TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Joseph Kay on Mags and Bash’s Relationship Hurdle, Theo’s Work Shakeup

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the TRANSPLANT season 3 finale.]

The TRANSPLANT season 3 finale ended on a bittersweet note, as Mags (Laurence Leboeuf)—who was also debating whether she should have a heart transplant—opted to end her relationship with Bash (Hamza Haq).

“She knows that if he knew what she was going through, he would put her first,” TRANSPLANT creator Joseph Kay tells Give Me My Remote. “And she knows him better than anybody. She just doesn’t want to be his medical patient and his emotional patient; she doesn’t want that. She tells him in episode 7, in this kind of explosive way, that she really wants intimacy. That’s the thing that she wants more than anything else and she wants it to be on its own terms.”

“So really she breaks up with him because she knew if he knew what her choice was…whether or not to get a transplant, that all he’d be is obsessed about that and trying to control it and trying to worry about it—in his charming way,” he continues. “So she’s driving that split. And from a structural perspective, we thought it was important…they teased with each other for two seasons. And then they tried a real relationship. And, you know, it works, but it doesn’t work.”

When the show returns for season 4—no air date has been set for the NBC run of the final season—“we don’t run away from it; we don’t pretend the breakup didn’t happen,” Kay says. “They work together, they see each other every day. So it’s fertile to live in the space of that. She’s got this secret, what’s going on in her life? He doesn’t know about it. And we just wanted to kind of reset what was smoldering about them, leading into some of the drama that happens in season 4.”

Season 3 also ended on a rough note for Theo (Jim Watson), who reported a patient’s suspected abuse to the police (and implicated her husband)…and (at least) temporarily lost his job as a result.

“We realized that he’s crossing lines, he’s trying to be a hero, he’s trying to be a good guy,” Kay says. “But in the process, he’s being a bad guy. You may think he’s being a bad guy or not…it’s sort of up to the audience to decide whether they agree or disagree. But overall, he’s sort of lost sight of who he is. He really had what he thought was a very strong sense of who he was when the series begins, both kind of in his personal life and his professional life. As we’d say in the writers’ room, his life was on rails. And it’s just not anymore. And he can’t see it.”

“So he loses his job,” Kay says. “He cares deeply, like all of our characters do, about people and about the work and all that stuff. But he just can’t see himself, so he has to learn to see himself.”

Much like Mags keeping her latest health crisis from Bash, Theo also opted not to tell his friend what was going on.

“He doesn’t want to impose on people,” Kay explains. “He feels badly about that. And he’s kind of embarrassed. It’s only a very minor spoiler, but the people in his life know what he’s going through starting when we come back for season 4. It’s just another example of a person who is very good at helping others, but not so good at accepting help. They say doctors make the worst patients, so that’s probably why.”

But with some of the closest people in Bash’s life pushing him away, at least temporarily, how will that impact the lightness that Mags said she saw in her now-ex?

“The lightness is an important transition for him because [the writers say] he is on this journey to being allowed to want,” Kay says. “So what’s happening is…he’s approaching the end of his residency, and that’s a place where we find him starting in the new season. And so after achieving what Mags refers to as lightness, which he has, because he’s kind of coming to understand himself and coming to just be a little more comfortable with who he is and to see [Toronto as] a kind of home. But then he has to face his residency is going to be over—what does he want?”

“He’s going to make some decisions now, in the face of that comfort,” he continues. “We’re jerks, so we have him be happy—and we have to undercut that with all this self-doubt, again.”

RELATED:

• TRANSPLANT: Joseph Kay Previews an ‘Emotional’ Season 3 Finale for Bash and Mags
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Claire Tries to Keep York Memorial From Spiraling into Chaos
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Bash and Mags Get Confronted by An Angry Patient
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: Mags Realizes She Needs Theo’s Help with a Patient
• TRANSPLANT Exclusive Clip: The Doctors Disagree Over a Surgical Patient’s Treatment
• TRANSPLANT Post-Mortem: Joseph Kay on Mags’ Health and Theo’s Bad Decision
• 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.