready to admit his mistake, and he does, but he doesn't understand why they would marry in such a complex way and enjoy their last years together instead of wasting their time. Jerome and Asher have a little argument and are interrupted by Park who detects stage 3 ovarian cancer.

We change scenes to Shawn talking with Lia and tells her he tries to follow Glassman and Lim's advice, but it doesn't help much. Lia compares the situation to what they do when Steven cries a lot, ignore him, and to ignore him. But Shawn doesn't want to because mistakes affect patients. Lia asks how often a student's mistake affects the patient, and Shawn replies almost never. Then Lia tells him that when he does something annoying, let it go, if he ignores mistakes, he won't have to look for compliments.

We return to Asher and Park, who tell Ronit her diagnosis and that they will remove all the tumors they can and then move on to chemotherapy,then, Ronit mentions that she has had back pain for a few months and that her doctor told her it was just due to stress, to which Park comments that it is more common than she thinks and that 70% of cases are not discovered until it's too late.

We go to Dr. Lim who is walking and sees her mother sitting with Dr. Glassman and tries to avoid them, but she calls her over, and they tell her they will go to dinner that night. Lim congratulates them coldly and leaves, to which Aaron follows her and asks if she is bothered by the situation, he asks if he can do something so she won't be so uncomfortable and she says the only thing she can do is not go out with her, to which she takes the elevator and leaves, but before the door closes, Morgan enters the elevator and tells her she heard everything, and they have a conversation to which Morgan responds to imagine if they got married.

We return to Shawn who suggests to Lucy's mother a gastric sleeve surgery, the mother agrees, and Shawn asks Charlie to prepare the consent form.

We return to Aaron, Lim enters his office and comments about a surgery he could attend but needs Aaron to write a memorandum to the board in the meantime. Aaron mentions that then he couldn't go to dinners, and Lim leaves in silence.

The scene changes to Charlie explaining all the possible risks during Lucy's surgery and provokes fear on his mother to the point where she decides not to have the surgery. Shawn scolds her for doing that because now Lucy's life is in danger. Charlie says he did his job and told her the risks, but Shawn tells him he didn't mention the percentages of each risk, and that it's actually a safe surgery. Shawn continues to comment that Charlie interrupts him all the time and that he's trying to teach him, but from now on he must remain silent, whether he likes it or not, and he leaves in the elevator.

We return to Asher, who is in his apartment with Jerome cooking, and he comments that he feels bad for Ronit, as if her doctor had taken her seriously, she wouldn't be in that situation. Jerome tells him to try to imagine a wedding while she is undergoing chemotherapy and Scott with a hip fracture. Asher says, "Who cares if she could die? Marriage is an invention to transfer property and not as an expression of love." Asher and Jerome argue about hiding their Jewish religion, and Jerome accidentally cuts his finger. Asher goes for a bandage, but after an awkward silence, Jerome leaves, saying he no longer wants to cook.

We return to Dr. Lim, who sees her mother and Dr. Glassman leaving the hospital together, heading towards the elevator. She asks them what they are doing together, to which her mother responds that they are going to dinner and salsa dancing. Lim didn't know her mother liked those things, and she explains that her Spanish teacher convinced her. Lim is surprised again as she also didn't know her mother was trying to learn Spanish. Glassman explains that while writing the memorandum, he came across an article from Argentina, and she translated it for him, which gave him ideas for the memorandum and allowed him to finish earlier. They both take the elevator and leave, but not before clarifying to Lim that she shouldn't wait up.

