Not all those who wander are lost.

I love The Pitt, I love Robby and I love Noah too.

If that makes you feel anger or hatred towards me, please block me.

are they still grown adults that he cannot have complete control over? also yes. is he constantly being fucked over by administration and the system again and again? yes. are the demands of an ER ever going to cease? no. with how healthcare workers are treated, with the problems in the world today, is there any possible way Robby could actually prevent burnout? no.

you're thinking of an idealized world that doesn't exist. some of these problems are so ingrained in the work itself that Robby, one man, one also very burnt out man, cannot do anything about it. he already puts more than he should on his shoulders.

we're also given a pretty unfair view of him, so to speak. in s1, Heather seems like such a good boss and damn near perfect in a lot of ways, standing up for Samira, etc. if you pay attention to the subtext, though, at the same time as we're seeing robby's deterioration, we are seeing heather's "redemption arc", in a way. it's pretty obvious that until That Day, heather, as a senior resident, had also been a perpetrator of "slow-mo" and that whole deal with Samira.

Robby is also, at the end of the day, the attending. he can't let shit slide. Samira is not a perfect character or a perfect doctor, intelligent as she may be. especially in my rewatch, Robby wasn't even as harsh as I remember him being. he was... right. samira was endangering patients with her pace, and not reporting to him on not one but two cases of hers he was overseeing. that's behavior that he does, in fact, have to correct. he could definitely stand to be nicer, but Samira also has a habit of shutting down and not really listening to criticism, only ever to praise.

in s2, he has fallen from firm with a couple asshole moments to complete asshole with her, which I don't condone at all, but does unfortunately make sense in a lot of ways. he sees himself in her and can't stand it. etc, I've already talked about the dynamic at length. but also, to be frank, her burnout is not his fault. definitely not entirely, like sooo many are saying. she's throwing herself into work, not cultivating a social life for herself, her world is being turned upside down due to what's going on with her mother, etc etc, things that Robby cannot control. things that are a personal, Samira issue.

the Santos/Langdon situation has also been pinned on him a lot lately. really, it's just a shitty situation in general. and also, it's... kind of a stupid, baseless claim to say Robby didn't throw Langdon in jail because he's a white man. Robby didn't throw Langdon in jail because he's empathetic and human. he's known Langdon for years. he probably couldn't live with himself if he had.

he didn't not report Langdon to ruin Trinity's life, either. he was the only person that day to listen to Trinity and reassure her that she did the right thing, and that she has a strong moral compass. we've seen him advocate for her, we've seen her relax around him, we know she likes him. do you have any idea how much that would take, for trinity to be able to trust a white male authority figure like that? that's not something light.

also, you have to remember, we've seen two total days in this ER. so much subtext shows that 1. these days are out of the ordinary, and very Bad Days 2. Robby isn't even usually like this— not even in the ten month blip. the workplace environment that everyone is saying is so horrific isn't the norm, and doesn't even sort of appear to be.

Cassie throughout the two seasons has shown a respect for Robby. "you're good at sussing that sort of thing out." "learned from the best (looking at him)." etc. These people like Robby. They call for Robby in danger. They laugh at Robby's jokes. They feel comfortable making jokes at his expense to him, in front of him. They're not scared of him, they're not trying to avoid him, they value his opinion and input, etc.

we are simultaneously seeing Robby on two of the worst days of his life, and also PTMC on two particularly bad and stressful work situations.

like, at the very least, make up your mind. is Robby shouldering too much, making himself a martyr, overextending himself, etc, or is he not doing enough? it can't be both. is he really, truly responsible for the mental health of everyone in his department, an impossible task? even in his failings, he's still trying to futilely check in on his residents, getting worse as the hours progress and his cracks grow wider.

now, he definitely holds fault in a lot of things. Robby is not perfect by any means. he's not a perfect human, not a perfect boss or mentor, he's flawed and fallible. but the narrative that literally everything is his fault is so... to be honest, completely fucking unfair to me. that is one man. a singular man. who's already taken on so, so fucking much.

I’ve seen quite a few drawings/art pieces that exaggerate certain parts of Robby that lend themselves to being a bit antisemitic. I’m not going to tag any artist in particular as I don’t think it was intentional. But, I would urge people to be aware of what they’re doing as far as drawing characters from distinct backgrounds. I’ve seen it a bit with Samira Mohan as well as Collins. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but in this day and age I think it’s important to speak up when something feels off to you.

I’m linking a few articles about art and racism and propaganda that I think are interesting and may be helpful.

robby sees samira taking her time with patients & thinks about the way that years upon years at this job have beaten the empathy out of him. he sees her have some hope that she can make the world a better place through medicine, and he thinks about how he's already given up on that. he sees her having a panic attack (it's not a coincidence that these are the only two characters that have had panic attacks on screen!) and thinks about all of the ones he's had & the holes he's had to dig himself out of afterwards. he sees samira upset over her mother and thinks about the fact that he likely never had any kind of a good relationship with his own mother (if you remember from season 1, robby was raised by his grandparents).he sees her vulnerability and throws it back at her, because he's terrified of how much he sees himself in it.

the way robby behaved with samira in this episode is the cruelest we've ever seen him, and that, to me, is the reason why that scene with samira in particular feels like the official start of a real downward spiral for robby. he speaks to her in a way he never would to anyone else, because it's all way, way too close to home.

they’re perfect mirrors of each other. they're both singularly-focused workaholics with parental baggage, anxious to the point of panic, avoidant of any real connections with others, temperamental, deeply-empathetic people who are holding onto a tremendous amount of anger. at themselves, at the world, at the things that have happened to them.

i think the way robby spoke to samira was obviously unacceptable and absolutely crossed a line, and there's no justification for it. but there is explanation, and it is rich and delicious and hands-down the most compelling relationship dynamic on the show to me. robby is on the precipice of a mental health crisis, and the first person he takes it out on is the one whose pain looks like the most like his own.

What I miss? All the fun. Slash trake. Seriously?

Personally I think a lot а people who are suggesting it don't want it for him to get better, they want him to be knocked down from his pedestal in front of everyone who holds regard for him, especially the pittlings.