Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 4 finale of The Resident on Fox, called "Past, Present, Future."
The Resident went through a lot of changes by the time the fourth season finale rolled around, ranging from Chastain becoming a public hospital to Mina's departure to the delivery of Nic and Conrad's baby girl. The birth of Nic and Conrad's daughter was revealed in the promotion for the finale, so fans going into the finale knew that the baby would be born in "Past, Present, Future," but how the little girl was born was totally unexpected to me. The birth happened... without a hitch.
Little Georgiana Grace, named for both Nic and Conrad's mothers, was born off-screen without Nic going through a screaming labor without terrible complications, or a twist requiring an emergency C-section, or Conrad having to consider a choice between the life of his wife and his unborn child. There wasn't even a catastrophe that kept Conrad from her side. It went absolutely fine, and their daughter was born healthy and adorable. A baby was born on a drama without something going horribly wrong, and I still can't believe it, in the best way.
As somebody who has been watching medical TV dramas for longer than I cared to admit, I spent the whole hour waiting for the other shoe to drop and something bad to happen with the baby or postpartum Nic. Even at the end, when Nic and Conrad were contemplating their future as parents and then rushed to check on their infant, I was afraid that she wouldn't be breathing like they feared.
But nope! Little Georgiana Grace and Nic were just fine after the birth, going home pretty quickly, and the little family unit is heading into hiatus on a high note. All of my experience with medical dramas led me to expect something either physically or emotionally traumatizing, based on shows ranging from ER with Carol and Abby, to Grey's Anatomy's Meredith and April (to name just two) to Chicago Med with Natalie and April (and characters from sister series Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.), not to mention New Amsterdam with Georgia and, very recently with Shaun and Lea on The Good Doctor.
Based on what I thought I knew of medical dramas, viewers should always expect something to go horribly wrong or at least become incredibly harrowing when it comes to a key character giving birth. Of course, Nic's pregnancy hasn't been without its drama and scares, so The Resident didn't completely subvert expectations, but I was so pleasantly surprised by Georgiana Grace's debut into the world happening without a hitch and with nothing but happiness that it might have spoiled me for other medical dramas.
In fact, The Resident wrapped Season 4 without much in the way of intense cliffhangers, although the question of how the show will accommodate Morris Chestnut's starring role on a new Fox series is still unanswererd. Cain was considering leaving Chastain for Johns Hopkins, but hadn't decided yet. It's possible that The Resident's team is still working out the details, and the renewal for Season 5 was only just revealed the day before the Season 4 finale, so fans may be waiting on that resolution for a while.
The Resident will return to Fox in the fall, sticking with its Tuesday night time slot and actually leading into Morris Chestnut's new show. Fortunately, there are still some TV options on the way despite the current finale season, and you can find your options on our 2021 summer TV premiere schedule. I'm guessing that Nic and Conrad safely and happily having their baby won't be the start of a trend of complication-free births in medical dramas, but I'm going to enjoy that this one went so well!