We switch to Asher, who is on a video call with Jordan discussing Ronit's treatment. Jerome enters and coldly leaves Ronit's preoperative analyses on the table. He has a brief chat with Jordan and leaves without saying a word to Asher. Jordan asks what's going on between them, and Asher explains that they argued. He also mentions finding a small box in Jerome's room, and he thinks it might be an engagement ring. Tomorrow night is the second anniversary of their first date, so Asher assumes Jerome will propose, or, well, he thought so, because now he doesn't know what to think. Jordan asks if it's not what he wanted, and Asher says it is, but all those ancient ceremonies and rituals seem creepy to him. Jordan tells him it's a wedding, not a sacrifice, and Asher says he's worried they have to do it because it's what they're supposed to do, not because they want to. He mentions that in Brooklyn, his path was already set, studying Talmud, getting married, having children, and he really didn't have a choice. He wonders if this is the same. Jordan says if he loves him, then he can truly choose this time whether to have a life with the man he loves or a life without him.

We return to Shawn and Lucy, where they are trying to convince Lucy to undergo the surgery again and they tell her that complications are rare. Lucy's mother doesn't know what to decide because she doesn't want her daughter to feel ashamed. She mentions that last year her daughter attempted suicide several times due to teasing and bullying, and she herself attempted it when she was her age. She mentions they received counseling and had a place where she could love herself, and she doesn't want her to lose that. Charlie tries to talk about her autism, but Shawn interrupts, saying it's not relevant, to which Morgan says let her speak, that this could help Lucy's mother. Charlie explains that her brain doesn't process emotional signals like others do, and the same goes for Lucy's brain and her hunger. Her parents wanted the best for her, but her mother didn't want her to feel different, so she was against her receiving school assistance. She thought it would stigmatize her, but her father convinced her. They found help that helped her learn how the world works, and she believes this surgery won't stigmatize her daughter but will give her what she needs to thrive, to which Lucy's mother agrees to proceed with the surgery,Shawn tells Charlie that she did a good job.

We move to Ronit's surgery where Park realizes that the tumor has metastasized and is everywhere, so Ronit probably only has a few months left to live, and they proceed to close her up.

We switch to Glassman and Lim, where she questions him about dating her mother and asks if it's to make her angry or mark his territory or something like that. Aaron says it's none of that, to which Lim responds that her mother is boring and finds it strange that out of nowhere she's interested in Spanish or salsa classes. Aaron explains that she learned Spanish to be able to read "Don Quixote," and that nobody does that. He also explains that she has seen all the movies in the Criterion Collection, buys the New York Times on paper to do the crossword puzzle, which she completes until Saturday, while Aaron doesn't get past Wednesday. He says Lim should know her mother better.

We return to Asher, who is with Ronit and Scott, both sad because they won't be able to have their Jewish wedding. However, Asher gathers courage and mentions the possibility of having a beit din, a council of three rabbis who approve her conversion, and there are only a few steps left, the biggest of which is a ritual bath. They can celebrate the wedding in the hospital itself, and he will prepare everything. Ronit looks confused at Asher, and he comments that he was raised Hasidic.

We move to Shawn and Lia, who are listening to Steven cry. Lia can't stand it anymore and gets up to go see him, but Shawn tells her that this will teach him that if he cries for more than 10 minutes, his mother will come to hug him. Lia responds that he's not a test subject and that they need to be flexible with him. Shawn mentions that they should focus on what would be best for all three of them in the coming weeks and takes Lia's hand to sit her down on the bed.

We return to Asher, who is with a man, Rabbi Benjamin, helping to prepare the ceremony. Asher thanks him for his help, and Benjamin says it's nothing since he has known Scott and Ronit for a long time. They estimate how much material they need for the ritual, and Benjamin asks Asher where he holds the synagogue. Asher responds that he hasn't held one since he came out as gay. Benjamin asks, "Can't you be gay and Jewish?" Asher replies that according to the prohibitions of Leviticus 18 and 20, the laws of Noah, and the sin of Sodom as explained in the Sanhedrin, he cannot. Benjamin tells him to review the Sanhedrin, that the sin of Sodom was towards strangers, not towards homosexuality. He tells him that he is Jewish whether he likes it or not, and they have a reflective conversation.

The next scene is Scott and Ronit's wedding, where they conduct the ceremony for Scott, and they get married,in which Asher and Jerome reconcile.

