1 of 5 | Mekki Leeper and Kahyun Kim star on “St. Denis Medical,” Mondays on NBC. Photo courtesy of NBC
LOS ANGELES, March 30 (UPI) — Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for Monday’s episode of “St. Denis Medical.”
Monday’s St. Denis Medical included a major development in the relationship between nurses Matt (Mekki Leeper) and Serena (Kahyun Kim). Their relationship has followed the traditional sitcom “will they/won’t they” model.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Leeper and Kim discussed Monday’s development. At the end of the episode, Matt kissed Serena.
“I don’t remember when they told us, but I remember getting the script just being like, all right, so it is in this episode,” Leeper, 31, said. “It is official. It’s really happening.”
Both Leeper and Kim have had on-screen kisses before, but Leeper said never with someone he had worked with for two years.
“In a movie or in a show where you have an arc as a boyfriend, you have a lot less time with the person,” Leeper said. “It’s like my coworker and my friend who I’ve known for such a long time leading up to this, but also I think it really helps a lot with the trust.”
For much of Season 1, Serena was oblivious to Matt’s feelings for her, not that he was subtle. At the beginning of this season, Matt told her he’d moved on, which made her suddenly interested in him.
When the kiss finally happened, the buildup made Kim nervous too, she said.
“We wanted to do it justice,” Kim, 36, said. “It wasn’t like nervous, oh, I have to do this. It was more like oh, we built it up so much and we just want it to be so perfect.”
Serena had another brief relationship this season. She hooked up with Chaplain Steve (Stephen Schneider) for several episodes, but she broke it off.
“It felt like cheating,” Kim said. “On my boyfriend, on Matt, I don’t know. What’s really funny is my boyfriend actually is way more bothered with that arc than our arc [with Matt and Serena]. He takes it very personally.”
The kiss does set up next week’s season finale. Leeper and Kim filmed an additional scene in the parking lot which will only be revealed next week.
“That was a surprise to us,” Leeper said. “That we would cut back to that scene and all that was happening was very funny. We, of course, filmed all of that at once.”
The season finale has another storyline with Ron (David Alan Grier) and Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey). However, Kim and Leeper’s romantic subplot distracted them from the rest of the episode.
“All I can remember is us kissing,” Kim said. “I know he has his own storyline and it did make me cry. It was so good and very well acted from everybody in the cast, but do not remember one thing.”
McLendon-Covey inadvertently made Leeper break in his own scenes during the finale. She was resting between takes in the hospital set but distracted Leeper.
“She’s waiting in the waiting room chair, sort of sleeping on the chair, crunched and doubled over in the funniest way,” Leeper said. “We’re meant to have a serious whispering conversation about our relationship. I could not hold it together just because of how Wendi was sitting.”
St. Denis Medical has already been renewed for a third season, so the duo are excited to explore Matt and Serena’s relationship at the hospital.
“I think if they were a more normal couple, it would be sort of like okay, they’ll date, blah blah blah,” Leeper said. “Matt and Serena are sort of so odd.”
The first two seasons of St. Denis Medical will be available to stream on Netflix Wednesday. Kim said her mother is excited about the episodes streaming, and Leeper reminded people to return to NBC, and its streaming service Peacock, for more.
“Once you check it out on Netflix, please subscribe to Peacock where you can see even more wonderful NBC content – The NBA, the Olympics, all your favorite reality TV shows,” Leeper said.
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