Creator Joseph Kay Looks Back on TRANSPLANT: ‘Whatever Tears Have Been Shed, I Hope There Will Be Some Happy Cries in the Finale’

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede The operation is nearly complete, with TRANSPLANT set to air its series finale on Friday, Jan. 19, at 9 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app. In his role as creator, executive producer, and showrunner, Joseph Kay is uniquely positioned to offer his insights on everything that has happened with Bash (Hamza Haq), Mags (Laurence Leboeuf), June (Ayisha Issa), Theo (Jim Watson), and all the other compelling characters through four seasons since TRANSPLANT’s debut on Feb. 26, 2020. There have been major developments in Season 4 of TRANSPLANT, and they are about to be discussed openly. So for anyone who isn’t completely up to date heading into the series finale, this is a SPOILER ALERT (all episodes are available for catch-up on CTV.ca and the CTV app).   Q: It’s almost over. How are you feeling? JOSEPH KAY: “Very wistful. I’ve never wavered from the decision to write to an ending. That’s always something I was really proud that we could do, and I was excited to do, and feel strongly about. But at the same time, I loved making the show, and the people who work with me love making the show. We had a fun time going to work every day. And when you get that in this business, especially along with a project that audiences like, it’s kind of a rare thing. So, wistful.”   Q: Did you know how you wanted to end the show right from the start? JOSEPH KAY: “We’ve known since probably the end of Season 1 that this was the kind of thing we were writing toward. I started telling people internally that it made sense to just sort of do the show based on the time that Bash spends as a medical resident, because that just felt clean. It never felt like the kind of thing where we would stay with him for 25 years, à la GREY’S ANATOMY. That just wasn’t the project. It’s a different show. So by the time we’d written Season 1, we very, very roughly had the arc of a four-year plan. And we stuck to a lot of it. But it’s a mix of what our instincts are, and then following our beautiful performers. It’s a real symbiotic relationship, between the writing and the acting, and the acting and the writing. I have millions of hours of nice things to say about all the people who inspired us.”   Q: I’ll ask this in a tongue-in-cheek way, but bluntly nonetheless: why did you have to do what you did to poor Mags? Do you just have a cruel streak? Did you want to make everyone weep? JOSEPH KAY (chuckling): “I’m happy to answer that question. I love Mags. It was so deliberate that when we introduced the job competition in Season 4, you know, there’s one spot for residents, and Mags was the one who was going to get it, because, of course she is. She’s the best person, she’s the smartest, she’s the hardest working, she’s just the best. So we love her, too. So, is it hard on the fans? Yes. Is it dramatic? And memorable? Yes. We really wanted to go out in a way that was going to elicit emotion. If I’m making you cry, and you’re feeling something, then that makes me happy, because my job is to make you feel something. If we just give everybody exactly what they think they want, then I’m not always making you feel in the right way. We wanted to keep the level of difficulty high. And I believe that, although we’ve given people some reasons to cry in the third-last episode, and the second-last episode, I do think that the emotion we’re delivering in the finale is one of hope, and warmth. Whatever tears have been shed, I hope there will be some happy cries in the finale.”   Q: From your initial ideas about the characters, which one changed the most from the original concept over the years, and why? JOSEPH KAY: “In a way, Bash is the one who changed the most, when I think about some of the terms I might have used to describe him in the beginning. The character ended up having what we found to be this really complicated inner life, which was informed by talking to people who had gone through similar experiences. Certainly as a character, Bash required the most thought. Even just speaking mathematically, when we would set out to write a script, Bash was always half the script in the page count. He just required more when we were putting ourselves in his emotional shoes, and I guess we constantly found ourselves surprised by the depths of it. And I don’t mean depth in a dark way, but in a more fulsome way.”   Q: Anyone else? JOSEPH KAY: “I would say John Hannah’s character (Dr. Jed Bishop), even though he leaves for two seasons! We had a very specific arc for him when the show was conceived, which we didn’t end up writing to, and it was just a combination of how we reacted to the performance, and some of the ways we started seeing the show. I felt his story naturally needed an ending sort of midway through our show, and then to sort of catch up with him again, to deliver this little denouement about where he is, surprised me and really excited me. I hadn’t planned that one.”   Q: Last thing, have you had time to consider that you’ve delivered a highly acclaimed and successful Canadian medical TV show right through the heart of a worldwide pandemic? I mean, congratulations are definitely in order, but what a weird time, right? JOSEPH KAY: “Absolutely, I mean, so well said. For me, it has been five, close to six years of living in this world. There was something very serendipitous about how the show arrived in the time that it did, and I was always very honoured by the fact that audiences responded to it. I came into it with a strong idea of what it was, but then I got very lucky as well, whether it’s from producers, or writers, or network executives, or actors, or directors, or editors, there was a lot of great input and great collaborators along the way, who kind of jumped onto the show and brought themselves into it. To circle back to your question, one of the things I’m really grateful for is that a lot of people – like, a good amount of people – gave a good amount of the last five years of their lives to help this show breathe life. And I think that’s just incredible.”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv