We got a Kitbell PROPOSAL! We’re getting a KITBELL WEDDING!!
Honestly, if there was anything worth a damn to take away from an exceedingly dramatic The Resident Season 5 Episode 20, it’s that we Kitbell shippers are on Cloud Nine after all of that cuteness.
A set of my fictional parents getting married, probably by the end of the season, and it will live in my head rent-free for a while.
Sadly, with the rise of this fantastic couple, we got the fall of another, and it was a long time coming.
The development in Leela and Devon’s relationship has been nothing short of vexatious. It’s upsetting to think that, like Kitbell, they were a relationship worth rooting for and had viewers excited and inspired, but they’ve since devolved into this.
Devon: Leela, we need to talk.
Leela: What’s there to talk about? We’re fine.
Devon: I thought so too, but you haven’t been home all week and we barely spoken since I floated the idea of being Padma’s sperm donor.
Leela: OK, truth bomb, I’m still processing that.
Devon: OK, so it’s still an issue?
Somehow, within a season, they went from a pairing in which you wanted nothing but happiness and good things to one you actively championed breaking up just to put both characters and us out of our collective miseries.
It’s too easy to blame the emergence of Padma on this couple’s downfall, but that’s not the case. With a time jump and these milestones and development happening offscreen, we didn’t see how things changed when they first happened, but they have changed.
The sad truth is that Leela and Devon have grown into different people who are no longer compatible with one another, and neither wanted to face that. On some level, it’s understandable. When you devote roughly half a decade to a relationship, the idea of it falling apart feels like a waste.
By the time they moved in with each other and lived this domestic lifestyle, it was easy to presume that this was it for them, and the following stages in their life would be marriage and what follows.
Padma has very little to do with that, but her messy baby arc was merely an agitator in an already frayed relationship.
As a fan of Devon and Leela, the dissolution of their relationship is a kick to the teeth.
For Devon, he’s had such a tumultuous love life that hasn’t been a hit for most viewers since the series’ beginning, and for once, it felt like he had something real, solid, and healthy with Leela.
And we’ve gotten to see Leela thrive in new ways because of her relationship with Devon.
But now, they’ve hit this point where their differences are irreconcilable. It would be a disservice to one or the other if they continued their serious relationship if one of them isn’t getting what they want or has to compromise on something as significant as children.
Unfortunately, the story arc hasn’t done Leela any favors here. We spent another installment with her avoiding Devon like the plague and trying not to talk to him. She threw out the coffee he gave her as if the simple gesture was an annoyance.
And she’s spent all this time angry at him about his offer to have Padma’s baby, but she showed a stunning lack of maturity by not discussing it in detail.
Leela’s feelings about how weird it was that her long-term boyfriend offered to father her twin’s child are valid. She has every right to be upset about that.
I have given you everything, even the eggs from my freaking body, but we cannot share this. I will not give you Devon.
Leela
But it was worth a genuine discussion, and some of her ire got lost because she refused to be direct with Devon about her desires out of fear of losing him. It was not fair to him at all.
You don’t string someone along with the idea that you’d be open to having children in the future when you don’t intend to, and as much as she likes to sit on the fence about this, it’s evident that she does not want children at all.
And that’s fine, but it’s selfish, inconsiderate, and hurtful for her to have expected Devon to change his mind on this issue or decide that his love for her should outweigh his desire for children.
As Devon said, he’s always been open and upfront about this, so Leela didn’t get blindsided by Devon’s desires. However, he did when she’s learned over the years that children and a family aren’t among her priority right now, and she’s more career-focused.
Neither of them should have to compromise on this issue if they feel so strongly about it, but only Devon was willing to face it for what it was and act accordingly when she finally told him the truth.
And Leela got upset that he didn’t somehow choose her. We know enough about her now to get that there are some deep-seated issues with her feeling like an afterthought compared to her sister.
Even Leela’s outburst when she spoke to her sister, saying Padma couldn’t have Devon and wouldn’t share that with him, speaks to those issues always present in the twins’ lives.
And Leela sure as hell wasn’t wrong for that in the least. But Devon isn’t a commodity for the sisters to fight over, he’s a person, and Leela stopped acknowledging and respecting him somewhere along the way.
The lack of communication between Devon and Leela finally came to a necessary head because they couldn’t keep going the way they were. Deep down, Devon did probably know that Leela didn’t want kids.
And it likely was why he offered to be the sperm donor. And he did that with an awareness of the issues between the twins and Leela’s insecurities about how everyone favors Padma, who always manages to get what she desires.
But Leela hasn’t been honest with Devon for a long time now, and there was no getting around that.
It makes you sad for Devon, who has matured and become a fine doctor, content with where he is in his career, one who has overcome loss and wants to settle down and be happy.
Leela: I don’t want kids. Not now, not in a few years, maybe never, okay?
Devon: So you lied to me.
Leela: I think deep down we both knew.
Devon: I didn’t know.
Leela: Why else did you offer to father another woman’s baby?
Devon: This isn’t about Padma. You led me on. Made me think that there was a chance, a future for us. Leela: And now there isn’t? A future for us?
Devon: I love you.
Leela: But not enough. You want a baby more than you want me.
Devon: I want you. I want us. But I also want a family one day, and I never hid that from you. And I’m not going to apologize for it.
Leela: And I’m not going to apologize for wanting something different.
He more than deserves that in this stage of his life, and it sucks that the rug got pulled from beneath his feet because he and Leela grew apart.
Of course, you feel for Leela too, who lost her boyfriend, got kicked out of surgery, and finally blew up about how uncomfortable she’s been with this egg situation all in the same day.
Leela is determined to prove herself as someone superhuman, and she’s destroying herself.
It’s good to have ambitions, but everyone told her that what she was trying to achieve, dual certification in both neuro and cardio, was impossible, and she refused to relent. It nearly cost her a damn patient!
It’s one thing for Leela to attempt to achieve the impossible, but part of doing that is knowing the fundamentals of self-care. A doctor incapable of that essential thing can jeopardize the lives of every patient that crosses their path.
You can’t take care of someone else if you can’t do the same for yourself.
She’s been stretching herself thin for a long time, so it was bound to catch up to her. It was alarming when she fell asleep during that surgery and nearly damaged poor Ashley’s spine.
Leela should’ve said no to AJ’s surgery if she intended to pull another shift and do Billie’s. Leela sure as heck should’ve bowed out when she almost messed up during AJ’s surgery and didn’t get any sleep.
Everything is falling apart for Leela right now, and as much as this hospital is a family, the disappointment Billie and Kit displayed was real. Hell, I felt like I let them down, and I wasn’t even there.
Leela is at a crossroads professionally and personally, and there’s no telling what happens from here.
Meanwhile, Padma flip-flopped most annoyingly but finally accepted AJ’s offer.
On the surface, the Padma and AJ thing seemed like a sure thing, but Padma made it more complicated than it needed to be, and like her sister, she came across as incredibly self-absorbed and selfish.
Who asks a grieving man who just lost his only family to become a sperm donor and then gets angry at him for expecting to be a father in all of this?
Even if we’re setting aside that AJ lost his mother and wants a family, and they literally just put this woman in the ground before he and Padma had all these conversations, he’s AJ.
Who with even a passing knowledge of the Raptor would think that he would stand on the sidelines of his child’s life?
Asking someone you know to be a sperm donor already comes with its fair share of complications, but when that person is family-oriented and more, there are certain things you should anticipate right out of the gate.
Conrad: Carol meant the world to all of us.
AJ: I know. Thanks for coming.
Devon: You’re so lucky to have had such a wonderful mom.
Conrad: Not everyone gets that.
AJ: Yeah, I’m holding onto that.
It was utterly senseless that Padma thought AJ would spoon over his sperm and wash his hands of the whole ordeal. It was equally as gobsmacking that she thought Devon would somehow be a better option.
They’re two men who would want to be thoroughly involved in their child’s life, and this is why she should’ve stuck with an unknown donor if she wanted to be in control of everything.
Nothing that AJ was doing or suggesting came across as unreasonable, even if it was stifling for a free-spirited and flighty Padma. The only thing AJ was guilty of was forcing Padma to think this through in a way that she hadn’t before she rushed into this decision.
It’s perfectly reasonable and financially sound to now establish a college fund for the kid. And he wasn’t irrational for offering something so that this child wouldn’t grow up in a van.
He was right about a child needing stability. Even without AJ’s experience in foster care and all of that, his position on this came from a good place.
Sure, he came on a little strong, but it’s nothing you don’t expect from AJ, and this was a result she should’ve prepared for when she asked her former f**k buddy, who just lost his mother, to give her his sperm.
Padma bickering with AJ, then deciding she could go to Devon, as if she wouldn’t endure the same thing and blow up her sister’s relationship, was maddening. It read as if she didn’t give a damn about Leela, Devon, or AJ, so long as she got what she wanted.
But, hey, all’s well that end’s well, I guess, since she and AJ made up, and they’re a go for this baby. The only thing that’s making this tolerable is that AJ can get a family, child, and something good out of this because AJ Austin deserves the world.
