Doc Season 2 Episode 15 Delivers a Chicago Med Alum, Miller’s Return & More Secrecy

Critic’s Rating: 4.1 / 5.0

4.1

Secrets, secrets are no fun at all!

And there were plenty of those circulating around Doc Season 2 Episode 15, from the messy Larsen-Hamda family drama to Joan exposure.

But the real conflict lies in Richard Miller’s return.

The good news in shifting from the revenge plot with Hannah and Charlie is that we’ve seemingly moved on from it for good.

Yes, the wrap-up for it was far too abrupt given how the arc dragged on for many, but to those who loathed the arc, I say, “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

However, that arc has paved the way for Amy to have a different type of conflict at work, and it seems that will be the return of Richard Miller.

We knew after Doc Season 2 Episode 13 that Miller would be leveraging information to get something out of Westside, and he did. Learning about how two major instances of people unleashing havoc on the hospital related to Amy specifically gave Miller something to bargain with.

And now, he’ll be returning to work full-time at Westside after settling with the Dixon family.

If Amy felt like a pariah returning to the hospital without any memory of her treatment of others, then Miller should very much feel the same as he returns after all the controversy from Doc Season 1.

It’s rather insane, isn’t it? The idea is that Amy created a “hostile environment,” yet bringing Miller back isn’t a “hostile environment?”

Hostility abounds and simmers within the walls of Westside, from Amy’s personal life clashing with her professional life to the impending fallout when TJ and Sonya expose Joan.

Friendships have fallen apart, mentorships are in a precarious state, families are fractured … it’s just another day on Doc!

The only real person who challenged Miller’s return and his motivations was Michael, but we’ve long established that he has zero capital or sway in that boardroom. At this point, to paraphrase Fitzgerald Grant, ‘he’s ornamental, not functional.’

But it seems Doc will take the same approach they did before, trying to add layers to Miller so he isn’t just a one-dimensional antagonist. Except, it still doesn’t work — he killed a guy, but the efforts to cover it up were heinous.

For Miller, being a doctor is all he knows and loves; not practicing medicine isn’t an option. He’s akin to Amy herself in that regard.

But he also loves his family, and since no other hospitals in Minneapolis will touch him, he has to work at Westside because his family has already been through a lot.

They still have their own family issues to deal with, and he doesn’t want to uproot them.

It’s perfectly reasonable from his perspective, even if his arrival is bound to unleash holy hell on Amy and all of Westside. So, here we are, with Miller officially back, and his timing couldn’t be more chaotic.

Now, one has to wonder how Joan will factor into things. If she’s properly incentivized, she could be a more reliable ally to Miller in the coming days, especially with the threat of her secret being exposed.

This situation with Joan is tough because she has to disclose her health issues, as they can seriously impact the livelihood of patients.

But it also doesn’t feel right watching Sonya and TJ scheming, digging into her medical history, office, and violating her privacy, just to confirm something they suspect, instead of using the proper channels.

They came across like meddlesome teenagers. Hell, they probably need to be grounded for a beat right up there with Katie.

All I kept thinking about is: don’t either of them have patients right now?

Joan is going to find out that they’ve been looking into her, specifically TJ, since he looked her up in the system, and she’ll either come clean in some capacity to the people she needs to or make their lives hell.

We know Joan is a perfectly reasonable person in most aspects of her life, but if it comes to her losing the one thing she lives for — she’ll come out swinging, viciously.

Doc’s characters will always pick the hardest paths for almost everything. TJ has been great with Joan, finding a mentor in her and getting to fall in love with surgery.

But in his effort to protect Sonya, he’ll be the one in Joan’s line of sight when all of this starts to spiral, and I don’t think he or Sonya is thinking clearly enough to be prepared for what that could mean.

Sonya, being tolerable and even likable at times with TJ and TJ alone, will easily go out the window if she becomes the reason he gets terminated or something.

The cases this season have been really strong, and admittedly, they’ve been what I cling to most when some of the other storylines have my head spinning.

As a Chicago Med fan, it was exciting to see Brian Tee guest-star, this time playing a patient rather than an accomplished doctor.

The entire Bobby Ho arc was fun and amusing. It was nice to see Gina and Jake working together on the case, because they rarely get to interact much outside of Amy. It’s a delight every time that happens.

And Gina pulling a placebo stunt on the world-famous poker player to help him overcome his case of the yips was endearing. It’s also the type of thing I always appreciate about what Gina brings to the table as both a neurologist and a psychologist.

The hour even tossed an obnoxious Peter into the fold so they could test Bobby’s skills during poker games using cotton balls.

