Doc Season 2 Finale: Dr. Ridley Dies After Saving Colleague

In the gripping two-part Season 2 finale of Fox's medical drama "Doc," aired Tuesday, Dr. Joan Ridley sacrificed her remaining strength to save colleague Dr. Amy Larsen during a hospital-wide outbreak, only to succumb offscreen to her leukemia shortly after. The episodes, titled "Stuck" and "Happy Birthday," unfolded at the fictional Westside Hospital in Minneapolis, where a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever forced a lockdown and infected multiple staff members, including Larsen and Dr. Richard Miller.

The crisis escalated as Larsen, played by Molly Parker, grappled with her lingering memory loss from a car accident eight years prior. Infected herself, she underwent emergency surgery led by Ridley (Felicity Huffman) and visiting cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Ben Grant (Blair Underwood). Ridley's efforts traced the outbreak's source and stabilized Larsen, but the exertion proved fatal for the chief of internal medicine, who had concealed her illness throughout the season. Surrounded by family at a hospice, Ridley's death provided a poignant close to her arc as Larsen's mentor.

Huffman, who joined for a single-season stint, described the storyline to TV Insider as a "fantastic...