The Pitt is a top-tier series for countless reasons, and its masterful means of giving viewers complex character development to sit with during the span of a single day is no small feat. And Isa Briones’ Trinity Santos is one of those characters. When viewers first meet her, she’s brash, sarcastic, and undoubtedly armoring herself. Using frustrating nicknames with her peers, Santos is a character we’re meant to be a little frustrated with. On the surface, someone knows a person who’s just like her. Someone somewhere has been teased by another person like her who doesn’t understand their specific brand of humor. Still, we aren’t meant to hate her, and that’s where the brilliance of her character journey comes from.
Santos is a character who deserves to be appreciated, even while, at times, it’s challenging to see beyond her words. It’s especially compelling when we have two vastly different presentations of how characters like Whitaker, Mel, and Javadi each behave in comparison. I’d offer that if this weren’t Santos’ first day, then some people wouldn’t be as frustrated with her behavior. But that’s ultimately still expecting people to treat female and male characters with the same level of respect, and that’s a bigger problem to address in media literacy.
Ultimately, The Pitt presents viewers with the type of effective character journeys that are thoroughly riveting, especially when you sit with and examine how human their behaviors within the show are. There are two thoroughly gripping sides of a coin that require discussions with nuance, proving that two things can be true. One, people who suffer from addictions like Dr. Langdon deserve empathy and compassion because their behavior is a result of a disease and not something to vilify. Two, Santos also has every right to question what she finds to be suspicious. She also has every right to believe in her own skills. With this in mind, Langdon and Santos are foils of each other in a way that only the best dynamics tend to be, showcasing two separate approaches in a workspace between characters who aren’t all that different from one another.
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In addition to all this, while Trinity Santos isn’t an inherently soft character, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a huge heart. She’s a woman who’s been tested. She’s a woman who’s been through too many dark perils, and in turn, she’s armored herself. She uses snark to present herself as unfeeling, but we know that she cares because she wouldn’t be a doctor if she didn’t. The series subtly presents us with the vastness of her heart when she uses her biting tongue to threaten a man who’s hurting his daughter. She shows the depth of her compassion when she refuses to give up on a boy who needs their help in a way that others might understand. Sometimes, pain forces people to defend themselves a little too harshly, and while that isn’t an excuse, it’s a reason. And it’s important to acknowledge that Santos’ choices aren’t ever malicious.
Dr. Santos never sets out to ruin Langdon’s career because they don’t get along, but she voices her concerns because she feels conviction in the suspicions she has. And while there’s utter rage in the way she confronts the abusive parent/patient, I think many of us can agree it’s fully justified.
Again, Trinity Santos knows pain. She knows what it’s like to be the victim of someone abusing their power over her, and she knows the grief that comes from losing a friend who couldn’t survive the same trauma. That’s what she tells her final patient when she reveals the familiarity of wanting to give up. Santos not only carries regret with her, but she silently holds onto grief that she has to perpetually grow around. And in that final scene, Isa Briones shows viewers everything we need to know about the character’s struggles. She drops her armor for a patient, revealing that her behavior is a direct result of everything she’s had to do to keep going.
Human complexities are fascinating to examine when we recognize that no one is one-dimensional. Whether someone is warm and sensitive like Mel King or stoic and guarded like Trinity Santos, both women are more than capable of not only doing their job but surviving in a space that often works against them. People frequently fixate on boxing others into categories without ever realizing that there are layers to explore that go beyond one definition. Whether we’re watching something on our screens or coming directly into contact with scenarios in the real world, human beings have a tendency to forget that nothing and no one is ever straightforward. Even a literal road has multiple directions if we merely change our perception.
The engrossing detail about Santos is that we can and should be frustrated by some of her actions, but we can also choose to understand exactly where she’s coming from. But does anyone really stand back and think about how their own actions could irritate another person? Does anyone genuinely believe they aren’t frustrating in some way, even when it’s a defense mechanism or unintentional? As a series, The Pitt consistently presents viewers with nuances that underscore how nothing is black and white. In medicine, there’s no such thing as 100% efficacy, yet there are studies that prove why certain things work and why they don’t. And for a series like it to present us with doctors who are harboring their own demons isn’t accidental.
The show’s magic lies in its ability to tell challenging stories with the grace and nuance necessary to leave a lasting impact. We’re meant to feel with these characters and for them. We’re supposed to ask questions, even when we don’t necessarily get the answers right away. Santos is trouble (affectionately), yes, but she’s also the solution. She’s important to the story, and she matters prodigiously to the development other characters will also go through. The series would feel incomplete without her.
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Trinity Santos doesn’t need to be coddled, but she absolutely shouldn’t be vilified either. She also shouldn’t be treated as the most frustrating character when she’s also so acutely aware of others that she’s the only one who realizes where Whitaker goes at night. Her heart is tucked beneath all her rough edges, and the season brilliantly exhibits this from the moment she steps onto our screens.
The Pitt Season 1 is now streaming on Max.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Warrick Page/Max