mia being so good at judging peoples characters is making me wonder how the hell she got into that mess with veronica?? she basically told her she’d do anything to get more resources for her department but her intuition is so good, veronica would give her bad vibes off the bat. though, i also think she can also sense that there’s more to veronica than the cold and manipulative personality shw portrays
i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about veronica’s character and i think that she has a strong sense of duty and it drives her. she was specifically hired by the board to cut costs for the hospital and increase revenue and she’s gonna do that, no matter what it takes. she is extremely logical and has a “i can’t change the world but i’ll try to help the people i can and the rest isn’t my problem” mentality which we see very clearly when she tells lauren they’re not here to solve the social ills of the world.
when the resistance was busted she could have fired all of them and reported them to the medical board, but she didn’t. she said that elizabeth’s surgeries generated a lot of money for the hospital and elizabeth leaving would get in the way of veronica’s job/goal of increasing revenue and telling the medical board like she threatened would also have the same effect. her reasons for demoting iggy were completely valid and i’m half surprised she didn’t fire him because he really wasn’t doing his job. she said she would have let mia go if she wasn’t the only doctor in her department, except she easily could have fired her and found a replacement, but she didn’t. the only reason she let lauren go was because she already handed in a resignation and therefore by firing her she would scare the others into not doing anymore illegal and dangerous surgeries or things behind her back, which as she said, risked the accreditation of the hospital. her anger towards the resistance was justified and i think veronica’s bark is worse than her bite.
i feel as though veronica understands the resistance and that’s also apart of why she doesn’t go to the medical board about any of them as in her backstory in the episode with floyd, she used to be a bright eyed, stubborn doctor who was willing to do anything for her patients to help, even if it was dangerous, like they are now. i think she was more trying to teach them a lesson like she was taught, but also on some level i think she respects them as doctors who just need discipline and to learn how to follow the rules, because she learnt that if you don’t, people get hurt. she learnt her limits and knows to stick to them instead of trying to do more even though there’s a possibility it will have a better outcome because the odds are it will be worse.
when max tried to get her medical license revoked and played dirty, veronica seemed genuinely offended that he stooped so low, which makes me think that being fair is something that’s very important to her. she only got karen removed from the board after that happened in order to secure her job/livelihood because it was clearly at risk.
veronica is smart and she knows how to get what she wants, pushing just far enough to intimidate and manipulate the people around her without actually hurting them. none of what she did was ever actually malicious. she was trying to do her job, she’s not evil.
the worst thing veronica did was try to extort lauren, but i think that her rationality behind that was that firing lauren wouldn’t do the hospital any good but by blackmailing her, she would be able to get more donations/funds for the hospital which was what she was brought in to do. that money would be used to help their patients/the hospital so in that sense, i think she’s very much a morally gray person who does bad things for good reasons.
in addition, when mia quotes dostoevsky, veronica recognizes it. mia is surprised and tells her “most people think i’m quoting deepak chopra” to which veronica responds, “not me, that’s why i hired you.” implying that veronica didn’t only hire mia as a cash grab, but also because she believes in what she does. dostoevsky’s works explore the human condition and morality in the face of difficulty, always including philosophical and spiritual themes. veronica reading his works, and being enough of a fan that she recognizes the quote even when it’s not said in full, makes me think she’s a highly intelligent and reflective person who understands herself and others and why they do what they do.
side note, i think it’s kind of cool there’s a parallel between the book the quote was chosen from (crime and punishment, “low ceilings and tiny rooms cramp the soul” ) as in both situations the characters are faced with situations where they feel forced to do immoral things to get what they want/need — rodion is faced with the hopelessness of his situation and resorts to murder to escape poverty and veronica blackmails, fires and threatens members of the resistance resistance to keep the hospital, her job and the patients safe.
she clearly has an understanding of people and psychology and uses it to manipulate to get what she wants, while mia uses her own knowledge of people to try and help others.
