‘The Resident’: How Emily VanCamp Will Return as Nic Nevin in Season 5
TL;DR:
- Emily VanCamp exited The Resident after four seasons in October.
- The Resident showrunner Peter Elkoff revealed that Emily VanCamp would return in the season 5 finale.
- Emily VanCamp’s return as Nic Nevin will help Matt Czuchry’s Conrad Hawkins find a new love interest.
The Resident Season 5 finale will feature a very special guest — Nic Nevin. FOX has announced that Emily VanCamp will soon reprise her role as the beloved nurse for a few scenes in the upcoming episode. But given the way her character exited the series earlier this season, how will her cameo work? Here’s what to know about Emily VanCamp’s return to The Resident.
Emily VanCamp’s character, Nic, left ‘The Resident’ in a heartbreaking way
The Resident Season 5 opened with Nic out of town as her husband, Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry), took care of their baby girl, Gigi. However, a car accident left Nic in critical condition, and she was rushed back to Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. Unfortunately, she didn’t survive. After Nic’s death, the season took a three-year time jump, giving Conrad and his friends time to mourn the loss.
Off-screen, Emily VanCamp’s sudden departure from The Resident shocked fans everywhere. FOX announced her exit just a few months before season 5 began. Although the actor kept quiet about her decision for some time, she eventually revealed that she wanted more time with her family. VanCamp and her husband, Josh Bowman, welcomed their first child in 2021.
“I think there comes a moment in every woman’s life — in every person’s life — where it becomes less about work and more about family, and that’s what happened while I was making the show,” she told Deadline in October. “Doing that many episodes in a different city and then you add COVID to that, most of us couldn’t see our families for almost a year. It really solidified for me that family is where my heart is at the moment.”
Emily VanCamp will come back as Nic in ‘The Resident’ Season 5 finale
Emily VanCamp exited The Resident in a pretty permanent way, but she did say she would like to return in some form, perhaps as a spirit or in a flashback. And that’s exactly what will happen in the season 5 finale, according to showrunner Peter Elkoff. He explained to TVLine that Conrad will see Nic in several flashbacks to the night of Gigi’s birth.
“[Conrad] hasn’t been able to make a move and find that next love. He knows that he’s still stuck in the past, in a way, with Nic,” Elkoff said. “He keeps going back to pieces of that night because he thinks the answer of how he moves on is in that night … and he gets an answer, a realization that frees him in a certain way.”
Elkoff added that the writers had been searching all season for a way to bring VanCamp back. This seemed like the perfect way to “end that chapter” between Conrad and Nic, opening the door for a new love interest.
“We started to realize, what would hold a person back? Well, the love of his life who died. The mother of his young daughter,” he said. “We had to figure out a way to both free him and end that chapter.”
Who will Conrad Hawkins’ new love interest be?
The Resident has already planted a few seeds for potential romances with Conrad throughout season 5. One possible love interest is Dr. Billie Sutton (Jessica Lucas), who was a close friend of Nic’s. However, there’s also the new ER doctor, Cade (Kaley Ronayne).
In another interview with TVLine, Elkoff said he wanted fans to wonder whom Conrad could end up with. For the answer to that, though, fans might have to wait until the season 5 finale or even season 6. He said:
“We will try to tell stories in a way, going forward, where the audience will go, ‘It’s going to be her. Wait, no! I think it’s going to be her. No, wait a minute. I bet you it’s going to be her. We’re going to try and pepper the episodes with moments of connection and collaboration and emotional moments with different people, where you feel like you’ve seen the beginning of something, and you may be right, or you may be wrong.”
New episodes of The Resident premiere every Tuesday at 8 p.m. on FOX.
