I’ll be the first to admit that I thought FBI was just going to be another procedural show. Just one of many, many others that we already have cluttering our TV schedule, without nothing really new to offer. But I watched a trailer and realized Missy Peregrym was going to be in it, so I just had to give it a chance. The Rookie Blue fan in me wouldn’t let me pass this by, so when it premiered, I was ready for it.
Continue reading “FBI 1×13 Review: Crime and Family Matters”
We’ve heard it all before: follow your heart; the heart wants what it wants; the head and the heart want different things, etc. It seems that The Resident 2×14 “Stupid Things In the Name of Sex” was out to prove that the head generally wins on Valentine’s Day.
Poor Gertie. In the beginning of the episode, viewers are introduced to Mina’s sweet and very active geriatric neighbor, Gertie (BettyLynn Allison). She’s a sweet, gluten-free cookie-baking, pilates loving woman, who has even agreed to care for Julian’s cat. Devon has brought flowers for Gertie to thank her for caring for the abandoned (orphaned?) feline.
Later at the hospital, paramedics wheel Gertie into the emergency room where she is pronounced dead. Mina and Devon are devastated and are puzzled as to how this happened after just seeing an alive and bubbly Gertie hours before.
Mina and Devon are then tasked with breaking the news to Gertie’s only living relative: her niece, Nora (Shanley Caswell). Prepared for tears and a solemn encounter, Devon and Mina put on somber faces and offer a box of tissues to Gertie’s niece. Clearly, breaking the news to the loved one of such a sweet woman would be devastating. Devon and Mina are shocked to find a cold and impervious woman more interested in the insurance money than the truth behind the death of a healthy and active 70 year old relative. Nora reveals that her aunt was sweet, but not to her and was especially critical of her relationships. Nora just wants to move to Portland. Manish Dayal and Shaunette Renee Wilson are hilarious in this scene as they stare open-mouthed and astonished at Nora’s callousness.
This is the second time within this season that The Resident has painted a horrifying picture of mishandled or purposeful negligent autopsies. Devon turns to Bell and asks for an autopsy of Gertie due to the sudden nature of her death. Bell informs Devon that autopsies are too expensive and that the cause of death will just be listed as a heart condition. He carelessly adds that the heart is always a cause of death. Truer words could not be spoken.
Bell, however, is not the only one who fails Gertie’s legacy. Her primary care physician ultimately lists her cause of death as having to do with her heart. But this episodes’ dynamic duo, Devon and Mina, find a creative way to find out the truth: they convince the niece to donate Gertie’s body to science by telling her that she won’t have to pay for Gertie’s funeral. Yes, this character is that vile.
And with a request to the self-proclaimed “Doctor of Love” himself, Dr. AJ Austin, Gertie’s autopsy is a ‘go’. Would AJ actually decline a request of Mina’s? With an audience of Dr. Austin’s overachieving medical students, AJ, Mina, and Devon discover that Gertie’s cause of death was actually a brain aneurism. They also discover that Gertie had been living with polycystic kidney disease. Devon remembers that the niece had mentioned having headaches. With convincing, Mina insists Nora should be tested which leads to Mina’s first brain surgery. Nora had two brain aneurisms that could have burst at any time.
After Devon and Mina essentially save her life, Nora baffles them once again — thinking with her head — and starts inquiring into her aunt’s death certificate to obtain insurance money so that she can finally move to Portland. If only this lady had any heart.
Otto and Andre are the couple that I never knew I needed in an episode of television. There was a serious depth to this couple in a way that did not feel forced or overbearing. Conrad is first introduced to Otto and Andre in the emergency room, when Otto arrives with some minor symptoms of dizziness and fatigue. The couple is playful and sweet. They are joking about their Valentine’s Day plans and their plans for the future. Andre insists that they need to save their nickels. Otto says that he already made a “rezzy”. How freaking adorable. After preliminary tests, Otto is admitted for low sodium and anemia. He also has signs of kidney failure.
There’s subtle hints to this couple’s past. Otto says he’s 20 years sober in his initial contact with Conrad. He was once a med student but now is a substitute teacher. Andre looks confused at points when Otto is speaking, as if Otto isn’t making sense to him. After more testing and a dramatic situation of Otto needing to be intubated as blood filled his lung, Conrad and Dr. Nolan (known to me as Dr. Douche) determine that Otto is suffering from an autoimmune disorder. Nolan tells Andre that he and Otto can go back to their normal life.
“Normal life.” Andre retorts.
At the sudden sign of human emotion, Dr. Douche is out leaving Conrad to console Andre. Andre fears that Otto is drinking again. He explains that when he met him he was a hot medical student, but eventually had to drop out because of his drinking. He tells Conrad it was worth it because he loved Otto. But Andre reveals that Otto is telling lies again, causing him to think that he’s drinking again. He never made them Valentine’s Day reservations, despite claiming to have made them. He talked about having been on trips that they never went on. Conrad says that Otto didn’t show signs of alcohol abuse. And because Conrad always knows, he looks into this further, and discovers that Otto has dementia as a symptom of all of his years of alcoholism.
Andre takes this news hard. He says that they talked about traveling the world. They dreamt of Paris. Conrad gently explains that they can be together, but that they have to be together in Otto’s world. As Andre thinks, Otto awakens and happily waves to Andre through the glass. I can’t tell you enough about the level of perfection of Ron Simons as Otto and Carlos Lacamara as Andre. These two guest stars exemplified true love and sacrifice.
And in quite possibly, the best scene in this show, Andre shows stock images of Paris and Spain to Otto. When Otto asks if they went to Paris, Andre explains that they did go and they kissed by a fountain for hours. Otto smiles, “I remember. It was so romantic.”
Could this show get any better?
After Irving predicts that it will be a Valentine’s Day full of strange happenings, Dr. Voss is introduced to Chet (Paul Skye Lehrman). Chet is literally attached to a vehicle door in the emergency room. When he is removed from the door, Chet reveals that he was being intimate with a stranger that he met online in his car.
This storyline was strange to me. I understand the purpose of having the Valentine’s Day fling in there but I felt like this whole thing took up too much screen time from an already really good episode. With the exception of a few funny lines and demonstrations of sexual positioning, I found this storyline obnoxious; especially obnoxious when the Valentine’s Day hookup shows up at the hospital to have hospital sex and thus causing Chet to need surgery.
This then led to an awkward scrubbing in conversation between Bell and Voss about attending the same event later in the evening. And oh, well, why should they bother taking two cars if they’re going to the same event. I like Kitt (Jane Leaves), but I’m not sure how I feel about such a badass doctor falling for Bell. I get it. She humanizes him. She even took him back to a time when he was a surgeon for the medicine and not the money, but he’s gone so far down the evil path that I’m not sure there’s a point of return for him. And Kitt Voss deserves better than the evil Bell.
Irving (Tasso Feldman) had his own Valentine’s Day mishap when he refused to acknowledge that he and Nurse Jessica were actually a couple in front of their colleagues. I’ve always enjoyed the little Dr. Feldman/Nurse Jessica interactions as the comedic relief in the episode that they were, but this was a nice addition of substance to the couple. But Feldman redeemed himself when he set up a table in the elevator that started it all for them and revealed that he was afraid Jessica was going to be ashamed of him. When he turned to his heart, he saved face and extended a really sweet gesture to his lady.
But the two couple highlights for me this episode were Conic and … AJ and Mina. Yes, I know that this episode was about Mina and Micah’s (Patrick R. Walker) Valentine’s Day but there was so many sweet AJ and Mina moments.
Conic started out the episode with an intimate scene that was everything Conic fans could have ever wanted. Conrad surprises Nic with reservation that he made at a fancy and popular restaurant. When she asked how he was able to make reservations at such a popular place, he says that he made them 8 months in advance. 8 months in advance, people. But when Nic has to stay over night at Jessie’s rehab for an early morning group session, they have to give up their reservations.
Conrad still surprises Nic in the parking lot of rehab with a cheese stick, apples, and sparkling water in quite possibly the sweetest last minute Valentine’s Day date ever. Because clearly after watching Otto and Andre find a way to be together, Conrad had to be with Nic that night.
Conrad gifts his reservation to AJ and tells him that he hears that he’s quite the romantic. When AJ tells Conrad he’s going to pay the reservation forward, Conrad asks who the recipient would be. AJ responds, “To someone already in love.”
And yes, AJ Austin gives his reservation to Mina and Micah, who he had overheard making last minute plans for dinner on Valentine’s Day. This was after AJ checked in on Mina, knowing that she had just lost her neighbor. This was after they worked together to determine the cause of death for a woman who deserved the correct autopsy findings on her death certificate. Because AJ knows Mina and knows what excites and inspires her. He knows when she is hurting and he knows her heart.
