[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Doc Season 1 Episode 4 “One Small Step.”]
Richard (Scott Wolf) is just not making it a secret that he’s nervous round Amy (Molly Parker) on Doc. She might have misplaced eight years of reminiscences after a automotive accident, however at any second, she will be able to do not forget that she was investigating him for his actions with a affected person who died.
And now, Amy’s again at work, albeit on strict protocols, and Richard is holding a really shut eye on her. Take, as an example, his response upon seeing her speaking to Dr. Franco from pathology, anxious that Amy may discover out concerning the post-mortem report she ordered on the aforementioned affected person. (Amy was asking if she carried out an post-mortem on her son who died. She hadn’t.) After, he emails Dr. Franco and tells her that since Amy’s not at present a licensed doctor, any requests for data needs to be accepted by him. After, he places his face in his arms, and he doesn’t look glad. Wolf confirms it’s exhausting for him to do issues like that, particularly given Richard and Amy’s previous friendship; they had been shut buddies.
“A lot of Dr. Richard Miller’s life is extremely sophisticated proper now, sadly, for him. There’s been a whole lot of dialog about, is he a very good man? Is he a nasty man? And in the end, I’ve all the time seen him as an excellent one that’s in a horrible scenario, and never simply because he has made a mistake and appears to be doing issues, betraying himself and betraying different folks in ways in which he by no means imagined he’d be able to so as to shield himself,” Wolf tells TV Insider.
That’s the place the stress comes into play between Richard and Amy — on his facet. For what she remembers, they’re nonetheless buddies. However he does nonetheless bear in mind what that was like for them.
“I’m having to work in opposition to this one that deep down I’ve an actual affection for and respect for. At each stage of Richard’s journey right here, as every domino form of suggestions over and he has to do one other factor that could be a betrayal of Amy or himself, it’s an extremely painful factor for him as a result of in his guts, on the root of their relationship is actual affection,” Wolf explains. “And one of many actually sophisticated issues about Amy getting back from this accident, virtually having been reset eight years, is that Richard, together with everybody else, is experiencing this model of Amy that he loves. And so it’s a extremely, actually sophisticated factor for Richard to need to do something that might in any manner damage Amy, despite the fact that he’s able the place he’s searching for first to guard himself.”
Nevertheless, there’s additionally the skilled facet: These protocols are in place for a purpose, and as interim chief, he’s speculated to implement them. And Amy is overstepping protocols.
“There’s undoubtedly a facet to what Richard is doing and saying and imposing that’s authentic and that Amy has form of pushed by and previous and given her nature, which is to cost towards her instincts with abandon in any respect prices. On this present scenario, she doesn’t actually have the authority to be doing that. And so whereas Richard is holding her toes to the hearth in a manner that’s authentic and is his job because the interim chief to uphold these protocols and make it possible for the sufferers are protected and that she isn’t overstepping her bounds, on the identical time, it appears as if he has an curiosity in her not being on stability,” admits Wolf.
“And so in sure instances, she is enjoying into Richard’s makes an attempt at defending himself and doubtlessly being essential of her by overstepping her bounds right here and there and by breaking protocols which have been established to guard her and the sufferers she’s a part of taking care of,” he continues. “So yeah, it’s actually sophisticated as a result of there may be an on the floor authentic facet to all the things that Richard is doing, however as a result of we all know that he’s in some methods defending himself and perhaps working in opposition to her, all the things’s thrown into query.”
Doc, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox