The Pitt Episode 9 “3 PM” ends in a shocking moment of violence. Fans of the MAX show have undoubtedly noticed that one patient stuck in admitting, Doug Driscoll (Drew Powell), has a bit of a mean streak. That finally explodes when he stumbles upon Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s beloved charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) enjoying a brief smoke break outside.
**Spoilers for The Pitt Episode 9 “3 PM,” now streaming on MAX**
Doug Driscoll sneers at Dana and then punches her, hard. The final shot of the episode is of poor Dana on the ground as the disgruntled patient walks away.
“This guy takes her dignity in just one fell swoop,” The Pitt star Katherine LaNasa told DECIDER. “I feel like he just floors her in that moment. He takes everything from her.”
The twisted part of this latest upsetting Pitt storyline is that it, like the rest of the show, accurately reflects a disturbing trend in the medical world. In 2023, PBS reported that healthcare workers are five times more likely to be assaulted than people in other professions, with nurses noting an increase in violence in recent years.
“I was really glad to be able to show the human condition of a working woman that’s hit in her workplace and the dilemma that it creates for Dana,” LaNasa said, teasing what might come next for her character after this latest trauma.
“How do you go home to your daughters or your granddaughter with a black eye and say, ‘I’m going to go back there,’” LaNasa said. “You know, this is okay for me so this is okay for you. What kind of example is it?”
Setting an example is something that Dana Evans excels at, since she is, as Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby tells the newbies in Episode 1, the most important person in the Pitt. Dana’s responsible for keeping the emergency room running. She organizes the workflow, yes, but she also provides emotional support for staff.
When DECIDER spoke to Katherine LaNasa recently, she not only broke down exactly what Doug Driscoll’s punch did to her on and off screen, but also delved into what makes Dana tick…
DECIDER: All the way back in episode one when we’re introduced to your character, Dr. Robby tells the new recruits that Dana is the most important person in the ER. Where do you think she gets that poise in managing everything, that whole circus? And did you ever personally feel like you were the most important person on that set?
KATHERINE LaNASA: [chuckles] I never feel like I’m the most important person on the set. I think actually the key to Dana is her humility. I kind of had a feeling going into the role that would be my place to ground myself for success, both in the role and as Katherine as the actor. You know, to be humble, to be a worker among workers, to be sort of trying to help. It’s a very much a team effort. We all work on this big open set. It’s not filmed traditionally like other television shows, where usually you have a set and you walk on to this little piece of the set and everyone’s lighting and everyone’s doing all their work and all the stand-ins are there and everyone steps away. Then the divas walk in and play the scene, right? This is pre-lit in a large extent. We kind of do all the shots on the fly. We’re kind of working with the camera. We never really step off. We don’t have actor chairs. We go into the family room on the show. That’s where the actors hang out. (A little bit of insider info.)
But I would also say, I learned a lot. I went through a couple of family members dying and I took a lot of impressions that I didn’t realize till I got the role from the hospice nurses, how they were able to be so compassionate and they provided so much stability for us as a family by their kind of matter of fact-ness and knowing what was coming next. They cared, but they didn’t get lost in it. Like everybody can’t fall apart.
I also shadowed a charge nurse at L.A. County Hospital, that my character’s partly based on, and there’s an incredible amount of compassion and a sense of dignity about what they do and a real care for the people that they help. But there’s also an emotional efficiency where they have to be able to kind of compartmentalize and move on. Because it’s trauma all day, every day. Physical, mental, emotional trauma. That’s all that goes through the ER. It’s a trauma center. So our normal reaction to that, right, would be to go, “Oh my God! Help! Help!” We can’t follow each person down. You’d have a mental breakdown by the end of one shift.
I want to ask about the end of Episode 9, where that devious Doug Driscoll, he punches poor Dana. I was so irate. I already didn’t like that character, Doug Driscoll, and now I hate him even more.
[Drew Powell’s] doing a great job!
What was it like filming that sequence and how do you feel about being able to sort of show audience at home, the violence and the assaults on people who are in the health care industry that we might not otherwise know about or think about?
Right. That was something that I was educated on when I went to County, how often nurses are punched and hit. I think I might have known that was coming up for me because they had to explain to me my makeup, how my makeup would progress on the show. So I knew that something violent was coming my way. [Laughs]
It’s funny, when I read it, I thought, “Oh, there’s a stunt. Someone’s going to hit me, I’m going to fall down.” And I have been hit in my life and I think that I didn’t want to process that. And so I was a dancer and I decided, this is this physical thing that I’m going to go to. And when we played it, I was like, “Oh, wow, this is sending me into a whole existential tailspin.” I was really glad to be able to show the human condition of a working woman that’s hit in her workplace and the dilemma that it creates for Dana.
For me, the way that I’ve built the character along with the writers is, you know, this is a person who’s worked in the hospital 32 years. This is a person who volunteered at the hospital in high school. Her whole life has been this. Her whole family, as far as I’m concerned, is like: [in PA accent] “You wanna go to County. Dana’s bossing all the doctors around.” Dana is a big deal and this guy takes her dignity in just one fell swoop. He takes her pride or sense of place. How do you go home to your daughters or your granddaughter with a black eye and say, “I’m going to go back there.” You know, this is okay for me so this is okay for you. What kind of example is it? I feel like he just floors her in that moment. He takes everything from her.
I’ve noticed that you have a very different accent from Dana. I’m just curious what work and research you put into getting that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania accent.
Let me say, a lot of tears. My biggest compliment that I’ve gotten are people that write me on Instagram or in any reviews that have mentioned the accent because I had a day, about two weeks into it, I thought, “Why am I doing this to myself?” So often we see on television people are from a different place and actors don’t choose to do it. When I first auditioned for John [Wells] and Scott Gemmill, I did something that was just sort of vaguely east coast. I’m a Southerner. I didn’t know the accents that well. And I decided, after I was honored with the role, to go for a specific Pittsburgh accent because I knew if I didn’t, I would fall into something that sounded like New Jersey.
To be honest with you, I was watching Mare of Easttown. The extras came on and they started talking about the accent with the dialect coach. I looked her up on IMDB Pro and she put me in touch with the woman who had done pretty much everybody, but Kate Winslet. She’s from Pennsylvania and we worked very hard on a very specific a Pittsburgh accent.
I do love watching how close Dana is with Dr. Robby and Dr. Collins. There seems to be a very long-standing friendship between those two characters and Dana. I’m curious if you worked with Tracey Ifeachor or Noah Wyle off camera to develop that sort of rapport or chemistry. Did you have a backstory you guys discussed in terms of how those friendships developed or was it just on the page?
It was just on the page. But I think that, you know, my own son lost his father when he was like 19. And even though I’m the same age as Noah, I think that mother hen quality to Dana makes me kind of view him and embrace him as a son. So much of his journey is about the loss of his father figure. So that really informed everything. I just took everything from there. Plus, we have the exact same sense of humor. And I am crazy about Noah Wyle.
Tracey and I took a lot of hikes. And we go to the [in British accent] totally nude spa. Noah recommended a spa that his wife liked — [laughing] —and we show up there and Tracey comes in and says, [in British accent] “Catherine, I think this is a totally nude spa.” I was like, “Girl, just wrap a towel around yourself. We can make it work.” So we just got to know each other on the fly.
At a totally nude spa.
Totally nude spa, yeah.
The Pitt returns next Thursday, March 6 at 9 PM ET on MAX.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
