The Good Doctor star Freddie Highmore reflects on the emotional ending for his character Dr. Shaun Murphy. The show, which recently ended with its season 7 finale, follows the title character, an autistic doctor who is devoted to his profession. It is a remake of the South Korean show of the same name starring Joo Won. Over the years, the Good Doctor cast has also included Nicholas Gonzalez, Antonia Thomas, Chuku Modu, Hill Harper, Richard Schiff, Tamlyn Tomita, Will Yun Lee, Christina Chang, Fiona Gubelmann, Paige Spara, Noah Galvin, and more.
TVLine recently sat down with Highmore to discuss the Good Doctor finale. When asked about the TED Talk that Dr. Murphy gives at the end of the episode, Highmore revealed that the speech that felt “almost more meaningful” actually came earlier, when he makes the decision to treat Claire (Thomas) despite FDA regulations, potentially ending his career as a doctor. This was the case because they filmed it in the “very same space where we filmed Shaun’s speech to the board in the pilot episode,” a location that hadn’t been seen since then. Read Highmore’s full quote below:
It was very special, and certainly put into perspective just how far he had come. In terms of speeches, though, funnily enough, the speech that felt almost more meaningful to film was in the previous act — the one where he’s in the boardroom — because we returned to the very same space where we filmed Shaun’s speech to the board in the pilot episode. We had never been back to that location, and David really wanted to [revisit that]. There was something surreal, and also lovely, about standing up there, in the very same spot seven years later, and to give a very different kind of speech as Shaun is coming to terms with the fact that Dr. Glassman won’t be with him for much longer. That felt really beautiful as a landing point.
The Good Doctor Finale Uses One Of The Oldest (And Best) Tricks In The Book
Because the proposed The Good Lawyer spinoff was scrapped in 2023, this series finale could very well be the franchise’s last-ever episode. However, it stuck the landing by pulling out one of the oldest tricks in the book to bring the character of Dr. Shaun Murphy full circle. The finale explored just how far he has come in the seven years since the show first premiered by putting him back in the same location as the pilot, using a familiar scene to highlight the stark contrast between where he was emotionally in season 1 versus season 7.
This is a common storytelling trick that is especially useful for long-running television shows. Because the episodic format allows characters to evolve over years of real time and many hours of content, many shows utilize iconic moments from their pilots to reflect on how far they’ve come. This includes the Buffy the Vampire finale’s cameo from Angel (David Boreanaz), Lost ending with Jack’s (Matthew Fox) eyes closing after beginning with them opening, and the Breaking Bad finale seeing Walter White (Bryan Cranston) preparing the same birthday breakfast that his wife made for him in the pilot
The Good Doctor can now stand among the pantheon of shows that have effectively called back to their pilot episodes. The potency of this scene is especially highlighted by the fact that the board room in question has not been seen in the series since it premiered. Its absence from any episodes in between reinforces just how much the speech is meant to mirror Dr. Murphy’s original scene in the same room, which kicked off the long journey of the show.