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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Doc Season 1 Episode 7 “Secrets and Lies.” The following post contains discussions of sexual assault.]
Sonya (Anya Banerjee) faces her most challenging patient yet in the latest Doc episode: Ravi (Ritesh Rajan), the man who raped her after her mother set them up.
Sonya struggles, even trying to reach out to interim chief Richard (Scott Wolf) to get off the case. but he’s too wrapped up in his own personal business to answer her call. Working alongside Amy (Molly Parker), Sonya does treat him, but when he taunts her and insists he didn’t rape her, she has a moment of weakness and injects air into his central line. Amy helps her fix it, then Sonya does open up to her. In the end, Sonya’s able to get justice: She not only reaches out to another woman he raped, but she’d also done a rape kit on herself and properly stored it. Sonya’s also taking time off and planning to attend support groups.
Below, Banerjee opens up about this tough episode for Sonya, her relationship with Amy, and what’s ahead.
Talk about reading the script for this entire episode. The way it builds… it’s heartbreaking for Sonya and it’s tough to watch her go through this.
Anya Banerjee: Absolutely. I was really excited as an actor to be able to really delve into Sonya’s backstory, not just a plot line or a scene, but actually see her out of scrubs, out of the hospital being a person and not just a doctor, but at the same time having to go to this place of powerlessness and feel where that is in my body and let that lead — We were talking about the moment after the date rape when Sonya has to come back to work as a medical student, and Amy undermines her, from that moment, Sonya started to build up walls, kind of in the same way that Amy deals with the trauma of losing her son. And even though Sonya’s able to remain warm and sympathetic to her patients, she doesn’t really let anyone in, especially romantically.
Fox
That’s why even though she really likes Jake [Jon Ecker] as a friend, she gets kind of caught off guard by the emotions that bubble up when she finds out that he and Amy are together. It’s like Sonya can’t really admit to herself that she might want more from that relationship because she’s been so focused on just repressing her emotions in order to be the best doctor that she can be, especially since Amy puts that into question.
So in preparing for that episode, after I read the script, I knew that I had to be as grounded and sensitive as I could possibly be in telling Sonya’s story because it is a very common story globally, almost like one in three women experience sexual violence. But we are fighting back, and I think that this episode is a total love letter to those women who are fighting and empowering one another to rise up and speak up against all odds. And I think that the way that Amy and Sonya come together in this episode is a really powerful symbol of that resistance. So yeah, it was an absolute honor be able to tell that story.
Yeah, I mean, the Sonya and Amy stuff is so good because Amy takes control and helps her fix what she did with the air into the central line and Sonya’s ready to turn herself in. But how surprised was she that Amy, given their history, was the one to stop her from turning herself in?
Oh, absolutely flabbergasted. I mean, Amy is taking a huge risk in having Sonya’s back in this moment. And if Sonya even had an inkling that she could come to Amy with her difficulties, she would’ve done so. She knew she wasn’t in a position to be able to treat this patient, and that’s why she called Richard, but Richard wasn’t available. And so it’s a total shock, but also this beautiful coming together of these very similar, strong-willed women who have been butting heads who now can kind of start anew and get a fresh start to support one another by the end of this episode.
So would you say that Sonya’s perspective of Amy has changed? Because at the same time though, she can’t forget what Amy was like before the accident.
That’s true. And I’ve really stood by Sonya forgiving, but not forgetting and holding Amy accountable for what she’s done. But here, Sonya also has a lapse in her own judgments and abilities, and Amy’s there to give her the support that she wasn’t able to get from her own mother. Remember, Sonya tries to tell her mom what happened, and her mother tells her to sweep her under the rug. And at the time, Sonya is brave enough and skilled enough as a doctor to know that she has to do a rape kit and has this impulse that maybe one day she will come forward. But it’s only when Amy gives her that support that she’s able to act on that impulse. So yeah, totally shocked and perspective changed. I mean, it constantly changes with the show, right? We’re getting so many flips and coming together and butting of heads of characters.
