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Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 14!
At this point, with this being the penultimate episode, it’s clear the writers of The Pitt are going for something very different in terms of how they’re closing out Season 2. Season 1’s climax was marked by the horrific Pitt Fest shooting and the absolute chaos that unfolded in the ER as a result. There’s nothing quite so dramatic on tap this year. Instead, our deeply disshelveled doctor heroes are simply dealing with the lingering impact of the ransomware attack and trying to finally make it home to celebrate what remains of the Fourth of July holiday. It’s a disappointing change of pace in some ways, but one that also makes room for some terrific character moments.
Obviously, this episode is a big one for Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), as it becomes even more clear not all is well for him psychologically. This time last season, Robby was in the throes of a major panic attack and melting down due to COVID-related PTSD. Again, nothing quite so overtly dramatic this time, but there’s still the sobering admission that he’s harboring suicidal thoughts. It’s a reveal that both builds on the blowout fight between Robby and Dana (Katherine LaNasa) last week (where he walked away telling her, “I might not come back.”) and places a lot of his Season 2 behavior in a new light. Even his callous approach to the plight of Orlando Diaz (William Guirola) makes more sense now (though I still agree that Orlando probably attempted suicide).
Wyle and Duke actor Jeff Kober are both excellent throughout this episode, particularly in their emotionally charged scenes together in the ambulance bay. One man is confronting his own mortality, while the other wrestles with the fact that he doesn’t really want to be alive anymore. As much as these recent episodes have managed to deflate the show’s carefully constructed sense of tension, scenes like those bring their own sort of dread to the table.
Speaking of tension and dread, one medical case rises above all others in that department in Episode 14. I found myself gripping my chair throughout much of the sequence where Langdon (Patrick Ball) and his team were responding to the patient with the dislocated vertebra. So much could have gone wrong there. In the end, it proves to be a triumphant moment for a character who really deserved a win at this point.
Those scenes aside, Episode 14 hearkens back to the earliest chapters of Season 2 in that it’s surprisingly humor-focused. Again, not the best for building tension, but that’s clearly not all the writers are interested in at this stage in the endgame. And in some ways, the humor does make sense. These characters have just served through a shift from hell. Anything to relieve some tension and get through these last, agonizing minutes.
And even amid the humor, there are moments where the facade cracks and things grow darker again. Case in point: Whitaker (Gerran Howell) blowing up at Langdon in the break room. Langdon isn’t necessarily the character who most deserves to be the subject of Whitaker’s wrath, but even this good-natured farmboy can only be pushed so far before he finally snaps. It’s a rather startling shift for a guy who just last week was seen patiently coaching poor Ogilvie through his own psychological breakdown.
Episode 14 ends with a welcome pivot back to the subplot concerning Dr. Al-Hashimi’s (Sepideh Moafi) health. It’s good to see we’re finally going to address that little crisis head-on, though I worry it’ll be a case of too little, too late in the end. One of the bigger flaws with Season 2 has been the show’s reluctance to properly flesh out the new doctors and med students. Dr. Al-Hashimi hasn’t been given enough attention, and what she has received has often placed her in an unnecessarily antagonistic light. I’m hoping the season finale can address that problem as much as possible and round out her storyline on a positive note.
