It’s hard to believe that the final season of Transplant begins tonight, Thursday, May 22, on NBC. We’ve waited so long for this, with Canadians already getting to see it a year ago! Now it’s time to see how Bash’s story comes to an end, and we chatted with Hamza Haq, who plays the character, about that.
Transplant was always envisioned as a four-season series, and showrunner Joseph Kay was able to bring that to our screens. For Haq, the story was more than one of a man finding his way in the Canadian medical system. It was about figuring out identity, grief, finding purpose, and so much more.
Throughout the first three seasons and going into the fourth, we see a character who has grown considerably, both as a person and a doctor. He has handled what life has thrown at him, and Haq talked with us about that and what it means to showcase it on our screens.
GeekSided: You won’t remember because you’ve done so much press, but we chatted back before Transplant season 2 came out.
Hamza Haq: Oh, great. Nice to see you again.
GS: You too! I’ve adored the way Bash’s story has progressed since then. He’s grown up, and I think he’s the character who has had the most growth throughout the four seasons. What has that been like for you to show this growth?
HH: I think what’s awesome is that you grow with the character. A lot of these things — I’m fortunate enough that I’m not dealing with so many of the real-word circumstances that Bashir had to in terms of seeking asylum or anything like that — in terms of job insecurity, heartbreak, trying to raise a young girl, and everything like that. So many elements paralleled my life, not exactly, but I had a nugget of what Bash was going through, so it was wonderful to be able to process in real time through a character and really figure that out.
I feel like so much of acting is like taking a course in life theory. You’re practicing how to live life in theory, and then you apply those things to your own life, and hopefully do a good job. That’s how I felt.
What’s great is sometimes I felt like it was a win-win because I would feel great if there was something that I had processed in my life that Bashir had to, and I was like ‘I know how to get to this. I was there, buddy.’ Then there were things where I wouldn’t know how to handle the situation at all, but I would learn how to do it through watching bash. It was a great experience.
GS: One of those was when Dr. Bishop left, and when we last talked it was with John Hannah as well. What was it like for you to have Bash step out from behind the mentor he had for two seasons?
HH: It’s a very vulnerable thing to be exposed to. We loved having John on the show. I loved having John on the show so much. I grew up watching John’s stuff, and especially as the show was rolling out, he left for season 3, and then everything I was watching had John in it.
It was a good experience in the sense that Bashir was experiencing this thing where he has to do it on his own and doesn’t have the support of a mentorship or somebody who naturally fell into that position, and I found telling that story very easy, because I was like that. John helped me through scenes, so when [the directors] would come to me and say, ‘Hamza, this scene, Bashir is wondering how to deal with the loss of Bishop. Do you know how to get there?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know how to get there. John’s not here. I’m there. Let’s roll.’
John lent his talents to us for the exact time that we needed them, and then he went on to bless other productions that he was on, and we were able to carry on because we needed to feel his loss at the hospital as well. So, it was great.
GS: During Transplant season 3, Bashir gets as close to home as possible. What was that like for you to bring that emotional element to the storytelling?
HH: We wrapped this show about a year and a half ago in October 2023. When I found out that NBC was giving it a run, I went back to Transplant season 3, episode 10, when he goes to the refugee camp, and watched the rest of it in order to prepare for it. As I’m watching it, I wept. It was so beautiful that we not only made this show, one, for somebody like myself, my family’s from Pakistan, but I grew up in the Middle East, and I really didn’t fit in there. Like any immigrant, there’s this weird identity crisis. You don’t feel like you fit in there, but then you’re told that you do, but you’re told that you’re not part of it.
There’s a difference between immigration and refugee status, but that feeling of like you’re close to home? Arabic isn’t my mother tongue, but it was Bashir’s mother tongue, and so to be able to film the majority of those scenes in Arabic and work with primarily Middle Easter actors throughout an entire show, it’s just something that I didn’t think I’d get to do on a North American network TV show.
That journey at the refugee camp to the end with this beautiful scene where two men have had to flee and survive and come back to provide medical aid to their own people, and survive and save other people, and then get to go home to their families, I just thought it’s such a beautiful thing. These days in the world, we are seeing so many Muslim doctors try to help out at refugee camps, and they don’t get the chance to return home to their families, and the fact that we told that story of Muslim men in a good light is so wonderful, because that is my experience of these men that I grew up with. There are outliers, obviously, every culture has some tomfoolery, but largely, my experience of Muslim men and Middle Eastern men has been one of extreme care and sensitivity and love.
So, to see these men show each other it and show each other this level of love and courtesy and gratitude for the fact that they’re in each other’s lives, and put it on TV, was an extremely emotional thing to do. I recorded it on my phone, and I’ve been watching it on a loop, because I can’t believe I got to do that. It’s such an important story to tell, and I’m very grateful for it.
GS: Can you tease what’s to come for Bashir in Transplant season 4?
HH: While he was that the refugee camp, more than a few people said to him ‘What you’re looking for, you’re not going to find here either.’ It’s this desire to save other people, this desire to run away from where you’re going. He has to solve what’s going on inside of him, so I think in Transplant season 4, now that he and Mags have broken up and he’s competing for this job and competing with Mags, he’s got a lot of introspection to do.
That’s what he’s been avoiding for the past three seasons, and it’s all come to an end now, where he has no other options but to stay in and not look away. So, we have Bash looking at himself in a way that we haven’t seen before. I think the catalyst for that was him thinking that going back to help in a refugee camp was going to solve all his problems and his survivor’s guilt, but he ran away from one problem, and it was just waiting for him when he came back.
GS: I’ve got time for one more question, and it has to be about being able to tell this four-season show. I know it was always envisioned as four seasons, but not all networks will give a series that chance and it can be suddenly canceled. What has it been like for you to actually get to tell the full story?
HH: That was the most beautiful thing of it, because we knew that we would get four, and we ended it at four. I feel like if there was this desire to keep telling it, there was always the option for somebody to tell us that we don’t get to tell it anymore. We get to leave it on our terms in its entirety, and the fact that Joseph made that decision, and we were all on board with that, it was just right.
I think it’s an important story to tell and be able to do it without too many fingers in the pie, where it could have been pulled in very many directions. The more you try to do it, the more control you lose over it. I think four was the perfect number, and it’s a story that everybody will love. Maybe not like, but love!
Note: That’s a tease on how Transplant season 4 ends. I’m not saying a word as I’ve already seen it all, but I will agree with Haq about his wording.
Transplant season 4 premieres on Thursday, May 22 at 8/7c with a two-hour premiere on NBC.