This hospital can be so unserious sometimes, and I love it. Those were some genuinely fun scenes.

Whereas Amy’s case brought the heartache.

I loved how close Diane and Lily were, and getting to spend time with patients like that has been great for informing things for the doctors outside of those cases.

There was some interesting overlap: Diane came from a place of guilt and shame over a secret she felt would hurt Lily, yet she was also so full of love for her granddaughter.

And, of course, there was a matter of who feels worthy of forgiveness and grace. Diane cared for her granddaughter because she loved her with all she had.

Her feeling guilty is a totally different factor that doesn’t and shouldn’t detract from that love.

She didn’t feel like she deserved the grace or sacrifice that Lily would give her by donating part of her liver. And she was very much wallowing in her guilt and being stubborn.

But she was also making these decisions for Lily, out of love, and not allowing Lily to do the same or have her say.

It felt like it paralleled Katie and Amy’s dynamic a bit. Amy always has so much guilt. I’ve said before that she at times seems like she’s apologizing before she even gets into a room — for things she doesn’t understand or remember.

So, Diane’s case was a great one for Amy to make her reflect on while trying to save her life and arrange the Domino surgery. That seemed far-fetched, but it worked out well enough.

It feels like Diane and Lily got their second chance, and their relationship improved because there was no secrecy and real honesty.

Secrets can make you sick and even kill.

If cases like that are what it takes for Amy, Michael, and Katie to get it together, then so be it.

We got some new flashbacks on that front. The only thing I loved more than Amy turning her new apartment into a rage room to destroy her wedding China was drunk Amy trying to hook up with a bartender.

Side note: Amy’s neighbors must’ve hated her, and also, she was probably stepping on random bits of glass for the next two years.

Also, that bartender totally should’ve known better.

Amy could not take the betrayal of Michael cheating on her, and it made sense. Losing her son was horrible enough, but learning her husband was having an affair when she was already struggling sucked.

Of course, it also hurt that Katie was the one to bring it up with her and frame it as something Amy needed to fix.

From all the latest drama, we learned there was just so much miscommunication about when Michael had the affair, what it looked like, and so forth.

I guess Amy never realized it was him speaking to Nora recently, after his wife had shut him out for two years.

And he never realized that Amy knew about it, and that’s why she left him directly after they had sex and planned to work things out.

I guess that’s supposed to make things better somehow, but the context doesn’t make me feel any different. We know more about why the misunderstandings persist, but that all of this is something that couldn’t even be discussed for years is too much for me.

Amy felt betrayed, Michael felt abandoned, and Katie blamed herself all of this time for the dissolution of a marriage that had happened well before her meddling.

And NO ONE is capable of properly communicating. The communication issues with this family are downright exhausting at this point.

Amy really getting to express her hurt was a great moment because she doesn’t typically get to do that.

It’s easy to get lost in how well she’s coping, but she’s always playing catch-up because everyone gets to tell Amy her own history, with their own curated versions.

She spent all this time believing she was the only reason her marriage and family fell apart. And she’s been taking all this heat while Michael gets to be scorned and the “good guy.”

Her calling him out on that was probably cathartic and essential. His lack of any real reaction to that, or to anything resembling accountability, and just opting for deflection and blame, or just no acknowledgment, remains bizarre and infuriating.

Katie still reads as wildly youthful and emotionally immature at times, as if some of this would work better if she were, maybe, four years younger.

It’s all very messy, and I don’t know. I got nothing. It’s hard to say where this should even be headed or where I’d even want it to head at this rate.

Amy and Michael are still lying and omitting to Katie, even though it never serves them or her well. Michael still believes they could’ve been something, and even if he were right, what difference does it make now?

Also, he has bigger issues to focus on. They’re still trying to keep the love triangle alive, I guess, but oof.

I have nothing, but at least Amy has Jake, who is supportive and gives her space to sort things out without giving unnecessary input. He’s a great confidante.

And he seems to get Amy.

On any other series, her telling him about her anger with Michael would become a whole jealousy sort of arc, but Jake is sympathetic and even could speak to her from the perspective of someone who knows how much and how long it hurts when a spouse betrays your trust with infidelity.

I also love that he’s respecting Rachel’s wishes not to tell anyone about her cancer scare.

Amy is likely piecing it together, though. And Jake signing off on things without so much as a discussion, and the question mark regarding Rachel’s personal life. All of it feels… concerning, distantly.

It’s Doc, after all. They constantly leave us waiting for another shoe to drop.

Doc returns with all-new episodes on March 3.

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