a big theme of this Pitt season, which is an excellent choice for a show's season two, is change. and not just whether people change, but what allows people to change or prevents it.
Langdon is the most obvious example. he crashed out of last season and nearly got fired. But rehab gave him structure and support to improve, and he's been kicking ass all day, keeping his work professional and holding boundaries even when it might be tempting to make personal exceptions, like keeping Becca's information confidential from Mel.
Other characters have grown from the support they received, including supportive criticism, like Whitaker passing on Robby's advice to trust the nurses, or McKay learning from Collins to be fat-accepting instead of fatphobic and then addressing the same issue with Ogilvie. What's particularly interesting about those two characters to me is that they're also both paying forward that support: when Javadi makes a mistake in not checking on her patient that almost becomes fatal, Whitaker checks on her and assures her that "we" won't let it happen again, because he knows exactly how bad it feels. McKay takes Ogilvie with her outside so he can see that addicts are people and learn some empathy. Both of them understand that their growth came from mentorship, so they see themselves as responsible for helping other people grow.
Meanwhile, some characters are stuck in the past. Santos can't let go of her anger at Langdon -- it's apparently been eating at her so much that she's been ranting at her girlfriend about it for months even though he was gone -- and she hasn't gotten less abrasive with colleagues. But the show also gives us hints that Santos is in an environment that keeps her stuck. Gossiping with one attending about another is super unprofessional, but Robby enables it. Nobody could possibly get all their charting done during a shift, but Al Hashimi tears into her about it. Garcia doesn't want to be her girlfriend or even keep the casual date commitments she's made. It's no wonder she's angry and tired.
And the show wants us to see the pain and fury of not being allowed to change. Javadi wants to make her own career choices and to be left alone on her birthday; her parents, especially her mom, won't let her, and it's coming out during her workday in frustration. Both she and Ogilvie want to ask questions and learn how to use the analog system, and Robby straight up refuses even to hear what their questions are -- possibly leading directly to Javadi's near-fatal error. Becca's story is an especially brilliant example of this because it pushes back against the pervasive ableism many disabled people experience of not being allowed to have privacy, to decide on relationships on their own terms and without supervision, and to have and enjoy sex, even if it carries risk or causes harm (such as a UTI). Mel is wrong to invade her privacy and wrong to attempt to control her. Yet the show also asks us to think about how Mel's behavior is also about feeling trapped in her own life.
Which is, of course, how Mohan seems to be feeling. She doesn't know what she wants to do next and is scrambling for options; even imagining the change feels hard. She's grieving the time she poured into this job rather than into personal relationships. She has a panic attack because of the pressure she's under and because she's had to be the rock for her mother without getting reciprocal support. The show is telling us that when people can't change a bad situation, they will burn out, just like Mohan and Robby.
Well. Does that entirely apply? Because all day, people have been offering Robby opportunities to change -- he just isn't taking them. Kwon perceptively raises flags about the mother of the kid with heat stroke, but Robby insists they only think about the kid. Meanwhile, Al Hashimi listens to Kwon and saves the mom's life. Santos tries to keep Robby from letting anyone deport the kid who hurt his hand, but Robby says that's just the way it is. Dana, McKay, and several others want to throw the ICE thugs out of the building, or give the patient slower, better treatment, or get her a phone call, and Robby just wants them gone as fast as possible. Meanwhile, Jesse, who has far lower status in the ED than Robby, puts himself between the patient and harm and gets detained for it.
I don't think the show is trying to valorize or demonize any of these characters. It's telling a story about how and why change happens. And the answer is that when you're inside a system that doesn't support you, it's hard to change even if you want to -- and it also kills your courage to try. The hopelessness Robby is facing is a direct product of his burnout. And a bike ride isn't gonna fix that.
