‘The Resident’ Gives Billie a New Love Interest, But What Did That Dance With Conrad Mean? (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Resident Season 6 Episode 7 “The Chimera.”]

At the beginning of the season, co-creator Amy Holden Jones teased “potential with someone new” when it comes to Dr. Billie Sutton’s (Jessica Lucas) love life on The Resident moving forward after Dr. Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry) and Dr. Cade Sullivan (Kaley Ronayne) got together. And in “The Chimera,” it looks like we met that “new” person: Ian Anthony Dale’s Dr. James Yamada.

But first, Conrad must deal with the semi-fallout of him and Billie dancing at Dr. Kit Voss (Jane Leeves) and Dr. Randolph Bell’s (Bruce Greenwood) wedding. As Dr. AJ Austin (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) says to Conrad, he thought he’d end up with Billie, then told himself he was wrong after seeing him with Cade (“We’re having fun, she’s really great,” Dr. Hawkins says), but then saw that dance… All Conrad says is that Cade wanted to be there but had to work. “Yeah, that explains everything,” AJ remarks.

Things get awkward when Cade looks through Dr. Feldman’s (Tasso Feldman) photos and sees Conrad and Billie’s dance. Feldman tries to help his friend, telling her he also danced with Conrad. “And he looked at you like that?” Cade asks. She later brings it up to Conrad, noting that the look on his face makes her think there’s something between them. Conrad insists they’re good friends, adding, “we share something that’s hard to describe, I guess. It’s a sense of what we’ve lost.”

And she’s not the only one picking up on that look. Feldman warns Jessica (Jessica Miesel) that if he ever caught her looking at Nolan (Michael Hogan) like that, he’d… she interrupts before he can finish that threat. Besides, he doesn’t need to be worried about Nolan. George Clooney in his ER days, however…

Feldman echoes AJ’s earlier thoughts when Conrad asks to see the photo: He, too, thought there might be something between him and Billie. “Billie was Nic’s best friend,” Conrad argues. Feldman continues the trend of best responses to Conrad’s weak excuses with, “which explains what exactly?” As Conrad sees it, “it’s possible for us to care about each other and be friends without…” “Benefits?” the other doctor suggests.

Off that conversation, Billie admits that she woke up a little confused after the dance, and Conrad agrees. But if Conrad’s happy with Cade — he confirms he is — then she’s not confused. As he walks away, he turns back to tell her, “I want you to be happy.” And what do you know? That’s when James makes his entrance, first introducing himself to Conrad, then going over to Billie and inviting her to dinner. She’s hesitant, looking to Conrad. James notices the two and asks if there’s someone else, but she accepts.

Later, after a successful, risky surgery for Billie and AJ, James suggests drinks before dinner. “Have a good time. You deserve it,” AJ says as they walk off. He then turns to Conrad to check if he’s cool with them together. She can do better, Conrad says. But both just want Billie to be happy. Something tells us this just means that things are about to get very complicated for the Billie-Conrad-Cade love triangle.

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Elsewhere, Kit and Bell’s private meeting with Governor Betz (Steven Culp) about him slashing Chastain’s budget takes place in front of the press. To put it simply, he’s awful, calling out Kit’s accent and stressing he’s “Georgia born and bred,” shifting funding from medicine to crime, and calling his plan “tough love.” Bell accuses him of a history of Medicare fraud, leading to the press asking questions. Betz walks out, telling one of his employees to find out everything he can about Bell because he’s going to destroy him.

And that begins with Betz turning a new scrub tech at the hospital, Donald, into his spy, under the threat of exposing a previous mess that had been covered up. And so Donald introduces himself to Bell and tries to get Jessica to help him get in his OR. She smoothly tells him she can arrange for him to work with Billie instead. But when she’s tied up in another surgery, Donald leaps at the chance to work with Bell. Unfortunately, it’s on a patient who dies on the table due to complications no one caught.

Bell takes responsibility, though Kit says that even if he’d seen the signs, it probably would’ve been too late. The patient avoided American healthcare because of the costs, and that’s what killed her. However, Donald overhears and tells Betz what happened — and that he thinks it’s enough for a lawsuit. Furthermore, he knows that Bell has skeletons in his closet, and the governor will take whatever he can get. “Bell, you picked the wrong enemy,” Betz says. But we think Betz is the one who picked the wrong enemy — because now he’ll be going up against Kit, and our money’s on her.

The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox