Santos: Abrasiveness and candor goes both ways

I think a lot of the hate for Santos comes from the fact that she is incredibly intense, abrasive, suspicious, and brash. In a show that otherwise seems to foster a lot of characters whose primary strengths (aside from their medical expertise) is their empathy and kindness, we have one character who doesn’t seem to want to play by the rules, downright bullies others, and even threatens patients.

But this episode shows why that type of personality can sometimes be necessary in a high stakes environment like a hospital. Most of the other characters on the show simply would not have either caught on to Langdon or even take a step in confirming their suspicions. It is not something people would ever want to believe about their colleague.

But Santos, being an outsider and being willing to be the “bad guy” of the group, ended up being the one who outed a risky and unethical doctor before any of the veterans and several other medical doctors that have come and gone from that department. Say what you want about Santos, but the fact she decided to come forward at all with Robby despite the fact that she was reporting a superior and knowing her lack of standing in the department is not something most people can do. Straight up. We would like to think we’d be the type of person where the buck stops, but we often aren’t. Santos, for whatever other qualities you want to ascribe to her, is.