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There’s nothing wrong with an ego if you can back it up.
― Morgan Reznick[src]

Dr. Morgan Reznick is an internist resident at St. Bonaventure Hospital. In Season 3, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis which started to affect her hands. In Season 4, after assisting with a career-ending procedure, Morgan switched from surgery to internal medicine.

History[]

Early life[]

Morgan is from a famous family of artists; her mother Caroline is a painter, sister Cassie is a composer and brother Ariel is a sculptor. Caroline was so consumed by her work that Morgan was left with a list of grievances growing up stretching back to the first day of preschool. This caused her to become estranged from her family whom she became tired of overshadowing her, which led to Morgan often making up stories about her life that involved being an only child and her parents doing something else.

When Morgan was five, she started learning archery and practiced every day for seven years. She didn't stop until she left high school and went on to medical school where she decided that she needed to "grow up." In addition, she built a potato gun for her sixth grade science fair and nearly got kicked out of school for it as a result. She also witnessed her mother suffer from rheumatoid arthritis which destroyed her hands and wrists. During her time in medical school, she was mentored under Sonya Kung who was the head of the surgical residency program at Denver Memorial Hospital.

While at medical school, she had a stalker which made her have a gun and a conceal carry permit. She also suffered abuse due to a violent boyfriend she once had and lost a boyfriend she deeply loved due to a one-night stand. After graduating from medical school, Morgan got a job at San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital as a surgical resident. She was given to the attending Dr. Matt Coyle along with fellow resident Alex Park. She has also written papers that the hospital has.

Season 1[]

After allegations regarding sexual harassment came to light about Dr. Coyle, he was transferred to another department and Morgan and Park were transferred to another attending, Neil Melendez, and met his residents, Shaun Murphy, Claire Browne and Jared Kalu. Morgan was once paired with Claire for a case led by Neil in competition with Dr. Audrey Lim, with Morgan and Claire taking care of teacher Howard Shaw. However, Morgan made Claire do all the menial work while in competition with Claire over who would stay at the hospital and then stole the credit.

Morgan was part of a surgery with Shaun on Spirit, a young girl whose heart was outside her rib cage. Morgan suggested an experimental treatment for Spirit which worked, although she was at odds ends with Shaun whom she accused of not thinking about how Spirit felt and wouldn't respect him. She also worked with Jared and Dr. Andrews on Emma Newton, a woman who had an infection from a cheek implant and soon needed surgery, and had to convince her husband Barry to be with Emma upon finding that their marriage was in danger and to be with her before she died. During this, she offered Jared a placement at Denver Memorial Hospital since Andrews did not respect him following how Jared assaulted Coyle for his actions, got fired and how Jared regained his job.

Morgan was part of a surgery on Caden Hauley, a college student who ended up suffering a bleed following the surgery. Morgan kept blaming it on Shaun who finished the surgery, which was proven to be correct as Shaun had nicked the arteries while distracted because he thought that Dr. Glassman was dying. Morgan saw this as a good opportunity to rid herself of some of the competition and tried to push for Andrews to be informed, claiming to be thinking of protocol (which only Park agreed with), though Claire knew the truth. All the same, she backed Shaun when he had an idea on how to help Caden which worked. Neil then treated the group on their save with drinks, but still called out Morgan and said that he hoped someone would stand by her when she made a mistake.

Season 2[]

Although Morgan continued her usual attitude all the while Andrews told her not to, she was involved in working with Shaun during a 36-hour shift that Claire didn’t think was a good idea and Morgan though she was right. They also tried to work on the case of Jas Kohli, a violinist with an infected finger that Shaun figured had flesh-eating bacteria and tried to state that it should’ve been removed. Unfortunately, Morgan kept refusing as she bonded with Jas over their common interest in bow strings and Shaun didn’t appear to think about Jas. This eventually led to Jas’ whole arm being infected and amputated while Morgan guiltily stayed with her. Neil then compared her to how he was during his first year of residency, while Lim was just like Shaun.

Morgan was involved in trying to get a kidney from a man named Armando Benitez to give to his brother Santiago, only to find Armando refusing to do so unless Santiago sold his business to him. Although Morgan was appalled, she was informed that this was just something she regularly did in her competitiveness while still involved in the transfer surgery. She also got involved in a bet with Park where the loser had to buy the winner an expensive bottle of alcohol while they were trying to work on Finn, a boy who was unvaccinated because of his parents.

Morgan soon formed a romantic relationship with Tyler, an EMT who fell ill from a deadly virus that quarantined the ER. Morgan worked to treat him, but he unfortunately died of the virus despite her best efforts and then had to treat Lim for the virus too while determining that it was not airborne and that Tyler contracted it due to a ripped mask and bodily fluid contact. Thanks to Morgan's efforts and use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a treatment, Lim survived. After the quarantine ended, a devastated Morgan watched as the CDC took away Tyler's body.

While trying to deal with Tyler’s death, Morgan blackmailed Claire into spending time with her before admitting the truth. After Claire's mother Breeze claimed she was being evicted, Morgan accompanied Claire to help her only to realize that Breeze was claiming that she was in a relationship where she was being abused. Morgan insisted on confronting the man, only to learn that Breeze was having cold feet about an engagement. Afterwards, Claire realized that Morgan was just a battered woman and offered her support to Morgan if she ever needed it.

