The Resident Review: Doll E. Wood (Season 3 Episode 17)

If you suspect that someone, including yourself, is being trafficked, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-737-7888. You can also text HELP or INFO to SMS: 233733

The Resident Season 3 Episode 17, “Doll E. Wood,” is the most important episode we’ll watch this season, and the reason has nothing to do with country queen Dolly Parton.

“Doll E. Wood,” puts trafficking victims’ hospital experiences front and center.

I am SO PROUD of this team. 

Awareness of trafficking victims and providing trauma-informed care to possible victims is something I have been ardently hoping for since Season 1! It is number seven on our list of 15 Reasons The Resident Needs a Second Season.

I give this plot on the episode FIVE STARS for how it handles the subject. I also have some tips and additional information on the realities of trafficking derived from my work in anti-trafficking. 

First, I want to highlight all of the ways The Resident shows it has done its research. 

Yvette, portrayed masterfully by Desiree Ross, explains that she was first introduced to her trafficker through a person she thought cared about her. A person who she thought was interested in her romantically and wanted to save her from a rough home life. 

This is often referred to as “Romeo-ed” in the anti-trafficking community. 

It is essential to show stories like Yvette’s because so many people still believe that sex-trafficking looks like the example in Taken where a wealthy girl with a stable home life is kidnapped in a foreign country by someone she doesn’t know. 

Yes, traffickers use violence like in Taken, but their other, often more successful, tools are fear, abuse, and coercion.

“Doll E. Wood,” does an excellent job of making it clear that Yvette’s situation is complicated and she has a complex set of needs and fears that threaten to keep her under her pimp’s control. 

Another exemplary part of the episode’s portrayal of trafficking is how Nic uses trauma-informed techniques to approach Yvette. 

NIC: You are in control. 

Nic highlights repeatedly that Yvette has choice and control over what happens to her. She offers to help the young woman but doesn’t force her into anything. 

These types of phrases may seem short and not all that significant, but for people being trafficked, they can be THE thing that helps them see a way out. 

Conrad and Nic try to separate Yvette from her trafficker and are eventually successful by making up a fake diagnosis.

While the quick success of their efforts does not necessarily reflect the likelihood of success for practitioners in real life, this difficulty is very important to highlight. 

Many victims are reticent to identify as a victim. This could be because they fear retaliation, they see themselves as equally culpable as their trafficker, or they don’t recognize that they are being exploited. 

In addition, the extreme financial control pimps have over their victims can mean that leaving seems riskier than staying. 

A single doctor’s visit can certainly make a difference. However, it is also not likely to result in a person exiting from trafficking right away. That doesn’t minimize, though, how Nic smartly recognizes the signs and then works to get the patient alone so she can provide options. 

Some practitioners might write secret notes, or hide hotline information in tampon containers or lip glosses so that the intervention is undetected by traffickers. 

The final strength I’d like to highlight is that we learn how much interaction Yvette has had with medical professionals. She has been into the E.R. many times for injuries that should have stood out as red flags.

Even the very first clue, the mismatch of the patient’s stated age to her presenting age is important for us to see on our TV screen. (I yelp and jump out of my chair at this point of the episode because I know we’re getting a trafficking storyline).

Medical professionals have a very important role in anti-trafficking and “Doll E. Wood,” does a fantastic job of showing that story. 

Other elements that could be brought into a trafficking storyline are additional trauma-informed approaches and common medical issues. 

When Yvette starts panicking and hitting the wall, we could see someone like Nic ground her using mindfulness techniques such as asking Yvette to tell her the date, her name, and to find five different colors in the room. 

STIs are absolutely common medical issues for people being trafficked, as well as traumatic brain injury, anxiety, and drug addiction. 

Unfortunately, getting residential placement for victims is not often as seamless as on the episode. 

CONRAD: I’ve notified social services and they’ll help her find a safe place to stay. 

There are not nearly enough spots available for the number of victims to need help and staying in the same geographical area as where a person has been trafficked can be very difficult. 

I would truly love to see this issue addressed again on the show in the context of how Red Rock refuses to invest in training for its staff.

Medical staff need frequent training in how to spot, react, and then liaise with social services to help patients who are being exploited. 

I have no doubt that this kind of care is at the bottom of the barrel of Red Rock’s priorities. That is another story worth telling.

The Resident is best when it’s peeling back the layers of systemic issues in the medical field. It is nice to see it leaning into its strength and it can go even further.

Even though the trafficking story isn’t the A-plot, it is by far the most important and it is worth praising the entire episode for it.

As much as I am proud and elated by The Resident for “Doll E. Wood,” an episode without Mina Okafor or Kitt Voss can’t get a full five stars from me. 

Doctors Notes

• The alcoholic doctor storyline crowds out more important storylines and doesn’t really advance any of the characters.
• Nic’s Dolly outfit is the CUTEST.
• Dr. Bell looking into the eyes of Doll E. Wood might be the most raw compassion I have ever seen on this show. What are we to make of this seeming full redemption?!
• Ezra full-on wins me over on this episode. Hello, Dolly. 
• It is time for Dr. Mina Okafor to have an A-plot arc of her own. 
• Fun fact. The actress who plays Yvette, Desiree Ross, got her start on the Lifetime movie “A Country Christmas Story,” with The Dolly Parton!
• The closing scene with CoNic’s engagement reveal is perfection. Beats the heck out of the proposal scene, for me. 

 

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

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The Resident airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Fox.

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