3 days Ago By Maddie Ellis
🚨🚨🚨Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of "St. Denis Medical." Matt and Serena's workplace will-they/ won't-they story took a slight turn in the Season 1 finale of "St.
Denis Medical." Season 1, Episode 18, titled "This Place Is Our Everything," saw the emergency department at St. Denis Medical Center deal with overflow caused by a major storm.
Supervising nurse Alex (Allison Tolman) tries to juggle both the demands of her job with the need to be by her husband's side during a procedure, while Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey) realizes she promised away all the hospital's latest funds in an effort to curry favor with the staff. One of the major causes of patient influx is a bachelorette party gone wrong, which nurses Matt (Mekki Leeper) and Serena (Kahyun Kim) take the lead on treating. Throughout Season 1, Matt and Serena's dynamic has been defined by lighthearted friendship, with a hefty amount of teasing (from Serena) and a poorly hidden crush (on Matt's part).
But the finale episode, which aired April 29, reveals that all along, Serena had no idea about Matt's feelings for her. As Serena encourages Matt to ask out one of the bachelorette party patients, Matt starts to swallow the pill that his feelings are unreciprocated. The finale ends with Val (Kaliko Kauahi) confronting Serena about Matt's feelings for her — right after Matt tells the mockumentary cameras, "Serena might be the girl of my dreams, but I am not the girl of her dreams — you know what I mean.
" Kahyun Kim tells TODAY.com she believes Serena genuinely didn't know how Matt felt about her. But as a viewer, she credits one scene with making her see the chemistry between her and Leeper's characters.
"There's this one scene that I — I don't know why, it just really is so adorable and cute to me and what really, really, me as an audience (member), sold Matt and Serena," Kim says. During Season 1, Episode 6, Serena spends most of the episode working on a special task with Joyce: trying to make St. Denis go viral on social media.
Predictably, Joyce's overzealousness clashes with Serena's more plugged-in, trendy judgment. At one point in the episode, Serena vents about the day to Matt and shows him their video so far. "Yeah, it's pretty good for a first try," Matt says.
"This was our 12th," Serena says, before adding, "It'd be way easier if I was doing this with you. I could just boss you around." She proposes swapping assignments, trading working with Joyce for Matt's patient, who was injured after putting an engagement ring he planned to propose with somewhere he shouldn't.
Matt refuses Serena's offer and cracks a joke about feeling "emotionally invested" in the outcome of his patient's NSFW injury. The two share a laugh and a smile. "Matt makes a small little joke that makes Serena laugh, and .
.. like Mekki's smile in that, it's so cute.
It is so adorable. Like, it makes me sick," Kim jokes of watching the scene. Going into the already-renewed Season 2 , Matt and Serena seem primed to continue down the path of the sitcom slow-burn couple, as the question of if they'll get together or not weighs over both fans of the show and the characters themselves.
Below, Kim and Leeper discuss the mockumentary structure of "St. Denis Medical," the scenes they struggled to get through without breaking character and what those final scenes mean for Matt and Serena. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
The mockumentary style brings into question as a viewer, 'How authentic is this character being?' How would you say your characters fall into that? How authentic are they? How do you think they actually are outside of the workplace? Mekki Leeper: I think Matt, because of his 0% ability to mask or put on any kind of anything, is 100% himself. That is his only option. Kahyun Kim: I feel pretty same with Serena, too.
I mean, not as much as Matt. I think Matt is definitely 100% himself. I think Serena is maybe 90% herself.
And maybe there's a little 10% she has that she keeps private. I think all the characters are pretty themselves on the show. ML: Actually, I don't know, though, I think that Alex is aware of the camera in a way that's really interesting.
I think that Val has like a world full of secrets — KK: I was literally going to say — ML: I think one of the most entertaining things about Val is that, Val is like, 'My life is none of the audience's f------ business,' which is so awesome about her character. Oh, and then, Wendi's character, Joyce, has the most complex relationship because she's doing PR also, always. So I think that's an interesting question, the authenticity of the characters.
In the process of filming, which actor is most likely to make you break character? ML: For me, it is a tie, and for very different reasons. For me, it's Stephen (Schneider), Chaplain Steve. It's like, impossible.
