‘The Resident’ Boss on Celebrating KitBell’s Love With Wedding, Ian’s Addiction & More
Q&A
In addition to showing the realities of the supplies and healthcare workers it takes to treat “One Bullet” in the latest episode of The Resident, the Fox drama continued its ongoing storyline about doctors and addiction.
After Cade (Kaley Ronayne) shared her concerns about her father Ian (Andrew McCarthy), Conrad (Matt Czuchry) went to Kit (Jane Leeves) about testing the staff, without naming names. Ian succeeded in tricking the test (by taking oxaprozin, which can result in a positive result for benzodiazepines), though Cade was suspicious and Kit told him he had to take it again before operating again. And this did cause a strain in Cade’s relationship with Conrad.
Showrunner Andrew Chapman, who wrote “One Bullet,” teases what’s next with Ian’s addiction as well as Conrad’s relationships with Cade and Billie (Jessica Lucas) and previews Kit and Bell’s (Bruce Greenwood) upcoming wedding.
Ian’s addiction is beginning to spiral out of control, even though he thinks he’s successfully covering it up. Considering Cade at least suspects he’s lying, what does that to that relationship? They were just getting to a good place.
Andrew Chapman: It’s gonna be so juicy, and again, huge issue in medicine. We’ve been talking to this addiction doctor who’s been running us through how common it is, how they deal with it. It’s gonna be a huge issue between Cade and Ian. It’s gonna be an issue between Cade and Conrad, as it shows up in this episode, right? Because he’s the one who asked for the testing. She’s pissed off about it. They make up at the end, but it’s still lingering there.
Ian’s addiction is just gonna be enormous. Addiction’s a huge problem in our country, but it’s an issue in healthcare. And again, the mission of the show: Make the public aware of those things and explain them in digestible bits. Ian’s that guy. He’s the guy who performs his job well, but he’s an addict. How can you do that? How do you solve that problem? We’re gonna dive into that.
Tom Griscom/FOX
Conrad talks about the patients, but Kit has to think about the patients and the hospital. How is she dealing with that? She has to start to suspect now.
That’s exactly right. She’s gonna have to keep an eye on him, try to figure out, is he an addict? Is he not an addict? How to handle that? And it’s just gonna get more and more complicated for her as he is an important surgeon who is noted, famous, brings in patients to the hospital, brings notoriety to the hospital, but at the same time, he’s an addict. When will Kit find this out? How will she deal with it? How will she deal with Cade? It’s just gonna get messy, messy, messy, messy.
You brought up Cade’s relationship with Conrad. How are they going to be handling this? I feel like the worse it gets with Ian, the worse it will be for their relationship.
It’s gonna be a really intense, complicated relationship. There’ll be ups and downs and it’s not gonna go where you think it’s gonna go. You think it’s heading in one direction and then it’ll pivot. What we really wanted out of our relationship between Cade and Conrad mostly was an adult relationship between people who really weren’t overreacting to things but were behaving as adults in love and in the hospital situation. We think it’ll reflect really nicely on both of them as human beings in this complicated situation.
Nathan Bolster/FOX
When I spoke with Amy, she teased that “a lot of things happen at weddings.” Billie knows how she feels, but is Kit and Bell’s wedding going to be when Conrad may realize he’s not so certain about his feelings?
I’m not gonna give it away, you know I can’t do that, Meredith. But I will say that the wedding episode, which is Episode 6, is gonna be momentous. It’ll be worth tuning into. Things will arise and moments will happen that are gonna be nice and fun for the audience.
What can you tease about the wedding for Kit and Bell specifically?
What we love about that relationship is how they are sort of king and queen of the hospital and how they are the sort of elder royalty, if you will, and how mature they are and how much in love they are and how supportive they are. Bell’s struggling with his MS and Kit is struggling with keeping the hospital afloat and we really wanted to show a couple that can deal with personal problems, work problems, and still be deeply supportive and in love with each other. And so the wedding is all about that for them. It’s about the full 360 degree love. Love that isn’t just these little specific things. It’s everything.
We just love their relationship. We love Bruce Greenwood in the relationship. We love Jane Leeves in the relationship. Their personal relationship is so wonderful together. We just find it really moving and motivating, and so that’s what the wedding’s gonna be like.
How much of Bell’s storyline is about his MS, how much about the hospital, and how much about something else?
It is all of those things. It’s the hospital, it’s MS, and there will be a whole new storyline where Bell gets very involved in the future of the hospital and he becomes central to it. That will be the primary story for him going forward [starting] in 6 and 7.
I’m excited to see Kit vs. this new governor because my money’s on Kit. What can you preview?
That is a lot of where the new storyline for Bell is gonna happen: Kit versus the governor, Bell at her side, Bell versus the governor, Bell and Kit trying to save the hospital, the governor doing nefarious things. That’s gonna be a big storyline and that’s our big conflict going forward for Kit and Bell, but specifically for Bell.
The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox
