Abhiroop Das
Season 2 of Fox’s ‘Doc’ takes a deeper look at Amy Larsen’s personal and professional life following a life-altering injury that erases the last eight years of her life. Surrounded by a new world, the doctor is forced to reevaluate her medical cases, as well as the relationships she has painstakingly built over the years. This journey is not without surprises, as the differences between her past and present slowly begin to create a rift in her psyche. The medical drama show uses its narrative structure to explore memory and how it can change a person. At the end of the inaugural season, Amy shares a moment of intimacy with her ex-husband, Michael Hamda, only to be caught by Dr. Jake Heller, her secret boyfriend, whom she does not remember loving. This episode, titled ‘Her Heart,’ takes this complex dynamic head-on, while also challenging Amy with a blast from the past. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Amy Struggles to Find a Balance in Her Love Life
The sophomore season opens with a bang, as both the S.W.A.T. team and the police swarm the hospital premises. We learn that there has been a shooting, and worse, the victim is a member of the hospital. The scene then dials back to 6 hours in the past, to Amy, who is preparing for the day ahead. She desperately tries to call Jake, but to no avail. Instead, she has to leave a message explaining that he does not have the full picture. This calls back to how the previous season ended with Jake running into Amy and her ex-husband, Michael, sharing a kiss. In the present, Jake is still reeling from the shock, as every single element in his life seems to remind him of his romantic ties to the protagonist. Gina is similarly giving Amy the silent treatment, and the internal drama at work leads a group of nurses to speculate about the love triangle developing between Amy, Jake, and Sonya.
At the hospital, Amy and Jake meet at last, and she wastes no time in explaining her position. The protagonist clarifies that the kiss was not just a moment of weakness, but also her way of saying goodbye to that chapter, but Jake is not satisfied. Instead, he confronts her about her choice to lean into Michael in the first place, and labels it as her still channeling the past. Although he is sensitive to her condition and the struggles they entail, he also estabilishes that the woman he fell in love with has disappeared with the accident, and he misses her dearly. Though Amy is conflicted, a flashback to her kiss with Michael adds a new dimension, as he says that he has been waiting for this moment. In the present, Michael learns that his wife, Nora, has gone into labour seven weeks before her projected due date. This prompts him into action, since the priority now is the safety of both his wife and their unborn child.
An Old Case Haunts the New Amy
Although Michael is supportive of Nora, the tension between them is palpable, in large part due to Amy’s renewed involvement in the fray. Elsewhere, TJ talks to his patient Rosie and her father, Alex, about a potential heart transplant. Rosie needs urgent care, and TJ wishes to seek Amy’s expert opinion, but Alex resists that idea, citing a past history with the protagonist. To balance things out, TJ suggests that Amy reveal the truth about her amnesia, but she is not as eager. Elsewhere, the complications in Rosie’s case continue, as a new scan reveals that the heart transplant that she has waited six years for might just be off the table. While it’s the duty of the hospital to inform the organ donation center about Rosie being an unfit candidate, TJ, Amy, and Michael have disagreements about this. While Amy advocates for the patient’s future, Michael explains the risk of losing accreditation if they do not report this to the authorities.
A flashback to six years ago contextualizes the present turn of events, with Rosie being revealed to have been in a similar fix. At that point, Dr. Singh recommended going ahead with a transplant, but Amy was the only person to disagree with that. She privately contacted Alex and explained to him the possible downsides of the operation, and instead advised him to make the most of the time he had left with his daughter. However, in the present, Alex lies in anguish at the thought of losing his child, and the protagonist has no recollection of ever making a judgment regarding the patient. This dilemma reaches a climax when TJ reveals to Alex that the heart transplant is being rejected, and the father vents out all of his emotions on Amy. While she struggles to escape the haunting of her past, Alex secretly concocts a plan of his own and whispers to Rosie that he will get her a heart one way or another.
