Doc Boss Breaks Down The Finale's Big Romantic Curveball — Plus, Grade The Episode!

The following post contains spoilers for the "Doc" Season 2 finale.

We're no geometry experts, but we can recognize when a love triangle becomes a quadrilateral.

Such was the case in Tuesday's "Doc" season finale, in which Amy Larsen (Molly Parker) appeared to table both her current relationship with colleague Jake (Jon Ecker) and potential relationship with ex-husband Michael (Omar Metwally)... only for new doc Ben Grant (Blair Underwood) to be revealed as Amy's onetime lover back in 2022, with the chance for that spark to be rekindled in the present day.

Underwood's character isn't yet part of the Westside staff; in the season ender, he was merely accompanying his sister, who was a patient at the hospital. But when a new and quite contagious strain of the Marburg virus hit Westside, Ben — a skilled cardiothoracic surgeon — stepped in to pinch-hit in the operating room, and an impressed Michael later suggested he permanently fill Westside's open surgeon position. (Ben initially passed, but Underwood will be a series regular in Season 3, so we assume he'll change his mind.)

When Amy and Ben crossed paths in Tuesday's episode, Ben said they'd previously met at a medical conference three years ago — an encounter Amy didn't remember, of course. But in the finale's closing minutes, a deeper history between the two was revealed as Ben rewatched a video message Amy recorded for him in November 2022.

"I know we never text or put anything in writing, but I'm breaking the rule just this once, because it's your birthday," Past Amy began. "But since we can't be in that great suite in the Four Seasons to celebrate properly, I am making you this ridiculous video. I don't know what this is or what we are, but I do know that you make me smile, and I haven't smiled in a very long time."

The reveal of Amy and Ben's romantic past came just as Amy appeared to break things off with both of her current love interests: She told Michael that she can't live in the past and get back together with him; she and Jake, meanwhile, seemed unable to cope with their respective lingering feelings for Michael and Rachel.

Per co-showrunner Hank Steinberg, though, it's "up for debate" if Amy has truly ended things with both men.

"She's raised some important issues that [she and Jake] have, and when she asks him, 'You said we could deal with the fact that we have feelings for these other people, but what if you were wrong?' and he doesn't have much of an answer, that tells you they've got some stuff to figure out," Steinberg tells TVLine. "There could or could not be a reckoning."

Steinberg adds that Season 3 will find Amy wanting to "put aside the emotional entanglements with these men" in favor of focusing on her work, but that choice may feel "like an impulsive and reactive decision" when the show returns.

"Impulsive decisions, like New Year's resolutions, sometimes don't totally stick, or they only stick for a while," he suggests with a laugh. "It's a fun question for the audience to try and figure out, and for Amy to try and figure out."

As for Underwood's character, Ben was initially described as possessing "an ego that somehow outpaces even his résumé." Combine that confidence with the upper hand he has over Amy — he remembers their tryst, and she doesn't — and it raises a red flag or two about Ben's trustworthiness heading into Season 3.

"I want the audience to be asking those questions about what they should make of him," Hank Steinberg concedes. "The fact that, so far, he knows [his and Amy's past] but hasn't told her — it's going to be fun to bring him in. He's going to have a very different energy than everyone else on the show."

Per Steinberg, he and the "Doc" writers have long wanted to add a character like Ben — not only a new love interest for Amy, but someone she was involved with after her divorce from Michael.

"Early in Season 1, when [Amy] comes out of reading her old emails and texts, she says to Gina, 'It was just one guy this whole time? This guy named Alan?' And Gina goes, 'Yeah, nice guy, bad sex,'" the EP recalls. "We always thought it would be interesting if she had some sort of torrid thing with a married man, that was an emotional reaction to leaving Michael, that she never told Gina.

"We were always holding that in our back pocket, and when we thought about introducing a new character, that idea conjoined with creating the backstory for Blair's character," he continues. "We loved the idea of bringing in somebody who remembers [he and Amy] had a thing, but she doesn't remember, and how that would play out."

"Doc" fans, how are you feeling about Dr. Ben Grant — and the state of Amy's love life in general? Grade Tuesday's finale in our poll below, then drop a comment with your thoughts!

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