Samira and Langdon fated to be doomed.
My ideas started flowing after watching the discussion between Langdon and Santos. I'm not going to get into details about each character; I like both of them and can sympathize with both as well.
Anyway, I noticed that there's a question missing in the discussion when the topic is addiction: Why did Langdon start using drugs?
An easy answer is “well, he got into drugs because of his back pain," but what does the back pain represent? To answer this, we need to examine the environment of The Pitt and his team leader, Robby.
We have seen that Robby expects proficiency, good performance, and high productivity from his team. This is not bad at all, but his expectations are either unrealistic or he hasn’t managed properly. Robby puts pressure on his team because he’s under pressure from his higher-ups.
Another thing he tends to do is to diminish his team’s worries (and his own) until it becomes overwhelming. In season one, he hides his pain and stress, which leads to a panic attack. This season, he’s diminishing his feelings (his body seems to be in total death tone, probably because of tiredness from trying to maintain control), but he’s also minimizing his team’s mental health: Mel, Langdon, Dana, Santos, and the most obvious case, Samira.
Now, returning to my question, why does Langdon become addicted? The answer is that he cannot fall behind. He was the top resident and essentially Robby's prodigy. To keep up with his pace, title, and reputation, he gradually develops an addiction to benzos (which is easier than it seems). And yes, you could say, “well, he made that choice,” which I totally agree with, except that the alternative of falling behind is not an option either. The alternative in this case is Samira.
Langdon and Samira are two faces of the same coin, destined to failure bc of Robby’s ill mentorship.
Who have we seen Robby torment and doubt since season one? Samira. Why was he hard on Samira? She was slow. Her nickname, 'slow-mo,' is a proof of the hostility in the power dynamics we observe in the show. Robby doesn’t see her as fit for the high-productivity culture. The hospital, at the end of the day, is a market, and Samira's slowness costs money.
The alternative to drugs isn't going well for Samira either. She’s a great doctor (one of the best in Pitt), and still she’s overlooked. This season, we see her on the edge, drowning. And her mentor is unable to help her; in fact, he’s the main reason she’s so lost.
(There's also the subject of racism and misogyny, but I won't go into those details since my main point is to talk about the toxic culture of productivity).
Robby also dismisses Mel's worries about her deposition, and he’s unable to see that Santos is not doing well either. I want to highlight these two cases because Mel is in trouble partly due to Robby’s conduct. He should have been the one to handle the spinal tap. Santos feels excluded and probably carries a lot of weight for pointing out Langdon, and we haven’t seen Robby reassure her or share some responsibility with her about making that decision and putting a target on her back.
What the storyline shows is that Robby’s mental health issues affect others and influence how they manage their own behaviors and health. This season is the worst day for everyone because of one common factor: mental illness and lack of therapy. It's surprising how much the team dismisses his mental health until we see the rhythm they have to follow every day. They take care of hundreds of people, but they don’t take care of themselves or each other because there's no time. Even Dr. Al-Hashimi mentions that one reason her interest in AI is because she wants to spend more time with her kid.
I'm interested in seen how this topic develops for the rest of the season. I might make another post expanding on this…..
This was a long post but I was feeling inspired.
Personal Context; I grew up in Mexico, and then I moved to the states to continue my education. I’m very passionate about the topic of globalization, productivity and capitalism so I connected the dots while watching the show.
It was fun, but I'm also procrastinating on a deadline for my dissertation lol.
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