The Resident Season 5 Episode 18 Review: Ride Or Die
Jasmine Blu
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The medical prescription fraud arc with the mafia is wild!
It was bound to resurface again, and The Resident Season 5 Episode 18 upped the ante with the seedy pharmacy and the tragic murder of Phoebe. We also had the return of Cade and Conrad working together and butting heads.
The hour also rounded out with Zach's quintessential intern shtick, Kitbell cuteness, and the upsetting fact that Carol is nearing the end of her life.
One's heart just breaks for AJ. He's holding it together as best as possible, but Carol can pass away any moment now, and you can already tell he'll fall apart over this. The Resident writers must fuel themselves with our tears this season!
Interestingly, the hour never once touched upon Padma's lingering question, and AJ was too preoccupied with his mother and saving lives to indicate his response.
Carol: How long? Son, son tell me.
AJ: Um, maybe a couple of months.
We all knew Carol was on borrowed time, but it always hits different when there's confirmation. Her cancer spread to her brain and chest, causing more pain than ever. Fortunately, her latest round of treatment can offer her some relief for the remaining couple of months.
AJ was devastated by the news, lashing out a bit at Devon. One can appreciate how quickly he apologized after taking his moment and how compassionate Devon is during those scenes.
They've developed a strong bond where they know each other well enough to get through these moments. And Devon understands the pain of losing a parent.
AJ taking a moment to thank everyone for their remarkable and compassionate care for his mother throughout the entire experience was beautiful.
My mother and I want to thank you for the exceptional care that you provided. You've been nothing but remarkable. You've helped with some really tough decisions and you the power of compassionate care, and I just want you to know that it means a lot. It makes all the difference in the world. I know my mother will hold all of you in her heart for the time that she has left.
AJ
And now that he convinced Carol to rethink hospice, she can find some comfort in the remaining time. AJ gives himself time to react to the news about his mother in all the ways he needs, but when he's with Carol, he's this pillar of strength for her.
He's not unaffected, and as a mother, she sees that, but he does a great job of making things about her and focusing all the attention upon her when they're together despite his pain. MJW is incredible this season.
AJ also does well with compartmentalizing. He was still in demand for at least two cases, and he didn't allow his personal life to affect that. It also appears he may flex his mentor muscles again with Zach.
After Zach had such a strong presence with the gerontology case, it was frustrating that he was back on the bumbling, fumbling intern thing.
With this back-to-back focus, it feels like he's getting centered as the intern poster child of the series right now. As clumsy as he was throughout the case, almost costing Eileen her life, his compassionate streak is becoming one of his finest assets.
He genuinely cared about the Zhou family and doing right by them. He kept thinking about their needs even when he was in the back, with the docs, working on Eileen.
It was horrifying when he tripped and caused a tear in Eileen's artery, especially with the blood spurting around everywhere. But he owned up to it in a way you wouldn't expect from most.
Zach's willingness to take accountability for his actions and his genuine compassion and drive to save and help suggests that he has the bones to become a great doctor with more molding. He even unwittingly fostered a session among the Zhou and Camacho families.
Typically, it's advisable to keep the families apart after an accident like that.
Jayci: Step aside, heyyyy, ring that Bell. Make yourself useful. Push these meds.
Kit: It's okay.
Jayci: I got this Boss Voss. Oh, no, there goes my snow bunnies. They're brand new!
Kit: This is Jayci Leon, nocturnal anesthesiologist.
Jayci: I'll be here all night every night from now on.
Bell: Most people don't like working nights.
Jayci: Oh, I come alive when the sun goes down. That's when I come out of my coffin.
The Zhous were fearful that Eileen would die, and they would've directed all their blame onto the Camachos because their son was the drag race driver who ran into their shop.
One's first instinct is to wonder who would buy their teenager a Porsche. Mr. Camacho elaborated that he knew what it was like to immigrate to America and how it feels to grow up poor. He didn't want his son to experience the same struggles.
Much of the hour was about facing accountability and consequences for actions in many ways.
The Camacho kid felt bad about what he had done, and it was hard to listen to how much damage he caused others. The Camachos were guilt-ridden, and they offered to help the Zhou family rebuild.
Eileen's daughter felt guilty because her mother pushed her out of the way, and she had argued with her moments before. And Zach expressed his remorse for his clumsiness causing so many issues with Eileen.
The hour was also about holding people accountable. Kit has a loving way of doing that with Bell, which is the cutest. She worries so much about him, but it's all from a pure place, so it doesn't feel like too much mothering and smothering.
