Spoilers ahead for The Resident Season 5, Episode 5 “The Thinnest Veil.” Read at your own risk!
Fox medical drama The Resident went all Halloween for Episode 5. Chastain was filled with costume-clad patients and even some claiming to be witches, while Bell unknowingly picked up a hitchhiker that turned out to be a serial killer on the loose. Matt Czuchry’s Conrad returned to work for the first time following Nic’s death, all while trying to make baby GiGi’s first Halloween a memorable one. What really gave the episode a jolt, however, was the surprise time jump in the final seconds, moving the story further along as a way to handle Conrad’s grief moving forward.
At the end of the episode, fans were no doubt expecting to see GiGi either sleeping or waiting for Conrad in her crib, but were instead greeted with a now-toddler GiGi in an astronaut costume. Some, like myself, thought it was a merely flash-forward and thought we’d be back in the "present" by the next episode, but that is not the case. The Resident has indeed permanently jumped a few years into the future. It’s only been a couple of episodes since Nic’s death, but it looks like the series is pushing through the grieving and mourning process with this jump ahead. Co-showrunner Peter Elkoff explained to TVLine that it was time to move on:
The character of Conrad — any man who loses the love of his life and the mother of his nine-month-old baby — that’s a long recovery. That kind of grief is not an instantaneous recovery. You don’t put that past you. We felt like having to do that, in real emotional time, would be dark. We didn’t want to have Conrad grief-stricken for an entire season of television, you know? We did two episodes of how Conrad has dealt with those early stages of grief, and we decided, let’s put him past it. Let’s put him in a place where she’s still in everybody’s hearts and minds, but that he’s able to be a whole, happy person in pursuit of his life and the raising of his daughter and figuring out what matters.
Nic's death greatly impacted not only Conrad, but also Billie, Devon and everyone else at Chastain who loved the nurse practitioner. It can be assumed that all these characters' sorrow will be lessened in future episodes, but it will be interesting to see exactly how things have changed during the time jump, and how Nic will still be included within the narrative. It’s likely we’ll be seeing a lot more of toddler GiGi and how she’s been dealing with everything, as well as how Conrad has moved on, if he has.
Nic was his one true love and it’s hard to let that go. But this is also a primetime broadcast network drama, where romantic storylines are always a hot commodity. So don't be too shocked if someone new catches Conrad's eye before this season is finished.
New episodes of The Resident air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox! The series is off for a week for the World Series, but will be back on November 2.
