After winning over fans (and Emmy voters) with its first season, The Pitt is ready to start another shift in season 2.
HBO Max released the first teaser for the anticipated sophomore season of the medical drama on Thursday, revealing several familiar faces returning to Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency department. And while the teaser doesn’t give away too much in plot, don’t worry: Entertainment Weekly called up showrunner R. Scott Gemmill to get some details on what we can expect.
The first notable homecoming is Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), the indelible charge nurse who, by the end of season 1, was ready to plan her retirement after she was assaulted by an angry patient. But there she is at the nurse’s station in the teaser, giving Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) a knowing glance as he arrives.
“She took some time off,” Gemmill says. “She thought she was done, but she’s been doing this a long time and I think she probably got a lot of calls from the ER saying, ‘You know, we could really use you today.’ She probably said no for a long time, and then eventually probably got bored and decided to come back.”
But the attack and her time away have left their mark on her, Gemmill says. “She comes back not quite the same as she was. She’s a little more guarded, a little more protective of her staff and is much more, I would say, more of a mirror to her patients than before. So that in the past you got Dana, no matter whether you were polite or not. And I think when she comes back, she’s a little rougher around the edges and a little less outgoing perhaps than she was in the past. A little more protective, for sure.”
We also get a quick look at who is surely the “prodigal son” mentioned in the teaser — Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), who is back after 10 months in rehab following the reveal of his drug problem in season 1.
“There are sort of two or three people that were more affected by Langdon’s, I’ll say lapse, than anyone else. Dana being one of them, Robby obviously being one, and Santos being, in some way, the instigator or the catalyst for that whole story to fall apart. So there’s gonna be some tension for sure between them until they can find a way to resolve it.”
Sepideh Moafi, Taylor Dearden, Katherine LaNasa, Gerran Howell, and Supriya Ganesh on ‘The Pitt’ season 2.
Warrick Page/HBO Max
As for the student doctors, Gemmill says, “we’re having fun with them this season,” offering updates on Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), and Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez).
“Whitaker and Santos are still roommates, that comes with some complications as we’ll see over the course of this season. Javadi — her mom is still trying to get her to go into surgery. We will get to meet Javadi’s father this year, who is also trying to help her decide what she wants to do.”
“Whitaker is a full-fledged doctor, so we see him sort of in a different role where he’s sort of now teaching med students,” Gemmill adds of ol’ Huckleberry. “So that’s a fun transition for him as well.”
There are a few shots of some newbies in the trailer as well, including Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), an attending joining the team from the VA.
“She’s gonna be someone who’s very progressive in her approach to medicine and believes in the modernization of the medical field,” Gemmill says. “And Robby’s a little bit more old school and there’ll be a little bit of, let’s just say, tension as they try and figure out how to work together.”
Sepideh Moafi on ‘The Pitt’ season 2.
Warrick Page/HBO Max
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Season 2, which takes place on the Fourth of July, comes down to themes of family, both in and out of the workplace, Gemmill says.
“What the challenge of any workspace is, [is] balancing your work life with your family life. And some of our characters have families, some don’t, some are in the process of losing their family, some are having to learn new things about their family. So I think it runs the gamut in terms of both the families of our characters who we are with every day, but also the work family of all our characters who interact with each other.”
And of course, the topical issues that earned season 1 much praise for its authentic portrayal aren’t going anywhere.
“We’re dealing with all kinds of things this season,” Gemmill says. “Everything from boating injuries to cuts in Medicare and the cost of going to the ER to the hazards of sharing meds.”
As Dr. Robby says in the teaser as an incoming tier-1 trauma is announced over the speaker: “And so it begins.”
The Pitt season 2 debuts in January.