The Resident recap: 4 devastating moments from Season 2, Episode 20

2. Jessie learns her kidney prognosis.

We already knew the odds weren’t looking good for Nic’s sister Jessie. She is still hospitalized due to kidney complications and the future is looking pretty bleak. Jessie cannot survive without continued kidney dialysis, as in, her kidneys are never going to recover.

She will have to remain on dialysis for the rest of her life – or until she gets a kidney transplant. If she wants to get on the transplant list, she will have to wait a minimum of six months, since she is straight out of rehab.

As expected, Nic volunteers to donate one of her kidneys if she is a match. But should she? How much has she already given up for Jessie? I like Jessie as a character and I understand why Nic wants to make the donation. Obviously, she’s her sister, she loves her. Except, as Conrad points out, what if Jessie relapses?

How much will Nic have given up, only for her sister to let her down once again? It would appear this storyline is going to be a focus moving forward into the final arc of the season. Perhaps their father will be the decent person for once and come through so Nic doesn’t have to make yet another sacrifice.

1. An unnecessary death.

It’s a topical and heart-wrenching storyline, but certainly a necessary one — even if the fictional death wasn’t. Devon quickly realizes a black mother, who recently gave birth through c-section, is not getting the proper aftercare she deserves. Lea is in obvious pain post-surgery and her catheter has an abnormal amount of blood in it and yet Doctor Stewart doesn’t seem to care.

Devon feels as if he is being racially biased, as is one of the maternity nurses. By the time Lea does get into surgery, neither Mina or Austin is able to save the catastrophic bleed they find and she dies.

The poignancy of this story is to shed light on the very real fact many women die of post-birthing complications because women are less likely to be believed by their doctors or dismissed as having fake or hysterical concerns. Maternal mortality is a terrible problem in the American healthcare system, with black mothers being four times more likely to die of complications than white women.

I commend The Resident for delving into this topic with raw honesty. The entirety of the episode is dedicated to Kira Dixon Johnson, whose real-life story mirrors the fictional one of Lea’s.

In the show, Devon coaxes Bell into doing some serious searching into their maternal death records so they can rectify the situation and ensure it never happens again. Lea’s bleed was an easy fix. Had she received proper care earlier, the doctors would have saved her life.

What were your favorite moments from tonight’s episode? How many times did you cry? Do you think this is really the end of Conrad and Nic’s relationship? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

A new episode of The Resident titled, “Stuck as Foretold”, premieres April 22 at 8/7c on FOX.