The Resident Review: No Matter the Cost (Season 1 Episode 6)

The Resident Season 1 Episode 6, “No Matter the Cost,” is the most powerful and well-executed episode of the season.

The backstory-laden hour is successful largely due to its focus on Mina.

A lot happens on the episode, but it is less rushed and shout-y than usual. Mina as the anchor brings a calm, confident delight to “No Matter the Cost.”

Mina has so much presence that she doesn’t really need other lead characters in a scene to make it effective.

However, the friendship that Mina and Nic form over the course of “No Matter the Cost” has me clapping and grateful.

I’m so glad it is Nic who Mina confides in, even if it is accidental. Nic understands and she is able to question and challenge Mina regarding her choices. Mina needs that.

We all need to sharpen our choices through hearing the counterpoint and risks from a trusted confidant.

Further, Nic needs someone who is willing to open up to her. Mina gives Nic the very thing that she is missing from Conrad: trust.

The episode reveals the conundrum that Mina has been facing for years, how to secretly provide care for her sick, uninsured community members.

In all of the Season 1 episodes so far, Dr. Okafor seems aloof when ethics and hospital politics discussions arise. In reality, she was always in the thick of it, risking her license and visa to keep people from falling through cracks.

The title of the episode, “No Matter the Cost,” actually indicates a decision that is more clear than those Mina is constantly making. How can you be willing to pay the cost, no matter what, when you can’t know what, when, or how that cost is?

The most powerful line of the episode is a short, sweet, sledgehammer: “What clinic?” – Dr. Okafor

With this stunning line, Dr. Okafor displays the impossible choices doctors face when they know what care is needed to save a life, but the source of care is nowhere to be found.

The addiction story-line is choppy and typical.

Addiction is complex, heartbreaking, stressful and costly for families of addicts. There are more layers than the trite exchanges between Nic and the family would indicate.

Emily VanCamp and Shaunette Renee Wilson manage to salvage some shallow writing with their excellent and subtle acting.

Their budding friendship is a real breath of joy. It is also nice to see The Resident wholly, resoundingly, pass the Bechdel Test.

Conrad’s development on the episode is exhilarating. Picking up where the previous episode left off, Conrad meets with his dad. It’s not a happy reunion and the tight camera work bolsters the point that there is a lake of anxiety Conrad swims in whenever he is around his father.

Conrad’s day continues to roller-coaster and by the end, it breaks him.

He meets his father in the diner and kicks up old trauma dirt.

He sees Jude putting a necklace on Nic (my mind would have gone straight to picturing her at his apartment, post-coital, dropping the necklace on his bedroom floor).

Conrad is told, again, he’s not God. The last person to tell him that was Nic and Nic is also telling him he’s not enough.

He is grabbed by the attending and his visceral reaction hints that this is a trigger: someone else, likely his father, has grabbed him like that before.

And then, he’s confronted too with his gifts. He’s confronted with always being right.

At the same time, Conrad has people shouting at his ego to tear it down, warning him against playing God, he, and only he, is able to provide his patient the relief and answer he has been seeking for ten years. He is able to do this by relying on his own instinct and gifts.

It is a victory and a burden. Why should Conrad embrace humility when his tenacity and overconfidence is saving lives?

Conrad crying with his patient who feels relief for the first time in a decade is a gorgeous scene and the first of series to make me tear up.

It is achingly relate-able. Chronic pain, or a long disease like cancer, can not be easily fixed. It can be years of tests and trials and pain and pain and pain.

Patients are so often ignored or brushed aside when they share their suffering and fear.

It leaves us wondering too, what is the chronic pain that Conrad carries?

He relates so deeply to his patient. The dancer’s tears of relief and joy move Conrad so much that he cries.

He is never that vulnerable with Nic.

The only person Dr. Hawkins seems to have reverence for is Lane. But, this is a mistake.

As Nic and Dr. Pravesh reveal on “No Matter the Cost,” Lane is willing to kill a patient for monetary gain. The “Superbowl” of cancer treatments is the focus of Lane’s attention, not the Chastain team’s favorite patient Lilly.

It leaves us wondering what Conrad will do when he realizes the one authority figure he puts some trust in, perfectly embodies what he most hates.

Conrad doesn’t know who to trust- that’s a much more interesting flaw than what was hinted at on The Resident Season 1 Episode 5, “None the Wiser.”

It is still unclear what about Conrad’s father is bad. There are significant undertones of violence, especially as we see Conrad react to having hands on him.

Conrad makes it about money, but greed is not that loud. As he explains to his dancer patient- he left his home for the peace and quiet of war.

Obviously, something was going on at home to make that situation loud and chaotic, more than Afghanistan.

We still don’t know what it is, but it’s so painful that Conrad would rather pretend that he’s moving on from Nic, step away from the possibility of love than to discuss it.

The details in the episode help to knock the central conflict between Nic and Conrad from a tired trope, into something authentic that the audience feels with them.

And, we can buckle in for a slow burn. Hooray!

An aspect of the episode that elevates its impact is the tight camera angles we get on Matt Czuchry’s face.

It is truly incredible the tension, fear, pain and desire that Czuchry can muster in his face. It is wildly effective.

In the closing scene where we see Conrad and Nic arguing, the discussion that is happening on the nonverbal level is harrowing. He’s just in too much pain.

The day broke him and he can’t keep looking at her, disappointing her. He has to run away, even as his face communicates all he wants to do is be brave enough to stay.

Doctors Notes

• Dr. Pravesh is such a SNOOZE. He’s either yelling or whining, and neither is interesting.
• Is Lilly hitting on Devon? Is Claire hitting on Dr. Bell? Eeew. I mean, you ladies are boss, but I recommend setting your targets higher.
• What is with Dr. Irving? If he is there as a mark for misogyny and professional ineptitude, I suppose I get it. But, the writing indicates affection for him and that he’s the comic relief. Again, sexism and toxic masculinity aren’t funny.
• Mina’s fashion is next level.
• At the end of my last review, I asked for friendship between Mina and Nic. “No Matter the Cost,” grants my wish!–So, I now want to ask for an ethical mentor for Mina and Conrad.

What did you think of this episode of The Resident? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The Resident airs Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.

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