[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Doc Season 1 Episode 8 “Man Plans.”]
Richard (Scott Wolf) may be worried about Amy (Molly Parker) remembering that she was investigating him for a patient’s death before the accident that took eight years of her memories, but in the latest episode of Doc, he is very genuine in a scene reminiscent of what their relationship once was (and as we see in flashbacks).
It’s in this episode that Richard reveals to Amy what we learned in Episode 7 that explains his recent behavior: His son has been diagnosed with behavioral and schizotypal disorders and is now in a facility. He hadn’t told her before her accident. According to Wolf, that’s in no way a manipulation.
“That’s very telling about where he is in the story at that point, how they’ve kind of started to come back together,” he tells TV Insider. The two were once close, as seen in flashbacks, and “what is happening with Richard right there is, I think, he misses this Amy and counted on this Amy. She would’ve known every detail if they had never broken apart from who they used to be together. So it feels like a relief in a way to be able to share what’s going on — but not just share it with anybody, share it with this person who maybe, despite all of the craziness and all of the secrets and all of the covering and all of the tension they’ve had over these past eight years, maybe they could be what they were.”
It’s something we see throughout this episode as they work together on a patient. “I think it’s a beautiful moment in this story where they’ve been so contentious and we’ve seen him hiding things from her and working against her even to protect himself and see him get swept up in the emotion of, ‘I used to really count on this person and it would be great if I could again,’” says Wolf. “And so I think him sharing what’s going on with his son with her in that moment isn’t more manipulation, isn’t part of this coverup. It’s really a result of, ‘I see the person that I knew and loved.’ That’s what the whole show is really about, right, is she doesn’t have to go back and be the kind of cold, detached person that she became. She can choose to be that person she was before that, and then maybe I can choose to be that person, too.”
FOX
Richard also tells Amy in this episode that she’s still a good doctor and he’ll recommend her for reinstatement; she’s had to contend with the issues of working as a doctor who’s missing eight years of medical knowledge. Richard seems happy for her in that moment, and that, too, is “incredibly genuine,” says Wolf.
“He felt so good to be able to, especially because he had been thrown into this horrible situation where he is having to betray this person who is a very good person and a good doctor and doesn’t deserve any of that, have the chance to kind of, in a way, I don’t know, make up for that, heal for that, give her something she deserves and has earned after having rekindled this sense of affection for each other,” he explains. “That might be my favorite scene in the whole first season, that last scene between the two of them in Episode 8, because it did feel so genuine and it did feel free for the first time from any of this baggage and awfulness that has followed the two of them around all season.”
The flashbacks in this episode offer a look at the two as close friends, talking about their kids, on the day of her son’s death; Amy’s with Richard at work when she receives the heartbreaking call. Then we see the day she returns to work after the funeral and Richard attempting to check on her, only for her to push him away.
“Playing Episode 8 with Molly was one of my favorite experiences of the whole season because we got to travel through time with these characters, with Amy and Richard, we really get to see their origin story in some ways — we don’t see when they meet, but we really see who they were to each other before everything changed and that they counted on each other and that they shared intimate details about their lives and their families with each other, and they were really primary to each other and had great affection for each other,” Wolf shares. “The use of time in this show just beautifully demonstrates how relationships can change and shift when the tides of life come in and circumstances happen and challenges happen.”
He continues, “In some ways, I think when they cut back and forth from the past to present time, we really do get this tragic sense of, oh, these two people were really meant to just love each other. They were meant to be great friends and colleagues. And then life happens and it is tragic and painful, and yet we also see the two of them actually finding each other again after all these years. And by the end of the episode, Richard, I think, is overcome by this sense of, do I have the Amy that I’ve always loved back in my life and this great friend and this great colleague, and can this new reality be better than what we had lived over the past 10 years with each other?”
With Doc a show about second chances, this episode demonstrates just that for Amy and Richard’s relationship and allows for Wolf to play something other than that tense dynamic that has been prevalent all season.
“To get back to this place where we see them find each other again was really beautiful. And that kind of warmth between Molly and I was a joy,” Wolf says.
What did you think of that scene between Amy and Richard and the flashbacks? Let us know in the comments section below.
Doc, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox