this is more a rant than anything else, but i think people are making a lot of good point's about robby's racism, misogyny, and general unprofessionalism this season without connecting the dots that the true reason behind his crashout is that he's leaving without an heir that he wants.
robby needs a clone, someone willing to sacrifice mind, body, and soul to this job, to his ed. he's needs someone who will give up a shot at life, to be so obsessed with the pitt that nothing else matters. he also needs for it to be a white man. he does not value the opinions of women and has no desire to unlearn and examine the biases he'd have to get over to be able to hire a person of man color, so he needs a biological son. and forget a woman of color: robby is a fetishist, not an ally. he desires women of color sexually, in fact, the only women we actually see him be romantic with on the show are all racial minorities, but he does not actually respect or care for what they have to say. he deems women too emotional, too irrational, too empathetic to run an ed. no, they just won't do.
it was supposed to be frank. yeah, frank had a wife and kids, but robby did too at one point and they aren't that hard to shake. but then frank fucked up, irredeemably so, and therefore frank was not only to be dismissed, but disregarded for having the unknown audacity to think he could fill robby's shoes. frank committed a crime so great that removing him from the pitt is was not enough, he needed to be brought back to purgatory to be mocked, derided, and sidelined until he fucks up enough again for robby to be able to say "i told you so," and get rid of him forever. so robby treats him so poorly that it impacts patient outcomes and still tries to pin it on frank by making him question if he should even still be there. inviting him back, letting frank work again only to say "i don't know if i want you in my ed," mere hours after their shift starts was a calculated move in an attempt to send frank spiraling.
then there is samira, his son. willing to do everything he wants, preening at praise or attention, dedicating every waking hour outside the hospital to studying how to be better at her job, isolating herself from everyone around her to make sure she is the best doctor possible. he sees himself in her so much it makes him sick, and he hates her because he hates himself. samira could get better at her job, could turn off her heart and become the perfect robot doctor in robby's mind, but she could never be a white man and for that she must learn her place. she is doing the woman thing where she cares too much (gross) and has this perposterous concern with minorities not receiving the same treatment as white people (ridiculous), and she will not stop talking about doing research somewhere else as if she doesn't know she's supposed to stay in the pitt and play second fiddle to whoever robby chooses instead. riding samira will not make her better, he knows that, but it will break her and it will be enough for him to look around and tell everyone "see i tried, she's just not enough," when asked why the eldest does not take the throne when he abdicates. robby cannot be the problem here, he cannot be the one failing as an educator, mentor, doctor, and as a human being frankly, everyone else is the problem.
and now we're at whittaker, who... let's be honest it was never going to be dennis fucking whittaker. this county bumpkin who is smart enough, talented enough, professional enough, but who else does he have? the other white man failed, the woman of color is a fucking empath, and no one is is willing to become an automaton. so when whittaker lets a beloved patient die when frank, samira, or the ghost of heather collins would've never let it slide? whittaker can shake it off. robby can tell him to get off the street team and stop seeing a woman that he very obviously cares for, he won't have time for them as heir apparent. but the problem is whittaker sucks compared to who he's been promoted ahead of. so robby crashes out. he was supposed to have a permanent replacement by now but nobody wants to listen to the obviously suicidal gen x'er who won't open a continuing education program if it starts with "cultural" or "understanding." and so on the day that was supposed to be his pity party, in walks barab al hashimi.
he waited too long, his replacement has been chosen for him, and she is his living nightmare. after ignoring her for months, both because he wants her to fail and because he doesn't care about any of her opinions or expertise, he doesn't even have the decency to pretend to be civil when she arrives. baran is calm, communicative, and already has a relationship with several other doctors. she encourages without bias and, while too by the book for the pitt, she is a quick study and starts performing unconventional procedures within hours. so what does robby do? he ices her. he undermines her decision making, treats her like a subordinate (because no one can even be considered his equal), and he does everything in his power to show her how this ship has one captain, and he rather let it sink than let someone else take the helm.
and in all of this, he is actively making everyone's job harder. he benched frank on a day where they need all hands on deck, encourages whittaker after his abandoning of a patient leads to their death and he should hav been corrected, tells samira to go home during a mass injury event, and is leaving baran in the dark about personnel conflicts she needs to know about. this whole day was supposed to be about how no one is good enough to be in his shoes (no one he wants) and how when he leaves, everyone will be so miserable and the pitt will fall apart, and when he dies, then everyone will see how much they should've appreciated their fearless leader. this is a crisis of his own making but a self loathing egomaniac in a high stress job doesn't have time to deal with his mistakes, everyone else does.
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
titsay
