‘The Pitt’ Season 2, Episode 12: Amor Fati

- Hello, welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast for you, I'm Joanna Robinson. - I am Rob Mahoney. - It is 6 p.m. It is episode 12 of The Pit.

“Princess has seemingly left the building”

in front of here. Matteo has arrived. The night shift has begun and most importantly, Rob.

Clinical pharmacist Megan Nort finally got her close up.

- They'd let her into the foreground. - It was incredible. It was incredible stuff. This episode was written by Danny Hogan and Arscott. Gamble and directed by Amanda Marcellus,

who also directed the 12th episode of Season 1, also the 6 p.m. hour, of course, for which she was eminominated. That was the episode that was like the immediate aftermath of the pit fest shooting.

She was eminominated. I kind of, I mean, I actually did get Dorsh in a one, but I kind of think she should have won. So horse is what and we were all a little confused. But anyway, I was shooting a lot of things.

- I show any love. - Yeah. - But the direction of which is not necessarily the reason we love it. - On an episode by episode,

I wouldn't pull it out of a line up, but she directed

an incredible episode of Season 1,

directed for episodes. She directed an incredible episode 12 of Season 1. They brought her back for this episode.

“And I think, I thought this is an incredible episode of the pit.”

I think she eminated. It was written very well, acted very well, but I just wanted to shout out this particular pit director, who is sort of like this is another episode 12 banger from Amanda Marcellus.

- And yet another episode in that tradition where there's just so much happening. There's so much to juggle. There's so many plot lines. There's so much to make sense of in space

and in time in between characters. And like the clarity of this issue is not an issue. It's not a problem whatsoever. - Right. - Everything is bad, though.

Debarra from Santos. Everything is going tits up at the moment. So, you know, we've had better moments for our characters, but maybe not a better moment of the season. - I agree.

Okay, so a quick mail bag before we get into 'cause we have so much to cover today. They did a couple of events over in the UK 'cause the pit is sort of, I think hitting Sky TV or something in the UK.

So no while he was out there on the UK media circuit, he did an event with Casey Blois where he talked about, quote, one of the gratifying things about season two is that we realize we don't need a big disx

marking a plot device to keep this engaging end quote. So like the cyber attack aside, I guess. There isn't something like anything major still looming. You know, we're just gonna wind out the day the way they are.

And there's plenty going on, but there isn't gonna be like some mass casualty event again in season two. We had the water park incident, but that ended up being just a couple people.

And we have this cyber attack, but there isn't like something massive, just like season one looming that way. And then in terms of season three, Casey Blois is like,

hey, no whiley, it was got all of a season three. What are you getting started on that? And what is that coming? And this is the quote from No whiley about season three, he said very soon boss.

We're in the process of writing character arcs for season three for everybody. It's very interesting show to break because I'm like a lot of shows with there are 22 episodes

that may play out over a calendar year. This is 15 hours of one day. So you're painting with a much finer brush for a character's arc. It's not really enough to go through the courtship of romance,

but it's enough to get your head turned. These are really small arcs that happen in the course of a day. And that can be really satisfying if you're engaged with that character.

And then there's one last quote from the UK media that I want to share that I want to get your take on all of this. No whiley said talking to BBC front row, which is either a podcast or a radio show and BBC,

he said the thesis of season one is quote, the doctor is the patient. The thesis of season two is quote, doctors don't make very good patients. And now we're back to work writing season three

and the thesis will be quote, doctors benefit from being patients. So in terms of like thinking about how they shape season two, looking ahead to season three, anything that these quotes sort of bring to my for you.

Oh my gosh, I mean, there's a lot there.

I would say first, yeah, the idea that season one was so clearly

structured around and interested in these like big externalities, like the the mass casualty event, versus this one has been so much more about what is internally pulling these doctors apart? Like where are they getting lost in the shuffle?

Where are they falling between the cracks? What are the things that are residual?

“That they're dealing with that are pulling each other apart?”

That's been like right there all season. And I think you see it, I mean, really hard in this episode with McKay's conversation with Langden about like, have I been here so long that I basically cannot function as an emotional human being anymore?

Many doctors are asking and apparently maybe many doctors will be improving in that particular aspect of their lives in season three, but they're certainly not doing very well

The notes were so hard to put together today

“because there was just so much going on.”

But no matter how I laid it out, I, we're going to come back again to this characterization of Robby because there's because it's being sort of attacked from so many angles inside of this episode and so many people have some interesting things to say about it.

- Has any major character not had some conversation or moment with Robby where they're like, are you, do you have a death wish? - You kidding? - You're not.

- By the way, Dr. [email protected] or press [email protected]. Robby and I had a conversation about the emails that were coming in for the pandemic. I was like, we're not getting very many.

And Rob was like, we're actually getting a shit ton and I realized a lot of them were being sent to my spam folder. So I fixed that, I have read literally hundreds of emails since Robby and I had that conversation. So I'm catching up.

But if you're like, hey, man, why aren't,

why isn't Joe in a reading my emails? Now I am. - What were your flags for spam, do you think? Obviously anything that contained the word furry was going to spam anything that could, you know?

- Yeah, yeah. - Mohabit, like any of them, the fandom ship name straight to your spam folder. So unfortunately, that was a lot of it. - The thing about how AI's bad

have you, have you noticed? - I've heard. - Think about this filter is that it was filtering all the emails I wanted into the spam and then I was getting nothing but spam in the regular folder.

So great job. Anyway, we got a ton of emails from listeners pointing out something that we neglected to note, which is that when Dr. Langdon was rushing the kid with heatstroke into the hospital and he sort of put him down

on the gurney, he looked like he is sort of fucked up his back again and someone who has injured her back. I know that month, we know that that is why Langdon started his abusive drugs in the first place or his stated reason. Well, it could be messed up his back while moving.

And so this is a re-injury. So some people are saying, like, hey, man, is this gonna be a tough moment for Langdon confronting all of the criticism that he's getting around him. Dr. Al Hashimi is now on his ass and he has re-injured

his back. - Yeah, I'm happy slash unhappy to join you Joe in the back pain support group of, you know, this is an affliction that a lot of many people are dealing with. I have to say, really, andly acted by Patrick Baldwin's

of the, like, I am looking into the face of a ghost because my life is now about to change for the foreseeable future because of this back pain, extremely relatable. - When you fucked up your back and then it's been fine

for a long time and you're like,

I've changed my life in such a way that this will never

reflect me again and then it happens again and you're like, oh no. - You're like, I thought I was still in man anyway. - And if you're too young for this, if you're listening to this and you're in your 20s,

I'm here to tell you the first time you fuck up your back is a before and after a moment for the rest of your life. - It's a, it's a, it's a staring mortality in the face sort of moment. - Okay, anyway. - Our list of Shreya wrote into note

that Patrick Baldwin has said in a lot of interviews that Langdon is is going through someone in early recovery and this is what Shreya wrote.

“I think Langdon's behavior in this interaction with Santos”

and we got a lot of emails about the Langdon Santos a conversation, really illustrate where he's at in the recovery journey. He's only up to some of the harms that resulted from his addiction, but he still needs validation

from others about having put in the work. I think Patrick Baldwin's performance is so excellent and illustrating all the complexity of Langdon's recovery. So like, it's sort of, you know, you and I've been going back and forth on this

and I think both things can be true where you're like Langdon is doing this incorrectly and I was like Langdon's really trying and both things are true. Like he's not doing it perfectly by any stretch

and also he is genuinely, artistly, I think, trying. And so the pit, it is depiction of Dana and Robby inside of this episode and certainly in Langdon all season is very interested in these complex characters.

The Santos Langdon thing has been so interesting to watch inside of the fandom where it's just sort of like, people are so divided on this and that's just like really well executed conflict

where you could make a credible case for both sides

“and I think where we landed was just sort of like”

both sides in it to a certain degree. We're like, we see her points for C the way that he is failing to do this, you know, the right way and that's great drama and that's great writing. - Completely and as far as the Langdon part of it.

- Yeah, I am like fully sold on this perspective of he is doing things imperfectly, he is earnestly trying. Like he does hit you as a character who just really wants his life back

and may not be fully ready to engage with everything you would take to get there frankly. But like he is trying to do right by a lot of people and self-included. We see him within this episode looking out checking in

with a lot of different people within the pit, co-workers, patients like he is a good doctor and a lot of ways and a good co-worker and a lot of ways. But the ways in which he's been a bad one are pretty catastrophic and so that balance,

I mean, I love the drama of that. - Because like no, don't hug me. (laughing) - That was the catastrophe I was talking about. - What happened to him?

- What happened to him?

And then he was like, okay, never mind, you know?

- Yeah, sure.

“- I think my favorite was actually the way he kind of”

gently supports the teenager who had to drive super fast to get his dad into the yard. Like, even as his dad is kind of making a joke of it, kind of like having this moment with his son, but it's like, no, you did the right thing.

- Speaking of every light to get your dad. - You saved your dad. - Oh, that's some real West Wing coded language for me. - That was a problem, honey. - It was stupid. Red lights, man.

- It seems out in every possible way of my life. - Frau, how did you feel about the news that broke this week that Mary McCormick's gonna be on the pit this season? - Joe, this is news to me, what happened to me?

- They're free me as an ER reunion 'cause she was on the ER with Noah Wiley, but she's playing a surgeon to some kind. So, you know, there's only a few episodes left, but Mary McCormick will show up as a some kind of surgeon

on the show itself. - Will there be a scene in which she's allowed into the situation room? - These are questions. You and all of the other Sorkin heads,

or the West Wing heads, rather, 'cause she wasn't part of the, she came after Sorkin left. - Yeah, okay. - Post-Sorkin, John Wells era.

- Yeah, well, that's not at least, our listener Adam wrote in with this,

basically one of the actors who played

“Ice Agent Russo did basically an AMA on the pit subrette.”

- And two. - As one does. - And two confirms something that you had guessed, which is that given that one of the other agent, not Agent Russo but the other agent,

had been masked the whole time that there was a real opportunity for ADR. And so this is from that AMA, this actor said, I'm the unmasked agent and only one of my lines was ADR. I assume you were talking about,

oh, Russo's the other one, sorry, you're talking about Russo. Most of his lines were live, but the main one people bring up is the quote, "You got it, Doc," which was ADR. So that was like you really bumped on that sort of,

you got it, Doc moment from this Ice Agent. So this idea that it was ADR and perhaps that is part of this sort of, again, we've been told both sidesing it, a approach that they were gonna take to this.

They were like, instead of saying something shitty, he's like, you got it due to then went and then a man handled an injured woman. But yeah, anything you wanna say about that, or any further thoughts about the Ice Story line.

- Yeah, like I wanna be clear, I think there's lots of reasons you could go back in ADR that line and change it and adjust the framing of that story. - I hope that it's not like there is just a note

“from corporate that says you have to tone this down”

and they tone it down and this is what we ended up with, but Dumber thinks have happened in the history of television and that would, unfortunately, that would kind of fit the bill of what happens with a lot of these shows.

- All right, let's talk about who left first.

So I'm gonna say, technically Jesse left first. - Oh, hospital attorneys say. - Wow. - The hospital attorneys says don't like, basically don't bother to look for Jesse,

he's an Ice Attention and they won't find him. So I do not believe we will be seeing Nurse Jesse for the rest of this season. - No chance. - Ned Brower, I hope you got paid very well

for this season. Then I'm gonna give it to Princess, right? - Yep. - She left for some latexon, some roasted pigs and so delicious.

- This is basically my dream, Joe, is to eventually have the kind of space where I can have a proper, like, letch on style roast in my own backyard someday. We dream, we dream big and we apparently dream big

of roasted pig. - Well, one time I have roasted a pig, but it was in our oven at home. - Whoa. - If you get, like, sorry for if you're a vegetarian skip ahead

and you get a suckling pig. - Sure. - You can, and you sort of, anyway, we did make it work. It was for a friend's birthday, we did like a sort of, like, blue-out theme

and we roasted a pig in the oven. - And then you do sound delightful. - And then we finished it with, like, a torch to like, really get that sort of, like, crackling skin. Effective, it was very delicious.

- Our listener Matt wrote into also, let us know that Chris and Villanueva, who plays Princess, was pregnant around the time of shooting this and was still pregnant by January 8th when they did the premiere.

They finished shooting on January 20th. I will say, like, once I read that email, inside of this episode, I noted that she is, like, standing behind the camera sort of, like, when she says this and I kind of want to,

there's a party who wants to go back and watch the season and see how many times she's got, like, a file for her, for number or something like that, but sort of, they were like, we don't want to do a whole princess's pregnant storyline.

So let's just, like, princess is gonna leave and enjoy a delicious barbecue. - Do you think that's the whole reason that princess was into the hot radiologist? It's like, we got to hide her behind the wet machine a lot.

So let's just have her kind of in his general orbit. - Or she's just, like, leaves to go to radiology. So like, that actor's can be off her feet or something like that anyway. Ogilea is scrubbed in on the kitty stone case.

I don't think this will last, we'll see if Ogilea will go leave, but we don't get any of him in this episode who's gone the whole hour. And then our work, life balance queen joy. - Oh my god, aspirational spirit.

- She's gone. Like, does like, hey, man, the culture here as we stay around. And she's like, hey, man, the culture here

and I don't want that. So I'm gonna leave.

62% of ED docs suffer from burnout, she says.

Also, but before she goes, I mean, we'll get to the scalp staple case that she's a part of, but before she goes, she does get this great moment with Whitaker, where he's like being snarky about med students. She's like, oh my god, can I take a selfie?

Your famous for having lived in the hospital and in so funny and I love her so much and I will be really bummed if this is the last we ever see have joy, but it could be, but I'd be bummed about it.

- I certainly hope she returns. But yeah, the devilish smile. She hits after the selfie with Whitaker. I mean, just A+ stuff. But look, you know, you and I Jo,

we have very normal healthy relationships with work. - Yeah. - Didn't even know this was a possibility that you could just leave on time, clock out when you're supposed to do the thing

that everyone tells you, you can't do, but you can actually do, who knew? - Yeah, there's no clocking out. (both laughing) - There's no clocking out on time.

- In our dumps. - In our dumps.

“But this, so like a, I think my friend always says”

is like you can't pour from an empty vessel and that is like true in terms of like, we'll come back to that again. In terms of like, robby and what he's going through and Dana, what she's going through.

Let's go to Code Hulu, but his fallout. Like, Emma's under attack, Dana immediately to the rescue and then Robby, after checking in I'm Donnie and Baby Jane Doe, also just like, sprints down the hallway.

And very, we should say tenderly sort of like, checks in on Emma to see how she's doing sort of like, physically assessing her and stuff like that. How to, you know, like, this is an immediate sort of follow-up to the cliffhanger from last week's episode

how did this pan out like you think of this? - I think there's a lot here I really like. In part, just the way, we didn't want Emma to get attacked, but the way that her kind of arc over the course of the season has solidified and manifested and taken shape,

getting her to the point where she's been through this incredibly like stressful day.

Really difficult first day on the job,

gets attacked, put in the chokehold is like days, but also resolved in a way that is very pitcoded to me.

“You know, like, is this self-sacrifice in the line of duty?”

Yes, am I emboldened and do I feel a certain pride for our girl Emma, like not being a quitter and wanting to see her shift through on principle? I kind of do, it is a little bit of both, but like, I'm very interested in this character

who the first couple episodes, we bumped against over and over as just being like, her whole role in the show initially was being naive, being the babe in the woods. And to get her to this point where she has seen a lot

and she wants to stick around, I think it's just a very meaningful jump for this character. In the Dana Robby episode long sort of conflict that they have, one of the lines she says that I think is like, her true is to tack on him is do as I say not as I do, right?

And we've called out Robby's like hypocrisy again and again, but Dana telling Emma that she needs to get a full work up and report to the cops and all this sort of stuff like that. When you compare that with how Dana went back to work, said I'm fine, don't worry about me.

And then like, did not press charges on Doug Driscoll, like all of that sort of stuff. It's again, a very like, do as I say not as I do. Like, I have been damaged by this place, but that doesn't mean that people coming up behind me

to be damaged by this place is how these, the mother and father of this family sort of behave. So I thought that was interesting. For some reason, the Dana won red a little differently to me in that way.

Like, the Dana part does read as regret. It's almost like I wish I had done this and you're like, I'm going to support you as you talk to the police

with Robby, you never really know.

And it's just like the emotional fallout is coming in all directions at all times. It's really hard to like locate exactly where it's coming from. But with Dana, like she's so clearly has taken Emma under her wing, not just professionally,

but has been like looking after her all day, and as far as a button on a character relationship goes, Emma thanking Dana for kind of looking after her after following her around and seeing the way she takes care of patients. I mean, I just found it to be like a really sweet, really tender moment

within this episode that otherwise is quite chaotic. - And I think also that sort of like,

“you need to report after the whole plot line”

that they shared over the sexual assault case and like the long patient conversation that they had with that young woman about like reporting, you know, like it's a different kind of assault, but it is of the same piece of just sort of like,

something has happened to you. - Yeah. - And let's talk about it. The Gulf Dush himself, there's many things he did that I'm upset with him about.

But for some reason, like viciously throwing the pamphlets at me, okay, it was just sort of like, she looks crazy. Anyway, I didn't, when he was talking, when she's okay, I did not know this about the combination

produce a metabolite that can cause psychosis

“and all that sort of stuff like that, interesting to know.”

- Yes. - I also did not know, and actually, I don't think the world knew about the term birdie bump because I did, he was like, we were just doing some birdie bump, don't worry about it.

I did Google this right after just to see before the episode hit, if this is something that is like urban dictionaries aware of it or like, you know, DushDictionary.com has that or something like that, but I couldn't really find it anywhere.

Birdie Duce or Birdie bottle is a thing. And that is just like a flask you carry that if someone, someone makes a birdie, take a shot from the flask or something like that, that's a thing. So like, just take that but make it cocaine, sure.

If you were to come up with like a terminology for taking a bump of a cocaine during a tennis game,

do you have a term that you could,

'cause I do think Birdie bump is fairly catchy. I wouldn't recommend doing cocaine during any sport, though I suppose if it's gonna be something that should be golf because it's a very sedate sort of you're walking around, you're not like getting

your heart rate up necessarily while you're golfing. So like maybe some cocaine would be fine, but like I would not like bump and pump. I would not like wait left and do cocaine at the same time. That's not something I would do.

Well, first of all, I think this is why I wouldn't do it in golf. It's like because it is such like a,

“you need to very calmly focus on this very particular”

biomechanical task, like that is not conducive to taking cocaine in literally any way. So I can understand why his golf row was saying it was not a performance in hand-sing drug. In this particular instance, yeah,

tennis would not recommend it. I'm trying to think if there's a cutesy name, we could really adopt here. I mean, I'm not to think on it. Maybe this is something our listeners can help us with.

Your sport of choice, whatever it may be, is there a cocaine terminology that you're talking about? What is the birdie bump of your school choice?

In general, though, Joe, I'm always a little,

maybe this is more revealing of me than anything about the situation. I don't understand people who just mix recreational drug use with casual sports in general. The number of people I have played basketball with over the years who are just like stoned out of their mind.

I'm like, guys, I'm trying to have peak reaction. I don't know what you're doing out here, but we're supposed to be on a team, come on, like pick it up. All right. If you think Rob is exhibiting Narc Energy,

you can't email us. Dr. Sidebeg's a GML.com. That's a stock station. D-O-C-T-O-R. Anything else you want to say about the Gulf Deish before we move on?

“I think ultimately, like, he might be supplanting”

campus security guard guy in this guy sucks power rankings of the season. Hard to beat putting a nurse in a chokehold. What about Ice agents from what do you think? I mean, they're all okay.

They're number numbers one and two. Number one, the institution of ice. Number two, the agent's who then work for ice. Number three, this fucking guy. And number four, campus security guard.

I think that's a fairly comprehensive list for who we've had this season. Number five, maggots. I think it's a great list. Yeah, when Wendy Dunn are invited, he says, "Catchin." - Does it? - Safe.

Viso Stoia. Holy dang it, Cyruk. - Yet's cost, and those else will be in. - Data versus Robbie. This is a very, like, Catholic NASA,

once another Emmy sort of performance episode between the, like, fuck, fuck reaction in the bathroom, the, like, not being able to hold back her tears in the public hallway while, like, Robbie looks on, but does not say anything to her.

And then they're blowout in the ambulance bay, a conversation that we're just like, she keeps trying to be like, "What conversation? "What are we doing? "What are you talking about?"

This idea that she's had a lotus origin her pocket all day, ready for danger. The fact that we've been talking all season about this potential of PTSD for her and how that might manifest.

I thought this was really well executed. Apallemaine Roxana Hadidi, who works for Vulture. He wrote a great piece called "We Need to Talk about Robbie." Sort of about the characterization of, of Robbie this season. And this is, this, you know, this, she wrote before,

this is in response episode 11, so not in response to episode 12. But she says, this is one point she made that I thought was interesting. She says, in layering on Robbie's aggression

without the checks and balances of other characters' responses to it, the pit is in danger of making his point of view, its point of view. The pit is set up to work as an ensemble show, a strong group of actors, varied characters

with a distinct experiences, a steady stream of patients, in cases that allow new dynamics to emerge. But spending so much time on Robbie this season is kept from becoming one more people than just Dana, could be standing up to Robbie

So like, you know, she's like,

it shouldn't just be Dana calling Robbie out or Abbott in a sort of like lighter sense. As we've said it again and again and again, we do not mind if characters on the pit are wrong. Like our incorrect, our worldview is fucked up in some way.

Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, that's a great balance inside of a human. I, something that we have been asking ourselves all season though is like, does the show agree with Robbie in his assessments of like Dr. Alhashimi

or Dr. Langdon or whatever the case may be? I do think that Rexanna's right in saying that Dana should not be the only character sort of like pushy back on Robbie. But Dana's push back in this episode in particular is so piercing and so pointed that I,

I do think this interaction, this call out did a lot of work inside of that dynamic that we've been interrogating all season. What do you think? - Yeah, I think there's, there's a lot to unpack here.

First of all, we're talking about kind of two different

fundamental framings.

“What is the best way to write a TV show?”

And what is most representative of a workplace? And in an actual workplace, most of the people working with Robbie probably would not feel like they're in a position to check it. - Absolutely. - Dana has the history, she is the personal relationship.

She also knows kind of exactly what buttons to push that we'll reach him. I mean, can you imagine if like three episodes ago, Javadi had tried to check Robbie in some way, like he would brush it off in the way he's been brushing off

everyone. And I think the other characters are taking their moments to be like, hey, I know people who walk close to the line just to see if they get burned. And if we see you doing that in real time,

like as gently as possible around the human time

problem, they are trying to warn him about what's happening, getting Dana in this capacity, though, I'm sensitive to that idea of like the gravitational pull of the show, being so heavily around Robbie. And what is that open up for of the other performers

on the show? When do they get their moments? What are their plot lines, you know?

“I think most of these other characters in the ensemble”

get their episodes, get their arcs, but it is such a Robbie show. And so long as that's the case, Dana is going to be one of the voices that makes the most sense to get to him,

but it doesn't have to be that way. You could rebalance to make it more focused on, you know, McCay in season three, if that's what you really wanted. And when we're focused on Abbott or Mohan or whoever,

there's lots of ways in which you can actually structure this thing. But I think the show is unusually centered around Robbie or maybe usually depending on just like your general TV point of view. I don't think the show agrees with everything he has to say though. I think that's where I would push back the most.

- I agree, and I think I don't think Raksana was saying that, but I think there is a danger of a reading of the show that way. Dana, what do you mean? And I think it sort of depends on how you watch it. I do think that I have seen both in the pit subreddit

and our comments and our emails, plenty of people who watch the show and anytime we critique Robbie, they're defensive of him. - Sure. - And so that happens all the time. But I do think there are some people

who watch the show thinking of Robbie as a leader, which he is, and then therefore his takes are the right takes.

“And I don't think that's what the show is presenting,”

but I do think it's interesting. Our listener, Erin, who is a physician wrote in with this interesting idea about what's called moral injury, which is not a phrase that I had heard before, but looked up.

Erin was talking about how this is increasingly a concern inside of healthcare workers and particularly post-pandemic. A moral injury is often something used to relate to veterans, people who have been through wartime. - And this idea of something that you have had to do

in the line of your job that betrays undercuts something of a core moral value that you have held. And so for physicians inside of a system where health insurance lets you down, you have to make compromise your beliefs,

and we've seen the doctor's in the pit, have to do this over and over again. In order to do your job, we heard Robbie say to Santos, like when Santos was concerned about the brother and sister, with a deported parents who might have to be separated,

and Robbie was just sort of like bad things happened inside of systems. So Robbie has had to compromise morally again, and again, when I show up, he has to just be like, we gotta put our heads down and do what we have to do

to get these guys out of here. So there are ways in which over time. And so I thought it was really interesting this like, it's called lasting emotional psychological social behavior and spiritual impacts of actions

that violate a service member's core moral values and behavioral expectations of self or others. And looking on the Department of Veteran Affairs website where they were talking about a specifically healthcare workers inside of this issue that I thought this is really interesting

For self-care inside of moral injury,

can be particularly challenging for people working in healthcare, given that those in this field typically strongly value caring for others and may prioritize the needs of others over their own. These characteristics are usually protective,

but during highly stressful events, they can mean that a person may not have time to take care of themselves and that personal standards put them at a higher risk for moral injury, therefore, self-care for moral injury

should include seeking out others to assist in making difficult choices when possible. And for support about circumstances that cause moral distress. It is often only in conversation with others

that we can hear a different, more helpful way to think about or make meaning from morally distressing situations. And so I was thinking about that as we like, let's bleed into this Dr. Al Hashimi Rabi conversation

“or she's like, I think there should be two attendings”

here in the ED.

Now, is she saying that because of her own questions about her own limitations

and whatever is going on with her medically, which is an ongoing question we have this season, or is she just speaking the truth? Like, everyone here is falling the fuck apart because it's too much for this staff to handle.

And Rabi is so affronted by this idea, right? And he gets so high in his horse. He's like, RED is the best ED in the world. And how dare you suggest that I'm doing the job of two people. And I just like, really, I love that for him

because like, I don't agree with him at all, of course. But like, that he's like, what do you mean help? What do you mean someone else? It has to be me only me. And this is what Dana's pushing back against.

Which is like, it's from this ED survivor that Adamson survived without me. It'll survive without you, like your idea. This mentally unwell story you have created that it all has to be on you is breaking you,

is not functional, is not true. And so he's being so threatened by, oh, she may even introducing the idea that there should be two attendings at the ED.

I thought was incredible storytelling.

It's a great setup. Yeah, because not only does he have this, it's just like perpetual martyr complex about what he is supposed to mean to this ED. So many times in this episode, he is telling people,

if I take my finger out of the dam, this whole place is gonna go down. And at the same time, completely rejecting the idea as you mentioned, Joe, that he needs any kind of help, whatsoever, which, look, there've been two attendings

on the floor today, and it's been a shit show. It seems exceedingly reasonable to see that with this volume of patients in one of the most trafficked EDs in the country, having two attendings to be an incredible luxury if they're staffing to afford it.

Not even a luxury, like an necessity on a trade. So like, I thought that was really interesting. Also, so in that, inside of that conversation, I thought she immediately gets this information that she didn't have that LinkedIn facility drugs.

I thought this phrasing from Robbie was really interesting when he was talking about Santos. He says, Santos is responsible for revealing. Like, I was just like, who's responsible inside of any of this situation?

I just thought that was a really interesting way for him to put that. - He's all over the map. I mean, there is just like, Dr. Robbie, accountability watch, death wish watch.

Like, he's so emotionally frazzled at this point and yet rejecting the idea that he is anywhere close to any kind of brink. I think the sum total of this, like how he is performing emotionally within these episodes,

how this character is kind of being represented in addition to the larger narrative stuff we've just been talking about about who Robbie is over the course of this season. - Right.

