1 of 5 | Mekki Leeper (L) and Kaliko Kauahi star in “St. Denis Medical,” Mondays at 8 p.m. on NBC. Photo courtesy of NBC
Note: This article contains spoilers for St. Denis Medical Season 2, Episode 5, “A Strong Cup of Coffee”
Monday’s episode of St. Denis Medical confirms speculation about nurse Val’s love life. Kaliko Kauahi, who plays Val, says her character will still keep her love life private moving forward.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Kauahi said Season 1 hinted that Val is gay because she mentioned dating a person named Shelly. In the new episode, she asks Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey), “You know I’m gay, right?”
“It’s a little more vague in Season 1,” Kauahi said. “In Season 2, we’re like, let’s just say.”
Val’s love life
Kauai said subsequent episodes will share more about Val’s relationships, though Val herself isn’t forthcoming.
“Val doesn’t want to reveal too much,” Kauahi said. “She wants to keep things private but these guys want to know.”
The other nurses won’t let it go, however. Alison Tolman, who plays nurse Alex, confirmed Val’s colleagues will keep probing for juicy details.
“We are hungry,” Tolman said.
Showrunner Eric Ledgin said he and the writers have always known Val to be gay. Ledgin said they were excited to confirm in Monday’s episode.
“That is something that is canon on the show now and is not necessarily a plot point but it’s a part of our story in a couple different episodes, her relationships and hookups throughout the season,” Ledgin said.
Even before it was confirmed, Kauai said she has received positive feedback from viewers who identified with Val.
“I love it and I’ve also got a lot of response from people who feel seen,” Kauai said, adding that fans appreciate that Val is just “another character, works at a hospital, happens to be gay, good at her job, a little grouchy.”
More ‘St. Denis’ pairings
Season 2 also beefs up the roles for supporting nurse characters, including Dave Theune as Keith and Dan Leahy as Brandon.
Both have been featured more prominently this season, with Keith joining Joyce’s birthing wing announcement and Brendan attending to a patient struck by lightning in the season premiere.
“The show is better for it,” Ledgin said. “Both those guys, they just always hit. They just always make me laugh. We have such a deep roster now and that’s an advantage of a second-season show that I had underappreciated coming into this year and I definitely don’t anymore because we have a wall in the writers’ room of people we love that we know can hit in all kinds of different ways.”
Keith will also have more scenes with surgeon Bruce (Josh Lawson). Lawson said he appreciated Keith’s expanded role.
“You can never have too much Vitamin K,” Lawson said. “I think when the writers discover talent like they do in someone like David Theune, I think they just go, ‘Well, let’s let this guy shine.'”
Bruce also enjoyed an outing with Dr. Ron (David Alan Grier) to a medical conference in Season 2.
“I always felt that Season 2 was going to start exploring worlds beyond the hospital,” Lawson said. “The conference is a great example of that, still tethered to health care but a different side of it perhaps than we normally see.”
Ron was hoping to connect with a woman at the conference, but Bruce kept interrupting. For all his bravado, Bruce proves to be a terrible wingman.
“I’m not surprised when Bruce turns out to be terrible at anything,” Lawson said. “It’s fun to find new and exciting ways for Bruce to end up falling on his face.”
Grier diagnosed the problem with Bruce.
“He doesn’t view himself as a wingman,” Grier said. “A wingman is supposed to help his friend hook up, get ahead, take advantage in social situations. Bruce is incapable of doing that. He’s always the main character in his mind in every story.”
The camera crew speaks up
The voices behind the cameras play a slightly larger role in Season 2 as well. St. Denis Medical follows the documentary format as a fictional crew films the hospital.
Already this season, Alex has chastised the camera crew for letting people interrupt, and more characters will address the crew directly.
“That probably comes from just a little more comfort on my end and on our end in the writers’ room to be like yeah, you know what? We have this funny joke and it feels a little more inside with the crew but let’s go for it,” Ledgin said.
When the cameraman speaks, that is often Ledgin’s own voice.
“Sometimes it’s someone else who was on set that day,” he said. “We mix it up.”
St. Denis Medical airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.
