TRANSPLANT: Joseph Kay Previews an ‘Emotional’ Season 3 Finale for Bash and Mags

After spending the past few episodes in Lebanon—working in a refugee camp and reuniting with a former friend—Bash (Hamza Haq) is preparing to come back to Toronto in the Friday, February 9 season 3 finale of TRANSPLANT.

“He’d always felt like he’s been ripped away from the place he loved because of what happened to him and his life,” TRANSPLANT showrunner Joseph Kay tells Give Me My Remote. “So he gets the opportunity to go back [in episode 11]. And when he goes back, he does something that he loves to do, which is to help people in those situations. He has this kind of passion that calls him to that kind of work.”

During his time in Lebanon, “one of the things that happens to him while he’s there is that he realizes that he’s still essentially in a waystation,” Kay acknowledges. “He’s still sort of halfway between. And he has the opportunity to get as close to home as he can, and kind of visit a different part of his past; in season 3, he’s dealing with the part of him that had potential before the war and before all these things came and changed his life. And he comes full circle to this realization that he still feels stuck, but he can’t really put his finger on how.”

“So he comes home,” Kay continues. “It’s interesting that when he comes back to Toronto, that that’s coming home. He sort of feels like it is—and that’s something that we explore in the finale—which marks a transition for him. And it leaves him in a spot where he has to make a decision about his future…we explore that he was driven towards medicine, and even towards surgery, because of what his family wanted for him…in the finale of season 3, he’s making some decisions for himself.”

Back home is Mags (Laurence Leboeuf), who has been going through her own hardships—both professionally and personally—as Bash has been gone. And though the duo started off the season happily finally together, they’re now in uncertain territory.

“We have obviously a big emotional episode for Bash and Mags, and where they are in their relationship, and where they’re going to be going forward,” Kay previews. “And obviously, that’s always really central to our show. So I hope people watch and enjoy that like we intend them to.” 

The current estrangement is “painful for [Bash], honestly, because they have this sort of connection that’s always palpable, but then they just can’t quite get on the same page at the same time,” Kay says. “And I mean, one thing for him on that front that’s been consistent for the show is that he has a hard time allowing himself to be happy. He’s always kind of punishing himself and feeling that he doesn’t deserve it. And she speaks to that the loudest. She wishes so badly he could just get over that. But she understands that he can’t and she has her own stuff that she’s going through…It’s hard for him to get out of his own way when it comes to her.”

And Mags will have her own big decisions to make in the season finale. “Since season 1, episode 5, we’ve been telling this slow burn story about her medical history and medical present—she has a heart problem and [there are] identity questions really wrapped up in that,” Kay previews. “The kind of kid she was, the kind of doctor she wanted to be, the kind of life she can choose if she wants to deal with it or not deal with it. So we really explore all that stuff. And it’s big, fundamental questions for her in terms of the kind of life that she’s building for herself, that she wants for herself, and, really, the way she sees herself. A lot of the things that happen in the finale of season 3 are really big setups for season 4.”

“I hope it does two things,” he continues. “I think it resolves the story that we’re telling in season 3 in an emotional way, but also kind of asks some really big questions about where we’re going to find everybody in season 4.”

For Theo (Jim Watson), after a season of struggle…things aren’t exactly going to get easier in the finale. “We always do something a little bit exciting with Theo; every finale of TRANSPLANT tends to put him through the wringer,” Kay says with a laugh. “And this one’s my favorite one of everything ever done, including the one season we crashed a helicopter with him in it. This one’s my favorite. This character has been changing very slowly, and he’s going through lots of ups and downs in his life. And this one comes out of left field for him and forces him to really think about who he is and what he’s been through. It’s a big and surprising, but poignant, thing that we put them through in this finale.”

The hospital itself is a possible moment of transformation after Claire (Torri Higginson) was brutally attacked as the underequipped ED was dealing with a software glitch that derailed their ability to treat patients—and new chief Dr. Devi (Rekha Sharma) could find her job in danger. 

“We’ve been really excited about that story; obviously, it’s really topical,” Kay says. “It has been for years. It really accentuated through the pandemic the way that the stress plays on the hospital system everywhere.”

For Claire, “it’s a huge story…because she was assaulted,” he previews. “She has a very hard time coming back to a job that sort of defines her after that. And we tried taking that story and being very deliberate about how we tell it. We’re not just gonna rush through, ’It was really hard for her and now it’s over.’ We want to kind of live in that.”

“And that whole story is really formative to Dr. Devi’s character, who came to this job with big shoes to fill,” he continues. “We always like to do this glass cliff kind of a story: given this opportunity, does she have the support that she needs to really do it? And [she] came in with this mandate for change. But hospital infrastructure is this huge beast, especially with funding shortfalls and everything that we’re all facing.”

“There’s increased institutional decline, all that kind of stuff,” he adds. “And she’s got these big ideas. There’s this kind of cynicism underlying all those challenges. But, at the core, institutions are about people who are good at their work, and care is the most important thing. So we’re exploring what it’s like to live in that space where it’s easy to be cynical about the institutions but it’s also, if you let yourself, easy to be hopeful about people.”

TRANSPLANT, Fridays, 8/7c, NBC

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