This article contains spoilers for all of The Pitt, up to Season 2 Episode 10.
Even from the start of Season 1, it was abundantly clear that audiences did not like med student doctor Trinity Santos (played by Isa Briones). Nay, they hated her. Look at this cocky woman strutting around the ER like she knows everything just because she spent a month at Johns Hopkins. She thinks she can just put in orders without presenting to a resident or an attending first? How dare she? That woman needs to be put in her place!
Dear reader, I, too, was also a Trinity Santos hater when I first started watching The Pitt. Her character was written to be abrasive. She’s rough around the edges, she can be casually cruel and insensitive to her fellow student doctors, and you just know she thinks she’s hot shit. And there’s nothing worse than watching a character prance around on our TV screens acting like they’re the smartest person in the world when everyone else hates them.
My stance on Santos changed right before we entered the final act of The Pitt Season 1. She finally gets humbled after dropping a scalpel on Garcia’s (Alexandra Metz) foot, and she actually displays some sort of team player mentality when she covers for Samira (Supriya Ganesh) by telling Langdon (Patrick Ball) that she was the one who had made the wrong treatment call for a patient. And she gets completely reamed out and humiliated by him, in front of her peers and seniors no less.
Look, don’t get me wrong. Santos can be annoying, and it’s fun to watch her get her comeuppance. But I’m also drawn to flawed, complex characters, and Santos absolutely falls into that category, which is why she’s so divisive among audiences.
In the 10th episode of The Pitt‘s second season, we finally see Santos and Langdon interact for the first time since she sent him packing in Season 1. Predictably, their relationship is strained. Santos is clearly unwilling to learn from him, and behaves unprofessionally in front of her own superior. To his credit, Langdon seems sincere. Throughout all of Season 2 so far, he seems genuine about making amends and appears to make an effort to at least be professional with Santos, but she’s just not having it.
This, coupled with the fact that Santos has admittedly been having a terrible run in Season 2 so far, has made her look really bad, at least in the eyes of the audience. She has horrible bedside manner with the deaf patient. She wants Baby Jane Doe to stop crying so she can focus on charting. She’s rude to Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and still insists on keeping up with the nicknames even though her fellow colleagues aren’t a fan of them. Whereas Santos was at least portrayed to have good instincts for most of Season 1, she’s had nothing but misses this season, which doesn’t do her any favors on the likability scale.
To simply call her an unlikable bitch would be hugely reductive, though, as I genuinely think Santos is up there with Robby as one of the most fascinatingly complex characters on The Pitt.
Come on a journey with me if you will, dear reader, and imagine this. You’re a highly competent and skilled med student doctor on your first day at work in the ER. You’re a little arrogant, yes, but you can walk the talk. Understandably, that arrogance doesn’t sit well with some of your peers and superiors, but by and large, they’re able to handle you and keep you in check. Except for this one guy, who just seems to have it out for you. Not only does he make your first day at work kinda hellish, he’s also just as, if not more arrogant than you. And to make things worse, he’s a good-looking, popular guy that everyone likes.
Eventually, you accidentally drop a scalpel on a surgeon’s foot, embarrassing yourself in the process. You’re humbled, and you decide to take things down a notch. As the day goes on, you start to notice something weird about the pretty boy. His medication orders seem off, he sweats a lot, he’s exhibiting signs of addiction. You bring this up to one of your superiors, who immediately brushes you off and tells you you’re trouble. Thankfully, though, another superior hears you out and validates you, saying you did the right thing.
When the pretty boy gets suspended and goes to rehab, you believe you’re in the right. Except you’ve become a bit of a pariah now at your workplace. You got rid of the most popular guy at work, and because you’re kind of rough around the edges, no one really likes you either. When the pretty boy comes back, you see that most of your peers and superiors are more than happy to have him around again, like nothing ever happened. How does that make you feel? Not great, I’d imagine.
It’s clear that Santos has plenty of unresolved issues to work through. She has a chip on her shoulder, particularly when it comes to people who do bad things and get away with it with little to no consequences. It’s why she felt so strongly about the man who was allegedly sexually assaulting his daughter in Season 1. And it’s why this whole issue with Langdon feels particularly sore. Santos did do the right thing after all. She literally put her entire career at risk exposing Langdon for a crime he probably should’ve been fired for, yet was rewarded with nothing but disdain and a dressing down from her love interest who thinks she’s only this miserable because her personality sucks.
Again, The Pitt Season 2 isn’t doing her any favors either by making Langdon seem like the good guy with the redemption arc. We’re constantly seeing him apologizing and trying to make amends. We see him bond with Mel (Taylor Dearden) who, y’know, is only the most likable character on The Pitt, so of course that’s going to win Langdon plenty of points. This season has been obsessed with making Langdon look like the pitiful fallen hero which, honestly, kind of rubs me the wrong way as a Santos truther.
If anything, Langdon’s priority should be making amends with Santos and straight up thanking her for busting his ass and helping him get his life back on track. Even Robby recognizes this, which is why he’s asked Santos if Langdon has tried to talk to her at all. I’m willing to bet that once Langdon genuinely apologizes to Santos and owns that he treated her so poorly because he knew she was the only one who could see through his bravado, it won’t be long before Robby starts opening up to the possibility of rebuilding their friendship again.
Even that irritates me, though, as it now feels like The Pitt has put Santos in such a deep hole that the only way for her to get any grace is by making up with Langdon. In actuality, Santos has come a long way since Season 1. She’s shown compassion for her peers (giving Whitaker a place to stay, looking out for him and making sure he’s not being taken advantage of, noticing that Mel’s acting off and asking what’s going on), and she does have a sensitive side (singing to Baby Jane Doe, empathizing with patients who might be in trouble and looking out for them).
Does she have flaws? Of course she does. Could she maybe be a little less rough with her peers and ease up on the nicknames? Definitely. Could she do a better job of putting her personal issues aside and improve her bedside manner? 100%. But is it also understandable why she is the way she is? I believe so. Being threatened with repeating her R2 year and being treated like the bad guy for getting the actual bad guy suspended from work would definitely stress me out too and get me to start acting like a real asshole. It’s not justified, no, but it’s understandable and definitely relatable.
Santos is a renegade. She’s just as flawed and nuanced as Robby is. She’s been through some serious trauma that has forced her to develop this tough exterior in order to survive. She also needs therapy. Badly. But that doesn’t make her a villain or a huge bitch. It makes her a complex human being.
If you’re reading this, Dr. Santos, don’t worry. If the world don’t got you, I got you.
The Pitt is now available for streaming on HBO Max.
