Every young doctor can expect to be overwhelmed when they’re just starting out. There’s a lot to remember and so much that they don’t fully understand until they’re actually practicing medicine in the field. For the student doctors on Max’s hit drama, The Pitt, there’s an even greater chance of being intimidated. The life-and-death stakes and the high-pressure environment of an emergency room would be enough to make anyone crack. So far, the newbies have passed out upon seeing a particularly gruesome procedure, have been covered in pretty much every bodily fluid, and have made some missteps when talking to patients and their loved ones. But in many ways, it’s apparent that these doctors are learning more and more as their shift progresses. However, there’s one doctor who seems like she might actually be in over her head.
Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) is clearly the most cocky of the new doctors. She’s super confident, which sometimes can feel off-putting to her colleagues and to her patients. She’s overly eager, to the point where she volunteers to take on the most challenging (and gory) cases. But she also doesn’t seem to acknowledge the fact that she’s just starting out in her career or that there might be a great number of things that she doesn’t know yet. Instead of deferring to doctors with decades more experience, Santos is determined to rise in the ranks and prove she has what it takes to be a successful doctor. Her drive to be the best and her impetuousness puts her at odds with her senior resident, Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball). He’s been reminding her consistently since the beginning of the shift that she needs to think before acting, and that, more importantly, she needs to check with a supervising doctor before she takes any action. This has been incredibly hard for Santos to abide by during every hour of her shift.
But the problem is not just that Santos seems determined to ignore Langdon’s guidance. After the two started butting heads early on, Santos convinced herself that Langdon is actually swiping meds. This is a gravely serious assumption that could have severe blowback. Santos has no real proof that Langdon is committing malpractice by stealing drugs, but she’s still trying to catch him in the act of doing something nefarious. Santos even takes things one step further in Episode 8 and actually brings up her suspicions about Langdon to her pseudo-mentor, Dr. Yolanda Garcia (Alexandra Metz). Luckily, Garcia quickly shuts down her suggestion of impropriety and advises her to keep her head down and put in the work. This out-of-bounds criticism is only going to alienate Santos from her colleagues, and Garcia is likely going to avoid her from now on, since now she knows how quickly Santos was to mistrust one of their own. In Episode 9, which aired last week, Santos ends up baiting Langdon into screaming at her after she once again takes action with a patient’s care without talking to him first. Langdon ends up looking like the bad guy, and Santos appears like the innocent rookie (even though she has put the whole thing into motion).