medwhump

SPOILERS. Descriptions of canon whump in episodes and movies as I come across them :) (Been/kinda still am on a massive hiatus) (Ya’ll I’m old)

[medwhump]

me watching Bondi Rescue like I would NOT be good at spotting drowning people. Every time the narrator is like this guy's seconds from drowning, I just see a head on the water no different than the 59 other swimming heads in the shot.

[doctormohansamira]

Okay, I’m back to rant paralysis. I originally was supposed to work on answering an ask about the show’s disdain for other specialties completely undercutting their ability to convey certain messages, particularly in regard to what they think they’re saying about Samira. Then I got distracted by Samira and Robby again. Then by Samira and Mel. Then by the reveal of the deleted Samira McKay scene. And now by Supriya’s comments highlighting what we already knew about her leaving being was the producers’ choice, not hers. God, I will be mad about all of this until the day I die.

[medwhump]

Same.

[vaguedisapproval]

Saw a gifset of Robby calling Mel one the best residents that have passed through PTMC, and it just makes me so sad and angry. Because it shows that he was still capable of reassurance to the white woman who was distracted the entire day-first by her deposition, and then by her sister. But Samira suffering from a panic attack, that in the moment felt like a heart attack, was proof to Robby that she didn't belong in the ER.

It's definitely not a bad thing that Mel got that reassurance, but what is it that makes her so much more deserving of it than Samira-I mean we know what, but what did the writers think was the reasoning, considering they truly don't think Robby's a racist?

He had multiple instances to tell this talented doctor that she's a good at her job, but the only time we've seen him give her a compliment that wasn't backhanded was in s1, where he's armtwisted into it, and Samira appears visibly taken aback. Even Dana remarks how surprising it is for her to hear him compliment Samira. It makes me wonder how much Samira must regularly feel the bias in his training, and how little she's even come to expect from him.

And even still, she tells him that maybe she doesn't belong in the ER, practically begging for any sort of comfort or reassurance from this mentor of hers who has been nothing short of cruel to her. And he brushes her off, tells her that her patient should have picked a higher place to jump from, and tells her that he's actually the one who's suffering, because he doesn't have a family and a pond. And still, he refuses to give her any actual support-a recommendation letter, a kind word, or even just laying off when she's clearly shutting down emotionally after a horrible case.

And we're never going to get to see him actually face any consequences for his treatment of her. Al-hashimi's criticism of his behaviour was brushed off (not to mention how he treats her in the finale), and doctor Samira Mohan is simply "not working that day" when s3 takes place, after which Gemmill has said that she's almost certainly not returning to the series.

What the actual fuck are we doing here? Yeah woc are treated horribly in the healthcare system, but that's not what it's being framed as in the show. Yes, the futility of the insurance scam in the US affected her, but can we reasonably say that Robby hasn't had any effect on her mental health? Collins in s1 told Robby to his face that he was destroying Samira's confidence in herself, and then we see that come to fruition in s2, and now she's never going to be able to build herself back up (at least onscreen).

As much as the show likes to put forward Robby as this lone ranger, fighting against the machine, he is very much a part of the complex. He's the chief attending and the doctor in charge of the residents in his department. And he drove a South Asian woman out of his ER, with great prejudice.

Robby might be portrayed as this saint of a doctor, who is just going through such a tough time, but to healthcare workers like myself, I recognise him as one of the most difficult parts of my job, that is still just treated as the status quo.

[pittofdespair]

I actually love it when you lawyer post on main!!!! I'd love it if you wrote a fic where actually Robby loses every single lawsuit in the history of ever, or similar

That man needs to be STOPPED

I'm not trying to bring work home with me but I do have a fic where Jack points this liability out to Robby and also, punches him in the face.

Is that's of interest to you, it's get myself in fighting trim.

[medwhump]

“"I see myself in Mohan. Maybe I push her too hard but I push her because–" It was the maybe that had Jack cutting off that train of thought in an instant. As though there was some possibility that Robby's treatment was in some way acceptable.

"Bullshit. Maybe you do see yourself in her. That doesn't make the way you treat her okay. If you really saw yourself in her, you would know. You would know yourself enough to know her. Whitaker got you off the floor. I got you off the roof. Not by treating you the way you treat yourself. But by seeing your pain. By offering you encouragement and a minute to breathe. By not letting you be alone with it so it could swallow you whole. You did the opposite with her. You left her by herself in that room, and you had the nerve to be pissed when she stayed stuck in it. You blamed her for it and called it leadership."

