NOTE: This post contains spoilers for The Good Doctor.
Fans of The Good Doctor had mixed feelings about everything that transpired in The Good Doctor season 5 finale. On the one hand, Shaun and Lea got married in a surprise ceremony thrown by their colleagues at the hospital. On the other, the season ended on a major cliffhanger that had fans worried about what happened to Dr. Lim and Nurse Villaneuva.
Now that The Good Doctor season 6 has debuted, we finally have key answers to that question. Let’s dive in.
What happened in The Good Doctor season 5 finale?
After suffering abuse from her boyfriend, Nurse Dalisay Villaneuva (Elfina Luk) began living with Dr. Audrey Lim (Christina Chang) so she can be safe. As Villaneuva was trying to get herself back on her feet so she could move out on her own, Dr. Lim assured her she can stay as long as she needs to.
Cut to the final moments of the finale. Dr. Lim leaves the wedding reception to go get a few more glasses from the hospital. However, she slips and falls on what turns out to be a pool of Villaneuva’s blood. She quickly tries to put pressure on Villaneuva’s wounds, but Villaneuva’s abusive ex, Owen (Terry Chen), leaps out and stabs her as well. The episode ends with the two lying there without anyone available to help them as the staff was dancing away upstairs and unable to hear.
Did Dr. Lim die on The Good Doctor?
Though the situation at the end of season 5 looked very bleak, as we learned in The Good Doctor season 6 premiere, both Dr. Lim and Nurse Villaneuva survived the initial stabbing. But they were not out of the woods yet.
Dr. Andrews (Hill Harper) gets a call from Dr. Lim in the opening moments of the episode, but is unable to hear her and she doesn’t pick up when he calls back. He then sees Owen, dressed as hospital staff but bleeding, have an encounter with hospital security, at which point the hospital is put on lockdown. Shaun (Freddie Highmore) is then informed that Dr. Lim and Villaneuva may be in trouble and he, Lea (Paige Spara) and Dr. Allen (Bria Henderson) go to find her. They find them stabbed and passed out from their injuries.
They are able to transport both to the OR for treatment. Shaun and Dr. Glassman (Richard Schiff) disagree on the best way to treat Dr. Lim, with Glassman wanting to remove parts of her damaged liver and Shaun wanting to perform a different technique, but one that could require a blood transfusion if things go wrong (something not easily available with the lockdown). Shaun ultimately goes against Glassman’s order and performs his technique, which proves successful. Nurse Villaneuva also survives her injuries.
Unfortunately, when Dr. Lim wakes up, there are further complications that require a second surgery. Shaun once again operates on Dr. Lim, but this time he has a panic attack and Dr. Lim starts to go into heart failure. However, with the help of Lea and thinking of his brother, Shaun is able to complete the surgery successfully. Dr. Lim survives, but tragically she is paralyzed as a result of both surgeries, which some think may not have happened had Shaun followed Dr. Glassman’s orders.
Dr. Lim returned to the hospital after 14 weeks of recovery, however, she is still paralyzed. As we see in The Good Doctor season 6 episode 5, she is still struggling to adjust to her new life. She has a date with a neighbor and while he is great about making things work when the restaurant is not wheelchair accessible, it turns out that Dr. Lim was wrong and the neighbor didn't see this as a date. While frustrated with her situation, Dr. Lim is told that it'll take time to adjust to her new circumstances.
The Good Doctor season 6 episode 6 shows some of those frustrations starting to melt. Dr. Lim plays basketball with others who are in wheelchairs and does well. This helps inspire her to try more things she didn't think she could do, including play tennis.
As thing progress through the season, Dr. Lim is getting more comfortable with her situation, including starting a relationship with someone who doesn't see an issue with her paralysis. However, the paralysis may not be permanent.
In The Good Doctor season 6 episode 8, Dr. Glassman notices key signs that indicate it can be possible that Dr. Lim can walk again.
That plotline is followed up the next episode, with Shaun, Dr. Glassman and Dr. Andrews developing a plan for surgery to cure Dr. Lim's paralysis. However, with things going well with her new boyfriend (who is also in a wheelchair), she is nervous about how regaining the ability to walk could impact her life. It's her boyfriend, though, who convinces her that she should do the surgery and that it won't have an effect on their relationship; he even proposes, not to pressure Dr. Lim, but to show that he is committed.
Dr. Lim opts to have the surgery, but we don't see whether it is a success or not in The Good Doctor season 6 episode 9 and episode 10 it is revealed that it was a success and she is starting to walk again.
As she focuses on her continued recovery though, she hesitates to give her boyfriend an answer to his proposal. Ultimately, she decides to ask him to move in rather than agree to getting married. He accepts.
As season 6 progresses, Dr. Lim is getting back into the swing of things at the hospital, but it is not all easy going. In episode 19, she gets into an argument with Dr. Andrews about the best method of surgery for a patient, with Andrews hesitant to trust Dr. Lim's judgment. When she proves to be right, he tries to apologize, but Dr. Lim tells him that he either needs to have confidence in her decision making or fire her.
Is Shaun to blame for Dr. Lim's surgery?
Back at the hospital, Dr. Lim is making it a mission to figure out what went wrong with her surgery. She gets the medical report so she can do her own investigation, which leads to her believing that Shaun made a mistake that resulted in her paralysis. This leads her to getting into an argument with Shaun, blaming him for her current physical condition.
As we see in The Good Doctor season 6 episode 5, Dr. Glassman also holds Shaun responsible for what happened to Dr. Lim and is also upset that he hasn't apologize to her for what happened. But he assures Shaun that he still loves him and they work together to try and present a possible remedy for Dr. Lim. Surprisingly, at this time, she refuses.
Shaun once again tries to mend things with Dr. Lim in The Good Doctor season 6 episode 8. He eventually reveals to her that when operating on her, he was thinking of his brother and didn't want to lose her too, so he prioritized saving her life over any potential consequences. He tells her that he misses her. Upon hearing this, she admits that she misses Shaun too.
New episodes of The Good Doctor air Mondays at 10 pm ET/PT on ABC, then are streaming on-demand the next day on Hulu.
