In s1ep3 Whitaker struggles to resuscitate his patient, while Langdon just watches him, looking detached. Then he says, "Call me if he resurrects," and just leaves Whitaker. And goes off to chat with Perlah about his dog.
I somehow missed this moment when I watched it the first time. But I rewatched it, and this scene just hit me. It's so awful. So terribly cynical.
This is the season 1 version of Frank Langdon. How exhausted and burnt out he must be to act like this. How heavy and worn his mask of nonchalance must be.
In contrast, in season 2 Langdon is so open. He worries about Mel, and Robby, and Mohan, and Louis, and his patient with sepsis, and the kid with asthma... He talks about the things he likes. He's still sarcastic, but it's more like... a good kind of sarcasm.
And I love the work that Patrick Ball and the Pitt's crew did on this character. In season 1, Langdon is constantly tense, he moves fast, he always looks hyper-alert, and even his hair adds more sharp lines to his face. He seems like a person who never truly stops and relaxes. In season 2, he's way slower, his gaze is open and curious, he smiles more often, he doesn't look as thin as before, and his hair creates softer lines around his face.
Just look at him, season 1 version and season 2 version
i really like analysing characters based on the four core quadrants, which is something i learned in nursing school. there are is four elements: a quality, a pitfall, a challenge, and lastly an allergy. the basis of these quadrants is the quality a person has, which defines what the other three quadrants are.
let's take samire for example. a quality that samira has is her integrity; she wants to take care of everyone, she wants fair treatment of herself and others, and fights for those who don't. she spends extra time on marginalised cases, hears them out, and orders everything necessary to help them. we see this with joyce, nandi, and mr diaz.
sometimes, if a quality overshoots itself, it becomes a pitfall. because samira wants to fight for the marginalised like herself, she tends to spend more time on their cases at the occasional cost of the person she's treating and other patients. she does this to prevent additional trauma, to get to the bottom of their situation to prevent misdiagnoses. but this quality of hers turns into something that can negatively affect patients if she adds to their bill with unnecessary diagnostic tests, if she allows them to wait longer to make treatment decisions because she doesn't want to cause them trauma by rushing. this can also negatively affect other patients if she spends too long on one patient.
a challenge for her, is balance within her integrity. so that the people who need extra time, tests and a calm doctor with them, get that. but that the people who do not need this, get treated quickly and efficiently. because of her own experiences with her father, this is extra difficult for her. she has a harder time with professional distance and dividing her time with her other patients if she has a case that she feels passionate about or emotionally connected to. this is not a personal flaw, as it is a very expecter result based on her life. but it is a professional flaw, as it can negatively affect outcomes, bills, and other patients.
because of her integrity and her care for the marginalised, she has a very big allergy for people who don't do this. people who overlook marginalised patients, who don't go the extra mile, who don't try to prevent things like racial neglect or trauma, or try to make sure marginalised patients get the right treatment. she had a hard time with robby. even though he was right about the speed she needed to work joyce's case, she recognised that he doesn't understand or see why she's spending extra time on the case. he thinks nandi is a psych case, he doesn't have the same empathy for mr diaz and his fate. their ways to show integrity are vastly different, and so are their flaws.
the four quadrants are really interesting to me, because they all influence each other. a quality affects the challenge. the integrity she has makes it harder to stay balanced in the way she needs to be in the ED. qualities affect allergies: a quality makes it difficult to deal with people who don't have that. robby doesn't have the same patience to get to the bottom of cases and doesn't have the same focus on marginalised patients as she does.
a pitfall directly shapes the challenge someone has. the parts of her integrity that can have negative consequences directly make it so that her challange is balance. but also: a challenge turns into an allergy. if she has a hard time with this balancing it all, it makes it even harder to deal with people who don't have that challenge, or people who don't understand why it's such a challenge for her.
and that is just one way to analyse a quality she has and the flaws that come with it. samira's integrity often does more good than it harms people, but like we see in season one there are times where she struggles a lot! even in times where she's right. i also find it interesting to see that she grew a lot since last season when it comes to ordering unecessary tests. we see this a lot in mr diaz's care, where she's a lot more careful about what he needs and how to manage the insurance issues he has. i genuinely really liked seeing that!
