The Resident season 5 is going to feature major changes for everyone. The premiered featured Conrad was on daddy and doctor duty while Nic was away at a spa retreat. Devon and Leela couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and all the doctors rallied together after a ransomware attack shut down Chastain’s computers.
HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with executive producer Andrew Chapman about what’s in store for Conrad this season as he struggles with work-life balance. He also weighed in about Nic’s future in the wake of reports Emily VanCamp is leaving the show. Andrew spilled more scoop about Devon and Leela, AJ, a possible Kit and Bell romance, and more.
Conrad is in full dad mode but also has a very demanding job. Over the course of season 5, what kinds of challenges is he going to face as he juggles the demands of both those very important things in his life?
Andrew Chapman: This is a great question. The whole season in a way thematically is about work-life balance and that idea that I think all of us have been sort of wrestling with over the course of the pandemic when we’re all shut in our rooms and shut in our houses. We can’t actually go to work, we’re working on the phone, and we’re sitting around. We’re like, what are we doing? What’s the future and why am I going to work? What’s my purpose in life? I feel like there are all these existential questions that we’ve been asking ourselves, and that’s kind of what we’re going to be asking all through the course of this season. Being a doctor is so hard and so time-consuming and so energy-consuming. And yet, all of our characters have love lives and some of them have families. Certainly, Conrad has this kid, so we really are going to dive into how you juggle those things, how Conrad, who is this heroic diagnostician and a master diagnostician, how is he going to save lives and also devote himself to his family. It’s really important and we’re going to dive into it fully in a big soap way but also in a small, really human, family connection way. I think this is really going to resonate with our audience because I think it’s in the zeitgeist in America right now.
We did hear Nic at the very beginning of the episode. She was going off to a spa retreat. Will we see her again this season?
Andrew Chapman: I can’t really talk about that. We’ll definitely hear from her. She will be at the spa retreat. She’s coming home. That’s really all I can say. It’s a little delicate on that particular question.
Totally understand. On another note, Devon and Leela are very hot and heavy, as we see in the premiere. Is this honeymoon stage going to last very long?
Andrew Chapman: It will have its ups and downs. We really want to play it as having ups and downs. We love Anuja [Joshi], the actress who plays Leela. We think that she just pops off the screen. We love the relationship she has with Devon. But again, to dive into that whole work-life balance thing, how do you have a love life with a co-worker? Is that appropriate? How do you, especially as a woman? She is slightly subordinate to Devon, who has been around a while and is a resident many years past her. She wants to stand out as powerful and independent on her own, so that’s going to raise questions. That’s going to give us some really fun interesting soap to play with, and we want to go there. So the answer is, watch and see. You will not be disappointed. We’re not going to let that drop. We’re going to have fun with that and we want to be true to the characters on that because we feel like both Devon and Leela are strong-willed, independent characters who together make a great whole, and independently they’re pretty great, too.
We did see that she’s this really incredible artist. Will we continue to learn more about her as the season goes forward?
Andrew Chapman: Yes. We have a huge, fun, super hilarious, great surprise coming for her a couple of episodes in that no one will see coming, and everyone will be really happy with. We’ll learn all about her and her family, her mother and father and sister. We love Leela. We think that she’s just this spectacular addition to the cast. We’re going to dive deep there, and we’ll be surprised and amused.
Billie’s son is coming into the picture, and we know the actor who’s going to play him. What is that reunion going to look like and how will it impact Billie going forward?
Andrew Chapman: The reunion happens in the next episode, and it’ll be a surprise to her. It will be a surprise when you realize who it is in the show. You will be amused again. But the guy who plays Trevor, Miles Fowler, who is Billie’s son, he’s spectacular. He really holds the screen, and the intro is going to be really fun. Their relationship is going to be incredibly complicated. To have someone that you gave up for adoption show back up in your life when you are really crazy about having that person show up in your life is going to cause all kinds of left turns for Billie. Trevor is subversive. He pokes the bear all the time, and he doesn’t give up poking the bear, and that is going to be really explosive between the two of them. I will say, in a little bit of a tease going forward, he is also going to establish a mentor relationship with another doctor in the hospital. I won’t say who, but he will and that’s going to be a great pairing going forward.
At the end of the episode, there’s a moment between Bell and Kit. There was a look. A lot of people have seen the chemistry between the two of them. There’s just something between them. Is that something that you will explore? Is anything off the table when it comes to Bell and Kit?
Andrew Chapman: Nothing is off the table. I think that they’re super fan favorites. They’re just wonderful, dignified, slightly older characters that show that you can still work and age in this world and have dignity and power and to be in love, too. We definitely like that relationship. By the way, Jane Leeves and Bruce Greenwood adore working with each other. Maybe I’m just reaching deep into the past, but the Nick and Nora Charles relationship in The Thin Man books and The Thin Man movies, old movies from the 1930s and 40s, they were such a sophisticated, fun, older couple. We always think of that. The two of them are just quick, witty dialogue and teasing and flirting. We love playing with it, so there’s definitely a future there.
It sounds like the ultimate will-they-or-won’t-they?
Andrew Chapman: Exactly. And in a great way. Also, there’s a lot in store for Bell this season. There’s a lot in store for his character. There’s a lot of temptation, There’s a lot of redemption. We love Bruce and we love his character and we really want to play that.
AJ has had a lot of changes in his life over the past season. What can you say about his arc in season 5?
Andrew Chapman: His arc will definitely be moving past what happened with Mina. His mom was sick last season, and he’s going to care for her still and that will play into the future. When he had his relationship with Mina, there was definitely a softer, teddy bear side of AJ, but we also really love the growling, slightly full of himself character that is Raptor. We definitely miss him in that way and that arrogance and that superiority and his knowingness. That’s always been fun, and it was such a great introduction to the character to begin with. We may be getting back to that a little bit, so you see him for the fun character that we have come to love.
Morris Chestnut is currently starring in Our Kind Of People. Will he pop up again in season 5?
Andrew Chapman: That is under discussion. We’re trying to make it work. It’s sort of an inside baseball scheduling issue. We love Morris. If he doesn’t show back up again in season 5, then he’ll show back up again in season 6 because we want him on the show. He’s such a great actor with a great presence. In fact, he called me just before we got on this phone call. I was like, ‘Morris, I gotta call you back because I’m about to get on presser.’ We will find a way to put him back on this show. It’s a little complicated, given that he’s on a show on the same network, so we can’t really do that at the exact same time. But by hook or by crook we will find a way to put Morris back in this show.