The Resident Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Whistleblower
Jasmine Blu
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The long wait was worth it.
Pieces were being moved around the chessboard all season. However,The Resident Season 3 Episode 10 delivered a hell of a climax with the last moments.
It cannot return fast enough.
The season has had some ups and downs, but it's no question The Resident is one of the most compelling series in the game right now. It's not acknowledged nearly enough.
It signed off for the year on a high note, and January 2020 will have us ready for war.
Every time it seems our people have gotten the upper hand or anything that resembles some leverage, it's ripped from beneath them without a second thought.
The series was building up to casualties in the war against Red Rock. Conrad was at the top of the list. They've been plotting to get rid of him for a while, and they only needed the perfect method of accomplishing it.
The plan to use a lawsuit filed against Conrad backfired spectacularly, but the situation with Tyler was a success.
It makes Bell's final words to Kit during The Resident Season 3 Episode 9, expressing what was to come for the docs and staff of Chastain all the more ominous.
I'm going to say this once and never again. Nobody and I mean NOBODY DIES IN MY OR! Colin, proceed.
Cain
Cain and Logan managed to pull the rug from beneath Conrad, and Bell, in one fell swoop. It was a double whammy, and now, it makes it infinitely harder for the team to take Red Rock down.
It's probably best if they let the hospital self-implode. Regardless of how you feel about Bell as Chief of Surgery and the hospital, he's the devil we know.
With Bell, we knew what we were getting, and he's a puppy in comparison to a hospital run by someone as diabolical as Cain.
Yes, Cain is now the new Chief of Surgery at Chastain, and the mere thought of that is enough to make you want to rip your hair out. How many lives does this pendejo have?!
Dr. Cain is Chastain's new chief of surgery. All future requests go through him.
Logan
He's like a bad rash that doesn't go away. Instead, he only gets stronger and spreads everywhere. How do you exorcise him from the likes of Chastain? How do you excise Red Rock Medical from Chastain?
The hour took us on a journey, experiencing the incredible high of Conrad receiving his white jacket as Chief Resident. He was as dashing as ever, in the formfitting dress shirt --that had a girl ogling that physique of his -- and that terrible bowtie.
He was thrilled over his accomplishment, and his pride was infectious. We haven't known Conrad as long as he's been at Chastain, but it was a gratifying moment.
Devon: Listen, I want you to know that--
Conrad: I do know.
He worked hard to get to where he was, and he was living for it. Everyone else around him was, too. He had the support and love from his fellow residents (it was nice to see any of them existed), nurses, and more.
He's the guy who has that kind of effect on people, and he isn't someone who makes a big deal about things, but he was over the moon.
He had some beautiful, quiet moments with Devon that placed their bromance back on track after their issues, and it was a great passing of the torch from a mentor to a mentee.
They were both experiencing big days commemorating their hard work. Conrad was recognized, and then it was taken away just as fast.
Board: Was Tyler's overdose a suicide attempt?
Conrad: Absolutely not.
Conrad is a badass, and he typically doesn't let things faze him. It's one of his most admirable and even aspirational qualities.
But when you pay close enough attention, he reveals so much about his feelings in the smallest of gestures or microexpressions.
Matt Czuchry once again killed it during this hour. From the visual fondness and pride he had in Devon as the new resident recalled his first day and Conrad's words as Devon made a simple choice to break the rules for the right reason to the way he spoke to and handled young Tyler.
They were subtle expressions and movements, but he hits those emotional notes.
However, the two biggest highlights was a quintessential Conrad moment when he faced off against Logan, and the moments afterward.
Logan: You're fired.
Conrad: That rule's arbitrary and you know it. You don't care about Tyler you care that I'm a whistleblower. That's what this is about. Hm? I blew the whistle on your drug, and you're afraid for your bottom line. You're afraid of me. You should be.
He's a strong and strong-willed man who doesn't let others see him sweat, so it wasn't a surprise for him to come nose to nose with Logan and call him out.
It was a moment that left me practically vibrating with a myriad of feelings with tension so thick you could cut it, well, with a scalpel.
Conrad can NEVER let someone intimidate him. It's not going to happen. He jutted his chin out and promised to unleash holy hell on them.
Conrad knew why they were letting him go, and he's not going to take it without a fight. It was one of those moments when you lived for the confident smirk he uses to rattle his opponent.
It was the smirk of a man who planned to f**k them up, and when he delivers it, it's like a war cry. It has you fist-pumping and ready for what's to come.
Again, it was classic Conrad.
But it was the aftermath that winded you. The way he gently placed the lab coat on the service table as he was getting escorted out was gutwrenching.
You could see his mind reeling as something he worked so hard for slipped out of his grasp. Then, he stepped outside of Chastain, and that's when you saw the raw emotion and vulnerability in him.
You saw the hurt in his eyes -- the tears and shock. It was the most helpless and hopeless he has appeared in some time. Chastain is his home; he eats, lives, and breathes it.
