The Resident will be celebrating its 100th episode on October 25, with cast member Manish Dayal directing the monumental episode. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Manish ahead of the episode airing about this major moment for the long-running medical drama.
Manish revealed that he didn’t ask to direct the 100th episode of the show. “It just fell into place this way,” he said. “I think it all made perfect sense because this is a big episode for us and a real climax of so many people’s journeys, particularly Kit and Bell. As we know, they are getting married in this episode. Their journey comes full circle. I think it’s a perfect and fantastic 100th episode.”
The actor noted that there was an “energy of excitement” on set while filming and directing the episode. “No doubt because I think everyone was aware that it was a milestone for us, and nobody ever expected to get this far,” he admitted. “So to be shooting that, be in it, definitely created a fun energy on set. I think everyone was super interested in it and excited about elevating the material as much as they could. It was just a wonderful experience. Everyone sort of galvanized together.”
Kit and Bell will be getting married in the 100th episode, but Manish teased that they’ll experience “a lot of twists and turns” to get to that happy ending. “Problems are happening every five seconds. That’s the nature of the show and also the nature of our very busy characters who are being pulled in a million different directions. Despite the fact that it is their wedding day, they still have the responsibilities of being a doctor and CEO and patients to tend to,” he told HollywoodLife.
Manish continued, “I think Bell, in particular, has several ticking clocks throughout the episode that he’s dealing with. He, of course, has to get to the church on time. But beyond that, he’s also involved in a very precarious surgery with a young girl who is deaf but also needs a liver transplant. To achieve the liver transplant, they have to operate on her mother who’s going to be the donor potentially. There are a lot of issues with this transplant because the mother’s also in a tenuous state, so it involves bringing in the other doctors. A lot of people get tied into the story because both of the patients require everyone’s expertise.”
Achieving 100 episodes in this day and age is quite an accomplishment. Manish reflected on what The Resident has been to him over the past 6 seasons.
“The show is a huge part of my life. Starting the show Devon was a student of medicine basically, and now he’s a clinical researcher. I think that that illustrates the huge journey that he’s gone on as a doctor, along with everyone in the cast,” Manish said. “Every character has had such a huge journey over these 100 episodes. There’s been some ups and some downs, huge life changes for everybody. I think that’s what 100 episodes mean. It just shows you that where the characters are in the 100th episode is almost unrecognizable to who they were in the first episode. I think that’s very telling of a strong arc and a show that really takes its audience in so many different directions.”
He added, “And then you think about the writers and our creator, Amy Holden Jones, showrunner Andrew Chapman, and the huge task that is required to make 100 episodes, to write 100 episodes, 100 stories, and how many arcs, it’s a tremendous feat that I think that they’ve accomplished in a big way.”
Looking beyond the 100th episode, Manish revealed what’s ahead for Devon and Leela. “Their personal life has been sort of living in the background a little bit. I think they have a stable relationship that isn’t so much challenged at the moment but perhaps later will be when they start understanding their needs and what they want as people,” Manish told HollywoodLife. “I know Devon certainly wants children and Leela doesn’t, so I think that could potentially become a point of conflict between the two of them. But really, they’re deciding what their future is going to be. At the end of the day, they love each other very much, but they are very different people. They want different things. That could mean a lot of things in their future, but they definitely support each other. They respect each other as doctors. They’re rooting for each other ultimately.”