As Dr. Robby reaches hour five of his shift – Episode 5 of The Pitt for us – we get a few more defining details about his life outside of being an easygoing yet tightly-wound attending surgeon. Like a visit from Jake (Taj Speights), Robby’s 17-year-old son, who the staff treats as both mascot of the emergency department and, collectively, their own son. Dana Evans hugs him like a mom, Langdon and Princess (Kristin Villanueva) each stuff condoms into his fists (“Wrap it before you tap it”), and Robby himself implores Jake to never take any drugs of unknown provenance. Definitely not at the Pittsburgh music festival he’ll be attending, and especially not like ever, since his dad just treated two teenage fentanyl overdoses.
And hey, it turns out Robby and Dr. Collins were at one time an item? After the attending gives his resident a hand with Kristi (Abby Ryder Fortson), the medical abortion-seeking teen from last episode – more on that in a second; it’s become problematic – Dana, with her elite court vision, notices a quiet back-and-forth between her teammates in the hall. Renewed sparks? Because they once dated? With a sly smile, Collins denies Dana’s hope. She isn’t Anne Ellliot, and Robby isn’t Captain Wentworth. “Settle down, Jane Austen.”
Collins’ concern over the abortion case was not because she herself is pregnant. It’s that the results of her examination don’t jibe with the measurements Dr. Abbott took during his shift. For her to perform the procedure in this context, she would essentially have to falsify Kristi’s medical records. Instead, Robby steps up to establish the procedure. He’s the attending, and he has tenure. He’ll conduct a third exam and sign the official forms personally, mitigating the risk to Collins, who is only a resident, and young Kristi’s life won’t be ruined by a pregnancy she chose not to carry. It’s a people issue cut with ethical choice on the frontlines of modern medicine, and it’s about to go through when an attendant issue surfaces. “There is no way this is happening! Not now, not ever.” Eloise (Ellen Wroe), the woman who has barged into the medical bay, is Kristi’s actual mom. And she has a few choice words for her sister Lynette (Marguerite Moreau), who originally brought the kid in. Uh-oh!
And that isn’t the only uh-oh. This week’s episode gets pretty gnarly when a previous tonsil surgery suddenly becomes a life-threatening hemorrhage, and of course it’s Whitaker who bears the brunt of the blood spatter. The thrilling sequence to save the patient involves the medical student on sponge duty, Dr. Langdon stepping in on the fly – Patrick Ball continues his steady work in The Pitt as the ER’s other senior resident – and Robby arriving to keep a ready-to-scalpel Dr. Garcia on standby while he performs a tricky, slightly jury-rigged clearing of the airway. Garcia calls it a MacGyver move, and there’s blood everywhere. But it works, and afterwards, Robby credits how he learned it from his mentor, the late Dr. Adamson. Robby is also keeping mentorship itself alive: while commending Langdon’s cool head under pressure, he says he wrote him a letter of recommendation for an upcoming fellowship.
The hemorrhaging tonsillitis was also intercut with the treatment of Joyce St. Clair (Ashley Romans), whose sickle cell condition has now affected her lungs to the point that Dr. Mohan must intubate. Mohan is well aware of her “Slo-Mo” nickname, but Joyce and her wife deeply appreciate the doctor’s empathy, especially when it comes to scary things like sedation and breathing tube insertion. Collins notices this, and takes a beat to offer her R3 colleague some valuable encouragement. “Keep doing you, Dr. Mohan.”
This moment, combined with the glow on Whitaker’s face after doctors King, Robby, and Mohan each offered him professional affirmation, highlights again the teaching aspect of all the action in the Pitt’s trauma bays. Mutual support in the workplace: you love to see it.
But that support can also be less pretty, especially as these peoples’ profession continues to overlay their personal lives, and a touching scene of sharing between Dr. McKay and Sherry (Bess Rous), a patient struggling with addiction, is marred by rookie overstep from Javadi. “Not everybody has it all figured out all the time,” McKay told Sherry – the ankle monitor the doctor wears is because she was also once an addict, and her situation got dark enough that she lost custody of her son. Patient and doctor bonded as people, just like Mohan with Joyce, and Fiona Douriff tempers McKay’s assuredness with the near-onset of tears.
That is until Sherry sees Javadi’s knowledge of her case as an intrusion, and leaves the ER angry. McKay is sharp with the med student; she noticed her noticing her monitor, and hasn’t enjoyed the sideways glances. While McKay doesn’t mince words, she also stresses that it’s not a reprimand, but a teachable moment. “Listening and building trust will make us better doctors. And better people.” It’s a statement that could apply not only to this episode of The Pitt, but the entire emotional thrust of the series. These doctors will save your life with their confidence and ability. But even they have to remember that there are real hearts underneath the scrubs.
The ambulance somebody stole from the hospital has finally been stopped by the cops, and it looks like the staff who bet the over on that mess being in the Pitt’s catchment zone will clean up. And while we’re liking so much about how this medical drama continues to bolster the human connection between its characters, we also remain intrigued with just what Dr. Santos’s deal is. Amid the chaos of stabilizing a man struck by a seizure in “chairs” – i.e., the hospital waiting area – she differs with Langdon about treatment. It’s the intern’s textbook knowledge abutting against the resident’s field-tested acumen, and for the second episode in a row, her confrontational style gets called out. Like McKay with Javadi, Langdon only scolded Santos for delaying the process of treatment while talking back in front of senior staff. It’s not like he threw her under the bus. (Or a stolen ambulance.) So why can’t Santos leave it alone and move on to the next case? We’ll have to see what happens with this, but it seems she might try and save face by turning the incident back on Langdon. As she considers her options, veteran ER nurse Donnie (Brandon Mendez Homer) urges caution. “You don’t wanna be the intern who cried wolf.”
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
