The week leading up to Thanksgiving is kind of a terrible week for fans of primetime television because all of your favorite shows are on hiatus. 

And that goes for The Resident as well. The medical drama will not be airing a new episode on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. FOX will be airing the season 6 premiere episode titled “Two Hearts” in its place. 

But don’t fret—Conrad Hawkins and the rest of Chastain’s finest will be back the following week on November 29 with an episode titled “No Pressure No Diamonds.”

Here’s the synopsis for The Resident Season 6 Episode 9:

You can catch up on reviews of The Resident right here. 

The Resident Season 6 Episode 8 brought the battle between Bell and Governor Betz to a head. And the truth is, Bell absolutely messed with the wrong man. While Bell had every right to call out Betz, who initially staged a meeting with Kit Voss in order to embarrass her, he needed to be prepared and aware of who he was dealing with— a very fragile man who can’t handle his ego being bruised. 

Betz stooped to a petty level simply because he felt wronged and insulted, which is pathetic for anyone in a position of power, and yet, feels so familiar and relatable. When Bell aired Betz’s dirty laundry publicly, the governor felt that he had no choice but to retaliate by digging up every single piece of dirt on Bell, including his infamous HODAD nickname (remember that?!), before deposing him in a lawsuit over Claire’s death. 

Everyone knows that Claire’s sepsis was so far gone that she would’ve died regardless of what they did, but in this case, Betz and his slimy, cutthroat lawyer Costican only care about optics. They want to paint Bell in a bad light to ruin his reputation and cost him his job. Betz admitted that much himself, telling Kit that he wanted revenge and to make an example out of Bell; he wants to destroy him, his career, and his name. 

I loved that Kit “lost it” after realizing that there was no point in arguing or rationalizing with Betz, but part of me wishes she had a recording device and captured everything he said and leaked it to the press. It seems the only way to win here is to stoop to his level and beat him at his own game. 

There are definitely skeletons in Bell’s closet—the hubbub around the HODAD nickname resurfacing is proof of that—but the case also proves that HODAD Bell is not present-day Bell. He’s not the same man or doctor that he was when the show was starting out. The fact that everyone was standing up for Bell and going above and beyond to protect him means that he’s changed and become the kind of doctor that puts his patients first. 

He may have done the wrong thing back in the day, but he’s righted his wrongs and found purpose, which is more than could be said for Betz. Betz’s crusade against Bell is also hurting the very people he’s been elected to represent because he’s taking a genuinely good doctor and surgeon away from the people that need him most. The whole thing is completely selfish, which is just further proof of Betz’s character. 

It’s also a terrible time considering stress flares up Bell’s MS. He got it under control after his involvement in a clinical trial, so this case is the last thing he needs right now while he’s simply trying to be the best version of himself. He began experiencing numbness and tremors, and since he didn’t want to worry Kit, he asked Conrad to prescribe him something. But that’s only a temporary bandaid, and as Betz and Costican push, Bell will have to be honest with Kit about his ailing health, even if it’s the last thing she needs to hear.

Bell isn’t the only person whose career was on the line as Ian Sullivan’s addiction spiraled to a point where he no longer had control. When he was caught stealing meds from the cart, it was clear that Ian needed help. Dr. Jayci Lee seemingly saw the signs and figured out that Ian was addicted, but it’s unclear if she reported the strange encounter. However, Ian immediately called Cade for help, and the whole scene was truly heartbreaking. Ian kept rationalizing his addiction instead of calling it what it was and admitting that he needed professional help.

I love that Cade stood her ground and informed her father that she wasn’t going to bargain with him. She’s dealt with addiction before, so she knew that she couldn’t give into his demands and pleas as it was only going to make things worse. Cade offered up two choices—either he went to rehab or she would report her father to Dr. Voss. After some back and forth, Ian finally agreed to go to rehab as it was his only shot as surviving and saving his career, but will it be effective? He reached out for help, sure, but since he’s not the one who wanted to go in the first place, it might not make a difference in the long run. 

As Jayci stated, addiction does not discriminate, and it’s not unheard of for brilliant doctors to become addicted. Cade even promised to keep his rehab a secret from Conrad (who has dealt with addiction before with Nic’s sister, so I’m surprised he’s not picking up on the signs), and when she bailed on their date night, she didn’t tell him it was because she was going to drive her father to an out-of-state rehab designed specifically for those in the medical field. 

I’m just glad Ian came clean before it led to a disaster, and I’m hoping he finally gets the help he needs. 

Conrad dealt with a handful of addiction cases during the hour, which started when a 13-year-old named Malik was brought in following an overdose. His best friend, Tally, called for help after he became unresponsive, and her split second decision saved her best friend’s life. When Conrad learned that the pills Malik took were laced with fentanyl, and when Tally informed them that he got them from his older brother, Amir, Conrad raced over to the high school where he found several football players who had overdosed,  with one already too far gone. When Amir passed out, he took a tumble down the steps, which made his situation much worse, and while Billie and AJ gave it their all and seemingly got the him in the knick of time, Amir was a “wait-and-see” case, which meant that there was a possibility he would wake up with permanent brain damage. 

The whole storyline was heartbreaking, though important as it brought to light the very real opioid crisis affecting the youth in America today, including counterfeit drugs that are usually laced with something extremely dangerous and deadly. 

Conrad and AJ had a sweet moment where they both acknowledged just how differently these cases hit now that they are parents, and honestly, while it’s an important PSA for the teens watching, it’s also a reminder to their parents to stay vigilante and involved. You can’t monitor your kids every moment of every single day (though yes, hugging them till their 18 would be ideal), but there are steps you can take to make them aware of the dangers that are lurking out there.

Other Thoughts

• Bell was served his deposition while accepting the Lifetime Service Award in front of all of his peers… similar to Olivia Wilde getting served while on stage at a fan convention. I’m not sure if the series did that on purpose, but it was juicy. 
• The moment Bell realized the scrub tech Donald was the plant, man, I thought he was going to go in for the kill. I would’ve loved to see it.
• It’s nice seeing the doctors having a human moment and decompressing in the lounge. They even made time to crack some jokes.
• I’m still feeling the tension between Billie and Conrad even when they barely have any scenes together! When Malik mentioned Tally was his best friend and he didn’t know what he would do without her, Conrad knew exactly what he meant because he feels that way about Billie!

What did you think of the episode? Do you think Gov. Betz is the absolute worst thing to happen to Bell and Chastain? How will they find a way to beat this lawsuit and get the public funding they need for Chastain?

Share your thoughts in the comments, and I’ll see you all in two weeks on Tuesday, November 29! 

The doctors at Chastain performed nothing short of a miracle on The Resident Season 6 Episode 7, but unfortunately, they couldn’t save every life. And the loss was profound.

We didn’t know Claire for long, but she felt like the kind of friend you’ve had for life. I found myself rooting for her this entire episode, so the outcome of her case was gutwrenching.

She was visiting the states with her boyfriend from England when she began developing some serious stomach pain, but since the cost of healthcare is so high in the U.S., she put off treatment until the pain was unbearable and brought her into the ER. 

At first glance, everyone assumed her kidney stones were the root of the issue, but once they broke those bad boys up, Clare’s health continued to decline. As they rushed her into emergency surgery, they realized that they misdiagnosed her and that the underlying infection was sepsis all along. Despite their best efforts to revive her, Claire did not make it out alive, and everyone, including Dr. Bell, was truly crushed by the outcome. The doctors at Chastain are personally invested in the lives of their patients, so any death carries a lot of weight. 

Unfortunately, Donald, the new nurse practitioner at Chastain, was roped in by Governor Betz to dig up any dirt he can on Bell, so when he overheard that Bell “missed” something when it came to a patient who later died, he scored gold. Honestly, I hate this storyline because it’s infuriating that someone wants to take down Bell and unearth all the skeletons in his closet (we know he has plenty) after he went to great lengths to become a better man and doctor. And considering Donald was in the OR at the time of Claire’s death, he should know better as he witnessed the whole situation go down—Bell tried his best but there was nothing he could’ve done. Even Kit acknowledged that despite their best efforts, it was likely already too late to save Claire as she avoided getting treatment due to the insane costs, which is the whole point of getting funding from the state. A hospital needs funding to function and provide reliable and top-tier care to all patients. Wouldn’t it be funny if, at some point, Betz needed the help of Chastain’s finest?

It’s been nice not having a villain on The Resident as it’s allowed the series to just focus on the personal lives of the core characters and the patients they heal on a daily basis, but the war has been brewing since the kickstart of the season when Betz promised to cut funding to the public hospital. Bell made an enemy out of Betz when he confronted him on national TV and exposed him for making his fortune through medicare fraud, but honestly, it was necessary. Betz claimed to want to pull back the curtain, but then he couldn’t play his own game. He agreed to meet with Kit for a personal meeting and then turned it into a media day simply to embarrass her, which is why Bell stepped in in the first place. 

I hope that Bell destroys Betz and shows the people of Georgia who he really is (I feel like he kind of already did), but I know that it will be a little rocky there for a bit before he delivers the final blow.

Donald is the scapegoat in all of this, so I do feel bad for him as Betz is manipulating him by threatening his career, but I hope he knows he’s risking it all either way because Betz won’t protect him if it comes out that he’s the one feeding him information. If I were Donald, I’d side with the good guys on this one. 

AJ and Conrad responded to a call from Janay, the hospice nurse who helped aid AJ and his mother when she was on her deathbed. She asked them to pay a visit to her brother, Bobby, a death row patient that was very ill. The series tapped into how inmates are largely brushed off and ignored by medical staff within prisons with the doctor making a comment about how Bobby just wanted to “take a field trip” literally moments before he seized on the table.

Turns out, his health condition was critical as he had a carotid body tumor. Initially, Bobby didn’t care for the surgery as the recovery time was extensive and he didn’t have a lot of time left before his planned execution, but when the doctors did a genetic test cross reference to prescreen Janay, they realized that there was something even rarer about Bobby situation–he’s a chimera, a person who has two sets of DNA.

Since Bobby had a bone marrow transplant when he was younger for his leukemia, he had two sets of DNA, which meant that he could appeal his case and see a day when he was a free man as the real murderer was his donor and childhood friend, Martin.

His sister always maintained his innocence, but Bobby never thought it would be possible until this very discovery finally gave him hope. It was a powerful storyline, and though it’s not always the case, it was nice to see this one has a positive outcome. Seeing that he had every reason to want to live since life outside of a jail cell was possible, he agreed to the surgery, which was extremely complicated and required the very best of AJ and Billie’s abilities. I won’t even try to get into what they did because the medical lingo was very intense, but everyone was impressed, with the doctors even commenting that that shouldn’t have gone as well as it did.

You can’t win them all, but when you do, it’s so rewarding. Bobby deserved a second chance–and the doctors at Chastain did everything to give it to him.

The chatter amongst the doctors seemed to be all about Billie and Conrad’s unspoken feelings for each other. It seems like everyone sees it except the two of them. And the truth is, neither of them denied those feelings when confronted about it. 

However, Conrad didn’t act on them either, informing Cade, who got jealous when she saw a romantic photo of Conrad and Billie dancing at the wedding, that he was just really good friends with Billie (bonded by loss) and promising to be transparent about his feelings moving forward. I think the person he needs to be honest with is himself, but we’ll let Conrad figure that out on his own. 

When Billie confronted Conrad about the dance and explained that she was a little confused about what it meant, he assured her that he was happy with Cade, which caused her to back down. It was basically the equivalent of him saying that he’s not interested right now, but is that the truth?  The stolen looks and glances say otherwise, but he assured her that he just wants her to be happy, so Billie took it at face value. 

When the new high-billing cardiologist James asked her out on a date, she considered Conrad’s comments and accepted, realizing it was time to move on from her crush. Though James, who was a new face at Chastain, even seemed to realize the tension between Billie and Conrad so there’s something there. Both Nolan and AJ emphasized it, with AJ kind of planting the seed in Conrad’s brain.

I truly think Conrad has simply been oblivious to the very obvious situation right in front of him and now that he’s aware, his feelings for Billie are going to intensify and only complicate matters further. 

Don’t get me wrong—I like Cade, but I just don’t feel the electricity between her and Conrad. They’re better as friends, doctors, and colleagues. 

What did you think of the episode?