“- I think Noah Wiley's been even better this season”

than he was last in part because Robbie has been frankly so unlikable all throughout. - We will come back to Robbie again again, but let's take a, let's see if you're over into a heat stroke mom and her and her kid.

There is an interesting, like, frenzy among the fandom of like trying to figure out whether or not this mother is telling the truth, like, you know, down to like the dirt underneath the fingernails of the kid and what does that mean and all this sort of stuff like that.

How much do you think the show is actively engaging and pushing back on that kind of theorizing inside of this episode when we get both Dr. Hashimi saying to Langdon, like, let's not fear, just because the dad went up to check on the kid

before he checked on the mom, let's not like jump to any conclusions. And then McKay and I'll Hashimi and Dana having like mom corner at the front desk being like, did do you think she's telling the truth?

Does it matter? Is me being a mom making me more judgmental and more understanding? I don't know. That's just very much like a pushback on like,

did she do it? Is not the question this show wants to ask? Or is it? I don't know, what do you think?

“- I think it is the question the show wants us to ask, right?”

Like they're not giving you all these breadcrumbs. They're not giving you the shot of the fingernails if they didn't want you to think about it.

of one of these medical professionals, right? About like, if you're in that spot, should you care about it?

“And those are almost two separate questions”

because narratively, yeah, like the show wants you to engage with those ideas to the point that even as she is being told that her son is recovering and the ICU, that information relative to the idea

that he was dead seems to bother her almost more in the performance, like she has a visceral physical reaction to that. - All of these little things that if you interpret them just so can lead you to one radically different conclusion or another.

But I will say, I'm feeling a little less bad about saying that this actress looks like she might be cast to play a mother who would intentionally harm her child because that is the active text that is ongoing in that multiple episodes.

- You think that's the story that she always does.

- I don't even know that's the case, but it's supposed to be believable enough that the people in the floor of the pit would think it. - I'm really curious to see where that goes. Like if the point at the end of the day

is we've uncovered a crime, or if the point is as is often the case with the pit, you suspected this woman of doing something horrible when in fact, she just took her eyes off her kid and is suffering the consequences of that.

- But also sometimes things are just horrible. Sometimes people are just terrible. And I think, again, there are just like enough little things. The fingernails, again, her son's fingernails being dirty or her hands appear very clean.

Maybe she's wearing gloves. Maybe there's a logical explanation. He's out playing in the yard and stuff. She's also rolling in and like, I mean, one address,

which may not be your first choice of gardening

a tire, too, a very clean dress, which is just like, there's so many weird things about her story that just aren't adding up in a way that you understand why length and or McKay or anyone else would be like,

do we believe this?

“And I think it is also fair to read, but does that matter?”

- Okay, Dr. Maloney is on the case right there. - Directed to Nancy Dr. Maloney. You know, we're trying to solve everything out here. - I do think that some people prefer, like, think it's very aesthetic to wear a flower

or address well gardening. - Sure. - But I know that I could not spend any time in the garden without being like smeared head to foot in soil. So you make some points.

All right, let's talk about Magamonica and Victoria Javadi. Okay, Javadi, some highs and some lows for Javadi inside of this episode.

Actually, she's on top the whole time,

as far as I could say, because I really enjoy her jenzy, like, okay, boomer, reaction to Monica out in the ambulance bay. Victoria is waiting for her video of ice arresting Jessie just upload. - She's in that hamster wheel on the action right now.

- Yeah, to her take, I do love this. This is a really clever premise inside the show that there's no reception inside of the ED. I really love that because cell phones have ruined so many TV shows and so many movie premises.

So the idea that you can't get self-reflection and maybe you can get it in the ambulance bay, but only sometimes is a really good move, Monica. How did this moment shine through for you?

“- I mean, I think you need to take about first show.”

I mean, you could smell her info/war subscription from a mile away. - She's in snowflake, is here, but maybe more importantly, I was stripping at purgatory to put myself through school

when I was your age. - Okay, Monica, all right. - See, if she were truly into the intergenerational war, she would understand that Jensian Jan Alpha would support her, stripping to purt her way through school.

- They'd be like, yeah, Queen, go for it. - But I do really love the Victoria's like, okay, you know, she's not, she's like, we don't use that term and okay, okay, bad. - All the things to like, of all the hills to die on,

idiot savant is one of the dumbest possible hills. - I have not heard anyone say that in a very, very long time. - Okay, we did get a lot, I don't need to read them, but we did get a lot of emails from people who work in medical world who are like,

I've met a lot of very conservative, very anti-vax nurses, and then actually, it's sort of like very similar to this depiction of Ogovi, like Monica and Ogovi are perhaps more realistically representative of some of the personality types

you mean inside of these various industries that like, Dana, as they like, tough talking, working class, but living out, charge nurses, is like a Hollywood fantasy, and I do think that's, but it's interesting to have like these,

these more realistic moments, all right, here comes Mattail, how excited were you when Mattail showed up? When you saw the back of the, the luscious curls come bouncing into the ED.

- I would recognize them anywhere, and let it be gets the full on like dramatic over the shoulder following him into the ED reveal. I have three primary reactions to this whole situation. - Okay.

- Number one, the beard is working. It's resplendent, A+, everything that's happening there, no notes, let's let's keep it going.

Mattail does not know ball.

He brings up the Dr. J bit, says that he like speaking of layups, is his transition point, and then minds a jump shot. And it's like, you kind of can't do both, you know, like there's a crossing of terminology of mechanics here that I,

it just, it lays everything buried. It's like doing the German three, you know? - Oh, I do, I do know what you're talking about. (laughing) - What are my favorite scenes in all of cinema?

Do people remind a layup? They don't really. - Oh, for sure, you can do? - Yeah. - How does one remind a layup?

- Well not easily, but don't make the jump shot. - Like, don't say the line if you're gonna then remind a jump shot. - Okay, fair enough. - Have it one way or the other,

“but the third I think the most important night”

when he tells Javadi,

when he specifically says the line,

the night shift to baby, to Javadi. If you look very closely, you can see her brain short circling in real time for like a absolute flip of a moment. - And I'm here for it, I love it.

- This is her reward for having navigated the back of Monica moment with a palm. And she gets to, she gets to Matteo interaction. So Matteo is here, it's very exciting. We did get an email from a listener saying,

like, Joanna, how dare you not update your hotness rankings after what we saw with laying in a, running in with the heat stroke kid. And more importantly, Nurse Jessie getting arrested by ICE. And I will say, I agree.

Langdon's has been already been on the list, so he's fine. Nurse Jessie, I'm bumping him all the way up to number two. Nothing's gonna unseat Dr. Abbott, I'll pay for it. Like nothing's bumping that off the list.

But Nurse Jessie gets arrested by ICE, that's number two. And I'm bumping him all the way up and I feel very comfortable with that right. - Without a doubt. - But Matteo, there's still time left in the day

to be able to move your way up the rankings. I believe in you, my guy. - And I hadn't put this together, but Javadi in our shift to the pit nights. The spin-off series we're trying to get green less,

so desperately or secure.

“I think should be a welcome addition to that particular group.”

I mean, we've got Abbott, we've got Ellis, we've got John Shen, who's stumbling in Duncan and Hand as usual. - She had you and Lee, my favorite character. Like genuinely, Dr. John Shen is my favorite character.

- We can't have enough John Shen on screen, so we need the pit nights. And if we add Javadi, now we're going to team together. You know, now we've really got something cooking.

- In that case, Javadi does not have to deal with her mom and her dad, because personally, they don't work night, so it's not her mom walking down and going, it was this you, like, that doesn't happen on the night shift, so come to the dark side as Matteo says.

I would love that. You and Kai and I did go see Reddy or not, too, to support our guy, Sean Hadnessy, Dr. Abbott himself at the cinema. Was it a great movie?

No, did we have a good time? Yeah. - Are his line readings in that movie? - On his, yes, this is Ask God Game and that movie, top tier, it is.

He's surprisingly, like, he's a bigger part of that movie

“than I think people are probably expecting.”

I will say, in the press tour for that movie, he has been going around people but asking about night shift and he's like, "Sure, I do that, so, done." - Sure, we'd watch that.

- Green lit the hell over here, come on, let's get it going. - I'm gonna come back to Dr. Abbott again because he's storyline touches this next one and I wanna talk about which is Samira, Mohan, Mel King and this older couple that come in.

And just to stay off any emails from people, I will note that the actor who plays the husband behind the wheel is Dan Flore, who played Captain Donald Craig and I'm law and order from 1992, 1993. And on social victims unit, from 1999 to 2014.

I don't watch any, actually, that's not true. I was gonna say I don't watch any loan order. I did the Dan Afreo years of criminal intent. So I have watched them on order, but I am unfamiliar with this guy's game,

but I do know people were excited to see him here. So here he is, law and order stable. Okay, so this case, we get, Dr. King, Dr. Mohan, doing some great work with this elderly couple and their daughter navigating

all of that, Mohan has some tricks and tips that she uses to navigate this. This is when Megan Nord comes in and is like, "Hey, maybe all of these medications together "are causing some issues, we're coming with solutions,

"to problems, we're doing a great job." This culminates in Robby telling Dr. Mohan, once again in this day, another person this day, to consider geriatrics. This starts off well, I actually think.

- He's really trying for a second there.

- Have you considered geriatrics more of an art than a science? - Great. - She does seem to have a facility for a great. - No doubt.

- You have a predisposition to the pace and the way he says it is so shitty, and the way her face falls is I was just like, Robby, you almost seemed supportive. - I know.

- Tell you were actually nasty to someone who's doing great work here. I was very frustrated by this interaction. - Incredibly frustrated to say the least. I do think it speaks to though

when you're in these sorts of environments, the way your brain sorts of get.

of people who can't cut it there.

- Right. - It's the idea of what you think. - I'm in this shit every day. - I destroyed my life to be here. You're unwilling to do the same.

- Yes. - And the people I value are the ones who are also destroying themselves and can somehow cope enough to show up to work the next day. And the fact that Mohan has shown any resistance

“and honestly not even that much to the idea.”

Like she wants to continue working there, it seems. Like she's interested in this kind of medicine. And frankly, good at it. Like this case itself say what you want about the pace of geriatric treatment, like her going the extra mile

in the case that she did in season one,

her instincts are what lead her and melt to the conclusion

that maybe even though this guy is getting good siloed care from all of these specialists, he's not getting good comprehensive care because of the way that all these medicines may interact. So she is good at this.

It's just a little different than the way that Robbie once had done. We have this interesting mail from someone who has chosen to go by Dr. Jay. Talking about the subject line of this

was toxic bosses, which I think is like a very good way to think about Robbie here. The whole quote, "You're a golden child "and tell you're not pseudo parental role

“"where the boss is the one who has poor boundaries”

"and shows what seems like favoritism, see, Whittaker, and Robbie." And if I treat you poorly, that's just tough love,

but reality, it is childish, freezing people out

because they have dared to disappoint you after everything that you have done for them, see, Langdon. Flying off the handle, being petty or using emotional punishment, see how Robbie let Dr. Sidebangs know Roxy was dead.

Gossiping, even when pretended not to, see Robbie's side comment about Dr. Al-Hashimi early in the shift, expressing quote concern that is really nagging, see intimidating Mohan maybe just doesn't have what it takes

them being somewhat exasperated or annoyed when she agreed because he was looking to cause emotional damage without being made to feel guilty. - I think all of the assessments-- - Well, when you put it like that.

- Deadbang on Perrovi inside of this season, yeah, that's really tough. - On the dialysis dad, Mason and Oliver Hauss, I'm kind of using the names just to help our listeners, but I do write down character names, but anyway, dialysis dad and his son come in.

This is chiefly framed here to show Dr. Al-Hashimi turning on Langdon and essentially being quite short with him in a way that she hasn't been, but also is she not sort of doing to him what he did to Santos, which is just sort of like well-actuallying him again and again.

And she's right as she does it, but he feels demoralized and undermined the way that she's particularly doing it after all of the warmth that she has offered him earlier in this day. And then putting Robbie in the position where he has to decide

whether or two side-- - Langdon or Al-Hashimi and he's like, this is my worst nightmare, I really liked this. - And when he backs up Al-Hashimi,

“she like does a straight-up double check or what this can happen?”

- Yeah, this case is also here to worse, we're a little bit living out with the pit right, because we are teaching you a little lesson about rural hospitals and access to dialysis and all of them. - And Medicare cuts and Medicare cuts.

- You know what guy, let's just roll, let's just get there. - Can't go in. ♪ Living out with the pit ♪ I love it. - It's beautiful.

- In terms of people who can check Robbie and other option here today is Duke, and Duke is here to do a couple things. One to underline Robbie's hypocrisy about calling, you know, McKay out for going across the park

to help Kiki last episode when he's just sort of like pouring all these resources into Duke, which you highlighted. He is not pushing Duke to the front of the CT line. He is pissed that Duke keeps getting bumping,

bump down the CT line, but all of that is true. Also, our listener's stuffy, in terms of like Robby's hypocrisy, Stephanie pointed out that last season, she's the way she put his Robbie pouring scarce blood into Leah last season, like we are low on blood,

we have doctors literally giving blood while treating other people, and Robbie, well past the point of saving Leah, is pumping a lot of blood into this young woman who unfortunately didn't make it. Again, that was framed as a breaking point for Robbie, moment about decision for Robbie,

but the fact that he then does not have space for other people when they bend and break rules is, I guess, frustrating. - Let's start there, because I do think the bending and breaking of rules is happening across the board in a lot of different ways, some of which are fine,

some of which are maybe part of like the institutional process. Like, for example, Becca being ushered as a VIP patient, that seems to be like the way businesses conducted here. And you may have a feeling about that, but like, I think there is a, like a tangible psychological benefit

in the waiting room.

Then there's things like McKay, which is like,

she is going across the street to the park to treat Kiki on company time, bringing another student doctor with her using hospital resources in a way that is like, good human behavior, but is it the best management of a shift of medical professionals

during they're already crunched? I think you could probably, like, reasonable people could disagree on that one. - I do, I agree. That reason people could disagree.

