really interesting watching joy react to her own success in the most recent episode. in the first five minutes, her photographic memory fully saves the day and yet at first she seems reluctant to mention it, almost like she's embarrassed to bring it up - looking away and not making eye contact with anyone when she says "I remember". potentially that reluctance is coming from awkwardness about being the centre of attention, or maybe she's just had a lifetime of people quizzing her on her memory and asking for demonstrations so she's sick of talking about it.
either way, while joy is reciting the information she just looks focused, not outwardly showing any emotion about the fact that in other people's eyes she's performing a minor miracle. (compare that to ogilvie who would absolutely have a shit-eating grin on his face the whole time if he was in her shoes). al-hashimi calls her ability remarkable and joy doesn't really react to the praise. maybe because the photographic memory is something she has, not something she's worked for or practiced so it might feel the same as being told "congratulations for being so tall"; it might not feel that meaningful to be told she's remarkable at this, because it's not something she put any effort into.
but then later in that same episode, joy is the one who diagnosed the margarita burn in javadi and ogilvie's patient. and that was her skill and hard work, that it occurred to her to ask about lime juice, that she was checking in on a patient she wasn't even assigned to. once again she's keeping a patient's medical bills down, saving him from having to go through unnecessary and expensive tests. and yet we see once more, joy doesn't outwardly look that enthused about it. in other episodes, we've seen many instances of whittaker or king or santos having a lightbulb moment and being visibly pleased with themselves for figuring something out - big grins and fist pumps, not hiding the fact that they're excited about it. in contrast, joy's moment of discovery happens off-screen. it's entirely possible she did have a private moment of celebration but all we, the audience, see is her dropping off the information. (it's also entirely possible that this is too easy for her, that she wants a harder challenge, that the medical mysteries she really loves just aren't showing up in the ER.)
in that very quick conversation, joy says 'it's phytophotodermatitis', and javadi and ogilvie are both stunned, but joy doesn't acknowledge that. there's no rubbing in the fact that she very quickly solved something that had them both stumped. she keeps it short and sweet, explains what it is and how the patient got it, no gloating, no explaining what niche medical text she read about the condition in. and when robby says he wants to take a look and check her work, joy doesn't follow, saying "I don't need to see it again".
honestly the way she comports herself in that little clip is more reminiscent of a senior resident or attending than a student doctor. she's so sure of herself and yet not at all ego-driven. she doesn't need to hear robby's confirmation of her diagnosis because she already knows she's right but there's also no sense of showing off or wanting credit - she doesn't care about being the one to tell the patient or treat it, and she doesn't care about earning any praise from a superior. she just lets the others deal with treatment and moves on to a new task, hoping for another little mystery to solve.
once again, absolutely tragedy for the ER that she's more interested in pathology because as robby keeps saying, emergency medicine is a team sport and that little moment demonstrates so well how much of a team player joy would be.
