[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Doc Season 1 Episode 7 “Secrets and Lies.” The following post contains discussions of sexual assault.]
Sonya (Anya Banerjee) faces her most difficult affected person but within the newest Doc episode: Ravi (Ritesh Rajan), the person who raped her after her mom set them up.
Sonya struggles, even attempting to achieve out to interim chief Richard (Scott Wolf) to get off the case. however he’s too wrapped up in his personal private enterprise to reply her name. Working alongside Amy (Molly Parker), Sonya does deal with him, however when he taunts her and insists he didn’t rape her, she has a second of weak spot and injects air into his central line. Amy helps her repair it, then Sonya does divulge heart’s contents to her. Ultimately, Sonya’s capable of get justice: She not solely reaches out to a different lady he raped, however she’d additionally finished a rape equipment on herself and correctly saved it. Sonya’s additionally taking day without work and planning to attend help teams.
Under, Banerjee opens up about this robust episode for Sonya, her relationship with Amy, and what’s forward.
Discuss studying the script for this complete episode. The best way it builds… it’s heartbreaking for Sonya and it’s robust to look at her undergo this.
Anya Banerjee: Completely. I used to be actually excited as an actor to have the ability to actually delve into Sonya’s backstory, not only a plot line or a scene, however really see her out of scrubs, out of the hospital being an individual and never simply a health care provider, however on the identical time having to go to this place of powerlessness and really feel the place that’s in my physique and let that lead — We had been speaking in regards to the second after the date rape when Sonya has to return again to work as a medical scholar, and Amy undermines her, from that second, Sonya began to construct up partitions, sort of in the identical method that Amy offers with the trauma of dropping her son. And although Sonya’s capable of stay heat and sympathetic to her sufferers, she doesn’t actually let anybody in, particularly romantically.
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That’s why although she actually likes Jake [Jon Ecker] as a good friend, she will get sort of caught off guard by the feelings that bubble up when she finds out that he and Amy are collectively. It’s like Sonya can’t actually admit to herself that she may need extra from that relationship as a result of she’s been so targeted on simply repressing her feelings so as to be one of the best physician that she may be, particularly since Amy places that into query.
So in making ready for that episode, after I learn the script, I knew that I needed to be as grounded and delicate as I may probably be in telling Sonya’s story as a result of it’s a quite common story globally, nearly like one in three girls expertise sexual violence. However we’re preventing again, and I believe that this episode is a complete love letter to these girls who’re preventing and empowering each other to stand up and converse up towards all odds. And I believe that the best way that Amy and Sonya come collectively on this episode is a extremely highly effective image of that resistance. So yeah, it was an absolute honor be capable to inform that story.
Yeah, I imply, the Sonya and Amy stuff is so good as a result of Amy takes management and helps her repair what she did with the air into the central line and Sonya’s prepared to show herself in. However how stunned was she that Amy, given their historical past, was the one to cease her from turning herself in?
Oh, completely flabbergasted. I imply, Amy is taking an enormous threat in having Sonya’s again on this second. And if Sonya even had an inkling that she may come to Amy together with her difficulties, she would’ve finished so. She knew she wasn’t able to have the ability to deal with this affected person, and that’s why she known as Richard, however Richard wasn’t accessible. And so it’s a complete shock, but in addition this stunning coming collectively of those very comparable, strong-willed girls who’ve been butting heads who now can sort of begin anew and get a contemporary begin to help each other by the tip of this episode.
So would you say that Sonya’s perspective of Amy has modified? As a result of on the identical time although, she will be able to’t neglect what Amy was like earlier than the accident.
That’s true. And I’ve actually stood by Sonya forgiving, however not forgetting and holding Amy accountable for what she’s finished. However right here, Sonya additionally has a lapse in her personal judgments and talents, and Amy’s there to provide her the help that she wasn’t capable of get from her personal mom. Bear in mind, Sonya tries to inform her mother what occurred, and her mom tells her to brush her underneath the rug. And on the time, Sonya is courageous sufficient and expert sufficient as a health care provider to know that she has to do a rape equipment and has this impulse that possibly someday she’s going to come ahead. However it’s solely when Amy offers her that help that she’s capable of act on that impulse. So yeah, completely shocked and perspective modified. I imply, it always modifications with the present, proper? We’re getting so many flips and coming collectively and butting of heads of characters.
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It says a lot about Sonya as a personality that she did that rape equipment when she did.
Yeah, she’s extremely expert as a health care provider and capable of compartmentalize what’s simply occurred to her and go into motion, and that has served her and allowed her to outlive all of those years. Sadly, in the course of this episode, it backfires and he or she snaps. So 99 p.c of the time, probably the greatest medical doctors you’ll ever have,
But additionally comprehensible given the circumstances.
Completely.
So how is she feeling on the finish of the episode after having to inform the others what occurred to her after which the truth that Ravi is lastly arrested?
I believe it’s an excellent sense of reduction. One of many the reason why I believe she’s triggered into attacking Ravi is the best way that he taunts her, the issues that he says present her that he hasn’t actually modified and that he’s prone to damage girls once more. And so having the help of Sonya’s colleagues to have the ability to come ahead and really make a distinction and put a cease to issues, serving to Emily Wagner, the opposite latest sufferer of Ravi, to return ahead is tremendously empowering. And I believe, yeah, this present has an total theme of second possibilities, proper? Amy will get a second likelihood to course of her trauma round her son’s dying in another way. Nicely, that is Sonya’s likelihood to take care of what occurred to her in a more healthy method, and I believe we actually do see a few of that therapeutic by the tip of the episode.
Sonya did attempt to do every part proper, and he or she known as Richard, however then bought the voicemail as a result of he was wrapped up in his personal private enterprise. But when he had answered the cellphone, would she have informed him who the affected person was or simply tried to take day without work?
I undoubtedly assume she would have tried to spare the main points and solely simply say as a lot as she may to have the ability to get out of this example. So yeah, I imply, in a humorous method, the best way that issues ended up understanding might be much more sort of spiritually gratifying and therapeutic for Sonya in the long run, regardless of the chance.
You introduced up Sonya’s emotions for Jake, and I’m curious, is it additionally as a result of she in all probability sees him as somebody who’s secure as a result of she is aware of him, particularly after what occurred, proper?
Undoubtedly, undoubtedly. I imply, an occasion like that may actually complicate your capacity to get near folks, particularly romantically. However Jake is an instance of somebody who may be very secure they usually speak about his five-year-old daughter and his ex-wife, and I think about they’ve come up collectively and gone for beers after work and whatnot. Yeah, he’s any individual that she actually feels that she will be able to belief, and so when she finds out that he’s been preserving one thing from her, it’s a little little bit of a betrayal as properly, though she does come to see why he saved it a secret and he or she apologizes in an earlier episode for not being a greater good friend. However that wound is unquestionably there.
Is there the rest developing with these two?
Sure, undoubtedly. I believe it’s sophisticated the best way that Jake and Amy first bought collectively. I believe Sonya has her opinions about the truth that Amy was Jake’s boss and has some opinions in regards to the love triangle between her and Michael [Omar Metwally] and Jake. With out spoiling an excessive amount of, Sonya undoubtedly is aware about some issues that possibly she shouldn’t be. I don’t wish to spoil something, however there’s undoubtedly a whole lot of juicy stuff to return.
What are you able to tease about how the season ends for Sonya?
Sonya is ready to get again in her stride with being a health care provider after therapeutic from this incident and coming along with Amy. She actually kicks into motion mode with a whole lot of difficult instances the place she has to assume on the fly. She actually will get to solidify her stance as one of the crucial gifted and courageous medical doctors at Westside Medical.
Simply to get again to this episode, I wish to be sure that I actually shout out to Ritesh Rajan, who performed Ravi. I imply, it was a extremely, actually troublesome scene to shoot, however he was such an excellent scene companion, and our intimacy coordinator, Mackenzie Lawrence, actually helped us navigate that. We’re on community TV, which suggests you could’t actually be too graphic, however that made it much more vital for me as an actor to have the ability to sensitively painting Sonya’s emotional expertise so that you just as a viewer can perceive how intensely it impacted me with out really seeing the factor graphically represented on display. And I couldn’t have finished that with no director like Russell Tremendous, who by no means pushed me, however simply created an atmosphere for me that made me really feel capable of be susceptible. And I believe that’s actually all something any actor can ask for. And naturally, I’m very grateful to Barbie [Kligman] and Hank [Steinberg] for trusting me with this story and to Judith McCreary for penning this extremely shifting episode.
Yeah, listening to what you’re saying, that’s why I’m so glad there are intimacy coordinators now.
Completely. We want them. Are you kidding? For one thing like this, particularly, it’s so vital to get technical and to get it proper.
Doc, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox
In the event you or somebody you recognize is the sufferer of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest Nationwide Community‘s Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). In the event you or a beloved one are in rapid hazard, name 911.