The Resident Season 5 Episode 20 review: Devon and Leela’s relationship issues come to a head

3/5

Story: Amid tireless toiling to become a double board-certified surgeon, which almost costs a patient her life, Leela also has to deal with the fact that Devon is hopeful of starting a family with her someday. Devon had earlier suggested that he could be the sperm donor for the baby that Padma would have with Leela’s egg. Much as she loves Devon and Padma, though, Leela doesn’t want to be a mother, and she can’t wrap her head around the idea of having him father this child. This was always going to be a problem in their relationship…

Review: The Resident is rapidly hurtling towards its season finale, but there is no final word yet on the mafia-led medicare scam that Cade’s been running from. When a new patient arrives at the ER with a bunch of prescriptions she doesn’t need and have allegedly been written by Conrad, Devon and Dr Bell, it raises alarm bells as the doctors at Chastain realize that the scam runs a lot deeper than they first thought. The FBI’s case against the mafia could benefit a great deal with information from this patient, but she’s scared and won’t talk. Conrad and Cade manage to convince her, though, when they tell her about how pharmacist Phoebe was killed on the premises of the hospital. Only problem is that one of the bad guys, the one who murdered Phoebe, sees Conrad and Cade talking to the FBI, which means he could be coming for her next. While her first response is to bolt, Cade is tired of running, which means, she will stay back at Chastain and maybe even have a future with Conrad and, she will see the FBI’s case against the mafia through to ensure everyone’s safe.

Conrad isn’t the only one with love on the horizon. There are wedding bells for Kit and Bell, after she proposes they ought to get married. The happy moments are short-lived, though, on this episode. After agreeing to be the sperm donor for Padma’s baby, AJ insists that he be made a part of the child’s life and comes up with an elaborate plan to ensure that, which, she finds way too overwhelming. Padma is not on board with AJ’s idea of their family and begins wondering if getting him involved was a mistake and it is at this point that Devon chances upon her and assumes her sullen look is from having spoken to Leela about his proposal to father the child. Reeling under this double whammy, Padma confronts Leela about not telling her that Devon was a possible donor, which would ‘solve a lot of issues’,

Leela is the only one who can clearly see how absurd that suggestion even is – technically, Padma would be the surrogate to her and Devon’s baby, and they’d have to play happy aunty and uncle in this equation. To her, it also means sharing Devon with Padma, which she is not willing to do. But that’s not even the biggest of problems. Leela has been avoiding a conversation with Devon about this subject and putting all her energy into the operation theatre, pulling multiple back-to-back surgery shifts in her bid to become a double board-certified surgeon. And when her body finally runs out of juice and she dozes off during a complicated spine surgery, nearly doing irreparable damage to the patient, everything comes to a head. Kit gives Leela an ultimatum to choose one of two options for specialization and she finally comes clean to Devon that motherhood is not on the cards for her. It’s not something she wants ever, even though she’d told him earlier that she could think about it at some point. It was crystal clear that the whole baby thing with Padma would blow out of proportion at some point and it does now. Devon loves Leela, but not enough to lead a childless life with her.

A Kit and Bell wedding would, no doubt, he the highlight of the season, even if it is a small ceremony in the backyard of their place. Conrad’s getting another shot at love, but there’s danger looming over that and it would be heart-breaking to have Chastain’s favourite doctor face another tragedy. AJ and Padma find middle ground on how to raise ‘their future child’, so it looks like she will stick around as a series regular. But Devon and Leela parting ways cannot be a good sign. Will this be goodbye for one of them, perhaps Leela? Devon is too valuable on team Chastain and with Leela’s OR mishap, she might just want to get a fresh start somewhere else.

Verdict: There’s not much going for this episode but for the Kit-Bell proposal. These two are just adorable together and the showrunners are making sure that this pair absolutely plays it to the gallery.