The Pitt Has a Sexism Problem

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]I love the pit so much and I just want to keep making videos about it. So, I am going to be making a break-off series on my channel where I talk about all of the deeper messaging that the pit is trying to tell us. And so, in today's video, I am going to be talking about how Dr. Landon and Dr. Santos are different sides of the same coin and why sexism and misogyny are definitely affecting people's enjoyment of the pit. So, if you are ready for an analysis on the pit season 1 and season 2, keep on watching.

[00:00:32]So, this is definitely going to include spoilers for season 2. I believe [music] I am on episode 15 and I don't know if that's the season finale, but all of my analysis of Dr. Landon and Dr. Santos are going to be up until episode 15. So, when I made my video talking about how people in fandom spaces will always enjoy Yawi over Yuri, I made the analogy of practically saying that Landon and Santos are literally the same person but at different points of their life and that's really shocked a lot of y'all.

[00:01:05]And so, I am going to be explaining why I [music] think that and I'm going to be talking about how I keep watching season 2 and my further analysis of these two characters just keeps on getting proven right. So, when we first meet Dr. Landon, we really see him as the big man in charge. He is practically Robbie's right-hand man. He is running the pit.

[00:01:26]He is ready to go. And this is shocking to a lot of us as the audience because you would think working in the pit, an emergency room that is a trauma bay, that takes a lot of hardwired and sick patients would really wear down on you.

[00:01:41]But from the first moment we see Dr. Landon, he is on go. I have never met someone so happy in my life. It's to the point that doctors are commenting on it.

[00:01:51]It's to the point where other nurses are commenting on it. They're like, "How is this man so go-lucky?" We will later find out why, but this original characterization of Dr. Landon is a little off-putting and it's even more off-putting when we get to see his interactions with Dr. Santos. Dr. Santos is, I believe, a resident at the start of season 1, meaning that she is a baby doctor. She graduated medical school or is currently [music] in medical school, but to put it simply, she is in a lower position than Dr. Landon. It gets to a point where their interactions are awkward not only for the audience, but definitely for everybody in the pit because something about Dr. Santos really, really, really irritates Landon.

[00:02:35]Every time she talks, anytime she makes a comment, he just loses this big [music] boy cool persona that he has and he can't help himself but to yell at her, but to put her in her place. It gets [music] very uncomfortable for everybody who is watching them. Like, why is this happening? This is weird.

[00:02:50]This is strange. And that is because he sees himself [music] in Santos and Santos is able to see herself in Dr. Landon, but that's something that I will analyze at a later point of this video.

[00:03:01]But the way he acts with Santos is extremely, extremely unprofessional. As somebody who actually is a healthcare worker, he should have been taken HR immediately. Dr. Robbie has to pull him out of rooms and practically talk to himself like, "Hey, you're supposed to be a teacher figure for this young student. You need to figure out what your issue is with her and bites it in the butt." And then we have to look at Santos. Santos comes into the pit with the biggest chip on her shoulder. She, even though she is literally at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of the doctors, she's like, "Yeah, I'm going to go and show the pit that I know what I'm talking about, that I know what I'm doing." And this immediately makes her seem so cocky. And I saw her and I still see her as extremely cocky. And she is somebody that definitely needs to be humbled. Being that cocky, especially when you're new and you haven't been tried and tested, is extremely dangerous. So, because of her initial characterization, we get to see her as being [music] chaotic, someone who is a rule breaker, someone who, just because she is a little bit more experienced than the other residents, she thinks she is the big boss in charge. And this causes a lot of mishaps. It gets to a point where, because she thinks that she has this experience, that she can just be on call and unlike the other doctors who, you know, have experience, she can't be on call because she's new. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. She literally stabs a higher ranked doctor in the foot because of how cocky she is.

[00:04:31]So, this is her first day and she's already thinking she is the big boss.

[00:04:35]And unlike everybody else who's just giving her the side eye, Dr. Landon is absolutely losing it in terms of reacting to Santos. He just can't stand her. And everyone is confused. Like, everybody is giving Santos the side eye, but he's taking it above and beyond.

