The Resident Season 5 review: Chastain Memorial’s finest soldier on through highs and lows

Even when they are hurting from great personal loss or ill health, for the doctors at Chastain Memorial, duty comes first.

Malcom Jamal Warner and Matt Czuchry on the show

The Resident Season 6

Story: After Nic Nevin dies at Chastain, Conrad leaves it in favour of private practice, only to return a few years later. Everyone else is still around, be it Kit Voss, Randolph Bell, Devon Pravesh, Leela Devi, AJ, Billie Sutton, etc., and they are all happy to have Conrad back in the fold. Also a part of the team is new ER doctor Cade Sullivan, who is brilliant at work, but remains a mystery to people at work. How does it all work out this season?

Review: Since it began in 2018, the medical drama The Resident did not have too many major upheavals as far as its principal cast goes, until season 4, that is. First, they lost Shaunette Renee Wilson, who played Mina Okafor, a brilliant surgical resident and AJ’s (Malcom-Jamal Warner) love interest, and then came the bigger jolt when series regular Emily VanCamp called it quits.

While Shaunette thought her time on the show had run its course, Emily had to leave because she was expecting her first child with Revenge co-star and husband Josh Bowman. In fact, Season 4 ended with a cliff-hanger that was the precursor to Emily’s character Nic Nevin being written out. She’d met with an accident and despite her husband Conrad Hawkins’ (Matt Czuchry) best efforts, Nic could not be saved.

The showrunners wasted no time in introducing a new character into the mix – Cade Sullivan- but only after accounting for enough time for Conrad to mourn Nic and think about moving on. It helped that the show got a 23 episode full-run this time around, so beside the routine medical emergencies, the main cast had a lot of developments. For instance, there was the mystery surrounding Billie’s child, Randolph’s (Bruce Greenwood) MS diagnosis, Leela’s attempt to become a double Board-certified surgeon, Padma’s quest to motherhood and so much more.

For extra drama, there was Randolph’s crusade against the state medical board, as well as a dangerous mafia-run medicare fraud that was operating with fake prescriptions by doctors including Conrad. Cade (Kayle Ronayne), a whistleblower in the FBI’s case against this fraud, even got shot while trying to set things right. A lot happened on this season of The Resident.

The show has now been renewed for a sixth season, but at the time the finale was shot, the makers had no clue they would get another outing, which is also probably why it didn’t have a major cliff-hanger moment. Yes, we still don’t know who Conrad ends up with – Cade or Billie (Jessica Lucas) – but that’s something we can live with. It wasn’t like Season 4, when Nic’s life was hanging in the balance. At the end of season 5, AJ, who recently lost his mother, has something to look forward to. As Padma’s (Aneesha Joshi) sperm donor, he’s fathering twins. Leela (Anuja Joshi) and Devon (Manish Dayal) have patched up, so there’s no chance that he will leave Chastain for a cushy job in Baltimore. Cade’s on the mend after being gunned down, and her father has survived surgery to take out a cancerous tumour in his pancreas.

Verdict: The Resident Season 5 has ended on a good note. A sixth is on the horizon and we look forward to our fave doctors returning to take on newer challenges. Medical dramas are always more about its main characters than the medicine itself, so the showrunners have their work cut out in figuring out just enough twists and turns to keep the momentum going. Although they have brought in Cade’s dad, Dr Ian Sullivan (Andrew McCarthy) into the mix, perhaps some fresh blood could shake things up for the better.

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