At dinner, Mina thinks that Micah is having a heart attack when in actuality he was just trying to get a ring out of his chest pocket to propose. Viewers are left with a nervous Micah on one knee and a flustered Mina with no response.
As much as I love Micah’s sweetness and big heart, I don’t think he is right for Mina and clearly doesn’t understand her disdain for surprises or grand gestures.
The Resident shows us that on Valentine’s Day, in medicine, or in matters of sex sometimes the head wins over the heart.
Random Thoughts:
The Resident airs on Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.
If you have not watched The Resident 2×13 “Virtually Impossible”, then you definitely need to drop whatever you are doing, and watch one of the best episodes that this show has graced us with.
This show truly gets better and better due to one key thing: character investment. We are absolutely 100% in love with these characters. Throughout season one, we fell in love with Conrad and then Nic. And we fell in love with their love and respect for one another. When we thought that we couldn’t love a cold-hearted Mina or a cocky, arrogant new resident doctor, Devon Pravesh – we fell in love with them, too. They gave us the abrasive, yet quirky, AJ Austin, and with time we realized that we adored his passion and unique outlook on life.
This episode may have even made me respect Dr. Randolph Bell just a (tiny) bit, but yes, The Resident can even make you love a character like Dr. Bell, or at least have an understanding of him. In this episode, we wanted to hold our beloved Chastain team. We rejoiced in their surgical win. And we truly smiled a big Conrad-like grin when everyone seemed to end up on the same side for once. But the theme of this episode was the great unknown, and we held our breath with these characters the whole way through.
Dr. Kitt Voss’s (Jane Leeves) patient Eloise (Chelsea Kurtz) is in need of a double lung transplant because of cystic fibrosis. Dr. Voss tells Conrad early on that Eloise is special to her, because she is a devoted medical student. After determining that Eloise is no longer eligible for the transplant due to liver failure and elevated sugar levels, Conrad and Kitt reveal to Eloise that there is another way: a liver, pancreas and lung transplant.
Eloise and her parents decide to go through with the transplant, as Eloise would only have a few weeks to live without the surgery. The surgery has only been successfully completed once before in Canada, and the surgeons will need approval from the ethics board to go through with it.
Eloise’s character seemed familiar to me and with an online search, I realized that her character was reminiscent of a real-life cystic fibrosis warrior, Claire Wineland, who graced the internet with her story and survival while battling cystic fibrosis through videos, stories, and positive messages of living life the best way we can. Claire sadly passed away in September, but left her mark as an activist and author in the cystic fibrosis community.
The character of Eloise, too, wanted to share her medical procedures and the risky surgery with medical students and other cystic fibrosis patients as an educational tool. I love that this show uses real-life inspiration for their characters and sheds the light on real circumstances of patients and medical personnel.
Dr. Voss asks Conrad what doctor would be crazy enough to chance this surgery, and with a comically executed scene change, viewers are shown the infinite ‘Raptor’ dutifully accepting the challenge and announcing that the “quarterback is coming off the bench”. Unfortunately, Dr. Austin has recently been sidelined once again by Bell after he was confronted with Mina’s findings about the defective QuoVadis heart valves. Bell tells AJ to “lay low” and to halt performing high-risk surgeries until Bell can look into the valves further.
Dr. Voss and Conrad appeal to the ethics committee by appealing to Bell’s’ inner surgeon. Dr. Voss narrates a moment in medical times, when there was a surgeon who would’ve performed any challenging surgery in Atlanta that came his way just to save a patient. She further shares that the Dr. Bell from another time would’ve jumped on the chance to advance science and to make history. And because clearly Dr. Voss knows Bell and knows how to appeal to his inner arrogance, Bell eats this up and agrees to the surgery.
And what a surgery it is. After complications with the donor lungs, Eloise’s parents volunteer to each donate a lobe of their lungs to Eloise. Eloise’s mother suffers complications, but ultimately, the surgery is successful and Eloise breathes through healthy lungs for the first time.
