it wont be the motorcycle
so robby's imminent death..
tw for suicide
i've seen some people say that robby's motorcycle crash suicide is inevitable, and i agree with half(ish) of that, i think he will end his life, but i think the motorcycle is a red herring, and that he will jump off a bridge
my theory is contingent on him ending his during the course of the season, not if he goes on his trip, does it during his trip (in AB) or gets 5150'd
(side theory: robby is avoiding getting close to langdon again not only because he is mad at himself but because he doesn't want to repair their relationship only for him to die)
apologies for the horrible formatting, its about 2pm and i havent slept yet
helmet:
robby claims to have worn a helmet-- noah wyle said not wearing the helmet is a "clue" to the audience that he is"playing a little fast-and-loose with [his] life," and that that is important because he "isn't telling the people he works with- that love him."
bookend (starting how it ends):
in s1, there's a focus on the bridge in the opening scene, but the first time we see a shot of robby with his airpods is walking along the street; in the last scene, we see robby, with airpods in, leaving walking away similar to how we saw him walk in
in s2, in the opening scene the bridge is the first primary focus similar to s1, but this time we see robby riding on his motorcycle (no helmet, lack of regard his own safety), he nods to the ambulance as he passes by facing the water
ho'oponopono:
robby is making his way through the Ho'oponopono prayer with people who, as noah wyle put it, love him-- in the most recent episode, robby said "i love you" to abbot, and then "thank you" to whitaker, leaving "i forgive you" (likely to langdon for obvious reasons), and "please forgive me" (not sure who this would be to, i could see it being everybody as he is sayinga group goodbye? "please forgive me for my abscence..." etc)
robby getting his affairs in orde/the abbot and whitaker scenesr:
(even though he was not originally meant to see her) he had somebody who would fill his role, by her being there he also saw that she was competent and could lead the pitt
robby had his (in shawn hatosy's words) "first real goodbye," in a series of "real goodbye's, with abbot-- a scene where the audience is meant to understand the gravity of the situation, where abbot really "processes [robby's words]" as we walks away after noting robby refusing to make eye contact
robby going directly to his conversation with whitaker sends him in another direction from bringing him from the mentor role and gradually shifts into robby "saying things [that suggest] he might not be coming back" (once again from shawn hatosy)
robby gave whitaker his house to look after "while he was gone," making a comment that if he "didn't come back" whitaker would get a "swing new bachelor pad," this is super notable for a few reasons:
1. to point out the obvious one, "if i don't come back" is an insane thing to say in his position given all the audience knows and has seen, also, whitakers face after this interaction- he definitely noticed something was wrong, already spoke about this re things shawn hatosy has said
2. robby knows whitaker lives with santos, he would also know that whitaker moved in almost immediately by virtue of proxy in the workplace, on the same note, its been 10 months since the first season, robby probably knows whitakers prior housing situation(s), or enough to know it has been unstable
3. this one is a bit of a reach, but in my heart i feel it is true, i am sure abbot has a key to robby's place, meaning, to give whitaker a key, he wouldve had to either
"a clean exit"
by acting “fine” and “normal,” robby is cleaning up his personality to make himself more “presentable” and seem more stable--i am certain that if he can help it, he will make this “easier” for everybody by not worrying them or reaching out for help (which he would view as a hardship to be recieved)
all in all, robby is trying to make this as easy as possible for everybody involved, trying to, in his words, have a clean exit-- i interpret this in two ways:
1. the obvious way, getting everything in order (new attending, house, abbot, er)
2. relatedly, if robby were to crash his motorcycle, that is not "clean" both literally and figuratively, for one, it would be an impact somewhere and the wreckage/him/his body would need to be recovered, i feel like robby would try to minimize the total impact and he really cant do that with a bike-- as well, in any case losing somebody to suicide is traumatic, but a death as violent as a motorcycle crash would compound this trauma and robby would know this
others
hastings (robby's romantic interest) approaches dana to ask what his sabbatical is "really about," saying she doubts this "sabbatical" will be benefical for him as he "can't stand to be alone for more than a few hours, sleeps with the TV on in the bedroom." (a sentiment mirrored by abbot in s2e9)
following that statement, dana tells hastings that she thinks robby is looking for "something new" or "trying to outrun some old ghosts," and (maybe im reading too far into this,) but hastings responds immediatly after with "he deserves some peace" and i cannot phrase it at all, but something about this triggers my foreshadowing-sense
we know that robby is passively suicidal, but the only time we as an audience have (knowingly) seen him actively suicidal has been on the roof which he was contemplating jumping from, and probably would have done if not for abbot
