Are we letting Langdon off too easy?
Before anything else, addiction is a horrible disease and the best thing for it is to treat it medically with rehab and a compassionate community supporting a person at every stage of recovery. Langdon is clearly a talented, compassionate, and hard working doctor and a stand in for the many people who find themselves in a similar position. Taking prescribed medication for an injury and ending up addicted. It’s awful and I hope that if nothing else we can see Dr. Robby making peace with Langdon and start him on the road to getting his life back.
All that being said, Langdon did let his addiction lead to him providing substandard care to patients and we can’t forget that, the same way Robby shouldn’t have forgotten the young women on the incel list. Though it is very well established that Earl, the alcoholic patient, had no intention of sobering up if he had begun the process of detoxing without a full dosage of the Benzos he was given that would have been VERY bad for his health. Alcohol withdrawal is bad enough that it can kill you. Similarly, the resealed bottle of Librium made it hard to open and cost time during an emergency response. Though both of these issues did not have serious repercussions in that moment it put patient lives and health at risk and that needs to be taken seriously.
I have my problems with Dr. Santos for sure and do think it is a bit of a TV jump to see her putting it all together that quickly and accusing Langdon that fast, but do think it’s important that as much as we all now miss Langdon (and the ED will definitely wish they had him come next episode), his choices were not victimless crimes.
PS- I have nothing but love Isa Briones. She has done an incredible job giving depth to a character that though gets some hate, I truly believe the show would be poorer without her. I am glad that rather than give us an “antagonist” on the medical staff we have a protagonist that has something’s to learn just the same as all the other residents and medical students. I am very much hoping we get to see her character develop in coming seasons and watch her become a kick-ass doctor who is also nice to patients and good to work with.