samira is just one character, and because she's my favourite i decided to use her as an example to show how this real method that is used in today's nursing education can be applied. incorporating my own education into character analyses is a something that i really like doing. it's something that can be used for every character, and can also be used when writing characters or when figuring out your own qualities and motivations! anyway, hope this made sense!
i’ve been thinking a lot about whitaker’s presence this season. and the more i do, the more it feels like a very weird choice to make whitaker an outlier when it comes to the responsibility he has, how little he messes up and how little he struggles. and how that makes zero sense in a character viewpoint but also in a residency and realism sense.
besides louie’s death, there are two main things he is shown to struggle with this season. creating boundaries with amy and wanting to help everyone, and confidence issues like with langdon and sometimes with santos. none of those are patient care related; when in season one, all of his insecurities and struggles were related to patients and the work he does. and that means that somehow, in the 10 months that he has been doing rotations elsewhere and has been busy graduating, including the mere four days he’s been an intern, that this aspect of him has completely changed.
because whitaker is not at all portrayed like an intern this season, especially not an intern who started less than a week ago. he helps louie almost all by himself, he takes the med students with him, leads a speech when a patient dies, comforts santos, catches a posterior stemi, gives ogilvie and javadi career advice, and doesn’t really ever fuck up majorly besides the impending death of louie, which was not caused by a clear mistake he made. and compared to santos last season, and even nazely this season, i’m asking myself why there is such a big gap between them and him when it comes to the knowledge that we see on screen, and what the show wants us to know about how an intern functions.
he’s written like a resident much further along in his education. at least, he is given the responsibility, teaching skill, and independence of one. and even then, he doesn’t mess up nearly as much as anyone else. santos is struggling a lot more than him, so is samira. why is he not having any issue with starting residency, when residents above him struggle more? most of the things he’s doing when it comes to patient care and the sudden maturity he has gained, are not compatible with the fact that he’s just begun his residency, and with the way he was portrayed last season.
why does he save the day with an incredibly easy solution when nazely can’t figure out a case? why is he this wise man all of the sudden? if they were trying to make him a product of robby’s favouritism, they surely didn’t paint that as a bad thing. whitaker doesn’t crumble under robby’s pressure, or has a fall from grace. a lot of people were expecting that based on the crazy amount of trust, independence and teaching abilities he is given and allowed. but the realism regarding residency is bent around whitaker to get him to thrive, while realism is bent the other way around to have people like samira suffer. it doesn’t make sense. he barely messes up as an intern and is confident in teaching others, but the senior resident misses something big?
and it just tells me that the writers are using the realism line as their way to bend the story the way they wish, without having to acknowledge the biases present. yeah, it is realistic for medicine to be racist and misogynistic, and it is realistic for white men to have an easier time compared to women of colour. but this is not a thing the show makes into a point. not like they have shown to be able to do with other forms of discrimination and marginalisation. they don’t make him being confident into a thing of privilege, or samira’s struggles as a product of her marginalisation. so it is very clear that this is not on purpose. if they had to acknowledge things like privilege in medical education, they’d have to acknowledge robby’s part in it. which the showrunners have let us know isn’t happening due to willful ignorance.
all of this to say that it doesn’t make sense for whitaker to be portrayed like this. it’s contrary to his character last season. on top of it being unrealistic based on the fact that he hasn’t spent more than three months at the pitt in total(because med school rotations are only 4-12 weeks), and that he’s only been back for four days. he should not and doesn’t get to have this responsibility, and the fact that he does have it with no narrative issue or struggle is indicative of this not being written for a specific reason. well, besides him being a fan favourite and being shipped with the mc of course(sigh).
if we compare his minimal hardships and newfound confidence to the amount of struggle other characters(mainly woc) have; it’s clear that the writing bends its realism to benefit people like whitaker and langdon, but disadvantages people like samira, santos and javadi. and so their scenes get cut while he gets more of them.
Guys, does anybody ship Crus Henderson and Emma Nolan? I mean, why not the most charming resident and nurse in the ER? And I think they would look amazing together
And I easily can imagine Dana and Abbot exchanging knowing looks every time they see them chatting together, because they ship them too
Already two cases in which people need to accept someone's death — Mr. Spencer and Nick. Just the second hour of the shift, and it's already so hard for Robby.
