TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Joseph Kay on Mags’ Health and Theo’s Bad Decision

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Thursday, November 2 episode of TRANSPLANT.]

What TRANSPLANT’s Mags (Laurence Leboeuf) thought was a stress-induced panic attack ended up being a more serious issue—that landed her in the hospital—on the Thursday, November 2 episode of the medical drama.

“People at work tend to be encouraged to hide their health problems and they keep them to themselves for the most part,” creator Joseph Kay tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “They’re afraid to ask for accommodations. And Mags has lived pretty much her whole life this way. People don’t really know [her health situation]. And she chose a profession that is a high adrenaline profession…emergency medicine is high adrenaline. It attracts those kinds of people…it’s her calling, but her body feels the opposite way.”

“So to really explore one’s relationship with one’s calling, we thought it was important that she finally tells the truth and lets people know and asks for accommodations and puts her health right out there, and doesn’t let her work kill her,” he continues. “And although the show doesn’t concern itself with COVID in real-time, it takes that sort of thematic way that we were all feeling to the pandemic and tries to incorporate it. And so, for Mags, she’s living out loud.”

As she’s recovering, the only person she allowed to know about her health scare is her (now-boyfriend) Bash. 

“He wants to save everything and everybody,” Kay acknowledges. “And so it creates conflict, in a way, because he wants to be there for her. But she doesn’t want to be saved by him in that way, in the same way that he doesn’t want to be saved by her in that way. So it lets us get a little bit deeper in the way that we explore their mutual vulnerabilities in the relationship, while still keeping it fun and active and letting them enjoy each other’s company.”

Elsewhere, Theo (Jim Watson) is in his own trouble. After holding a patient down—who was afraid of needles and needed a shot—Theo was called out for his actions on social media. He was advised to do nothing (since the post had very little traction), but Theo couldn’t resist reaching out to the patient to try and explain himself.

“We were just really interested in exploring it, because we know Theo to be a nice guy, a decent human being,” Kay says. “But he does cross a line and it is a question of perspective. We just want to live in the gray zone with it…we know him to be in his heart a good person. It’s interesting to see a person like that make a mistake, but then dig a hole for himself.”

But the writers are hoping fans will be able to see that Theo’s actions aren’t exactly in the right here. “Hopefully, the viewer is saying, ‘Stop man, stop…just apologize. Just admit that you made a mistake and stop digging this hole,’” Kay says. “But because he’s lost sight of himself, he’s really not able to do that. And so, ultimately, I think we all agreed that although there is a gray area there, he did make a mistake and he should have been out front and apologize for it. We’re just watch[ing] him dig a hole—until he starts seeing himself again.”

TRANSPLANT, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

RELATED:

• TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Joseph Kay on Showcasing Bash’s Joy
• TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Joseph Kay on Bash and Mags’ Accidental Step Forward
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Bash Meets Mags’ Parents
• TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Joseph Kay on Theo’s Post-Crash Changes, the Bash-Mags Relationship Shift
• TRANSPLANT: What You Need to Know About the Season Premiere
• TRANSPLANT Creator Joseph Kay Previews Season 3’s New Boss, Bash’s Big Decisions, and More
• TRANSPLANT Season 3 Premiere Exclusive Clip: The Team Welcomes Back Theo—And Shares What He’s Missed
• TRANSPLANT to End with Season 4
• TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Hamza Haq on the Hospital Shakeup and Bash and Mags’ ‘Vulnerable,’ ‘Emotional’ Moment
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: June Takes a Stand
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Mags Bonds With a Sick Baby
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Bishop, Bash, and Mags Gear Up for a Legal Fight
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Bash Tries to Work Out His Trauma in Therapy
• TRANSPLANT Stars Hamza Haq and John Hannah Preview Bash and Bishop’s Dueling Conflicts
• NBC Sets March Return for TRANSPLANT, WEAKEST LINK
• NBC Picks Up More TRANSPLANT
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Can Bash Help His Friend Avoid Surgery?
• TRANSPLANT: ‘Far From Home’ Photos
• TRANSPLANT: ‘Trigger Warning’ Photos
• TRANSPLANT: ‘Eid’ Photos
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Bash Has a Heartbreaking Theory About a New Patient
• TRANSPLANT: ‘Saleh’ Photos
• TRANSPLANT: ‘Your Secrets Can Kill You’ Photos
• TRANSPLANT Series Premiere Photos
• NBC Sets September Launch for New Medical Drama TRANSPLANT

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page or our Instagram.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.