‘Doc’: Patrick Walker Talks TJ & Amy’s Past, Present Tension & Season 1 Finale Emergency

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Doc Season 1 Episode 9 “What Goes Up…”]

All season on Doc, and even before Amy’s (Molly Parker) accident when her attitude had rubbed some the wrong way, TJ (Patrick Walker) had been on her side. That changes in the penultimate episode of Season 1.

“What Goes Up…” reveals how the two met, when TJ had a medical crisis on a flight Amy happened to be on; she saved his life. But in the present, when TJ’s father (Demore Barnes) is the patient, the two butt heads over his diagnosis and treatment — and the fact that his dad gets worse when he goes with her recommendation. Below, Walker discusses the deep dive into TJ and Amy’s past and teases the Season 1 finale.

We really get to delve into TJ in this episode. Talk about reading the script and seeing everything with the flashbacks, but then also what goes on in the present day.

Patrick Walker: First off, as a performer, I was excited to see it all come together because even me as an actor, reading it as a fan of the show, I was waiting for this moment to come. I was like, okay, I know there’s a secret between Amy and TJ, and I was waiting for it to come, and I was happy that it comes towards our ending because I felt very privileged to be able to close the show out with the last two episodes. But I was overjoyed. I think seeing the flashbacks and learning about where I came from, and even as an actor, getting a chance to get that much backstory is a rare treat because shows that I’ve been a part of haven’t been very flashback heavy, most shows aren’t. So knowing I get a chance to learn about how I was when I was younger, my first moments with Amy, that was great. And the young actor who played TJ, Jordan, he did such a great job. Before he shot his first day, we had talked on the phone and we got a chance to sit down and hang out first. And I met his family and I was able to give him some pointers on the TJ that I am now in order to give him some good foundation points as the TJ that I was then. So it felt good. It was amazing, and it was so fun to watch. I got a chance to see it a while ago, and I was like, oh, this is good.

How much of that backstory had you known before getting this script? Is that something you had known to inform you throughout the season, or did you learn all of that with this script?

I learned most of it with the script. I knew already that something had happened on a plane. Barbie [Kligman], the showrunner, kind of gave me a little hint early on of how they were trying to make the TJ storyline work because we were taking some inspiration from the original Doc series, the Italian version, but I believe his leg was amputated or there was something interesting about his story. So they were just trying to find a good way that they could bring it over. And all I knew was that something happened on the plane. I didn’t know anything else.

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The thing is, TJ has been one of the few people always on Amy’s side, but then that changes with this episode. So how was it playing a TJ who’s against her as his father gets worse by the end of this episode?

It was really interesting because I think psychologically when TJ is experiencing Amy be this way, he’s now watching the woman who he’s always championed her moves. And even if you go back to the episode where TJ stands up against the military guys, parts of his actions then were heavily influenced by watching Amy go above and beyond for different patients. I think in this moment now watching her go a little bit further than I want her to go, and it’s now happening to me, I’m like, oh, wait, this is not what I want. So it was really interesting to try to essentially not like her for that time and not like what she was doing and to not be on board with any of her actions. Because I’m a doctor as well, and I feel like I know the best way to go, and I know the best route to take it. I know probabilities. I know what I’m looking at when I look at the monitor. It is hard for TJ to shut off the things that he knows and to put Amy’s thoughts, Amy’s analysis above his own.

This episode also you had to play TJ the doctor but then TJ the son as well. How did you find the balance of that?

I got a chance to sit and talk to Demore Barnes and Cherion Drakes, who played my father and mother before we went into anything, and that was great just to quickly establish chemistry with them in the trailer, just us getting a chance to all talk together. But I was really happy about it. I was glad that we got a chance to see TJ be a regular guy because he always has to be buttoned up and clean. And I think when it’s with his dad, you get a chance to see that charisma a little bit more. You get a chance to see other versions of him in the beginning of the episode, which is great. And even the episode being where he’s off work, when I was prepping for the episode, I was like, okay, he’s not on the clock. Everybody, when they on the clock, they have to act a certain way at every job. You fit into the role of what you have to do. But I knew, okay, hey, TJ’s not on the clock. This episode, he’s running around as a civilian. So I think that gave me some freedom in terms of not having to be so buttoned up, and so Ts crossed and dotted Is or whatever, it felt like he could be a human, and that was fun to play. I think when you put that doctor coat on, it immediately gives you more. It’s like you put on a cape and it’s like you’re Superman. So this episode, we get a chance to see more of the Clark Kent side of TJ than the Superman that we get a chance to normally see.

It seems like the events surrounding his father’s care have changed how TJ looks at Amy in a way that nothing else has. How is he looking at Amy going forward now?

I know he’s taking note of everything that she’s doing, and TJ knows that Amy cares. He knows that she actually cares about his father and that she cares about him. I don’t think it’s as much anger, but I think it is more in the frustration of the fact that we’re not seeing eye to eye.

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Episode 9 does leave TJ and Amy in a tense place. What can you tease about what we’re going to see from them in the finale?

I always look at TJ and Amy’s relationship like an aunt and a nephew. I’m like, okay, she’s not like a mother to him, but she feels like she’s close enough to him to be his aunt. So to me, it feels like in Episode 10, we get a chance to see, in a very interesting way, a nephew and his aunt not see eye to eye. It’s even hard to say that they’re friends because it feels like they’re much closer than that because she’s known him since he was so young. So I feel like we’ll get a chance to see two family members have a problem and see it differently and watch how they try to figure it out and their different methods as to how it get figured out.

We really get to see TJ step up in the finale in the middle of the medical emergency. What can you preview about that?

Oh, yeah. I love that part, too. We get a chance to see TJ put his past in action, knowing that he was a combat medic. You get a chance to see what a combat medic looks like now turned into a doctor. So immediately in Episode 10, when all the patients come in, TJ is ready. He’s making these quick diagnoses. It’s like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you also get a chance to see that, not harshness, but that bluntness that came from when he served. So watching one patient where it’s like, Hey, black tag, we have to move on. We save this blood for people who need the blood. If they’re dying, there’s not much we can do about that. You got to move on. So there’s these skills that he’s gotten from being in combat that are now coming in handy as we go through this catastrophic event where no one knows really what to do except for TJ.

Yeah, he’s comfortable in a way no one else is in that situation.

Very comfortable. He’s very comfortable.

Doc, Season 1 Finale, Tuesday, March 18, 9/8c, Fox

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