The Pitt Episode 8 “2 PM” featured what might be the MAX show’s most devastating scene yet. Super sensitive intern Dr. Melissa “Mel” King (Taylor Dearden) is left alone to watch over the four-year-old sister of a six-year-old drowning victim. It’s an already senseless death made all the more tragic by the revelation that little Amber (Hadley Smith) only jumped into her grandmother’s swimming pool to rescue younger sister Bella (Olivia Fokova).
Dr. King gifts the tenderhearted Bella a teddy bear from the gift shop, telling the four-year-old that it’s a present for both sisters. “If you tell Bear everything you want to tell Amber, then I’ll take Bear and sit her on Amber’s pillow, and then she’ll tell her everything you said,” Mel says. Bella then delivers the sweetest, saddest little message for a sister she has no clue has died for her. Dr. King looks understandably devastated.
Although we’ve theoretically only known Dr. Mel King for half of a fifteen hour ER shift, we’ve already learned that she is exceptionally close to her sister Becca (Tal Anderson). When DECIDER spoke to Pitt star Taylor Dearden last week, she revealed that not only are Mel and Becca twins, but that Mel’s been her autistic sibling’s caretaker “for a lot longer than people think.” Meaning there’s even more cause for why her moment with Becca “hits hard.”
“I think Mel sees it as something that could have easily happened to her,” Dearden said, emphasizing that Dr. Melissa King would have totally jumped into a pool after her sister.
Dearden also explained why she thinks Dr. Jack Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) was wrong to cynically predict Mel’s enthusiasm will dim by the end of the shift — “He doesn’t know Mel yet” — and how her own real life experience with severe ADHD has informed some of her character’s lovable quirks. We even learned that one of her favorite Mel moments is coming in tonight’s The Pitt Episode 9 (scripted by her own co-star and series EP Noah Wyle) and what Dearden most wants to bring to Mel’s story in the recently confirmed Season 2…
DECIDER: I want to go back all the way to the first episode. When we meet your character, she’s kind of adorable because she’s so literally excited to be there. Where do you think she gets that enthusiasm from and do you think that Dr. Abbott’s prediction that at the end of her shift she might not be so happy to be there will come true?
TAYLOR DEARDEN: I don’t think he’s right about Mel, but I also think he doesn’t know Mel yet.
I think for Mel, it’s just a combination of new place, new challenges, which is really exciting, especially for an emergency room doctor. That’s why they’re emergency room doctors. I think also just being excited that Becca, my sister on the show, is in a great place. So everything seems to be working out for the first time in a long time for Mel. And so I think it’s fun to come in with that much excited energy.
Yeah, you mentioned Becca. We learned slowly over the course of the episodes that Mel has been her sister’s caretaker for a long time, and it’s given her unique skills to deal with patients with autism or who on the spectrum in a way that other doctors can’t quite connect with them. I also kind of felt like — maybe this is just me — she reads a little neurodivergent as well, or “neuro-spicy,” as some people call it. Was that your intention?
I’m neurodivergent so I think it’s really coming from me. I have severe ADHD. So we’re on the same spectrum now as autism, which was I think for all ADHD people was like, “Ohhhhh.” And then all autistic people are like, “That’s why we got along with them.” I’ve never really seen a character, especially with ADHD, but being on the same spectrum, it just feels, it felt right anyway.
I wanted to ask you about Episode 8. It’s a heartbreaking episode because of the little girl who dies by drowning. Your scene with the younger sister is one of the most, like, memorable and heartbreaking and beautiful and tragic scenes I think I’ve seen in the whole series so far. I’m just curious, how did you attack that scene? And is Mel feeling anything about her sister in this moment as well?
Oh, definitely. I think especially because Mel and Becca are twins and we all know twins share even stronger bond than normal siblings. I think it clicks in Mel that this is something I would have done. Like I would have jumped in the pool, too, to get her [out]. Like, this is exactly what would have happened. So that, that hits hard. I think Mel sees it as something that could have easily happened to her.
What’s crazy is that happened to my mom and my aunt, except they both lived. So I read the script and I kind of freaked out and I told my mom. Because they were at a party and no adult swam. My mom got stuck and sank down to the bottom, but my aunt dove in after her, got her out. She was fine, too, thank God. But yeah, it was just like this is is a story I know, anyway. I don’t know. It’s pretty easy to connect to feeling horrible trauma after a child dying. It’s the thing that’s never supposed to happen.
I love so many of the little moments throughout the season where we see Mel, like, take a beat for herself. She either is reciting Megan Thee Stallion or looking at a lava lamp, using her own stress management coping techniques. I’m just curious: Were any of those your idea? Were they all in the script? Did you have one in particular that you loved? Because to me, they rang very true as someone with anxiety.
Yeah. I think that I had suggested at one point, and I’ll try to suggest it again, I wanted something tactile. I was like, “It’s great to look at stuff, but I have to have my other hand do something.” Or, like, mantra-wise, just to have like worry stones. They feel great. Something like that. So we’ll see if I can incorporate that next season. (Oh my God, I can’t believe we can say that!) But yeah, I thought it was really funny and a great entry into self-soothing. So it kind of achieved both at the same time, which was great. Yeah, I’d like to see more.
Because in Episode 9, I get to have the same kind of thing with the gravel. Noah wrote that script and I kind of looked at it and I went, “This is so me.” That’s exactly what I would want to do to self-soothe: some kind of activity that’s endless and also just so hyper-focused. You can’t think of anything else.
When I talked to Isa Briones, she mentioned how during the two week bootcamp, there were conversations to sort of fully flesh out the backstories for your characters a bit more. Are there any details about Mel that you know that you’ve been trying to seed in there a little bit through your performance that you hope people notice or anything you’re hoping to explore more in Season 2?
I hope the loneliness comes off. Because the thing is we know that Mel’s mom died, but also her dad’s dead. So she literally has no one left except for Becca, which also adds weight to all of those scenes, I think. Mel’s not old enough to have both parents gone, and so Mel’s been the sole caretaker of Becca for a lot longer than people think.
Before I go, congratulations again on Season 2 being announced. I’m really excited for you guys. I know rotations in hospitals sometimes move doctors in and out. It sounds like you’re pretty sure you’re going to still be there. Can you see Mel like locking in and staying in this particular department or this line of medicine for a long time?
Oh, I think so. I mean, that’s what Mel studied in school and what the focus was always. Even at the V.A., Mel was still in the emergency room. I definitely think so. And I think after — you’ll find out this whole season — there’s a kind of energy and realization that all you do in emergency rooms is you stabilize and everything else is every other department. I think the rush of that, as well as the realization of how impactful and important it is, I think that becomes really addictive.
The Pitt Episode 9 “3 PM” premieres on MAX tonight at 9 PM ET.