This fic is cathartic you HAVE TO READ IT.

[qwahaxahn]

It's just really disappointing to realize that this show doesn't actually think Samira's story and arc is important enough to end.

They set her up for a really hard-hitting climax as all the things she's been dealing with come to a head—the patients she's struggled to help, her mother's harassment, her fellowship application, Robby's cruel and misogynistic lashing out—and then it just... stops?

Where was the end of her arc? Where was the rest of her story this season? Where was the end of the character's development for the final time that we will see her on this show?

The show thinks Robby is the most important part of this, but he's not. What about the people you have been hurting, Michael? I don't have sympathy for that. I don't like him anymore. I don't want to watch a season of his sad feelings when the coworkers he's victimizing don't even get the dignity of an actual send-off.

Samira, I'm sorry. You deserved better. Supriya Ganesh deserved a helluva lot better.

What a disappointment.

[medwhump]

this, so much this. now, if the creators, Noah, Gemmill, the narrative actually noticed and thematised this as a failing, great. But instead they're all like "well she just wasn't doing so good here, byeeee"

I'm sure they'll drop in some mention of her in s3 to offhandedly explain. But that isn't doing their dynamic justice, like, AT ALL.

[pussycatchapel]

yeah? was it also a coincidence that you happened to spotlight three white male characters (dennis, frank, robby) while actively humiliating two brown female characters throughout the entire season (samira) and the finale (al-hashimi)? you don’t think that might be an indicator of subconscious bias? no? just a coinky-dink. okay!

[hatosyscurls]

"Robby won't see your post telling him to kill himself but your depressed friends will"

what if I'm depressed and don't want my illness equated to a decision to bully and harass people with less power than me? what if my depressed friends are brown women who've been bullied and harassed by a white man who excuses it because of his mental health?

"it's not that serious" [reblogs turned off]

[pittofdespair]

If you defend Robby's racist, sexist behavior because he's mentally ill, I assume you're a Kanye apologist. Thems the rules.

[comebacktoyoulater]

plugging this article because i felt it really encapsulated a lot of the feelings around samira mohan leaving the pitt

‘The Pitt’ failed Dr. Samira Mohan

How season two forgot the character it built and then wrote her off

especially the point about how they've rewritten her character this season and diluted her main traits (ex. giving her teaching moments and attention to biases to mckay and others)

this comment about the parallel to robby and langdon as well

getting rid of samira mohan is just bad storytelling

[enjolbear]

The issue is not that the pitt portrays misogyny in the workplace. The issue is that they portray it in a tone deaf way and in fact are completely unaware of the fact that they are portraying it at all

[rodrikstark]

robby i will not hold your hand when i say this: it's men like you who push women out of practicing medicine in the first place: doctors who could advocate for their patients and prevent the exact mis/underdiagnosed conditions you are railing against

[skippadashippa]

The category is "Shows that Treat Their WOC as Disposable Characters"

Samira Mohan and Heather Collins you deserved better than racist showrunners

[moondustbite]

The producers of The Pitt basically confirmed that they chose to write Samiras characters of the series just because.

You cannot tell me that it's justified, why the hell would they prefer to not include Supriya in season 3 if her character is still doing her residency???

Call me paranoid or whatever but I have a feeling that something fishy happened behind the scenes in the producers room that lead to this dumb ass decision to write Samiras character off the pitt.

I have liked the pitt but this shit has happened now two times and only with their women of color characters, they need to checked themselves because this is not okey, it's giving misogyny, racism and lazy writing, yes I know that Noah Wyle is the main actor and has the main character on the series but that doesn't automatically mean that all the other very interesting characters can just be taken from the series and play it with "oh she is just not working that day", this just killed any excitement that I had for season 3

[medwhump]

Nothing will change until at some point, ppl just had enough of this form of racism too. The subtle kind. The “but the show is so diverse/inclusive" kind.

actually cancel the subs and tank the view numbers. Well meaning white men with implicit biases who think they’re doing enough will continue to do this sort of thing until it hurts the wallet.

