As someone who doesn’t usually start my work day until 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., I’d forgotten just how early the ER staff clock in each morning. So it makes sense that after two slightly slower re-introductory episodes, “the day is starting to heat up” here at 9:00 a.m. There’s a great oner early in this episode that recaps just how much has happened before most people have even gotten to their Fourth Of July parades: the extended erection patient is discharged, the Russian patient from the waiting room is wheeled back, and the Hansen family bacon grease burn victim is sent home with ointment and gauze—only to discover his dad hanging out in the waiting room with an injury of his own. That’s all while a combative college student screams and fights his doctors in one exam room and our deaf patient finally gets an ASL interpreter. Welcome to the Pitt!
Part of the magic of the show is how it manages to juggle so many ongoing storylines at once—from unhoused (and mercifully maggot-free) patient Digby getting some words of encouragement and kindness from Dana to sweet Louie still getting his stomach drained. And that’s on top of all the new patients we meet this week too, including three victims of a car-meets-motorcycle accident involving a rare potassium condition, a hot athlete with eyes for McKay, and a “romantic” Walmart greeter played by Michael Nouri.
There’s a new verve to this episode now that the rest of the world is finally awake and active. And that helped snap some things into focus for me, including the idea that religion is emerging as one of the main themes of the season. The first patient Robby talked to at the start of his shift was a frantic believer begging for Jesus to forgive her before she dies. Since then, we’ve had a Catholic nun and a discussion of Javadi’s Hindu faith. Now this week, we get an exploration of Judaism as Robby meets one of the survivors of the 2018 Tree Of Life synagogue shooting.
One thing about The Pitt is that it’s admirably committed to weaving real-life Pittsburgh history into its fictional world. Last season, we got a celebration of the Freedom House Ambulance Service, and here we get a nod to the Zambelli Fireworks company that helped make Pittsburgh “the firework capital of America.” And this episode also acknowledges that Pittsburgh experienced the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in American history—a trauma that links back to the PittFest shooting and also ties into the Fourth Of July setting, where fireworks are often a painful trigger for victims of gun violence.
While I followed the horrific news of the Tree Of Life shooting at the time, I actually hadn’t realized that the synagogue hasn’t reopened since the massacre (although there are plans to rebuild). That alone is a reminder that the trauma of gun violence lingers long after the events have left the headlines. While the world may move on, the survivors are changed forever. And thanks to the wonderfully empathetic work of Noah Wyle and guest star Irina Dubova, The Pitt explores that idea in a way that doesn’t feel exploitative or sensationalized.
The idea of timelines of grief and trauma also ties into Robby’s lack of a helmet from the premiere—which gets even more pointed when a helmet-less motorcycle rider is brought in brain-dead. When his colleagues scoff at how dangerous motorcycles are, Robby actively lies and claims he always wears a helmet. In fact, it now seems like he keeps a helmet on the back of his bike solely so he can keep up appearances as he walks into work, which is a level of deception that echoes back to Langdon’s addiction issues last season. While Robby isn’t plagued by COVID flashbacks like he once was, it’s clear he’s not yet processing his grief and trauma in a healthy way either.
Indeed, more so than his casual Judaism, Robby’s true religious devotion is to the idea of gut instinct, as we learned last week. Yet as with so many faiths, pushing that devotion too far can cause problems of its own. There’s a lot of celebration of the power of gut instinct in this episode. McKay is correct that there’s something else going on with her patient Mr. Williams, whose head scan reveals he has a brain tumor. And his ex-wife has the right gut instinct that he needs someone by his side, even though they haven’t spoken in years. It’s the same gut instinct that gets husband and wife car crash victims Mark and Nancy Ye to realize what really matters in life, when their petty arguments seem so much less important in the life-or-death space of a hospital.
And yet the concept of gut instinct can also be a way to avoid accountability: a biker who thinks he’s too good to need a helmet; a security guard who dresses up his pretty obvious racism as a “gut instinct” about a student being on drugs; a wife who understandably but also tragically assumes her husband’s personality is changing for the worst, rather than that something is wrong with his brain; a doctor who gets mad at a potentially abusive father rather than collecting all the facts about his daughter’s unusual platelet condition first; a family who pools their pills because surely what works for one of them must work for all, right?
That The Pitt can explore those ideas across a range of comedic and dramatic storylines is part of what makes it so captivating. The ER is an ever-shifting place—especially now that Westbridge Hospital is closed to trauma and PTMC will be taking all their ambulance traffic—but that also makes it a perfect microcosm of the human experience. It’s a high-pressure environment that can bring people together, as it does for Mark and Nancy in this week’s most moving plot. (Their parallel arcs are so beautiful.) But it’s also one that can drive people apart, as it does for the not-abusive dad and his girlfriend.
We see hints of how that might play out for our doctors and nurses this season. Med student Joy Kwon (Irene Choi) seems a lot less cocky now that the ER is starting to get more brutal, while Robby and Al-Hashimi start to find an actual groove as co-attendings this week. She jokes around about commitment in a way that proves she’s not just a stick in the mud. And the way she takes the time to reassure Nancy in the midst of her husband coding is the sort of real-time patient communication Robby sometimes lacks. There’s hope here that the two attendings can find a better balance than they did in their first two hours of the day. But by the end of this episode, it’s only 10:00 a.m. and that means there’s still a whole lot of this shift left to go.
Stray observations
- • Another religious connection: Langdon has been reading a book of blessings by Irish poet John O’Donohue, who helped popularize Celtic spirituality. The subplot about three gentle dads trying to get beads out of a kid’s nose is so sweet.
- • We also get an acknowledgement of Perlah’s Muslim faith, as Yana thanks her for the way the Muslim community stepped in to offer support after the Tree Of Life shooting.
- • The fact that the nine year old’s dad isn’t abusive but is still an asshole is such an odd half-measure for the “Santos guessed wrong” storyline. I’m not sure why they couldn’t go all-in on her assumption being incorrect.
- • I feel like anytime I go to a doctor they have me fill out a new medical form, so I’m a little confused by the idea of someone getting left as your emergency contact for years on end.
- • I love how openly Yana calls out Robby’s motorcycle sabbatical as a midlife crisis. (“You’re a middle-aged man; don’t be stupid.”)
- • Security guard Ahmad sets up a new betting grid for the day: Why did Westbridge close? How long will they be closed? And how many new patients will arrive because of it?
- • Gnarliest moment of the week: It’s gotta be the motorcycle head trauma. Wear a helmet, kids!
Caroline Siede is a contributor to The A.V. Club.
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