This scene was mesmerizing to watch, and not for the surgical chaos that is was. And not for the livestream video that was being streamed to Eloise’s fellow med students at her request. It was beautiful to watch this epic tag team surgery of awesome surgeons. Mina, AJ, and Bell relying on and trusting one another. Conrad supporting Kitt, as she held her breath watching her beloved patient undergoing an intense and very risky surgery. This, hands down, was probably one of the most emotional and most well-done scene involving our doctors yet.
Viewers continued to struggle emotionally when Eloise takes her breath from healthy lungs donated lovingly from her parents, and she declares that it feels like she was born again. Sob. And further sob when her mother squeezes her hand despite being on a breathing tube after her surgery complication. This show. My god, the feelings.
While the team is focused on Eloise and her high-risk procedure, Nic is focused on her high-risk sister, Jessie (Julianna Guill). Nic has arranged for a job interview as a paralegal for Jessie. Nic does all of Jessie’s homework for her. She researches the job and the firm’s cases. Jessie seems anxious, but Nic passes it off as nerves due to the interview. When Jessie shows up at the hospital in a new outfit and having already missed the bus, Conrad and Mina know something is going on with her. Nic gives Jessie twenty dollars to catch a cab and wishes her luck ignoring the obvious signs of Jessie’s changing moods.
When Conrad tries to question whether or not Jessie should be tested, Nic snaps at him and explains that they are in a really good place.
Nic tries to text Jessie later for an update, but runs into parents of a high school friend of Jessie’s. When she asks about their daughter, they bring her to the room of a woman on a ventilator. Their daughter is the organ donor for Eloise. Nic is then subjected to a tale of a very familiar story.
The parents talk about how their daughter has been addicted to opioids since high school. She was prescribed oxycodone for an athletic injury and the addiction spawned from there. The mother said she thought she was back on track but the father shamefully admits that he saw the signs: lack of appetite, mood swings etc. When the mother asks why he didn’t say anything to her, he admits that he didn’t want to see it.
If the Chastain team wins the award for best scene this episode, Emily VanCamp wins best solo performance hands down. She can portray so much emotion with her facial expressions alone. Her face in that scene alone said so much without her even uttering a single word. You knew her thoughts. You felt her emotions and you knew that Nic Nevins was getting in a vehicle to find her sister. Because she knew in that moment, she just didn’t want to admit that Jessie was using again.
After returning home and ultimately finding pills in Jessie’s purse, Nic tells her that she is going back to rehab. Jessie refuses and Nic painfully tells her to leave. I cannot tell you enough how beautifully executed this scene was. VanCamp and Guill portrayed this familial bond fighting through addiction so well. As Nic closes the door, Jessie is left crying over a pile of pills on the floor and Nic is left sobbing over her steering wheel as she finally has to cut the cord and let her sister hit rock bottom before she will accept help. Their performances were outstanding.
Hikers locate Julian’s car at the beginning of the episode. Police recover the vehicle from the bottom of the lake and identify the vehicle’s owner as Julian Booth. When they go to open the vehicle, there is no body.
They indicate that a search and rescue team will attempt to recover the body from the lake. This new information is broadcasted all over the news and is seen by the doctors of Chastain, including Mina and Conrad. Conrad dutifully calls Devon to let him know. Devon, who has returned to his empty and Priya-less apartment is awoken to his cell phone ringing. After Conrad break the news, Devon shows up at Julian’s apartment and convinces her landlord that he is actually there to take Julian’s abandoned cat. After getting caught going through Julian’s mail by the landlord, Devon takes her cat and her phone bill. He later discovers that Julian’s last phone call was placed to the FDA.
He goes to Conrad and Nic with his newfound discoveries. Just last season it was Nic who was investigating the felonious wrongdoings of Lane Hunter. She became invested and almost got taken down for looking into Lane’s murderous poisoning of patients. Will Devon be the next target for looking too closely? It does appear that way.
Yet, once again viewers are left with a big question: Where is Julian?
When Bell is confronted with the information of Dr. Benedict’s payout from QuoVadis by Mina and AJ, they reveal their source of the information: a website called “Dollars For Docs”. And as soon as Mina and AJ have left the room, Bell confirms what he already knows; that he is also a doctor tied monetarily to QuoVadis. Bell schedules a meeting with Gordon Page (Michael Weston).
Whether he likes it or not, Bell trusts Mina, and he believes in the skill level of AJ Austin. So when he is presented with the evidence that Mina has researched the downfall of these heart valves, Bell knows that this is bad news. He asks Page about the valves and questions whether or not they should be pulled until they are further researched. Page puffs up his chest and tells Bell that when he asked him for money, Page didn’t hesitate to give him money, put him on his board, and only ask for loyalty in return. Page threatens Bell and informs him that he is disappointed that he would even dare inform Page on how to run his company, and says if Bell pulls the valves, there will be consequences.
Nic had to send her sister into an unknown spiral of addiction. Devon still faces perplexing question of the unknown whereabouts of Julian. Eloise took a leap of faith and without knowing what the outcome of her surgery would be, she took a chance on life. And like all of these characters taking giant steps forward into the unknown circumstances that lay ahead, Dr. Randolph Bell took a chance and did the right thing. He pulled the QuoVadis heart valves from Chastain after working with this colleagues and getting a little taste again of the surgeon he once was.
Hopefully he doesn’t face these threatened consequences.
The Resident airs on Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.
We are back from a two-week hiatus! I hope everyone enjoyed the break and managed to find something to fill their Friday night in its absence. I know it was probably difficult. Blue Bloods is not an easy habit to kick, and why would you ever want to? Let’s get started, shall we?
Only The Resident could pull off a parallel between the Black Plague and all of the turmoils and infectious qualities of relationships. In 2×12 “Fear Finds a Way,” that’s exactly what the show does, and it does it so well. Devon and Irving are inundated with an overcrowded emergency room from flu season. The Resident begins the episode showing viewers just how easy it it is to spread germs by horrifying us with revealing those iridescent little green particles passed from person to person, and from object to object. I don’t know about other viewers but this whole sequence made me want to Lysol my entire house. And myself.
One of my favorite parts of the show is how it’s constantly bringing familiar faces back – faces that seem inconsequential at the time, but somehow always end up a significant part of the show. In this case, we were reintroduced to Meg Mullins (Dot-Marie Jones), a corrections officer from Nic’s short time in prison. Meg ends up in the emergency room claiming that there’s something going on with her eye, when she breaks up a fight in an agitated and impatient ER. Once she polices the emergency room, Meg begins to struggle and looks as if she’s going to faint. Devon discovers a severe bloodshot eye and irritated rash on her skin. Meg and Sam (Michael Rady) become the two most highlighted patients at Chastain because of the severity and onset of their symptoms. They also seem to be the two that reveal so much about relationships.
Meg and Sam both end up in quarantine and place the hospital on a high alert because of severe flu-like symptoms that no one can diagnose immediately. Conrad, Nic, and Dr. Shaw work together to perform tests and to discover who “patient zero” is, to prevent the spread of a severe infectious disease. Dr. Shaw is recruited to help out at Chastain by Dr. Bell who is eager to clear out the overcrowded hospital in exchange for two ultrasound machines. I’ll give Alec credit: he can negotiate. The ultimate horrifying diagnosis: the Black Plague.
The Fear That Plagues Us
In what appears to be this adorable gesture, Conrad walks Nic into an unknown place with hands over her eyes to reveal that he has asked a favor of a real estate agent to show them a gorgeous apartment before it’s actually on the market. He spouts off all of the positive aspects to the place: it’s close to Chastain, they can afford it because they’d only be paying one rent, and it has a yard to raise chickens. (Never thought Conrad to be the chicken type, but okay.) The whole scene appears adorable and screams grand, romantic gesture that some women might swoon over and throw their panties at men for. No judgement from me; however, Nic Nevins looks around this place in sheer horror disguised as a pleasantly polite smile and demeanor.
For as strong and as fearless as Nic presents herself to be, there is an underlying fear that drives and haunts her. Nic Nevins is afraid. With the revelations of their past issues and losses and the constant reminder of a dependent sister, I can completely empathize why Nic is afraid to commit and to move forward with things just seeming to settle and be comfortable. I realize how unpopular of an opinion this will be, judging by some of the Twitter banter, but as sweet as Conrad’s gesture was, you do not make such a bold move like presenting a perfect apartment to a woman like Nic, without having a freaking conversation about it first. Nic values her own worth, her independence, her ability to make her own choices, and her freedom. You don’t present these things to Nic. You have a conversation and let her decide on such a big decision with you. You give a woman like Nic Nevins a voice. Conrad, of course, senses how uncomfortable she is.
