'The Good Doctor' Showrunner Talks Season Premiere's Surprise Ending

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 4 premiere of “The Good Doctor.”)

The Season 4 premiere of “The Good Doctor” spends the vast majority of its runtime exploring the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on frontline healthcare workers, but the sense of grief and tragedy underlying the entire episode takes on a new, personal dimension in the final minutes of the show.

Dr. Neil Melendez, played by Nicholas Gonzalez, makes a surprise appearance in the episode’s final scene after having been killed off at the end of last season. Melendez appears as a kind of ghostly vision to Claire (Antonia Thomas) after she comes face-to-face with the scale of the pandemic while looking through the personal effects of the deceased.

In an interview with TheWrap, showrunner David Shore confirmed that the plan for Melendez’s return stemmed from the decision to work the pandemic into the first two episodes of the season. “We started breaking the COVID story and my co-writer [Liz Friedman] and I talked about that idea,” he said. “It was her notion, and I thought it was a great one. It made complete sense with what [Claire] is going through at the end of last season and the beginning of this season.”

Also Read: How TV Showrunners Are Handling COVID Storylines: 'Do People Really Want to Watch This?'

ABC

Fans will remember Claire’s emotional final scene with Melendez in which the fan-favorite couple finally confessed their love for one another, professional relationship (and bowling ability) aside. Claire’s grief becomes a major through-line of the premiere, as her personal trauma is compounded by the devastating effects of the pandemic. Forming a connection with the daughter of a patient who doesn’t survive the virus, Claire decides to bend the rules and find a way to safely return the patient’s belongings to her family.

“Our focus was on the humanity of it, not on the medicine,” Shore said. “We tried to be accurate and tried to be responsible wherever we could, but it was about the human challenges that doctors are facing, and that the patients are facing. We wanted to explore the personal stories.”

“We’re all alone, then we go through this, and we are social animals,” he said. “And I feel bad for young people who have this experience at this crucial time in their life. Even in the best-case scenario, this is a sad time … And we want to play the sadness, but we’re a show about hope. Because I do believe in that. And whenever you have a situation like this, it’s an opportunity for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. We wanted to focus on that.”

Shore said Melendez will stick around for at least another episode, providing some guidance and perhaps closure for Claire as the pandemic storyline wraps up in next week’s installment.”

“She will continue to be trying to help people in a non-medical way, as we saw at the end of the episode, and he will be counseling her,” Shore said. “It will be as much about, what can we do to help? And what impact does loss have on us? And how do we get through that?”

ABC/Jeff Weddell

“The Good Doctor” airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

How TV Shows Have Incorporated COVID-19 Storylines (Photos)

As TV shows begin to return to air this fall, showrunners have had to decide whether or not to incorporate the coronavirus pandemic into their future storylines. From video chat-inspired comedies about quarantine to medical dramas facing the biggest medical story in generation, here's how shows are incorporating COVID-19 into upcoming episodes.
Several series directly addressing the coronavirus pandemic have cropped up in recent months, beginning with Freeform's "Love in the Time of Corona" back in August. Filmed entirely in quarantine using remote technology and actors in their homes performing opposite their real-life loved ones, the series was one of the first scripted programs to document the early days of lockdown.
Freeform
Unlike "Love in the Time of Corona," NBC's "Connecting..." used a Zoom-inspired format, featuring its characters in small, on-screen boxes talking directly to the camera. The series addresses life during the pandemic with the spirit of a traditional ensemble comedy.
NBC
Netflix's "Social Distance," from "Orange Is the New Black" creator Jenji Kohan, also employs the video-chat format, though the eight-episode anthology series takes a more grounded tone than its NBC counterpart.
Netflix
The CBS legal drama "All Rise" was one of the first broadcast series to return to air with a one-off remotely produced special following the production shutdown back in March. The episode saw Simone Missick's Judge Lola Carmichael preside over a virtual trial filmed using a variety of video conferencing apps, including FaceTime, WebEx and Zoom.
CBS
Animation has had an easier time adjusting to the new production realities, and Comedy Central's "South Park" made use of that adaptability with September's "Pandemic Special," a standalone episode which saw the show's main cast heading back to school post-lockdown.
Comedy Central
Several shows have also tried to jump on the animation train to get episodes back on the air, including Pop TV's "One Day at a Time" and ABC's "black-ish." While the animated "black-ish" special focused primarily on the upcoming presidential election, showrunner Courtney Lilly has said future episodes this season will be set during the early days of the pandemic.
ABC
"black-ish" creator Kenya Barris has also said the college-set spinoff "grown-ish" will also incorporate the pandemic in its upcoming season, exploring the effects of COVID-19 on the lives of students.
Freeform
Medical dramas have a unique opportunity to directly address the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic when they return this fall, including ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," which will open with a "Station 19" crossover episode set a few weeks into the onset of the outbreak in Washington.
ABC
The network's other medical drama, "The Good Doctor," is also set to premiere with a two-part episode dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic when it returns for Season 4.
ABC
Fox's "The Resident" will also take on the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in its season premiere, co-creator Amy Holden Jones has said. Future episodes will continue to explore the long-term fallout of the disease, even beyond the wide-scale implementation of a vaccine.
Fox
NBC's "New Amsterdam" is inspired by the New York City hospital that felt the brunt of the pandemic's effects when the city became an epicenter earlier this year. The series isn't set to return until midseason, but showrunner David Schulner told Us Weekly the upcoming season will explore topics surrounding the virus, including racial inequality, anti-vaccine movements and violence against frontline workers.
NBC
Beyond hospital walls, first responders are also on the frontlines of this pandemic, and "9-1-1" showrunner Tim Minear has said his Fox drama and its spinoff, "9-1-1: Lone Star," will not be absent from that conversation. In September, the latter series cast "Suits" alum Gina Torres as a paramedic who comes out of retirement because of COVID-19.
Fox
Shows that aren't directly dealing with the medical aspects of a pandemic will also have to decide whether or not to incorporate the effects of COVID-19 in upcoming episodes. When the NBC hit "This Is Us" returns this fall, it will also address COVID-19 in its present-day timeline. Series creator Dan Fogelman responded to a fan tweet by tweeting that the show will "attack things head on" while working toward the same originally planned finale.
NBC
"NCIS: New Orleans" will explore the broader ramifications of the pandemic via CCH Pounder's character, Dr. Loretta Wade. The new episodes will see the coroner overwhelmed with the bodies of those who were killed by the virus, including one person she knew personally, the actress told TV Line.
CBS
"Shameless" creator John Wells told THR earlier this year that he rewrote much of the Showtime dramedy's final season to address the pandemic and its economic effects. Several members of the working-class Gallagher family will come down with the virus.
Showtime

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From Freeform’s “Love in the Time of Corona” to a “Grey’s Anatomy”-“Station 19” crossover

As TV shows begin to return to air this fall, showrunners have had to decide whether or not to incorporate the coronavirus pandemic into their future storylines. From video chat-inspired comedies about quarantine to medical dramas facing the biggest medical story in generation, here's how shows are incorporating COVID-19 into upcoming episodes.

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How TV Shows Have Incorporated COVID-19 Storylines (Photos)

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