3 Intense moments from The Resident Season 2, Episode 12

A flu frenzy sends doctors and patients alike into a panic on this week’s episode of The Resident, and one patient’s symptoms are so severe it calls for a frightening quarantine.

It’s that time of year. The time when every stranger’s sniffle makes you heighten the collar on your coat and the sound of coughing is enough to trigger your fight-or-flight response. At Chastain, the waiting room has filled with the snot and congestion of the general public, all vying for their ten minutes of doctoral attention and praying they don’t wind up in quarantine for whatever illness is currently hogging the airwaves.

The winter weather herds in the expected cattle call of hypochondriacs and anti-vaxxers who can’t understand why they’re sick after avoiding vaccines year after year. Nothing out of the ordinary about a higher patient count when the bug is going around.

And then the unthinkable happens.

1. Black Death at Chastain.

If you recall Nic’s brief prison stint, you’ll understand her relationship to Meg Mullins (guest star Dot-Marie Jones returns). The prison guard visits Chastain due to a problem with her eye but it doesn’t take long for her to succumb to her real symptoms and wind up forcing a quarantine protocol into place.

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Nic and Meg grew quite fond of each other during their shared time in the prison so it’s no wonder she’s so intent on ensuring Meg is okay, even at the risk of her own health. Rash, seizures, copious amounts of blood, all of Miss Mullins exhibiting symptoms are synonymous with perhaps the two words no doctor – or human being in general – ever wants to hear: Black Death.

I don’t know about you but when I hear Black Death my mind goes to eating in an alehouse, wearing furs, and pounding gruel with a soldier post-jousting, but apparently, Black Death is something still prevalent today. It’s rare and cordoned off to the West Coast usually (lucky them) but it happens. In this case, patient zero was Sam’s (the lovesick patient stuck in quarantine with Meg) soon-to-be-wife Sue, who was hiking in Yosemite and brought it home as a gift.

Honestly, candy probably would have been better.

2. Mina and AJ confront Doctor Benedict.

Humility just doesn’t suit Doctor AJ Austin and Mina agrees. Tired of AJ’s sudden lack of ambition, Mina digs around into the shady history of QuoVadis. Never one for idle hands, she tests the heart valves herself to see if they malfunction and finds, 7 out of 7 times, they do. Bradley’s death should not be on AJ’s conscience, that blood is on Gordon Page’s hands. And Abe Benedicts, AJ’s former mentor.

He doesn’t want to believe this but Mina drills some sense into him (admitting he is a god probably didn’t hurt either). Together, the two make for a formidable duo and confront Doctor Benedict over dinner with receipts of him accepting a hefty bribe from QuoVadis in exchange for touting nothing but the good word about their heart valves.

Mina isn’t the only one digging up QuoVadis dirt. Bell’s tech-savvy assistant Grayson stumbles upon a potential conspiracy involving a former Doctor Keyhoe, perhaps the one and only man who could have helped them prove the seedy corruption going on behind QuoVadis doors. Turns out, he killed himself not long ago. Oddly perfect timing, don’t you think?

3. Nic and Conrad get honest with each other.

One of those make-it-or-break-it relationship conversations has been brewing in the pipeline for Nic and Conrad for a little bit now. It comes to a head in this week’s episode after Conrad attempts to surprise Nic with a house for the two of them to move in together. Nic is less than thrilled. She appreciates the gesture but, point-blank, she isn’t ready for it and maybe, just maybe, she doesn’t want it.

Conrad encourages her to be honest. He’s using his doctor skills at home and it backfires stupendously. Believing he knows what Nic wants, believing he has “diagnosed” their problem (he thinks she’s bored of him because he no longer needs to be fixed) only makes their conversation turn venomous. He proposes devolving back into the old version of himself so Nic has a new project and her rebuttal is short and to the point, “I’m not sure I like either version of you right now.” Ouch.

Odds & Ends

• Beginning to think The Resident just has a romance problem. In season 1, Priya was almost never on-screen until she needed to become part of a love triangle. Now Mina and Micah are never mentioned. When is the last time we saw him around? Mina and AJ are an obvious new toy for the writers and we have also been lacking in Nic/Conrad moments since they finally got together. Instead they’d rather introduce Alec as a foil. The show doesn’t have to have Grey’s Anatomy levels of romantic drama but some consistency would be nice.
• “Do you want me to swipe you an extra flu shot?” Grayson asks. To which Bell responds, “No… that’s not how shots work.”
• Sam thinks Sue giving him the plague is romantic.
• Conrad: “I don’t really want to raise chickens.” – Nic: “It definitely seemed like you wanted to raise some chickens.”
• Avoiding quarantine is Nurse Jessica Moore, who instead spots a germ-encrusted handprint on her rear from a certain someone…

A new episode of The Resident titled “Virtually Impossible” airs on Tuesday, February 4th, on FOX.