Child with a Drinking License

I don't think Whitaker is badly written. But when you put a meek, mild white man in the center of complex women who have panic attacks or bad coping mechanisms or get mean or struggle sometimes with their neurodivergence, there is an echo of "women be trippin'" there. Yes, it's nice to see competent, capable, compassionate women be allowed to be messy, a little off the rails, and to see them stumble, but currently Whitaker's bad traits are "too long at farm" and the bubblegum pop memeification of his relationship to Santos paints her as a feral creature and him as a patient and knowing sage. It'd be one thing if they made Whitaker self aware enough to see this aspect of Robby's mental health crisis, if he was like, hey, you're being so kind to me and showing me grace, but x, y, z. Or if they really got into Whitaker's over involved, bleeding heart tipping into making him a worse doctor or neglectful friend.

it wouldn't be that difficult either. for example:

moving samira getting the call from her mother to tell samira about her lover and cruise further into the season. we could've opened the season seeing samira capable, confident, and assured in her future. maybe even happy to be leaving, given working environment and her canonical struggle with work-life balance. this would've made her in-season crisis about her family and plans and focus feel more acute, panicked, and less like character drift from s1

giving samira character-relevant cases and story moments where she coaches or chastises more junior residents. the patient with PCOS and ogilvie are the two most obvious opportunities to ground samira in the core traits we recognise from s1, even when she's stressed and behaving in reaction to that. it's really clear that the writers loaded mckay to the point they made samira narratively near-redundant, whilst also dropping cassie's core drivers from s1 (dealing with judgement of others, her ankle monitor, motherhood, messy personal life)

add a scene where al-hashimi asks and converses with samira about robby. one of the most egregious missteps of s2 imo is the implication that robby has finally broken samira. samira worked with robby and dealt with his bullshit for YEARS before the season started without wavering in her commitment to emergency medicine or her place in it. something else happened in those ten months between seasons. was it the cumulative effect of being an R4 and losing her research funding? that might make sense, but those two factors are never framed by the audience as things that make samira second guess herself; they're just things that happened. adding a scene to give the audience some exposition into what happened within that relationship during the time jump and what samira's perspective on their relationship is now would explain how robby managed to crack the same woman who looked him in the eye and told him time and time again that she was an asset who belonged in the pitt

my own opinions about the season's storytelling as a whole aside, small changes could've made all the difference to how samira's exit feels without engineering a completely different direction of travel for s2. for a show that prides itself on being realistic, it asks its audience to suspend disbelief when examining samira's arc to a near-ludicrous degree. everyone has a breaking point; everyone reaches crisis at some point or another. samira leaving could be an excellent consequence to robby's behaviour. but samira's character has always risen and fallen on the back of her action and her choices (shouting at everyone to stop with joy st claire, running the heavy metals panel with the influencer without robby's green light, actively looking at the board and seeking to work the double post-mci.) season 2 suspends her in inaction; things just happen to her (mother keeps on calling, orlando leaves without her knowledge, she stops engaging when given the opportunity to assist with the neuro procedure.)

samira making the decision to leave the pitt because it doesn't align with her values/she doesn't believe she can make the difference she wants to/she realises she'll never be able to meet robby's impossible expectations of her would all be good and logical ends of her character arc. samira's arc ending with her exiting because the system wore her down or she had a really fucking bad day is, frankly, grade A bullshit. the writers gave her a steel backbone then put her in a box and said "trust us bro there's so much rust". schrodinger's character development.

i've said since midseason that i don't think there's a way they salvage this; the narrative problems are already baked into the cake, and it's clear to me that the root of it all is the writer's inability to decide if they wanted to tell robby's story this season or the ensemble's like they did in s1. but it breaks my fucking heart that samira of all characters was the one to be collateral damage when the purpose of her character was to show not only the sheer magnitude of the resilience required to work in emergency medicine, but to be a genuine counterpoint to robby's sharp edges.

then you get a character like samira mohan, who is kind and empathetic and cares so much about her patients and esp those from marginalized communities due to her backstory. she did research into a disease that disproportionately shows up in poc and so is often a blind spot for white doctors (or those trained by them, which is to say, most doctors, either via direct mentorship or textbooks/research from white doctors). any condition that disproportionately affects poc more than white people is under-researched and often skipped in differential diagnosis. and samira was working to combat this, applying that knowledge in her practical work, and while she's not perfect - which one of them is? - we could see her grow into herself and be better each episode of s1.

s2 we see her exhausted and burnt out and on the verge of a breakdown and so constantly dismissed and even berated for it. her mentor is out there suicidal himself and lashing out on her for being... exactly like he was previous season. her family life is falling apart and her career is not progressing the way she wants and now she's got all this going on with her patients (orlando diaz and mr. green) and ... now what. two episodes left and we find out she's not coming back. i don't know if there's going to be any satisfying conclusion to her storyline but if there is, it better be brilliant considering the short timeframe. and in the meantime all the excitement i have for parker ellis having more of a role is somewhat dampened because samira, the desi female character we all spent time with and got attached to, is the cost.

before you get furious, to say this first, Robby is not right at all in his treatment of her in s2, and this is not saying that he's perfect or always right. it's just offering some nuance because Samira is actually definitely not perfect either and I've wanted to discuss her flaws for a while, especially since the fandom constantly purifies her and puts her on a pedestal. pls don't dogpile me. this is focusing mainly on s1 dynamics as well.

samira has no problem critiquing others, but she cannot handle critique. in s1, that first conversation that samira and robby have, she already looks tired of it when she follows him, knowing what's coming, because this is NOT the first time they've had this conversation.

and yet she still has not implemented the change, and isn't even attempting to. robby could 100% stand to be nicer in his delivery but the frustration is there because Samira is stubborn and insistent. "I work at the pace I'm comfortable with." she's not in the right here. the ER does require a certain level of efficiency that she's currently not performing at. she, an R3, is basically telling her attending that she's not listening to his correction and she knows better for herself.

this is not true. her pace is shown to endanger a patient, and who knows how many she's endangered in the past. Robby tells her she's shortchanging her own education and letting fear hold her back, and on both counts, he's right. she's missing out on cases she could be learning from. she even admits to the fear, essentially, to Robby. it is holding her back.

he says he knows she's capable of a faster pace, of more, and the thing is that she is. she's very intelligent. she flourished in the MCI. she is and has been holding herself back because she has such a stubborn streak in her and she has constantly not listened to Robby even when he is correct.

she's shown to critique both trinity and dennis that day, and in both confrontations, she comes off so firm it's almost angry. "are you aware that you have an aggressive energy, trinity?" makes me lmfao because. samira honey. you have the same problem. a sharp tone, the way you turn on your heel, your tendency to talk over who you're critiquing.

and here's the thing. both trinity and dennis respond to her critique anyways, because Samira was right. trinity apologizes later, sincerely. dennis nods and genuinely listens and later praises Samira.

but to Trinity's "I'm sorry about earlier. clearly, I still have a lot to learn." samira only replies with a snide "you do." to Dennis's praise of "you're very good at this" she replies with a self-assured "thanks. I am."

she doesn't give off low self esteem at all. in fact, it's the opposite. her view of herself hinders her ability to accept correction. and yeah, again, although harsh edged in her corrections to Dennis and Trinity, they listened. Robby isn't even as harsh as I remembered, (rewatched s1 recently) but even so, that's really not much of an excuse. samira still does not listen.

she doesn't report to him on a case he's overseeing, with the toxicology patient. instead of communicating to him why she thinks the patient needs a tox screen or anything like that, she goes to Heather instead. samira is intelligent and it's great that she kept going and caught the real problem, but Robby, while a little too harsh, isn't wrong for correcting her here. she should've reported to him.

now, that's just one instance. the problem is she does it again. with the addiction patient, she goes ahead and administers the BUPE without finding or consulting Robby first, even though it's a questionable method. he rightfully gets upset, because he quite literally just told her to never do that again. and she. did it again.

