No Pressure No Diamonds

The Resident season 6 episode 9 starts with two patients, Wolf and Cricket, visiting the hospital. Wolf is in serious pain but refuses to get tested before being treated. He just wants some painkillers. He has some serious wounds on his arm and Cricket swears a big cat caused the damage. Conrad sweeps in to save the day with his negotiation skills.

On the other hand, Padma is overwhelmed with the twins especially after her sitter bailed. AJ offers to look after the twins as she takes the day off for self-care. AJ has surgery later and thinks he can leave the twins at the hospital nursery but he is turned down as the twins are below 10 months.  Ellen and Irving volunteer to look after the twins as AJ heads to surgery.

Elsewhere, Pravesh is beyond excited to perform the first titanium rib cage implant surgery in the country. His patient Tessa is about to get her life changed for the better after her cancer diagnosis. Pravesh is teaming up with a tech company to save Tessa’s life. The tech lab wants Pravesh to be part of the current documentary they are shooting. They think it will be great publicity for both parties and hope that the implantation surgery will save Chastain’s reputation as a cut-edge hospital even on the brink of funding cuts.

Tessa’s daughter, Wendy is worried about the risks of the surgery but Randolph does his best to assure her that they will do their best. Pravesh, asks Kit for permission to be included in the documentary. Kit insists that she will only agree if they get creative say in the process pending the outcome. Pravesh gets Tessa’s permission to be part of the documentary and she agrees.

Meanwhile, Leela comes across a story in the Atlanta Metro Daily terming Randolph as a dangerous doctor. Kit is sure the Governor has a hand in this latest attack on Randolph’s career. Leela is more concerned about whether it is true or not and Kit tells her there are some nuggets of truth that have been severely blown out of proportion. She is concerned that Randolph is part of the titanium transplant which is high profile. Kit says that she trusts Randolph and believes the surgery will be good publicity for him. In the meantime, she will work on damage control.

Wendy, Tessa’s daughter sees the article on Randolph and barges into Kit’s office and asks her to take Randolph off the case. Wendy argues that Kit is married to Randolph and can’t be impartial. She gives her an ultimatum, either Randolph is out or they walk. Kit has no option but to take him off the case and step in to fill his position.

Back to Conrad, he is having a hard time getting the truth from Wolf and Cricket about what happened. Wolf’s condition deteriorates and finally, Cricket confesses that they have a home zoo. They felt inspired by Tiger King and their love for money and fame. Wolf was mauled by a lion and stung by a Brazilian scorpion. Conrad calls for the help of Leela ad Randolph to treat his patient. Randolph opts not to do surgery and Conrad worries if the article on the paper is affecting him.

Randolph denies that the article or any outside influence is dictating how he is doing his job. In reality, he is scared to perform surgery as he is having flare-ups. Leela discovers that Wolf has fluids in his abdomen and Randolph asks her to handle the procedure.

On their way to the OR, Wolf’s condition gets worse and Conrad pushes Randolph to make an emergency procedure. The documentary filming team that was lurking outside films the intense process without their knowledge. Luckily, Randolph saves Wolf’s life and Conrad asks him to sign the release form as the footage doesn’t lie.

Tessa’s condition gets worse when she develops a new serious complication and they are forced to stabilize her first before performing the rib surgery. They rush her to surgery to deal with the new complication and Pravesh takes the cameras off the case. He also receives a call from the CEO of the tech lab asking about Randolph. He wants the surgery to be done successfully or their new partnership with Chastain falls through.

After the surgery to save Tessa’s life from an unseen complication, the doctors in her team wonder if she is strong enough to go through with the rib surgery. Pravesh decides that she can manage and it would be riskier not to do it. The surgery doesn’t go as smoothly as they hoped but Tessa makes it off the surgery table.

After surgery, AJ rushes to go to the twins and finds Billie taking care of them. Billie admits that she missed such moments with her son and AJ tells her it is not too late to be a mom again.

Randolph tells Kit about his recent flare-ups and asks to go back to Minnesota for further treatment.

The episode ends with AJ returning home with the twins and she is nowhere to be found.

The Episode Review

The added stress of fighting with the Governor must have gotten to Randolph and made his MS worse. It is sad that the couple has not been able to enjoy their short reunion and their honeymoon. At this point, there is the worry that Randolph’s condition can get worse. If it does, he will have to stop being a surgeon. How will he handle that?

Padma has been suffering from severe postpartum depression and there is a chance that she felt so overwhelmed and chose to run away. There is also a chance that something terrible happened to her. Whatever it is, I hope she pulls through it, she really wanted to be a mom.