DOC Season 2, Episode 10 Review: ‘Chief’

I missed DOC and have been anxiously awaiting what will happen next. We left off with Amy and Jake kissing, and we return with them back in bed together. There is no doubt that our ship has set sail, and we’re thinking that it is not going to be an easy sail. Rough waters straight ahead.

When I think about television shows and them returning from a break, I have to always rewatch the finale. This episode, I am glad that I did because I had to remember all the drama.

And the drama is in peak form. But this episode was more than drama – it was an episode that destroyed me. There was no part of me that wasn’t filled with tears by the time this episode ended.

The episode opened easily enough with Michael on a run, a paramedic outside a hospital, and ended with me barely being able to see through my tears. DOC delivered a powerful episode that will stick with me and be deep in my soul. It was an hour of television that gave us a powerful story that was tethered by performances that were even more powerful.

JOAN IS BACK

I can’t even blame the paramedic for waiting outside the hospital. I would not want anyone to know if I was having a problem with my backside. Luckily, they were outsid,e though – the doctor and the paramedic. If not, who would have been able to be there for Tim. Who would have known that someone would leave a man in the street?

Michael and Amy are in the same room together, and it doesn’t seem easy. He wants to make things up with Nora, which I get. They just had a bab,y and Amy’s stuff is getting released – well, that should have never gotten out. Hannah and Charlie are out to ruin Amy, but again, they don’t understand that.

Joan is back, and I wish she would stay gone. She is way too much for me, like way too much. She’s a liar, and she’s hiding something. Amy. Michael and Joan are catching up on what has gone on. Dealing with the hack and the drama, Joan has an issue. Does Amy want to find her hackers, or does she want to be a doctor?

News flash, Joan – she can do both.

Amy believes that it has to be the man in her visions. She doesn’t know how close she is.

It’s his kids.

Joan won’t let Amy go back to triggering her mind. Headaches and nosebleeds, she is not signing off on. Would love for Amy to remember everything. It’s hard to even imagine how everyone around her remembers everything and she remembers nothing.

Joan wants Amy to prove herself, and I can appreciate that. However, I do believe that Joan should prove herself, too.

A MISSING MAN

Amy and Sonya working together seems impossible. And that is because of both of them. Sonya is not making any progress in figuring out who the man dropped off at the hospital is. He keeps telling her that he’s an agent, and it has to be the CIA or someone like that following him.

Amy, though, doesn’t dismiss it. She instead talks to him on his level, getting him to admit his name is Tim. Sonya dismisses her talking to him as if what he is saying is correct.

Amy does not have the best bedside manner, but Sonya sure as he** doesn’t either. As different as both of them are, I feel they could really learn from each other. The two do not know how to communicate unless it is someone they want to hear from. That is a hindrance to their patients. Quite honestly, watching them together, it is really awkward and uncomfortable.

Amy is able to figure out who Tim is. He’s been missing for seven years and was legally declared dead just four months prior. Sonya doesn’t want to do a lot of tests on him, as she feels that he is dangerous. His wife shows up, and he loses his composure with her being there. He wants to protect her, and she’s not giving up on him. It doesn’t matter that he’s been gone for seven years.

Sonya is not willing to listen to Amy is putting everyone at risk. I think we all understand that she has endured Amy’s wrath in the past, and she’s in control now. However, it’s her need for control that is going to put patients at risk.

THE HACKING

Hannah – just seeing her and her brother makes me sick. The two have hung Amy and Gina out to dry, but they didn’t consider the way that they would ruin others lives.

Michael and Gina have to meet up every week and understandably so, he’s mad. He’s so dismissive of her, though, that it really is going to become a bigger problem. I do understand that the hacking has ruined his life, and Nora doesn’t want to have him anywhere near her.

Gina was out of line, recording sessions. But Michael is treating Gina as if she meant to ruin his relationship and for the recordings to get out. While we don’t know all of the things that Amy and Michael did to end their relationship, what we do know is that the game that people are playing isn’t right. Hannah needs to rein her brother in, because he is going to destroy everyone. Innocent people are going to pay, and neither of them knows what happened to their father. It’s crazy to me that they were willing to possibly be worse than Amy.

Charlie and his friend unleash a phishing email so that they can wipe the metadata from the hospital. It forced the hospital computers to reboot, putting all the patients at risk.

While we do understand that they want vengeance for their father, but like do you know the whole story? Probably not. If anything, it’s taught me not to jump to conclusions and, instead, figure things out. However, the things that they are doing are careless, and the long-term ramifications will stick with them forever.

A CONNECTION BETWEEN THEM ALL

Amy isn’t giving up on Tim. The reboot caused her blood tests she ordered to be compromised, so she went in to get new ones. She’s advocating for more tests, and Sonya is stuck strong on not moving him.

Jake and TJ’s patient is in a coma and they can’t figure out why. The mother keeps telling them that her daughter was at home and that she wasn’t out the night before. There was something that was missing in the timeline of things.

I think that the Mom didn’t want to think that her daughter could be keeping anything from her. However, that’s what teenagers do. As the Mom searches for answers, I couldn’t help but want to fly through my screen and give that Mom hope. That Mom was living through her daughter in a coma, and the possibility of her having been sexually assaulted.

In another room, the boy who had dropped the homeless man off was there. He wasn’t feeling well, and his parents said he’d never been this sick. He was conscious, though, not really offering up any information. Hannah was his doctor and had dismissed it as possibly just food poisoning.

Amy is the one that realizes that Tim, the boy, and the girl in the coma all have the same signs of things happening to them. The three are moved into the same room, making it easier to monitor them.

THE ANGER THAT RISES

The boy tells them that they were all at an abandoned house the night before. They had found the man under a beam and got him in the car to get him help. He’d dropped the girl off because she was scared, and then took him to the hospital. He is the one who finally gives clues to where they all were.

TJ knows that they won’t get the answers in time from public health in order to help their patients. So he goes into the house in a hazmat suit and finds that they all have copper sulfate poisoning.

Most procedurals, at this point, would have everyone survive. You’ve got two patients who are toeing the line and then one who seems fine. It’s the one who seems fine that codes.

I don’t think that I have ever cried so hard at an episode of television. The way that the team jumped into action when the code blue started, and everyone jumped in, sent chills. His Mom started screaming and crying, unable to let go of her son.

Everyone is helping and all I can do is concentrate on the Mom, and the other people in the room. Their fear is showing in their eyes and the anguish across their face. Joan sends Amy to be with the parents versus helping with the code.

Amy is a smart doctor, but I do agree with Joan that Amy’s best place is with the parents. She can relate and therefore offer comfort. Seeing the father drop to his knees and beg for his son’s life made the tears I was already crying flow even more.

There was such a sense of loss that filled everyone’s eyes. Tears were flowing from everyone’s eyes. The boy died, and for them to all experience that loss was a lot. It felt as though most people on the floor were involved. There were so many mistakes made that it hindered care.

Two out of three of the people who were exposed survived. That one loss will be something that they will never forget. It will change this hospital forever.

YOU KILLED HIM

Amy is frustrated and angry. She’s upset that she’s not listened to because of her amnesia. She wants people to take her seriously. I just don’t think that exploding on Sonya and Jake was the right answer.

There is a hierarchy to things, and a lot of the time, I don’t agree with them. But Amy should have gone to Joan or Michael. But unleashing on Sonya was uncalled for. She doesn’t know what anyone else is going through or what Sonya may feel inside. Yes, there were a bunch of missteps that led to a death, but I do not think that berating anyone is going to help anything.

Part of the reason that DOC is so addictive is that it goes there. It isn’t afraid to challenge its characters. It isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo and make sure that it not only showcases its characters strength, but also their vulnerability, as well as any weaknesses.

These characters are all evolving and while they remain less than perfect they also remain human. I do think that this death may change them all. It’s already changing them.

Between the hack, the death, and the arguments, this hospital will be changed forever.

The worst is that Katie is affected. One of the messages that the hacker sent out was to Katie. It was cruel. It had Amy saying that she favored Danny, and it hurt to look at Katie.

Seeing the way that she looked destroyed and the tears that flowed… my heart broke.

This season of DOC may destroy us all.

OTHER THOUGHTS

• The paramedic being embarrassed – I get that
• I will keep saying this – Amy and Dr. Maitra need to learn to get along
• Michael is going to see Nora and her reaction. I felt so bad for him
• Jake and Amy are together in bed at the beginning. Is he being nice only cause of his dad’s passing?
• Charlie is sending an AI message to Katie – you’re gross.
• The IT department not being able to figure out where the hack is coming from makes me so mad
• I hate Hannah and Charlie
• This episode should come with a disclaimer, “even the coldest of hearts will feel after watching this one”
• Katie deserves better
• Gina is getting dragged – Hannah and Charlie keep making everything worse.