Through most of the episode, viewers are tortured with the very clear and obvious tension in the room between Nic and Conrad. When Meg asks how they are doing, there is an awkward and polite response about doing great. Conrad later reveals to Meg that he thinks he’s screwing up the whole ‘relationship thing’ when Meg is talking about how she’d love to call her ex-girlfriend as her symptoms persist. Meg insists Conrad figure out his issues because Nic is a keeper.
After some more cold banter and Nic exposes herself to the unknown flu that Meg and Sam are being quarantined for, Conrad makes another decision on his own to turn down the apartment. Again, Nic looks annoyed and disappointed. Honestly, I don’t blame her because there’s nothing worse than having a big, bold decision flashed in your face and before you can even think clearly about it, the big, bold decision is taken away from you before you even have a chance of making your own decision. Again, give her a voice. Come on, Conrad. This is Nic Nevins. Let her make a damn decision on her own.
Meanwhile, Devon has his own realizations while talking to the other severe patient, Sam who claims he has experienced love at first sight. Devon clearly thinks of his short-lived affair with Julian – the still very missing QuoVadis rep. Because of Devon’s rapport with Sam, Conrad and Devon are able to put the missing puzzle pieces together and realize that Sam’s new-found love, Sue is actually patient zero. Conrad and Devon theorize that Sue probably obtained the Black Plague from fleas in Yosemite National Park.
After a long day of exposing herself to the Black Plague, Nic goes to Conrad’s apartment where they finally have it out after a long day of all the things unsaid. Conrad asks for honesty and Nic reveals that she really just wants things to stay the way they are. Conrad accuses Nic of not having anything left to fix in him and therefore thinks that she has moved on emotionally. Oh, Conrad. And with that, Nic bids Conrad ‘goodnight’ and leaves.
As much as I wanted to pick up my TV in a very Hulk-like fashion and throw it across the room at the sight of them in turmoil, I know Nic really needs this space right now. Again, I’m going to share another unpopular opinion here but I think Nic needs to go throw this and find her way back to Conrad. She really needs to figure this out on her own, and realize that her wanting to be with Conrad is real and not just her not letting go of the past. I have faith in CoNic. I think they truly belong to one another and compliment the other perfectly. I have faith she will be forced to face her fears. I just hope that she figures it out before they take this whole Dr. Medicine-In-A-Van story-line too far. I have faith in the writing. The writers never have really failed us before.
God-Like
By far, my most favorite story-line this episode was the one showcasing the power couple of network television: Mina and August (what?!), aka AJ Austin. After gifting his surgeries away like a surgical Santa Claus, Mina is forced to work with Dr. Nolan (Michael Hogan) on what would have been AJ’s surgery. This sends Mina on a mission when she misses working with her mentor. Mina begins testing the QuoVadis heart valves with a lab tech,and after several tests, they conclude that the QuoVadis devices are faulty. They cannot handle the heart activity of young, active patients.
Mina confronts AJ with her findings. She addresses him as August (I guess she means business) and tells him that Bradley’s death was not his fault.
“You are a God.”
Well, that’s quite the compliment coming from Mina, but AJ is still hesitant to believe Mina. He says that he would have done anything to work with his mentor, Abe Benedict. She tells him that Benedict is wrong and that he’s being stubborn by not listening to her.
And in quite possibly the most epic scene that they have ever graced us with, Mina and AJ enter a restaurant to discover Dr. Abe Benedict (Mike Pniewski) and his wife. Mina is hesitant about where this conversation is going but when she realizes that AJ is confronting Benedict about his partnership and pay off from QuoVadis, she happily takes a seat next to Dr. Austin. AJ praises Mina and her ferocity, her drive to always do the right thing and for realizing what is important in medicine. After revealing that he knows Benedict put a payout over their professional relationship and friendship, AJ exits the table by callously saying, “See you around, Abe.” This is after AJ calls his mentor ‘disappointing’. This scene was a game changer for AJ. He chose Mina.
And did you see it? Did you see AJ escorting Mina out of the restaurant by placing his hand on her back. I sure did. That’s the power couple of the century right there.
Infection Spreading
QuoVadis seems to have a very clear modus operandi. After Bell’s assistant, Grayson (Radek Lord) discovers that QuoVadis had past dealings with Jacksonville General, Bell tells him to dig deeper. He wants to know who Page had worked with and what device Page was pushing at Jacksonville General. Grayson researches the partnership throughout the episode and discovers that the CEO that was once working with Gordon Page is now deceased after jumping off of a building 10 months ago.
