‘The Resident’ Boss on Kit & Bell’s Dinner, Cain’s Replacement, and More

If you’re not quite recovered from this week’s episode of The Resident, we understand. It was a heartbreaking one, and the Fox medical drama will never be the same without nurse practitioner Nic Nevin (Emily VanCamp).

But it has to move forward, as do the characters. But will Dr. Kit Voss (Jane Leeves) and Dr. Randolph Bell (Bruce Greenwood) ever get that dinner date that was interrupted by Nic being brought into Chastain? What’s going to happen to that open spot in neuro since Dr. Barrett Cain left for Johns Hopkins (with Morris Chestnut now on Our Kind of People)?

TV Insider got some answers to those questions and more from co-showrunner and executive producer Andrew Chapman.

Kit and Bell’s dinner plans were interrupted so are they going to reschedule or take a step back?

Andrew Chapman: They’re gonna keep trying to get that dinner. I’m not going to give anything away, but we definitely move their relationship forward. You’ll have to see whether it’s forward in a good or a bad way, but they definitely want to go to dinner. They just keep having trouble in going to dinner. But those two actors are so wonderful and we’ve been really listening to the fans — people are so into Bell and Kit, and we just love that, and we are too. So we think there’s a lot interesting, fun stuff to be mined there.

I loved that conversation with Bell taking back the invite and then she invited him out and the way he looked down at her taking his arm as they walked off…

I know, that was a great moment. It’s become a meme. I love that people are posting that all over the place. Bruce Greenwood is a wonderful actor, and he also has great comic timing and he plays Bell so perfectly at that moment of like, “yeah, no, let’s go to dinner, absolutely” after he just said how he doesn’t want to like ruin their relationship is so funny.

Tom Griscom/FOX

Devon [Manish Dayal] and Leela [Anuja Joshi] have somehow become the most stable, longest lasting couple of the main cast, even though it’s been three episodes onscreen.

I know. When we did learn that Emily was leaving the show, we really thought long and hard about who would be that central couple. Because it’s not just for fans, but it’s for a show, a show needs a love relationship that people can really hook into and it gives the show a sort of solidity and grounds the show in a way. I think that holds true for all television shows. It’s really nice to have a couple that you can go back to and just watch their progress with joy. That is right now what Devon and Leela are for us. We love that, and I think the fans really love it too.

When we talked before, you mentioned that there’s a 90 degree turn in Episode 5. Is there anything else that you can preview about that?

No, not really. All I can say is just keep watching Episode 5 to the end and that 90 degree turn will become apparent to you. All I can tease about it is that you’re going to like it, that you will find joy in that moment, and that will be good.

Tom Griscom/FOX

The search for Cain’s replacement hit a snag. Are we going to continue to see Kit trying to fill that position?

Yes and no. One of the things that we like is that Billie [Jessica Lucas] is a neurosurgeon and she could be someone who replaces Cain down the road but she’ll have to earn it. She’s not the perfect neurosurgeon yet. One of the things that we are going to play moving into the future and that we really find interesting is that neurosurgery is a part of medicine with very uncertain outcomes, and you have to be very strong emotionally to be a neurosurgeon because you lose patients. When you open up the brain, people don’t always survive. And so it’s about her growth to see if she can get there. And I think you and I talked about this last time, too, we love Morris Chestnut, who plays Cain, and there’s possibilities that he could conceivably come back maybe next season. So we’re definitely talking about that.

What else can you preview about the rest of the season after Episode 5?

Like I said, there will be a big right-hand turn and definitely stay tuned for that. We will be still talking about those ideas of work-life balance. We’ll be really focusing on Conrad [Matt Czuchry] and how he finds his way in the world, not continuing with grief over Nic, because we don’t want to be a grief fest, but how you just move on with your life and how you are a dad and how you raise a child. We love the relationship between Conrad and his daughter. We think it’s really moving. We think it’s very real and grounded.

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'The Resident' Star Emily VanCamp on Why Conrad & Nic Were 'Special'

We’ll always keep just pushing our big medical story. There’s going to be stuff about Medicare fraud. There’s going to be stuff about competency of doctors, all the stuff that we on The Resident sort of push in our medical stories.

And then we’ll continue with our relationships and our soap and Kit and Bell and will they/won’t they, and Devon and Leela and how far they go. And where does Conrad go? Does he ever have another relationship? Obviously, he needs time to recover, but who knows somewhere out in the far, far distance, there may be other people.

The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox