SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 202 of Fox‘s drama series Doc.
Set in the aftermath of the hostage situation from the Season 2 premiere, Episode 2 introduced a new doctor, Amy’s (Molly Parker) old friend and mentor Dr. Joan Ridley, played by Felicity Huffman. While Joan is visiting the Westside Hospital with her students, Michael (Omar Metwally) offers her the Chief of Internal Medicine position after she, not very subtly, told him not to hire anyone who is asking for it and talked down other potential candidates.
Getting aggressive treatments, Amy is able to recover a troublesome memory involving Joan but she only pieced it together after Joan had accepted the Chief job — years ago, Joan convinced Amy to leave Michael, telling her, “you have no choice.”
Via flashbacks, we learn that Joan gave her that advice after Michael had begged her to speak to Amy on his behalf and help save their marriage from falling apart. Joan, somewhat reluctantly agreed, saying “of course, I’ll do whatever I can.”
In other developments, Amy bumps into Michael and his baby boy after the new dad had gone overboard with medical tests to try and prevent a tragedy like the one that took his and Amy’s son Danny.
After Michael’s wife Nora (Sarah Allen) asks him whether he still loves Amy, he tells her, “I love you and I’m not going anywhere.”
Amy tells Jake (Jon-Michael Ecker) that she hopes to remember the two of them together through her treatments and that “you were never my security blanket.”
He asks her to stop after she can’t deny that she would’ve gone to live with Michael and Katie (Charlotte Fountain-Jardim) if he was not married. Jake told Sonya (Anya Banerjee) earlier in the episode that “Amy and I are not together anymore,” much to her delight.
“You deserve better,” Sonya replied. By the end of the episode, she finally gets to go out with Jake for a drink.
Elsewhere, Sonya has another truth bomb for Amy after the latter’s amnesia pushed the distraught father in the Season 2 premiere over the edge, telling Amy that her returning to work was a “narcissistic and misguided experiment” that now “puts lives in danger,” adding, “You don’t belong here.”
In an interview with Deadline, Doc co-showrunners/executive producers Barbie Kligman and Hank Steinberg discuss Joan’s sneaky tactics in getting the Chief job and what may be her motivation, her role in the dissolution of Amy and Michael’s marriage, the status — and future — of Doc‘s Amy-Michael-Jake love triangle, Sonya’s latest play for Jake and her hurtful words to Amy.
The duo also address Scott Wolf’s upcoming return as Richard Miller and Doc‘s strong Netflix launch, making it into the streamer’s Global Top 10 for English series after six days of release in the U.S. only.
DEADLINE: What is Joan’s agenda? Why did she take the Chief job?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: Joan is a complex character with a lot going on at the same time. The short answer is — it’s a great opportunity and when you look back once the episode is over, it should be pretty clear she was actually jockeying for the position all along, though she was cunning about it. As for why — there is something going on in her life, which makes this the right choice right now — even though she’s generally someone who doesn’t like to be idle and settle down. Episode 3 will shed some light on the why.
DEADLINE: Michael clearly doesn’t know that Joan had helped destroy his marriage; Gina seems to know, and Amy now knows too through her memory. Will that be a main conflict this season?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: Not a main conflict. Just one of many levels of Joan and Amy/Joan for us to unpack. Again, as with everything Joan, it’s never just one thing. And while Amy knows what Joan said — and does eventually bring it up — her memory does lack some context. Also, if you think about it, Amy had one foot out the door. She was never going to forgive Michael. And so, from one perspective, suggesting Amy leave him — was really in Amy’s best interest. From another perspective, Gina always felt that if Amy and Michael did the work — therapy, talking, fighting through it — that they would’ve made it out the other side and come out stronger. But there’s honestly no way to know who was right. We’ll never know for sure. And Joan, fixated on Amy’s unique abilities as a physician — wanted her focus to be there. But it was, in Joan’s mind, FOR AMY’s benefit.
DEADLINE: Is Joan poised to become the season’s villain?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: If you look at Season 1, hopefully it’s clear that no one is exactly a VILLAIN. Or not just a villain. Much like us, no one on Doc is one thing. Joan is a HUGE CHAMPION of Amy. That is legit and true. She loves her and thinks she’s the kind of doctor who comes along once in a lifetime. And she is committed to Amy’s success. But, she’s also human. So as Amy started to eclipse her mentor, there was definitely some envy at play. But when you break down every thing Joan does over this season, there are legitimate reasons for all of them. It’s not black and white. However, we do learn something in episode 3 that would definitely be incentive for Joan to prefer Amy not remember everything she’s forgotten. So going forward, you will all be asking yourselves, is she an advocate or an adversary?