Bell is so stubborn, and if he didn't have Kit challenging him about taking care of himself, who knows where he'd be?
He needed that freaking chair in the OR to alleviate some of the pressure on his legs and rest a bit more. The man was doing back-to-back surgeries. You could see on his face how much he enjoyed the "throne," too.
And while we're on the topic of enjoyable, can we talk about Jayci Lee? The new nocturnal anesthesiologist is so much fun! We only had her for about five minutes, and I already wanted to keep her forever.
I appreciated five seasons in that they're exploring more elements and medical fields. You rarely see much attention directed toward anesthesiologists.
She's quirky, with dark humor, and she stands out on her own. She has a cool, counter-culture aesthetic, too. Kit has a knack for choosing some great staff. It was also interesting to see her work and more of what she does.
Conrad and Cade both made some errors and spent the rest of the hour trying to hold each other accountable for them somehow.
Conrad's frustration got the better of him after that overdose came in with more drugs written in his name that he didn't prescribe. But he probably shouldn't have hit up the pharmacy. Was he still on shift?!
He worked his charm on Phoebe and appealed to the goodness in her, but he had no way of knowing that she'd end up in the OR moments later.
Personally, there's been a level of indifference to Conrad's romantic life and where that can go. But we spend so little time with Conrad and Cade because we go long stretches without the two of them interacting much that it's hard to invest in whatever flirtation is supposed to be there.
And during an installment like this, it became apparent why they wouldn't work out well. They're too similar to each other. And somehow, even though it's genuinely refreshing when there's someone there to check Conrad and call him out when he needs it, it didn't work well here from Cade.
Cade breaking protocol to do the ECMO in the field despite Conrad's strong opposition was frustrating. Sure, time was of the essence, but there was no willingness to come to any other terms.
And we saw later that it placed Devon and AJ in a position where they had to pull out miracles to keep this woman alive. It bothered them that the Go Team went rogue in the field like that, and it made you think about the drawback of having two renegades like Cade and Conrad working together in the field.
Cade giving Conrad a run for his money with Out-Conrading Conrad can have its amusing moments, but something was annoying about it this time. Perhaps it was because they both were annoying about their actions.
It's already a lot with them together, but it gets dicey if they don't agree on something. Cade was more of a risk-taker than Conrad at that moment, and we've seen some restraint and caution with him since the time jump.
Weirdly, Cade was rather dismissive about her choice in the field, and she never followed up by appearing apologetic, but in the same breath, she harped on Conrad confronting Phoebe.
And she should've called him out on that, but she was beating a dead horse with the thing at some point. What did she want from Conrad?
The more she insisted on reminding him that his actions could've been why Phoebe was in the hospital, the more defensive he got about it. Did anyone roll their eyes when he suggested suicide attempts and innocent falls?
I love you, Conrad, but come on.
But it was like Cade wanted to deflect Conrad's disagreement with her by pointing out that he screwed up, too. And instead of it reading as a genuine call out, it came across as petty and tit for tat or some big, "gotcha."It was all so childish.
Part of the reason is Cade's elusiveness about what she's involved in, and overall, we still don't know as much about the intricacies of this mob-sanctioned fraud. It felt like Cade expected Conrad to understand the nuances of something they had not spoken about extensively.
She doesn't share much, but she expected him to consult her before he went to the pharmacy, which was weird when we haven't seen them interact at all since he found out about all of this in the first place.
But she was impressive when she spouted off how to create a makeshift black light, and they found out that Phoebe got poisoned with antifreeze.
While there is no doubt that Conrad recognized the seriousness and how expansive this fraud situation is, its reality was sobering when Phoebe died.
They saw the mysterious mafia man leaving her room after pulling the plugs on her and leaving her to die. It sucks that they didn't order protective custody the moment they so much as suspected that she could've been murdered.
But it's doubtful it would've changed that much anyway.
Unfortunately for Cade, the killer saw her face, so she'll likely have to relocate again. It feels open-ended even after the conversation she and Conrad had where they acknowledge that they'll be on each other's side from this point forward.
Conrad got some relief that he wasn't solely responsible for Phoebe's death since she was an informant for the FBI. I wish they made him sweat a little more about that because he was reckless. And the overall case is still ongoing.
We'll have to see what's to come with this during the remainder of the season and if Cade will disappear again. But there's such little attachment to her that there's no reaction to any of that.
Over to you, Resident Fanatics.
What are your thoughts on this hour?
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.
