‘The Resident’ Takes Conrad Away From Chastain, Plus Who’s the New Chief of Surgery? (RECAP)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Resident Season 5 Episode 6 “Ask Your Doctor.”]

The Resident is firmly post-time jump with “Ask Your Doctor,” and some things have changed at the hospital in the three years: Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) is now an attending. Dr. AJ Austin (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) is now famous and an author and competing with Dr. Randolph Bell (Bruce Greenwood) for chief of surgery. But the biggest of all is that Dr. Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry) is no longer working at Chastain!

But don’t worry, a patient brings him back to his (former?) home, and not for the first time. As a single father, he’s putting his daughter first, and that means regular 9-5 hours and being home to treat her to a fancy dinner. That kind of work-life balance is something to be commended — and something that Dr. Leela Devi’s (Anuja Joshi) sister, Padma (Aneesha Joshi), wishes she’d have.

When Will Conrad Return to Chastain?

Because it is a question of when, not if. But even Gigi knows that it’s where he belongs, considering she asks if he’s going to the hospital where her mother used to work. Instead, he’s working as a concierge doctor, and it’s as he’s leaving one patient’s hotel room that he spots a man coughing on the sidewalk, with a bandage on his hand. Jackson tells him the doctor gave him a year tops (cancer), so the cut isn’t a big deal. Still, Conrad convinces him to go to Chastain to get it looked at, and it’s while he’s in the waiting room that Jackson sees a commercial for HalciPride, claiming to help people live longer with lung cancer. But when he can’t get it ASAP, he takes matters into his own hands and holds the pharmacists hostage.

Meanwhile, the staff is happy to see Conrad, and Dr. Kit Voss (Jane Leeves) reminds him that as long as she’s CEO, he always has a place there. While catching up, Devon wants to make sure his talents aren’t being wasted, but for Conrad, the flexibility and spending time with Gigi are what matters. But he does think about everyone at the hospital all the time … at which point they’re interrupted by an alert about Jackson.

Tom Griscom/FOX

What the man doesn’t know is that the ads are misleading: HalciPride is super expensive and only gives patients a couple of extra weeks. Conrad insists on trying to talk him down — Devon goes with him — and Jackson tells them he’s trying to make things right with his kid. He needs time to do that. As the police arrive, he stabs himself in the neck, fortunately missing the carotid. The doctors are able to save him, but he needs surgery. And while he’s in the OR, Conrad and Devon get to work on finding something to buy him more time — and actually diagnosing him correctly. It turns out he doesn’t have cancer, but rather, tuberculosis. He’ll receive treatment, and yes, he’s under arrest after he’s discharged, but he’s going to get better.

Conrad makes it home in time for his special dinner with Gigi. Still, as he tells her, “it was the best day I had in a long time.” And that’s because he was at Chastain, so how much longer can he stay away?

KitBell

What fans have been waiting for is finally here with the time jump: Kit and Bell together and her clothes taking over his side of the closet. (He’s completely surrendered when it comes to even trying to fight that.) But they’re keeping professional and personal separate, she reminds him, when it comes to his bid to become chief of surgery. She’s considering him as CEO, not as his partner.

And they’re adorable together. When she tells him he’s not getting the job, he says it might be for the best, since there’s a woman he’s been seeing for a while now and they have a good thing going. The less time he spends at work, the more time he’ll have with her … if she can get away from her responsibilities. That’s easier said than done, but while she’ll be late, “she’s worth waiting up for,” he tells her.

Tom Griscom/FOX

Double the Devi

Padma’s been visiting Leela and Devon for two months and hooking up with AJ. He checks it’s not too weird for Leela. “You mean the fact that you’ve basically seen me naked?” she asks before assuring him she doesn’t care.

Though they may look alike — and Padma’s mistaken for Leela once — the entire episode stresses just how different the sisters are. As Devon notes, Padma’s spontaneous and carefree, while Leela is … “the love of my life.” (Nice save.) And Padma wishes her sister would spend more time away from work, with her and with Devon. As she points out, she barely sees Leela, who doesn’t eat, barely sleeps, and only talks medicine, and Leela only sees Devon at work. She’s proud of her sister, but she also remembers the girl who did other things, too … like taking five minutes for herself.

Leela does just that at the end of the episode. She and Devon take advantage of the shower in his office. And then she joins her sister in the van she bought for a day trip.

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And the New Chief of Surgery Is…

Bell seems to be a bit jealous of AJ’s recent fame; one of his patients asks him to get the other doctor to sign his book, Heart Sounds. That leads to him going after chief of surgery. And so the two men spend the episode competing with one another while treating an MMA fighter.

But neither of them gets the job. As Kit points out, while both have made remarkable contributions to Chastain, this would be just another feather in AJ’s cap and he doesn’t have time, and Bell already did the job once and quit because he didn’t like it. So who is the new chief of staff? Dr. Billie Sutton (Jessica Lucas)!

As Kit tells her, she’s tireless, a bossy advocate for her patients (she called earlier about her patients’ pain meds), a leader, and works well with others. The job has its downsides, like administrative burdens, adjusting the surgical schedule, and managing fragile egos, but she’d have a real hand in shaping the hospital. So what does she say? Yes!

The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox