The character never got to enjoy his fully embraced identity.
CBS’ medical drama The Good Doctor with the cast led by Freddie Highmore is getting closer to the end of its television run as the show’s final episode is set to be released on May 7.
Having the seventh season as its last one, the series could’ve drawn so many great opportunities out of the final episodes to dot the I’s and cross the T’s — and it got really close to sending a very important message out to the public, but crashed it all in the nick of time.
The Good Doctor’s final season still features Dr. Asher Wolke, portrayed by Noah Galvin, who made his first appearance back in season 5. Asher happens to be the only gay among the main characters of the show and by the end of the last season is getting prepared for the wedding with his boyfriend Jerome Martel who also works in the hospital.
Everything seems to work out just fine for Asher except for the fact that he’s spent a long time struggling with accepting his Jewish identity.
The Good Doctor’s season 7 finds the character being forced to deal with a long-standing problem as he feels the need to help a very religious patient, who has little time to live, convince her fiancé to convert – and he eventually agrees to engage a rabbi in the whole thing.
Asher’s contribution to his patient’s happiness leads him to realizing that he also has to embrace his Jewish origin to become entirely content with his life.
The character’s decision seems to be some kind of foreseen happy ending for him, but it all suddenly turns into a big tr agedy — Asher gets killed by some troublemakers vandalizing the temple where the character leaves the rabbi before meeting Jerome for a dinner.
Such a plot twist seems to be a big controversial moment for the show — initially making it all look like a powerful message about antisemitism, The Good Doctor is quick enough to destroy it by killing a gay character that just managed to embrace his entire identity.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that Asher’s murder happens right before his wedding with Jerome — which kills all the possibilities of a happy ending for both of them and once again adapts a trite and senseless idea that queer people will never get to be 100% happy after all.
Asher’s tragic and meaningless death thus comes as something very unnecessary as the show would’ve surely been able to send their message with no shocking effect at all.
