The Resident Season 5 Premiere Sets Up Emily VanCamp’s Looming Exit
Here’s the good news for fans of The Resident‘s Nic Nevin: As of Tuesday’s Season 5 premiere, at least, Nic is alive and well and getting some much-needed rest at a spa retreat out of town.
The bad news? Even though Nic is still part of the show during the season opener, the episode heavily suggests that her eventual exit will be unexpected and heartbreaking, making it tough to enjoy even the sweetest moments of Conrad’s stint as Mr. Mom during the hour.
Last month, the news broke that original series star Emily VanCamp is leaving the medical drama after serving as its female lead since the pilot episode. Despite her on-camera absence, though, VanCamp’s voice is heard during a phone call between Conrad and Nic early in Tuesday’s premiere, in which Nic worries that baby Gigi will have a hard time adjusting while Mama’s out of town. Nic will be home from her spa trip the following night, though — at least, that’s what we’re led to believe for now — so Conrad only needs to fly solo for about 36 hours.
Conrad balances his chaotic work day with the temporary single-dad life as best he can, and he appreciates his sweet daughter even more after watching a father nearly lose his 14-year-old child at Chastain that afternoon. In a gut-wrenching twist, the teenager pulls through, but her dad later experiences a heart attack and dies during surgery. (Tear ducts working overtime here, folks!) But before that happens, the father reveals to Conrad that his wife left when their daughter was just one year old, and he can’t fathom life without his daughter when it’s just been the two of them for so many years. Then, at the end of the hour, Dr. Austin gets emotional thinking about all the life milestones that the young girl will now have to experience without her father by her side.
That’s a whole lotta foreshadowing about the unexpected loss of a loved one; at this point, given the premiere’s themes and the cops who arrive at Conrad’s door in the Season 5 trailer, my guess is a car accident or similarly sudden tragedy might claim Nic’s life on her way home from the spa. To pour a little salt in that inevitable wound, Tuesday’s episode ends with Conrad watching Gigi while she plays before bed. He checks his phone to see two missed calls from Nic, plus a text from her that reads, “Love you. Going to sleep. Talk tomorrow.”
“Sorry we missed your call,” he writes back. “Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.” And when Gigi calls for Mama when Conrad sets her down in her crib for the night, he reminds her, “Dada will have to do until tomorrow night.” A moment later, Gigi finally repeats, “Dada,” and Conrad beams.
Other developments from the premiere:
* Chastain Park becomes the target of a ransomware attack, which quickly and significantly affects patient care across the board. Fortunately, Devon remembers a coding-savvy college friend of his who specializes in warding off phishing scams, and he brings her to the hospital last-minute to (successfully!) thwart the cyberterrorists.
* After a long and intense day at work, Bell invites Kit to grab dinner with him, but she awkwardly declines. On the bright side, both docs look back at each other longingly on their way out of the hospital — and hey, there’s hope yet for these two!
* The episode takes place after a nine-month time jump, and Devon and Leela are now in a fully committed relationship after their hookup in the Season 4 finale. Devon even suggests they move in together, “and I can wake up to you every single day,” he tells Leela. Swoon. But by the end of the hour, Devon’s life is suddenly in jeopardy, too: Realizing that one of his patients from that day — a blind man who was last seen waiting on a cast for his broken arm — never signed himself out of the hospital, Devon goes looking for the man and finds him unconscious in a janitor’s closet, where there appears to be some kind of gas or chemical leak unfolding. Devon calls out for help, but the entire hallway is empty… and the leak is quickly making Devon cough, too.
Now that you’re worried about multiple Resident characters, it’s time to weigh in on the season premiere. Grade the episode in our poll below, then drop a comment with your reactions!
I can’t even bear to watch. Been watching since Day 1, but I prefer to believe the show was cancelled at the end of last season rather than watch Nic die. I’ll keep reading the recaps for now, though.
It’s too bad that it seems that we won’t even get to see her onscreen again before she exits. There was the phone call, was actually surprised we heard her side of the convo.
Loved how Conrad loves his daughter. Also was impressed how the hospital was able to thwart the ransom ware attack.
So distressed Nic is leaving!
I’m on the verge of not engaging with this program anymore. Watched tonight’s opening episode. If this season is like all the others where the music drowns out the dialogue I will be switching channels. I’m tired of having to put close caption on so that I can catch the dialogue that the music drowns out.
what’s even more annoying.. they close caption the music lyrics too!!!
The actor who played the blind man with a broken wrist actually knows his way around a hospital set. He played a male nurse on the Edie Falco show Nurse Jackie.
He plays a nurse on SVU, too. 👍
Thanks RicheS. It was driving me crazy trying to figure out where I’ve seen him before
Loved this premiere, but I’m dreading them killing Nic off
Also, found it a little funny that both the 9-1-1 premiere and The Resident premiere featured a hospital getting hacked
Me too! I’m really surprised no one thought to change that rather than repeat plot lines.
And next week on FBI as well.. I guess the current popular crime..
Also the same story line (hacked system) on The Good Doctor last year.. What’s next – Grey’s?
Grey’s did a hospital hack way back in season 14 (when Jo’s husband showed up) so they were way ahead of the curve
It’s a good series! Emily Vancamp will be missed.
