Warning: Contains SPOILERS for the St. Denis Medical season 1 finale.

It's been eighteen episodes of pining, but Matt's feelings for Serena finally came to light in the St. Denis Medical season 1 finale. Val is over the will-they-won't-they romance playing out before her eyes and spills the beans during a moment of frustration. As obvious as Matt's crush was to everyone else, Serena is genuinely caught off guard by the revelation. It also throws a wrench in her plan to set him up with someone from the hospital (or maybe it's the perfect outcome?).

Thankfully, NBC has already greenlit season 2, because the moment Serena becomes aware of Matt's feelings, he gives up hope that she'll ever reciprocate. While Matt doesn't know his secret is out, he seems prepared to move on by the end of the finale. And did anyone else catch that look Serena gives Matt in the episode's final seconds? Is it possible she's starting to see him from a different perspective? Only time will tell where the workplace romance is headed.

After screening the finale, I chatted with Mekki Leeper and Kahyun Kim about St. Denis Medical's long-awaited romantic reveal, their hopes for the characters, and whether they think Matt and Serena could go the distance as a couple.

Serena Genuinely Didn't Pick Up On Matt's Feelings In St. Denis Medical

"I think Matt is pretty evenly nervous around everybody in every situation, so it might not have read that he had a crush on her."

ScreenRant: What were your reactions to that finale reveal? I didn't expect it to happen so early on in the series.

Mekki Leeper: The first we see it is just the table read. So for us, when I think, "Oh, how did the emotional beats of this episode impact me?" it's always the table read. We could kind of feel it in the room a little bit. Everybody who touches the production in a way that's relevant to that draft of the script is in the room.

So you get to feel a kind of culmination of a lot of episodes of story, and these people just having a little flitter of, like, "Oh, she knows now," and that has a weight to it that's fun, but it's also not too much information. It's still a big question mark. So I think that people will be left in this place of like, "Ooh, season 2. What's it going to look like for these guys?"

Kahyun Kim: Yeah. I honestly have no idea how she feels about it or what's going to happen. It's kind of crazy playing the character and knowing I have no idea. But I guess that's for season 2 to sort that feeling out.

Do you think that Serena really didn't know about Matt's crush? Was there a part of her that suspected?

Kahyun Kim: She had no idea. Lemme tell you, I know that much. She is out of his league. [Laughs] She is a hot thing doing her hot stuff. I don't think she actually really thought about it.

Mekki Leeper: I don't think so either.

Kahyun Kim: But I would have to say, the whole episode, she kind of really starts to think about Matt as a person, like an individual, and being like, "Oh, he actually is good boyfriend material. He is a good person, and he's cute." So I think she discovers that and then hears how he has a crush on her. So I think there could be a little shift of perspective.

Mekki Leeper: I think Matt is pretty evenly nervous around everybody in every situation, so it might not have read that he had a crush on her actually.

I don't know if you've seen the cut, but Serena is kind of eyeing Matt at the end there...

Kahyun Kim: She's probably checking out his ass because he's fixing stuff, which is what I focused on as an actor, and it wasn't pleasant. [Laughs]

Mekki Leeper: Upsetting ass. I've been told many times. [Both laugh] That was hard because I think I'm fixing a fire emergency sign or something like that. And I was like, "Okay, so this is the shot where she's like, 'Maybe he is kind of good-looking.'" I don't know if you've ever tried to hang a smoke alarm sort of sexily, a little bit, especially when you have no blue-collar essence at all. That was probably the hardest acting I did all season. I had a hammer, I think. It was crazy.

Kahyun Kim: And that was your sexy way of putting it up? [Laughs]

Leeper And Kim Are Optimistic About Their Characters' Romantic Future

"I think that these are the kind of couples that do work."

This is also when Matt decides that Serena doesn't like him. "I'm not her dream girl," I believe, is the quote.

Kahyun Kim: That quote is so funny. I mean, it's funny reading it, but the way Mekki says it, the lines are so f*cking funny. He's just so funny. I know what's happening, and every time I watch it, it still makes me laugh.

It's so interesting because there were many signs throughout this season that she wasn't into him. Why did Matt choose now to come to this conclusion?

Mekki Leeper: I think it was just enough time. I think that Matt's been going through just learning so much new information. You know what I mean? You can go back through the season, and there are so many times where somebody insults him directly to his face, and he's like, "Okay." I think he's very much getting acclimated. He's just now like, "You know what? I've looked at a lot of the data and I think that maybe it's not happening."

And I think it's the same thing where it's like, "I've looked at a lot of the data, and I think that Dr. Ron might think I'm an idiot and Val also thinks that I'm kind of useless." In a previous episode, he was starting to get insecure when he's sort of under Bruce's tutelage that it's like, "Everybody thinks I'm kind of a f*ckup." And so I think that part of that slow realization is, "What's my dynamic with Serena like?" And who knows what he'll learn in season 2?

Regardless of whether they get together or not, do you think Matt and Serena would work as a couple?

Mekki Leeper: I think that these are the kind of couples that do work. They're so opposite, and I think that, maybe even more fascinating to me, I've said this before, but I'd be more curious to see what Matt and Serena are like in a relationship year in and year out, growing together, learning together because they're so opposite. The courtship is going to be so funny if that's the direction this goes, but it'd be crazy to see what she appreciates about Matt.

Kahyun Kim: Probably nothing. [Laughs] No, I've thought about this a lot, and I definitely think opposite attracts, and I think if Matt and Serena aren't opposites, then who is? I think it weirdly works. They're really cute together.

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More About NBC's St. Denis Medical

Created By Eric Ledgin And Justin Spitzer

Devoted nurse Alex has just been promoted to Supervising Nurse in the emergency department at St. Denis Medical Center in Oregon. She works alongside an eclectic team of underfunded yet dedicated doctors, nurses and hospital staff, including her boss, Joyce, who wants nothing more than to turn the hospital into an international medical destination, and Dr. Ron, who's done it all, seen it all and is pretty much over it all. They're all doing their best not to lose their patience in a hospital overrun with patients -- while caring for everyone who comes in the door, including each other.

Check out our other St. Denis Medical interviews here:

• Allison Tolman
• Eric Ledgin
• Justin Spitzer & Eric Ledgin
• Eric Ledgin & Jim Donnelly
• Josh Lawson
• Josh Lawson & Kaliko Kauahi
• Morgan Jay
• Kahyun Kim & Mekki Leeper

St. Denis Medical season 1 is available to stream on Peacock.