Doc EP Unpacks COVID-Centric Fall Finale, Teases An 'Unmoored' Amy Ahead

Fox's "Doc" closed out the calendar year by revisiting a time to which few of us would ever want to return: March 2020.

Though the medical drama has previously referenced the real-life coronavirus pandemic in passing, "Doc" immersed itself more fully in that crisis during Tuesday's sophomore fall finale, much of which flashed back to the early days of COVID. At that time, Jake and his wife, Rachel, were happily married and moving to Maryland soon; Jake was circling a new job at Johns Hopkins and planned to request a letter of recommendation from Amy, who, back then, was nothing more than his boss (and he didn't like her much).

But before he could ever ask for that recommendation letter, Jake was sidetracked by a patient that he suspected might have COVID, despite Minnesota having no recorded cases at that point. Amy worked closely with Jake that day to defy the skeptical Westside higher-ups and prove the coronavirus diagnosis was accurate (it was!), and as Westside steeled itself for the pandemic on the horizon, Jake decided he didn't want to move to Maryland, after all — even though Amy had, in fact, already written him a recommendation letter before he'd even asked.

In the present day, Jake and Amy shared multiple tender moments at the memorial for Jake's father. In the wake of that loss, Jake decided at the end of the hour that he didn't want to waste another minute without Amy as his romantic partner; Amy felt the same way, and they sealed it with a steamy kiss. 

That's not to say their relationship is free of complications, though: Michael confessed he still has feelings for Amy, prompting her to set a boundary with him; Rachel discovered that Jake and Amy were once romantically entangled, and she theorized that Jake wanted to stay in Maryland for Amy all those years ago; and vengeful sibling Charlie Clark, who's been working with sister Hannah to take down Amy for weeks, set in motion a plot to make Amy look completely nefarious to her colleagues.

TVLine unpacked the episode with executive producer Hank Steinberg, who shed light on the fall finale's many romantic developments (and surprising COVID focus). Read on for his thoughts, then grade Tuesday's episode in our poll!

TVLINE | I was struck by the choice to make COVID such a centerpiece of this episode. The pandemic has come up in conversation on the show before, but it was a main focus this time around. Tell me why you wanted to go there narratively.
You know, it was not because we said, "Let's do an episode about COVID." Obviously, that was a very intense period for everyone, and a tipping point for many people, but it wasn't like we set out to do that. How it began was, we wanted to have a story in the present that had to do with Jake and Amy, and whether they would get back together in the crucible of his grief over his father. We know that grief can be very clarifying for people. It shakes their priorities and makes them feel like they want to live for today, and that was the underlying idea for why to bring Jake's father in and have him pass away — to have it be an impetus for [Jake and Amy] finally surrendering to what they both have been wanting.

We just thought it'd be a very cool counterpoint to contrast that with the beginning of their relationship — not their romantic relationship, but their relationship as colleagues. We did the math, and it timed out that that would have been at the beginning of COVID. It just seemed like a really great way to put them into a very intense situation together, where he would see how brilliant she was, and she would recognize his talents and grit and his own determination — start to see him as one of the few people who works under her that's worthy of her respect. And then, of course, there ends up being a poignance to COVID and how it made our mundane days suddenly feel like life-or-death. Our futures were hanging in the balance, and we didn't know what would happen with the rest of our lives. It just seemed like a perfect counterpoint to the present-day story.

TVLINE | We saw that Jake made the choice to stay at Westside after he went through this experience of diagnosing COVID with Amy, and he tells Rachel later that COVID was the only reason he decided to stay in Minnesota. Is he being honest with himself? Where does this love quadrangle — Jake, Amy, Michael, Rachel — go from here?
Yeah, it's interesting. Obviously, there's an inherent chemistry between [Jake and Amy], but in our minds, Jake stayed because he realized how much he respected this woman who could help him become a better doctor. He watched her fight the administration and be willing to risk her own job and career, potentially, to do the right thing; she respected him enough to include him in the process and go to bat for him because she thought he was right. There's much more emotional and intellectual connection at that point — mutual respect between two adults.

At that moment, Jake was still very much in love with his wife and had a new baby, and it was Rachel having a fling with a DJ in Cabo — [laughs] — that's what wrecked them. In the aftermath of that, his friendship with Amy grew over time, and only began [getting romantic] about five months before Amy's car accident, which was four years after this moment in COVID. In our minds, that's how it grew. Now, is there chemistry and connection between people that's kind of always there but is not acknowledged or romanticized? Probably. 

But in our mythology — and this will probably come out at some point — if Jake was a doctor working at a hospital for a couple years during COVID, he probably didn't see his wife very much, right? He would have been quarantining. That would have been a source of estrangement. Right now, Rachel's being paranoid. "Oh, we stayed because of Amy." But she's just being paranoid. She's the one that cheated on Jake. He did have a change of heart about Amy, because he hated her! [Laughs] But then suddenly, he respected her as a boss, and he felt like, "I could do a lot of good at this hospital, and this is probably not the best time to pick up and move when COVID's coming and the world's going to shut down." It was all of those things — and those things will get unpacked as the season goes on.

TVLINE | This storyline with Charlie and Hannah Clark — this is the second time that Amy has had her memory issues used against her, first with Dr. Miller gaslighting her last season, and now with the Clarks altering some of her files. Will we see that impact Amy's trust in people moving forward?
Yeah, you're onto something. It is disregulating, and it makes her feel untethered and unmoored that she has this Achilles heel, this vulnerability that people can either fool her or intentionally leave out details that they'd rather her not know about. That's the kind of thing that could come up again as we go forward — spoiler alert. We call that the secret sauce of the show: her memory loss, and how it's her Achilles heel. It's fun for us as a dramatic device, and it's so organic to the concept of the show. We don't have to stretch ourselves too far to make it feel like it fits.

TVLINE | It was previously announced that Scott Wolf will be coming back for an arc in Season 2. What can you tell me about the circumstances of his return?
I can tease to you that it does emerge somewhat organically from the Hannah and Charlie storyline.

TVLINE | Should we be worried that Amy can never truly regain all of her memories, if it's going to take the physical toll that we've seen it taking on her in the past few episodes?
I think we should worry about Amy all the time. We love her. [Laughs]

TVLINE | And you have 22 episodes instead of 10 this season! There's plenty of worrying time!
We can create a lot of worry.

"Doc" fans, how did you enjoy the midseason finale? Grade Tuesday's episode in our poll below, then hit the comments with all of your thoughts!