No estoy de acuerdo que NIC sea eliminada de esa forma ,no es justo para Conrad criar a su hija solo ,en capitulo 4 cuando fué herida , qué estuvo muy grave era el momento entonces de sacarla del programa ,no habrá forma de cambiar el guión y qué no sea necesario ,eliminarla ya está como la series de new amset
The Resident is one of my favorites for writing and character development, not to mention amazing talented actors. Can’t wait for the rest of the season!
I’m so mad that Emily is leaving. I’m even madder that we didn’t find out tonight what happened. Not surprised though, it’s a way for them to keep the viewers tuning in.
Love this show
Jury out on start of Season 5.. Conrad and Nic overcame so much to be together and have that baby to lose Nic in a car accident is frustrating. Mina leaving in Season 4 made me sad. Seems like writers don’t like couple storylines. Now going after Devon and Leela. Sad.
There wasn’t much they could do about Emily wanting to leave.
The actress unexpectedly chose to leave. It had nothing to do when them not liking couple storylines.
they don’t have to kill off Nic
My Thoughts exactly. They could have her be a stay at home mom and just not show Conrad at home. He could just check in with Nic via phone from the hospital. And tonight proved that Emily could easily literally phone in some guest appearances to keep our love for this couple alive. DONT KILL OFF NIC!!!
p.s. the whole gas chemical leak in the storage closet… a) the Blind man would have smelled that straight away and would not have entered the room. b) Devon should have also known better after seeing someone passed out in a closet to keep the door open at least.
They did that on NYPD Blue when Charlotte Ross decide not to return after having her baby. The show and fans felt that Andy had already suffered enough loss so they just had her character be a stay at home mom. Andy would get phone calls and talk about her and the baby.
Whatever they do. Just don’t kill Nic off. I don’t care how they write her character off, just don’t kill her. Put her in jail. Do anything but kill her character.
During the episode I though for a second they might go the jail route. That she was going to turn out to be the driver that hit the racers. They kept saying drunk driver but it could have been she fell asleep she is a new mother, so falling sleep or car issues or even computer issues with the car could have caused her to lose control and drive into the crowd but the end result is she ends up in jail. it would explain her absent and also allow her to be in future episodes and actually be something different than killing off the character.
I’m glad that the baby is going to be fine. Throwing both Nic and the baby out would have been brutal.
Without Nic, they’ve lost a viewer. I doubt I will be the only one.
I love this series but I don’t want to watch this one.. Can’t bear to see nic die.. She should have just gone on a holiday or something…
Does anyone else think it is strange that two female characters are leaving the show, Mina in the middle of last season and now Nic at the beginning of this one. Is something fishy going on like harassment or pay inequality? I guess it could be they just were offered other good roles elsewhere, but seems very coicidental. I had not read about Emily Can Camp wanting to leave so she may have a good reason, but the storyline where she almost died last year would have been the time to do it. It seems cruel to save her then and kill her off now. And the storyline about hacked hospitals has been pretty much done on many of the current medical shows on all networks so hopefully they will be done with this.
So….I did look and she had a baby over the summer… probably wanted to cut back her hours, but I’m guessing her and production couldn’t come to an agreement. I hope they find a way to cobble the show together so it is still good, but two major characters leaving in less than a year kind of doesn’t bode well for that. They will need to shift the burden of interest to either newer characters or less interesting ones, and the storylines might come across as forced because of such a fast turnaround. I will keep watching and hope they find a coherent way to make it work.
Emily Can Camp had a baby and she s also back n a a big way at Marvel. I think she just wants to have some time for her family, which is based abroad.
what’s this big Marvel deal you talk about? I know she was on Falcon and Winter Soldier, but can’t find any news story about anything else on google. assumptions?
In July this year Marvel Studio’s President Kevin Feige mentioned in interview that the revelation of Van Camp’s character of Sharon Carter being “The Powerbroker” at the end of the last Captain America received a lot of attention and very likely would be explored more in the future.A lot of people have taken it to mean she’ll be in the upcoming Captain America 4.
I love this show, lots of heartfelt moments. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.
Excellent season premiere. This show has one of the best ensemble casts on television. Conrad is really good as a loving father and Nic’s absence will make for great drama going forward. One network show that I never miss!
Love the show but will be so unhappy if Nic leaves cause the relationship between her & Conrad make the show for me & now having a new baby it’s to soon for her exit😢
Why do so many shows have to have single parents raising kids? It’s done and done and done. It is now a boring bad overdone theme. Nic and Conrad made the show. With Nic not on, I’m changing the channel. Hey show writers-she was not a surrogate mother!
She chose to leave the show. It was not the shows fault.
No. But they don’t Ned to kill her off. Have her decide to stay home with Gigi. Then fans would be somewhat happy
So true bad way to have her leave
They’ll probably have Conrad leave the baby with his poor old father-in-law. This will allow Corbin Bernson to chew even more scenery !
I stopped watching this show after season 3 so I thought I’d try it again. Nope, still can’t watch anymore. It’s an over acted mess. It’s like a daytime soap sped up to neat tidy unbelievable endings. The show spends way too much time on Conrad’s constant angst. There’s no depth to Devon’s character, Dayal’s acting is stiff. He needs to relax, a lot. He holds back somehow when he needs to go all in. My favorite character is Malcolm Jamal Warner’s. Just fantastic from day one. If I watch again it will be to see his character. Reeves and Bell… zzzzzz. Zero strong nurse characters either. Medical jargon too dumbed down.
So very sorry snuck is out of the great show! Wish y’all could persuade her to stay in the cast !
Wrong move letting Van Camp leave