Meanwhile, we’ve made the most progression in this medicare fraud storyline since it started, but it’s something that’s lost its luster, so it’s hard to call the storyline compelling in any way.
Terry was the break in the case that they needed.
I loved the flashbacks to what happened and how she got involved with the mob fraud. It was a great use of flashbacks to inform the story, and it’s one of the first times it provided a better understanding of what was happening and at stake.
Most of the plot gave us the side of people overdosing on fault prescriptions. Still, it was nice to fill in the blanks to understand this operation. They used unhoused individuals to bleed medicare of its money and redistribute drugs at the actual market value.
The issue is that they’ve inconsistently shown this particular storyline, with it disappearing for episodes at a time, only to get follow up much later, that it keeps taking you out of it.
And when you’re taking out of the storyline so much, it’s hard to invest in it overall. The same thing goes for Cade as a character.
She disappears so often, and she only has a connection to Conrad when she’s there that I feel like we don’t know her. There’s no real incentive to invest in her character anymore or whatever this burgeoning romance they’re trying to sell between her and Conrad.
I feel nothing during their intimate moments.
Look, I don’t know anything. I’m a nobody. I’m a little cog in a very big machine. I can end up in the bottom of my lake with my feet in concrete.
Terry
Cade’s talking about how conflicted she feels regarding leaving or staying, and Conrad attempting to get her to stay doesn’t hit its mark because it’s easy to forget about Cade until the next time we see her again.
And her confiding in Conrad at the end and talking about her self-involved father was such a contrived moment now that we know about Andrew McCarthy‘s casting as her egotistical but brilliant surgeon dad.
Now, that creepy mob guy is back, and he may be coming for Terry if he finds out about her and murders her the same way he did to Phoebe, who we learned more about via Terry.
But his primary focus is on Cade and possibly Conrad. It didn’t even make sense that ConCade was talking to the FBI out in broad daylight, in the middle of the hospital parking lot, when they had already locked eyes with the man when he killed Phoebe there.
Now, even though Terry’s information may be enough for the feds to shut down this operation, we have to be concerned about Cade, who has been running from this for some time, but also Conrad, who shouldn’t be anywhere near this if it could bring harm to Gigi.
But with this break in the case, it must mean that they’re winding down with this storyline.
After Carol’s heartbreaking funeral, which saw AJ burying his mother with his Chastain family around him, Bell reevaluated his future in the happiest of all news.
And it’s to our benefit that he did!
I don’t want to go. I feel more at home here than I did in my own home as a kid honestly.
Cade
Can you imagine if something terrible happened to him, and everything went to his ex-wife? I’m so glad he updated his information because Jake and Sammi deserve the world, but so does the love of his life, Kit.
She’s not hurting for anything, but at the end of the day, regardless of how people feel about marriage, it’s always a benefit from a legal standpoint.
Kit casually stating they should get married fit well with her character, and Bell’s reaction was priceless!
I also loved that she told him she would kneel for no man. It was such a quintessential thing for Kit to say, yet still on brand when she broke down and did it anyway in the restaurant later.
Bell joining her and presenting a ring shows you how equally yolked and perfect they are for one another.
The two of them getting married wasn’t even up for debate. It didn’t even cross Bell’s mind that Kit was anything short of serious, and they went right into imagining what their ceremony would be like.
Can Kitbell get any freaking cuter?! They’re so precious to me!
The two of them are practically married as it is, so they may as well make it official. I’m happy that despite previous marriages, neither have any hangups about doing this again.
Kit: I have everything I want. Leave it all to them.
Bell: I don’t want to do that.
Kit: OK, let’s get married then.
Bell: So this is the way you ask me? No fancy dinner, no ring, just didn’t even get down on one knee.
Kit: I love you to the moon and back, but I kneel for no man.
Bell is not only smitten, but he’s such a romantic. Of course, he’d be the one to go all out, suggesting destination weddings and the like. Bell wants to whole shebang because nothing pleases him more than showing off his love for Kit in front of anyone with eyeballs.
And Kit, bless her, isn’t the sort who would allow one of them to compromise to their detriment for the other, so it was refreshing, especially given everything else happening in the installment, that she shut down the notion that he’d just give her what she wants.
Kit wants Bell to be happy, too.
And that’s why Kitbell is 100% all the couple goals.
This reviewer was as ecstatic and adoring as the patrons of that restaurant after their mutual proposal.
With all this drama, Kitbell is the light.
Over to you, Resident Fanatics.
Are you bummed about Deela? Are you happy about Kitbell? What are your thoughts on Padma and AJ’s arrangement? Should Cade stay? Sound off below.
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Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.