Robby misdirects his emotions at Samira. She already knows him so well that she points out he usually does this during the late hours. It feels like a relationship with some abusive relative. (I was pretty okay with Dr. Mohan leaving, but now I badly need her back; there are so many things left unsaid).
Whitaker apologizes to Samira for his phone ringing, and she reassures him. Perfect duo. Later she scolds him, protecting her approach to emotional care, but to me, it sounds like she’s defending herself because everyone keeps calling her Slow-Mo.
Collins at the same time teases Whitaker for the same ringing phone. I think we underestimate how Collins can be not so nice to some people (including Samira previously). And she is still a good person. Not only Santos and Langdon are complicated here.
Very interesting scene with Mel doing a crike. Garcia flirts with Santos, Santos smiles back, Langdon notices. And Mel is nervous not only because of Langdon and Garcia fighting. It was a hard case of broken facial bones, and Mel is highly empathetic. She's never done the procedure before. Garcia is skeptical about her abilities and speaks with sarcasm. All the triggering points.
Then the mother of the sleeping kid is afraid that he might get autism, like it's some kind of disease. Mel denies it, and Langdon is looking at her at that moment.
A patient "tests positive for rats", and Whitaker is the only one who isn't scared; he's just surprised, 'cause he's a farm boy.
Robby asks Whitaker to present the case to him and not to Collins. Okay, Robby.
Javadi giggles at Mateo's joke. I completely forgot she liked him so early in the show.
Mohan is so commanding while speaking with the EMT treating the patient with anemia. And yet she immediately switches to a soft, comforting voice when she addresses the patient. Brilliant moment; I wish we could see more of Samira like this.
Robby repeatedly checks on Santos while they are waiting for the helicopter.
Imho the two funniest dialogues in the show are in ep2: Robby talking to Gloria about rats, and Captain Scurvy.
Langdon checks on Mel for the second time in the show — after she explained in ep1 that she can get emotional. I officially announce that Langdon started learning how to better talk to Mel since the second hour of their shift.
Mel gives a high five to Jesse, and he looks surprised but pretty much into it. It's interesting because the nurses are probably usually underestimated by the doctors, but Mel sees Jesse as part of the team.
Collins is ready to support Robby during his most emotionally severe cases, but Robby runs away from her compassion. He will do the same thing in season 2, just in a more noticeable way.
Robby lets Whitaker continue doing CPR because he needs time to process the death. It's the same thing that Robby does with Nick's parents. "Hope is hope".
The old confused man, Beto, cleaning the floor. After the second season, it looks like a disturbing metaphor for the med workers who can't leave their job even after they retire. Later Langdon will even make a joke about it. At the very end of the episode, he walks by Whitaker, who is trying to resuscitate the patient. The retired worker and the new doctor-to-be.
My thought/headcanon about Kingdon and Mohabbot that I am finally able to verbalise. Mel and Samira are probably drawn to Langdon and Abbot after Pittfest on some subconscious, almost instinctual level.
Mel is a very empathetic person; she's sensitive to noise and uncomfortable being with many people around. Pittfest is pure hell for everyone, and for her especially. And in the middle of all this, Langdon reappears as some sort of a guardian angel (when Mel already thought he had gone home). He comes to her when she feels insecure. He catches her gaze every time from the other side of the room. He praises her and Whitaker — "good catch, you two!" (basically positive reinforcement amidst the chaos). And it's just better that he is there, because the more experienced doctors are working, the more hope they have to manage it.
And now Samira. Imagine her feelings: she was repeatedly told that she was too slow for the ER, and now she is thrown into the Red zone, which demands the exact opposite qualities to what she thinks she has (I mean, Samira is very capable, but Robby always pointed out just one side of her — that she is slow). And the only instruction Robby gives her is basically "listen to Dr. Abbot and do what he says". And Abbot turns out to be the most experienced person in the room. He's confident to the point of being chill (I might be wrong, but it could be a sign of PTSD, when a person feels "normal" and "alive" in a situation full of adrenaline). He finds a moment to teach, praise and even flirt. To Samira, it must be like going back to almost-normal — like a normal procedure when she works and learns.
