Why is it that we’re on DOC Season 1, Episode 8 and I am feeling like I am finally so invested? I do not like the fact that we’re towards the end of the season and we’ve finally set it up so that there are characters that I am genuinely wanting to look out for.
These days, it doesn’t feel like most people know how to put together a pilot, so you have to be willing to be in it for the long haul. You have to take a chance and be willing to give up your time.
Somehow with DOC, that felt easy. It felt as though it would pay off. Now, here we are, and I am not ready for the season to end. Two more episodes, but if this season ends on a cliffhanger, this writer will be destroyed.
THE DRAMA AT THE STORE
One thing that I love with any procedural is setting up the cases. A lot of the time those things are done in an office, but when they show us how things came together, I get excited.
I get excited because we get to see people out in the world, living their lives. I feel like it allows us to see moments of their lives that we wouldn’t see any other way. In this case, Francine is in a store, and she seems to have no inhibitions. She’s saying what she wants without filter and quite honestly, not recognizing what she is saying.
When she makes a spectacle of herself, followed by running out the door and into the street – you can’t help but feel bad for her. It was when Francine fell, that I started to worry. Instantly, I tried to think about what could be wrong and what could have made her act the way that she did.
Amy gets to work and is called into Dr. Miller’s office. The floor is short-staffed, so Amy will be working with him that day. She’s nervous but willing to do it. Mostly cause she has no choice.
It’s interesting to see Amy and Dr. Miller together because the two didn’t get along. I can’t figure out if he’s keeping her close because he wants to make sure that she isn’t remembering anything or if he genuinely cares. I do think with all of the flashbacks that these two once liked each other.
It’s just that everything changed when Amy changed. She started noticing more things and Dr. Miller was in her path. Yes, he made mistakes too and he can’t deny that. Well, he can, cause the only person who knew was Amy.
The two are Francine’s doctors. Just watching them, you see that they have two distinct approaches to being doctors.
ONCE FRIENDS
I can’t help but love flashbacks. I think that flashbacks are important to any story because there is a beginning to how things happen. I was just discussing with a friend, how a lot of pilots feel like they are starting in the middle and the beginning of stories is not prominent. So, I rely on flashbacks to set a story.
And DOC definitely needs the flashbacks.
Hospitals, as we’ve learned from television, are grown-up high schools. There is drama, cheating, intrigue, and more. But like I said, there is a beginning to every story.
Amy and Dr. Miller used to get along. They used to communicate in a healthy way and they used to know that was important. She was with him when she got the call about Danny and the field trip. She was with Dr. Miller when she found out that her son had died.
He offered to step in so she could have more time off, but she was so angry that she couldn’t do that. She threw her hat in the ring for Chief when she had told him she wouldn’t. She started speaking up when he made mistakes.
The two of them really never had the best communication about real-life things. He never told her about his son and having the issues he did.
Seeing them in the past makes me understand their different approaches to medicine now. He thinks she over tests and I really don’t see it that way. I see it as Amy wanting to make sure that no one leaves that hospital thinking that the doctors could have done more.
He’s not such a j*** – he listens to her as she explains what she wants to test for. She’s considerate when she’s talking to Francine’s sister and finds out their father had the same symptoms.
It leads them to do more tests on Francine to see if they can figure out what is going on with her. Quite honestly, I really loved the way that these two worked together and found out what was wrong with Francine.
IT’S NOT AN INNER EAR ISSUE
There are things that you go to the hospital for and well, for me, I run away from hospitals. That’s only because I spend too much time in doctors’ offices and hospitals.
Wes heads into the hospital and they don’t know what is wrong with him. Dr. Heller is trying to figure out what is wrong with him. The only thing that Wes wants to say is that he just needs to be at his high school reunion that is that weekend. The girl he’s loved this entire life, Olivia, is supposed to be there.
Wes considers her the girl that got away.
He’s smart and witty, not knowing what to say. He’s the type that remains normal and calm – whatever that means. It doesn’t matter what is happening, he’s going to be okay. Or well, at least he will make the world think he is.
Dr. Heller is trying to get answers, but Wes’ nurse treats it like it’s a rom-com. She is relaying all of the information that she overhears to the other nurses. I am guessing that it was a slow day.
Wes wants to keep going with the testing – no matter what is happening. He can’t stop talking about Olivia and quite frankly it’s enough to make me want to run out of a room. He’s determined to make it to the reunion, even if it’s only a few days away. Dr. Heller laughs at the whole situation, but I think that it’s because he’s in love with Amy and it’s the love bubble he’s in.
It’s when his best friend shows up, that they realize it’s not an inner ear issue. Dr. Heller ordered more tests, thinking it could be a heart condition due to the tightness in his chest.
SISTER SISTER
Relationships are complicated. None would be more complicated than family. Family relationships are weird. Loving someone because they are family is one thing, but you can also be angry and not like them.
Francine and her sister don’t get along. Her sister thinks that she’s a drunk and doing everything wrong. She thinks she’s careless. She doesn’t get that Francine could have something wrong.
That is until Amy.
When Amy talks to Francine’s sister, she does it in such a way that even I want to go visit Francine. Connie, her sister, shows up with her kids to be there for her sister. When she walked into the room, I smiled. I smiled because I felt like for a moment Francine was less alone.