[00:04:49][music] And I feel like they are very similar because they both have this cockiness, they both have the same bravado, but Dr. Landon has the experience to back it up. And I honestly feel like they both are using the cockiness and I got it mindset in order to hide their deeper traumas. They both use the cover of thinking that they're so confident that nothing can faze them in order to hide all of the trauma that they're facing in their real lives and all of the pressure that working in a trauma bay in one of the high-ranking hospitals in their community. And they both are using this cocky persona in order to hide all of their trauma and kind of deal with the pressure of having to work in one of the most gritty hospitals. We literally see one of the higher executives try to tell Robbie, like, "A, you are ruining staff morale by calling this emergency room the pit."

[00:05:41]But literally, we see in season 1 how hectic it is. So, they're both trying to use [music] this overconfident persona in order to help them cope with everything. Because at the end of the day, Santos and Landon, they both want the same thing. They want control. They want respect. They want to prove to those that they value that they belong.

[00:06:01]And they want to just survive in the system of medicine without being swallowed by it. And their consistent need for validation is seen so blatantly with Dr. Robbie. They both look up to Dr. Robbie, but Dr. Landon really Dr. Robbie like he is a messiah character.

[00:06:19]We see how desperate he is for Robbie's validation in season 2. But someone who I feel like Santos is so desperate for their validation is definitely Garcia.

[00:06:29]Santos is so nervous and is so intimidated by Garcia to the point of wanting to prove herself as capable and as smart in front of her that she literally makes one of the biggest oopsies that you can and literally causes a workplace injury to Garcia because that's how nervous she is trying to prove herself. And we also see how desperate she is to try to prove herself to Garcia in season 2, which I will analyze later. Even though I said that they definitely use their cockiness in order to deal with the pressures of working in such a hectic place, [music] they still use different avenues in order to deal with their stress. So, for Landon, he definitely is leaning into the system. He feels like being the good boy, the rule follower, that he will be able to deal with all of the stress that working in the pit gives him. He follows the rules. He follows the structure. And he is a hard-ass about hierarchy.

[00:07:24][music] He is like, "I am a senior doctor. You will not over talk me. You will not correct me. You will know your place." And because of that, he believed that if I do everything right, [music] I will be rewarded. And he has a huge thing about control. They point out in season 1 that he is an adrenaline junkie and he feels [music] like by doing the stereotypical right things he will be rewarded. He has a wife at home and he has several young kids at home and even though it is such an inconvenience that anybody with sense would be like, "Yeah, this is an inconvenience." He just follows the rules and he follows the stereotypical expectations of him in order to achieve his perfect life. He literally gets his wife who is already dealing with having to have a husband who's unavailable to you because of the fact that while he was alert he's doing drugs and the fact that he works as a daytime doctor and he decides to [music] proceed to add more to her plate by giving her a dog on top of that.

[00:08:23]Honestly he thinks by following the rules and following the expectations of his life that things will go right for him, but obviously that is not the way to do it. And then we honestly have Santos. Santos is somebody who honestly believes that the system is broken and that it has to bend around her. And because of that she definitely clashes with Landon who believes in the hierarchy, who believes the system is to be followed even though it's so toxic and we obviously see how that toxicity is affecting everybody in the pit.

[00:08:52]They're just trying to hide it under the facade of we are a team, we are a pit, we can do it, but everybody is suffering in their own way. So when Santos on her very first day, I have to remind you that goes around telling people like, "Hey, even though you are the big boss the big daddy here, I have a new innovative way to do it." Everybody, but especially Landon is like, "Oh, hell no.

[00:09:16]We do not have time for that." And I honestly feel like the main contrast besides the gender and sexuality of Santos and Landon is that Landon has faith in the system and Santos doesn't.

[00:09:27]And Santos because of the fact that she doesn't have faith in the system is immediately able to clock that Landon is acting weird. Everybody is too busy following the structure of the hospital system, but because of the fact that Santos has no faith in the system, she's automatically able to clock that something weird is happening here, and that's why she's always scrutinizing Landon, keeping her eyes on Landon, following Landon, and that's how she's able to discover that he is doing drugs.

