Next up, in my reimagining of season 2: the beautiful Samira.
Even though she’s still an MS3, she’s been treated like a senior resident since Langdon left. Her and Collins have gotten a lot closer at work, but Samira still doesn’t have any kind of a social life outside of work. She’s still of the mindset that all that can come later after residency, but as that finish line ticks closer, she gets increasingly anxious about actually having to make those social connections. She’s also putting her everything into work and is deeply empathetic and is starting to feel a little burnt out but that makes her feel like a failure so she won’t let herself admit it which only intensifies the burnout.
Her and Robby’s relationship isn’t perfect. He still refuses to offer her the praise that he gives out like candy to the other residents and she certainly doesn’t get any of the tenderness he shows Collins or the favoritism he showed Langdon, but since the MCI she’s felt like he’s trusted her a lot more to make the right call and hasn’t been hovering over her or litigating every mistake. Though pace can sometimes be an issue between them, since the MCI things have definitely reached a detente.
This is Langdon’s first shift back and Samira is worried about how Langdon’s return could send Robby back to treating her like slo-mo the MS3 instead of the competent functionally-an-MS4 she is, which is especially bad because she’s applying to jobs right now and needs a good rec. She expresses these concerns to Collins who tells her that Robby’s seen how she’s stepped up for the past eight months and that’s not going to disappear overnight. Plus, that man hates Langdon now. She overheard him arguing with Gloria to push back Langdon’s start date until after the start of his sabbatical. Samira’s like “but that’s two months away” and Collins is like yeah, yikes.
Before Samira can see any patients, Robby pulls her aside. She’s bracing for the worst, but he basically tells her langdons back, he doesn’t trust langdon on his own, he wants samira to monitor him all day (idea stolen from @doctormohansamira -- go read posts about this). Samira says Langdon doesn’t need to be monitored and more residents means more patients can be seen. Robby says he doesn’t care. Today, think of Langdon like a med student. Samira’s like oh brother this is going to be awkward.
As Samira starts to see patients, Langdon trails her like a sad puppy. It’s awkward and a waste of resources. She’s spending a long time on her first patient who is the Black woman with PCOS that McKay and Whittaker see in the real show. In this version, it’s Samira’s patient and she’s taking her time to see if there are any underlying problems that other doctors missed after reading PCOS on her chart and refusing to look deeper. Robby yells at Samira for taking too long with one patient. Samira’s like this is ridiculous because she’s taking the right amount of time with a patient who’s been disregarded by doctors in the past. Once Robby leaves she’s like fuck this and tells Langdon to start seeing patients. More doctors means more quality care.
We get to see Samira mentoring Joy. Orlando is still a patient, but Samira knows all about health insurance. Joy still gets to have the save because Samira is hyper focusing on quality of care vs. unconventional solutions and praises Joy for finding a solution. We still get Orlando leaving AMA (except in her desperation, Samira will mention her own father to try and get him to stay and to remind the audience about her backstory) and Samira and Abbott having the uber scene. Abbott’s not a cop in this version. Idk, maybe he moonlights as an emt/firefighter and got injured doing something reckless trying to help someone. Anyways, we get to see some hints of burnout/anxiety with how deeply Samira is invested in this patient. Maybe she’s researching insurance loopholes on split screen while dictating a chart or we follow her into the bathroom and she’s talking out loud to herself trying to find a way to help Orlando, while she’s using the restroom -- the only place she really gets to take a break in the ED.
The street team brings in Louie and Samira sees him as a patient with Whittaker. She checks Whittaker on his bias when he disregards Louie’s toothache and is unable to answer some of the patient history she has about things like indigestion. She tells him that Louie’s toothache could be a sign of a heart attack, especially when paired with something like indigestion which is a heart attack symptom commonly overlooked in black patients. She reminds him that it’s important to be thorough and that he needs to be proactive about addressing any biases he might have. He’ll tell her that he didn’t know those signs and he’ll be sure to look out for them in the future, especially when he’s seeing black patients. He’ll also make an effort to be more thorough. Langdon's there for this scene acting awkward as hell, as he tries to get a moment alone to talk to Louie.
Collins pulls Samira aside after she teaches Whittaker and recommends that she apply for the PTMC teaching fellowship. She’s a great teacher, how she handled Whittaker’s bias is just one example. she should consider it. Samira likes teaching med students and interns, but she’s not sure if she wants to do a teaching fellowship. She wants approximately 10 different fellowships in different EM specializations and the prospect of having to chose or failing to get any of them and not getting to choose at all is stressing her out. Collins tells Samira that any program would be lucky to have her. Samira asks Collins if she could put that in writing and it’s kind of a joke but not really -- she’d probably write her a better rec than robby.