still, in front of the patient, Robby jumps to Samira's defense when the patient gets agitated at being "tricked." he emphasizes DOCTOR Mohan, gets onto the patient, affirms her treatment plan. very much a moment where he critiqued her in private, but in front of a patient, stood up for her.

so, their s1 dynamic was charged, yes, and Robby needs to tamp down the condescension because cmon bro, but Samira was not faultless in this. like. at all. it is not only Robby straining the relationship. it's her, pushing boundaries, disregarding correction, etc.

samira is a very nuanced character, and you're doing a disservice to the entire story if you treat her like a perfect angel. this didn't even delve into just how poorly I think she handled the trinity situation, including only praising trinity after trinity took the fall for her mistake and got yelled at for it, and not standing up for trinity or saying a single word of what actually happened to langdon or robby or anybody. just let an intern take the fall for her mistake as an R3, after riding that intern all day.

Samira's very empathetic with her patients, which is an amazing trait, but she struggles to extend the same empathy to her coworkers. this is also a bit of a mirror to Robby, in the fact that he is often more empathetic with patients than coworkers, but it's not as pronounced of a flaw. Robby is still shown to check in on several of his colleagues, has built up relationships with the nurses, etc etc.

It was only AFTER Santos started pushing about the discrepancies in meds that he got aggressive and paranoid. He remained a great teacher to others but he started to really go at her. Because she was asking questions that he did not want asked.

Season one Samira is a beautifully established character, one that's clear and coherent. Her entire premise is that she's so extremely thorough that she comes into conflict with her supervisor specifically about paying too much attention to detail and hunting for zebras. She is an excellent teacher – calm, with clear expectations, offering very specific feedback, paying close attention to the students and correcting them immediately when they strayed, both in terms of interpersonal skills and clinical skills. A huge chunk of the season is about her proving to everyone that she belongs there and that even though she can move fast and do what Robby wants, her approach is valuable to providing good quality care, because she's attentive in a way no one else is. Her empathy isn't selective, it's purposeful and studied so she can ensure she applies it evenly to everyone. She's careful. She's observant. She's very, very good at what she does. At the same time, she's realistic and nuanced. She's defensive. She's closed off. She's rigid. She's insistent that hers is the right way. In many ways, she's better than Robby, but she's also exactly like him. And that made their dynamic just spark off the screen! We got both of their perspectives on the matter. Robby was projecting like hell onto her, but we also very much saw how that was affecting her.

Season two Samira feels entirely disconnected from absolutely everything about season one Samira, so much so that it simply cannot be brushed off as "oh, she's under stress" or "oh, we only saw her for one day" or "she's just completely ill equipped to deal with personal issues". The only reference to her interest in racial disparities is a throwaway line about her research losing funding. She doesn't have a single patient that represents what drove her into medicine, and she does get a few elderly patients (none of whom she connects deeply with), seemingly just so that Al-Hashimi's suggestion she go into geriatrics, a field she has never expressed the slightest interest in, felt a little less completely out of nowhere. The first nine episodes completely ignored her relationship with Robby and gave us no insight into how it had changed since season one, leading to him blowing up at her in a way that felt completely unearned and him apparently doubting her place in emergency medicine for an entirely different reason than last season. It's weird and absurdly clunky, even as every single element could have been a part of a really compelling story.

The season has a million callbacks to a million different aspects of season one. We see countless references to the Santos-Langdon situation. We get two extended conversation about Whitaker's burn patient from last season and his relationship with said patient's widow and baby. Every conversation Mel and Langdon have is loaded with callbacks. Even Javadi's presence during the PittFest response is referenced. And yet we see none of that for Samira. Not for a single thing we know about her. We don't see her with a single patient that connects to this fear. The only patient we see her have a personal reaction to is Orlando, and that's for far shallower and less interesting reasons than her reactions to Joyce, to Nandi, to Mr. Pugliesi last season. We have no references to the fact her father died of racist medical neglect even though the season is completely full of situations in which it might make sense to bring that up – Mel is being sued for malpractice! A woman with ovarian torsion comes in and points out that she's experienced medical racism and misogyny! Robby and Al-Hashimi fail to examine a victim of a car accident and that woman winds up needing surgery! Samira has a panic attack and is afraid she's having an MI! And most glaring of all...Samira herself fails to validate a med student's diagnosis. This is a huge problem for portraying a consistent throughline.

