Note: This story contains spoilers from “Doc” Season 2, Episode 9.
“Doc” gave viewers an anticipated romantic reunion, just as a threatening revenge plot kicked into high gear in time for the new year.
Tuesday’s fall finale brought Amy (Molly Parker) and Jake (Jon-Michael Ecker) back together after an emotional hour that included a funeral, a scandalous audio recording leak and one doctor’s life seemingly destroyed. After suffering the unexpected loss of his father, Jake hosted the funeral and Shiva reception alongside his family and colleagues. But the tragedy brought clarity for the quandaries Jake had been wrestling with throughout Season 2 about his connection with Amy, leading him to pop by her place and the pair to rekindle their relationship before the show’s winter break.
“It’s what Amy says on the show, ‘Grief can be very clarifying,’” executive producer Hank Steinberg told TheWrap of Episode 9. “By the end of this day, it’s very clear to him who he should be with … he gets the recording as he’s five feet from her door. But the love that he feels for her is strong. He’s like f–k it, I’m going back.”
Steinberg referred to the leaked audio of Amy and Gina (Amirah Vann) that surfaced during the Shiva, after Hannah (Emma Pfitzer Price) and her brother Charlie (Daniel Gravelle) sent it through Amy’s email to both Nora (Sarah Allen) and Jake.
The recording, which featured Amy and Gina talking about her feelings for her ex-husband Michael (Omar Metwally) and how he’s never gotten over Amy, serves as a final straw for Nora — who ends up leaving Michael with their newborn baby by the episode’s end. And that wasn’t enough for Charlie, who we saw at the end of the episode setting up the next stage in his plan to take Amy down.
“You’ll have to come back for the midseason premiere to see what Charlie is up to, but he’s doubling down big time. He’s out for blood,” Steinberg said. “There’s going to be some pretty serious repercussions, some intended and some very unintended.”
Below, Steinberg breaks down the episode’s biggest moment, those flashbacks to early COVID and what’s next for the hit medical drama in the new year. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
TheWrap: The majority of the present-day action centers around the funeral, where we hear an excerpt of the Kaddish prayer and see some of the traditions around mourning in the Jewish community. How did you approach putting a spotlight on these customs?
Steinberg: (EP and showrunner Barbie Kligman) and I both have a pretty strong Jewish identity. It’s been hard for the last couple of years if you have a strong Jewish identity. So, with a lot of intention, we created this character of Jake Heller. Doing it in a way that’s not preaching. He’s not super religious, but just like many Jewish Americans, it’s an important part of their culture. So we came up with the idea of his father dying and then centering [the episode] around the funeral and the Shiva reception afterwards as a great set piece to put everybody together in. And then Hannah’s hijinks are an ironic counterpoint against the warmth and vulnerability and the sharing of love and caring.
In all cultures, there’s beauty and grace and something touching in the traditions, especially around death — and there are unique traditions in the Jewish religion and culture. So it just felt like an opportunity to show some of them. And also because it’s just a beautiful, poetic way to open up your heart as an audience member.
And there was a question of “How long do we sit in the prayer? Could you tell the story without the prayer?” Yes, you could. But there’s something about sitting in it. It feels real. I also love the tradition of the backwards shovel, which is very specific to the Jewish culture, but it’s an opportunity to show a tender moment with him and his daughter. Amy can watch him and go, “Oh, I love this guy.” And Rachel can watch him and go, “I love this guy.”
Jon-Michael Ecker was incredible throughout the episode.
What he did with the eulogy, that idea of the eulogy and the finding of the words. Again, it probably goes on a little bit longer than you would typically have at a TV show, but I think it’s what makes it feel real, his pauses and his finding of the words. I wanted it to feel not scripted. He didn’t have a piece of paper, but he didn’t really know what he was going to say until he stepped up there. So he’s a little bit meandering on different topics, but that’s kind of how it can be at a funeral, when someone’s searching and finding and figuring out what this day means to them. It was special, and Jon just did such a great job of anchoring into it.
Of course, things get complicated at the funeral when Hannah’s brother Charlie sends the recording of Amy and Gina’s session to Nora and Jake. A decision Hannah was not fully on board with given the timing. Why is she hesitating in her plans of sabotage just as things get juicy?
Well that was the other fun aspect: She likes Jake. Jake’s not done anything to her. As a matter of fact, Jake hired her. Jake was very sweet to her and kind to her in that interview, and picked her out of all the people to put in front of Joan.
It’s a way to show she has a conscience. She’s this damaged person from her father’s suicide and the wreckage that it did to her family. And I think that’s just much more interesting in an antagonist. And you know, funerals and cemeteries are provocative for her. You can feel that she’s there and she’s thinking about her father. Now Charlie’s a runaway train trying to do this crazy stuff at the funeral. And so she’s ambivalent about their plans and certainly the timing of their plans.
