The realism of Robby being a little bit of an unintentional misogynist is so, so important to me. Like he is a good boss and a great teacher, he is friends with women and works with women and teaches women and respects women greatly. And yet—it’s Langdon, and then Whitaker, who Robby adopts as his mentees. It’s David, not the girls on the kill list, who Robby prioritizes care for. It’s the dad accused of grooming his daughter who Robby refuses to report, while informing the authorities about the mother drugging him without a second thought. He reams Langdon out for berating Santos, but doesn’t check in on Santos until Langdon refuses to let it go and Robby becomes suspicious of there being an actual problem.
And obviously we are seeing Robby on the worst day of life, and maybe even calling him a “little bit of a misogynist” is a bit too much because he’s not, really. But he does have ingrained biases and he does seem to only be able to fully see himself in and completely empathize with other men. And that is just. So true of even the nicest, kindest, most wonderful and feminist men I know.
