4:00 PM
Season 2
Episode 10
Editor’s Rating
4 stars
****
Is everyone going to burn out this season?
Photo: John Johnson/HBO Max
Sure, it’s stating the obvious at this point, but damn, everyone on The Pitt is stressed out. But it’s a stress that feels different from last season. Last time, at the ED’s peak of stress — the mass casualty event — it seems like everyone really rose to the occasion. Yeah, Robby had his mental breakdown in the middle of it, but overall, he was focused on the task at hand. This season, the ED has been faced with constant pressure thanks to the holiday, but most of our doctors are also dealing with personal stress, and perhaps we’ve reached the point in the season where more than the cracks are beginning to show … the flood is bursting through. Is everyone going to burn out?
Of course, the most clear-cut case of that happening at the moment is Mohan. She has been increasingly stressed out as her shift has gone along. The genesis of that stress is, of course, learning that her mother isn’t staying at her place in New Jersey, where Mohan lined up a job to be close to her, but rather is sailing around the world with her new boyfriend. Mohan is upset by this for a lot of reasons, one being that she set up her entire future believing her mother would be nearby. Now her future is in chaos. She doesn’t want to be in New Jersey for no reason, but she’s way behind in lining up another fellowship, especially because, as we learned earlier, she has no real idea what specialty she wants to pursue. She’s freaking out about her mom, she’s freaking out about her career, and she’s even stressed about her shriveling-up eggs. It doesn’t help that her mother is calling her repeatedly on top of this “going analog on a holiday weekend” situation. The woman is stressed! Where’s Abbot with another bullet wound to patch up when you need him?
You know the day is getting to her even before the panic attack. Mohan is empathetic almost to a fault. Remember last season when Robby chastised her for taking too much time talking with her patients? And here she is in the four o’clock hour snapping at patients she walks by, at patients in the waiting room, and even at Princess. More than the sweating, the confusion, and the shortness of breath, it’s how Mohan treats the people around her that tells us something’s wrong here. I mean, the physical symptoms are concerning, too. It’s Joy who has to force Mohan into a wheelchair and get some help. When Langdon sees her, Mohan is sure she’s having a heart attack — her chest is so tight she can’t breathe. They start running tests and pull Robby into the room.
Initially, Robby is worried about his colleague, you know, like a normal human being who on most days is a rather empathetic doctor dealing with people from all walks of life having all types of problems. When Mohan begins to word-vomit all the issues she’s having with her life and her mother, Robby snaps — “Is this a panic attack because of your mommy issues? Jesus.” Then he condescendingly tells her to go home if she needs to go home. It’s so incredibly rude that it’s honestly shocking. Everyone else in the room — Langdon, Joy, Dana, Al-Hashimi — is certainly shocked. Later, Dana rags on him for his extra-special “pep talk,” and Al-Hashimi asks him what his problem is and what it’ll take for him to get some basic human empathy, but it’s Mohan who sums up the moment perfectly when she tells her boss that he was being a dick after his half-hearted apology. She goes back to work because she is a professional and Robby can get bent. And you know how angry I am because generally I’m more than happy to excuse Robby’s bad behavior. This is one resident too far, my man!
The Pitt doesn’t just have multiple characters call Robby out to his face to show us how un-Robby-like he’s being at the moment; it also places this whole Mohan storyline up against another one in which a doctor has more than enough empathy to treat both her patient and her colleague with respect and support. It seems we’ve come to the end of Roxie’s story. She wants additional morphine, which McKay explains will sedate her so much she’ll most likely lose consciousness. Eventually, it will prevent her from breathing. This is it. Roxie knows it. Her whole family knows it. Being in that room proves to be too much for Javadi, who runs out teary-eyed. And when she explains to McKay, who comes to check on her, that she feels like an asshole standing there with Roxie’s sons, who desperately want more time with their mother while she would love less time with her own, McKay doesn’t yell at her about her mommy issues making her a terrible doctor. No, she offers advice about giving her mother a chance and also building emotional boundaries with patients. It’s very nice and not at all hard to do, Michael John Carter Robinavitch! I mean, McKay clearly doesn’t know Javadi’s mom very well, because when Javadi does try to give her a chance, Dr. Shamsi gives her daughter the Dr. Robby version of support in regard to her almost killing that patient in the previous hour, which of course is less so support and more so public humiliation and condescension. But still — McKay tries!
And by the way, McKay is just drenching the ED in empathy and support at the moment. Not only is she there for Javadi and Roxie, but she’s there for Roxie’s whole family. That conversation she has with Roxie’s older son, Shane, who doesn’t want to go into the room to say good-bye to his mother? I’m crying just thinking about it! It’s that conversation, one about an invisible string that will always connect them that Roxie has with her youngest, and one more example of Paul sticking by Roxie’s side through it all, and then it’s time for McKay to push the morphine. It’s all devastating and quiet, which actually makes it more devastating, and normally I would be sobbing my face off over it, but Robby told me I have to keep my head in the game and focus on my work and Robby is our overlord, we all know this.