Fox
It says so much about Sonya as a character that she did that rape kit when she did.
Yeah, she’s incredibly skilled as a doctor and able to compartmentalize what’s just happened to her and go into action, and that has served her and allowed her to survive all of these years. Unfortunately, in the middle of this episode, it backfires and she snaps. So 99 percent of the time, one of the best doctors you’ll ever have,
But also understandable given the circumstances.
Absolutely.
So how is she feeling at the end of the episode after having to tell the others what happened to her and then the fact that Ravi is finally arrested?
I think it’s a great sense of relief. One of the reasons why I think she’s triggered into attacking Ravi is the way that he taunts her, the things that he says show her that he hasn’t really changed and that he is likely to hurt women again. And so having the support of Sonya’s colleagues to be able to come forward and actually make a difference and put a stop to things, helping Emily Wagner, the other recent victim of Ravi, to come forward is tremendously empowering. And I think, yeah, this show has an overall theme of second chances, right? Amy gets a second chance to process her trauma around her son’s death differently. Well, this is Sonya’s chance to deal with what happened to her in a healthier way, and I think we really do see some of that healing by the end of the episode.
Sonya did try to do everything right, and she called Richard, but then got the voicemail because he was wrapped up in his own personal business. But if he had answered the phone, would she have told him who the patient was or just tried to take time off?
I definitely think she would have tried to spare the details and only just say as much as she could to be able to get out of this situation. So yeah, I mean, in a funny way, the way that things ended up working out is probably a lot more kind of spiritually gratifying and healing for Sonya in the end, despite the risk.
You brought up Sonya’s feelings for Jake, and I’m curious, is it also because she probably sees him as someone who’s safe because she knows him, especially after what happened, right?
Definitely, definitely. I mean, an event like that can really complicate your ability to get close to people, especially romantically. But Jake is an example of someone who is very safe and they talk about his five-year-old daughter and his ex-wife, and I imagine they’ve come up together and gone for beers after work and whatnot. Yeah, he’s somebody that she really feels that she can trust, and so when she finds out that he’s been keeping something from her, it is a little bit of a betrayal as well, although she does come to see why he kept it a secret and she apologizes in an earlier episode for not being a better friend. But that wound is definitely there.
Is there anything else coming up with those two?
Yes, definitely. I think it’s complicated the way that Jake and Amy first got together. I think Sonya has her opinions about the fact that Amy was Jake’s boss and has some opinions about the love triangle between her and Michael [Omar Metwally] and Jake. Without spoiling too much, Sonya definitely is privy to some things that maybe she shouldn’t be. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s definitely a lot of juicy stuff to come.
What can you tease about how the season ends for Sonya?
Sonya is able to get back in her stride with being a doctor after healing from this incident and coming together with Amy. She really kicks into action mode with a lot of challenging cases where she has to think on the fly. She really gets to solidify her stance as one of the most talented and brave doctors at Westside Medical.
Just to get back to this episode, I want to make sure that I really shout out to Ritesh Rajan, who played Ravi. I mean, it was a really, really difficult scene to shoot, but he was such a great scene partner, and our intimacy coordinator, Mackenzie Lawrence, really helped us navigate that. We’re on network TV, which means that you can’t really be too graphic, but that made it even more important for me as an actor to be able to sensitively portray Sonya’s emotional experience so that you as a viewer can understand how intensely it impacted me without actually seeing the thing graphically represented on screen. And I couldn’t have done that without a director like Russell Fine, who never pushed me, but just created an environment for me that made me feel able to be vulnerable. And I think that’s really all anything any actor can ask for. And of course, I’m very thankful to Barbie [Kligman] and Hank [Steinberg] for trusting me with this story and to Judith McCreary for writing this incredibly moving episode.
Yeah, hearing what you’re saying, that’s why I’m so glad there are intimacy coordinators now.
Absolutely. We need them. Are you kidding? For something like this, especially, it’s so important to get technical and to get it right.
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.