He's not going to stop fighting for it, but he doesn't know what to do about what happened. Conrad usually has a plan, or he's on the path toward formulating one.
Don't give up before the miracle.
Cain
However, after putting up a strong front in front of his pissed off and emotional colleagues, he crumbled a bit after he walked outside those doors.
Conrad doesn't have a plan at the moment, and it's disconcerting.
How could he go from such an epic high to a tragic low by the end of the day? One minute, he was flashing the engagement ring he planned to give Nic, and the next, he was escorted from the premises.
Did you CoNic 'shippers at least enjoy the little slice of happy times and sweetness before everything else went to hell?
Nolan: My how time flies.
Devon: Seriously, that feels like the longest year in history.
We've been speculating about the pair getting serious, be it kids or marriage, and Conrad has stayed true to form. He's devoted to Nic. She's it for him.
He's ready to go through the full thing, and it made sense that on one of the happiest days of his life, he was pulling the ring out to share with his friend.
Devon was ecstatic about the news. It wouldn't be a surprise if CoNic married by the end of the season.
It was something kismet about Conrad and Devon working on Tyler's case. It was in the same vein as when they worked on the case of the addict -- Devon's first patient.
I did something really stupid. I-I tried to kill myself.
Tyler
It came full-circle. They couldn't save the young woman, but they did save Tyler.
It's at the hospital's discretion, but it's unsettling that a hospital could refuse to put a patient on the donor list if they're suicidal or have suicidal ideations.
It's not to say the concerns aren't valid. The last thing you want is for a patient to receive an organ and take their lives later on when it could've gone to someone else.
What's the timeline for that sort of thing? When is it an acceptable amount of time before an organ was "wasted" on someone?
It's what it comes down to, right?
Not giving someone who would otherwise top the list an organ because of their mental illness does seem dicey. It probably should be something that requires doctor discretion and an extensive workup with the patient.
Tyler had a rough time; everything came at him at once, so he had a regrettable moment where he took too much acetaminophen.
He regretted his actions instantly, so would it have been fair to give him a potential death sentence by assuming the worst of him?
He had a bad day and a moment, which is a bit different from a life-long battle with depression. It's something hopeless and bleak about giving up on helping someone conquer depression.
Nic: So what do we do now?
Conrad: Behave as if nothing happened.
Tyler was young and regretful. It would've been awful if he didn't get the liver.
It required getting a better feel of what they were dealing with and a whole lot of faith. Devon and Conrad both had to step out on faith to support him, but it was the right call.
It was one of those moments that left you screaming at the screen when Conrad sat on the bed with Tyler -- his back to the door -- and started talking to the teen about his suicide attempt.
Conrad meant well, but it was so damn careless of him. It's bad enough Tyler's mom walked in at the same time, but the donor representative did, too.
Of all the ways Conrad could get hemmed up, it was over a small moment like that where he was having one of those great moments with a patient.
As for his and Devon's decision, it's best if we never look back on or discuss that godawful and contrived plot with Devon versus Conrad again.
Devon: As long as we get him counseling then I say "what suicide attempt?"
Conrad: Wait, did I hear that right? Is that Dr. Pravesh, or is that an imposter?
Devon: Look, I'm the same man that I've always been, but I see more shades of gray than I used to. Sometimes to do right, you can't follow the rules. I think the short answer is I'm not an intern anymore.
Conrad: I'll transfer him to the ICU. And I'll contact the transfer team.
Was their exchange a nice one? Sure. It was a lovely moment as a fan of their relationship, but it also was a reminder of how irritating the entire thing between them was.
Devon is back to what he was before he switched things up. His comment about now being able to see the gray areas didn't make sense since he saw those gray areas before he randomly got rigid with his moral code.
It's not to say Devon didn't always question Conrad or air more toward following the rules before choosing to bend or break them, but if the whole point was to get him back to where he was and validate Conrad's position, then why go out of their way to distinguish him from Conrad in the first place?
Anyway, bending and breaking rules have nothing on what Cain is doing.
Cain: Oh, look who's talking? One glass of 10-year-old bourbon and your residents cannot wait to tell the tales of the mighty HODAD. Hands of death and destruction. That is what they call you, isn't it? Patients dying after a routine appendectomy? Catching fire in the OR?
Bell: Yeah, I've made mistakes, but I was there, with my staff, in the OR. Not off joyriding when my patients were left incapacitated.
Cain: I've saved the lives of kings and princesses from every corner of this world. They worship me. They want to name their children after me. They will never forget who I am, but it seems that you have.
Bell: No, you're the one who forgot who I am. Chief of surgery and your boss. You will answer to the board.
He hits new lows with each installment, but this one took the cake. The montage of what happens to his patients after he ships them away to a rehab facility was appalling.
