Summary
The Pitt Season 2 is beginning to feel intentionally overwhelming, with one bad case after another, but “11:00 A.M.” finds room for levity, snippets of character development, and some more commentary on the American healthcare system.
Having just spent 13 consecutive hours in a hospital, I was particularly sensitive to The Pitt in “11:00 A.M.”, perhaps more so than any other episode in Season 2 thus far. This is likely because Episode 5 has a strong undercurrent of time-management, or perhaps more accurately how impossible it is to manage time in a clinical setting. This is primarily expressed through Santos trying to complete her charts and being interrupted every 10 seconds, which starts out as a recurring gag but quickly takes on a sort of existential panic. Perhaps she’ll never be able to get ten minutes to herself ever again.
It certainly feels that way, since patients keep flooding into PTMC, diverted from the still-closed Westbridge. New arrivals include a woman dying from cancer who has had a seizure, a dangerous prisoner who has been beaten half to death, a young-ish kid who has been branded by his brother with the “family crest” — which turns out to be the Pittsburgh Penguins logo — and an unhoused woman with TB. Oh, and an elderly lady so constipated that Ogilvie has to use his finger like an ice cream scoop to clear the way, resulting in him being covered in what Santos later describes as an “assplosion”.
This hour is bad for Ogilvie in general. After being embarrassed in the previous episode, he’s now a little nervous, his smug demeanour having softened (unlike that poor old lady’s stools), but he’s still hit with the one-two punch of the assplosion and possible exposure to the TB. Apparently, this is a pretty normal occurrence, but Ogilvie notes it isn’t something they teach you in med school, which is probably fair enough. Nobody would become a doctor if they knew what the vocation really consisted of, something that The Pitt has been a helpful reminder of over the past two seasons.
But the bulk of intrigue and drama comes from existing patients. Of particular note is Debbie, the young lady with the worsening rash who, it turns out, is rapidly going into septic shock. This story is important for two reasons. One is that it gives Robby the chance to go rogue when the surgery team wants to dilly-dally, which is very on-brand and allows for a gnarly bit of gore, and the other is that it forces Robby and Langdon to work together more closely than either of them — especially Robby — would like.
Al-Hashimi, who is increasingly starting to butt heads with Robby, seems curiously keen on forcing this. The way she speaks to Langdon is oddly soft and familiar, which doesn’t seem especially characteristic of her, so it’s something to keep an eye on as we go. For now, her primary point of contention with Robby is over the value of AI, but I can see them clashing pretty badly if she keeps pressing the Langdon issue, which she certainly will.
Elsewhere in The Pitt Season 2, Episode 5, we get more of the Diaz family, who are trying to figure out how their patriarch can affordably remain in the hospital. This means more Noelle and more criticism of the American healthcare system. It’s Joy Kwon who comes up with an outside-the-box solution that works best, which in turn gives us a little snippet into her backstory and macabre point of view. The Pitt is really good at sneaking this kind of characterisation into the margins of the cases.
As ever, things end with potential calamity. Louie the kindly drunk flatlines, and the two nearest doctors are Robby and — wait for it — Langdon, who are forced to work together to try and resuscitate him when the episode ends. Will they manage it? Given this show’s track record, I’m going to assume not, but maybe this will be what they need to bring them closer together? There’s still plenty of the shift to go, after all. But I won’t hold my breath.
