#dr adamson

[puppiegracie]

mannn the most hurtful part about the Dana and Robby yellfest wasn't even her telling him that he's not needed— even though that is reinforcing every bad thing he's thinking about himself, taking his last piece of will to live away— it was implying that Adamson wasn't needed.

you can even see that that's the part that makes him freeze for just a second, because it's not true, not to him. he needed Adamson. he needs Adamson. that was his mentor, his father figure, the only guiding person in his life and now he's alone and he doesn't know what to do and he needs Adamson. every day since Adamson's been gone he's needed him.

[supermegahijabi]

In my mind, Mohan's original mentor and the one who truly saw her was always Adamson. After he died, that responsibility was "dumped" on Robby which is why he treats her so badly. He doesn't just see himself in her, but she reminds him of Adamson.

[tears-of-acid-and-sluts]

As a neurodivergent person i find Robby’s ability to handle extremely high pressure situations really well but theN immediately unloading tension on anyone when there’s a chance - incredibly relatable.

I have so much empathy for him, mixed in with anger at how he handles things.

Finding healthy ways to release tension that constantly builds up is not something most people are taught.

Maybe Adamson died before he could teach Robby all about it.

[gcx23]

He's not a kid. But he's your kid.

The same way you were Adamson's.

[odd-birdie]

a few more jewish footnotes about the pitt (all from season 1, but I think I'll keep a list for season 2 as well)

adamson is literally "the son of adam." everyone knows cain and abel but seth, the youngest son of adam, is the ancestor of noah and in the biblical canon, the direct ancestor of all mankind. consider his role in freedom house and thereby the creation of the ambulance service in the us.

robinovitch is a variant of the russian-jewish surname rabinnovitch literally meaning "son of the rabbi." this is extremely fitting as he has big shoes to fill after adamson's death, adamson being the metaphorical "rabbi" (guide, spiritual center, the heart and leader) of the pitt. the robby is always "robby" ("rabbi") to the current staff, in moments when he speaks to patients or delivers difficult news, they call him dr. robinovitch - he is once again "son of the rabbi" as these are scenes where he is stepping directly into adamson's shadow.

jake mentions he lives in squirrel hill, which is a predominantly jewish neighborhood in pittsburgh. moreover, jake is short for jacob, who is viewed as one of the jewish patriachs. the word yisrael in ancient hebrew refers to the jewish people collectively (before i get any comments this is an ancient term that is not equivalent to the modern state of israel) and literally means "those who wrestle with angels," since jacob wrestled an angel. it's also interpreted as the jewish imperitive to wrestle with our own relationship to the divine. by the end of s1 jake seems to have begun that fight in the aftermath of pittfest.

leah, jake's girlfriend, is also the name of the first wife of jacob, which i don't think is coincidental.

[roryheartz]

wait… if the pitt was supposed to be a sequel to er then adamson was supposed to be benton omfg no one talk to me

[bookishpower]

Something something about Roxie making sure that if she had to die while her children were still young, she was going to make sure that it was in a place that they wouldn't have to live in. And something about Robby having to continually return to the site where he had had to make the decision to take Dr. Adamson off of the ECMO and it absolutely haunts him. He can't even stay very long in the pediatrics room without nearly having a panic attack.

Roxie tells her husband she doesn't want him to live with her ghost. He replies that he'd be happy to live with her ghost. Robby lives daily with Dr. Adamson's ghost still haunting each room of the Pitt. When Dana tells Robby that the Pitt survived without Adamson and without her, and it would survive without Robby, it absolutely wounds him.

As we see the fallout for Robby dealing with the trauma of losing his lifeline human connection, it's also good to see a family where the dying person had the chance to foresee these problems and spare their family that particular pain. Roxie's children will be able to go home and grieve in a place that hopefully only holds good memories of their mother. Robby's home really is the Pitt - and the good memories of the man who seems to really have been his father figure are obscured by the drawn-out trauma of his passing.

(I want to make clear that no blame is assigned to Dr. Adamson - he was a hero, fighting Covid until it took him down. He likely had no choice about where he was treated. It's just that Roxie's situation is an interesting parallel to Dr. Adamson's)

[alexisneverokay]

do you think robby is afraid to fall asleep because that's the only place he can still hear adamson's voice and laugh? has it been long enough that he can't remember it while awake, but it still sits in his brain and plays over and over at night?

does he try and stay awake as long as he can to avoid the crippling nausea of waking up knowing the man he believes he let die was just out of reach and echoing through his head? maybe the day might bring fresh trauma every shift, but the ones that come at night are the only ones he can't run away from.