The Pitt Was Testing Us

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Beware, details ahead about The Pitt up until the 10th episode titled “4:00 PM,” which aired on Max on March 6.

Thus far, the ten episodes of The Pitt have been building up to a particular notion: Just who does Dr. Trinity Santos believe herself to be?

Amongst all characters in the Max medical drama’s extensive cast, the loquacious, trouble-making first-year resident is perfectly designed to grate on our nerves. Santos consistently belittles her fellow trainees at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center with snide monikers and regards patients as mere pieces on a board. She exploits surgeon Dr. Yolanda Garcia’s (potentially romantic) inclinations towards her to execute procedures that are beyond her competence at this stage in her career, only to demonstrate her unpreparedness by accidentally dropping a scalpel onto Garcia’s foot. Repeatedly, she undermines her supervising senior resident, Dr. Frank Langdon, acting as if she’s superior to almost everyone else when it’s only her first day on the job.

As a dedicated follower of the series, I’ve come to expect one thing about ‘The Pitt’ as reliably as med student Dennis Whitaker getting covered in unsavory substances – Santos will be a thorn in our side. This consistent portrayal is clever because it not only makes us dislike Santos for her rudeness, youth, ambition, and perceived excesses but also validates her accusations against Langdon about the drug theft. In turn, ‘The Pitt’ subtly implicates us as well by revealing our own biases, preconceptions, and ageism, sexism, and prejudice towards someone who is simply too much – too young, too ambitious, or just too much in general.

As a dedicated movie critic, I find “The Pitt” an exceptional medical drama that strives for authenticity in portraying the inner workings of emergency departments, capturing the urgency and diversity of cases faced by doctors every day. One recurring theme is the tension between hospital administrators who want patients to be seen quickly yet still receive high satisfaction scores, and the limited time doctors have to address each case, resulting in a congested waiting room. This constant pressure, exacerbated by inadequate resources and rushed diagnoses, can lead to mistakes and missteps that may harm patients. No doctor is immune to making an incorrect judgment call, either due to time constraints or falling into familiar patterns of diagnosis, investigation, and determination. The true test for doctors isn’t merely reciting the Hippocratic Oath; they must embody it in their actions by learning from their mistakes and demonstrating compassion and professionalism with each new patient.

Since The Pitt consistently emphasizes personal growth among its characters, it’s common for character arcs to conclude with a pledge to improve; after all, it’s a teaching hospital. The Pitt often underscores that being a doctor involves making subjective decisions based on objective data, and this subjectivity can be influenced by opinions doctors might not even realize they hold. On occasion, these lessons are imparted hierarchically: For instance, in one scenario, third-year resident Dr. Samira Mohan instructs Whitaker to question his assumptions when a woman initially perceived as an addict turns out to be suffering from sickle-cell crisis, and Mohan firmly reprimands Whitaker when he suggests underestimating the woman’s morphine requirements due to doubts about her pain levels. Later in the series, senior resident Dr. Heather Collins mildly admonishes second-year resident Dr. Cassie McKay for not performing a comprehensive enough examination of an overweight woman experiencing abdominal pain and for failing to detect her widespread infection. When McKay questions Collins’s critique by asking, “Are you saying I was biased against the patient because of her weight?”, Collins responds calmly, “I raise it as a possibility, not as an accusation.

In this TV series, it’s often shown that Portland Trinity Medical Center (PTMC) serves as a learning ground for everyone. Occasionally, lessons are learned not just by the students and residents, but also by the staff themselves. For instance, third-year student Victoria Javadi takes the initiative to correct incorrect gender pronouns for a trans patient in her medical records, which McKay appreciates. On the other hand, Dr. Mel King challenges Langdon’s blunt approach with an autistic patient and contests his assertion that the patient’s autism is unrelated to his current diagnosis.

At times, biases seem to be used as a narrative device, such as the contrast between Robby’s and McKay’s responses to potentially dangerous individual David, who is still at large after fleeing PTMC and worrying his mother. Robby initially believed McKay was overreacting by calling the police on the teenager, but later admits to her that he didn’t fully consider the girls David had threatened. We’ll have to wait and see if Robby comes to regret his lenient response to David’s threat.

In general, these experts tend to take criticism with a degree of humility and a determination to improve, which is quite the opposite of how Santos has behaved for much of the season. Despite her initial acknowledgment that she employs sarcasm and comedy as a form of protection, it’s been challenging not to grow frustrated with her repeated awkward behavior: her agitated defensiveness when criticized for her flippant conversation with a college student whose friend passed from a drug overdose; her clumsy questioning of a young girl about potential sexual abuse; and her disregard for protocol by ordering medical tests without approval. While Santos generally has good intentions, she struggles to move past insubordination consistently.

Indeed, it’s plausible that Santos could be both pushy and rude while also being correct about Langdon taking the hospital’s drugs and stealing patients’ prescriptions. Reflecting on the story now, it seems like “The Pitt” deliberately led us to view Santos negatively as a test, exaggerating her abrasive traits and the resistance from her peers to see if we would make the same mistakes as the characters in the book. Would our judgment of Santos have been different if she were friendlier towards her colleagues, followed rules more strictly, or had a different appearance? If Langdon were female instead of male, or if either character belonged to a different race or was closer in age? Would our perception of Santos change if Langdon exhibited twitchy paranoia sooner, or if we discovered the pills in his locker before Robby did? It’s only after finding those drugs that most readers accepted Santos’ claims, leading one to wonder: is this the sole piece of evidence that could have convinced us, or were there other clues missed along the way?

In The Pitt’s portrayal, most doctor biases are unveiled after they have already impacted a patient. This results in a predictable response of surprise upon disclosure and subsequent comfort from the character’s promise to improve. By depicting Santos as bristly instead of deferential, The Pitt encourages us to doubt her intentions and treat her differently than other characters who might receive more leniency. In this way, The Pitt subtly plants a bias in us that it later asks us to acknowledge in others – trapping us in its metaphorical pit before helping us escape by making us confront our own prejudices. When Collins tells Robby, “Leave your baggage at the door like everyone else,” this is also The Pitt instructing us on how to approach viewing characters.

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2025-03-12 22:56