Warning: The Pitt season two spoilers ahead!
We’re in the final countdown for the season two finale of The Pitt that airs Thursday, so yes, I’m going all in this week on Pitt coverage. You’re welcome! Dr. Trinity Santos was such a fully realized character right from the start: acerbic, sarcastic, defensive, all to protect an unbearingly sensitive heart inside. Isa Briones does a brilliant job playing Santos, subtly shifting from bravado to vulnerable, from confident to humiliated. So it’s no surprise that in a new interview with Decider where she’s asked about key moments from this season, Isa’s answers read like an acting master class on subtext, behavior, and motivation. And she has some takes that will be shocking to some!
Why Santos can’t be more honest with Whittaker: She has the experience of the people in her life leaving her. I mean, she talks about her best friend in Episode 15 of Season 1, where she took her own life. So she kind of has built this worldview where people she gets close to either hurt her or leave her, and that is very triggering. So just even though she doesn’t admit ever that he’s her friend, of course he is, and she does love him. Like she cares so much for him. He has, I think, been a really great person for her to be around and to not always be alone because she can so often isolate herself. Then hearing that he’s going to leave, it’s just like, “Oh, there I am. I’m being proven right. Everyone’s going to leave me.”
Santos and Langdon have friction because they’re similar: They both suffer from addiction, just different forms. Yeah, I think that’s why she hates him so much because she sees how similar they are. She hates it. And that’s why he is so triggered by her, because he sees how similar they are. You often hate in other people what you hate about yourself. All of those things kind of compounding leads to that panic that we all know when we lean on a vice like that, when you feel like, “Oh, I just, I need this. Where can I get it?” And that panic that comes in.
Why Santos didn’t report Langdon: I think it shows, like, she’s not as evil as people like to make her out to be. [Laughing] She really could have. She could have. She could have told everyone, but she didn’t. I think it’s because as much as she’s a very imperfect person and can sometimes not be the nicest, she still knows the difference between being a little mean and being like, “Oh, this is something else.” As someone who I think struggles with so much of her own stuff and her own forms of addiction, I think there’s still a part of her that’s like, “I wouldn’t want someone to do that to me. I wouldn’t want someone to tell the world what I’m dealing with and struggling with.”
Being angry at Langdon saves Santos from looking at herself: There’s something comfortable about living in anger, I think. Because if she did report him and do like that right thing, then that would be done and then she’d have to deal with herself again. I think it’s easier to be angry at someone and be like, “I kept this for you.” Like I kept this secret. It somehow leaves a comforting thing of, like, “You’re on the hook for me.” It’s comfortable to be angry at someone and put your anger in an outside source, rather than back at yourself, just like she does with self-harm. Like, it’s always like put this anger and sadness somewhere else.
What? Santos and Langdon are similar and that’s why they butt heads?! I TOLD you she had some shocking takes! But the thing is, it makes total sense once she spells it out. And yeah, I can easily say that I’ve had that in my life — someone making me upset, only for me to later unpack that the upsetting factor was something I recognized in myself. While I never thought of Santos as “evil,” she is undeniably rough around the edges. Who can forget Dr. Mohan in season one saying, “Are you aware you have an aggressive energy, Trinity?” So on that note, I loved hearing Isa explain that Santos didn’t report Langdon because she extended him the kindness and discretion she would want for herself. In addition to plenty of other mitigating factors, like the fact that Santos clocked Langdon stealing pills on HER FIRST DAY there, and what an awkward, no-win situation that put her in. I always thought she did the right thing reporting it to her attending. Darn, all this just makes me wish, again, that there had been more Santos-Langdon confrontations this season. At least we know those two theater kids are supporting each other on Broadway right now.
Lastly, I didn’t think anything much of Santos spending so much time charting this season (she’s a doctor and it’s part of the job), but apparently that was because Isa had an appendectomy in the middle of filming! Cue the method acting jokes…
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Photos credit: Warrick Page/HBO Max via Warner Brothers Press
Whe I first started watching Santos annoyed me but that completely turned round when it turned out she had been right about Langdon.
Now yes she can be a bit rough but I love her and I love Langdon.
I also don’t think the rest of the Pitt doesnt like her (as she thinks) cause they come to her to chat & ask advice.
LOVED Whitaker’s ‘take the compliment’ btw. And his heart eyes when she was sayinghow much she didnt like living with him
I agree I think most of the people at the Pitt like her, they just don’t always know how to react but you constantly see them come up to talk to her, spend time with her and ask her opinion or advice. I find her and Whitaker so funny and his line reading of take the compliment was fantastic. Also that entire interaction of them scanning and Mel kicking the scanner into her was fantastic.
Issa is so good in this. Love hearing from her about how they’re too alike. I have to confess I don’t usually watch medical shows bc they stress me out but somehow I’m making my way through this one.
In the rooms people say, “You spot it, you got it.”
Btw Isa has a beautiful voice. She sang for the Picard show a few years ago. Gorgeous. Her parents are working actors and her dad had a spot on the show in an ep. She was wonderful. She played an android who didn’t know she was an android. Was SO good.
I didn’t know that. Or that she was in Hamilton. I’d love to see her do some more theater in-between seasons. The Pitt has been good about not making people wait bw seasons though so there’s less time but I could still see it. Somewhat off-topic but I think it was Sterling Brown who recently had a really good explanation of why seasons are shorter now. Network tv has so many eps bc they charge for ad space whereas subscriptions is about getting more subscribers So it doesn’t matter the episode count bc it’s more about a lot of new things that can attract new subscribers. It’s wild to think back to how many episodes there were of the X-files. But even still, you’d think some of the shows could film a little quicker in between seasons, especially considering the episode count.
Her voice is insane!!! There’s a brief video on YouTube of Briones singing “Who’s Sorry Now” that makes me positively tingly because her voice is so perfect and powerful. I’ve watched it probably 25 times by now.
Isa and her father, Jon Jon Briones, appeared together in Hadestown on Broadway. She played Eurydice and he played Hermes.
She was born in London, when he was in the West End cast of Miss Saigon. He’s a long-time, serious musical theater actor.
I like wait for all eps to drop to watch but I had appendicitis as an adult (it went way bad so 6 hour open surgery) and recovery if open like mine is 4 plus months. Even regular keyhole is a month or so. Kudos to her. It’s interesting how they treat female characters and woc on that show. Noah really lucked out .
I will never understand the Santos hate, I mean she is without a doubt the most complex fleshed out character after Robbie. I am also shocked people didn’t see she and Langton are the same. I clocked that in Season 1 episode 1. The only difference i have seen is what we celebrate in Langton we loathe in Santos.
Isa is such an amazing actress and puts so much layers and depth into her performance and obviously cares deeply about the character and role. I have loved her relationship with Whitaker this season and seeing her various sides. I mean there is so much there, and yes she is brash and sarcastic but she is also incredibly caring and fun.
To me she is one of the best characters on TV. So yeah the hate baffles me.