The Resident S05E03 review: Emily VanCamp’s Nic Nevin’s gone, but saves lives in doing so

Story: Nic’s been in a terrible, but mysterious car crash and is brought in unresponsive to Chastain. She doesn’t make it, but how does that impact everyone else?

Review: It was expected that Emily VanCamp’s Nic Nevin was being written out of the show, in its fifth season, given her personal commitment as a new mother. The question was how, which was addressed at the end of episode two, when police officers landed at Conrad’s (Matt Czuchry) door with bad news of an accident.

Episode 3 opens with Conrad’s mad rush to Chastain, even as the hospital is just being alerted of an incoming trauma patient, who is being airlifted there. It’s bad news from the word go for the patient, Nic, as even moving her from the chopper sends her vitals into a scary spiral. And it doesn’t get any better once she is moved into the hospital. Turns out, she has a severe brain injury and while everyone around is certain that she is at the point of no return, Conrad is unwilling to accept that just yet. This is Nic, his wife and GiGi’s mother they are talking about.

It was then up to Dr Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) to test if she was ever coming back or if it was the machines that were keeping her alive. Nic’s diagnosis – that she is brain dead – doesn’t go down well with her father, Kyle (Corbin Bernsen), despite Conrad’s best attempts to explain to him that she is gone. How could he - Kyle’s already lost one daughter and is losing another. All that’s left to do is to literally pull the plug on Nic, but not before her last noble deed. She is an organ donor and can save eight critically-ill lives.

With so much happening around Nic, it’s surprising the show runners still followed routine and had a sub-plot involving another patient, one with long-haul-Covid (Mr Sandoval) whose trachea’s collapsing after being intubated for a lengthy period of time.

Verdict: This is an emotionally-charged, tear-jerking episode that wasn’t so much about the medicine, but the person that’s been lost and the good that came in the wake of it. It’s also good bye to Emily VanCamp’s Nic, unless she makes flashback comebacks. There’s no word on that though.

Where to watch: The Resident is streaming on Disney+Hotstar