A look at one of TV’s most “hopeful” and “optimistic” characters over the years
After seven seasons of The Good Doctor, Freddie Highmore will hang up his scrubs for a final time when the ABC drama airs its series finale on Tuesday, May 21.
Dr. Shaun Cooper (Highmore) may be a brilliant surgeon, but viewers who have followed him since The Good Doctor debuted in September 2017 also know him as an endearing, relatable character, having proven himself to the staff at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital many times over and learned life lessons along the way.
“He’s been a really fun character to play and a happy character to play, because he is so hopeful and optimistic,” Highmore recently told PEOPLE. “I feel that’s what people have over the years connected with about him, that he sees a good in people. He reminds you, that even when we’re different, we’re all actually more the same than different. And I think hopefully, he’s made me a better person.”
Here are five of the most memorable moments from Shaun’s TV journey.
Shaun saves a boy at the airport
No one sees the world quite like Shaun does, but the pilot episode entitled “Burnt Food” offered a glimpse. As Shaun strolled through San Jose International Airport, it was clear he was sensitive to large crowds. And when one of the glass terminal signs hanging from the ceiling fell, it swung into a kiosk and shattered, raining shards of glass upon a young boy and slashing his jugular vein.
Another doctor on the scene tried to stop the bleeding, but Shaun rightly pointed out that the doctor was applying pressure to the wrong area and cutting off his breathing. After moving the doctor’s hand, the boy’s breathing is restored. Dumbfounded, the doctor asked Shaun who he was and Shaun introduced himself, teeing up the rest of the episode.
Shaun asks Carly out
Watching Shaun navigate his world bit by bit is one of the medical drama’s strengths, with the season 2 episode “Trampoline” being proof of that. After he and Claire (Antonia Thomas) did a little friendly role-playing so Shaun could practice how to ask someone out — “Here is a stapler, which represents flowers,” he explained — he mustered up the courage to ask out Carly (Jasika Nicole).
One evening, he showed up on Carly’s doorstep sporting a suit, holding flowers and a box of chocolates.
“Here are flowers and chocolates. Real ones,” he said. “I was wondering if you would like to eat dinner?”
“Are you asking me out?” Carly said, adding, “On a date?”
When he said “yes,” he quickly turns around and leaves. Strolling down the sidewalk, he gasped and jumped for joy, leaving Carly to grin while she watched through her front window.
Shaun tells Lea how he really feels
Shaun and Lea’s (Paige Spara) romantic journey was a rocky one, forcing both characters to change the way they view each other. The season 3 episodes “Fixation” and “Heartbreak” illustrate how far Lea grew during four seasons.
When Shaun proposed they go on “a real date,” she reminded him that she’d already said “no.”
“Shaun, you’re autistic. You can’t fix that,” Lea contended. “You are who you are, and I am who I am — and the two of us will never work.”
Her comments triggered Shaun, who spent time on his couch wrapped in a blanket, telling Claire he wanted to be “left alone.” In a later scene, Lea found Shaun standing next to her car, gripping a baseball bat.
“I want to smash your car up,” he said tearfully, adding, “I want to hurt you the way you hurt me. … You acted like you cared about me, but you don’t even respect me. You’re flaky, and you can’t keep a boyfriend, and you can’t keep a job, and no one likes you. You’re going to end up alone — and you deserve it — because you’re a superficial, selfish and prejudiced person!”
The heartbreaking moment helps pave the way to Lea overcoming her prejudices, The pair eventually date, then wed at the end of season 5 in a rooftop ceremony atop San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital.
Shaun confesses to Audrey Lim he misses her friendship
During Shaun and Lea’s wedding reception, Audrey (Christina Chang) went downstairs, only to be stabbed in the stomach. When Shaun tried to save Audrey’s liver, there was a complication resulting in her being temporarily paralyzed — a condition that made Audrey very resentful of Shaun and created tension between the two.
But in the season 6 episode “Sorry, Not Sorry,” when Shaun has a heart-to-heart with Audrey in her office, they slowly begin to mend their broken friendship.
“I can’t change what happened, and I do not owe you an apology,” he said. “But I am sorry for other things. … In your surgery, the medical choice was clear, and I did proceed, but I did not know what the consequences would be. I saved your life, but my decision also caused you harm.”
“When I saw you hurt and bleeding, I saw my brother Steve when he died,” Shaun added. “When I thought I might lose you the way I lost him, I did not like that. I am sorry this has been very hard for you. A medicine-only relationship is not easy. It is not what I want. I have missed your friendship. I have missed you.”
Welling up with emotion, Audrey admitted the attack and navigating a working relationship with Shaun afterward had been “really hard.”
“My life is in a good place now,” she continued. “I’m happy, but still angry sometimes. It may take a while to let that go, but I’ve missed you too, Shaun.”
Shaun helps Hannah see the light
As The Good Doctor comes to an end, the drama has found moments of great emotional power. In the penultimate episode entitled “Unconditional,” Dr. Glassman (Richard Schiff) went rogue by attempting to manage Hannah’s (Ruby Kelley) drug addiction on his own, putting his job at risk.
While Hannah grappled with her addiction and pondered leaving Dr. Glassman’s home, where she had been staying, Shaun found Hannah and shared how Dr. Glassman has had a profound impact on his own life.
“I’m Dr. Glassman’s son — not biologically,” he said. “Dr. Glassman helped me like he’s helping you.”
“So, basically, we’re both broken toys that are supposed to replace the daughter he couldn’t fix?” wondered Hannah, referring to Dr. Glassman’s daughter Maddie (Holly Taylor), who died years back from a drug overdose.
Shaun explained Dr. Glassman didn’t “fix” him — he “loved” him.
“I’m not like other people. Other kids called me weird. My parents didn’t want me. So, that was how I saw myself,” he added. “But Dr. Glassman saw that I could be more. And now I see myself as so much more, because Dr. Glassman loved me unconditionally. I am still different. I will always have autism, but now I’m proud of that. You will always be an addict even if you stop using drugs, but Dr. Glassman sees you can be more. Why can’t you?”
His inspiring words, which brought The Good Doctor full circle, helped Hannah have an epiphany. In a later scene, while resisting the temptation to take a pill sitting in the middle of a table, she told Dr. Glassman she was ready to check herself into rehab and work toward sobriety.