There's a scene where he gets in my face. In that scene where I'm trying to expose him for being a fake chaplain (in Episode 3). Dude, he's like, this close to my face in like five of those takes, and I couldn't do it.
I felt really bad, because when somebody's doing brilliant work, the worst thing you can do is laugh in their face. But it was just too funny. And then also, (Kahyun) and I sometimes have this problem, not because we're trying to do really good comedy for each other, but because we hang out too much.
When we're trying to have these more emotional beats — that's when we can't stop laughing, which is no good. KK : It's disgusting, and it's so hard. Definitely Mekki for me.
What is your favorite filming memory? KK: There's so many, it's so hard. But I would (laughs) have to say, when we were filming the pilot, and Wendi started doing cartwheels. It was our last day of filming, I think.
I don't know what the direction exactly was from the writers, but it was like, 'Do a Wendi take.' I think it was something like that, or 'fun take.' And Wendi just started cheerleading for the office break room scene.
And I just could not believe what was happening. ML: When she did a cartwheel for real, and we didn't know she was going to, and the gasp that's in the pilot of everybody in the room is totally real. I have, like, a ton.
I love just getting to fall down on stuff. I think my favorite thing actually might be them letting me fall down more. Because similarly on the pilot, the first take that I think we shot of almost anything was, it's like me entering .
.. and I kept doing it falling down.
And they were like, 'Hey, like, insurance, like, the lawyers are telling us you're not allowed to fall down. Don't do those kinds of jokes. Stop doing that.
' (Laughs) KK: Did they actually say that? ML: Yes. Yeah they told me I had to stop falling down. But then over time, they're like, 'If he wants to fall down, like, let him do it then, fine.
' In the finale, there's that moment with Val confronting Serena about the reality of the situation with Matt. What do you think Serena is thinking in that moment? KK: I think she's thinking, 'Ugh, him?' I think that's the first reaction. It's shocking.
But I also think she, in that episode, she comes to the realization that he is indeed a good person. He is indeed a cute person. I think it just wasn't a possibility.
The way I saw it, it didn't cross her mind. But, now that it has, it's like a little seed planted in her head. Matt meanwhile tells the camera he's taken the hint and he'll get over his crush.
How much should we believe him? Do you believe him? ML: I don't think that that's what he wants, but I do think that an event like what happened in the finale, it was kind of a refocusing thing. And he's like, I mean, it's literally what he says, it's like, I might be able to sort of date my job. And that's a big win.
You know, can't get a girlfriend, but I do have a job, and I've barely I been able to do that the whole season, so it's pretty nice to start something. KK: (Laughing) I forgot that you say that. This will-they/won't they dynamic .
.. how did it feel filming on the ground floor of a story like that? They are built up so much in pop culture.
So what does it feel like at the beginning of that kind of story? ML: When people are like, 'Hey, so we were thinking that you guys are maybe kind of as likable as the most likable TV couple in history — do you think you can be charming on that level?' It's a little like, 'No, man, I'm not John Krasinski, damn.' So it was nerve-wracking at first. But then, you know, they write these really brilliant characters, and you kind of focus more, I think for me, like I'm just being Matt.
And then it becomes really natural. Like, oh, if I'm this kind of sheltered, nervous guy, it's very easy to figure out how he would be with Serena. But yeah, at first it was just kind of like, 'What are we going to do?' KK: Speak for yourself, because I was like, 'I got this.
' ML: (Laughs) KK: I think it's fun. I think the writers do such a good job at establishing the characters. .
.. It's different for me, because I think Serena really had no (idea).
I don't have to play the crush. I don't have the romantic part yet. Now being Season 2, now that the awareness is there, I’m wondering how different it will feel as Serena and as an actor.
But, I mean, it's really easy. All jokes aside, it's really easy to act with Mekki ..
. It's like, so, so hard to watch, but at the same time, it's so cute. And I think Mekki does such a good job.
He's so likable. Like, it's insane, because in real life, he's a terrible person. So it's crazy.
ML: That is true. I really put it on. I lock in.
Sometimes they do prosthetics to make me seem like a kind person. CGI, whatever it takes. "St.
Denis Medical" airs on NBC and is available to stream on Peacock. Peacock and TODAY.com share a parent company, NBCUniversal.
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