Summary
The Pitt Season 2 is ending, or at least it’s trying to, but “7:00 P.M.” feels like an inescapable prison for most of the characters, and it’s a feeling that is translating to the audience too.
The Pitt‘s Season 2 shift is, technically, already over. It ended last week for the few members of the cast smart enough to commit to walking out of PTMC for the good of their own mental health, but everyone else lingers behind in Episode 13. Some, like Santos and Whitaker, are catching up with their charts. Others, like Ogilvie, are too shell-shocked to move. And a few, like Robby, are rooted in place because they’re too frightened to leave, horrified not by what they’ve seen already but what they might see when they return from absence — if, of course, they ever return at all.
This is the first time that Robby’s sabbatical being a one-way trip is floated by Robby himself. Previously, it was always discussed in temporary terms, as a three-month spiritual sojourn that he’ll return from renewed. All the hints haven’t suggested that, obviously; there are only so many motorcycle accidents you can see in a hospital shift, only so many times you can hear the name “Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump” before you start to worry. But it was always other people worrying about Robby. This is the first time he has acknowledged that his temporary absence may become permanent.
Is he speaking hypothetically? Or is he confirming, as he becomes more and more frayed, that his suicidal ideation has continued and that he has at least considered the possibility that he is going away to his death? For now, it’s a little unclear. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that his worsening outbursts are tied to the idea of the Pitt not being able to function without him long-term. He’s worried about Al-Hashimi, about Dana carrying syringes in her pockets, about Samira’s mommy issues, about Whitaker looking after his apartment, about Langdon relapsing, and about his friend, Duke, requiring surgery that he won’t be around to coax him through. He can’t leave the building because he thinks he’s leaving for good, and it won’t stay standing without him.
That pressure isn’t unique to Robby, but it’s uniquely intense given how much responsibility he has on his shoulders. That’s why he’s visibly losing it — still taking his frustration out primarily on Dana, sadly — and everyone else is slipping deeper and deeper within themselves. A lot of “7:00 P.M.” is about this; about how everyone reacts to having reached the edge that the season has been steadily walking them towards. Take Samira, for instance. Not only has Orlando returned to the hospital after a 20-foot fall — suffered either from passing out due to the heat or his diabetes, or from a deliberate jump because he can’t afford his medical bills — but he’s going to take at least a year to recover, if he recovers at all. And, to make matters worse, she’s later told that the patient she and Ogilvie were treating died on the operating table.
Ogilvie takes that badly, as well he might. Emma finds him outside in the ambulance bay, covered in blood, and Whitaker has to go out and reassure him that people dying is part of the job. And while you never get used to it, you do learn to accept it. Some are just more accepting than others.
Of everyone, I think Emma is the most likely to be okay. She brushes off being headlocked like it was nothing, departs at a healthy time, and is the only person in the building who seems to have enjoyed her shift. She and Dana also give Digby a shave and a haircut in a lovely little scene where he’s moved to tears when he sees his reflection. Even amongst all this stress and misery, The Pitt Season 2, Episode 13 still provides moments of profound humanity and empathy.
With the night crew now on shift, we’re approaching the end. But there are still things to worry about. Robby’s worsening mental state is one; Al-Hasimi’s uncharacteristic hesitation in certain circumstances, which hasn’t gone unnoticed, is another; and Jesse’s arrest is a third. Langdon and Javadi are also starting to second-guess themselves. There are still two episodes left, and that means plenty of time for many things to go wrong. I’m starting to feel the nerves now more than ever.