[00:09:56]And because of the fact that Santos has absolutely no faith in the system, and she wants to be a rebel, she's able to spot something that people who have worked with Landon for years weren't able to notice, and that is the fact that he is doing drugs. Because of the fact that Landon wants to do everything [music] in his power to seem like the perfect example of what an ideal doctor is, he has to find a coping mechanism, and that sadly is drugs. He starts to divert drugs. He starts [music] to act erratic. And because of that, he's obviously affecting his family, cuz he's not making the most logical decisions, and he's [music] obviously affecting patients. Like, I forgot that black guy, his name is Louis, I think. He is a chronic drinker, and we later find out in season 2 that Louis started drinking because he lost his family, and he wasn't able to cope with that loss. But because of Landon's selfishness, because as somebody who works in health care, stealing drugs from your patients, especially pain medicine, is especially diabolical. Luckily for us, Louis didn't notice, and he was the lucky weak guy, but the fact that Landon was stealing his medications for God knows how long is very irritating, and it's very unethical. Like I said, in order to deal with the stress of the job, Landon decided to start stealing his patient's medications, but in order to deal with the stress of everyday life, Santos also has a very bad habit that is detrimental to her, and that is self-harm.

[00:11:27]>> What is this place? [music] I don't know, let's check it out though.

[00:11:30]Shush. Everybody shush. Everybody shush.

[00:11:33]It seems as if somebody new has just stumbled upon Ella Pastor Court. Hi there stranger, my name is Ella Pastor and all of the lovely people that you see before you are a part of my esteemed court. From my squires who have early access to my videos, to my nobles who have special behind the scenes access, to my dukes and duchesses who are able to pick [music] out topics for my videos, to my own special royal advisors who mean so much [music] to me. All of these people make up the Ella Pastor Court. If you want to be like these lovely people and be a part of my esteemed court, go to Ella Pastor on Patreon. But it seems as if you need to be on your way traveler. Let's head back to the regularly [music] scheduled content. In season 2 we learned that whenever she feels worthless and useless and that she's not enough that she cuts herself. We see that when she goes to the bathroom and her pants are down, we see the cut scars. We see that whenever she feels like she's worthless and she's not enough that she turns to self-harm.

[00:12:28]We see that when she pulls down her pants in the bathroom, we see the previous scars. And I don't know how old it is, if it's a year old or if it's older, but she definitely has a bad habit of having to turn to self-harm in order to deal with her stress. She is so stressed that she ends up going to the medical supply cart and she definitely steals a scalpel in order to feed into her bad habit. The same way that Landon was stealing his patient's medication and stealing hospital property to feed his bad habit, Santos is starting to do that in season 2 and we don't know how long that she's been taking hospital scalpels in order to harm herself. It gets to be a point where she's trying to hide that she's doing that but Huckleberry, I forgot his name off the top of my head, but Huckleberry notices and he's trying to be a good supportive friend and be like, "Hey, um what are you doing? Uh do you need help?" And he's just trying to comfort her cuz it's obvious that she's down.

[00:13:25]And I don't know if he knows that she is someone who's self-harms, but he obviously notices that she's acting weird and has to step in. Landon and Santos are both so similar in the fact that they practically spiral when they are seen to not be perfect. In season 1 when Santos tells Robbie that Landon has been stealing medications, the absolute shame that he feels at having his mentor figure yell at him and practically go him to the wayside because he has a drug problem, it breaks him. And we see how [music] broken he is in season 2. I believe he had 1 year of sobriety or going to his classes in order to not turn to drugs in order to deal with his stress. And the absolute puppification that happens to Landon because of this is really, really sad to see. I definitely feel bad for him and I definitely hate him less than I did in season 1 because he did his part to be better for his family and for his community and for himself. But you have to really look at Santos's point of view. I've talked to my friends who watch The Pit and they're like, "Yeah, Santos is freaking annoying." And I do see where they're coming from, but in comparison to what she experienced, could you really blame her? Because imagine on your first day, right? You are thinking you're the ish, you're thinking you're smart, and you go through all of the regular trauma that everybody else in The Pit is going through. There was a shooting that happened and it's traumatic, right? And mind you, it's her first day. And then you have a senior resident or senior doctor just accosting you at every second. That was a horrific 12-hour shift. I still have 12-hour shifts that still, years later, years, years later, haunts me and I still think about. Let's alone that Pit Fest shooting. And you have to remember that that senior resident is harassing and accosting you.