These men just save Mel and Samira from a more intense, more painful trauma. Abbot to Mohan and Langdon to Mel could feel like an anchor. Like a point of safety and stability in the middle of the terror. And this subconscious feeling — it stays.
it’s not javadi’s third shift, it’s her third clinical rotation, those usually last between 4-8 weeks depending on the school but given it’s september it’s most likely they’re 4 weeks long, so this is technically her 9th week (most likely) of clinicals she would’ve done 4 weeks of OB, 4 weeks of peds since starting her MS3 in july/august
Oh thanks for the correction! I don't know anything about this system, it's interesting ☀️
It's really informative. Robby and Abbot are friends, Javadi is Shamsy's daughter, Whitaker is a farm boy, Collins is pregnant, McKay is 42, Princess speaks 6 languages, Santos gives the Pittlings their nicknames, Robby has his COVID flashback (really bad way to start a shift)... All just in one episode.
A lot of Chekhov's guns that will go off way later. Abbot tells Robby about the veteran and the pregnant girl. Kraken is mentioned. Doug Driscoll is already here and furious. The teen David with the girls list appears.
Abbot says that he doesn't want to be one of Robby's patients. Robby replies that it's mutual. I don't like where this is going; hope it won't happen in future seasons. (By the way, what do you think, for how long has Abbot been Robby's emergency contact?)
Langdon introduces Louis.
The first scene we see Mohan: she's talking with an old lady.
Mohan: "I'm going as fast as I can!" She's already defensive with Robby, it's just gonna get worse after 10 months.
Mohan performs a tricky intubation. That's a glimpse of what Abbot will see in her.
Collins doesn't want to tell Robby about her pregnancy. We'll know later why.
It's the third shift for Javadi. She's about to go through Pittfest on her third medical shift, it's so crazy. (I've been told that rotation doesn't equal to shift, so it's not actually correct; but her situation is still crazy, like, she's 20)
Langdon talks to Robby about dogs. He's so desperate to be Robby's friend.
Langdon helps Mel with the sleeping kid. This show really likes to give Langdon cases with kids and teens, it works so well with the character's fatherly side.
Langdon also immediately separates the kid's parents; he's clearly able to act quickly in a crisis situation.
Santos helps Whitaker with his finger injury; this is her gentle side in this episode.
The contrast between s1 and s2 is so noticeable. Robby is calm and confident, Dana is charming and smiling, Mohan is more relaxed, Whitaker is clumsy and uncertain, Javadi is just cute, Santos is curious and chill, Mel is excited but seems uncomfortable with her colleagues around. And Langdon is so agitated, almost every line of his is a sarcastic remark. Oh, we should've noticed it, if only we knew where to look...
And Abbot is already in an existential crisis, but looks normal to everyone except Robby.
ok let’s talk about the the dramaturgical explanation for the robby piss scene.
the bathroom is an important setting in the pitt. it is an emotional safe haven that lets us into the true mental state of the employees of PTMC.
in season one, large swaths of heather’s storyline unfolds on the bathroom. her pregnancy and her miscarriage both are revealed to us in that setting. we also have robby’s smaller breakdown occur there in season one as well. the use of this setting continues into season two. we are shown trinity’s self harm scars, and we are also shown dana’s breakdown.
this is the place where they don’t have to be health care providers. using the bathroom is a very private, personal, human moment where your guard is down. they use this bodily need as a dramatic device in season one to show how robby is repeatedly interrupted on his was to pee. this fundamental human urge is more of a luxury to him than a necessity.
in season one, we get to follow robby into the bathroom. we get to see him relieve himself physically and emotionally. he relaxes/collapses and we are privy to it all in that first season, because we are in his head. we are getting his flashbacks as well.
in the beginning of season two, we have the door slammed shut on us. we don’t follow him into the bathroom. we don’t get flashbacks. we aren’t allowed into robby’s innermost thoughts anymore. he is pushing away the viewer as much as he is pushing away everyone else. he is shown in a harsher, less sympathetic light.
then in this last episode, after having his walls chipped away at by so many different characters, we follow him into the bathroom once more. we are back in the place to see his humanity, his vulnerability.
the voices continue on in the background though. he is still being called on to help people. it’s still shot differently than the way his bathroom scenes were shot in season one, but we’re let in again.
there’s been an incremental shift within robby’s headspace over this last episode. he not in the place where he can tune out the pitt, he’s not in the place where his humanity is being respected by himself or others yet, but he is different than he was earlier that day. less resolved in the distance he’s been attempting to put between himself and everyone else.
so yeah, us seeing him pee means something. there’s a yellow elephant in the room.