She needed to feel that love that she wasn’t feeling in any way.
Having a terminal illness is terrifying. It’s also one of the loneliest things in the world. You don’t want to be a burden, but you do want to feel loved. Sometimes it’s not a straight line. It’s a confusing one.
I was happy that as Francine learned that she had dementia, she had her sister.
MAKE IT A ROM-COM
I have been the best friend who the man doesn’t see and therefore I understand why it is that Mandy, the bestie in this situation is willing to fall on a sword and give Wes his space. There’s this weird space in friendships where you don’t want to ruin a friendship, but you also need to be honest.
Mandy has loved Wes since high school, but she has kept it to herself. He’s been in love with Olivia, whom he considers the one who got away. Oh, sweet Wes, people got away for a reason. If they wanted to stay, they would have.
We applaud you though, you sweet summer child.
Wes is a cute, charming, nerdy guy and he really is oblivious. He really doesn’t recognize just how bad anything is. Instead, he’s just dealing with the fact he was told he has a hole in his heart. Olivia shows up and he doesn’t even realize what is in front of him – what has been in front of him the entire time.
Mandy.
Everything that he had thought that he wanted and had missed out on, he actually hadn’t. What he had done was he missed that it was right in front of him.
Like the nurses, I was waiting for my ‘rom-com’ moment and yes, we did get it. But also, I didn’t expect it, which is part of the reason that I loved it so much.
Wes gets out of his chair and sees Mandy, all dressed up and into the elevator, they go.
MAKE IT OFFICIAL
It’s been a long day all around, but Michael, sir, you are out of line.
Now, if you’ve been here, you know that I love Michael. I think he’s strong and fierce and I do believe that he wants to be around Amy. Why? Because she now is the woman that he fell in love with. However, that being said, the dude needs to remember he has a wifey at home.
So … calm your jealousy, Michael.
I know that Amy and Jake are trying to keep their relationship private. It’s a vulnerable thing, something deeply personal, and something they are figuring out. For Jake, it is one thing, because he remembers the past. For Amy, it’s another.
Michael saw them when he was driving down the street. He was taken aback and he called Jake into his office. His rant sounds like a jealous schoolboy but also sets Jake off into overthinking.
When Amy finds out what is going on, it’s because Jake tells her. He tells her that he loves her and that if he needs to, he’ll go to another hospital because their relationship is what matters to him. He just wants to be with her.
She does, however, go and confront Michael about it. He’s got an explanation for everything, except the truth. His whole truth that is. He doesn’t seem to be towing a line and then wants to be a victim of her bad decisions.
Michael needs to calm down, but he also needs to really listen to Amy.
She isn’t asking for Michaels’s permission, but she is willing to give everyone honesty. The honesty that she’s willing to give everyone else. She wants to make the relationship with Jake HR official.
This could be something.
So she opens up to Dr. Miller and tells him about her relationship. She tells him not for approval, but to be honest and that I admire.
IT’S TIME TO GO HOME
Hospitals are only as good as the people that work in them. Some take their job too seriously, some not serious enough. And then some know that part of the job is being there for your patient. Bedside manners are of the utmost importance.
Francine’s sister says that she doesn’t want to know if she has it, but Amy and Dr. Miller have decided to send her blood to get tested just in case. They know that Connie will want to know, even if she’s not saying it. Fear changes people and keeps them from figuring out the truth.
I think that them being able to tell Connie that she didn’t have it, made it easier for her to put one foot in front of the other. I found it to be a sigh of relief for them all. Connie didn’t seem mad at all, rather she was relieved.
Dr. Miller and Amy knew that they did good things that day. They knew that there was a bit of relief that they were able to give the family that day. But also what they did that was good was that they were there for each other.
They started to learn more about each other and their walls came down a bit. Do I know how long this will last? No. But it feels like it is the start of a new friendship for them. It feels like something that they both need – a truce.
Amy does feel comfortable enough with Dr. Miller to tell him about the relationship between her and Jake. It was a good moment to see them figuring it out and figuring out how to be there for each other. The two don’t have to be enemies, but I don’t think that they will ever be friends.
When Amy goes and tells Jake that she wants their relationship out in the open, I smile. I smiled because she may just get her happy ending and well, cause I ship these two.
MOVIE NIGHT
Seeing Amy bond with Katie has been refreshing. The two of them need each other so therefore seeing them both find a bit of peace is really a good thing. Everyone deserves that.
The two, as well as Gina are at Amy’s apartment getting ready for movie night. The three seem so happy and to be having a good time. They are building core memories when there is a knock at the door.
Katie said she’d ordered ice cream, but it was definitely not ice cream on the other side of that door. It is Michael, who wants to talk to her. The two step into the hallway and Michael conservatively puts it all out there.
He doesn’t like feeling this way, but he does. He’s got feelings and emotions that he wasn’t prepared for. But they are there and he just really wants Amy to be okay. What he didn’t say – but I believe that he was thinking – is that he was still in love with Amy.
The two have a way of working things out, but I am not sure how this will all work out for them. I don’t know what will happen, but I feel a love triangle coming on.
DOC airs on Tuesday nights on Fox.
