HOLLYWOOD—I have been a fan of the FOX series “The Resident” since it premiered back in 2018. It just felt fresh and completely different. That first season of the medical drama was damn fantastic. It had twists, turns, fascinating characters and its narrative was just captivating as hell people. I loved every minute of it. Season two was good, not as great as the first season, but it was satisfying. The third season reminded me of season one all over again and was a nail bitter from week to week. Last season, I didn’t love as much. I think COVID-19 impacted shooting and the storytelling aspect that was too focused on Nic and Conrad. However, season 5 is about to break the hearts of viewers. How so? Have you not seen the teaser for the season or the recent episode ‘No Good Deed?’
There was a lot going on in this episode, but it was apparent from the beginning of the episode the show was getting ready to deliver a blow to audiences that would be absolutely difficult to recover from especially fans of Conrad and Nic’s love affair people. I mean Randolph Bell and Kit are testing the waters of a potential relationship, Devon and Leela’s relationship was going strong, until his medical crisis had the doctors wondering if he would survive.
He struck his head in the elevator after being poisoned as a result of entering that room to locate his patient. The entire time everyone was thinking about Devon, I’m screaming at the TV screen: “What about his patient people?” I should have KNOWN something was up when Nic (Emily Van Camp) was not on the season premiere episode last week. It immediately struck me. Did she leave the show, because I had not kept up with the behind the scenes workings.
I looked online and found out that Van Camp was indeed leaving the show and it shattered me. My gut told me she would be killed off and I’m like, “Noooo.” We’ll discuss more of that later because there was other drama transpiring as well. Jessica Lucas’ character, Dr. Billie Sutton was getting the hang of things as the new neurosurgeon at Chastain replacing the villainous Conrad Bain (Morris Chestnut), who is now on the series “Our Kind of People). Billie has a past; she has a son, as the result of a sexual assault that transpired when she was 13.
That son reached out to Billie, she wanted nothing to do with him, but he returned in this week’s episode and we met Trevor. The kid is a smart one just like his mother. He was placed in a situation where he rushed to the hospital to seek treatment for his pal who overdosed. Billie suspected Trevor was stalking him, but she learned the situation was not as it appeared. Trevor created a recreational drug that raised eyebrows for Dr. Sutton and Dr. AJ Austin. Trevor is a chemist and it seems Dr. Austin sees his potential.
Conrad traced Devon’s last moves and stumbled upon his patient in that room and solved the case as to what was causing Devon’s symptoms. AJ realizing the tension between Billie and Trevor pulled the kid aside and discovered that he was Billie’s son. The surgeon had a heart-to-heart with Billie asking her to consider the situation even though it was painful for her to go back to that dark place in her past.
So the episode appeared to be heading in a positive direction with Devon recovering, Trevor’s pal surviving that tense surgery, and Conrad anticipating the arrival of his wife at their home. Instead he was greeted by police, as he held Gigi in his arms. The look on Conrad’s face said it all, tragedy was coming. The tease for next week’s episode hints that Nic’s time on the show has come to an end, and it looks like it will be a heartbreaking sendoff to say the least.
I really do wish “The Resident” would have tried to keep the fact that Nic was dying a secret from the audience. It hurts the impact of the realization when it actually happens because the audience knows what is coming. “The Resident” has me on edge right now, but it opens the door for some major storytelling angles for Conrad and the rest of the characters on the show, it should indeed be an interesting season five to say the least.
