“He’s operating within a system that has misogyny baked in,” said actress Sepideh Moafi (Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi).

Noah Wyle and Supriya Ganesh in ‘The Pitt’ season 1.Credit: Warrick Page/Max

The Pitt‘s chief attending physician has inspired a wave of backlash with his questionable behavior in the show’s second season. And the women of his ER aren’t about to bail him out.

Season 2 of HBO’s hit medical drama marked a particularly tumultuous period for Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby, whose mental health took a turn for the worse ahead of his upcoming sabbatical and only spiraled further as the demands of the emergency room weighed on him. At the same time, Robby was navigating contentious relationships with several of his coworkers— including quite a few of the women on staff.

Before long, Robby’s behavior had inspired intense discussion about how women are treated in the workplace. And as it turns out, the women of The Pitt have taken notice.

That said, Dearden admitted that while she took notice, she wasn’t entirely sure whether or not those loaded scenes were intentional.

“We’re not in the writers’ room. We don’t know exactly what they were thinking or wanting to show,” she shared. “If it wasn’t purposeful, then it’s like, ‘Hey! Notice the feedback?’ That’s really good for everyone to know that this is also what sexism looks like. It doesn’t have to be someone who hates women.”

Dearden said that on the other side of things, if Robby’s behavior has been a “purposeful” effort to showcase the subtleties of sexism, “then what a great way to show a fallible character — someone that you love also being a f–ked-up person and having really, really bad ideas in his head.”

Dearden’s stance was echoed by Sepideh Moafi, whose Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi came into conflict with Dr. Robby throughout the season.

“Without fail, every single woman I’ve talked to in the field has voiced a similar experience to what we’ve seen reflected this season and has talked about how medicine can feel like it’s of a different time,” Moafi shared. “Like it’s 10, 15 years behind many other industries. In the same way that our healthcare system is broken, the culture is kind of broken too, and he’s operating within a system that has misogyny baked in.”

Shabana Azeez, who plays student doctor Victoria Javadi, argued that this aspect of Robby’s character has been part of the show since it began, pointing to the season 1 plotline involving a teenage boy who wrote a list of girls he wanted to “eliminate.”

“Robby’s instinct is to protect him, whereas [Dr. Cassie] McKay’s instinct is to protect the girls,” Azeez said. “It’s really lovely to see the internet and the audience engage with it in a massive way, because I actually thought it was going to be a much bigger part of the conversation in season 1.”

Among Robby’s most controversial relationships in the show’s second season was his treatment of Supriya Ganesh’s Dr. Samira Mohan who at one point suffered a panic attack in the middle of their 12-hour shift. Robby — who himself experienced a panic attack towards the end of season 1 — rushed to her side. But upon discovering that it was a mental health issue rather than a heart attack, he harshly reprimanded her.

“It’s not great to be on the receiving end of it,” Ganesh told the outlet of Dr. Robby’s outburst. “I have a lot of empathy, knowing Robby’s arc, and as an audience member, knowing about his panic attack in season 1. I feel like he sees a lot of himself in this doctor, and he hates that he sees this thing that he hates about himself in someone else.”

She added, “That being said, it’s not okay to speak to anyone like that. I received a lot of messages from people being like, ‘I had an attending that was like that. I had a boss that was like that.’ It’s one of the things that lent to the realism of the place.”

For his part, Wyle — a series star, writer and co-creator — has indicated that while he doesn’t seek out the internet chatter, it tends to reach him anyway. Especially when it comes to backlash about Dr. Robby.

“I’m less honed in than you would think,” Wyle admitted to ScreenRant on the heels of the season 2 finale. “But I do have children who keep me very aware of what most people are saying.”

He explained, “So my son calls me and goes, ‘Dad, America’s really mad at you. You’ve got to stop yelling at Mohan.’ Or, ‘Dad, everybody’s really worried about you. They think you’re going to kill yourself.’ So that’s usually how I get my feedback, from my son.”

When The Pitt returns with its third season, it will continue to explore the dynamic between Dr. Robby and Dr. Al-Hashimi. While Dr. Mohan won’t be back to continue fleshing out their mentor-mentee relationship, Wyle has said that Dr. Robby’s mental health will be an ongoing subject of exploration.

“I think the season 3 mantra is ‘Physician, heal thyself,’” Wyle told Entertainment Weekly in April. “I’m hoping that Robby is smart enough and courageous enough to take the advice that he’s always giving to others.”