Bash ended up taking a trip down Memory Lane on one of the most pressure-packed days of his life.
Yes, Bash’s Canadian citizenship interview finally rolled around on Transplant Season 3 Episode 8.
The questions asked by the amazingly empathetic interviewer, Mr. Chandler, made Bash ponder events in his life, both recent and further back. These flashbacks served as an effective framing mechanism.
It did take some time to figure out how the narrative was proceeding. Chandler would ask Bash a pointed question, which led to a particular moment in his past. Still, this device definitely worked for the viewer.
Bash lived by the motto that he should answer any question from the interviewer truthfully. He told the truth to Chandler throughout, even to his detriment.
You would have thought that Bash would be a shoo-in for citizenship. He’s a doctor, after all, working in a major metropolitan hospital only five years after landing in Canada.
Chandler’s attitude appeared to change after learning that Bash was a physician. Shouldn’t he have learned that fact already from Bash’s seemingly thick application?
Let’s give Chandler the benefit of the doubt. There’s got to be a huge backload of such applications. So he likely didn’t have time to memorize Bash’s resume.
In any event, Chandler was impressed that Bash is a doctor. And like the viewers of Transplant, he wanted Bash to give him that “you-are-there” perspective.
Still, there were red flags even in Bash’s application. For instance, Chandler wanted to understand why Bash seemed to have two positions at York Memorial Hospital.
Bash explained that he had a dual residency in the Emergency Department and Trauma OR. This led Chandler to ask which of Bash’s bosses he should contact, which led Bash to flash back to the continuing tension between Devi and Novak.
There shouldn’t be any tenseness allowed between the two. After all, Trauma OR is a part of Emerg. So, Devi is Novak’s boss. He’s just hard pressed to accept that.
They just have such difference mindsets. He’s a cutter, likely to go for the most aggressive approach in any situation. While she’s more of a social worker who insists on putting the patient first.
That’s a lovely sentiment. But patients don’t have the necessary knowledge base and oft-times doctors, especially surgeons, have to make the hard call. So that’s why Novak and Devi clash regularly.
You would think Novak might cut Devi a little slack after she surrendered to the nurses during that work-to-rule fiasco. But no, he was still throwing around his nonexistent weight with her.
So who’s caught in the middle between his two bosses? Bash, who’s being especially sensitive about his choices after being spanked by Singh for going out on a limb for a patient’s friend on Transplant Season 3 Episode 7.
That, plus his upcoming citizenship interview, made Bash more timid than normal. Even Novak, that master of tact, called him on that.
Bash not wanting to step on toes likely led in part to that problem of recovering addict Kit being given Fentanyl during her endoscopy, resulting in her not trusting him or Mags.
Fortunately, the couple came up with an esoteric solution to Kit’s concerns and Novak was more than happy to undertake the surgery in Trauma OR. Bash even attempted to give all the credit to Devi, transparently seeking brownie points.
But then he turned around and went to bat for Farid, an obvious Amira surrogate. That’s because he and Amira were still tense around each other when she dropped in to deliver paperwork for his interview.
So he felt a need to become Farid’s advocate after Theo recruited him as Farid’s Arabic translator.
The problem was that Bash felt the need to protect Farid, especially as it became evident that Farid had accidentally set the fire that brought both him and Ezra to Emerg.
That caused problems because Bash promised Farid that he would keep secret anything Farid told him in Arabic.
At the same time, Theo felt obligated to report Farid to Children’s Services, finding out too late that Farid and his mother were undocumented aliens.
So, after Bash cut short Farid’s interview with Children’s Services, Farid disappeared, with Theo even suspecting Bash of having a hand in that.
Bash was at his best with his handling of the two estranged twins, Ezra and Liam.
Considering Ezra’s condition, he should be cut some slack when it came to his attitude toward Liam.
Maybe Liam looking up Ezra did cause Ezra to realize that his family life could have been better.
But Liam meant well, just seeking to learn more about the twin brother than he didn’t even know he had.
The doctors did everything they could to save Ezra and respect his wishes when it came to Liam’s involvement in his care.
But, bottom line, doing things cautiously as Liam wanted just didn’t work out.
The only option that was left was for Ezra to get over himself and accept Liam’s generous offer of a lung transplant.
What was frustrating was that the storylines of the missing Farid and the twins’ transplant weren’t resolved, leaving viewers hanging. Neither was significant enough to be carried over to future episodes.
To revisit Bash’s citizenship struggles, watch Transplant online.
Were you surprised Bash even needed to be interviewed?
Were any of the outcomes shown Bash’s fault?
How did you like learning more of Bash’s backstory?
Comment below.
Edit Delete
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.