The hospital eventually got a new Chief of Surgery, Dr. Jackson Han, whom Morgan kept sucking up to, maybe especially after he moved Shaun to pathology which Morgan fully supported. Nonetheless, she and Park soon worked to treat Ida, an elderly woman whom Park thought was faking her illnesses and just wanted attention. Morgan found it more hard to believe, though it was proven true and Ida was reluctantly sent home.

Season 3[]

After Lim offered to have third-year residents lead their own surgeries, Morgan and Park competed over who would get to lead the surgery of an elderly man with treatable kidney cancer. A smug Morgan ultimately won the competition, though Park took note of the man's dementia and got a reluctant Morgan to help him advise the man’s wife to leave the cancer untreated and have him enjoy the few years he has left with the cancer rather than lingering for years with the dementia. Morgan reluctantly agreed while listening to Shaun's story of his date with Carly Lever which he called a disaster due to how stressed he was. Morgan later went to visit her similarly dementia-ridden grandfather in his nursing home.

After both Morgan and Park failed to suck up to Lim and get her to give them the first lead surgery, she thought Claire was having trouble with Breeze whom Claire soon revealed had just died recently. Morgan soon helped Claire spread Breeze’s ashes with the sea lions at the zoo during a drag fashion show as Breeze loved sea lions. Morgan still tried to help Claire while she was dealing with the after effects of losing Breeze.

Morgan was eventually given her first lead surgery. Unfortunately, she found herself also dealing with rheumatoid arthritis which she only told Glassman about to try and avoid Lim and Andrews finding out the truth and possibly treating her differently. Thankfully, she was able to get through her first lead surgery while working with Shaun to treat Jeanie, a young woman with life-threatening tumors who would’ve lost her ability to have sex if they were removed. Morgan advocated for Jeanie to have them removed anyway even though Jeanie and her fiancé Tony were hesitant, while trying to personally get through to Tony by informing him of her one-night stand.

While working on Kerry Gaston (a woman trying to get a surgery without anesthetic due to being a drug addict), she found Shaun was ghosting Carly following a trip home to visit his dying abusive father; he had Lea with him during the trip and was considering being with her, though Morgan tried to get him to do otherwise. Unfortunately, the medication she started taking for her rheumatoid arthritis didn’t help her. She also soon had a rather awkward reunion with Caroline when she came to the hospital seeking a third opinion from Glassman; she had cerebral cavernous malformations and didn’t want a lobectomy to treat them or it would’ve destroyed her artistic ability. Although Morgan ended up being against a procedure Shaun suggested to cure the seizures Caroline was having without treating the malformations, she soon came up with a surgery that she got both Glassman and Ariel onboard with that cured the cavernous malformations without risking her career as an artist. The surgery was a success and Caroline thanked Morgan for saving her life, somewhat making amends.

Morgan still feared about being found out about her rheumatoid arthritis and so made an anonymous favoritism against Neil concerning Claire after seeing the two together, figuring that this could’ve protected herself until Lim found out what Morgan had done (but not the full truth about it). Claire also found out the truth, which Morgan apologized for. As Morgan continued to be treated by Glassman for her rheumatoid arthritis, he tried to get her to consider another field. Morgan initially reluctantly agreed and confessed the truth to Lim who offered to let her finish what should’ve been her final surgery (giving robotic arms to Tyson, a farmer who needed replacement arms), but Morgan cared too much about herself to not let her career go and had hand surgery on her done to try and help her.

While Morgan was recovering from the hand surgery, she took over the ER in the aftermath of an earthquake with everyone else too busy elsewhere. Her rude attitude towards the nurses under her made her clash with Nurse Petringa who suspected a patient was pregnant which Morgan doubted, but Petringa pushed for anyway. The woman had an ectopic pregnancy which required emergency surgery. However, none of the surgeons or ORs were available and with the patient's life on the line, Morgan saw no choice but to perform the surgery herself. She and Petringa were successful in saving their patient, but at the cost of Morgan’s hands damaged and Andrews was not happy with Morgan apparently trying to be a hero. However, he saw how much she cared about her patient while she apologized for keeping her secrets and soon became an internist.

Personality[]

Morgan was arrogant and competitive which drove the other doctors crazy. She even accused Claire of pretending to be nice to Howard Shaw while they were treating him as her "game". But as time goes on she began to lose some of this, particularly after her mistake with Jas who lost her arm. She's also shown a lot of compassion, mostly towards patients but she has created friends amongst her colleagues. She showed concern for Shaun whether Carly did really like him, though it was pointed out that Morgan did not see Shaun as a person.

Neil subsequently compared Morgan's relationship with Shaun to that of himself and Dr. Lim during their own residency and suggested that their differing ways of approaching situations can be complimentary. She had no problem sucking up to her superiors, including Dr. Han, Dr. Lim and Salen to try and get what she wanted, while something of a hypocrite; she stated that their job was just to treat patients, yet she had no such attitude while she and Shaun were working on Jas. However, her guilt in what she did to Nira made her try and change for the better and continued to do so as a mother to Eden.

Trivia[]

  • Morgan's proficiency with a gun was previously hinted at when she joined Park at the gun range to let off some steam.
  • Morgan was infected with COVID-19 in "Frontline Part One" as confirmed in "Frontline Part Two." However, she recovered off-screen between the two episodes.

Appearances[]

Ep. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
S7

Gallery[]

Promotional Photos[]

Season 2[]

Season 3[]

Season 4[]

Episode Stills[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Season 3[]

References[]

  1. "Heartfelt": Season 1. Episode 15. Thomas L. Moran/Johanna Lee (writer) & Regina King (director). [February 26, 2018].
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