‘The Resident’ Boss on a Mina/Austin Promise & Cain’s ‘Intense’ Next Phase
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 3, Episode 4 of The Resident, “Belief System.”]
Happy (early) Halloween! People can be terrifying.
The Resident celebrated the spooky holiday with “Belief System,” with a series of creepy stories. Mina (Shaunette Renée Wilson) and Austin (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) got a close look at the negative effect Red Rock has had on other hospitals in a small town on a road trip (and suffered from some strange dreams as a result).
And Cain (Morris Chestnut) was so certain he knew what was right when treating a white supremacist, only for a final twist to reveal he’d cut out the “wrong” personality, all because he didn’t wait for files Nic (Emily VanCamp) thought he should see first.
TV Insider spoke with EP Todd Harthan about where the developments of this episode take Chastain’s doctors next.
Let’s start with Mina and Austin’s road trip and their strange dreams, a way to explore their feelings for one another without going there. How does this change their relationship moving forward? They’ve both reiterated that he’s her mentor.
Todd Harthan: It definitely changes things moving forward. You’ll see in the next batch of episodes Mina is starting to realize that she’s being dishonest by not telling him how she feels. As you know, she is all about brutal honesty, so we’re exploring the aftermath and the aftereffect of this episode and how that is going to impact their interactions, both in the hospital and out moving forward.
(Guy D’Alema/FOX)
It is a promise to the audience of things heating up and things to come, but you know how we do it on this show. We like to tease and make you believe you’re going to get what you want and then figure out a way to take it away.
And we saw Mina taking a step forward professionally with that speech. What’s coming up for her career-wise?
Everybody, including Red Rock and Cain, knows how special she is, but the complicated thing for her as her career moves forward is she’s going to have a big decision to make, which is, does she lean into the momentum she has in her career or does she lean into the relationships, the loyalties she has with the people we’ve grown to love, the Raptors, the Conrads, the Nics? It’s going to put her in a tough spot — what’s the most important thing to her, her career or the relationships she’s built?
!['The Resident' Boss on [Spoiler]'s Death, Dr. Cain & the 'Serious Threat' to Kit](https://www.tvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-Resident-301-Nic-Cain-Kit-234x155.jpg)
Cain was faced with an ethical dilemma and swayed by his own feelings, only to realize he’d made a terrible mistake. Does that affect his approach to medicine and his patients moving forward?
It does. For Cain, there was always going to be that episode where something tipped him in a meaningful way towards the direction we’re heading him in in the back half of the season. This will certainly have an impact on his energy and attitude moving forward, which the audience will get a real satisfaction out of. Morris has been fantastic, and he’s really sinking his teeth into the next phase of this character, which is intense.
Cain is acting like he’s untouchable, even points out to Bell that he has to cover for him. How much will those two continue to clash?
Quite a bit. When someone like Cain feels like they’re untouchable and indestructible, they fear no one and spark conflict with everyone. He’s going to become a one-man army, but he’s very, very powerful. He will have Red Rock on the flank, but he will not be making many friends at Chastain throughout the season. The Raptors and the Bells and the Conrads of the world, we are digging into just how toxic those relationships are going to become.
(Guy D’Alema/FOX)
What do you enjoy most about Cain and Nic working together? Will she continue to push back against him like she did with this patient?
[Nic will] push back whether it’s Cain or Bell or whoever. She’s fearless in that way. They’re both really good at challenging each other and pushing each other’s buttons. It’s something that we’ve enjoyed writing to and it’s something we’re going to ramp up as things intensify, episode to episode.
Last we spoke, you said Red Rock wouldn’t be elevator of blood bad, but you’re certainly continuing the horror theme with them. Will we see that throughout the season? Was what happened with that small town just the beginning and will we see more instances of hospitals being closed?
The bloodbath will continue but in different ways. This particular conglomerate is affecting hospitals, medicine, and ultimately patients in a lot of different ways that are dangerous. We’re telling stories that touch on a lot of those different areas, and they’re all shocking and systemic issues. As far as other hospitals closing, we talk about it again but we don’t do any more episodes where the story’s focused on that. We shift into other issues that Red Rock causes that are potentially dangerous to patients.
And will we see the doctors continue to fight back against Red Rock the best they can like Mina and Austin did?
Oh, yeah. What you’ll see is a lot of our heroes fighting their own individual battles and then it’s strength in numbers and what the audience will get to look forward to is how do they all come together to slay this new goliath. That’s the arc of the season we’re building. The way they come together and the way they fight it is the drama that will hopefully excite the audience. Our group does not give up easily, and it doesn’t matter how strong the opponent is. In this case, it seems like it’s not something they’re going to be able to fight successfully, but they’re a tenacious group.
The Resident, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox
