Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of The Resident Season 6, called "All In."
The Resident has returned to Fox in the 2023 TV premiere season, but the medical drama only has a few weeks left before the end of Season 6. Luckily, the winter premiere wasted no time in addressing the biggest development from last year's fall finale, which saw Conrad and Billie lock lips in the aftermath of an attack at Chastain. It was a sweet scene with a pretty dreamy line delivery from Matt Czuchry to Jessica Lucas, but happened when he was still dating Cade and she had something going with James. "All In" handled that sticky situation in a way that fixed my issues with their romance and set the stage for the finale next week.
As somebody who has been on board with a Billie/Conrad romance since way back when it was still weirdly close to Nic's death, I wanted to 100% celebrate the two crossing the point of no return and kissing in the fall finale. I Just couldn't do it when Conrad was still in a relationship with Cade, with Cade trusting Conrad when he assured her that she didn't need to worry about his friendship with Billie. As for Billie, her relationship with James didn't seem serious, but she had also reassured him that she wasn't holding out for Conrad.
And The Resident found two ways to handle the aftermath of the kiss that made me feel a lot better about how Conrad and Billie got together, and about both of them as characters to root for.
First and foremost, Conrad didn't waste time in telling Cade what had happened with Billie. While she dropped the news that she'd lied about her trip in the fall finale and had actually been visiting her dad in rehab before he could drop the news about the big kiss, he came clean and told her that he hadn't been honest with himself or Cade about Billie, and that he kissed her. His only defense was that he tried to make it work with Cade – and she didn't love the idea that he had to put in effort to be with her – but acknowledged that he hurt her and apologized.
For her part, Billie was admittedly avoiding James' texts all day rather than immediately coming clean to him, but I cut her some slack. Her relationship with him didn't seem nearly as serious as Conrad and Cade, and she was also still trying to recover from being attacked and nearly killed just the day before. Conrad confessing to Cade and breaking things off ASAP was enough for me, and Billie at least was just ignoring James rather than actively lying to him.
The second part of "All In" that won me over was that both Conrad and Billie made the point that they hadn't wanted to start a relationship by kissing while technically both dating other people. They knew that it was the wrong way to do it, realized that they needed to do it the right way moving forward. Billie even gave Cade the opportunity to say what she needed to say. Billie asserted that even though she had feelings for Conrad for some time, she didn't intend to swoop in while Cade was still in the picture.
It didn't hurt that Cade came out with her dignity full intact, not excusing Conrad for what he did, not holding a grudge against Billie, and even saying that she likes Billie. She and Conrad never said that they loved each other, and she said that she deserved to be loved by somebody who didn't have to try to make it happen. Plus, the episode ended with Cade and James deciding to drown their sorrows together, so maybe something will happen on that front!
And I'm extremely glad that The Resident resolved the situation with Conrad and Billie's separate relationships as soon as possible rather than drawing the melodrama out to the finale. I might have been dreading the end of the season if the show had Conrad and Billie lying and covering up their kiss; now I can still root for them and their romance, since they acknowledged themselves that they didn't start it the right way. As for what happens in the two-hour finale, take a look at the promo:
Tune in to Fox on Tuesday, January 10 at 8 p.m. ET for the Season 6 finale of The Resident. The medical drama hasn't been renewed for Season 7 just yet, so only time will tell if the finale ends on a cliffhanger or not. To revisit earlier episodes of the series, you can find it streaming with a Hulu subscription.
