I wonder what Al Hashimi thinks of Robby

A small detail, but one that stuck out to me— from the most recent episode:

“What do you need to get some basic human empathy back?” Al Hashimi asks Robby.

I find it interesting that she says it this way— not “What will it take for you to get some basic human empathy,” but specifically acknowledging that he needs to get it back. She’s known him for, what, twelve hours at this point? I don’t think they’ve ever met before. It’s a bit of a strange way to talk to someone you’ve never met before today. You’d never ask, say, Park the Shark to get some empathy ‘back’, you’d just assume he never had it in the first place. Same with most people you see acting like an asshole the first day you meet them.

I wonder if it speaks to the fact that Al Hashimi might have heard about Robby before now— she seems like a woman who does her homework before she enters a new situation, I’m sure she tried to get some info about who she was replacing, either before she showed up or first thing in the morning.

Robby used to be such a good mentor figure in s1 (in general; I know he had his issues then too, but nothing like how he treated Mohan this ep. And it’s interesting to note that the Robby we saw in s1 was him on a ‘mean’ day, he was considered to be acting out of character— people kept mentioning how he was extra testy that day, even though now s1 Robby feels gentle as a breeze compared to s2 Robby’s leadership style. And now in s2 of course no one is mentioning it as out of character, because this is his new normal).

It makes me sad to see him lashing out at his subordinates now when I think he was such a nice good example of healthy mentorship last season (again, not perfect, some of the things he did in s1 irked me too especially with McKay, but he had a lot of really nice teaching moments as well). I wonder if Dr. Robby has a reputation as a teacher, if Al Hashimi has heard nice things about his leadership before. And if she’s surprised to find the kind of leader he is now standing in the place of someone she expected to be better than this.

It’s just interesting, that even though this is the very first day they’ve met, she gives him the benefit of the doubt that he needs to get his empathy back— that he had it once, and it has since been lost. Even someone meeting him for the very first time can see how not himself he is right now.