Yeah, one could argue that she shouldn't get all the patients that distrust the medical system and have undertreated conditions and all of that. One could argue that she's distracted and more prone to make mistakes this season. One can argue that she's under a lot of pressure, and of course she has a panic attack which revitalizes her conflict with Robby. One could argue that obviously she's Robby's mirror. But think about all of what we've seen with her in season two put together. She's used as a vehicle for exposition, apparently completely ignorant at the concept of people working two jobs and still being uninsured. She speaks without thinking and suggests a prison inmate use a blender. She's not treated like a senior resident for two thirds of the season, right up until she fails to validate a med student's work in an episode where her mom hasn't called her and the distraction is a really frustrating line about her dying eggs, something she would never have done last season and that is in fact the complete opposite of what she was being criticized for then. She hasn't had a single patient that ties to her biggest concern about care disparities. Other characters are observing things and paying attention to the kind of details that were her bread and butter last season. She's had the bare minimum screentime all season, to the point where I'm pretty sure Ogilvie has had more meaningful scenes than her. She's got no traces of the conviction that so defined her last season – that no matter what Robby said, she had these firm principles that she'd hold onto. All of this while Al-Hashimi has completely taken over what was really her role in season one when it comes to representing an alternative approach to medicine and clashing with Robby over what they ought to be doing. The combination of all of this means that season two Samira just doesn't feel like her season one self in a way that absolutely hasn't been sufficiently made believable.

All of this could be both believable and compelling, except there's zero focus on Samira at all. People talk about how her mom is calling her all the time, and yeah, that's happened a few times, but we also have to remember that from our perspective, she isn't! Three episodes passed between the first time her mom called and the second! Then another several before the next time! We didn't get insight into the fact she's trying to find another job for next year until episode eight! There's no emphasis on how she feels about her relationship with Robby being less confrontational than it was, but still not good, and how he's not even paying any attention to her at all anymore, at the same time as he's constantly checking in with the others. There's no attempt at connecting to season one Samira, to her genuine belief she's doing great at separating her personal baggage from her approach to the job, to her longing for Robby's approval, to her careful mask of professionalism. It's not a logical follow through from season one, nor is there anything but the weakest explanations for the change that don't even involve anyone acknowledging there has been a change. No one is pointing out the fact all of this is completely out of character for her!

And it's worsened because of what's going on with the other characters – even as Samira isn't getting any wins due to her attention to detail, Whitaker, Mel, and McKay are. Al-Hashimi has become the sole representative of pushing back on Robby when it comes to medical decision making. Even when Whitaker, Mel, and Santos have all had so much setup for a big fall and a big mistake thanks to overconfidence, distraction, and overwork respectively, it's Samira who does make a dramatic mistake of the kind that should have been meaningful but isn't because there's no effort to connect it to anything. It just comes out of nowhere. And that feels like a really gross way to treat the character whose entire premise is caring about the details, if they're not going to delve deep into her perspective on the matter (which is the part that's really interesting). Like, a sort of, "oh, you know how she proved that her approach was immensely valuable and led to catching things other characters wouldn't? Psych! She's the one to make the mistake and the others are the ones to catch small details". A very interesting story if from her perspective, but really mean spirited the way the show has been presenting it – like, oh, look at that silly woman that cared so much about mistakes, of course she is the one whose mistakes have consequences, now everyone else is just so much better at catching them than her, and no one else's mistakes (failing to manage Louie's withdrawal, not paying attention to anything all day, neglecting to read over an AI generated chart and catch multiple errors) are even treated as mistakes, much less ones with consequences.

