‘Doc’: Scott Wolf on Major Richard Reveal & Showing His ‘Flawed, Wounded’ Side

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Doc Season 1 Episode 7 “Secrets and Lies.”]

Doc reveals another side of Richard (Scott Wolf), the hospital’s interim chief since Amy’s (Molly Parker) accident that took eight years of her memories from her, and it does explain what he was going through when he made the fatal mistake that cost a patient his life.

As the episode reveals, Richard has been hiding the fact that his son has bipolar and schizotypal disorders. Gina (Amirah Vann) reiterates what she’s told him before: He needs in-patient behavioral therapy. But instead, Richard and his wife have kept him at home. And now, Richard takes time off, ignoring a call from Sonya (Anya Banerjee) just as she reaches out to take time off after realizing her patient is the man who raped her. At the end of the episode, with their son packing for in-patient treatment, Richard and his wife sit down, and he reveals to her that he made a mistake and killed a patient and the only reason he still has a job is Amy’s accident. He feels like he doesn’t even deserve to be a doctor.

“This episode was obviously incredibly meaningful for Richard. He’s been carrying a lot and hiding a lot over the course of these first episodes,” Wolf tells TV Insider. “I knew eventually we were going to learn more about what was going on behind the scenes in Richard’s personal life and how that affected everything that had happened and that he was currently doing to protect himself. When I read the script for the episode, I was just blown away and I was so grateful. And it felt like a chance to really confront the audience in a really fun, challenging way, which is, you think you know this guy, you think you know sort of why he operates the way he does. Even if you don’t know all the details, you almost can’t imagine what you come to find out in this episode.”

As he sees it, the episode shows that while it’s easy to make presumptions about anyone — those in our lives and those who are strangers — “none of us really know everything that people are dealing with. And so this was a chance to take this guy who had been presented as the villain, the antagonist, the disturber of things, the holder of secrets, the harmer of people, and you see a flawed, wounded, terrified husband, father, human being who’s doing everything he can to hold his family together, to protect his son, who’s dealing with a really complicated mental health issue,” says Wolf.

Fox

Now that we know what he’s been dealing with, the audience has to ask if they’re willing to give him a second chance (the theme of the show). “It felt redemptive in a way and just so beautifully, fully human that whether it’s people in your life or characters you’re watching on screen, you never really know the whole story until you know the whole story, and even then there’s more to learn,” he adds.

By the end of the episode, Richard is privy to the assault but not that Amy helped Sonya cover up a mistake she made, that when her rapist taunted her and refused to call what he did to her rape, she injected air, not meds, into his central line. (Amy helped her fix it.) How would he have reacted if he’d been told?

“I know I could tell you how Scott reacted. Scott was like, hello, not the only coverup person around here,” Wolf says with a laugh. He does think that Richard “would’ve had compassion given what he’s experiencing but also what she went through.”

It does feel like Richard should have taken time off at some point between his son’s diagnosis and now, but Wolf notes this is “a pretty tragic story of a person who he takes his work very seriously. He always has.” That’s even more true now that he is interim chief.

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'Doc' Star Scott Wolf Talks Richard's Dilemma With Amy

“For Richard, the holding together of his life and his world for himself, for his family and at work for the patients and these other doctors is so important to him that I don’t know that he can really even see clearly what he needs,” he continues. “It’s easy from the outside sometimes to go, wow, this is a guy who needs to step away and take a moment, deal with his family life and step away from this work environment because he’s vulnerable. It’s really hard for a person who is in the middle of that storm to see it as clearly. And so in many ways this does become a tragic story of what happens to an otherwise very good person who gets so overwhelmed and makes decisions in the moment that aren’t really in his best interest or their best interest to try and protect themselves or stay in this environment where they’re being counted on.”

Wolf is looking forward to fans’ reactions and their responses asking themselves, “If I was ever pushed to the brink like that, would I be able to see it? Would I be able to step away or would I get caught [up in it], like he does?”

Wolf also praises Sonya’s story and Banerjee in this episode. “Sonya’s story is incredibly powerful and important. Anya was breathtaking in that performance,” he says. “So the way this show has handled really complicated issues, things that people in the world are really dealing with has been respectful to the highest degree, but also beautifully unique. I’m proud to be part of it.”

How do you feel about the Richard reveal? Let us know in the comments section below.

Doc, Tuesdays, 9/8c, Fox

If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual assault, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network‘s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

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