It’s the penultimate episode of HBO Max’s The Pitt and the series once again turns out another WTF cliffhanger.
Missed a review? Episode 2.01 / 2.02 / 2.03 / 2.04 / 2.05 / 2.06 / 2.07 / 2.08 / 2.09 / 2.10 / 2.11 / 2.12 / 2.13
It’s hard not to jump straight to the end of the episode considering the bombshell that Dr. Al (Sepideh Moafi) drops on Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), so let’s just address the elephant in the room. We don’t get much more than a brief overview of the patient’s symptoms (seizures due to meningitis) before – boom – we learn the records belong to Dr. Al.
Credits.
What exactly does this mean and how significant is this? As an audience, we barely have time to unpack what we’re seeing and hearing before the episode ends. Naturally this will be unpacked in greater detail in next week’s finale, but regardless of how this shakes out, Dr. Al has purposefully withheld her symptoms and diagnosis for a reason. This makes it hard not to immediately reflect on some of her unusual behaviour throughout the season, which includes the emergency call in the bathroom for a session, the moment around Baby Jane Doe, and – in this episode – that pause while treating the blonde woman having a heart attack.
So yeah, for now Dr. Al’s diagnosis is something of a question mark, but it definitely makes you want to jump directly into the finale to understand what it all means (and how Robby will respond).
In the meantime, however, there’s plenty of other stuff going on in this hour:
- Concerns continue to grow around Robby’s impending sabbatical/potential suicide. Not only does Dana (Katherine LaNasa) try to press Dr. Abbot (Shaun Hatosy) into service to talk to him; therapist Dr. Caleb (Christopher Thornton) specifically Robby down after Robby makes a pithy response about suicide (“the higher place to jump from”). Dr. Caleb makes a special request of the beleaguered Attending: keep his card on hand during his trip in case Robby needs to talk.
- Whitaker (Gerran Howell) gets some good moments in the episode, specifically around Langdon (Patrick Ball). They both clearly idolize Robby, but their experiences with him this season have been extremely different. It’s hardly surprising when Whitaker blows up on Langdon for (what he perceives to be) an attempt to take Robby’s place. Emotions are running high and everyone is just a raw nerve in this episode, but this verbal spat said a lot more about their respective relationships with Robby than about their connection to each other.
- Langdon’s own great moment occurs when Robby orders him to “doctor the fuck up” and overcome his fear and panic to perform a suuuuuper dangerous chiropractic-like maneuver on a patient who drove into a pole. The procedure works and everyone heaps praise on Langdon, but you can tell that the only accolade that truly mattered was Robby’s simple “Good job” after it all goes down.
- Watching Langdon do this correction is so fucking harrowing. The Pitt tends to double down on the gory surgical stuff, but this feels upsetting in a whole other way (perhaps it’s the reactions from everyone else in the room?)
- Unrelated, is it not the most Whitaker development ever when he pays for a ride share for an elderly woman, only to get hit with a $200 charge after she vomits in the car and says a bunch of racist shit. It’s a sad development for the show’s biggest naive idealist, but also predictable and hilarious.
- For a hot moment, it looks like Robby may not be going anywhere when his motorcycle is backed over by an ambulance. Of course Duke (Jeff Kober) later confirms the damage is cosmetic, but that doesn’t stop Robby from getting emotional. He’ll eventually confess his suicidal ideation to his mentor, explaining “I don’t know if I wanna be here anymore” actually means: “anywhere, anymore.” We’ve all suspected as much, but still, this is a big yikes moment.
- Sidebar: watching Whitaker struggle to lift the bike is both hilarious and extremely real (those suckers are heavy!)
- Line of the night comes courtesy of Abbot, who calmly orders an angry/belligerent man with a literal US flag implanted in his chest: “Sir, we are going to get you more meds, but you need to shut the fuck up.” Amen.
- That super burnt bikini woman that McKay (Fiona Dourif) treats makes me wince every time we see her. She is *lobster* red.
- Not a lot of Javadi (Shabana Azeez), except when Robby takes out his ire on her with an extremely dismissive comment about making TikToks on the clock. I really appreciated that she didn’t let that slide; instead Javadi acknowledged that yes, things are different, specifically referencing the presence of ICE earlier in the day. That shuts Robby right up.
- Langdon forgets his drug/pee test, which could be significant considering it’s his first day back!
- Finally: Santos (Isa Briones) is STILL completing her paperwork. Woof.
The Pitt airs Thursdays on HBO Max
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