The recording has massive repercussions, with the hospital now investigating the hack on Molly and her name cleared from those “mistakes” Hannah was framing her of doing. But the last thing we see is Charlie plotting his next move while using AI to replicate Amy’s voice. How dark will things get in 2026?
I mean, you have to come back for the midseason premiere to see what Charlie is up to. But he’s doubling down big time. Like he says at the end, “This is only the beginning.” He’s out for blood.
There’s going to be some pretty serious repercussions, some intended and some very unintended.
The episode also showed us that Jake and Amy first started to connect, just as they diagnosed Minnesota’s first COVID case. Why tackle that part of medical and human history here?
We wanted to do the whole episode around the funeral and the reception. But of course, we also wanted to have some sort of medical story. We are a medical show at the end of the day. So how can we do that but have it be emotional. And have it not distract from this major thing that’s happening in everyone’s lives.
And then, Amy and Jake are at this inflection point in their relationship. So we thought, “Let’s do a flashback story where we go back and see how it was when they were very early in their dynamic. When it was very different.” What was it like when they first met? And then we looked at the calendar and were like, “Oh, that’s COVID.” We could do it right before COVID. And then, it just naturally evolved. What if it was three weeks before the first lockdown? And it’s the first case in Minnesota, or at least in their hospital and it’s a story of how they begin to really see each other for the first time, respect each other, and the foundation of their relationship as a counterpoint to where they’re going to be now.
And it also shows how in the past he’s so connected to his wife, and we feel like they’re really good together. That creates a really strong obstacle potentially going forward. Here is this attractive, intelligent, smart, funny woman that he has had this lifelong, since college, connection with, she’s the mother of his child, she’s going to be a force also. So a fun counterpoint of putting out the past, juxtaposing it to the present, right? And that even when Jake and Amy get together, listen, Michael is also suddenly available. So is Amy going to want to drift back there? Rachel is a strong presence on Jake’s side, so there will continue to be big obstacles for them. Even though tonight, at the end of this episode, they’re good.
Jake’s grief helps him realize he’s ready to let go of his reservations about being with Amy and the couple reunites by the end. What’s next for this duo?
A lot more drama, a lot more complications. The Hannah-Charlie plot has still got some legs to it. And I think everybody knows Richard’s coming back at some point, so that’s going to be challenging for everybody.
The recording causes a big rift between Michael and Nora, which ends with her and the baby moving out of his house, just as Amy sent him back to them. And he also didn’t love Gina’s words in the recording. How will all these changes set up what’s coming for him?
It leaves him in a mess. And great, because he’s such a strong, grounded, comfortable in his skin, solid character and now we’re just exploding his life. So it’s going to be fun to see him unravel a bit, get a little dirty, wrestle with “What the hell am I going to do with my life?” It’s fun to throw that at him.
I’ve also noticed Sonya and TJ’s growing connection so far, and it feels like things might be developing with every episode. What’s coming up for them?
I think you can feel that there’s something slowly, inexorably happening. And that is the nice thing about having 22 episodes, this was something we wanted to build. We felt their chemistry in the first season, even though she has a crush on Jake. But we like the idea of her graduating from Jake, but it needed to build slowly. So out of friendship, out of respect, and then out of some charm. So we’re being patient with that.
But I think what’s great about doing TV. You have your ideas about where the stories could go or should go, and where the characters could go or should go, and then also you’re feeling what the actors are giving you, how things are playing, and you start to conjoin with the characters. The more that we build this, the more that it feels like that they are being drawn to each other in a way that, when we watch it and we feel it, we see we oh, the audience will too. And so it’s a fun thing to build toward.
Scott Wolf will be back for a multi-episode arc next year, and is also directing. What can you tease about what brings Richard back into the fold?
We love Richard. We love Scott, but given how badly he got kicked to the curb last year. We were like, “How are we going to do this in a way that’s credible?” We were racking our brains for months, but you’ll see we have an organic way of bringing him back, and it springs naturally from the Hannah storyline, actually in an unexpected way.
Joan Ridley (Felicity Huffman) has played a really big role in the season so far. And there’s a ticking time bomb with her character, given her secret illness. And she left town as all these bombs dropped at the funeral. What’s next for her?
There’s an expression, if you pull a gun in the first act, it has to go off in the second act. So yes, the secret of her illness, and her trying to cover it up and being nervous that people are going to find out, and what happens if people do suspect and find out? That’s going to give us plenty of story and legs in the back half of the season.
And it’ll start to involve most of the characters in one way or another, and become a fun thing to play out.
“Doc” returns with new episodes Tuesday, Jan. 6, on Fox and streams the next day on Hulu.
'Doc' Sets Scott Wolf's Season 2 Return