‘The Resident’: Does Conrad Watch History Repeat Itself After Cade Is Shot? (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Resident Season 5, Episode 21 “Risk.”]

For the second time in The Resident Season 5, the staff of Chastain tries to save one of their own in “Risk” — and Dr. Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry) can’t help but flash back to when he lost his wife, nurse practitioner Nic Nevin (Emily VanCamp).

When Conrad arrives at work, he finds out that Dr. Kincaid “Cade” Sullivan (Kaley Ronayne) has quit. “I’ll miss you,” he tells her. “We never really had a chance, did we?” she asks, but “I thought we had a chance,” he says. With the killer from the mob involved in fake prescriptions watching her, she can’t take the chance. And after a long hug for Conrad in private, then farewells for the rest of the staff, Cade drives off … only to be shot before she’s even left the parking lot, her FBI escort behind her. Conrad, watching her go, runs to her. Thinking she’s going to die, Cade asks Conrad to hold her hand.

Nathan Bolster/FOX

Once they get her back into the ER, the FBI puts it on lockdown and everyone works to save her. Two of the bullets shattered her spleen, while the other just missed her heart. Conrad is particularly concerned about her neuro exam. “It’s not like Nic,” Dr. Billie Sutton (Jessica Lucas) assures him. “You fix the rest of her, that brain will be just fine.” Conrad clues everyone in on what they don’t know — Cade was a whistleblower, working for the FBI, and blew open a mob operation — just before she takes a turn and they realize she’s having a reaction to the blood transfusion. That’s why Cade had said “blood,” Conrad realizes. She has a rare type (Rhnull) and needs an exact match.

Dr. Randolph Bell (Bruce Greenwood) needs to operate, however, and at least take out her spleen and fix whatever else can kill her, but doing so without blood means moving quickly and leaving her abdomen open while she waits in the ICU until her next surgery. As expected, that doesn’t go according to plan, and they have to leave her bowel disconnected after removing a damaged part. Meanwhile, Billie tries to find her blood, and at first, all they have is her father, who’s taking the red eye from Seattle, but he won’t be in Atlanta until the following morning, in 16 hours.

Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) offers to run point, knowing that while it’s not like Nic, having a friend and colleague he wants to save has to be triggering for Conrad. “Not even close,” Conrad says. “We can save Cade.” (That doesn’t keep him from briefly seeing Nic in the hospital bed when he looks at Cade.) In fact, there’s hope when they learn that Cade did have two units of her blood at her last job (Atlanta General), but when Conrad and Billie open it, it’s frozen. And when they thaw it, the plastic cracks and the bags begin leaking. It’s all contaminated.

Nathan Bolster/FOX

Devon proposes they use a hemoglobin-based blood substitute. It’s supposed to save soldiers in combat without access to a transfusion, but it can be toxic. But despite the risks, they know Cade will die if they don’t do something, so they don’t really have a choice. Fortunately, it works, enough so that she can go in for her next surgery.

It’s while in observation that Billie checks on Conrad, asking the question that, as she puts it, everyone’s thinking and no one’s saying: “How personal is this, Conrad?” While he tries to argue it’s personal for everyone, she pushes. “Are you in love with Cade?” He says no. “Are you sure?” Billie asks. Again, no. “She knew she had to leave, so we didn’t go there. She put up barriers to protect herself. So did I,” he explains. “It always comes back to Nic. Something stops me, and it’s not just with Cade. It’s with others, too.” What’s stopping him, Billie wants to know. “I’m not sure,” Conrad admits. “Protecting myself maybe. I can’t face another loss like that and I feel like I’m cheating on Nic, I don’t know. All I know is whatever I feel, it only goes so far. Then the walls come up.” She suggests, “Maybe you just need a little push.” (But would that push be in Cade or Billie’s direction?)

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The surgery goes as well as it can. Then, it’s just a matter of waiting to see if once they extubate her, there’s any permanent brain damage. “It’s like he wants to relive what happened to Nic and rewrite the ending,” Devon comments while watching Conrad sitting with her. He’s still by her side when she eventually wakens. “Hey, partner,” she says. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear those two words,” he tells her. And her neuro exam is “pristine,” according to Billie. She has a long recovery ahead of her, but the good news is that more blood of her type just arrived: Her father is here. Cade doesn’t exactly look ecstatic to hear that.

And so the episode ends with Dr. Ian Sullivan (Andrew McCarthy) walking into Chastain and exclaiming, “I’m here to save my daughter’s life.”

The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox