Editor’s Note: This recap of “The Pitt” contains spoilers for the 14th episode of season two.
Last week’s episode of “The Pitt” ended with a moment of peak intensity: Dr. Robby finally admitting his upcoming sabbatical may be a permanent exit. And yet moments later, in “8:00 P.M.,” we’re back to workplace banter.
“What’s up Ghost Rider?” Dr. Shen asks Robby (kicking off a barrage of references that seem to be aimed at Gen Xers).
“You good?” follows Dr. Abbott.
“Never better,” Robby replies, before breaking the news that no one is going home before digitizing their paper charts from the cyberattack.
While the night shift is debating how they should divide up patients, the day shift has a serious case of senioritis.
Dr. Whitaker doesn’t know what “Clue” is. Duke is trying to court nurse Vivi Mandel (Dominique Star) who’s engaged to a jujutsu instructor. Monica Peters (Rusty Schwimmer), the hospital clerk who’s come out of retirement, wants to go “back to (her) life of mahjong and margaritas.” Dr. McKay, treating Coral, the full-body sunburn patient who’s a walking sight gag, is still trying to escape to her date at a Lawrenceville art gallery (that Pittsburghers know is actually at the 40th Street Wendy’s).
But the sitcom humor — which “The Pitt” often weaves in deftly — is window dressing for some of the season’s most pivotal character moments.
Dr. Ellis (Ayesha Harris) calls Dr. Langdon Rusty James, referring to the 1983 movie “Rumble Fish” (a strong hint that 54-year-old Noah Wyle wrote this episode). She advises him to stop being so self-serious about Robby — that, in fact, Robby is only mad at himself for failing Langdon.
“Jesus, with all the martyrs around here, you’d think this was a passion play,” Ellis says, giving the season’s best read of the day shift.
While Langdon has been among the most grounded over the past 14 hours, his arc is still one of rebuilding confidence in recovery. Whitaker confronts him about his “sarcasm routine” and Langdon talking down to him as a resident (couched in yet another series of “Gilligan’s Island” references) and Langdon visibly pauses to listen without reacting defensively.
Hour to hour on “The Pitt,” it’s never clear who will be given grace and get what they need, and who, like Dr. Mohan or Ogilvie, will have their confidence shaken and leave feeling defeated. But in “8:00 PM,” Langdon is gifted a hero moment when he restores the alignment of a patient’s spine (aka “reducing a uni-facet cervical dislocation”) preventing permanent paralysis.
“Brass balls, buddy,” Abbott says. “See, you haven’t lost it.” But the ED never gives with both hands, and Langdon steps out to bask in the glory before he’s immediately called away for a missed drug test.
With Robby arguing with Dana, snapping at Dr. Javadi, getting testy with McKay (the list goes on), we should’ve foreseen it would take a brother figure, then a father figure, to get through to him.
As Orlando Diaz, who returned in “6:00 PM”, is wheeled up to intensive care by Dr. Conley (Mary McCormack), Mohan laments she didn’t try harder to prevent such a tragic outcome.
“This was the patient’s mistake,” Robby tells her dismissively.
“What mistake, getting diabetes?” Mohan asks.
“Not picking a higher spot to jump from,” he replies within earshot of attending psychiatrist Dr. Caleb Jefferson (Christopher Thornton).
Caleb, who’s been working at PTMC as long as Robby, raises an eyebrow, and later confronts him.
“Interesting diagnosis, doctor,” Caleb says, leaving Robby speechless. “No pithy retort? Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
Still, the decisive conversation arrives between Robby and Duke, who’s trying to repair Robby’s motorcycle (apparently named Bonnie) after an EMT clipped it with an ambulance. Duke is contemplating major surgery to repair the aortic aneurysm discovered in “7:00 PM,” but it’s Robby who needs counsel.
“Some things can’t be changed, like death,” Duke says, adding, “I’m not talking about me.”
“I don’t know if I want to be anywhere anymore,” Robby confesses, expanding on his previous statement to Dana. It’s not just the ED, it turns out, the only place he finds purpose.
Duke, who’s been observing Robby for hours, appeals to the idea of legacy, asking, “That’s your final lesson for these kids?”
This seems to land with Robby, or at least momentarily shake him out of the tunnel vision of his depression. But the season’s penultimate episode ends on another cliffhanger: the long-predicted reveal of Dr. Al-Hashimi’s seizure history, and perhaps the final obstacle to Robby breaking away.