Samira and Mel have what's essentially the same plot this season, which has made watching the different ways the authority figures in the department (especially but not actually exclusively Robby) react to them really tough. Like all these other plot points, it could have been exceptionally interesting had the show actually focused on the favouritism and double standards at play, and maybe allowed Samira to react. Even if she didn't get to react, at least something that even hinted at the writers being aware of the inherent racism of this double standard. But nope. Nothing. And even Robby yelling at her in ways that are clearly more about him than about her is falling completely flat because the season has completely failed to follow through on the way Samira is so much more similar to Robby than she is any other character. There's the partially reconstructed skeleton of an interesting story here about the rot at the heart of the department, centred around Samira and Robby, but the show has demonstrated no interest in telling it. Samira is an afterthought, practically just treated as a warning bell, a canary in the coal mine for Robby's state of mind.

All this combines to make everything they're doing with her feel so gross. Season one was largely about her proving that she belongs, that her methods are valuable. Now those methods don't exist. She's lost faith but there's no focus on why she's feeling that way, or what happened to self possessed, driven, determined Samira. The completely collapsed hierarchy of the season, with people straight up not treating her like a senior resident or reporting to her, has meant that even the internal logic of her crisis of faith being prompted by failing to check a med student's work falls flat. She's not making a mistake because she's rushing and struggling to keep pace, she's apparently doing it because...it isn't even clear! Robby blames it on her being distracted by her mother, but she was paying enough attention to ask about the rest of the ultrasound, just not enough to push for the details or look herself, completely unrelated to who she was in season one, and immediately after, she's bemoaning her dying eggs? As I've said before, I had complicated feelings about that line completely on its own terms – it's both a believable thing for her to be thinking about and the grossest possible way of conveying that idea – but to tie that to her missing a detail? It feels so deeply, endlessly misogynistic. And that becomes even doubly so when you think about how no one lectured Shen last season, when he was supervising Ellis and they gave a patient too much blood, leading to clots popping and him starting to bleed out again.

I don't think Samira's going to leave. It'd be an insane storytelling choice to have her start the season talking about the job she accepted and the reasons that's suddenly up in the air and have her talk about alternatives she's uninterested in and have this loss of faith for her to actually leave. But it's all just feeling deeply odd and meanspirited. A thirty year old woman completely defined by constantly caring about the details and errors isn't catching any errors while other people are. Her error isn't linked to anything but "oh, look at this woman that can't handle it". Her mentor is treating it like further evidence she doesn't belong, even though it's the complete opposite of what he was mad at her about last season, and doesn't make any sense as a plot.

i have experience of my entire future hinging on being locked up in a locked mental health facility. i remember being terrified and alone because nobody came to see me because they couldn't (COVID19 movement restrictions). that is a fucking insanely soul destroying feeling. i was actually told, in a psychiatric appointment, that i wasnt allowed to leave the building until i'd booked myself in. your entire right to choice is taken away. mental health and recovery programs are punitive to people, especially when they don't have infinite social reinforcements through interaction outside. people make fun and use frank's "nobody visited me" line as a joke or to push shipping propaganda but it's a very real, very anger inducing thing. we don't know the state of his friendship circle but it's obvious enough that he expected someone, anyone, from the PTMC to reach out.

if a man stops seeing a woman as a whole human with interiority the second she starts to act a little too much like him, that is sexist actually. not being able to see past your own reflection and see that there is a woman with feelings and care in front of you is fucked up. not being able to look past the resemblance she has with you and simply disregarding her qualities and humanness is a clear sign you don't value women the same you value yourself as a man. if your view of yourself overtakes your ability to see a woman for all she is, that's wrong.

Disclaimer i love him this is not slander but his fatal flaw is he is in fact selfish!!!

Its the way people are out here tooth and nail defending Franks marriage that irks me. Putting Kingdon aside Frank is a CANONICALLY bad husband. The small insight we get into his home life does not cast him a positive light

S1 he’s bouncing around the ER, yes partly bcuz he’s high but SEVERAL people tell him to consult his wife before getting the dog and he does it anyway on a whim. No regard for the fact that as Dana says Abby has enough on her plate with two young kids.