[00:15:17]And every time you look to somebody older and more experienced and ranked higher than you, they're all practically doing their best to coddle their golden child, which is Landon. And I'm honestly so shocked that you guys aren't seeing it that way. And I've seen the Reddit threads and I've seen the Tumblr discussions like, why is Santos still mad? If on your first day a senior resident is bullying you and you find out the reason why he's bullying you is because he's high off drugs and instead of firing him and instead of really accosting him, he doesn't really get a punishment. All he has to do is go to AA or whatever his Addicts Anonymous thing is and he comes back. As somebody who has faced workplace violence and bullying is workplace violence because if it's not okay for your patients to yell at you, then it's absolutely unacceptable for your co-workers to yell at you and practically see that nothing has been done and you being forced to work with that person, it's a mess. And so I obviously understand how pissed Santos is, especially that was her first day and everybody practically telling you like, "Oh, we don't care that you think Landon is bullying you. We don't care that Landon is accosting you." The fact that Santos keeps trying to go to Garcia for support and Garcia time and time again knocking her down a peg and is like, "I don't care what you think about Landon. I don't care if you think he's on drugs. I don't care if you think he's being mean to you." That would piss me off. When I found out in season two that those two were definitely hunching on each other and Santos practically looking to someone who she's being sexually intimate for support and that same person looking at her like, "I'm not your [ __ ] therapist. Go to a therapist if you have issues." My mouth literally dropped. And especially with Garcia because Garcia has been intimate with Santos enough to know that she has self-harm scars. To practically look her in her face and say, "I'm not your therapist. Go get a therapist." After probably knowing all of the animosity that happened between those two, I was like, Santos, they got to free you. They got to free you. And everybody in the fandom is like, she needs to get over it. To this day, I have a workplace bully, and me and my work bestie, we still talk about it. We still talk about it. Let alone that happening to me on my first day, let alone me getting bullied and having to work the day of a mass shooting. I'm not letting that go. And it's the fact that Landon just walks up in there, and there was no real consequences for him. When I had to report my workplace bully to HR, they at least did an investigation. Santos practically has to deal with her workplace bully and try to act cordial.

[00:17:52]I do have to say, her consistently making those little jabs in front of Garcia and Robbie was extremely unprofessional. I have to work with my workplace [music] bully, and I have to keep keep my animosity towards her bottled up like my fist, because we have to be professional. Because, why?

[00:18:09]Patient safety comes first. Santos definitely hasn't worked through her animosity towards Landon. But, I'm like, girl, you can't do that ish in front of patients. And especially in front of your senior residents. So, everybody looking at her sideways like, girl, you need to act professional. And Santos has to remember that she is an R2. You have to be on your best behavior, because these people practically decide if you get to be a will big daddy doctor. You have to hold in your anger like this.

[00:18:36]But, all of her constant jabs is practically her anger towards what happened to her last year coming out.

[00:18:43]But, when she was doing that nonsense, you guys can't tell me you didn't get flashbacks to how Landon was treating her in season 1. They're literally the same person. When she's stressed and feels overwhelmed and feels useless, she lashes out at whoever she can. And you can't tell me that isn't Landon. And I'm so glad that we had a confrontation between Landon and Santos, because that's something that I was really really looking forward to in season 2, because they needed to talk. and Landon really couldn't have any rebuttals towards Santos and he couldn't really give any rebuttals to what Santos was saying. And yeah, I have to finish the pit. I'm on episode 15 and I don't know how many episodes we're getting this season, but I am honestly so excited. I have a video talking about mommy issues and medicine coming out. So please make sure that you hit the subscribe button and the bell notification button so you don't miss that video cuz I am going to be making more videos on the pit. If you like this analysis, please hit the thumbs up button. Comment, who do you relate to more in the pit? Are you more of a Santos girly? Do you relate more to Santos? Do you relate more to Landon? Or is there another person from the pit that really makes you feel like, oh yeah, that's me in some scrubs? And if you guys really want to help push this video in the algorithm and help the El Pastor grow and get more people to join the pastoral court, please share this video with your friends. Hit the high button because that is YouTube's new feature that really helps smaller channels like me get pushed out and I will be seeing you guys in the next one.

[00:20:19]Bye.