In the adrenalized flow of work at The Pitt, it takes a few real-time minutes for everyone to realize Dr. Robby is missing. Most of the music festival shooting victims are stable now, to the point that the patients in Yellow are being made comfortable. And when Whitaker runs to Pedes/the makeshift morgue for blankets, he discovers his senior attending still crying, still sobbing, and clutching his Star of David necklace as he recites the Shema prayer. Later, they will bond over faith as something tangible, if not truly divine. (Robby recited the Shema with his devout grandmother; Whitaker minored in theology.) But for now, itâs up to the fourth-year to find the words that will lead their captain back. And heâs got this. âOK, give me your hand. You have to. Because if you donât, weâre fucked.â Some on this staff have only known each other this very day. But their lifesaving work, even their work that couldnât save lives, has galvanized them.Â
Of course, once Robby composes himself and heads out onto the floor, one of the first people he encounters is only team-adjacent. Gloria is mad about the âcowboys in ERâ â Robby and Abbott â allowing unscreened blood donations from staffers. She accuses Robby of having David but letting him go, as if A) Theresaâs son is the confirmed shooter; and B) The chief medical officerâs own hospital regulations didnât prevent Robby from keeping him against his will. And this post-breakdown version of the senior attending, well, heâs burned through a few layers of patience. âJesus, Gloria! The police are still looking â why donât you go back to your managerial ivory tower and let us get back to work!â
So the question transitions from âWhereâs Robbyâ to âWhatâs wrong with Robby?â When a non-shooting new patient arrives, unconscious and with a mysterious rash, he lashes out at the kidâs parents for balking at allowing a spinal tap that would determine the safest way to save his life. (âDr. Google bullshit.â) And in his holding room, when David angrily rebuffs Mckay and Robbyâs attempts to explain their concerns, Robby dumps it on his resident with a frown. âYou made this fucking mess. Youâre gonna have to fix it.â
There is only one episode â hour â left of The PItt, and watching these characters anticipate the end of their harrowing shift is making us have feelings. Weâve never said this before about a series: weâll miss them. How many days will we not see them at work, as the seniors continue to teach and the kids continue to learn? And how many Emmys will this show have won by January 2026, when The Pitt is scheduled to scrub back in with Season 2? Weâre gonna take a flyer on a wild procedure we once read about in a medical journal and say all of them. Because even now, âThe Pitt Effectâ is real. How are we supposed to get onboard with another âyoung pretty doctorsâ medical drama after the vital way in which this one has redefined the form?Â
In the calm after the mass casualty storm â calm is always relative at The Pitt, but still â Victoria Javadi shares a quiet moment with her âUtah,â her super-crush, Nurse Mateo. Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourifâs real-life dad and a total legend, guest-stars as Cassie McKayâs dad. And night shifter Dr. Ellis takes heightened interest in Dr. Santos, pushing her to postulate a treatment plan for methemoglobinemia even as exhaustion takes over. âTired?â Ellis asks. âFeet hurt? Brain feeling like mush? That patient doesnât give a shit. He needs you. Letâs go.â After 13 hours at a job like theirs, weâre not sure we could even say methemoglobinemia, let alone treat it.
But Ellis is also perceptive in other ways. âWhatâs the beef with Langdon?â Santos doesnât break radio silence on Langdonâs benzos habit, but the senior resident is definitely still using his emergency return to lobby for renewed permanence. Robby isnât touching any of that yet, but he does overhear Langdon comforting Jake about Leah, and complimenting Robbyâs skill. There is still mentorship there, even if itâs been derailed by the circumstances.
We just canât get over how artfully The Pitt has balanced the all-encompassing pressures and dramas of its mass shooting response episodes against its real-time bonafides and series mission statement. All of the simultaneous procedures, the pools of blood, the precipice of life and death at every turn â and this show did not sacrifice its technical medicine soul for easy grabby immediacy. It continues to amplify the drama through what we already knew about these characters, and applies that to the medicine and teaching at work. Treating a still-critical gunshot victim, Dr. Abbott reaches into his bag of studied calm and lifesaving savvy. âNipples to navel is no manâs land. If he got shot while exhaling, the bullet possibly passed below the diaphragm.â While exhaling! Weâd so much rather get lost down a rabbit hole of web searches about medical jargon than read another hot take about whoâs sleeping with whom on a show about doctors.
âToday was chaos,â Dr. Robby tells Mel. âBut you were awesome. Really glad youâre with us, Dr. King.â The captain might be frazzled and on his last vestige of emotional stability, but he recognizes all of what this staff has given. And everybody is thinking about finally going home. McKay is jazzed to eat pasta carbonara with Harrison and her parents when two Pittsburgh cops show up. Did she tamper with her court-issued ankle monitor? Of course the answer is yes â Cassie drilled a hole in the damn thing, because it was blaring and people needed helping. But the cops ignore Abbott and Danaâs protests, and Dr. McKay is put in cuffs, right there at the nurseâs station. The fun never ends at this place.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
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