Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for the second season finale of “The Pitt.”
It never seemed likely the second season of “The Pitt” would end with the day shift knocking back beers together in Allegheny Commons Park. But as the credits to “9:00 P.M.” roll (and even after them, which we’ll return to), almost no one is alone.
Dr. Al-Hashimi is an unfortunate exception. After revealing to Dr. Robby at the end of “8:00P.M.” she has a seizure disorder that’s resurfaced, Robby tells her she can no longer replace him as PTMC’s attending physician. It’s a conflict that escalates to a screaming match and remains unresolved as Al-Hashimi (who Robby believes shouldn’t be driving) closes out the day crying in her car.
After an inaugural season that built up to a mass casualty incident, this quieter, slower-burning season of “The Pitt” must make a more complicated landing navigating its characters’ internal crises.
Add to the mounting expectations how difficult it is for any hit show to deliver a satisfying sophomore season — especially one with fans as obsessed as “The Pitt” — controversy over Supriya Ganesh’s sudden departure as Dr. Mohan and the idea of a night shift spinoff.
“9:00 P.M.” seems to be taunting us with this last point as Dr. Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) leads a night shift huddle.
“We are the night crawlers. We deal with the weirdest and the wildest because …”
“We are the weirdest and the wildest of them all!” Drs. Shen, Ellis and others yell back. “Hoo-ah!”
Abbott’s outlook on the ED helps drive the finale (“How can you not love this place?” he asks at one point.)
Last season was bookended by his and Robby’s conversations on the roof — each literally talking the other off the ledge. But 10 months on, it’s only Abbott making a go at Robby. In the ambulance bay, Abbott tells Robby that Dana’s worried he might hurt himself, sabbatical or not.
Robby gets defensive, saying, “I’m not the one who spends his free time getting shot at.”
The deflection is also a direct callback to Robby confronting Dr. Langdon about his substance abuse, when Langdon shot back, “I wasn’t the one talking to cartoon animals in pedes.”
Later, Abbott corners Robby again and urges him to get help.
“You gotta find somebody to help you dance through the darkness,” Abbott tells him (maybe a stolen song lyric).
If the season finale can’t resolve every character’s conflict or crisis, it lets each of them move the ball forward.
Talking with Dr. Whitaker about the ED’s toll on mental health (for patients and doctors), Javadi realizes she might want to specialize in emergency psychiatry. Perhaps heeding Duke’s words about which lessons he wants to impart to his students, Robby encourages Javadi, telling her, “I think you can do anything you put your mind to, Victoria.”
Dr. Mel King is still reeling from her deposition — which we learn isn’t finished — and questioning her caretaker role after finding out her sister Becca has a boyfriend. But Dr. Santos is there to push Mel out of her comfort zone, inviting her out for a drink and karaoke as “primal scream therapy.”
In a stunning post-credits scene that jumps in time and place, Mel and Santos belt out Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” in a karaoke bar (I was hoping for Nico’s Recovery Room, but it’s a built tiki set).
Much of the finale’s medical drama involves Judith, a pregnant woman with a severe headache still hoping for a “free birth” without any medical assistance. As she quickly progresses from preeclampsia to cardiac arrest, Abbott and Robby perform a resuscitative hysterectomy (a form of emergency C-section), bringing in most of the staff to save Judith’s life and deliver a baby girl. The cliche (originating with “It’s A Wonderful Life”) goes that one can never know how many lives they’ve touched, but the inverse is also true here, it takes many lives to sustain just one.
Robby ends the season with another baby — swaddling and comforting Baby Jane Doe. He plays her Rosie Carney’s “Thousands” and tells her, “I got abandoned too.”
“But I got through all of that, and so will you,” he says. “You’ve got so many wonderful things to see, and so many people to love ahead of you.”
It’s the first time Robby’s spoken about the future and an interconnected life outside himself and the ED. Though the season ends on an ambiguous note, unclear if Robby will leave or take his sabbatical, it’s clear he’s no longer in the same place.