As a fic writer, i need every reader to know that:
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I don’t mind if your comment is super long or just a couple of sentences, i love them all
Last updated: April 16, 2026. This timeline of The Pitt will be updated with new information as people will hopefully correct me and add to this! Notes explaining general calculations (confirming season 1 is set in 2025, the birth year of characters, the general timeline I used for medical school to emergency medicine residency) are beneath the cut.
Date - Event
1948 - Montgomery Adamson is born (S1E01, plaque on memorial wall).
1982/1983* - Cassie McKay is born (S1E01, “42-year-old R2”).
1985/1986 - Baran Al-Hashimi is born (S2E14, “40-year-old”)
1992/1993 - Dana Evans begins working at the Emergency Department at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center (PTMC) (S1E08, “32 years”).
September 1995 to July 1996 - Samira Mohan is born (on Twitter, Supriya Ganesh says the writers and her decided Mohan is 29 in season 1 [link]; in a panel interview Ganesh says “[Mohan is] 30 in season 2” [link]).
October/November 1998 - Trinity Santos is born (S1E06, she tells Yolanda Garcia her star sign is Scorpio; the first draft of the script for the first episode [link] says she is 26. Assuming that her starting age is 26 and that season 1 is set in September, her birthday hasn't passed yet, and she would be born in 1998).
July 7th, 2005 - Victoria Javadi is born (S1E01, “I’m 20”; S2E01, “Your birthday is next Tuesday?”, the Tuesday after July 4th)
By August 2005 - Michael Robinavitch completed his residency program at Big Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana (S1E09). While the timeline between then and his arrival at PTMC is unclear, the hospital closed following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Therefore, Robinavitch would have left the hospital in 2005 at the latest.
2007/2008 - Jake Malloy, Robinavitch’s stepson, is born (S1E05, “I’m 17”).
2008/2009 - Mohan’s dad dies when she is 13 (S1E05).
September 2013 to July 2014 - Harrison Ashcroft, McKay’s son, is born (S1E02, “he’s 11 now”; S2E05, “my son’s 12”).
March/April 2016 - McKay gets sober (S1E05, “9 years, 5 months, and 11 days”).
2018 - Javadi attends college and later medical school at the University of Pittsburgh (S1E10, “go to college at 13”).
May 12, 2020 - Baran Al-Hashimi was working at Médecins Sans Frontières's (MSF) maternity wing in the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital when a mass shooting occurred and 24 people were killed (S2E07).
Before September 2020 - In a flashback set in 2020 when Adamson’s health was declining because of COVID-19, Mohan is pictured in a photo at his bedside (S1E07, Robinavitch and Perlah Alawi are also pictured). This may be an error in using a picture of the cast, but if accurate, this implies Mohan attended medical school in Pittsburgh. At the latest that this photo could have been taken (at PTMC in early 2020), Mohan would have been in her first year of medical school.
September 2020 - Adamson dies during the COVID-19 pandemic after 17 days on ECMO.
September 2020 to July 2021 - Tanner Langdon, Frank Langdon’s son, is born (S1E02, “four-year-old”; S2E04, “Tanner’s five now”).
July 2021 - John Shen begins his first year of the emergency medicine residency program at PTMC** (S1E12, “still a resident three months ago”).
July 2022 - Heather Collins, Langdon, and Parker Ellis begin their first year of residency.
2022/2023 - Penny Langdon, Langdon’s daughter, is born (S2E04, “Penny’s three”).
July 2023 - Mohan and Crus Henderson begin their first year of residency.
July 2024 - McKay and Melissa King begin their first year of residency.
July 2025 - Shen becomes an attending physician in emergency medicine. Collins, Langdon, and Ellis begin their fourth year of residency. Mohan and Henderson begin their third year of residency. McKay and King begin their second year of residency. Santos begins her first year of residency.
August 2025 - Dennis Whitaker does an internal medicine rotation in PTMC (S1E15). He is in his fourth year of medical school. Javadi is in her third year of medical school at the University of Pittsburgh*** (S1E01).