We return to Shawn and Kalu who are performing surgery on Lucy. Kalu notices something off about Shawn, and he mentions that he didn't sleep very well, but he can still operate. They remove part of the stomach, and the machines alarm, showing an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Charlie tries to suggest something, but Shawn interrupts, saying it's not that. Charlie asks why not, and Kaloo tells her they don't have time to answer her. Shawn suggests submerging the removed stomach in saline solution and injecting air to see if there are any leaks. It turns out there's a leak, and they have to reinforce the staple line with sutures. Shawn is interrupted when the heart rate and blood pressure rise again, and he asks for a 4-0 Vicryl suture and fibrin glue. Shawn questions why it's not on the back table; Charlie says she read in a medical journal that they were rarely used, and Shawn tells her she should have consulted first. Charlie says it's nobody's fault, and after a heated argument where they interrupt each other, Shawn asks her to leave the operating room. They finally stabilize Lucy and proceed to close her up.

We move to the post-surgery where they're chatting with Lucy about the weight loss process while Charlie looks on from the reception with a cold, serious expression.

We transition to Lim and her mother, where her mother apologizes if she has made her uncomfortable all this time. she responds that it was unfair of her to get upset about it and tells her to go out and have fun, that she has no problem with it.

We switch to Shawn going to talk with Glassman because he can't continue working with Charlie, and Glassman tells him that she can't either and has filed a complaint against Shawn.

We transition to Asher dropping off Rabbi Benjamin at his synagogue, and they say goodbye. Before Asher could leave, they hear banging and glass shattering. Asher gets out of the vehicle and rushes to see the situation, where two anti-semites are vandalizing and graffitiing the synagogue. Asher states that he's Jewish and gay, and he doesn't care if they're armed; he will call the police. The two guys retreat, and Rabbi Benjamin thanks Asher for helping. Asher leaves the scene but is ambushed by the two anti-semites and is struck in the head with a metal bar, dying instantly. The last thing we see is Jerome waiting at the restaurant for Asher, as they had a date, and Rabbi Benjamin holding Asher's body while reciting prayers.

Cast[]

Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy
Fiona Gubelmann as Dr. Morgan Reznick
Will Yun Lee as Dr. Alex Park
Christina Chang as Dr. Audrey Lim
Paige Spara as Lea Dilallo
Bria Samoné Henderson as Dr. Jordan Allen
Noah Galvin as Dr. Asher Wolke
Chuku Modu as Dr. Jared Kalu
Richard Schiff as Dr. Aaron Glassman

Bess Armstrong as Eileen Lim
Kayla Cromer as Charlotte Lukaitis
Dierde Friel as Lucy's mother
Matt McCoy as Scott
Giacomo Baessato as Jerome Martel
April Cameron as Nurse Hawks
David Attar as Rabbi Benjamin
Carmel Amit as Ronit
Madison Cooper Higley as Lucy

Andy Nez as Burly Man

Joel Eskildsen as Wiry Man

Trivia[]

Asher is hit in the back of the head and killed in an antisemitic hate crime just as he's about to get engaged to Jerome.
- Due to his death, "Date Night" was the last time in which Asher ever worked with Shaun, while the last time with Jared was in "Critical Support". This was also the last time he worked with Park.
Lim reveals that her indecisiveness about the idea of getting married has caused Clay to leave her and take a job in Chicago.
After another error made by Charlie becomes the last straw for Shaun to kick her out of the OR again, Glassman reveals to Shaun that she had filed a complaint against him, signifying she had dropped any hero worship she still had for him.
Lim and Glassman finding Charlie standing on the elevator saddened over Shaun thinking she'll never be a surgeon and their meeting with him about it from "Critical Support" is brought up.
Shaun unintentionally fat-shames the overweight patient by referring to her as "morbidly obese", just as Jared points out to him later.
This episode aired on World Autism Awareness Day.
This is the last appearance of Asher Wolke, also the last episode to credit Noah Galvin as a series regular.