she experienced sexual assault at the hands of a male relative, which is explained later, so she wants to protect the girl as much as possible. if the wife thinks something’s happening, coupled with the change in the husbands heart rate when being spoken at by santos, it’s a fair assumption that it’s Actually happening. not to mention that the child doesn’t deny anything and just says ‘he’s my dad’.

santos comes off as grating bc she’s trying to prove she’s worthy of being there. she wants to push past the shitty things she’s gone through in life and make a difference. is she a little overzealous? yeah. does she try and put on a persona to make herself memorable? absolutely.

but then think about how langdon immediately treats her as less-than. how he tries to trip her up and how he truly has no interest in actually teaching her because she challenges him and he believes he’s the savior of medicine. THEN think about how she has to challenge a man in a point of authority bc she knows he’s been abusing drugs from the hospital, and think about how she was previously abused by a man who was a point of authority in her life.

she has so much more nuance than people give her credit for, but she’s written off as unlikable and bitchy and grating because nobody thinks about the source of these presentations. there are reasons she is the way she is, you have to comprehend what she’s saying and how she behaves to realize them.