What Happened To AJ’s Dad On The Resident?

What happened to Dr. Austin’s father on the resident?

Introduction

American TV is littered with gripping medical-based dramas and TV shows.

They tend to make up a huge part of American daytime TV, and chief among these shows would be The Resident.

This is one of the most popular shows of its kind, and it was created by Roshan Sethi, Hayley Schore, and Amy Holden Jones. 

The show follows the lives of the medical staff at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, and it tends to really poke holes in the way that bureaucracy gets in the way of providing quality medical care.

The show is home to many well-loved characters, and one of the more well-loved characters on the show is August Jeremiah ‘AJ’ Austin.

Played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner, he is a cardiothoracic surgeon who joined as a recurring character in season one and remains an integral part of the show today.

He joins a really successful cast, and his relationship with his father, Yee, is very enjoyable.

They make a great on-screen relationship. However, despite being AJ’s adoptive father, he gets kind of cut off-screen and is not really mentioned much prior to Season 5.

So, what happened to AJ’s dad on The Resident?

Let’s take a look and find out what happened to one of the most enjoyable father-son relationships on the show.

Who is AJ’s dad, Yee?

As mentioned, Yee is the adoptive father of AJ. He was portrayed by Michael Paul Chan.

He was the husband to Carol Austin, as well, and was a well-liked member of the show.

He is involved in Seasons 3 and 4 of the show and takes part in a few different episodes.

His first appearance in the show comes in the episode Choice Words – after that, he is last seen in an episode called Into the Unknown.

The interesting part of Yee’s history in the show is the fact that AJ spends a lot of time trying to get in touch with his biological family.

This is something of an ongoing theme within the story of AJ.

He is desperate to find his biological parents, who are both in the medical profession.

They gave up on AJ so that they could focus on their careers – his ‘real’ parents are both married and have since had other children.

AJ was conceived when they were both in medical school, and the decision was made to put him up for adoption.

AJ is adopted by Yee and Carol, and they raise AJ to become the specialist surgeon that he becomes.

Still, that longing for his ‘other’ family sticks around, and it creates one or two issues between the family.

Yee is not in the show too much, but he is an important character in the development of AJ.

His familial history plays a part in his temperamental moods, which tend to get in the way of his ability to be the most successful person that he can be.

These scenes are often quite powerful, and the familial history of AJ definitely plays a role in creating a believable personality.

Who is AJ’s mum, Carol?

Carol Austin is the adoptive mother of AJ, and she plays an essential part in the development of AJ as a character. She was portrayed by Denise Dowse.

She is involved in seasons 3, 4, and 5, and like AJ’s dad, her first and last appearances come in Choice Words and Into the Unknown.

She is not seen too often in the show, but she is seen as a vital part of AJ’s life.

Like Yee, they adopted AJ and raised him to become a successful professional in the same field as his parents.

They are seen as important sounding boards for the character and play a crucial role in helping to develop him into the person that he has become – good and bad.

What happened to Yee, AJ’s father?

So, the challenge with The Resident is that it frequently uses time skips between its seasons.

This can be quite confusing for some people, as if you have not watched one season back-to-back, it can be odd to see how much has changed from one season to the next.

Characters and cast change – even the people portraying certain characters change!

This is a common issue with the series, but it is also a common device used in television, so it is somewhat expected.

So, with that in mind, there is a pretty significant time skip from seasons 4 to 5 – four years, to be precise.

Sadly, it was revealed in the fifth season of The Resident that Yee died during the four-year time skip.

This is why the character is no longer seen after the fourth season – he is no longer with us.

So, too, is Carol – Carol also dies, though she dies in the fifth season after she is given a cancer diagnosis.

Given the medical history of the show, to lose one – and perhaps both – parents to illness would be incredibly hard to take.

The challenge for many fans is that AJ’s father is not given enough information about what happened to him.

We are simply told that he has passed on.

This is often the challenge with shows that have such a large and revolving cast, so it can be tough to know exactly what to look out for in terms of cast changes.

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One of the most well-liked characters on the show, AJ, has lost both of his parents.

AJ’s father, Yee, dies off-screen in the four-year time gap from one season to the next.

His mother, Carol, also dies though she does die within the show’s timeframe.

AJ, then, is left without his adoptive parents, which only furthers the desire to eventually find his biological parents and make up for the lost time.

It is a heart-wrenching storyline, and one of the most powerful in the history of AJ’s character.

The fact that both of his parents are dead, though, is a shame.

Both were well-liked characters for the relatively short period of time that they spent on-screen.

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