Alex’s Desperation Takes Him on a Path of Darkness
With no one noticing, Alex sneaks up to a guard and disarms them, before taking away their radio. Now armed, he begins to make his way back to Rosie, but is interrupted by Jake, who senses that something is amiss. However, Alex is even quicker and knocks the doctor out, revealing his gun in the process. TJ boldly rushes to the scene, hoping to take the father down. Unfortunately, things go sideways as TJ gets shot in the thigh, with the bullet cutting through his femoral artery. Realizing that he has messed up, Alex asks the nearby doctors to deal with TJ, but that does not stop his rampage. With the entire hospital now in his grasp, he calls up Michael and explains his demands for Rosie to get her transplant. Desperate, Michael bargains for the safety of everyone on that floor, and a compromise is reached. Alex stays behind with Amy, Sonya, and a nurse named Julie. Meanwhile, Nora’s labour continues, and Michael feels the pressure mounting from both sides.
The scene then returns to the cold open, with the police hesitating to ambush Alex in lieu of the potential risk. Meanwhile, Amy tries to find a bridge with Alex and tells him about her medical condition, and Gina confronts Dr. Singh about the details of the case from years ago. Michael arranges for the heart transplant, but that comes at a cost: lying to the board about Rosie’s condition. Elsewhere in the operating room, Amy believes that there are abscesses within Rosie’s lungs, which need to be extracted. Although the operation goes as planned, the fear of losing family takes over Julie, and she has to be pacified. Amy breathes a sigh of relief when the abscesses are removed, but in return, she demands to check in on TJ’s condition, to which Alex relents. Here we learn that TJ has lost a significant amount of blood, and the chances of recovery are slim. The fear ripples even outside the office, as Katie desperately asks for her mother, but Michael is forced to lie about the situation.
Rosie’s Heart Transplant Gives Way to Emotional Closure
Another flashback takes us to Amy and Dr. Singh’s exchange about Rosie’s treatment, and she explains that her advice was informed by a possible complication that she learned of from a journal. Dr. Singh was not satisfied and made it clear that she would have to pay the consequences, a threat that ironically came true. Fortunately, TJ begins to make a recovery, and that gives Amy more confidence in the situation. However, Jake is not so lucky, as he has to overcome a number of hurdles in the process of recovering the heart for a transplant. Michael also gets entangled in the scenario and has to leave Nora’s side while she is dealing with the childbirth process. Yet another flashback reveals the full extent of the past, taking us back three years. Alex is once again at the hospital and tells Amy that his wife died due to COVID. The loss of family forces him to reevaluate his earlier decisions. Amy explained that she had advised him as a mother herself, but he quickly retorted that what he really needed was a doctor.
In the present, Jake manages to get hold of the heart, but is stopped by Gina, who reveals that Amy was right about Rosie’s diagnosis, but lied to Alex in order to preserve his hope. In the operating room, the protagonist manages to convince Alex to let go of Julie, just in time for Jake to come with the heart. However, instead of giving it away, Jake, along with Amy, confronts Alex about his decisions. They reveal that a problem with Rosie’s lung vessels means that the transplant will never work with her, and that the father has to bid his child goodbye. This information breaks him, but he gains a deeper understanding upon learning that Amy had lost a child months before his first visit, and wanted to spare him that pain. With this, he makes a difficult decision, agreeing to let his daughter meet her natural end. Amy briefly brings Rosie back into consciousness, and she bids her father a tearful goodbye.
With Rosie’s demise, the heart is no longer needed, and Jake rushes to get it back to someone else who might need it urgently. Meanwhile, Nora gives birth to her child, and Michael watches with joy and relief. However, this scene gets a new tint when his eyes lock with Amy, and they share a look of affection mixed with happiness, having survived yet another battle together. The protagonist then tells Gina about unlocking a memory of arguing with Dr. Singh. She explains the potential of this development and begs her friend to put her back in the tank as a way of triggering her memories once again. This sets up the larger developments of the show going forward, as Amy now has the potential to recover her lost past. This, in turn, puts a new spin on her dynamic with Jake and Michael, making the question of who she is truly in love with all the more difficult.
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