This might not be a proper medical diagnosis, but we do believe “St. Denis Medical” just put Serena in the friend zone.
During its two-episode sophomore premiere on Monday night, the NBC comedy jumped ahead by a few months, and we learned that work besties Matt and Serena have been working in different zones of the hospital ever since Serena discovered Matt likes her in the Season 1 finale. (Matt didn’t know she knew; Serena eventually told him, in Monday’s first installment, that she was aware of his feelings.)
But Serena, who initially thought it was her idea alone to put some distance between herself and Matt, later came to find that Matt had also requested the separation, in an effort to get over his crush. What’s more, he did get over Serena during that time — so he says, at least — and is now acting completely nonchalant around her, much to her chagrin.
Serena and Matt’s will-they-won’t-they dynamic was more or less unaddressed in Monday’s second episode, but “St. Denis Medical” showrunner Eric Ledgin assures us “their story is not over” just yet.
“We have a room full of writers who have dated and had messy stories and love stories. It’s really fun to talk this stuff out in the room and figure out what would be the most interesting thing that maybe we haven’t seen before,” Ledgin tells TVLine. “To be told, ‘I’m over you,’ for someone like Serena, it’s tough. The fact that [Kahyun Kim] played it so well in the finale — she really nailed her reaction [to finding out Matt likes Serena] — made us feel like, ‘Oh, we made the right call here.’ We want to chase that down. And it picks up steam as we move throughout the season.”
When Matt told Serena that he’s moved past his romantic feelings, there were, interestingly, no subtle glances to the camera, nor any private confessionals from Matt that indicated whether he’s truly over her. Ledgin hints, though, that “saying something doesn’t mean it’s the case.”
“As someone who has said before, in my life, ‘I’m over you’ to someone — there are times where that’s been true, there are times when it was not true at all, and there were times where it wasn’t true but I thought it was true,” he continues. “Someone told me once, ‘Don’t act hard to get, be hard to get.’ And I think the best move Matt could make is to really move on. That would probably be the smartest thing he could do if he’s trying to, on some level, win Serena over.”
What did you think of the “St. Denis Medical” return? And what do you hope to see for Serena and Matt throughout the season? Grade the premiere in our poll below, then drop a comment with your full thoughts!
This story originally appeared on TVLine
