The Good Doctor‘s Season 5 premiere dropped quite the bombshell: St. Bonaventure had been acquired by Salen Morrison, who up until the very end of the hour had been the presumed Patient of the Week — and an eccentric one at that. [pmc_inline_gallery]
As Drs. Jordan Allen (Bria Samoné Henderson) and Asher Wolke (Noah Galvin) worked on Salen, viewers got to see a new, competitive side to their working relationship, with Jordan determined to one-up Asher and lead any and all procedures.
“Jordan and Asher come from two different worlds,” Henderson tells TVLine. “Now you put these characters in one world together, and you get to see how the relationship moves, how they grow, and how they learn from each other.”
“There’s always going to be a level of competition between the two of them,” adds Galvin. “But as time progresses, there is a mutual respect that is definitely bolstered this season.”
As seen in coming attractions for Episode 2 (embedded below), Salen is incorporating St. Bonaventure into the larger Ethicure Medical family, and with the change comes a myriad of technological advancements that greatly amuse Dr. Allen.
“Jordan is an entrepreneur. She’s also a hustler,” Henderson reminds us. “She’s all about innovation, and she’s tech savvy, so with the new ideas that Salen brings into the hospital, Jordan is down to play. Jordan really likes the newness of it, the quickness of it, the fast pace of the takeover… I think she’s definitely for it.”
Dr. Wolke, on the other hand, is skeptical of what Salen and Ethicure Medical are trying to achieve, with so much change happening at once.
“His initial reaction to the takeover and to Salen is not necessarily a positive one,” Galvin says. “Asher comes from a world where he was forced to believe things and was taught a very specific set of ideals. So anything that feels prohibitive of free thought — his want to live his own life and have as much agency as possible — anything that brings those things into question, he’s going to be immediately dubious and wary of.”
The Good Doctor airs Mondays at 10/9c, on ABC.