Editor’s Note: This review of Thursday night’s episode of “The Pitt” includes spoilers.
You’d think the staff of “The Pitt” would know better than to repeat, almost in chorus, “Two hours to go.” Like police officers calling a shift quiet, it’s almost certainly a jinx. The same goes for Ogilvie, wishing to perform his third intubation of the day.
“5:00 PM” begins workmanlike enough — the makeshift analog system seems to have smoothed out, we learn Howard Knox from “2:00 PM” has made it out of surgery, and you can even hear the screech of a fax machine — but the hour is filled with foreboding.
Roxie Hamler dies only minutes after being given morphine. A mother (Cathryn Dylan Ortiz) brings in her young son, unconscious from heatstroke, who’s immediately intubated and immersed in an ice bath. Ogilvie’s patient, Point Park English professor Mr. Green, who’s believed to have a kidney stone, goes from quietly thumbing through James Baldwin essays to rupturing his aorta (also requiring intubation) due to Ogilvie’s missed ultrasound reading.
In the most anticipated storyline of the season, silence falls in the emergency department when two masked ICE agents appear. Pranita, a woman they apprehended in a restaurant raid (at the fictional “Joe’s over in Green Tree”), “was shoved down some alley stairs” and tore her rotator cuff. Nurses and patients fearful of the agents begin to flee. Charge nurse Dana reminds everyone of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which guarantees emergency care regardless of a patient’s immigration status.
Any concerns raised by critics about a watered-down portrayal in the name of “balance” or “presenting both points of view” seem unfounded: ICE “distracts and disrupts” the ED, as Dr. Robby puts it, dissuades others from getting medical care by merely being present — a real-life problem — then leaves, but not before handcuffing and detaining nurse Jesse (Ned Bower) for stepping in on Pranita’s behalf.
Even the rare moment of levity is tinged with superstition: patient Roberto — like Pirates legend Roberto Clemente, he tells a clueless Dr. Whitaker — won’t let go of a homerun baseball (“walk-off tater”) he caught from Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz. Even if it means popping his dislocated elbow without pain medication, he still regrets missing Andrew McCutchen’s 300th career home run.
If “The Pitt” is ultimately about restoring humanity, then it’s also about its shadow side: empathic failure. Learning her sister has a boyfriend, Dr. Mel King feels abandoned and struggles with her own role as a caretaker.
Robby — whose season arc has pointed toward suicidal ideation — is perhaps most guilty of impaired empathy. In “5:00 PM,” he grows increasingly agitated, excoriating Dr. Mohan for her panic attack in “4:00 PM.”
“You have to think of these walls like a force field,” he says to Mohan in a speech he might well be giving himself. “You cannot let anything in.”
Joy Kwon doesn’t believe “heatstroke kid’s mom.”
“Has anyone seen her cry?” Joy asks.
“People don’t always respond to trauma the way you expect them to,” replies Dr. Robby (more foreshadowing). Shortly after, Al-Hashimi stops the mother from nearly walking in front of a truck. Al-Hashimi suggests placing a 302 psychiatric hold, and Robby says, “danger to self,” tearing up.
The climactic confrontation between Drs. Langdon and Santos arrives and is void of any mutual understanding. Much like Robby and Mohan, fans have speculated that the two characters are mirrors, preventing any empathy.
The end of all the foreboding is more violence: a patient assaults nursing trainee Emma Nolan, harking back to Dana’s experience in season 1. With four episodes to go, one can only hope we’re reaching our final descent before restoring some compassion.