Is Shaun Murphy in Trouble on 'The Good Doctor'?

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 4 of The Good Doctor.

Lea (Paige Spara) and Shaun’s (Freddie Highmore) relationship on The Good Doctor has been particularly heartbreaking this season. After discovering that they were pregnant, they sadly lost the baby. As the fourth season is heading toward the end, it looks like the pain this couple is going through is just beginning.

While looking to get away on a camping trip to forget about their heartbreak, a promo for the May 24 episode reveals that Shaun hurts himself and the only one who can save him is Lea. Will Lea be able to save her boyfriend? Or is Freddie Highmore destined to leave The Good Doctor?

In the May 24 episode of The Good Doctor, fans will see Shaun whisk Lea away on a camping trip to get them both out of their comfort zones, in the hopes it'll help the grieving process from losing their baby. But what should be a happy trip heads south when Shaun falls off a log, hurting his ankle. But this is more than a simple sprain. Shaun reveals to Lea that his toes are numb, and he knows it’s not a good sign. If the circulation doesn’t restart, he’ll have to lose his foot.

Though he tells Lea that he’ll guide her through surgery to get his circulation back, he passes out. So where does that leave Lea, who may run the hospital’s IT department but is no doctor?

While this is certainly a scary scene, it’s worth noting that, according to Shaun at least, the worst-case scenario is that he’ll lose his foot. Although that’s still a painful experience with lasting repercussions for Shaun, he’ll still be alive, which means that he’s most likely not leaving The Good Doctor over this situation.

As far as ABC and the showrunners over on The Good Doctor go, they haven’t announced that their main star would be departing the series ahead of the end of Season 4. Freddie himself has also not hinted that he’d be leaving the show. 

However, Freddie is working on something outside of the show he’s starred in since 2017. He’ll be in the animated film The Canterville Ghost as the Duke of Cheshire, working alongside another famous TV doctor, Hugh Laurie, who plays the Grim Reaper.

But if fans are worried the movie may pull Freddie away from The Good Doctor, they likely don’t have to be too concerned. While still working on the series, the actor also filmed the show Leonardo, about the arrest of Leonardo da Vinci for the poisoning of Caterina da Cremona.

He was in the lead role for the film The Vault, about an engineering grad who plans a heist into the Bank of Spain, and lent his voice to the animated film Dragon Rider, as well. It seems very unlikely that, after being able to do those projects in addition to The Good Doctor, he would opt to leave the show now to do The Canterville Ghost.

Although we’re going to be in for a nerve-wracking adventure on the upcoming episode of The Good Doctor, it seems that Shaun is most likely going to come away OK, though he may have to spend some time recovering from Lea’s surgery. Catch The Good Doctor Mondays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.