‘The Pitt’ Episode 10 Recap: Slicin’ Up Eyeballs

The second half of The Pitt’s first season is just the series injecting viewers with 500 cc’s of pharmaceutical-grade chaos on the regular. So before we address the newest shock to the system, let’s savor a nice moment of frazzled calm between two people – colleagues, friends, women – who have direct experience with the pace of the last few real-time hours. A shocking sucker punch, a tragic miscarriage, and the humbling daily arc of life and death in the trauma bays: there is only one way to summarize it, as Collins cozies with Dana on the latter’s attack recovery gurney. “Been a pretty fucked up day!”

Which was before things got even more fucked up.

As the PTMH staff rallied around Dana, and observed what for healthcare workers in this country has been normalized – “We’ve all been assaulted,” the nurses say, referencing busted cheekbones and lost teeth; they know there are now Doug Driscolls everywhere – and Collins stated to Dr. Robby that, though she just lost the pregnancy she had initiated with IVF, she was determined to finish her shift, Dr. Frank Langdon’s shift was being finished for him. By Robby. Because the attending surgeon just kicked his senior resident out of the emergency department. Permanently. 

“Could a drug addict do what I do?” a suddenly panicky Langdon pleaded with Robby, who only minutes before had complimented the younger doctor on his teaching skills during a procedure with Whitaker. (And among many other examples of Langdon’s professional competency, we’ve noted his mentee-mentor relationship with Robinavitch.) But Robby only answers in the affirmative through a crush of anger, confusion, even heartbreak. Can a doctor who’s been getting high on benzodiazepine skimmed from his patients still function at a high level in a high-intellect, high-stress, high-chaos environment like the Pitt? “Apparently,” Robby says after finding the Librium stash in Langdon’s locker. “And I just fucking let him.” 

The suspicions of Dr. Santos proved true. Langdon really was stealing benzos from patients, which is fucking crazy. Maybe in retrospect, we could see signs. Was his volcanic anger at the intern from last episode an attempt to remove her from the team? Even here in Episode 10 of The Pitt, before the revelation of his using, there was a focus on the resident’s growing sense of paranoia. Noting Santos speaking with Robby. Bristling at a casual nurse’s station comment of his being an “adrenaline junkie.” (He seemed to only hear the last word.) And once Santos’ concern led to Robby’s demand, Langdon still tried to pin it on an intern harboring some sort of petty grievance. Robby:“I didn’t even mention Santos. Now open your fucking locker or I will have security smash it open.” 

Going forward, Robby also has to bear the weight of what Langdon’s downfall means. News of their confrontation is already spreading, and its significance will quickly move past Dana’s attack on the rumor mill leaderboard at the Pitt. Did the attending surgeon miss the signs? (Santos’s earlier questioning of Dr. Garcia about Langdon could be key.) Did he enable a senior resident’s on-the-job drug use and theft? On his watch, was there a secret pill popper with prescription-writing powers? For Langdon, drug diversion in a healthcare setting can be a felony offense. But it’s trouble for Robby, too, and his embattled hospital emergency department.

“My douchebag ex,” “the half-pipe prince,” and a standard-issue buffoon, arrogantly enamored of the attention afforded him by female members of the Pitt emergency staff – doing their jobs –  even as he ignores his young son. That’s Chad (Rob Heaps) for you. Dr. McKay’s ex and the father of her son Harrison has arrived via ambulance after breaking his leg trying to skateboard – the kid was impressed when Nurse Mateo showed off some moves – and his irritating nature proceeds to get on the staff’s last nerve. But the sedatives he receives also make it confession time for Chad, whose drug-induced slurring reveals his jealousy of Mateo’s relationship with his ex, which is apparently thriving outside of work. This news is also personally startling for Victoria Javadi, who is navigating a massive crush on Mateo. In trying to make it clear that she would like to see Mateo socially, she somehow agrees to babysit Harrison for McKay.

When it wasn’t fully ramping up the intra-staff chaos, this week’s Pitt was also providing some of that good old medical drama gross-out material, as McKay and Javadi teamed with Robby to conduct mini-surgery on a talented teenage baseball player whose eye got blasted with a fastball. Relieving the pressure on his eyeball by getting the blood gathered behind it flowing is a squeamish-inducing little trick, and all in a day’s trauma bay work. But it’s also another highlight for Javadi, who sees the demands of her own parents in the young ballplayer’s relationship with his domineering dad. Javadi switches out this kid’s cliche of a youth sports parent with her own personal life, where she attended undergrad at 13 and finished medical school, all while living at home. McKay, recognizing her young colleague’s stress, calls it “two prodigies in a pressure-cooker.”

McKay is also the one who called the cops we saw last episode, the ones talking to Theresa about her missing son David. After the eye procedure, McKay thanked Robby for not benching her. But while he orders McKay not to go behind his back again, he also acknowledges that a teacher at a teaching hospital can still learn a lesson. “I didn’t think enough about those girls,” he says of the names on David’s list. But the question remains whether anyone can reach David before he hurts himself or others.

“OK guys, we got about three hours left in this shift, and I need everybody to step up.” That was Dr. Robby in the moments after Dana walked back into the ER with blood streaming down her face. Which of course was moments before he learned that one of his senior residents has been stealing benzos from patients and using drugs on the job. There are only a few hours left for us, too, as in the remaining episodes of The Pitt. What fresh chaos will it inject next?  

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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