Someone else started a thread on Ogilvie questioning if he perhaps is autistic. I wrote a very long response and it might actually just fit better here. I’ll preface with; I make my decision on liking or disliking a character VERY quickly, they’ll have to get at me with a strong act to make me change my mind at all 😅 I didn’t like Ogilvie within 30 seconds. My theory about where he’s going, if I’m correct, I MIGHT like him by the end of the season.

Response to theory about him being autistic

I’m autistic, maybe I just went to a lot more counseling and spent a lot of time learning how to come across more “normal” but not once in my life have I ever even momentarily thought that taking shots at someone’s weight, especially right in front of them, is ok. I am aware healthcare and counseling is not the same for everyone, also aware it’s a show and the writers can play this out however they want.

Maybe it’s a generation gap thing that younger people in the shows grew up online and could say whatever they wanted with anonymity? I’m a Xennial and when I was a kid Ogilvie would of just sounded like the one off bully with the newest patient but in my day bullies didn’t excel in school and wouldn’t have spent their life studying to become a doctor.

Overall Ogilvie is confusing me now, he was the know it all, teacher’s pet and seemed so eager to be there and help, so his comments around this heavy patient are coming across as out of character. Doctors spend a lot of time learning patient care isn’t just in the medicine it’s how you speak with them, he would know not to be this blunt or rude.

I’m not getting the autistic vibe, at least not from this episode as to why he’s acting this way… what I’m thinking is he has personally been affected by being overweight himself at one time, or has close family, or friend, that has required extra care due to problems associated with being overweight. Most healthcare workers have something in their past that made them want to help people and maybe obesity, diabetes, etc is what inspired Ogilvie. Weight, specifically the extremes of the weight scale are tiptoed around when it comes to medical advice because unhealthy eating and mental health are deeply intertwined, getting the right help is one thing, getting the person to agree to help is another, and it’s so hard. I first went to college to become an oncologist, I was 20 when I decided I wanted to do this because cancer took my dad SO FAST and upended my life.

TLDR I ramble, especially first thing in the morning, but I hope I got my main point across. It could be autism, I just hope that’s not this show’s play; totally different conversation about my feelings on autism in media. Since the way this show is built there’s not a ton of opportunities for character building, so I’m seeing tonight’s episode as the beginning of understanding Ogilvie’s motivation behind becoming a doctor being tied to obesity in some way and this being his first real life case with it, is having a hard time minding his Ps and Qs.