Why did Emily VanCamp leave The Resident? (Nic's death explained)

Grey's Anatomy is hands down the best medical drama series, but coming in second would have to be The Resident, at least for me. I had been patiently waiting for it to make its way to Netflix, and it finally did. On March 4, Netflix dropped the entire series on its platform, and new and old viewers are currently watching it.

Of course, with its arrival on Netflix comes many questions. One question in particular concerns one of the main cast members and their departure from the series. People want to know why Emily VanCamp, who portrayed Nicolette 'Nic' Nevin, left the medical drama. No worries! We shared everything we know about her exit right below.

Nic was a very determined nurse practitioner at the fictional Chastain Park Memorial Hospital. She had an on-and-off-again relationship with senior resident Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry) and later married him. They even had a daughter together named Georgiana Grace "Gigi" Nevin Hawkins. But unfortunately, Nic meets her demise in the earlier half of season 5. It all goes down in the third episode of season 5 which is titled "The Long and Winding Road."

Nic doesn't appear on-screen for the first two episodes of the fifth season, with her absence being explained as her being away on a spa trip. But in the third episode, she finally makes her appearance just not in the way fans would've liked. At the end of the second episode, cops show up at Conrad and Nic's home to tell Conrad that there's been an accident. The third episode opens with Conrad rushing to the hospital to see what happened to his wife. We find out that Nic was in a tragic car accident. She suffered a traumatic brain injury due to the accident and was left brain dead.

In the end, Conrad makes the tough decision to pull the plug. Since Nic was an organ donor, Conrad donates her organs so that other critical patients lives could be saved.

So, what's the story behind VanCamp's departure? Was it her decision to leave the medical drama or was it the show's creators? Well, it was actually VanCamp's decision. We first learned of her leaving the series in August 2021, a month before the fifth season premiered. But in October 2021, she finally came out and revealed her reasoning behind her departure in an interview with Deadline. Her reason was that she wanted to focus more on family. While shooting the show, she welcomed her first child, a daughter, with her husband Josh Bowman. With her starting a new family with her husband, she became more focused on family life than work.

Here's what VanCamp told Deadline about her departure:

"I spent so many years on network television, but then suddenly priorities shifted. I think there comes a moment in every woman’s life—in every person’s life—where it becomes less about work and more about family, and that’s what happened while I was making the show. Doing that many episodes in a different city and then you add Covid to that, most of us couldn’t see our families for almost a year. It really solidified for me that family is where my heart is at the moment.”"

According to VanCamp, she had spoken to the show's creative team about her leaving the series way before the decision was even made. She also told Deadline that there was no bad blood and that everyone behind the show was supportive of her decision. She said she was met with "understanding and compassion."

When it comes to how VanCamp felt about how the show wrote her character off, she tells Deadline that her character's ending was "very fitting and representative of the person that she was." In other words, she was okay with the way things turned out.

As reported by Deadline, Matt Czuchry was the first person VanCamp told about her leaving the medical drama. Czuchry had only positive things to say about VanCamp and her decision. We shared what he had to say below.

"I have so many great memories I’ve shared with Emily because we spent so much time together. She and I have such trust and respect for one another. I think we pushed each other. We inspired and supported each other. She wanted to focus on family, and I was the first person she told about that. I just wanted her to be happy. It’s been incredibly rewarding to have a partnership with her."

Although VanCamp officially leaves The Resident after the third episode of season 5, she would later appear in the fifth episode of the season when Conrad imagines Nic being alive in his bed. But after turning off his alarm, he turns around and she's not there. VanCamp's last appearance would be in the season 5 finale, where her character appears in several flashback scenes.

How did you feel about Emily VanCamp's departure from The Resident?