Samira notices Trinity neglecting Harlow and on top of her already quite full patient load takes it upon herself to try and find a solution to the translating problem. Santos says its fine and they can just wait until the translator gets here. Samira says that could take forever and it’s not acceptable to wait when the patient is in pain and could be deteriorating without us even knowing. Santos is like well there’s nothing I can do. Samira tells her to be creative. Santos is a good doctor, a great doctor even, but you can’t pick and choose which patients you go to bat for. They all need a strong advocate, even the ones who speak a different language. Especially them.
Later, Samira is seeing a psych patient with Javadi who’s escaped from her surgery rotation for a bit. Robby asks her where Langdon is. She tells him he’s talking to Louie. Robby loses his shit at this and Samira says that he’s being unprofessional in front of the patient and that he shouldn’t be taking his shit out on her. Robby tells her to go get Langdon and not let him out of her sight again. Samira is pissed off and tells her that first he’s upset that she’s going too slow even though she’s not, so when she solves the problem of not enough patients being seen by adding another doctor into the mix he gets pissed at her, and he says its not like that and Samira needs to just do what he says.
Samira checks on Louie with Joy and he’s not doing well. He says he wants to sign a DNR. She tell’s him they're monitoring him because they think he’s at risk for a heart attack and with his liver close to failure it’s possible that he won’t have much more time. He says he’s made peace with his life. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. He asks for Collins. She was always his favorite doctor and he wants to say goodbye. Samira leaves to go get Collins and leaves Joy with Louie.
But, Samira and Langdon get pulled into a trauma case. Langdon kind of tries to take over, but Samira disagrees with his approach. I don’t know shit about medicine, but it’ll be because she thinks the patient has some obscure presentation of a rare disorder because she read a case study on it being more common in patients of X demographic. They argue and Samira ends up being right and saves the patient. Langdon is clearly jealous, but recognizes that he overstepped and apologizes. He praises Samira and says she’s grown a lot. She says she has and she hasn’t. She would have helped this patient the same way as an MS2, he just didn’t care to notice.
Samira’s feeling frustrated about Robby and Langdon and vents to McKay. McKay is reassures her and expresses concern that Samira is stretching herself too thin. When McKay says this Samira’s like Harlow! I need to check in with Santos and see if she found a work around for the delay in translation services. McKay’s like you’re not even supervising Santos today that’s not your job. Samira’s like it’s my job to make sure all of our patients get the highest quality of care possible. McKay says Samira’s going to burnout. She needs to ask people for help, she can’t do this all on her own.
Samira gets distracted from her conversation with McKay by Louie having a code blue. Collins is there because Joy went and got her when Samira got pulled into the trauma. Collins is devastated. Samira comforts her as she cries. Samira does not let herself cry.
Samira tells Langdon what happened to Louie and can tell that it really affects him, so she tells him to go take a break. He does, but before he takes his break he tells her that she should take one two. He’s seen her running around all day like she’s got something to prove. He should’ve been saying this since she’s an intern, but she doesn’t have anything to prove. Samira says it’s not about proving herself, it’s about patient care, but we can tell she’s thinking about Robby.
Boom, we go analog. Even more stress. To top it all off, now Samira’s mom won’t stop calling her. Samira tells her she’s at work and it’s not a good time. Samira’s mom tells her that her friend needs medical advice. Samira says that her mom’s friend should go to the doctor, not call Samira while Samira's at work. Samira’s mom is like well I think she’s embarrassed to go to the doctor. Samira’s like no doctor should be making her feel embarrassed. She doesn’t have the time, but she tells her mom five minutes and goes out into the ambulance bay to finish the phone call. Her mom describes her friend's symptoms. Samira tells her that her friend probably has chlamydia and that it’s normal and will go away with antibiotics, but that really she shouldn’t be telling her daughter about her friend’s STIs. Samira’s mom is like that asshole. This is how Samira finds out it’s actually her mom and her mom’s been seeing someone. Samira can’t handle this and hangs up the phone. She’s pissed.
Samira goes to chairs with joy and has a panic attack. Keep that part the same. Langdon treats her and he’s worried. Robby’s an asshole like in the show, but afterwards we get a Langdon and Samira eldest daughter/fallen son moment where they bond with each other.
Then we get Samira and Mel treating the elderly patient together. Some more great teaching from Samira. Mel’s annoyed at her sister, Samira’s annoyed at her mom. They enjoy some light bonding.
Then we get Orlando coming back and Samira dealing with that and feeling devestated. By the time night shift comes, Samira needs this day to be over. Joy tells her to go home. Joy’s like I’ve watched you run yourself ragged all day trying to help everyone else and then even when you had a panic attack you were up and working within an hour. Set boundaries. Save yourself. Samira’s like I’ll take it under consideration.
Samira and Robby fight in the ambulance bay, but instead of her apologizing she rips him a new one. Releases all her pent up anxiety. She feels better. When McKay invites her to watch the fireworks on the roof, she surprises herself and agrees.
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