{"id":416156,"date":"2026-01-16T05:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/416156\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T05:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:03:08","slug":"robbys-gut-instincts-at-8-a-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/416156\/","title":{"rendered":"Robby\u2019s Gut Instincts at \u20188 A.M.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Pitt<\/a><\/p>\n

8:00 A.M.<\/p>\n

\n Season 2<\/p>\n

Episode 2\n <\/p>\n

\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n

4 stars<\/p>\n

****\n <\/p>\n

\n The simmering power struggle between Robby and Al-Hashimi continues as the staff handles a couple of gory cases.
\n Photo: Warrick Page\/HBO Max\n <\/p>\n

Welcome to 8:00 AM, where the Rabinavitch v. Al-Hashimi shift soldiers on, with even more tension between our two Attendings, if you can believe it. It makes sense. Dr. Al-Hashimi has only grown more comfortable throughout the first hour; not only is she hovering, but she\u2019s making calls in trauma rooms that directly undercut Robby, even though, thus far, Robby\u2019s directives for his doctors have been the correct ones. And could Dr. Al roll her eyes any harder when multiple residents come to Robby with Robby-approved \u201cgut feelings\u201d? For Dr. Al, gut feelings drool, and algorithms and protocols rule, you know what I mean? It\u2019s not that Dr. Al has bad intentions or is incompetent, quite the opposite, but when you show up to your first day and tell the person who has been running the show for years that you have \u201cideas for improvement,\u201d how do you think he\u2019s going to take it? I\u2019m not saying Robby is infallible, but I am saying I am Team Robby no matter what and I would die for this man.<\/p>\n

There are two main moments in \u201c8:00 AM\u201d in which their particular brands of doctoring are at odds. One is when they need baby Jane Doe to pee, and Al-Hashimi wants to place a catheter, while Robby thinks that\u2019s an extreme first step. He has a little cold water on a cotton swab trick that does, in fact, lead to some pee in a cup, so there. (The baby has the rhinovirus but otherwise is fine, aside from the fact they can\u2019t get her a bed upstairs.)\u00a0 The second head-to-head is even more testy. Barry comes in with an upper airway obstruction after eating breakfast. The regular ol\u2019 heimlich didn\u2019t work and all the docs involved know they\u2019ll have to get a look inside Barry\u2019s esophagus. Dr. Al-Hashimi wants to sedate Barry with ketamine and rocuronium in case this isn\u2019t just a piece of food stuck in his throat and they need to intubate quickly. Robby thinks they should only give ketamine because it\u2019s most likely a piece of food \u2014 the guy was eating before he went into distress, after all. Robby moves forward with his plan, overruling Dr. Al in front of everyone else. She backs off, but not without a snarky \u201cI\u2019ll leave this in your capable hands\u201d and a warning that he better not get them sued as she walks out. Robby\u2019s right \u2014 it was a piece of broccoli and McKay is able to remove it without a problem. Al-Hashimi\u2019s plan would\u2019ve had Barry intubated and on a ventilator for an hour for no reason. I have to believe that at some point the tables will turn and Al-Hashimi\u2019s call will be the correct one, but for now the two remain at odds.<\/p>\n

Robby and Al-Hashimi aren\u2019t the only ones butting heads on this shift, though. Our sweet brainiac med student, Javadi, realizes that not-so-sweet brainiac med student, Ogilvie, might be some real competition for a spot in the ED residency program at PTMC. Well, I guess she didn\u2019t \u201crealize\u201d as much as Santos very happily pointed this truth out to her. It is interesting that in the last episode, Javadi, as far as her mother is concerned, hadn\u2019t made up her mind as to which type of residency she wanted to pursue. And yet, the moment Santos mentions that she could lose the emergency medicine residency, she is up, fighting for her spot. Seems like she\u2019s made up her mind to me, but what do I know?<\/p>\n

Javadi and Ogilvie have a real nerd off when Orlando Diaz is brought into the hospital unconscious, showing signs of diabetic ketoacidosis. As the two try to show up the other and show off to the residents and Robby with their knowledge of how to treat Mr. Diaz, none of the other doctors are impressed \u2014 Mohan\u2019s face is all of our faces \u2014 and Robby has to explicitly remind these two that med students aren\u2019t evaluated simply on their wealth of knowledge, but also on how well they function as a team player. I\u2019m rooting for Javadi in this race, both because she\u2019s an OG and not a dick. Could you imagine how Ogilvie would\u2019ve handled Sister Gonorrhea? Though admittedly, this whole race to be the biggest nerd has only endeared me more to Joy Kwon, the other third-year med student who could not give a fuck about anything. That kind of attitude goes against the Robby ethos, but at least it\u2019s fun. (For me, a viewer, probably not for her patients.)<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Robby ethos, all three of our med students should be looking to our quiet king Whitaker for how to not just impress their superiors but, like, be a good doctor. Out of all the newbs last season, it seems like Whitaker has really been informed by Robby\u2019s example, especially when it comes to bedside manner. He\u2019s quite a competent doctor, too, especially compared to how nervous he was just ten months ago, but it\u2019s moving to see his empathy in action and even more moving to see Robby see that empathy in action. Last week, Whitaker took a moment with his two med students to have a moment of silence for Mr. Bostick after he died (they both hated it, naturally). In the eight o\u2019clock hour, Whitaker is tasked with taking care of Mr. Bostick\u2019s wife, who has dementia. He has to tell her more than once that her husband has died. He brings her to see his body and still, she does not get it \u2014 he sits with her anyway. May this man never have to switch out scrubs midshift again!<\/p>\n