DEADLINE: What is the status of Doc’s love triangle? Did it fizzle right off the bat, with Michael reaffirming his commitment to his wife and Jake not interested in being a “security blanket”?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: The love triangle is alive and well. Amy and Michael will be inextricably linked forever. They have a history. They have a daughter. And Amy and Jake have an undeniable chemistry. So while things seem to be cooling for the moment — they won’t be for long.
DEADLINE: So what is next for Amy, Jake and Michael — will Amy try to win Jake back, possibly with the help with memories of their romance coming back? And can she and Michael stay away from each other?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: The push and pull of the love triangle will continue. In different ways, Amy loves them both. But as she says in the premiere, the worst thing is trying to live in two different times. Which is what her brain is making her do. She is definitely going to try to get Jake back — and one of the ways she feels like she can do that is by regaining her memories. If she can get to where she was once again, she had moved on from Michael and was only in love with Jake. She wants to remember so she can be whole and move forward. But her brain is not cooperating.
DEADLINE: Will Jake finally fall for Sonya? They seemed pretty close in the bar scene at the end.
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: Wouldn’t you like to know… lol.
DAEDLINE: Are Amy’s memories going to start flooding back now? There was progress from Episode 1 to Episode 2 where she was able to recover a full scene.
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: We wouldn’t say flooding back. Certainly that’s what she hopes. But the brain does what it wants. We will say that there will be more memories and they take different forms and are related to different things, providing both relief and frustration to Amy and mysteries that she has to solve going forward. Which is both great — and also distracting from her quest to be the doctor she was during those missing years.
DEADLINE: Is Amy pushing too hard by undergoing invasive treatments? What will be the impact on her?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: Amy is extremely driven. About everything. And her desire to again be the doctor she was, to recall Jake and their relationship and perhaps most of all — to remember the missing year with Danny — all these things fuel her to absolutely push too hard. And that will have repercussions. Physical and otherwise.
DEADLINE: What more can you say about Scott Wolf’s upcoming return as Richard Miller?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: We always knew we wanted Scott to come back. First of all, we both go way back with him from other shows we’ve worked on with him. He’s a mensch through and through and just the kind of person you want to have around. And he was such a big part of the Doc family from the first season. We also just fell in love with the complexity of the character Dr. Richard Miller. We plunged him to the depths at the end of Season One so it took a minute for us, as writers, to figure out how to get him back in a way that would feel organic to the show and to bring him back in a dynamic that would be different from where we left him last year, which was in a self-flagellating place. Literally every two weeks in the writer’s room, we’d say “Okay, is this how we’re going to bring him back?” but we couldn’t quite crack it. But we knew we had to be patient and do it right. Finally, as we started to unfurl the stories, the opportunity came to us — and we were so psyched. When we pitched it to Fox, they felt the same way — and it was boom. Here we go. So get ready. ‘Cause he’s coming back.
DEADLINE: Are Sonya and Amy back to being enemies, and what impact will Sonya’s “you don’t belong here” speech have on Amy and her confidence?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: Sonya and Amy have a complicated dynamic. And while they made great progress last season, Amy’s outburst at Sonya in the finale set them back. That was exacerbated by the events of the premiere and the fact that Sonya believes the hostage crisis and fallout all could’ve been avoided if Amy wasn’t back working at Westside. While it’s jarring for Amy to hear those words — and a part of her will wonder if Sonya is right — it doesn’t take long for Amy to realize that Sonya has ulterior motives.
DEADLINE: What has been your reaction to seeing Doc shoot up the Netflix US Top 10 on Day 1 of release?
KLIGMAN & STEINBERG: We are over the moon. What a joy that so many people are tuning in. And we’re so excited for new viewers to join the ride.
The post ‘Doc’ Episode 202: EPs On Joan’s Agenda, Amy’s Love Triangle & Series’ Strong Netflix Launch As Felicity Huffman Makes Her Debut appeared first on Deadline.