I also think that it was like 15 minutes in a long shift and then she is like, there's no signs of her going home. So I just like, I don't know. And again, a lot of our listeners and many people in general are sort of like, that's the point Robby sees

his own behavior in these other people and it bothers him, but if there is a sort of like larger physician healed, I self arc for Robby, I would love for him to say, hey, Dr. McKay,

“I understand why you felt like you need to do this.”

Here are some of the risks that it poses for the hospital, but I understand why you did that. Not your patient diet, well, you were gone. You don't ask, you know, like, there are different approaches. His reactions almost uniformly suck to almost everyone.

He's working with this season. So it's like, there's the question of like, was it like hospital crime actually committed here? Is this that big of an infraction? And then there is what is Robby's response to that infraction?

And they're disproportionate almost every time. - I think you want to say about Duke inside of this episode. Nurse Livy, big fan of her excited to see her here. Anything else you want to say? I mean, he does pose the million dollar question to Robby,

which is why are you so eager to get out of here? And it is the other side of the martyrdom, which is Robby, even himself, recognizes like,

if I don't get out this second, I'm never going to get out.

Like, he needs a break, he needs relief from this life. He's also just like, I mean, in the spirit of true detective, I just wanted to stop saying odd shit, just constantly around every corner, insinuating that he may never return suggesting that like,

oh, the hospital is going to be in your hands. Oh, my apartment's going to be in your hands. Oh, when I'm gone, you're going to need to do X, Y, and Z. He just can't help himself. And Duke is to your point about like, people who can check him.

Really, the only person who's like, so what's going on here? Like, why are you doing this in this particular way?

“And what is so important about tonight that you have to get out?”

- Right. I love that the idea of Robby being the rest cool of... - It's not about psychosphere. - But I do think, well, like on that note, we get this a more faulty exchange in the...

- This is one topic. - Exactly. This is a rest cool moment. A lot of people were noting that in last week's episode, when Dr. Husshi Mew was asking, he'd stroke mom, like sort of have you ever thought about hurting yourself

with the camera lingers on Robby's face. We get a lot of those moments inside of this episode as well. After he leaves Duke, we just are on his face walking down the hallway, you know, and just sort of like dealing with him, dealing with his emotions.

And then inside of this sort of firework explosion case where a guy, Busshi's head, his head wide open, joy gets to staple it back together, imperfectly. Great stuff. We get this gunpowder in my blood and this camera lingering on Robby.

“A more faulty, he writes it, so like, love of fate,”

and then Santa says like, "Memento, mori." I've seen 28 years later. As we all should, frankly. But a more faulty, right? An attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life,

including suffering loss is good, or at the very least, necessary. I have a bit of World War I poetry that I would like to quote for you, but I want to hear what you think about this moment first before I inflict that on you.

I do love the way that Robby, every time he's confronted with some of these like very direct conversations about the way he's talking, or the way he's conducting himself. He just kind of like trails off and exits them without having any kind of resolution whatsoever.

In a way that's just been like a consistent drumbeat throughout the season.

Like, he never really has an answer for why he's doing what he's doing.

He just kind of walks away. I think that really works. I also think in addition to the gunpowder in my blood, aspect of that exchange, as that guy is sort of whistling the effect of a firework, you get like this wince,

there's like physical wince from Robby that he then does later when the phones are going off, and it's just like this man is a husk, and he's afraid in ways that he's clearly not equipped to deal with right now. But he's equipped to, you know, just like pass off a little casual Latin here and there, trying to pass on some wisdom, I guess, in the way that he does.

I do think it's interesting if you go back to that quote that I read at the top of the episode from Noa Wiley about season three, this idea that like, the doctor's benefit from being patients, if season three is the like post therapy season, or the like currently in therapy season, like I'm excited for that, because like I don't mind

men's robby season. But this idea, to your point,

there was a combination of this sort of like a more faulty plus that sort of whistling sound

“of the firework, which also sounds like a bomb being detonated, and I think combined with our”

listeners, our listener writing it about this idea of moral injury, which is again, something that like you think about a lot when you think about veterans of war, this poem, don't say a decorum asked by Wilfred Owens, which is one of my favorite poems, really. Joe, you can only be yourself. I can't only be myself. I love where one poetry, because it's like worse, more fucking sucks actually, in the most like flowery terminology ever,

but still to the decorum as pro-patriomory means like it is sweet and just and the right thing

to do to die for your country. And this is the final stance of that poem that sounds to me so

much like working in this particular ER, regardless. If in some smothering dreams, YouTube could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in and watch the white eyes writhing in his face, his hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin. If you could hear at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs, obscene his cancer, bitter as the cut, a vile and curable source on innocent tongues. My friend, you would not tell with such

high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory. The old lie, Dolce, I'd decorum as pro-patriomory. So this, like, like talking about someone dying on a wagon is just sort of like blood gargling from their lips, frothing eyes rolling. I'm like, this is the trauma of watching dialysis dad or heatstroke kid or all, you know, all of these people come into the ER and like are on the brink of death or die. These are people who are go to war every single day and they are traumatized. But the

part, the point of that poem, this idea of like, Dolce had to come as pro-patriomory, this idea that Robbie has of like, it is the right adjusting for me to do to break my life in order to be here because I am saving and helping people. And like, on the one hand, yes, but on the other hand, no, because you can't do go on the way that you've been going and do the good work that you most

“want to do in helping people. And also, you are the only person who can do it. Right. And honestly,”

it's very understandable that for someone with Robbie's level of skill and with his level of expertise that he would trick himself into thinking because I am saving people's lives because I'm pulling off these miracles in the room that all of this depends on me, but it doesn't have to be him in the room. And he could pull himself out of the equation, maybe not quite as seamlessly as joy did, leaving like on the dot as soon as his shift ends. But like he has to get out enough to treat

himself to take care of himself. He's not willing to do it because in part, he is fooled himself into thinking that it can't be anyone but me. Some are really a little content. Honestly, um, okay. With much lower stakes, I do want to shout out on the fireworks case. I would like to take this opportunity

to shout out Garcia for the incredible requesting of a custom custom Elkbone carb hunting blade

and then telling Robbie, you'll make a great ex-husband one day. No notes, great stuff on that note. Should we be worried about Santos? Okay. So we got a ton of emails about this and I was sort of like really mad as a bit at all these emails we got that were just sort of like his Santos headed towards serious self-harm. We've seen like the cutting scars on her, but she, she headed towards something,

“you know, we're all in sort of like Robbie's suicide watch. Should we have her ice somewhere else?”

