Cade lives to see another day, but we didn't have any doubts.

Chastain got thrown into a tailspin, and things got chaotic on The Resident Season 5 Episode 21 when Cade's abrupt departure got derailed by a drive-by shooting that nearly cost Cade her life.

And we got our first glimpse of the smarmy charmer Ian Sullivan, Cade's father. And boy, he seems like he'll be fun.

Sadly the hour lacked the momentum it would've had if we didn't already know Cade would get gunned down because of the promos or if we ever bought for a second that she would succumb to her injuries.

Because neither of those things was the case, much of the hour was in seeing what creative ways they'd come up with to save Cade after the rare blood type curveball and how Cade's near-death would impact Conrad after Nic.

Devon: It's like he wants to relive what happened to Nic and rewrite the ending.
Leela: I wish we could rewrite our ending.

• Permalink: I wish we could rewrite our ending.

Cade deciding to leave after the mafia guy saw her was a reasonable response, but it almost made you wonder why she didn't do it much sooner, leaving directly from where she was staying and having the others pack up her belongings on her behalf.

Cade returning to Chastain right after seeing a mob hitman eyeballing her for the second time the day before felt too contrived. That's not even factoring in that Conrad is somehow exempt from the mob's focus despite his involvement.

And frustratingly enough, her grand goodbye to the rest of the Chastain crew, presumably another reason she would show up despite the risk, fell short because she's been so alienated when they've shown her.

We've only seen Cade with Conrad, so we haven't been privy to any connections or bonds she's formed with anyone else at Chastain despite her working there too.

Conrad: Were you going to say goodbye?
Cade: Of course, I was.

• Permalink: Of course, I was.

It made Cade's goodbye anti-climatic. The only one who had reason to get upset about her departure was Conrad, who found out that she probably intended to leave without saying goodbye to him.

The series has such a rich ensemble that plays off one another incredibly well. While Cade seems perfectly pleasant, it's been disappointing that we haven't seen her more incorporated into that dynamic. It's made it much harder to connect to the character as a result.

One of the worst things about this shooting was that there was a level of indifference to whether Cade died or not. Sure, it would've been sad, but her death wouldn't have left a gaping hole or been a huge emotional thing.

Instead, what happened to Cade was more about how it would trigger and affect Conrad. And maybe that's at the heart of the Kincaid issue thus far.

We've lost out on what she can be as an individual character because she's been thus far presented as a run-of-the-mill love interest whose existence fuels Conrad's storyline rather than standing on her own.

And I'm not accustomed to The Resident having this issue with characters introduced into the fold.

We never had these issues with Billie, Cain, Kit, and others who joined the hospital. And while, in some ways, Trevor suffered from the same thing, he built a nice enough rapport with AJ and Devon outside of Billie that it wasn't as transparent or frustrating.

Cade's shooting sent shockwaves through Chastain, as it would when one of their own faces something like that, whether they're close to them or not.

I tried to warn you. I always disappear. Always.

Cade

• Permalink: I tried to warn you. I always disappear. Always.

They tried to thread some lines, paralleling it somehow to how everyone felt when Nic was whose life they were fighting to save. You can understand how it'll bring some stuff up for Conrad, but it's doubtful that it would be equally as triggering in that way for the others.

Every time people would imply that this was difficult for Conrad with the allusion that Conrad's reaction was in part due to his close connection with Cade on its own, aside from how triggering it was because of Nic, I felt like we were missing out on something.

Did others pick up on some serious flirtation or more between Conrad and Cade that we haven't seen at the forefront?

Devon and Billie were the ones who were more direct in their inquiries, and the concern they had for their friend was evident. You could see how Conrad was falling apart, and the incident hit too close to home for him after losing Nic.

He had a few moments when how he felt as a friend or more almost overrode his thoughts as a doctor.

But the most direct acknowledgment Conrad gave to how this situation affected him was when he and Billie talked while watching Cade's surgery.

His vulnerability during that scene was beautiful, and your heart ached for him. Czuchry does that choked-up and teary-eyed thing so well. You just want to reach through the screen and hold him.

Billie asked the question that others didn't manage, and once the door opened, Conrad poured his heart out about how hard it was for him to connect with people after losing Nic.

It's a culmination of things, with the grief of losing her always ever-present and this feeling that he's cheating on her somehow if he gets close to another woman or these other barriers that arise from his struggles to move beyond his grief.