September 2025 - This is when season 1 takes place (S1E06, Shelby Adamson’s thank you note says “five short years ago” was Adamson’s death, which occurred in 2020). After two months at a Veterans Affairs hospital, King begins her residency at PTMC and is in her second year (S1E01). Santos begins her intern year at PTMC (S1E01).
December 31st, 2025 - Langdon gets sober (S2E15, “I’ve been sober 186 days”).
July 2026 - Season 2 is set on Saturday, July 4th, 2026, ten months after season 1. Collins take an attending physician position closer to Portland, Oregon. Ellis begins her unspecified emergency medicine fellowship. Langdon begins his fourth year of residency again. Mohan and Henderson begin their fourth year of residency. McKay and King begin their third year of residency. Santos begins her second year of residency. Whitaker and Nazely Toomarian become doctors and begin their first/intern year of residency. Javadi and James Ogilvie are in their fourth year of medical school. Joy Kwon is in her third year of medical school.
November 2026 - Season 3 is set in November 2026, four months after the events of season 2.
Season 1 takes place over the course of fifteen hours of the same day. It occurs on an odd day (S1E02), a Friday (S1E15), and in September (S1E12, break room calendar; season 2 is set 10 months ahead in July). I think this places the date of season 1 as September 5th or September 19th. For the purposes of this timeline, season one is treated as occurring in September 2025. The evidence is as follows:
On YouTube, there is a trailer titled “The Pitt | Official Trailer | Max” (link) with a deleted scene where Collins says to Robby that Adamson’s death was “five years ago today”. We know the death occurred in 2020, so that makes it 2025.
In episode 6, when Shelby Adamson, Adamson’s sister, sends a thank you note to the ER staff, her letter also says it has been five years. A transcription of the note: “To the ER Staff of PTMC, As my brother would have done, I think of you all today. Sending this as a token of thanks for all that you do and all that you did for Monty, five short years ago. With love, Shelby Adamson”
Then, we have that patient in episode 10 who gets hit in the eye playing baseball. He says he is 16 and he was born on December 7th, 2008. This would only make it 2024 if it were December, but it is not.
Finally, Noah Wyle said at the FYC panel recently that season 2 is intended to be set on the Fourth of July weekend, on the 250th anniversary of the US, which makes it July 2026.
*When given the age of a character, I give two possible years the character was born to accommodate for the fact that their birthday may not have passed yet. So, for example, Cassie McKay says she is 42. If we treat season one as being set in September 2025, she is at the latest born in September 1983 if her birthday just passed and she just turned 42. However, it may be the case that her birthday has not passed in the calendar year yet (like Santos, who is a Scorpio and therefore has a birthday sometime in late October to mid-November). This means she can at the earliest be born in September 1982 (say, late September), and turn 43 shortly after the events of season one. I use similar logic for events that happen at a certain age (Mohan’s dad’s death when she was 13 - she could have just turned 13 or turned 14 later that year; same with Javadi and the year she began attending college).
**Here is the general information that I used to make the timeline for medical training. (Information concerning the American medical school system is compiled from cursory Google searches and browsing sources such as the National Resident Matching Program [NRMP] and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education [ACGME]. Please be advised that there may be errors and variations may exist. I am not in the medical field, so do correct me!) Following the completion of medical school, new doctors generally begin their residency programs on July 1. The emergency medicine residency program at Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Center is a four-year program (S1E04): R1 (interns), R2, R3, and R4. I am assuming all of the attendings and residents who we know did/are doing their residencies at PTMC immediately matched after four years of medical school and began their residencies in the emergency department in the July following graduation unless otherwise stated.
***In real life, I only found one medical school in Pittsburgh (the other school in the area confers D.O.), the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (Javadi says she attends Pitt in S1E10). Does Whitaker also attend Pitt? I guess we don’t know if there is another made-up medical school in Pittsburgh until season 2?
At the end of season 2, I have to admit that it wasn't a perfect season, and ep 15 wasn't a perfect episode.
I noticed that the final dialogues and monologues seem... written. Like they are needed to deliver a message, to make it clear. Especially in Abbot's and Robby's lines. Abbot is still saying important things about this job, like in the s1 finale, and he is poetic in his monologue. Robby tells his whole story to the baby...
But at the same time, the acting is outstanding. And these scenes still crashed me to tears — mostly because of the actors' work in them. (I see nominations coming...)
I honestly don't like Mel's character in this season; she really looked like a comic relief character most of the time, which wasn't like this in s1. I can explain it by saying that she overreacts because of stress, but still.
At the same time, as a kingdon and mohabbot shipper, I really like that Mel's and Samira's stories didn't end with Langdon and Abbot in ep 15. Because — hear me out — I think Mel and Samira are more interesting as independent characters, they don't need stories based entirely on ships.
And I like the directing in ep 15; the scene with the pregnant woman and the baby gave me waves of goosebumps one after another.
And all the characters' storylines seem unfinished — and it's fine, I'm pretty sure it was an intentional decision.
So, in the end, we still have a really good episode and season, especially in comparison to many other shows. And I still have a lot to say about what we saw.
It makes perfect sense to me. I've actually been waiting for it the whole season.
Just look:
They're both Robby's golden boys, kinda former and current. It's natural for them to feel a bit jealous. They've already had that short scene that looked like Langdon trying to show Whitaker his place. Moreover, they are talking about Robby's house — Whitaker is going there, Langdon had already been there. That adds to the conflict.
Langdon immediately gets defensive about his meds because he feels like no one trusts him there. To me, it looked like Whitaker wasn't even going to say anything; maybe he didn't even get this "Langdon - meds - rehab - relapse" connection in that moment. It happens in Langdon's head, and to Whitaker it can look like Langdon is just mean to him for no reason. (Maybe I'm wrong)
At the same time, Whitaker is struggling to find his badge. It's the first day he got it and his paycheck, and he just lost both. To him, it must feel like he lost everything that makes him "a real doctor".
And here is Langdon being sarcastic.
And let's not forget that Langdon knew Whitaker for just one day and didn't see him for ten months. He didn't have enough time to notice how Whitaker grew up as a person and as a doctor. To Langdon, he's still that clumsy guy who caught a rat.
I actually don't know the characters they're talking about, I have zero context for that, but all of the above is enough for me to make this scene good.
And what's the most interesting thing for me, they don't really have a problem with each other. Langdon immediately stops and apologizes for being arrogant, when Whitaker points it out. And Whitaker apologizes for being too harsh.
They don't hate each other. They don't have a real conflict. They are just defensive because they don't feel solid ground under their feet.
tired: langdon isn't fully accepting responsibility for the harm he caused.
wired: he is the only provider in that hospital who has—on screen, clear as day—apologized to a patient he has harmed. season 2, episode 1, in the first hour of his return to his job. it’s the only apology he needed to give for his drug diversion and he did it immediately. in comparison, every other doctor in that hospital has committed or contributed to patient harm during their shift and they never say sorry.
you stole my pills? yeah. yes, um…i’m sorry. it was, uh…it was not only wrong and utterly unprofessional, but it was a betrayal of my hippocratic oath, and it was a fucking crime. that’s where i’ve been—rehab and counseling…i’m sorry.
they spend almost the entire 15-episode season twisting themselves into knots to compartmentalize harming patients, making mistakes, not tending to the wounds of their own hurt. they keep going, they don’t look back; they blame the patient, other staff members, the fact the systems are down on a holiday. trinity never apologizes to harlow for the hours they have to wait for an interpreter, instead taking out her personal frustration on the patient, because there are no consequences for doctor’s actions, right?
you could cut somebody's head off and get away with it.
whitaker tells javadi and james to compartmentalize, parroting robby from season one, when they make errors that directly lead to major surgery and death.
the doctors and neuro-surgeon in 2x13 chatting and teaching over mr. diaz like it’s a regular saturday, while samira has a crisis of professional faith because this is fucked up. it’s all fucked up, because it’s not about the patients anymore, is it? it’s about their own hurt and pain and guilt and trauma and the dehumanization of the people they are supposed to help.
yet, when samira talks with mrs. diaz’s about her husband, she can’t even say i’m sorry:
i tried to stop him. offered to get him all the supplies he’d need to take care of himself at home. but, he left before i could give it to him. he said he couldn’t afford to lose a paycheck.
langdon’s apology to louie in 2x01 in the most important moment and framing device for season 2. the apologies to robby, dana, trinity, and mel don’t matter; they never mattered.
