Not only is Jon Ecker‘s wife, Laura James, joining him on Doc — the former America’s Next Top Model contestant gets to flirt with her husband on screen.
Us Weekly can exclusively confirm that James, 34, will play a patient’s sister in the Tuesday, October 21, episode of the Fox medical drama and will appear in at least one more. In two clips from the show shared by Us, Ecker’s Jake meets James’ character in the hospital. After Jake starts treating James’ onscreen sister, the duo share a moment.
“So where do we go while we wait?” James’ character asks, to which Jake replies, “I’ve got other patients to take care of but the waiting room, that is probably your best bet.”
Jake’s coworkers share looks after noticing the surprising dynamic. Jake, however, might not be able to handle any more developments in his personal life. (Ecker and James, who wed in 2022, share two children.)
Breaking Down Biggest ‘Doc’ Changes: From Love Triangles to Character Deaths
Inspired by a true story, Fox’s Doc follows the chief of internal medicine at Minneapolis’ fictional Westside Hospital, who suffers a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that causes her to lose her memory of the last eight years. Amy (Molly Parker) not only has to remember her medical career and build a new life, she also comes to terms with a shocking divorce from her husband and a death that changes the course of her future.
Season 1 introduced fans to Amy’s romance with Jake, which only he remembered. She ultimately started to connect the dots though and the fictional couple explored their connection but Amy wasn’t able to shake her old feelings for now-ex-husband Michael (Omar Metwally).
In the finale, which aired in March, Jake saw Amy and Michael sharing an intimate moment. After the show was renewed, Metwally and Ecker, 42, teased what viewers can expect as the love triangle gets more complicated.
“There was a lot of talk and rewrites on that last episode — not necessarily about what the situation was — but what the audience sees,” Ecker told Us at the time. “Do we end with Jake looking in or do we see what Jake sees? They even shot it a couple ways. They weren’t quite sure how we were going to end it.”
At the time, Ecker had questions about Jake stepping back, which he ultimately did in the season 2 premiere.
‘Doc’ Season 1 Ending Explained: Who Got Fired? Who Did Amy Choose?
“From Jake’s perspective, obviously it hurts but I think with time he is very empathetic. Just by the nature of being a doctor and tending to people’s needs, once Jake gets over that hurt I think it is pretty understandable — Amy wanting to fall back into Michael’s arms,” Ecker noted. “Because for her, she’s in a very fragile state and looks for some sort of comfort and something solid. Since she’s missing those last eight years, I think Jake is going to understand why she feels the way she does. So it is that balance between how subjective and objective he can be with his emotions.”
He continued: “Although we didn’t hash it out too much in season 1, it gets mentioned that he has a history with his ex-wife and infidelity. So he’s going to carry a certain sensitivity towards that issue. I don’t think he’s going to respond well. And then moving forward it is all about whether or not he’s able to trust her [which] is separate from whether or not he understands why she does what she does.”
Ecker told Us his character has even more options moving forward, including the decision to “move on to another relationship.”
“He could be somewhat jaded and guarded because now it’s two times that effectively he’s been cheated on,” he explained.
Doc airs on Fox Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