So back to my task at hand: It’s not just Mohan who is showing signs of stress. Look at poor Mel! She comes back from her deposition, which the hospital lawyer describes as “the most unprofessional deposition I’ve ever witnessed,” and that seems not at all comforting. Apparently the family’s lawyers put Mel through it and were much more aggressive with her than with Ellis. Mel is visibly rattled by it. When she decides to stuff those emotions deep down by turning her focus on her sister, it winds up having the opposite of the desired effect. Langdon won’t discuss Becca’s case with Mel because of HIPAA. Now, he did, very sweetly, explain this idea to Becca, and I know he did illegal things, but I’m sorry, Langdon is so good with patients. I guess I’m a Langdon apologist too, but that is my prerogative, okay?
When Becca tells Mel that she has a UTI probably from all the sex she’s been having with her boyfriend, Adam, Mel is rattled again. She didn’t know about the sex; she didn’t even know about the boyfriend! I fear Mel’s ability to process overwhelming emotions has hit a limit during this shift. Is she the next Pittling to fall? I’m scared.
There’s also a whole bunch of stress building up over in Trauma 2 thanks to the ever-present tension between Langdon and Santos, which hits new heights when they’re forced to work on one of the victims of a slide collapse at a waterpark. The man is one of the people who fell from the slide and now he’s suffering from major chest pain. (He also has a nasty-ass degloving injury on his ring finger from trying to hold on to his son Zack, who fell, and whom he is desperate to find.) Santos diagnoses a pneumothorax and wants to place a chest tube, but Langdon stops her — they don’t have enough evidence to do this yet, and he may not need it. Santos rolls her eyes. And this is basically how the entirety of this man’s treatment goes. Langdon attempts to treat Santos as he would any other resident under him by not only teaching her but correcting her when she’s wrong, and Santos’s attitude toward him continues to get worse and worse. Al-Hashimi catches it — the patient does too — but it’s actually Garcia who calls her out: “Enough!” she yells when Santos goes from quietly disrespecting Langdon to vocally doing so, adding, “Apparently decency and decorum need to be introduced to our R2 curriculum.” It stings. And not for nothing, but Langdon is right about every single call he makes in that room.
Santos doesn’t give two shits about Langdon’s medical skills, though. When she sees Garcia later, she asks whose side she’s on here. Garcia has to remind her that this isn’t middle school. It also seems abundantly clear at this point that Garcia has been upfront about their hooking up not being a serious thing, and that is a concept Santos can’t comprehend. But mostly, Santos is furious because she did the right thing in outing Langdon and all she got in return was becoming a social pariah around here. Langdon should be fired, but everyone is happy to welcome him back. “Or maybe you’re a pariah because you don’t play well with others,” Garcia counters. Santos, sweetie, Garcia is only into you for the sex — and the ramen in bed, I guess. It is yet another blow to Santos’s ego on a day that has been full of those. We’ve already seen evidence that Santos has, at some point, dealt with her issues and emotions by way of self-harm, so if we’re really making a list of Pitt babies to keep our eye on as this shift from hell continues, she should be at the top of it.
• The argument between Robby and Al-Hashimi hits extra hard because at one point during this episode, it felt as though they were turning a corner: When a child from the waterpark accident (not Zack) comes in with a broken larynx and they’re unable to find a way to ventilate, Al-Hashimi comes up with the risky but ultimately successful plan to perform a slash trach. She’s never done one before, but she goes for it and saves his life. Robby is so impressed. She could’ve been part of the tricky airway club with Robby and Abbot! We almost had it all!
• The other major victim from the waterpark accident is a woman named Emily who fell onto a fence, which sliced her leg off from the knee down. She doesn’t realize this has happened at first and only does once she comes to and looks over to see Ogilvie holding her leg across the room. It is the stuff of nightmares.
• Robby’s friend Duke finally shows up. He’s a motorcycle engineer who has been having a persistent issue with hoarseness, and since he’s a big smoker and drinker, Robby wants to check out his throat and chest. The scope in Duke’s throat doesn’t show anything abnormal, but Robby pushes him to get a chest X-ray. I hope this doesn’t go south for several reasons but mainly because even Duke is giving Robby shit about his big trip — who decides to ride all night when they’ve been working all day? Who, indeed, Duke!
• Ogilvie has officially gotten attached to the English teacher with kidney stones. This is going to end badly, right? Ogilvie was already complaining about the job being relentless. Is it going to wind up being emotionally devastating for him too?
• I actually can’t believe Robby let Park the Shark from Ortho talk to his new golden boy Whitaker that way! He really is off his game right now.
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