It's all so perfectly human, and one of the strongest and most beautifully handled arcs of the season is that of Conrad's journey through his grief. They never overdid it or neglected it regardless of if it was pre-time jump or post.

Conrad's been protecting his heart because he's scared of making room in it for someone other than Nic, and it's terrifying that loving someone could mean losing them again.

But with Cade, Conrad learned that it's unavoidable. Whether he pursued things with her or not, it didn't spare him from the pain of almost losing her. He still ended up by the bedside of someone he cared about, afraid they could pass away.

Billie: I'm very worried about Cade, but I'm also worried about you.
Cade: Devon already covered that territory. I'm okay.
Billie: Are you really? I think the question everyone's thinking and no one is saying is how personal is this, Conrad?
Conrad: It's personal for all of us.
Billie: That's not what I'm asking. Are you in love with Cade?
Conrad: No.
Billie: Are you sure?
Conrad: No.
Billie: What do you mean?
Conrad: She knew she had to leave, so we didn't go there. She put up barriers to protect herself, so did I.
Billie: What are these barriers?
Conrad: That's obvious. It always goes back to Nic. Something stops me. It's not just with Cade, it's with others, too.
Billie: What stops you?
Conrad: I'm not sure. I'm protecting myself, maybe. Because I can't face another loss like that. I feel like I'm cheating on Nic, I don't know. All I know is that whatever I feel can only go so far, then the walls come up.
Billie: Maybe you need a little push.

• Permalink: Maybe you need a little push.

He didn't know if he was in love with Cade or not, which was interesting from a viewer's perspective because it still hasn't felt as if we've seen them bond to such a significant degree that love could be in the equation.

But from Conrad's moments of confiding to Billie, he and Cade would pursue something meaningful, romantic, and real if they both didn't have their guard up for their respective reasons. And it sounds like something he'd be into doing if his mind didn't always go back to Nic.

Interestingly enough, we've been told about what's meant to amount to a love triangle between Conrad, Cade, and Billie where he could find something with one of these women when it accepts that Nic would want him to be happy again.

But based on what we've seen so far, it's an imbalanced attempt at a love triangle if we have more to go on with a hint of romance between Conrad and Cade than with Billie. And both angles are so underserved.

It doesn't seem like Billie is even on Conrad's radar as a possible romantic option. We've only got some moments that imply that they've become close friends over the years.

And if there are any hints of romance there, it's one-sided and coming from Billie, who once every blue moon gives the impression that she's pining for Conrad.

Even at that moment, with her being a friend and confidante to Conrad, her suggestion that he needed a push felt a bit loaded. It felt like someone who has a vested interest in Conrad learning how to move through his grief and find romantic happiness again because maybe that will be with her one day.

It feels like romantically, we have Cade, who we haven't gotten to know well outside of that; she and Conrad have a connection that we've gotten catapulted into because presumably most of it happened offscreen.

And we have a fully-realized and developed character like Billie, but there are no romantic undertones they've gone out of the way to develop to imply that she and Conrad would even remotely be on the path toward that in the near future.

Billie and Conrad feel like they have the screentime but not necessarily the romantic tone sold when they're onscreen together, and Conrad and Cade have all the romantic elements with none of the screentime that showed how we got there.

But the tides can change after Conrad had that revelation with Billie, and his world was turned on its axis again with Cade's shooting.

The shooting was traumatic, and the only thing worse than it happening so close to home was how difficult it was to save Cade. Of course, she had to be the girl with the golden blood type, RH null, so rare that you have to traverse the world to find donors.

The doctors have been able to pull off some certified miracles this season. Devon's blood substitute for buying Cade more time is right at the top of the list.

It had the desired effect, and it gave them the time they needed until Ian Sullivan could get to Atlanta and loan his body and blood to save his daughter.

You would've thought that either Chastain or wherever Ian worked could've sprung for one of the emergency helicopters to get him there so he didn't have to fly out on a Red Eye.

The shooting feels like a turning point for Cade's character. The dire nature of the mob gunning her down and knowing that she's still alive (also, why wasn't Conrad a target at all?) fell away a bit.

Hi, my name is doctor Ian Sullivan, I'm here to save my daughter's life.

Dr. Sullivan

• Permalink: Hi, my name is doctor Ian Sullivan, I'm here to save my daughter's life.

It seems like the hour that fully immersed Cade into the fold. Conrad revealed to their friends that she was a whistle-blower, so that secret is out. Everyone fought like hell to save her, with nearly everyone having their hand in the mix.

