Editor’s Note: This story contains spoilers for the 13th episode of season 2 of “The Pitt.”
While the first season of “The Pitt” saw the staff overstaying their shift because of a mass casualty incident, in “7:00 P.M.,” it becomes clear this season’s crises are internal. It’s not any one case or singular trauma keeping our doctors in the ED, but slow deterioration that’s left many of them crumbling.
At the beginning of “7:00 P.M.,” things are theoretically looking up: The night shift has arrived, and in good spirits, shifting the tone dramatically from the past 12 hours.
As we saw in last week’s episode, fan-favorite Dr. Shen (Ken Kirby) has his signature Dunkin iced coffee, and now he wants cake to celebrate Dr. Robby’s last day before his sabbatical — something Robby wouldn’t allow and the day shift apparently hadn’t considered.
Within minutes, the hospital’s computer systems go back online, reminding us there was never a direct cyberattack or crisis at PTMC. The analog system was just a precaution, but day shift is now responsible for scanning the paper records.
Nurse Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) and Dana (Katherine LaNasa) give unhoused patient Digby (Charles Baker) a shave and a haircut. (Now that Pittsburgh Dad has weighed in on LaNasa’s accent, she manages to pull off a solid “hang aht.”) Other fresh faces from the night shift begin to take over, including Dr. Ellis (Ayesha Harris, who’s returning as a regular in season three) and senior resident Dr. Crus Henderson (Luke Tennie, known from “Abbott Elementary” and “Shrinking”).
“Night shift’s on Crus control,” Dr. Abbott declares.
But these grace notes are drowned out by the sense of resignation and defeat that echo throughout the episode.
Returning diabetic patient Orlando Diaz now has a skull fracture and brain swelling from a 20-foot fall. Dr. Mohan, who’s already been excoriated by Dr. Robby, blames herself, her confidence shaken. When the hospital’s chief of neurosurgery, Dr. Linda Conley, arrives to help — played by “ER” star Mary McCormack in an episode with a deep bench of guest stars — Javadi shies away from jumping in, still unsure of herself after missing an intestinal obstruction in “4:00P.M.” Dr. Langdon misses that an asthmatic teenager has a collapsed lung, and confesses to Dr. King he’s not sure he’s ready to be back in the ED.
Leaving her shift, Emma finds Oglivie in the ambulance bay “covered in blood,” distraught that his patient, Point Park professor Mr. Green, died on the operating table.
Dr. Whitaker shares his hard-won wisdom, passed down by Robby only 10 months before: “People die. You try to accept it. You try to find balance.”
It’s a lesson our day-shifters would do well to remember, even if they don’t seem to believe it. The ED is a life-and-death place, but no one is more committed to their savior complexes than Dana and Robby, who keep squaring off, each refusing to leave, that the place will fall apart without them.
At this point, multiple characters have said aloud that Robby seems passively suicidal. Add to the fire that, possibly projecting, Robby says within earshot of Orlando Diaz’s wife that he may have jumped rather than fallen to help his family relieve their medical debt.
“I don’t know that survival was the outcome he was hoping for,” Robby says.
Yet Robby insists he can’t walk away — either from this shift or the hospital. His friend Duke’s CT results finally arrive, and after a consult with cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Clay Barrett (Geoffrey Owens, another heavy-hitting guest star known for “The Cosby Show”), Duke is diagnosed with a life-threatening ascending aortic aneurysm. Robby wants to break the news, even though, like many of the patients, Duke will be jammed up waiting for surgery on a holiday weekend.
“I think you need a break,” Dana implores him. “We’ll all manage until you come back. We always do.”
“Yeah?” Robby says. “What if I don’t come back?” Tearing up, he walks off.
It’s the punch that’s been pulled all season — Robby admitting what others have been saying, that he doesn’t expect to survive his sabbatical. Dana is left stunned and to deal with the implications, even as we see the nonstop action of the ED roll on.