Note: This story contains spoilers from “Doc” Season 2, Episode 1.
“Doc” put its medical staff through a traumatic event to kick off Season 2, one that triggered Amy into regaining a tiny bit of her memory.
The Fox drama series returned for its 22-episode sophomore season with a big case that turned violent, after the father of a patient hoping for a heart transplant held Amy (Molly Parker), Sonya (Anya Banerjee) and a nurse hostage. The father, a police officer played by Alex Fernandez, blamed Amy for convincing them to wait for a heart transplant six years prior — a consult Amy did not remember since she lost eight years’ worth of memories after a brain injury in Season 1.
Eventually, Amy discovered that the patient’s condition made it impossible for her to survive a transplant, so she decided to spare the father the grief of knowing that by simply telling him to hold off on the transplant until she got worse. In the end, Amy helped the father come to terms with losing his daughter.
But the discovery did not come before the man shot and injured TJ (Patrick Walker) and caused emotional damage across the show’s cast of doctors.
“Putting everyone through something evens out the playing field,” said executive producer Hank Steinberg, who wrote the premiere episode. “In the first season, Amy is the one who’s gone through this accident and this trauma. And now Sonya and Jake [Jon Ecker] and TJ and Michael [Omar Metwally] and Gina [Amirah Vann] and Katie [Charlotte Fountain-Jardim] have all gone through the wringer of this thing, and we’ve given them all stuff to react to.”
Before the episode’s traumatic events, “Doc” also revealed the aftermath of Jake finding Amy and Michael together in the Season 1 finale — and he was less than happy about his girlfriend’s actions with her ex-husband. Steinberg told TheWrap the love triangle is “definitely unresolved” and will take interesting directions this season, so expect a messy and fun ride ahead.
Read below for TheWrap’s conversation with Steinberg about how the premiere sets up transformation across the board, “Doc” Season 1 dropping on Netflix and how Felicity Huffman shakes things up when she joins the cast in Episode 2.
TheWrap: Why did you decide to start the season with this traumatic gun incident?
Steinberg: It’s always fun to start with a bang. We loved the idea that something from Amy’s past would come back to haunt her in an unexpected way.
We also knew we wanted her to start to get some memories back, and in our research, we discovered that oftentimes it’s when people are in the middle of a new trauma, some of the memories could begin — it could open up that doorway. So it seemed like a great way to combine that. And we also love the idea that the characters all end Season 1 in this place of a lot of things [are] unresolved and there’s a lot of conflict. Putting them all in a life-or-death situation was just a great way to kick off some of these conflicts being worked out. Some of the conflicts would seem kind of small compared to suddenly, “my life is at risk.”
The event shakes Amy up, and also triggers a memory from her lost years, which puts her on a mission to recover her memory as soon as possible. How does that set things up for her journey this season?
The premiere really sets up her main narrative drive of the season, which is that she wants to get her memories back.
She’s split into two identities: The version of her that is stuck in 2016 — the version of her that has come out of this accident with a vague understanding of the past — and then the version of her that went through the last eight years. How can she reconcile who she is if she doesn’t make those things cohere? And in addition, what happens in the episode is she has this recognition that she’s still a great doctor. She was a brilliant doctor during those years, and she can’t remember eight years of medical knowledge and experience, exposure to hundreds or thousands of cases that she doesn’t have back. The big moment in the premiere is her realizing that the older version of herself already knew that Rosie could never survive the heart surgery, and that makes her really feel like she almost cost someone their life today. Her not remembering the context of what’s happening with people around her potentially almost cost TJ his life. She feels like she can’t walk around in this twilight zone any longer.
She also feels this connection with Jake. She’s missing their six months of being together and she wants that back. Then later on in the season, we’ll get into the fact that she doesn’t remember the last year of (her son) Danny’s life, and she’s going to want that back.
How the memories come back, how they taunt her and tantalize her and when they come back is a major feature of the season.
TJ was seriously injured in the conflict, and he’s still unconscious but seemingly stable by the end of the premiere. How does this set up his journey in Season 2?
TJ is going to struggle with recovering physically and feeling vulnerable in a way he never really has in his life before. He was an Army ranger. He somehow actually escaped clear in the army, and now as a doctor he gets shot in the hospital. So that’ll be a really good place to start. There’s also some strong consequences that come off of his injury. Some things have changed in the hospital in terms of bringing in newer personnel to help while TJ is recovering that changes dynamics with the doctors.
The subject matter at the center of this episode could not be more prescient given the country’s current conversation about gun violence. Obviously this was written months ago, but what were you hoping to convey through this particular story?
We were not trying to say anything about our gun culture, necessarily. Because he’s an active cop, who has a firearm, we were not really trying to say anything about our gun laws or gun control, or what is happening with the availability of guns. This is more of an intimate emotional story about a guy who, like Amy, is having such a difficult time dealing with his grief that he starts acting out on other people.
In a way, he’s a mirror of Amy. It’s just that he happens to be a man who’s a cop who has a gun, and so when he gets angry and loses hope, this is what he turns to. Whereas Amy put up emotional walls and pushed people away because she couldn’t deal with her grief.
Beyond this big event, the premiere gave an answer to the big love triangle cliffhanger between Amy, Jake and Michael. They both agreed the kiss was a mistake and just a consequence of the complicated emotions, but Jake is not ready to forgive and forget. How does this and the recent trauma impact those relationships moving forward?
What we love about the triangle is the fact that you love all three of the characters. There’s a complexity to each leg of that triangle and I really love it. I don’t know who I’m rooting for.
The triangle is definitely unresolved at the end of the premiere, and there is a lot that will be played out between the three of them over the course of the next 21 episodes. It’ll be pretty juicy and fun, but also very grounded. They’re three adults. They’re flawed, but they’re good people. Each one of them doesn’t quite know what’s right for them or what they should do. And there’s a lot of head versus heart for all of them in different moments.
And Michael had a baby. Everything is coming at them at once.
We came up with the idea that downstairs is a hostage crisis, and upstairs in pediatrics Michael’s wife is in premature labor and the baby might have a problem. Michael’s now delivered as a new father again and is pushed toward that urge to ignore himself, including a big question mark — however he feels about Amy. It’s going to be really hard for him to move in that direction.
Jake also comforted Sonya after the day’s events, and we know she’s had her eye on him for a while. Could his rift with Amy leave the door open for them to explore things romantically?
It could. I don’t want to give away too much, so I won’t say much. A lot of people are wondering what we might explore, and we might just surprise you.
Felicity Huffman is joining the cast this season as the new head of internal medicine. When does she make her debut and how does she shake things up moving forward?
She arrives in the very next episode and she’s amazing. She’ll completely change the dynamic. Felicity’s an incredible actress. We love this character. She’s hard-charging, but funny and smart and drinks scotch, travels all over the world doing Doctors Without Borders. She has what’s called a ‘vagabond spirit.’ But she’s also Amy’s old mentor and medical school teacher and they’re also friends, so it adds a fresh dynamic for her.
The Season 2 premiere coincides with Season 1 of “Doc” arriving on Netflix. What was your reaction to learning the show would get on such a big platform?
If I said I understood the business side of what the streamers are doing, I’d be lying. But it seems like having the new episodes on Hulu and the older episodes on Netflix is a great way for us to just get exposure on multiple platforms. So it’s exciting.
“Doc” Season 2 airs Tuesdays on Fox and streams the next day on Hulu. Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.