[purreenpawlin]

this got me fucking cackling.

so it is a narrative choice, and yet Gemmill chooses not to elaborate on why the one that should be leaving has to be the promising young doctor who was constantly getting bullied by her own boss, the protagonist. calling that realistic just bespeaks a blatant lack of self-awareness and is a contradiction of the show's own ethos, or what it used to be its ethos.

saying that they're trying to portray the "uncertainty that these young physicians face" is funny to me because it's pretty clear that, in Samira's case, it was an uncertainty helped cultivated by her white male boss. but the fact that they refuse to acknowledge the underlying systemic issue in that storyline and choose to use a WOC to further shine the spotlight on Robby's deteriorating mental state instead, it's pretty telling. especially since they resort to labeling Robby's treatment of Samira "tough love" when the truth is Robby sees her as an easy target for projecting his insecurities on.

dismissing both Heather and Samira's departure as just a by-product of having a diverse cast is evasive and is equating these events as mere coincidences rather than a narrative choice, which completely contradicts his earlier statement.

"everyone is expendable except Robby" well there you have it. that's exactly what this show's become. from a show that used to be a letter of gratitude to healthcare workers to one that is an disingenuous promotion and glorification of toxic masculinity wrapped in the prestige of the medical field instead.

[deplorableheart]

the way i believed robby's treatment of mohan and whitaker to parallel each other and expose his own biases, how he saw more value in someone more malleable and belittled someone who was more of a reflection of himself, how i thought it was entirely thought out, how i thought the writers room would allow this dynamic to flourish, how i thought the writer's room was more capable than i believed, how i thought this show would be different...yeah

[samirasystole]

people who's scenes have been getting cut

samira mohan (confirmed by stills, the scene between her and mckay isn't there)

baran al hashimi (confirmed by interview where there was a scene where she calls her ex husband)

victoria javadi (confirmed by stills, the scene with her parents isn't there)

now what do these people have in common. i'm not gonna say it, but you know what i mean.

[surpriya]

With the screencap / stills thing happening to Samira/Supriya it is irresponsible for people to continue championing the idea “Mohan was written out because her story ended.” It is obvious something happened and if you don’t acknowledge it because you’re afraid of looking “parasocial” or a “conspiracy theorist”, you are letting racism and discrimination pass by without a second thought.

[medwhump]

GQ profile of Noah Wyle, aka Noah Wyle is a condescending shit

The doctor is in… and hes breaking down The Pitt finale. As #ThePitt wraps up a season that took his character to the edge, #NoahWyle sits d

Dear Mohan fans, if you'd like to see a bunch people who are mad at Robby (or rather how the narrative has handled him because really the issue is not that Robby is flawed, but that the narrative is ignoring and/or excusing his flaws), then you might wanna read the comments on this thing. Very validating.

"It’s not cruelty, it’s certainly not abuse. If anything, it’s pure projection... That was the intentionality behind it." See that's my problem, is I am okay with Robby the character thinking this, we get that he's flawed and I can see in the subtext that he does actually mean well and that he's pushing Mohan so hard cause he sees the parts he hates about himself in her. Their conversation in the finale said to me that Robby doesn't want her to end up like him, 50 and suicidal with no relationships or life to show for it. I get Robby not seeing it as abusive. But YOU Noah Wyle the star and sometimes writer, should be able to say "And yes what he's doing is abusive even though we can have empathy for what he's going through! Yes the character Robby thinks this is the way, but for sure yes he's going about this wrong and ultimately hurting this other character."  His inability to see it that way shows me he genuinely does think it's fine, and between that and the third quote in this post where he gave advice to the younger cast to basically never expect it to be better or more inclusive than this??? My guy you are bitter!

or this one...

but [Robby] yells at the people that he feels inferior to. They’re such rock stars, they should be doing this better. He knows what their potential is, and their potential is far greater than his potential, which is what’s so maddening about watching them squander it or not believe in it. Men, always just trying to make women better <3

I read that last one as being pointedly sarcastic ofc.

So lemme get it straight. Robby can abuse Mohan because she's such a rockstar and he's just projecting (which makes it not abuse! Intent over impact or.. how did that go again?).

But when she gets written off it's because "She struggled a little bit, and that's part of the reality of medicine — some people do better than others. She's very good at connecting with patients, but she doesn't move as quickly as is expected these days in the ER." (Gemmill) y'all they can't get their story straight.