Will Bell suffer the same fate if he rejects his deal with Page? I’m still holding out hope that Julian Booth will be back seeking revenge for all of the horrible wrongdoings QuoVadis is spreading around the medical community.
Random Thoughts
The Resident airs on Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.
“Aftermath” indeed, The Good Doctor fans, as Monday’s episode focused on the fallout and lives of our favorite doctors post the super stressful quarantine they dealt with. Despite the drama, I have to say this will probably land to be one of my favorite episodes of the season, with a rare (ish) focus on our resident MD’s (pun intended) lives outside their shifts at St. Bonaventure.
If there was one phrase that consistently came to mind during the misadventures of our doctors, I’d pick “quality of life.” It’s a turn of phrase we associate with the medical industry, but The Good Doctor did a damn good job portraying how that applies both in and outside a hospital’s grounds. From Claire and Morgan buddy time, to the family outing with Park and his ex, Lea’s day of fun with Shaun and Glassman, and last, but not least, the ‘relationship’ drama with Lim and Melendez, it was eye-opening to have that glimpse of a medical drama without any serious health issues at the forefront.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love how this show regularly balances their time with these characters, personally and professionally, dealing with medical problems on television, but seeing them in their own lives just for a little while was storytelling I’d wish be used more often.
Back to our regularly scheduled drama, the term quality of life draws up a picture of enjoying the time we have while we are here — which can be anything from beating young people at go karts to spending time with the people we care about. It begs the question of when we want to be happy, what do we choose to do — or choose to see — after experiencing a stressful day (quarantine) at work? How do we find joy in the moments we’ve got when we are sick of hospitals, and doctors, and therapies?
Every choice we make is a clear indication of who we are, but also who matters to us. Morgan, in the mother of all surprises sought out Claire, and blackmailed her into mimosas. I honestly had to laugh, because it turned into a proper girls day after helping Claire’s mom deal with her relationship issues and some revelations about Morgan. Claire might roll her eyes, and lose her patience with Morgan, but at the end of the day, these ladies are forging a real friendship.
Shaun spent the day hanging out with Lea and Glassman — that, after being a grumpy pants to try and bust Lea, who instantly picked up on his nosiness, ended up having a damn good day. Bravo, Glassman, for turning that attitude around to keep living, while being a good friend to Shaun, pointing out he deserves to be happy. I tend to disagree with Glassman on a bit (lot), but that statement was an unequivocal truth. Which made Shaun’s heartbreak at meeting Lea’s boyfriend Luke that much harder to see. I hope he stands up for himself because as much as I like Lea, Shaun deserves his voice in this. Let’s hope he uses it — and I have a feeling he will.
Park and his ex laid out some much needed truths on what fell apart in their marriage. As easy as it was before to blame her for cheating, the truth of the matter was far more complicated, as it tends to be in real life. Her reluctance to try again is entirely understandable, but I’m rooting for these two to work it out, because they love each other. (Probably doesn’t hurt they’re actually married, but that’s besides the point.)
I’m saving the weirdest for last, because as touching as it was to see Lim admit the truth about her feelings towards Melendez, I’m not quite buying the whole “feelings for a long time” thing from these writers. I hope the best for these two on the grounds I don’t want either of them to be unhappy, but I don’t see this going the way they want, starting off hiding it from literally everyone because they are under investigation. Oy vey.
Every single moment with these characters, as cheesy as it sounds, portray quality of life because they remind us of the little things, and the fun days are sometimes what make life worth living. To have an impulse day of fun, shopping, treat yo self, or the harder things of facing what you feel when it’s heartbreaking to do it. Whatever your choice is, just go out and live — God knows we need it in the reality we’ve got out here.
The Good Doctor airs on Mondays at 10/9C on ABC.
It was a mistake that was almost made that haunted ‘The Raptor’ himself, Dr. AJ Austin (Malcolm-Jamal Warner). The Resident 2×11: “Operator Error” begins with a pep-talk between best friends, Devon (Manish Dayal) and Bradley (Steven Reddington). Bradley is trying to kickstart his medical marketing firm by pitching QuoVadis products to Chastain. While giving his presentation, Bradley collapses to the floor and Bell confirms that he has no pulse.
