like lots of smart people have pointed out, we are not being taken into robby's emotional state this time. no bathroom visits, no flashbacks or stunted breathing in the hallways. and while there are interesting converstations flowing around about how we treat mentally ill folks when we only see it from the outside. think about the reason they chose to do this.
it's pretty clear to me. season one, his emotional state was very much about him. he was having a very hard time, but was still overwhelmingly kind or at least tried to. he had his moments, has his thing where he doesn't hold people to similar standards etc etc. but it was very much about him and how he experiences the toll that this job and his life has taken on him. his feelings, his interiority, his reactions. this season however, we don't have that. and i think the main reason for that is simply because it's not all about him. behaviors don't exist in a vaccuum, the pitt is trying to show us how this affects others. especially when the person suffering has great authority and responsibility.
they did such a fantastic job of setting up his emotional state in season one that we kind of already know how he's doing, albeit he's doing worse this time around. we're just not being shown. but we see that things are worse by him talking to others, how he reflects his state onto them, how quickly he lashes out, and how that amplifies the(lack of) respect he shows to certain people. the pitt expects us to already know how bad he's doing, and expect us to also realise that mental health doesn't just affect him, it affects the people around him too. we are supposed to be mad, to feel sad for samira, and simultaneously know that he is in a terrible state. i think it's very much on purpose that we see that he is far past needing help, but that it's not just him suffering this time, it's them too. a crisis like that isn't exclusive to his inner worlds and they are letting us know that by refusing to even show his inner worlds in the first place
and while we have to confront our own view of how we see him, the camera doesn't have as much empathy for him this time, while in turn it's giving us a view of the people experiencing it. this is a drastic shift from season one. why? because the crisis has escalated beyond just himself. the people around him don't get to see his inner world, and neither do we.
he's their coworker and their boss. all they see is how he talks to them; which surely should concern them, but rightfully mostly makes them angry and annoyed. his flaws and biases are showing up more openly, and we don't get to say "oh but he just cried in the bathroom, be nice to him" because they don't get see him do that, we don't get to see him do that. and while the people around him aren't granted as much interiority to how they are necessarily feeling, the lack of his internal emotions on our screen tells us enough about where our focus should be. on the big picture of how a lack of healing shows up on the outside. how it bleeds through the cracks and breaks the system and it's people down more
the system doesn't grant people empathy. he hasn't gotten the help he needed since covid. neither has dana, neither has samira, neither have any of the people who work there. and because he has this authority, his behavior bleeds into theirs. they are in one big cycle of making each other worse while he's unknowingly greasing the heels. something that's not his fault, but reflects him being the product of this system for the last 30 years. he has responsibility, a lot which he isn't taking, but until something or someone intervenes and makes sure he gets that help, no one will get that help either. his character is a reflection of a system that hasn't been working for a very long time. and if it breaks or kills him, that’s all the testament we need to reaffirm that he is both a greasing the machine that is the US healthcare system, while also falling victim to it himself. when will the cycle break? the cracks are clearly visible and he’s the physical embodiment of that
kaledo-art
romaincrisis
dailybridgerton
origamiaround
vaporwave
ellievsbear