And that is kind of this episode. She, she nicks a scalpel from like, you know, the future cabinet or whatever. Um, and so I was like, uh, uh, our our concern listeners. Yeah. I don't know. Um, but we have this moment. We have her interaction with Whitaker where she is like obviously quite upset that he is perhaps going to leave her going to to house it, uh, Javadi eating this up with this spoon once again reward for dealing with magamotica. She gets to witness this

exchange. Whitaker's like, you like, like, with me. Just go ahead and say it, man, you love it. A physical transformation in Whitaker as he realizes he can lords at them over her is a, is a great and funny moment within. I have to say just like one of the darkest episodes we've seen for Santos yet because of all this in the way it's building. We got this really interesting email I thought for Melissa who wants to go by M. H about Santos taking cues from Robbie. They write

Santos is taking all of her cues from Robbie and how to behave in the workplace. They're refusal to work with Langdon. The sense of justice that goes beyond reasonable at times, the resistance to working with others, slashed being easily threatened. The disdain for Dr. Allihashimi's changes, not to mention sleeping with someone you work with. I see this all, all the time across

behaviors that hurt their careers as a young person you're drawn to mentors that quote break the

“mold without realizing that you need to know all the rules before you can break them and that”

breaking the mold has real costs and that privilege will play a role in how many rules you can break. I think we're watching Santos bump up against the limitations that come from acting like Robbie when you don't have his experience, relationships, and privilege. I found that really fascinating and so to watch Robbie directly coach Santos and say this episode and do once again a do as I say not as I do you have to learn how to work with Langdon and hey man go see a bucket

therapist right all advice that he is unwilling to give to him. He's really something else. But I thought that was really interesting to think about like Santos is like a young woman just starting out trying to behave like this 50 something year old cowboy doctor and it's just sort of like it's not right that he can get away with it and she can't but like the whole system is not right. So but I thought that was a fascinating read on Santos. Anyway are you are you are you worried about

“her how do you how do you feel about it? Terrified. I think in part you know I I grew with you”

about the emails that have been trickling in over the course of the season kind of pointing a finger at this that this could be a possibility and I think it would be really smart TV storytelling to have all of the big loud blaring stuff be like Robbie motorcycles everyone's worried about him all the time and then Santos is like off to the side and she she's looks like she's about to collapse all day. She's been told that her like professional progression could be

stunted by this whole charting situation with Dr. Elishimi. She's Langdon is lurking around every single corner her situation ship is going sideways, ramen is spilling everywhere. Like everything and even even Whittaker who clearly at this point is like one of the people she is closest with might be moving out at a time where she really probably needs him more than any other and it's like all this stuff is piling up and piling up and you can see this character kind of falling through

the scenes where she didn't get like the pep talk from Dana in the stairwell that Mel did you know she hasn't gotten the like let me pull you aside and let's actually talk about what's happening that so many characters the opportunity to do this season um she does get her speech here as far as like what Langdon coming back has meant to her and the way it has kind of like reactivated some

of these anxieties and some of those are real like the stuff about being gaslit on her first day that's

real the stuff about everyone looking at her differently I imagine a lot of that is imagined a lot of that is kind of projected based off of she's feeling like a pariah and thus interpreted that she's a pariah and behaving in a way that maybe makes her feel even more distant from everyone else. I love would occur I mean I really loved that ending for them last season and I love would occur as this like rare safe space for her like someone that she can tell these things too

and like even if you know there is this danger of him has sitting for Robbie and also like he's calling Amy from the ambulance bay like Amy's picking up he's not going home you know to Santa's farm bed if it's started as soon as the shift is over so um you know um I and I love her talking about him eating her avocado listen if you're my avocados I don't want you in the house I don't have a jingle for this but I would just like to introduce a new recurring segment that I would

like to call pitting out with a pit and it is are we all isn't that everything it's when the pit is like

and now in Pittsburgh history or hit Pittsburgh culture so we get the revolutionary warrior actors right

and the fore end link to being like are you from Fort Pit Museum I love you know which is like I guess the colonial Williamsburg of of Pittsburgh isn't like that uh I want to say it does kind of track that length and would be like a big revolutionary war nerd yeah that's true just kind of fit like very pitting out with a pit like you know when they're like hey did you know that these guys invented ambulances or like hey did you know this I think it's I think it's fun I like it but it's

like a funny recurring it's a great show I would also like to introduce to you my new favorite character and it is sunburn lady in the red white blue bikini thank god she is here because like again this is a very intense very chaotic episode and sometimes as we're unraveling like all these medical mysteries of like oh my god what's happening with this woman who may have harmed her son

oh what's going on with this dialysis dad like how do we get him basically back to life from like

drooling pink goo coming into the ambulance day uh sometimes he's walking to a room it's like there's a lobster in a bikini and it's just this she also sucks but she also is like walking behind and one scene she's just walking the bathroom and I'm like I think I'm more delighted by the process of this than the furry even like the the opportunity for her to just sort of like be walking around like sort of like auditoring around in the background and maybe it's just

“because I have experienced some like absolutely pain as sunburns in my life is an incredibly fair”

skin person but I was just like representation it matters and here it is so you know we don't know

don't know we do know what this feels like maybe not full body to the extent that you have like

“the the sunglasses reverse tan but yeah uh this is tough or from the British Isles we know it's”

going on here okay last but not least just around up doctor don't shed as you mentioned is here I did like a literal hell yes fist bump on my couch when I saw that Dikney is still here so shout out to Charles Baker for getting paid all season to just be here a lot of that and here comes

Orlando so Mira is patient from earlier in the season he fell she is this is going to be really hard

really hard for her right she blames herself already and this is going to be really hard for her it's almost worse when you try to do the right things and still come up short in the treatment of patients like she tried to warn him that some version of this could absolutely happen two day and it couldn't keep him in the room and I'm terrified to see how hard Mohan takes that and is anyone

going to offer her grace for that or not yeah but the good news is the night should just

start against them you and doctor check out but should be here at any moment it's come back anyone has some grace for doctor Mohan it might be him all right anything else that we haven't

“mentioned in this incredibly japaic episode I have one I think philosophical question for you Joe and”

it's based off of a line from Dana which is Dana as she is coming out of her like on the verge of tears emotional episode with Robbie or one of the many in this episode says how can I help uncluster this cluster fuck do you uncluster a cluster fuck or do you unfuck a cluster fuck you unfuck a cluster I think right that's kind of what I was thinking but but let me down like absolute spiral honestly though let's say you have all these bugs are cluster together and

if you uncluster them then they become smaller more disparate fucks that maybe you can handle one by one do you know what I mean but I feel like the implication of fuck is that the clusters

“are creating a fuck of a situation I think maybe there's an implied of a cluster of”

fucks that have now become a larger like whatever the group name for a large amount of fucks is and it's a cluster fuck right it apparently is a cluster fuck I just I just really went down the rabbit hole with this and I've come out on both side simultaneously so if you have a conclusive answer to whether you uncluster a cluster fuck or unfuck a cluster fuck I would love to hear it Dr. [email protected] well we have to hope that Oelvis patient makes it out of his

surgery okay because I think he has the answer for us thank you to Robahoney thank you to Kai Trady thank you to the pit what a incredibly complex and fascinating show and like Noel Wiley and Dr. Robbie like this is like a really complicated psychological portrait of a person that I'm having good time unpacking even as I like get pissed off and disagree with him we will be back of course with the love story finale wrapping it up and and with a pit episode 13 only a couple of episodes go

from home and then we're done somehow somehow feels like we've doing this forever but also I'm not ready for it end. See you soon bye!