The Resident Boss Unpacks Raptor's Life-Changing Decision, Teases the 'Drama and Conflict' It Will Bring
Raptor’s life changed profoundly during Tuesday’s episode of The Resident… and then he decided to change it some more.
During the emotional hour, Raptor said goodbye to his mother, Carol, who died after a long battle with cancer. And as the Chastain surgeon worked through his fresh grief and acute loneliness, he informed Leela’s sister, Padma, that he’d like to be her sperm donor, after all — provided he can raise the child alongside her. (Padma and Leela’s shocked expressions were the only reactions we got to see before credits rolled.)
More from TVLine
The Resident Twist: Emily VanCamp to Return as Nic in Season 5 Finale
The Resident Adds Andrew McCarthy as Potential Series Regular for Season 6
According to co-showrunner Peter Elkoff, Raptor’s sudden desire to father a child needn’t be perceived as his way of avoiding mourning his mother. Rather, “we are meant to believe that he is authentically interested in this,” Elkoff tells TVLine, though he admits with a laugh that “if and when we get our Season 6 [renewal], I can’t tell you what that relationship would look like — Raptor and a child!”
The EP adds that the loss of Raptor’s mother dovetailed nicely with Padma’s hopes of becoming a mom, allowing the show to explore what it means “when you lose somebody… and you don’t have a love interest.”
“You’re searching for connection,” Elkoff elaborates. “You need to connect yourself to something when you lose the last person in your family, and it’s in this period when Padma’s asked him to be the sperm donor for her child. That opens up a lot of plot, a lot of drama, a lot of conflict that ripples out into other stories in a really cool way.”
Elkoff says he also takes pride in The Resident‘s approach to Carol’s death, which emphasized the benefits of palliative care and hospice care at the end of a person’s life.
“This was a deeply connected mother and son, so we wanted to give it the emotional heft that it deserved. But we also wanted to tell a story about how doctors handle death differently than patients and non-doctors,” he explains. “We wanted to highlight what the reality of this journey is. While you know you’re dying, how do you do it? How do the people who love you feel about it? We wanted to do it realistically. We have really good doctors and consultants [on our writing staff], and I think we did do it right.”
Best of TVLine
Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
