St. Denis Medical's Cast Talk the Season 2 Premiere: Crush Drama & Joyce's "Big Win"
Wendi McLendon-Covey, Allison Tolman and Kahyun Kim share their insights into the Season 2 premiere, "Aloha, Everyone."
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The summer is over, and it's back to work for everyone at St. Denis Medical.
In comedy's Season 2 premiere, "Aloha, Everyone," the Oregon hospital's doctors, nurses and staff are still delightfully dysfunctional on the job. Supervising nurse Alex (Allison Tolman) returns from a transformative week of vacation in Hawaii, wanting to counter the crazy and keep the vibes going at the desk.
Not exactly easy to do when hospital administrator Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is in a tizzy to finish the brand-new, St. Denis Regional Medical Center Birthing Center. A major addition to the chronically underfunded Oregon hospital, it boasts Joyce's cutting-edge concept of pop culture themed birthing rooms. A point of pride for the Type A admin — until she goes full panic-mode when the Center's major donor implies she wants to share her own design ideas.
And then there's the new dynamic simmering between sheltered RN Matt (Mekki Leeper) and self-assured traveling nurse Serena (Kahyun Kim).
NBC Insider spoke exclusively with McLendon-Covey, Tolman, and Kim about the premiere, and what it portends for the ladies going into Season 2.
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St. Denis Medical's Wendi McClendon-Covey: Joyce "finally has a win" in Season 2
Once used to having caviar taste and a McDonald's budget, Joyce's high-concept birthing center is both her pride and joy and the source of her ever-more-manic perfectionism.
"Joyce finally has a win in this season, because last season she was losing in her personal life and at work," McLendon-Covey said of her character's shiny new obsession this season. "When she gets this big $10 million influx of cash, she almost blows it all on stupid things. But she reigns herself in and does this birthing center. While that is a big accomplishment, she really ends up pushing this thing uphill in front of her, because permits, inspections, all these things."
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McClendon-Covey teased that the center will be a new source of insecurity for Joyce to take out on everyone around her.
"There's a very real possibility that maybe people don't want to give birth in rural Oregon?" she posed. "Maybe she should have stuck with the koi pond idea, and not worried about building this thing? We don't find out how that ends up until the final couple of episodes, but I love that she has something to sort of be proud of and stress out about. But mostly, she's proud."
Allison Tolman on Alex's new attitude
Workaholic Alex finally escaped her nurse's scrubs and went on a vacation with hubby Tim (Kyle Bornheimer), and now that she's back, maybe she's let those Hawaii breezes sway her a little too much.
"We come into the second season and she's just coming off of a week away with her husband, and she's feeling relaxed and Zen and in the island spirit because she's been in Hawaii," Tolman said.
"But, yeah, it's difficult to maintain," she confirmed. "I think it's difficult for any of us to maintain. I think we have to treat our rest time as fuel for our work time. But it's really difficult to actually carry over that mindset to when we're working because it's not appropriate. It's not helpful when there's an emergency, and to be like, 'Hey man, it's fine. Let's sit on the beach,'" she laughed.
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Asked if Alex's restored appreciation for her work family will influence how she operates this season, Tolman said, "I think the first season was really about Alex understanding that she needed to establish a work/life balance, and how important that was for her marriage and for her mental health, and also for her ability to keep being a good nurse. Season 2 is really about her trying to employ that..."
The romantic tables have turned for St. Denis's Matt and Serena
The biggest change in the premiere was the reversed dynamic between nervous Matt and the typically unflappable Serena. For the majority of Season 1, Matt harbored a quiet crush on Serena and was even more of a bumbling mess around her. In the Season 1 finale, they both shared some sizzle vibes at the annual gala together.
However, Serena learns in the premiere that after that night, Matt requested to be assigned to Serena-less shifts. Once she finds out, Serena is livid to have been secretly spurned.
"It definitely explored a lot of trauma she probably has, a lot of therapies needed and things that she needs to work out," Kahyun Kim joked about her character's outsized reaction to Matt's choice.
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"Obviously, being attracted to somebody as soon as she finds out they're not attracted to you is something off," she deadpanned. "But I've definitely 'been there, done that,' so it was not hard to understand the actions. But yeah, it's very different feeling [for her]."
Where exactly that goes this season, we'll soon find out!
Watch new episodes of St. Denis Medical on Monday nights at 8/7c on NBC, streaming next-day on Peacock. All episodes of St. Denis Medical Season 1 are available to stream on Peacock now.
