One of the Biggest Debates About The Pitt Has Devolved Into a Lot of People Misunderstanding the Show
Since The Pitt came back for its second season this January, fans of HBO Max’s beloved medical drama have worked themselves into a tizzy over a number of heated debates: Is Robby suicidal or just fed up? Is Dr. Al-Hashimi hiding something? What’s the deal with Javadi and Ogilvie? But of all of the hot topics this season, perhaps the most divisive is the complex dynamic between Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) and Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones). The whole thing has devolved into a bit of a mess, with fans taking sides between the two characters, and the loudest castigating Langdon, a recovering addict, while excusing mistakes made by Santos and other favorite characters. It’s not a fun time to be a Langdon fan, given how much certain viewers seem to hate him. However, as a Pitt-head who longs to see more nuance in the way that fellow fans discuss our favorite series, I must take a stand and say: Langdon deserves grace too.
If you’ll recall, in Season 1, which took place over the course of a very long shift in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency room, Langdon, a senior resident, got into hot water with our lead senior attending physician, Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), when it was revealed that Langdon was diverting drugs to feed his addiction to benzodiazepines. More specifically, Langdon was caught stealing Librium from one of his patients and replacing vials of liquid lorazepam with saline. The person who caught him was Santos, an intern who, despite it being her first day at this specific trauma center, had already developed an extremely icy relationship with Langdon. Langdon berated Santos inappropriately, lashing out with increasing severity as he became more paranoid that she was catching on to his addiction. When coupled with Santos’ cocky attitude, downright rudeness to several of her peers, and carelessness about the emergency department’s chain of command, with Santos consistently going over Langdon’s head, the resident’s chiding was positioned as that of a superior simply putting his subordinate in her place. This all painted Santos in a bad light—that is, until she accused Langdon of stealing drugs and was found to be right.
We learn, at the start of Season 2, which takes place 10 months later, on the Fourth of July, that Langdon, who is now back for his first day at “the Pitt,” was forced to join a specialized rehab program for physicians. Dr. Robby made Langdon seek help for his addiction but seemingly covered up his actual crime of drug diversion. As a result, there’s understandably quite a bit of tension between Langdon, who remains fairly self-centered but is trying to make amends, and Santos, who feels like a pariah for having unveiled Langdon’s addiction while he, in her view, gets to hide behind the cover-up.
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As far as conflict goes, this is a solid setup, with motivations on both sides that make sense—but that don’t get off scot-free—as well as room for character growth. But that’s not how some vocal fans are seeing it. Because Santos was vindicated in her suspicions of Langdon in Season 1, the character has amassed supporters who rightfully admire her for being a badass, talented female character who’s more metal than plush. I see no problem with that. What I do take issue with, however, is the way that many Santos fans seem to believe that loving her must also mean hating Langdon, without leaving any room for understanding. The reasons for this adamant detestation are multifold and, taken at face value, not invalid: Langdon was unnecessarily impudent regarding Santos, and he has approached his return with a specific sort of “woe is me” self-centeredness not uncommon for people on the road to recovery. His drug diversion could easily have resulted in a patient’s death—and who knows if it hadn’t before, off-screen—when that tampered vial of lorazepam was used to try to stop a seizing patient to little avail. How much else is a handsome guy allowed to get away with?
But there’s a line between disliking a character and refusing to allow him space for growth or change—things that we should want from our characters! Yes, Langdon’s drug tampering almost resulted in a patient’s death, but so did Santos’ arrogance when, in Season 1, she missed a pneumothorax on a patient and endangered him further by initiating a BiPAP without consulting anyone. Yes, Langdon treated Santos unethically, especially given their power imbalance, but Santos isn’t innocent when it comes to mocking her peers. Yes, Langdon was handed a generous lifeline by Robby, but he is actively working to fix his mistakes, while Santos is still making many of the same ones that she did the previous season, like letting her traumatic past cloud her judgment when it comes to handling allegations of parental abuse. Her complaint to her casual lover, Dr. Yolanda Garcia (Alexandra Metz), that Langdon was able to easily waltz back into the ED as the golden boy, while she remains on the outskirts of the Pitt’s social ladder, just isn’t true, and it ignores that many of Santos’ social struggles stem from her attitude rather than from anything having to do with a guy who hasn’t been around for 10 months.
The insistence by Santos and her fans that Langdon has been able to waltz back into the Pitt also ignores the reality that the resident hasn’t been received all that warmly. Robby, the person who illicitly created the space for Langdon to have another chance, has been cold to Langdon and even laughed at Santos’ quip about Langdon potentially relapsing. During this July Fourth shift, Robby has blocked Langdon from caring for high-risk patients, instead sending him to triage the waiting room. Far from letting Langdon off the hook, the attending is punishing him in other ways—something that the Pitt’s charge nurse, Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), directly confronts Robby about.
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One of the Biggest Debates About The Pitt Has Devolved Into a Lot of People Misunderstanding the Show
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Calling Langdon’s struggles with Robby and with Santos to attention is vital to understanding the show and its mission as a whole. This series is as much about medical realism as about a utopian version of health care. There are lessons delivered—sometimes clunkily—in nearly every episode. The Pitt is good at what it does because its writers know when to rely on stereotypes—like that of, say, a highly functioning addict or a tough girl who uses sarcasm to hide her pain—and when to subvert them. But what also makes The Pitt so effective is that it develops an incredible amount of empathy for nearly every character involved, patient or doctor. As a few have pointed out on X, the show is clearly written to engender compassion for both Langdon and Santos as complex, parallel characters. This is not only something that Briones has noted, but a realization that the show hits its audience over the head with. In this week’s episode, “7:00 P.M.,” Langdon fixates on a mistake he made and questions whether he’s actually ready to be back. The mistake is eerily similar to the one he harangued Santos for previously: Langdon misses that his patient has a pneumothorax and almost kills him by suggesting intubation. In this climate, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine many Pitt-heads interpreting this misstep as a sign of Langdon’s incompetence, rather than evidence of his commonalities with Santos. But the show isn’t letting Robby get away with discounting Langdon, and it’s trying to prevent the viewer from getting away with it too.
Which is why Langdon and Santos work so well as foils to each other: Santos is the opposite of a team player but is ultimately right; Langdon is a highly skilled team favorite but deeply fallible, both as a doctor and an addict. The two characters exist in gray areas that make them deserving of more care, not less. That’s why I’m begging fans to hold space for nuance, something that the show is testing the base limits of in its audience. You can still love Santos and root for Langdon’s recovery. Writing off either character does the opposite of what The Pitt clearly intends: to leave room for humanity, each and every one of us.
