The Resident’s fall finale ended with two major cliffhangers. Julian was run off the road after being threatened by Gordon, and Marshall was bleeding out in the operating room as Bell performed surgery. On top of all that, Devon broke things off with Priya — on their wedding day! There’s so much to unpack.
HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY showrunner Todd Harthan about what we can expect when the show returns in Jan. 2019. Start getting your theories together because Todd teased that “not everybody” survives season 2. Check out our full Q&A below!
When the show returns, will we learn what happened to Julian?
Todd Harthan: Our thriller story really gains momentum from episodes 10 through 17 and ramps up when we get back. And that’s a big part of it. It’s a big part of Devon’s story, and that will ultimately bleed into Conrad and Mina and other characters as well. So, yes, absolutely we are servicing it. We’ll answer a lot of questions about what happened to her and why and what she discovered and all that good stuff.
Will we see Jenna Dewan again?
Todd Harthan: I will say this about Jenna: she was a pleasure and a real gift to our show. She was great, and everybody loved her. She is a busy, busy actress these days. She has another series that she has to go off and shoot, so it’s one of those things that’s up in the air. We would love to have her back, and we’ve talked about having her back, but it’s complicated because she’s so busy. It’s possible. I will say it is definitely possible.
Is there a time jump when the show returns or will it pick up right after the fall finale?
Todd Harthan: We absolutely do [pick up right after the fall finale]. There’s a lot of compelling reasons about why we want to keep it in real time. It’s moments later.
How might Conrad react to Bell operating on his father?
Todd Harthan: It’s a strong reaction because obviously they have history, and Conrad knows what Bell’s shortcomings in the OR have been, so it’s initially him holding his breath that things don’t go terribly wrong with his father. In the aftermath, there are some interesting conversations that they have that are very loaded and accusatory, and it’s a big reaction that he has.
With both Julian and Marshall’s lives hanging in the balance, can fans expect deaths when the show returns?
Todd Harthan: Look, the truth is with this show that it is highly likely that after 22 episodes not everyone’s going to survive. I can almost guarantee it. I don’t want to tip who doesn’t make it to 22, but not everybody survives this season.
Another major part of the fall finale was Devon’s breakup with Priya. What can you say about the fallout from that?
Todd Harthan: There’s tremendous guilt and some soul-searching ahead from Devon. He thought he had his whole life planned. He knew that he wanted to be a doctor and work at Chastain, and he knew that he wanted to marry Priya. One of those things has imploded, and it’s a harrowing journey back in the back half as he tries to figure out who he wants to be. We’re going to throw some other unique challenges in front of him and obstacles he has to get around, and it’s sort of like will this intern survive his first year and get to his one year anniversary at Chastain in one piece, or is he going to crumble under the pressure both personally and professionally? It’s going to be fun ride.
Might he go look for Julian?
Todd Harthan: Oh, yeah. He’s not going to just turn his back and not wonder what happened to her. There’s going to be an interesting little journey that he goes on to try and discover what really happened.
Will the QuoVadis scandal continue to expand in the second half of the season?
Todd Harthan: We’ve dedicated another 7 or 8 hours to just how crazy this medical device world is, and how complicated and sinister it is. It really starts to gain momentum in the back half.
Lane Hunter reappeared this season. Will we see her again? Will she continue to be a crutch for Bell?
Todd Harthan: You’ll absolutely see her again, and I think it’ll be fun for the audience to see how one puppet loses that reign and becomes the puppet and back and forth. You see sort of who in this Game of Thrones-esque battle between king and queen who is going to survive. It’ll be a fun thing for us to play when we come back in the winter. I think the audience will be pretty satisfied for how it comes to a close.
Conrad and Nic have been in a really good place — is that going to continue?
Todd Harthan: I think the fun part of this show is that right when our audience gets comfortable and leans back in their seat, we give them a reason to lean forward and get nervous. They’ve been in a happy and pretty good place without any drama for a bit. In any real relationship, it’s unrealistic that there aren’t going to be rocky times, and I think that people are probably going to have to hold on pretty tight in the back half. We’re injecting some personal and family issues into both of their ives in the back half and that can cause complications in your personal realtionship as well. A lot is going to get thrown at them in the back half, and it just comes down to whether or not their relationship is truly in a healthy enough place to survive all of these obstacles that these two have to face.
What can you say about the Micah, Mina, and AJ triangle in the back half?
Todd Harthan: It deepens and gets even more complicated. The truth is that right now it’s one of the things we’re still dissecting in the writers room and weighing the pros and cons of where we want to take each of them. What we’re enjoying is the best kind of frustration for the audience, which is when Mina going to discover how he truly feels, and I think that we want to play with a lot of near misses so that the audience can constantly be on the edge of their seat, and at times probably cursing our names because we’re not giving them what they want. We can’t give them everything they want right when they want it.
I feel so bad for AJ. He’s pining for her!
Todd Harthan: At the end of the day, he’s a gentleman. He’s very protective of her as a surgeon and doesn’t want to cross a certain line, and he’s going to honor that. I think that is one of the things that will continue to play out in the back half.