We’re here again! After the previous week, The Good Doctor 5x02 “Piece of Cake” is much calmer, since it’s a bridge episode in which the plots move somewhat slower, in preparation for what is to come. Time for review!
Here we go!
The Good Doctor 5x02 "Piece of Cake” is a transition episode so there is not much to comment on beyond what we saw in the episode. These complicated medical cases are the hallmark of this show but, in general, I like them much more when they have an emotional connection with the characters as happened in the previous episode.
In any case, I think we need to talk about Salen. She’s…manipulative. I think Lea defined her perfectly. She’s giving one of lime and another of sand. She’s intrusive, deceptive and sibylline. She seems to be in good spirits and gives more advice than orders with all this smile medicine, but it’s very clear that this is all a facade that hides much darker things.
At first, she has already tried to manipulate Andrews into turning him against Lim. Playing devil's advocate here, I don't think Lim made the right choice here. That is, leaving the choice to the patient was the right thing to do, but not in this way. Mateo didn’t act well from the beginning because he didn’t come to Andrews with his idea, not even to Lim, he told the patient directly and didn’t explain the risks well.
This isn’t correct behavior and Lim should have reprimanded Mateo for this and not overlooked it. Now she has to live in this fine balance of separating the personal from the professional. Outside the hospital, Mateo is her boyfriend but inside, he’s just another doctor and she must reprimand him when he does something wrong. It isn’t an easy thing to do because, in a situation like this, even if you don't want to be favoritism, you resist not giving support to a person who, personally, is so important. It’s instinctive.
But it’s part of the price to pay for working together.
Andrews, in this situation, cannot help but think what Salen would have decided, since she doesn’t have a personal bond with Mateo. And she takes advantage of this doubt that it begins to grow in Andrews. It’s clear that she wants Lim out of her position, I’m still not clear if to keep it or to hire someone that she manipulate.
In addition, Lea asks for a favor that perhaps anyone else would have rejected but Salen felt generous in The Good Doctor 5x02 "Piece of Cake” and supports her in her new project and I think that she’s trying to win the favor of everyone, including Morgan because Salen is not an idiot and she knows that Morgan is trying to be accommodating to her and get along with the supreme boss ... and that suits Salen because she feels that she can manipulate her at his best whim.
Thus, Salen is trying to win everyone's trust, everyone's support so that when she makes her real move, no one doubts her and everyone supports her. But this can only end badly because we have already seen that this policy of smiles in medicine hides less and worse patient care. Of course, when you start calling a patient a "client" that doesn't bode well…
On the other hand, is Salen's way of treating Shaun. I have had a very bad feeling when she has met him, something like she treats him as if he is not like the others. It’s just a feeling that is not extracted, at the moment, from anything in particular but that is there.
Shaun… we hadn't seen him for a long time as we saw him at the end of The Good Doctor 5x02 “Piece of Cake.” All the changes Salen has made have blown his routine into the air and he needs a routine. I’m calm because I know that Shaun has Lea next to him but it breaks my heart to see him like that and it scares me that he will withdraw into himself again.
On the other hand, the case that Andrews and Mateo are dealing with is another thing that broke my heart in The Good Doctor 5x02 “Piece of Cake.” A mother who sacrificed everything, including her heart, to give her daughter the prosperous life that she couldn’t give her and a daughter who rejects her for abandoned her. The two positions are understandable here.
Her daughter didn’t know the reason why she left her with another family, she thought that she didn’t love her and abandoned her but the real reason was precisely that she loved. The sacrifices that parents make for their children, the sacrifices that are made for love… always move me. And much more when the truth comes out and mother and daughter meet again. Beautiful.
As a last note, do you see something going on between Jordan and Asher? Because I do and I like it.
This is where our The Good Doctor 5x02 “Piece of Cake” review ends. We will be back next week with a new one. Stay tuned!
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share it with us in the comments below!
The Good Doctor airs Mondays 10/9c on ABC.
