The Pitt Recap: Have You Seen Our Sad Boy?

Well, it’s safe to say that Dr. Robby’s choice to work on the anniversary of his mentor’s death isn’t getting any easier as the day goes along. It’s not that surprising, of course, since stuffing down your emotions and denying that you’re displaying any PTSD symptoms isn’t typically the best course of action for anyone at any time. I know that as I’ve been reminded several times, I’m not even a doctor. Surely, some of Robby’s rage and lack of focus are caused by the man being hangry, as Dana rightly points out. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen him drink much water. Again, not a doctor, but I am concerned about his hydration levels. More and more people are beginning to notice how much quicker to anger Robby is, and it feels like it will only get worse as his shift continues.

Everywhere Robby turns there’s something to remind him of losing Dr. Adamson. At the one o’clock hour, he’s really triggered by a STEMI patient being placed on an ECMO machine. (Not for nothing, but as an avid medical drama fan, it was very cool to see the step-by-step process of putting a patient on ECMO; Call me a nerd if you must.) He leaves the room while it’s happening, but when confronted with the patient hooked up to the machine later, Robby is instantly taken back to a dire moment during Adamson’s Covid treatment: Adamson has been on ECMO for 17 days now with no improvement, and a 12-year-old patient needs the machine, there aren’t any others available. Dana is pleading with Robby to make the right choice here, and Robby, clearly distraught, yells, “We wait! We fucking wait!” It’s no wonder Dana is so hypervigilant about the guy today — she was with him during the Adamson ordeal, and she saw first-hand how gutted he was by the loss. If anyone gets to walk around calling him Sad Boy, it’s Dana. And also us because it’s accurate and because they’re fictional characters who will never know.

Dana’s not the only one at work today who knows Robby well enough to see he’s not himself; Heather has his number, too. (Remember, The Pitt informed us they used to hook up but offered no other details since, which is honestly so rude.) She notices Robby being especially hard on Samira, who at the moment is dealing with a beauty influencer who arrives with what seems to be some major psychiatric issues. Robby wants Samira to stop stalling on calling for a psych consult, but Samira sees the woman’s hand tremors and hears about her coordination issues and has a hunch this isn’t a psych case. After spending time with her patient and making her go through her entire skincare routine, she learns about one product the woman was using with extremely high mercury levels. Samira wants to order a heavy metals test but doesn’t think Robby will go for it. He’s still on her ass about moving patients along, especially ones that seem to have an obvious course of treatment. But Heather spots what’s going on and encourages Samira to go with her gut. Listening, really listening, to her patients is Samira’s superpower, Heather tells her. She promises to back her up when it comes to Robby.

Oh buddy, when Robby finds out that Samira went around him and had Heather sign off on the metals test, he almost pops his gourd. If scruffy Noah Wyle in a zip-up hoodie yelled the words “Don’t ever do that again” at me, I’d never recover. That’s devastating! Samira seems okay because she knows she’s in the right and she’s a better person than I am, and I’ve accepted that. Deep down you know Robby knows she’s right, too. And while he’s ticked that Samira defied his — the attending overseeing the case — orders, he’s the most angry with Heather. When he confronts her and she immediately goes in on him not acting like himself and giving Samira a crisis of confidence with his haranguing, Robby has words for her, too. Those words include how she works from a place of fear, how she is too rigid with rules, and, most annoyingly, that condescending reminder that he is the attending here and she is but a peasant, er, resident. The man is agitated, more than we’ve ever seen for sure, and Heather wants him to fucking cool his jets and leave his “baggage at the door” like everyone else.

While Robby is certainly making a real meal out of letting his emotional baggage loose in the workplace, other people’s baggage is creeping in, too. It seems impossible not to, given the high emotional stakes of this job. Some people are just better at compartmentalizing. Case in point, actually, is Heather. I knew those stomach pains were pointing us toward something awful! Aside from taking Samira under her wing and telling her …ex(?) to get a grip, Heather spends much of the hour figuring out the teen pregnancy situation.

Robby is the one who gets Kristi to come out of the bathroom by promising her a private room away from her mother. Eloise is still fuming about the whole thing, but eventually, Heather pulls her aside and reminds her that Eloise knows what she is signing Kristi up for by forcing her to have this baby because Eloise had Kristi around the same age. Eloise starts to fight back, but all it takes is for Heather to point out that Kristi does not want a baby, and if Eloise pushes this on her and pushes her away, she may lose her daughter completely to get Eloise to see the situation clearly. Finally, she agrees to let her daughter start the mifepristone. The happy ending to that storyline is, not surprisingly, for this show that just keeps the hits coming, short-lived.

