*Sighs* Good Grief

There’s the obvious example of Santos, right? Like she’s a strong-willed, asshole woman and everyone’s like “ugh she’s so fucking insufferable, she’s so mean.” But she’s that way after having survived grooming (and likely sexual assault) from an older adult in her teenage years. Her best friend killed herself. She has a strained relationship with her mother. The woman is a classic example of how trauma can make us jaded and mean, because it is safer to be mean than it is to trust someone won’t hurt you.

Then there’s Langdon, who a lot of people see as irredeemable due to his substance use. Yes, he was wrong. Yes, he lied. Yes, Robby has a right now to trust him (though he doesn’t have a right to be a dick, there’s a different conversation there though). But Langdon is trying—he did the work, he deserves a second chance.

But the thing that gets me the most is how… people have really turned on Robby this season. Like there are a lot of things to call him out on (I.e, his unconscious bias against women and his behavior towards Langdon), but we also have to understand that he is deeply, deeply traumatized. He lost a mentor in COVID, nearly lost a son in the Pittfest shooting, and there’s likely more that we’re not aware of. He is jaded and angry and reckless right now because he is traumatized. But there are moments throughout the season where we see his heart—the kindness, the care. The most obvious being the debrief with Louie.

Does having a mental health issue mean you get a free ride on being an asshole? No, of course not. But it contextualizes a person. It reminds us to hold them accountable, but with the kindness they deserve. Because you can do both.

I don’t know. I’m just… I actively have to step away from this fandom sometimes because of the way people talk about the characters. And I know it’s all part of the ongoing literacy crisis, the loss of empathy, etc. but Jesus fucking Christ.

It is fortunate that Langdon stops by and addresses Louie's withdrawal symptoms, but it saddens me that Whitaker hadn't addressed that previously. Then, Langdon was pulled from triage and checks on Louie, who kept pulling off his pulse oximeter. Langdon is right there when Louie's blood oxygen levels are low and Louie becomes unconscious. But still, the primary physician assigned to handle his care did not address his needs in time (Whitaker), and another doctor was about to enable his addiction, which you could at best argue is treating his withdrawal in a very inappropriate manner (Robby, and in any case, I disagree with this interpretation. Robby has known Louie for a long time and in season 1 was still encouraging him to quit, yet in season 2 he takes a can of beer from some hospital visitor as a farewell gift. There was nothing medicinal about that gesture.). It is all the more frustrating when the show acknowledges medical racism, but it is apparently not a conscious effort or thread to show Whitaker and his biases, which match the ones he had against the Black sickle cell patient, Joyce, then brought up by Mohan in season 1. Additionally, even though Whitaker did not kill him, his first patient death was another Black man, Mr. Milton. There is an obvious through line here that the show could follow through on.