If Whitaker represents the youthful version of Robby\u2019s empathetic side, it\u2019s probably Santos who best represents his gutsy version of treating patients. She, not surprisingly, is one of the doctors Al-Hashimi sees Robby ask to trust her gut \u2014 and Santos, as we\u2019ve seen both last season and here, mostly operates on trusting her gut. Sometimes that\u2019s great and her gut is right (please see last season\u2019s REBOA<\/a>), but sometimes she takes it too far. Robby has decades of experience to help inform his decision-making; Santos is mostly riding on confidence. It\u2019s certainly what The Pitt is pointing out with her 9-year-old chin lac patient, Kylie. She\u2019s following protocol, but it\u2019s clear she believes Kylie\u2019s father is abusing her. Multiple people, including Robby and our social worker of the season Dylan (Kiara isn\u2019t working today!) remind Santos not to jump to conclusions. She promises that isn\u2019t what\u2019s happening, but she also threatens to track down the dad if he doesn\u2019t show up soon, so, like she\u2019s not the most convincing. Last season, Santos was dead on when she figured out her patient had been molesting his daughter, which, in addition to her own past, is informing her here \u2014 maybe her gut is right, or maybe her gut is leading her into an absolute shit show. Who\u2019s to say?<\/p>\n

Seeing these doctors clearly growing thanks to Robby\u2019s mentorship must be awkward for Langdon, the discarded protege. Langdon is still out in the \u201cExile Island\u201d that is triage and still being ignored by Robby (and Santos, for what it\u2019s worth), but this doesn\u2019t stop him from continuing to make amends where he needs to. And hey, even if his mentor has ditched him, we can\u2019t forget that in just one shift Langdon found his own mentee in Mel King.<\/p>\n

Those two get a very sweet scene in this episode: The guy who was flirting with King in the previous episode continues to flirt (still unbeknownst to her), but when he sees two cops walking through the ED, he books it, knocking King off her seat, sending her crashing to the floor with her head to mostly break the fall. (The guy robbed a liquor store the night prior and was hiding out in the ED.) When Langdon sees Perlah icing King\u2019s head, he brings her to a room for a real exam to make sure all is well. He also uses the one-on-one time to talk to her about where he\u2019s been. King obviously knows what\u2019s been going on, but tries not to pry. Langdon wants to be upfront with her: He was in rehab for his addiction to benzos. He is adamant that it never affected his work and that he\u2019s clean, but he knows he let a lot of people down. \u201cYou never let me down,\u201d she tells him so earnestly my heart could just burst. But he did, he responds \u2014 he should be an example, \u201cnot a cautionary tale.\u201d When the cops come in to ask King about her patient who fled and inform her that she might have to testify as a material witness, you can see her flood with anxiety. (As if she needs another court case to think about today!) Langdon picks up on it immediately and so he ushers out the cops, tells Dr. King to rest for a few minutes, and, on his way out, he turns off the lights and closes the door to block out the noise, remembering how she had taken care of an autistic patient with a lot of anxiety last season. It remains impossible to dislike Frank Langdon.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Aw, The Pitt is back and happy to be disgusting again! We get multiple maybe-shield-your-eyes patients in this episode: When Mohan cuts into our unhoused guy Digby\u2019s arm cast, they find a whole bunch of maggots underneath; We watch the complete relocation of a man\u2019s open arm dislocation, complete with King having to stick her four fingers inside the guy\u2019s arm under his protruding bone; and yes, King and Santos have to help Mr. Randall get rid of his eight-hour erection. There is so much blood in that penis.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The episode begins with Dr. Al-Hashimi still frozen over baby Jane Doe, but when Mohan asks what\u2019s wrong, a clearly teary-eyed Dr. Al pretends nothing happened. We get no other developments on this \u2026yet.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Most of Santos\u2019s jokes don\u2019t land for me, but calling Javadi\u2019s nun with conjunctivitis due to gonorrhea \u201cthe immaculate infection\u201d really tickled me. Sister Grace is going to be just fine. And, lest you think she\u2019s out living a double life, rubbing her face in something unholy on the weekend, she works at an unhoused shelter handling sheets and laundry without gloves, but Mohan\u2019s hooking her up with a supply of some.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Did everyone catch Robby\u2019s quick line asking Santos if she\u2019d been to the trauma counselor this week? Does everyone who worked during the mass casualty event have to check in with a counselor still? Caleb, the doc from psych, also seems to know Robby pretty well. I love how The Pitt isn\u2019t dwelling on the aftermath of PittFest, but it clearly has left a mark on the place.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Pitt can\u2019t just dangle the fact that Mel King has a 17th-century French woman alter ego she whips out at Ren Faires and not give us more details. We have been through so much, we deserve more.<\/p>\n

\u2022 McKay is still working on her possible head trauma patient Mr. Williams. This time when she goes to check on him, he couldn\u2019t be nicer to her. What\u2019s up with this guy? McKay starts calling family to see if there\u2019s a history of psych problems they don\u2019t know about.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Big news everybody: Dr. Robby is getting laid! Seemingly on the regular! With a hot nurse! Nurse Noelle Hastings is currently the case manager at PTMC \u2014 she informs docs when certain patients need to be transferred out, so not completely well-liked \u2014 and she and Robby are secretly doing it. Dana is not thrilled, so I am wary of this coupling, but if anyone needed to get some after last season, it was our big guy.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Not Robby casually dropping a line from Henry IV, Part 1 \u2014 he contains multitudes!<\/p>\n

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