Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden) is not having a good day — and the system going offline is the least of it. Usually relentlessly chipper, the young resident spends her July 4 shift worried about the impending deposition from Season 1’s measles case, and, naturally, it doesn’t go well. Then her sister, Becca (Tal Anderson), shows up in the ED — and Mel learns that Becca has had a secret boyfriend for the last six months. She’s still reeling from that news when she learns she’s going to have to go back in front of the lawyers. The look on her face when she sees the hospital’s attorney arrive in the ED is simply heartbreaking.

It’s that soulful performance that has made Dr. King a fan favorite — and a strong contender in the supporting actress race for the Emmys. She’s currently ranked fourth on the Gold Derby leaderboards.

“Filming is much less terrifying,” Dearden tells Gold Derby, about Season 2 compared to the first. “We know what we’re doing a little bit better.” With the season mere finale days away, Dearden opens up to Gold Derby about how Mel manages to get through the day — and why she escapes Robby’s wrath.

Gold Derby: Dr. King’s not having a great day, but no one’s really having a great day, are they?

Taylor Dearden: No. I mean — obviously I think my day’s really bad.

But she never once let it affects how she treats her patients. How are you able to compartmentalize that?

For me, with ADHD, I can lose track of everything else in my life and just focus on what’s in front of me. Everyone thinks that ADHD means that you don’t have the ability to focus. But the truth is we have more ability to focus than anyone. We just don’t have a funnel. And so this doctor described it as having a Ferrari brain with tricycle brakes. Everyone neurotypical is a Honda Accord. They run a certain amount for a long time, but we run really fast but there’s something about it that we can only focus on one thing at a time. And so for me, in my regular life, I will often focus on whatever’s worrying me. If I start gardening or something, then I can only see the gardening.

And what do you think about for Dr. King? How does she manage it?

I think there’s a lot of superpowers with neurodivergence, and our ability to not let other things come into whatever we’re passionate about or focusing on. It’s pretty incredible. I also think there’s a survival mode of just she’s got to get through the day — has to, has to, has to. And so I think there’s a lot of just trying to breathe and not listen to the rest of the noise.

She has so much compassion, especially when she’s dealing with the elderly parents who are trying to stay in their home. Where does all of that come from for her?

I think she was born with it, and I think her certain life circumstances only increased the fervency of it for her. Mel’s parents both died while she and her sister were young. Being an orphan at 23 is not how it’s supposed to go, and I think she’s just always finding the need and fulfilling the need. And so I think for her, seeing the possibility of separating from a family is all too in the recent past for her, and doing anything you can to just keep everyone together and finding ways around the system. And I think Dr. Mohan, as we saw the whole season, is good at and really pushes to find ways around the system in order to care for her patients. So I think Mel’s getting some of that off of her, too.
Taylor Dearden and Supriya GaneshWarrick Page/HBO Max
It takes everyone a little while to get used to Mel, and I remember Supriya and I had a few patients first season together, and the way they wrote it and directed it was that it was a little bit of who is this person, and then it was just kind of going, “Oh, OK, I know what you’re good at. I know what to do here.” And it felt like, for the second season, it felt like they’ve been doing this a few times now. And also something that Supriya and I didn’t know until later, is we found out that we both worked at the VA together, which we didn’t know the first season. But actually, rewatching the first season, I feel like it kind of works. There’s more familiarity with Mohan that Mel has.

That means you’d both worked with Dr. Al-Hashimi, given that we learn that she has a seizure disorder.

I was talking to a friend of mine whose husband has grand mal epilepsy, and she was telling me about focal seizures because I was like, “It’s in our script.” And she was telling me that it just looks like you’re dissociating, and the only way you can tell is, she said always look for hands, because she was in Trader Joe’s and a woman had a focal seizure in front of her, and everyone’s like, “Oh, you just zoned out.” And she was like, “No, I’m going to wait for the paramedics so I can tell them what happened.” Because she says their hands will still grab. I think it’s something that Mel witnesses only once.

Let’s talk about everything that happened with your sister, Becca (Tal Anderson). How do you think that’s going to go play out going forward?

We bonded the first season, and to have her back and in such a big role was super, so much fun. We talked about things that we felt were right. Tal had a bunch of ideas, which was great and she was able to tell the writers. She told me that it was so refreshing to have a character who’s autistic not rock back and forth. And she was like, “That’s one person’s reaction to something. Every one of us has a different reaction to stress. One person once saw someone rocking, and they decided that’s what autistic people do.” To have something where you can, as Tal has pitched to writers going, here’s what I personally do when I’m reacting to heavy stress. And the writers being like, please do what you know. And it’s just cool being around that, too, for both of us, in that we’re both neurodivergent and able to pitch in on something we know very well. It’s pretty cool.

Knowing that Becca has a boyfriend now, what is this going to mean for Mel going forward in her own personal life?

It’s wild. Mel hasn’t really thought of herself ever — elementary school, maybe, and that’s pretty much it, and then everything else has been the needs of the family, the needs of the family, the needs of the family. The thing that’s tripping Mel up more than anything is the idea of not being needed anymore. It has nothing to do with doubting. I think it comes off that way. But I don’t think Mel actually doubts Becca’s ability to make decisions. I don’t think Mel actually doubts that she wants this, that Becca wants this, but you’re trying to find your purpose in someone’s life, and the feeling that that could be taken away by her autonomy, it’s just tough. It’s a tough pill to swallow. I think she’s just like, I’m so used to this, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do for me now that weekends will be at the boyfriend’s house with the boyfriend’s family. I don’t think Mel’s ever had a weekend before. It’s just kind of wild. And I also think there’s something about dating six months and not telling your sister feels painful, just really, really painful. I think everyone wants to be wanted and wants to be needed, And so to have the real need taken away hurts.

And then on top of that, the deposition still is hanging over her. The look on your face when you sees the lawyer coming toward you — you broke my heart.

I can’t. it’s just too much. It’s such a tough day. If this was the day where all of this with Becca comes out for it to also be the day where she’s really wondering if she’s even capable of doing the job she loves, it’s just one after another. At the end of the day, Mel feels so used up and she’s questioning everything, every part of it, and it’s just a tough day for Mel. I hope season three is a little lighter, because it’s just like, “Oh, man, it’s one after another of really hard stuff, the kind of hard that just wipes you out.”

But she does get spared the worst of Robby. So much of the season is Robby lashing out at people. It is nice to see that she doesn’t get the worst of him.

There’s something about Mel that people just can’t really be super aggressive with, and even if it’s all the characters he’s lashing out against, obviously we know why, and it’s really dark, depressing, sad. But also Noah is playing it so well, as he always does, but there does seem to be something about Mel that people just can’t hold that kind of aggression with her. They really can’t. And there’s more to come of Mel being soft spots for people, and even Robby has more soft spot moments with Mel. And it’s just interesting, and it’s just an interesting idea of why Mel can kind of escape that kind of stuff.

Why do you think that is?

It’s not as much an innocence, but she always genuinely wants to do the best she can do at all times. And I think it’s hard to be mad at someone who’s constantly trying to be the best that they can be for everyone else. Also she’s never trying to be the best for her. She doesn’t want a promotion. She doesn’t want the acknowledgment. It’s just constantly trying to get the best for her patients without other things getting in the way. I think there’s something about how earnestly she goes after that that is charming to people.