It’s not long after Kristi is discharged that Heather buckles in pain. She walks herself into the bathroom but you can see it all over her face before she pulls down her pants for proof of what she knows and what we know is happening: Heather’s having a miscarriage. Tracy Ifeachor’s performance here is so powerful. The scene is quiet and quick; she says nothing, and yet you can feel her run through the entire gamut of emotions that Heather is feeling — dread, heartbreak, anger, and shame. All of it is right there in her face. It’s devastating. And for a show that’s real need-to-know as far as personal character markers, it demonstrates just how impactful The Pitt’s efficient storytelling can be in the right actor’s hands.

How Heather recovers from this disappointment — how she handles her baggage from this point on — is yet to be seen. In the meantime, there is yet another doctor letting that emotional baggage show midday here: Trinity Santos. It was clear Trinity was harboring some deep-seated pain, but I did not see this coming! Trinity is still managing Mr. Dunn’s case — he’s the guy who fell off the ladder, and while treating his injuries, Trinity noticed some enlarged breast tissue. When she discusses this with his wife, Susan, Trinity mentions it could be linked to alcoholism or some hormonal issue. Susan is upset: It’s all her fault, she tells Trinity. In a real horrorshow of an admission, Susan tells Dr. Santos that she was sneaking progesterone into her husband’s coffee every day in hopes of short-circuiting his libido because she suspects him of molesting their teenage daughter, Alana. Like I said, horrorshow.

Susan hasn’t brought it up with Alana, and Alana hasn’t said a word about it, but her husband goes into the bathroom when Alana takes a shower. Susan has also seen him giving her daughter some uncomfortable massages. It’s bad. But in a similar situation to David (the “incel kid”) and his mother Teresa, Robby says they can’t do much about it unless Alana reports something. In fact, what they legally have to do is report Susan for poisoning her husband. It is beyond infuriating.

Trinity’s understandably angry. And she’s right that this could mean Susan could be arrested, leaving Alana alone with her father. Unfortunately, Trinity goes about trying to make it right in all the wrong ways. She pushes Alana too hard, and when she outright asks the teen if her dad is molesting her, Alana bolts. Once Susan hears that she could be arrested, she’s angry and feels betrayed by Trinity. It’s all a mess.

There’s really only one thing Trinity feels like she can still do. So, she enters Mr. Dunn’s room, where he’s still intubated and sedated but awake, and she tells him she knows exactly what he’s been up to. She knows he’s a child molester. She also says that she knows men just like him, men you trust who tell you what they’re doing to you is just because they love you so much. Clearly, Trinity has been in a similar situation to Alana, and she refuses to let this man’s abuse go unchecked. In no uncertain terms, Trinity informs Mr. Dunn that she will have him arrested if he ever touches Alana again. “Don’t fuck with me, and don’t fuck with your daughter,” she tells him. The man, unable to speak or move, looks terrified. He blinks to tell her he understands, and she leaves with a smiley reminder to make sure he gives her an excellent patient satisfaction score. Admittedly, I’m lukewarm on Trinity as a character, but it is a barn burner of a moment. I suspect she’ll get reprimanded for at least some of this, but the woman had to do what she had to do. And anyway, what was Robby just hemming and hawing about to Heather? That sometimes you need to have a little flexibility here when the situation calls for it? If any situation calls for it, it might be this one.

Discharge Papers

• There’s some really dark shit going on here, but one bright spot? The subway good samaritan Sam waking up, immediately agreeing to talk to the police about the man he saw push Minu onto the tracks, and then wanting to see Minu for himself to make sure she’s okay. They can’t understand each other, but gratitude and relief are evident as they reach for each other’s hands before Minu goes up to surgery.

• One of the cons of making a show like this in real-time is how some storylines can get stuck in repetitive beats — especially if they only get a short scene here and there until they become the main storyline again. This happens with the Bradleys here. Listen, every time I see their sad faces, my heart breaks, but their story goes nowhere in this episode; They’re still deciding about organ donation. Use those precious minutes on another storyline or something. We do not have the time, people!!

• Anytime a character on this show has a winning hour, I fear for what’s in store for them as the shift goes on. This hour, that fear is for Mel King. She’s still waiting to see if Rita will return for her mother but winds up really impressing Langdon when she knows exactly how to handle an autistic patient with a sprained ankle. She explains that her sister is on the spectrum, too, so she knew how to talk to Terence to keep him calm. She’s so excited when Langdon tells her that she’s making a great first impression. Please don’t hurt her!

• Aghh! Doug Driscoll is still stewing out in the waiting room and now Earl is informing him about the rats that, although I tried to erase them from my brain, are still running around the hospital. Doug is a ticking time bomb …on several levels, probably.