FOX's The Resident - Episode 2.13 "Virtually Impossible"
Conrad, Kit, Mina and Austin work to save the life of a med student in need of a triple-organ transplant, drawing Bell back to the OR for one of Chastain's riskiest surgeries yet. After the police find Julian's empty car in a nearby lake, Devon does some investigating of his own to find out what might have happen. Mina and Austin hound Bell to halt his business with Quovadis. Nic makes a rash decision regarding her sister.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of FOX's The Resident.
"Virtually Impossible" was written by Amy Holden Jones & Eric I. Lu and directed by Valerie Weiss
Have Gordon Page and Quovadis become too one-note as antagonists at this point? It's gotten so bad that even Bell is starting to think that he needs to get out of this relationship - both personally and professionally. But the show feels the need to really punctuate every single beat with Gordon saying that Bell will come to regret not being loyal to him. Bell still wants to believe that he is a strong and moral surgeon despite every other morally compromising decision he has ever made. He believed that Quovadis was the most innovative medical device company in the country. And now, he wants to see the research that proves just how well these devices hold up over time. He understands that the industry will say that not every mistake that happens following surgery is their fault. However, he also has the mounting evidence that proves that Quovadis is a bad company that Chastain shouldn't be associated with anymore. Of course, all of this is about to get much worse. That comes with Julian's car finally being discovered. Sure, the show still wants to tease a mystery in this regard because her body isn't found. As such, she could still be alive and had to go into hiding in order to build her own case against Quovadis. Plus, everything has to eventually tie back to Gordon tipping the police off to Devon possibly being an abusive boyfriend who would have wanted to hurt her. Him breaking into her apartment and opening her mail would suggest that he may not be the best person. However, the show still wants the audience to have sympathy for the main characters as they continue to endure some difficult situations. Devon doesn't know what happened to Julian and returns to a completely empty apartment. He has nothing going for his life at the moment. Meanwhile, Conrad and Nic are in the middle of a disagreement. It means that Nic loses all of her patience with her sister, Jessie. It's heartbreaking to learn that she is using again. This is a pattern that Nic has experienced one too many times. She doesn't want her sister to kill herself. However, she's also showing some tough love by kicking her out as well. That's rough and will more than likely lead to consequences that will crush her in the long run. But again, all of this is just speculation for the future. It's difficult to watch in the moment. And yet, the most successful story of this hour has absolutely nothing to do with the overall concerns of the season. Instead, it's just a solid and well-told medical storyline where Kitt feels a personal connection to her patient and needs her to survive a seemingly impossible surgery. Sure, the show could be establishing this story as something of ongoing interest considering the patient is also a medical student who may one day work at Chastain. Right now though, it's much more important as the doctors rally around her in order to perform this triple transplant surgery. It even puts her parents in danger as well. Now, that was clear the moment they said they were also matches and could donate lobes of their lungs. But there is such a heartfelt and moving conclusion to all of this as well. It highlights the true power of medicine and the ability for these doctors to bring families together. That's the grand lesson that Conrad and Kitt take away from all of this even though they aren't the doctors actually performing the surgeries.
