Doc is back, and the past is very much alive for Dr. Amy Larsen. The FOX medical drama's third season premiere, titled «Wherefore Art Thou,» returns to Westside with a flashback-heavy hour that catches viewers up on Amy's world while setting up a season of new tensions and unresolved history.
The premiere eases viewers back into the show's rhythm, though it suffers from a case of what might be called «premiereitis» — the multi-season equivalent of pilotitis. It delivers a lot of information at once, retelling the story while laying groundwork for what's ahead. But it's the cliffhanger that truly makes you sit up and take notice.
That cliffhanger centers on Ben, who presents as a new antagonist for the series. He immediately reads as a power player with an agenda, someone who has earned praise from everyone around him through his skill set and professional reputation — but whose hidden motivations could disrupt everything. If the Season 2 finale gave viewers a version of Ben who was charming, suave, and a bit of a cowboy with immense respect for Amy and a love for the rush of surgery, the premiere offers a different side: more arrogant and calculating. It's a shift that recalls shades of Morris Chestnut's run as Barrett Cain on The Resident. For now, Ben feels like a wild card who is hard to place, largely because of his connection to Amy, which remains difficult to decipher.
We know they were involved with each other sometime after she and Michael divorced, and presumably before she started her relationship with Jake. But a cliffhanger flashback to a phone call between them briefly raises questions about that timeline. Much of the hour's flashbacks take place on the day of Amy's accident, a date that may carry specific significance or may simply serve as a reminder of how serious things had become with Jake.
The flashbacks are often one of Doc's strongest tools for telling Amy's story and shaping her character. But sometimes they're employed when they aren't needed, or they're combined with the memory angle in ways that lead to more confusion than clarity. The premiere gives us a host of memories returning to Amy, though they carry a more emotional and less urgent tone since they tend to be rooted in how she has connected with those around her.
On the day of her accident, Amy was livid at Sonya for not backing her and essentially throwing her under the bus when a patient's family lodged a complaint. Her abrasive, derisive behavior toward Sonya — for what was likely the umpteenth time — led Sonya to finally say she would turn in her resignation. The two women were like oil and water, and it was difficult to watch at times. There was no love lost on either side, but it does mean they were in an interesting place post-accident: Sonya was still in that place of wanting to quit, and now Amy is back and a different person. The flashbacks retread water, reminding us how difficult and harsh Amy could be to anyone who wasn't Jake, and they also try to remind us to sympathize with Sonya's position as someone seemingly always on the receiving end of Amy's behavior. To be fair, Amy using almost any chance she could to make digs at Sonya to colleagues was unbelievably unprofessional.
But those flashbacks and the memories Amy shared also showed how serious things were between her and Jake, which makes where they are now hurt more. On the day of the accident, she was finally ready to go public with their relationship, with both of them saying they'd tell their daughters about one another. She was actively telling him she loved him. Jake seemed to be the one good thing that lit up her world and put a smile on her face.
Now they're in a weird impasse: broken up and trying to remain professional around each other, but it's just awkward. In many ways, Amy taking a beat to focus on herself and what she needs and wants out of life before complicating and confusing her dynamics with other people is perfectly reasonable. It's a messy situation, but one that leaves many characters typically caught up in romantic entanglements trying to focus their energy elsewhere.
Amy remains at the center of it all, with a newfound purpose and intention. The season premiere sets up a season that will likely explore whether the past can ever truly be put to rest — or whether it will keep pulling Amy back in.