He asks Dana for advice about an apology gift for the dog incident but surely ur meant to know what YOUR wife likes?!? The misguided idea that some gift will make up for adding extra stress to her already stressful life.

Also when he’s on the phone asking to talk to his son obviously past his bedtime he argues with Abby. The one interaction we see between him and his wife is them arguing over the phone, not good!

S2 he, again tries to make a rash financial decision without talking to Abby after very recently putting her through the stress of managing without him while he’s in rehab and the cost of that too.

It mirrors the dog incident in S1 but this time he’s learnt maybe cuz he’s sober or maybe because he’s grown.

He also admits she ‘threatened’ to divorce him after he was fired, carted off to rehab and outed as a thief. (Girl i would too on top of everything else!)

Every instance where Franks marriage is mentioned he comes off looking bad except for when he said to Dana that Abby stayed which turned out to be a half truth.

Conclusion!

this season, we see it clearly with al-hashimi. he doesn’t even give that woman a chance. he walks in, sees that she does things differently from him, and puts up defenses against her. this is a woman who is talented and capable and clearly there for a reason, and robby is treating her like a resident. and robby allows santos, his subordinate and student, to smack talk her and even subtly agrees with her, further cementing this othering.

it’s happening again with mohan, creating a toxic environment where doing or feeling anything against the norm is seen as shameable behavior. because robby doesn’t just reprimand mohan for having a panic attack (which is a whole other can of worms), he shames her. in front of her peers and colleagues and students. and then tells her she’s probably not cut out for the er!! when we know damn well she is!!

and ogilvie is experiencing it too. don’t get me wrong, i am not an ogilvie fan at all. but refusing to answer his (and javadi’s!) questions when the system went down isn’t just a “i’m done with you” moment, it is deliberately shutting him out and setting him up as another outsider in the department.

and of course, langdon. he has officially fallen from grace in robby’s eyes. once the golden boy, now replaced by whitaker. robby has created in langdon a villain for himself to be up against. did langdon fuck up? absolutely yes. but is he evil or incompetent? no. but robby needs a villain, because he works best when it’s a fight. he doesn’t know how to manage conflict and be emotionally vulnerable, so instead he lashes out.

robby has been incredibly emotionally stunted this season. ignoring questions from students, dismissing mel after specifically asking her how she’s feeling, telling langdon at the worst possible time that he doesn’t want him in the hospital anymore and then reprimanding him for being slow to the draw, shaming mohan, shaming mckay for going to see a patient and withholding the information that roxy died until he could drop it and leave the biggest impact.

robby creates cliques within the department and leaves his staff fighting for his approval to be part of the group. and then, once they’re in, he pits them against someone else, and they fight them. it’s an exhausting cycle that is going to collapse in on itself eventually. al-hashimi is already starting to dismantle it, encouraging langdon to talk to santos and defending samira when robby berates her.

direct from the Pennsylvania Controlled Substances Act:

"The appropriate licensing boards in the Department of State shall automatically suspend, for a period not to exceed one year, the registration or license of any practitioner when the person has pleaded guilty or nolo contendere or has been convicted of a misdemeanor under this act. The district attorney of each county shall immediately notify the appropriate State licensing board of practitioners subject to the provisions of this section. However, the provisions of such automatic suspension may be stayed by the appropriate State licensing board in those cases where a practitioner has violated the provisions of this act only for the personal use of controlled substances by the practitioner and the practitioner participates in the impaired professional program approved by the appropriate State licensing board for a period of between three and five years, as directed by the appropriate licensing board. If the practitioner fails to comply in all respects with the standards of such a program, the appropriate licensing board shall immediately vacate the stay of the enforcement of the suspension provided for herein."

Prohibited Acts; Penalties.--(a)  The following acts and the causing thereof within the Commonwealth are hereby prohibited:

The adulteration or misbranding of any controlled substance, other drug, device or cosmetic." (adulteration = the action of making something poorer in quality by the addition of another substance). aka dilution of lorazepam via adding saline.

The theft would probably be: