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. Though the second half of season 2 brings in some familiar faces, like Richard, it isn’t until the two-part season finale that the interpersonal drama reaches its peak, all because of a medical emergency. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Doc Season 2 Finale Recap
Episode 21 and 22 ‘Doc’ season 2, named ‘Stuck’ and ‘Happy Birthday’, begin on a disarmingly normal note, with Amy, Michael, and Jake preparing for what appears to be a normal day at work. However, as news of Liz’s HR complaint against Richard begins making the rounds, tensions flare up. Before long, both of them find themselves working on the same case, concerning a man named Rob Baker, who has been showing mysterious symptoms ever since he skipped a dialysis session. Because of that, Richard initially assumes this to be a regular case, but is left confounded when Baker begins throwing up blood and dies not long after. Amy, as well as Liz are quick to suspect that Richard might have killed his own patient as a comeback against Liz, but that is proven false when the reports come in.
Instead of a proof of wrongdoing, what Amy finds in the report is much more alarming. She relays to Michael that Baker died due to a viral hemorrhagic fever, which, when coupled with his wife’s traveling history, can only point to one thing: a virus. As the entire hospital becomes a contamination zone, Michael has to lock down every floor and begin quarantine procedures. Richard, Liz, Gina, and Nurse Lucy are the only people confirmed to have been in direct contact with the patient, and they are all placed in a single quarantine room. Everyone except Lucy, that is, as she is the first within the staff to test positive for the Marburg virus, which appears to have developed into a strain several times more dangerous than Ebola.
With all hands on deck, Joan refuses to lie down in the hospital bed and joins the team in scouting out all the locations Baker might have gone to before being admitted. Within the hospital, she manages to pick up on several spots, but fails to account for the vending machine due to there being no camera. As a result, two teens get infected, alongside a number of patients, including a holocaust survivor, and a conspiracy theorist who decries COVID-era restrictions. On that note, Amy seems to be hit with flashbacks to the pandemic repeatedly, and hypothesizes that it’s merely her trauma resurfacing. As if things cannot get any worse, Jake’s ex-wife, Rachel, is amongst the many patients quarantined for the day. Luckily, Westiside has support in the form of Dr. Benjamin Grant, who specializes in such complicated situations.
Though the hospital is fairly successful at containing things at the start, things quickly slip out of control when Nurse Lucy succumbs to the effects of the virus. Before long, Richard and Liz also begin to show symptoms and join the special quarantine ward where some dozen patients are being treated. Given the severity of the virus, no antidotes seem to be in circulation, and Amy decides to experiment with a cocktail of antidotes to see what works. Out of the four samples they create, the one administered to Richard seems to have a positive effect, but comes with the side-effect of bodily failure. While trying to save his life, Amy accidentally gets stabbed with a contaminated needle, and soon finds herself dueling with the same symptoms. As time runs out and Amy’s body begins to give up, the team decides to use a final Hail Mary in the form of Richard’s blood, which now has the required antibodies.
Doc Season 2 Ending: Does Amy Break up With Jake? Will She Get Back With Michael?
At the end of ‘Doc Season 2,’ Amy chooses neither Jake nor Michael, and instead decides to give herself to the path of being a doctor. While her readiness to self-sacrifice has always been a defining characteristic, it gets lost along the way by the nature of the show, and her life, by extension, is focused on the nitty-gritty of interpersonal drama. The turning point comes when Amy reawakens after her surgery and meets Joan. Though weakened, Amy’s mentor has a few more words of wisdom under her belt, which sound increasingly more like a definitive goodbye. Having given her all to the act of saving lives, Joan urges Amy to walk on the same path and give as much of herself as she can to those in need. This is what drives her powerful decision to step out of the love triangle entirely and reinvent herself as both a doctor and a human.
In many ways, the second season concludes what can be considered one long arc for Amy, one that begins with a life-threatening accident, and ironically ends with another. In both cases, her survival brings forth a brand new perspective, as well as a side of Amy we haven’t seen before. While in the case of her first accident, the loss of traumatic memories gives way to a different personality, in this case, it is precisely understanding and moving beyond those traumatic experiences that gives her the courage to change. To that end, she realizes that her connection with Jake severed the moment her memories went away, and just like she will always have a place for Michael in her heart, so will Jake when it comes to Rachel. While we don’t see them explicitly break up on screen, it is clear that their paths have diverged too much.
Though it appears that the entire world of ‘Doc’ wants Amy and Jake to get back together, reality unfolds quite differently. Even after Amy confesses to still being in love with Michael, she rejects the idea of being together again, except this time it’s not because of an emotional dissonance. On the contrary, Amy makes the call after recognizing that she still hasn’t overcome her fatal flaw: being judgmental. As the undisputed best doctor in the series, she often holds others to a similarly high standard, and while that can definitely be a productive exercise, in Amy’s case, it fuels some of her toxic traits, and one of them is being too harsh on the people she loves.
However, although Amy labels this a flaw in how she interacts with life, she also acknowledges that the driving force behind all of this has been to save as many lives as she can. To that end, her first step forward in this new chapter is a particularly gray one, where she may have to unlearn as many aspects of herself as she will have to relearn.
Do Richard and Liz Survive the Marburg Virus?
By the final moments of the season, Richard’s arc does a complete turnaround, as it is his antibodies that help the rest of the patients come to life. Though he is barely healthy when the idea is first proposed, Richard doesn’t hesitate for a second to donate his blood and weaken his immune response even further. With the limited amount of blood, the hospital is able to produce only three antidote units, and Joan decides to allot them purely by chance. Fortunately, Nurse Liz is one of the three patients who got the antibodies, which helps her get back to good health. In an ironic way, it is the blood of the very person who once manipulated her that saves her life.
While Richard may come as a hero for the day, neither Liz nor anyone at the hospital believes that he is absolved of his wrongdoings. On the contrary, Liz shows an ironclad spirit by seemingly not retrieving her HR complaint. What this development does translate to, however, is Amy’s renewed appreciation of Richard, the man she once knew as a trusted friend and doctor. When Richard considers leaving the hospital for the greater good, Amy reminds him that everyone deserves a second chance at proving themselves, which is especially fitting given how her arc concludes this season. From hereon, it is up to Liz to decide Richard’s fate and whether his redemption continues at Westside.
Will Amy Remember Her Relationship With Benjamin?
Perhaps the biggest revelation of the season finale is the fact that Benjamin and Amy were in an on-and-off relationship, sometime during the eight years she no longer remembers. We know that for certain because Benjamin is still holding on to a video that Amy sent him in the past, teasing the dimensions of their fling and whether it can convert into something serious. Knowing that Amy was in a relationship with Jake prior to her accident, it can be surmised that her fling with Benjamin was before even that, and sometime after she parted ways with Michael. However, with her having no recollection of anything like that in the present, Benjamin is effectively a stranger and must start from scratch if he wants to charm Amy.
On one hand, much of the finale points towards Ben becoming Amy’s new love interest, but that by itself comes into contrast with her arc’s leading message, which is to focus more on her medical journey than her romantic one. As such, Ben’s potential reappearance in her world can give way to a unique kind of dilemma. We already know that Ben is a surgeon, at least on par with Joan, and that can lead directly to how Amy admires competence above everything else. Regardless, given how Amy’s memories have a tendency to resurface as deja vu, it is likely a matter of time before she remembers exactly who Benjamin is and what he meant to her at one point.
What Will Happen to Joan? Will She Live?
Joan’s final act in the show turns out to be her swan song surgery to save Amy’s life, one where she accomplishes the seemingly impossible, pulling off two surgeries in one go. However, all of that comes at the cost of Joan requiring her pain and stability meds once again, despite knowing the physical harm they can bring her. Even beyond that, it is the physical exertion of completing a multiple-hour surgery that effectively saps the last bit of energy she has left. The last we see of Joan, she is back at her home, but lying unconscious in her bed. The possibility of her death has been present from the start of the season, but it is only by the time we reach the final few episodes that the reality of events truly sets in. However, Joan is clear in proclaiming that she is proud of the life she chose, and especially the next generation of people she raised.
The best thing to happen to Joan all season is her reunion with her son, and it is only made possible by Amy taking the first step. By urging Joan and her son to trust in each other, she learns from her own experiences of a troubled past with her daughter. As a result, we see Joan’s son right by her side in the final shot, cherishing what is likely the few remaining months he has left with her. Given how severe her condition is by the finale, it is very possible that this is the last we see of Joan, and her death might take place off-screen. What doesn’t change in the slightest, however, is the golden lessons she has left behind, embodied best by her protege, who is about to restart her journey as chief.
Read More: Doc Season 2 Episode 19 Recap: Who Succeeds Joan? Who Becomes Chief Resident?
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