The Resident Review: Total Eclipse of the Heart (Season 1 Episode 14)

The Resident Season 1 Episode 14, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” fails to deliver on the promises made at the beginning of the season, trading in its complex and rich drama for surface level plot-twists.

The final episodes of Season 1 make a sharp turn away from engagement with complex moral and ethical quandaries.  The Resident’s  identity as a medical ethics drama is what makes it stand out among other medical shows.

The Resident Season 1 Episode 1 presented the tough question: what does it mean to do no harm? Several episodes explore and dig into that question, but “Total Eclipse of the Heart” abandons it.

Instead, the finale is entirely predictable in its storyline. The second Feldman refers the hypochondriatic patient to Dr. Hunter, it is clear that she is going to diagnose the patient with cancer even though the patient is not sick.

Dr. Bell’s betrayal is also visible from a mile away.

The predictability is not a big deal, except for the fact that it is not in service of developing the characters.

It is plot for plot’s sake, and we don’t see the characters we love grow from it. We just see things happen to them.

 

The issue at hand in the finale is not nuanced. Giving healthy patients cancer diagnoses so you can earn money from the treatment is not a grey area. That’s unethical, criminal, and completely monstrous.

While it is interesting that Dr. Lane is based on a true story of a real doctor, and Melina Kanakaredes is excellent as the villain, the resolution feels pithy because it is disconnected from her relationships with the Chastain team.

Nic’s coffee shop brawl with Lane on The Resident Season 1 Episode 12, “Rude Awakenings and the Raptor,” felt intimate and threatening.

On “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” there is no interaction between the two. Nic is only tangentially included in Lane’s takedown.

Nic’s distance and lack of agency in the demise of the deadly doctor make the climax to the finale tepid.

I grimace rather than raise a triumphant fist when Lane is taken down.

There is a real missed opportunity here, I think, to examine and show how financial pressures can transform a person into a complete monster.

I do like Lane as a cutthroat huntress. But, she would be more effective for the purposes of the show, which include being a whistle-blower for the medical field, if she was given more backstory and relatability.

It would have been more powerful if Dr. Lane and Dr. Bell were both struggling with financial pressures, perhaps one from insurmountable student loan debt and supporting a family and the other from a gambling addiction.

This would not necessarily make them more likable, but it would have contextualized their actions and just generally made us feel more towards their story arcs.

Watching Conrad and Nic watch Dr. Bell on the news feels distant. I care about these characters, so it feels disappointing that the finale creates such distance between the main characters and the fall of The Huntress.

Dr. Okafor’s character choices and development on the episode backtrack and negate all of the wonderful development that the season had built.

Dr. Okafor is unemotional. She feels more for machines than people. Her all thinking, no feeling personality is a huge part of what makes her a great character, especially because it is very rare for women to have unfeeling characteristics.

It is refreshing that Mina is shown as a person who is not emotional.

It is also important that she has been developed as a caring hero. Her lack of emotions doesn’t prevent her from risking her license to help people at her apartment or from sticking with Nic as they follow a discharged patient.

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” strips that lack of emotionality away from Mina. It pains me to see The Raptor more or less force Mina to become a person she is not.

It is even more painful that the show feels that Mina needs to learn the lesson that to be a good doctor, she has to be emotionally compromised at times.

By making The Raptor “right” about Mina and showing her crying as a character breakthrough, the show invalidates the character as she has been established throughout the rest of the season.

It is very confusing and out of left field to bring Micah back as a love interest. If Mina has been falling in love with Micah, great. The finale should not be the first we see of that.

The result just feels disjointed. I find myself wishing that Mina could just run over to Conrad and Nic to help with the whole Lane situation.

That actually brings up another missed opportunity. Nic and Mina have sincerely connected over the course of the season. It does not make sense that Mina, a person who houses uninsured patients in her apartment, would not be fighting tooth and nail for her friend.

We don’t get to see Dr. Okafor do anything for Nic. Instead, we see her heartbroken and pining over a man and a relationship that we have not been privy to.

CoNic’s finale arc is also frustrating. I do like the fun make-out scene in the file room but even that doesn’t match the tone of the serious events that go down in the hours prior.

Nic goes to jail. Conrad makes a deal with the devil to bail her out. Micah nearly dies. Everything seems helpless.

It does work out, and Nic is back at Chastain, but all of that is not easy to walk away from with a flirty pep in your step.

I don’t connect with the noncommittal and flirty “see you around,” comment.

I want to see the threat of losing Nic be the catalyst for Conrad to face his emotional hang-ups and finally take a step to being vulnerable to the woman he loves.

This would be a progression from the beginning of the season, to the major conflicts in the middle, and to a resolution at the finale where we see some actual change or development from Conrad. Because the moral ethics angle is abandoned on the finale, the lack of character development for Conrad is deeply disappointing.

There are a few select things about the finale that work well, and those will tide us over for the summer until The Resident Season 2 can revisit and restore some of its broken parts.

Nic’s treatment of the sick prison guard is a tender and intimate moment that provides a nice look at who Nic is as a caregiver. The inclusion of a same-sex relationship is encouraging, but it is problematic that the only gay women we see on the show are in the stereotypical roles of prison guards.

The scene is well acted and provides a fresh source of characterization.

I don’t like the message that it provides about who Mina is or who she is supposed to be, BUT I do enjoy the scenes between her and The Raptor.

The final thing that works for me on the finale is Conrad’s dad. I love the mystery behind why Conrad is so estranged. I am intrigued by how Dr. Bell will interact with Conrad’s dad in the future.

The shot of Conrad looking in on the board meeting, his father now Dr. Bell’s boss, is rather giddying.

Overall, the finale is weak because it casts aside the things on The Resident that work well: Mina, Conrad, and Nic working together, complex ethical dilemmas, CoNic intimacy, and Claire Thorpe.

Hopefully, Season 2 will bring us back to what works well for The Resident.

Doctor’s Notes

• Micah’s “I told you we’re a thing,” is beyond adorable.
• Dr. Pravesh’s clear disdain for his patients is deeply disturbing.
• Please, bring back Merrin Dungey for Season 2!
• Feldman and Pravesh’s discussion about Mina’s sex life, at work in the hallways, is completely inappropriate. Feldman wanting to die while having sex with Mina is not complimentary or cute. It is inappropriate.
• Oh, hi Priya. Not sure what her reporting had to do with anything, but I do think it’s offensive to make it seem like the heart of hypochondria is a desire to be famous.
• I am curious why Season 1 never addresses sexual assault like Emily VanCamp indicated in interviews it would.
• Did Lily really have cancer? I hope we find out on Season 2!

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

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

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