Warning: SPOILERS forDocseason 1, episode 10, “…Must Come Down.“The season 1 finale ofDocwraps up a major ongoing storyline, but it’s hard to say afterward whether Amy is truly the hero of her own story. GivenDoc’s real-life inspirationand the fact that the series mirrors the real accident on which it’s based more closely than the original Italian series did, it seems almost in poor taste to risk making the main character too unlikable. Every show needs drama, butDoc’s season finale might push things just a bit too far in that department.
Much of the finale sets up the storyline forDocseason 2. Nearly every main character now has emotional story arcs that will need to be revisited. Throughout season 1,the main conflict has been Richard’s attempt to cover up his role in the death of patient Bill Dixon. Season 1, episode 9 threw this storyline into high gear when Richard successfully convinced Amy that she had prescribed the metoprolol that ultimately caused Dixon’s death. That conflict has now been resolved, but the manner in which it happens causes Amy to feel like a more ethically ambiguous character as well.
Doc Season 1 Finale Explained
Season 2 Has A Lot Of Pieces To Pick Up
After Amy starts pulling away from everyone out of guilt, her daughter Katydid convinces her to address whatever’s bothering her directly. This inspires Amy to visit Dixon’s widow, Patty, and admit that she caused his death. But whenPatty reveals that she was there during Bill’s discharge and never saw him prescribed a beta blocker, Amy uncovers Richard’s lie. She outs Richard to Michael and Max, after which it’s decided that Richard will face the board and likely have his license suspended.
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Meanwhile, every other aspect of Amy’s life blows up at once. Although TJ forgives Amy’s controversial course of treatment for his father when Mr. Coleman’s paralysis is ultimately healed,both Jake and Nora are now aware of Michael and Amy’s recent kiss.Jon Ecker’s Jake Hellerhad ended his friendship with Sonya when she tried to warn him, but there’s no telling where they stand now. Gina’s also on the outs with Amy after Michael was the only one there for her following a patient’s death. And Amy’s now in poor standing with the board, albeit for good reason.
Amy’s Demands In The Doc Season 1 Finale Are Unreasonable
After Richard’s dressing down, Max follows Amy into the hallway and warns her that she’s going to face consequences with the board for approaching a patient’s family to reveal sensitive information without the board’s knowledge or approval.Amy responds by confidently saying she won’t face any consequences at all, and that the hospital will pay Patty as high a settlement as she wants. Amy then declares her intention to become chief again within a few months, saying the hospital would be lucky to have her in the position.
Just because Amy storms off self-assuredly after her tirade doesn’t mean she’s actually right.
The thing is that Amy doesn’t have nearly as much leverage here as she seems to think. Just because Amy storms off self-assuredly after her tirade doesn’t mean she’s actually right.Max has a point that Amy risked blindsiding the hospital’s legal team if Patty had immediately contacted a lawyer, and she robbed them of the chance to prepare for that kind of fallout. But more importantly, Amy’s speech demonstrates the exact same coldness related towhy Sonya hated Amy inDocbefore her accident. Between that and cheating on Jake, she’s not ending the season in a positive light.
I Don’t Think Amy Deserves To Be Reinstated As The Chief (At Least For Now)
Amy Needs To Learn How To Fail Before She Should Succeed Again
Not only did Amy fail to consider the risk she posed to the hospital by approaching Patty Dixon and revealing she’s been lied to for three months about the cause of her husband’s death,her backslide into old personality traits shows that Amy still hasn’t learned to fail graciously. This was already evident from the way she handled Mr. Coleman’s lack of progress. She’d said he would improve within hours in the previous episode, but his breakthrough happens suddenly offscreen over 24 hours later. Even if she was right about the treatment, she was technically still wrong about the timeline.
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Without wishing any ill on TJ or his father, it might have actually been better for Amy if she’d been wrong entirely. There have been several episodes already in which Amy’s patients got worse before she finally landed on the proper treatment course in the eleventh hour when they were about to die. But her takeaway is never that she can be wrong, only that she’s eventually right. ForDocto justify Amy ever being reinstated as chief, she needs to learn accountability. As of the season 1 finale, it’s looking like a long road ahead before she gets there.
Doc
Cast
Doc is a 2025 drama featuring Dr. Amy Larsen, who copes with a brain injury leaving her without memories of the last eight years. Relying on her estranged daughter and close friends, she confronts challenges in practicing medicine and personal life, struggling to regain lost expertise and connections.