We're much closer to cementing something with Conrad and Cade. And with the arrival of her father, the mysterious new addition to Chastain will get some background and more of a personal arc beyond the mob storyline.

If Cade is sticking around, she needs this type of development, so it's good that she has it coming, even if the method to getting to this point was downright a soap opera.

Andrew McCarthy already stole the hour with that entrance. It has to be one of the top three of the series to date. I'm already intrigued by Ian.

They easily could've devoted the entire hour to the Cade situation, but they spent some time with Devon and AJ battling a hypocritical anti-vaxxer, Jimmy.

Was he supposed to be a Joe Rogan type? If so, Jimmy succeeded in being absolutely insufferable.

It's one of those instances where they took a stab (pun intended) at getting political. It had nothing that resembled finesse or subtlety, so it probably pissed off the Jimmy sorts who are anti-vax while simultaneously irritating the rest of us who could've gone without the whole cartoonish ordeal.

Jimmy showed how artificial his supposed principles were when he knew he needed those lungs and would go through with the transplant despite the vaccination stipulations.

The criteria for transplants are rigorous, and none of this is new. You don't get placed on the transplant list without knowing everything.

It doesn't matter if it seems fair or not. They're not giving an organ to someone who refuses to get even basic vaccinations, no more than they're forking over an organ to someone with a history of drug abuse.

It is what it is, and unless you're going somewhere else or dipping into the organ black market, you deal with the rules or shut up about them.

Jimmy could've quietly gotten his stupid lungs if he pulled Devon and AJ aside and told them he was vaccinated and let it end there without turning it into a vast, public ordeal.

I lied before. Get me lungs! I'm vaccinated.

Jimmy

• Permalink: I lied before. Get me lungs! I'm vaccinated.

It was irritating when Kit couldn't even discuss the freaking shootout at a hospital that left Cade in critical condition because reporters wanted to discuss Jimmy's lungs and rights.

What's the point of stirring up people if he can't even abide by his supposed beliefs? It's all so silly.

I can't say who was more irritating, Jimmy or Lola. She flipped out when she learned that he had lied to her about getting the vaccination. But it wasn't even because it belied her beliefs, and his admission betrayed her.

She was angry at him because he secretly protected himself from something while she got a blood clot and nearly died from COVID, and their son got Measles and Pneumonia.

Nobody cares anymore if you lie, they're happy with pure fiction.

Jimmy

• Permalink: Nobody cares anymore if you lie, they're happy with pure fiction.

It's unfathomable that a woman would allow this man to dictate or influence how she handles her body.

Lola getting jabbed with all the vaccinations after she exposed Jimmy and so forth wasn't even as funny as it was meant to be because it was so offputting that Jimmy was the only thing that kept her from doing something she was willing to do. She sacrificed her health and that of her kid for Jimmy's beliefs.

Devon and AJ navigated the situation well enough and got the desired results without violating HIPAA or subjecting Kit to more mobs of people.

But overall, why we all know that these people exist and how hypocritical and extreme some of them can be, it was an arc we could've done without.

The follow-up on Leela's professional life was non-existent. Jessica appeared to have her concerns when Leela's hands were shaking during surgery, but that's about as much as we got.

And on the relationship front, Devon got to crash with his bro, Conrad, and things were a bit awkward with him and Leela. Ironically, he seemed to navigate their professional life well, but she was the one who didn't know how to react when she came into contact with him.

It was cringeworthy when she entered the workplace, knowing how serious things were with Cade, and she was trying to talk to Conrad about her breakup as if they were in high school and anyone cared. They're grown adults at work, and Cade was bleeding out!

It's frustrating how immature Leela has come across recently.

She wants to work things out with Devon, but it's hard to see how that can be when they have such vastly different stances on such a vital issue.

And it seemed off when she kept mentioning how they had to learn how to work among each other when there was little indication that either of them was treating each other any differently at Chastain until she brought it up.

Conrad: I don't get it, man. You guys always seemed pretty happy together.
Devon: I guess it was a problem all along. Something big we never talked about, and when we started talking...

• Permalink: I guess it was a problem all along. Something big we never talked about, and when we started...

But, hey, Kitbell is still thriving, so there's the ship of all ships to cling to while everything else is uncertain.

Over to you, Resident Fanatics. Are you happy Cade is okay? Are you excited about Ian's arrival? Sound off below.

You can watch The Resident online here via TV Fanatic.

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.