The only reason his success rate is so good is because of how he gets around matters. He'll leave his patients vegetables and ship them to an overcrowded Red Rock rehab facility where they can stay 90 days before they're declared brain dead or what have you, and by then, it doesn't go on his record as an error for him.
He had his resident lie about a patient whose surgery didn't have successful results. He also took the woman who had the Mother of All Surgeries, and he told her children one thing and the hospital something else.
Kit: We have to do something!
Bell: WE don't have to do anything. You have to stay out of the line of fire. Chastain needs good doctors like you more than ever.
He played them against each other, while he decided what to do with her. It was sickening. Cain is vile.
And all of it goes back to sucking patient's and their families dry with medical expenses and making his records look good.
Kit was hip to what he was doing, and she also called him out on leaving residents to close out his surgeries, but Bell was right, she wasn't the person who could talk about Cain.
Cain doesn't like her and will come after her. Oddly enough, while Bell was speaking of his ironclad contract and attempting to protect Kit, it seemed like things were set up for Cain and Logan to fire Kit just to get back at Bell.
Bell: I've been a surgeon for a long time. I've seen attendings come in drunk. I've seen them fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. I've seen incompetence and heroics, everything in between, but this defies description. Your patient nearly died! You left him wide open on the table.
Cain: You want an atta boy for saving one life? I've saved dozens every day. Hundreds by the end of the week. Get over it.
Bell: Do you save them, or manage not to kill them?
She's the thing they could use against him.
Bell has done well with trying to stay a step ahead even if he remains behind in the end, so his last big deed was protecting Kit's position with a contract.
He decided to take the brunt of the ire by being the whistleblower, and it again has made things intriguing given Bell's past.
The tense showdown between Bell and Cain outside the hospital was one of the best scenes of the hour. Bell is a good guy now, but Cain wasted no time reminding him of his past.
That's a win for now. I'm going to give you a pass for how you behaved because I know how upset you are, but I certainly won't forget.
AJ
Bell tried to have comebacks to it since he never left and went joyriding in the middle of surgeries and left the rest up to his staff, but he did kill multiple people and covered it up.
Cain went as far as mentioning Bell's nickname of HODAD, and it was like the series responded to the inquiries about Bell's shift without justifying it with a response.
Bell's motivations and character are still questioned often, and I'm curious what those of you wary of him think about this development?
He put himself out there to protect Kit, and he stood up for what was right and tried to do things the proper way to address Cain's behavior.
Now, he's stuck at the hospital with Cain in his old position as his boss. He refuses to give Cain and Logan the satisfaction of leaving Chastain, but it's not going to be an easy road, and it'll be all the harder with Conrad booted.
Elsewhere, the pleasant part of Mina's storyline was her friendship with Nic.
However, it went downhill from there.
Unfortunately, the Adaku storyline is not compelling. The only reason there's a concern for her is because of how it'll affect Mina if something happens to her.
On a scale from 1 to 10, your stress level sounds like a 12. Emotional support is required, and if happens to be my superpower, so I will see you at the hospital. Now turn off your phone and slow down.
Nic
Everything is unfolding predictably, and it's disappointing.
Hell, even the people at the sale she was at didn't seem to give a damn about her going into labor on the street. They all happily stepped around her while she wailed into the phone.
She has a weak heart and needed surgery. The baby was born early, and that came with a set of issues too.
Mina was a madwoman who almost got into an accident and turned into a nightmare relative with AJ throughout the whole process.
I'm going to close my eyes and pretend the last fifteen seconds of this conversation never happened, and when I open them, history will be erased, and you'll still have unlimited faith in my ability to deliver the best care possible to your friend.
AJ
Bless AJ to bits; he was so patient with Mina. He tried to be as supportive as possible, but at some point, he had to remind her who he was and to put some respect on his name.
AJ could handle many things, but what he wasn't having was Mina's lack of faith in him and his abilities. It was insulting, but it cut far deeper.
She was insufferable in the OR, and a lesser doctor would've been distracted by her presence. Mina is a prime example of why family members and close friends shouldn't be operating on loved ones.
Her emotions clouded her judgment at every turn, and it caused her to lash out at someone she trusts more than anyone.
She's in quite the pickle now. Adaku is stable, but we don't know how long that will last. She's going to have a much longer recovery time than her baby.
It means the baby will go home with Mina within the week.
The situation brought Mina to the chapel, which is something she would've have done otherwise, and now she's at this baby's bedside too.
That's a win for now. I'm going to give you a pass for how you behaved because I know how upset you are, but I certainly won't forget.
AJ
Mina doing anything for the people she loves is within character for her, but she's getting derailed by a baby she never anticipated. It's less than ideal.
Everyone's life has been shaken up and turned upside down during this winter finale.
The second half of the season is going to be insane!
Over to you, Resident Fanatics. Let's discuss all of the developments in the comments below!
The Resident returns January. 7.
In the meantime, if you want to relive the season you can watch The Resident online here via TV Fanatic!
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
