‘The Resident’ EP Teases ‘Repercussions’ For CoNic, ‘Truly Scary’ Halloween Episode & More

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‘The Resident’ is ready to bring the scares during the Oct. 15 Halloween episode. HL got EXCLUSIVE scoop from EP Amy Holden Jones about the episode, what’s next after Conrad’s discovery, and so much more.

The Resident is taking on Halloween during the Oct. 15 episode. When Devon’s patient is pronounced dead and suddenly comes back to life, Conrad is left doubting Devon’s judgment. The Raptor and Mina get stuck in a creepy town on their way to a medical convention. At Chastain, a white supremacist falls under the care of Cain and he makes a move that could have major consequences.

HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY executive producer Amy Holden Jones about the spooky episode. She revealed there’s a Get Out-esque aspect to one of the storylines and the episode will feature “enormous movement forward with the characters.” She also teased the aftermath of Conrad and Devon’s confrontation and Devon’s journey going forward in season 3. Plus, Conrad’s discovery about dialysis patients, including Jessie, is just the beginning. Amy said this will be a “major storyline” and CoNic will face “repercussions” for being whistleblowers.

Conrad and Devon found themselves at odds over crossing lines. What can you tease about their dynamic going forward after last week?
Amy Holden Jones: It’s going to be an ongoing problem when moral issues come up in which they diverge. Devon’s beginning to be his own man. He is very close to becoming a second-year resident. A first-year resident is called an intern and has significantly fewer duties than a second-year resident. When he’s the second-year resident, he will no longer be so subservient to Conrad and in that he’s beginning to find his own voice and his own style as a doctor. For a period of time here he’s going to wonder if every lesson he’s learning from Conrad is the lesson he wants to learn.

Nic got to work with Dr. Cain for the first time and got to see how he approaches medicine. It was a little bit tense in the beginning, but in the end, he does ask her to be a part of his team. What can you say about that relationship in the episodes to come?
Amy Holden Jones: I can tell you one thing: Every actor that we have loves to work in scenes with Morris [Chestnut]. One of the first things that happened to us after shooting this episode was Emily [VanCamp] voicing exactly that because he offers so much in every scene. He’s a great doctor and he’s an excellent surgeon. On the other hand, he’s definitely on the profit-driven end of medicine. So Nic is torn in this episode between loving his skills and often wanting him to fix patients but worrying about what shortcuts he might take to make more money. Will he be putting profits over patients and exactly what his relationship is in that and with Red Rock and how good or bad he is? How much villain and how much hero is in him is part of the story of the season.

I really want to like Cain but sometimes he makes it really difficult.
Amy Holden Jones: That’s going to go back and forth all season. Given how much we like him, we are unfolding that in our minds as well. We know where we have intended his character to go. Although, unlike many shows, we write our episodes well in advance. Once we see how they turn out, we can still adapt the storylines to what we see happening. But as Kit says in the early episodes, who bills $80 million a year is already making compromises. Why does he make them? What are they and how bad are they is part of the story of the season.

Connor made a pretty shocking discovery with the dialysis patients and Jessie. Will this be a major storyline for Nic and Conrad as they try and figure out what really happened to Jessie and why?
Amy Holden Jones: It is a major storyline. The actual reveal of what happened and the consequences set in motion a whole set of other storylines. The ongoing story of Jesse resolves when they get their answers, which is not a season-long arc. The repercussions of what they’re doing is a season-long arc and the fact that they’re trying to uncover wrongdoing. It makes them whistleblowers. As you can see from the news these days, whistleblowers in medicine, as in everything else, take on considerable risks to expose corruption. It puts them in jeopardy just to do it. That is part of the ongoing story of the season, which by the way, we had on the boards in July long before the current cycle.

What can you tease about the Halloween episode and the inspiration behind the cases that we’re going to see?
Amy Holden Jones: The inspiration was very much the writers. Marqui Jackson, one of our valued writers on staff is the author of the episode. Part of the inspiration for him was Get Out, but it is significantly different from it and really goes to our themes. But what I love about the episode is it’s funny and it’s truly scary. It’s incredibly visual. It has our gold standard, the thing we try for every time, which is enormous movement forward with the characters. You’ll see a major story with Cain at the hospital, as well as a huge advance in the Mina and Raptor storyline. So there’s medicine but it’s, as always, really about the people and the terrifying situations they get into. It’s a really cool, scary, fun ride of an episode. I think it hits everything of both advancing our characters and our love for them as well as fulfilling all of the genre requirements of a great Halloween episode.

In the preview, there’s a kiss between Mina and AJ. What can you say about that? 
Amy Holden Jones: It was on the page in the script and we didn’t know what would happen. When we all saw the dailies, we went, “Wow. Okay. There we go.” It has to do with the question that Mina faces in the episode, which is: “Do I have a heart?” Her desire to prove she does, which is very thematic in the episode, is also the source of a pretty big scare. So I don’t know what to say except people will have to watch the episode to see that because I’m not going to be the spoiler on that one.