Summary
The Pitt Season 2 is reaching the end of its shift, but there’s a profound feeling of doom in the air throughout “6:00 P.M.” and it’s only going to become more pronounced in the remaining episodes.
When even Dana is crying, you know something is going badly wrong in The Pitt. But that feeling of mounting dread which has characterised Season 2 is felt particularly profoundly in Episode 12, perhaps because as we near the end of the shift and people are starting to think about going home, we, in turn, are starting to think about all the reasons they might not be able to. This is doubly true for Robby, whose ominous sabbatical is even starting to seem like a death sentence to his colleagues.
But back to Dana. The previous episode ended with Emma being attacked by a golf bro, and here, it’s Dana who rushes to save her. In the split second it takes for others to arrive, the guy has been injected with a syringe that Dana happened to be keeping in her pocket, and his nose is bleeding from what she describes as a slip. I don’t think we need Poirot to tell us what really happened there, but as Robby rightly points out, roaming around the hospital with sedatives and duffing up patients isn’t especially conducive to a long career.
Dana’s fraying at the edges here, and it’s tough to see. She’s able to keep it under control better than most, but every brief moment she takes to swallow back a sob is a reminder that the emotional toll of this job is absurdly high, and nobody is immune. She’s also quick to call Robby out on his hypocrisy. He has already had a go at Samira (and throws a subtle dig at her here), he won’t let things go with Langdon, and yet he’s being dangerously cavalier with his own life. Dana’s not having it. Even McKay later calls him out on it.
Maybe Al-Hashimi has a point when she suggests, privately to Robby, that the Pitt needs two attendings permanently, since it’s way too demanding for a single doctor. Having also overheard Langdon’s argument with Santos, she’s also concerned about the interpersonal dynamics. She’s especially shocked to learn, then, that Santos is annoyed because she was the one who caught Langdon stealing drugs from the ED. This completely shifts Al-Hashimi’s approach to Langdon; whereas before she seemed so keen on him that I thought they might have had a pre-existing relationship, here she’s so dismissive and hostile that he notices it immediately. How can she complain about Santos doing it now?
Santos still isn’t over it either. When Whitaker corners her, she has another rant about how angry she is that Langdon is back and everyone’s acting like it isn’t a travesty, a sentiment reflected in Robby’s later argument with Dana. But the counterpoints are valid, too. What is the guy supposed to do? Never work again? He has already saved many more lives than he might have theoretically cost with his Season 1 actions, and he’s just about the only character in the show who is actually open about how he feels.
Outside of Duke, who’s still waiting on his CT scan, and Micah’s mother, who’s still in a psychiatric time-out, The Pitt Season 2, Episode 12 isn’t big on returning patients. But there are several new ones, including Dante, a dude with a huge flap of his scalp hanging off, and an older couple named Ed and Frida, who Samira and Mel begin to worry might have to consider moving into an assisted living facility, given various mobility issues. Samira’s good here, figuring out a potential solution by looking over Ed’s medication and proposing an amended prescription that might not interact in the same way. Robby can’t help but suggest that geriatrics might be the specialization Samira is looking for since she’s “predisposed to the pace”. I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not. Based on Samira’s reaction, I’d suggest not.
That morbid feeling is really pronounced as things close, though. People are starting to leave — Princess is out, as is Joy, who has the good sense to create some boundaries for herself and depart at the end of her shift instead of logging overtime — and the night shift is starting to arrive. The ED remains in chaos. Robby’s sabbatical is increasingly beginning to feel like a death sentence, Dana might be on the hook for a legal claim, and sadly, Orlando is back on a stretcher. Still, at least the computers are coming back on.
