In episode 2 of The Pitt, the patient named Allen, who had a bone popping out of his armpit, was saved, but instead of sending him to the OR, Hastings wanted to transfer him to Westbridge, because his medical insurance was linked to that hospital. McKay was against that move, but Robby was okay with it, largely because he was in a relationship with Hastings, and Allen did end up getting transported to Westbridge. Santos perked up after learning that Ms. Matthews had gonorrhea, and she began cracking some hilarious sex jokes, but it was eventually revealed to Victoria and Samira that she often worked at an unhoused shelter, and she might have contracted the disease from dirty sheets. Speaking of bad hygiene, Digby’s cast was opened, and they found maggots in there. Williams was sent for a CT scan after his condition had more or less stabilized.
Sanders, the bicycle accident patient Mel was treating, turned out to be a thief who injured Mel while trying to run away from the police. Langdon used that opportunity to take Mel to a room and give her some time to rest, because she desperately needed that. Whitaker took Evelyn, the Alzheimer’s patient, to the dead body of her husband in the hopes that she’d finally realize that the love of her life was gone. Clint arrived with a perpetually erect penis, which was tended to by Mel, Baran, Emma, and Santos (who was cracking “That’s what she said” jokes). The mysterious baby supposedly had some kind of a respiratory disease, and that, as well as other symptoms, prompted Baran to call for an HIV antigen test, just to make sure that she was in the clear. In addition to that, Baran clashed quite a lot with Robby because of her pro-AI stance and his cowboy attitude. Eventually, they had to put their differences aside for a college kid, who had been tased and brought into the ER, and who was crying about being kidnapped. What happened next in The Pitt Season 2? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Davis Has Been Wrongfully Tased
The college kid who is wigging out is identified as Jackson Davis. While he’s being wheeled into one of the rooms, he is heard saying stuff like 2901, 2701, Title 18, Title Section 508, 2709, and more, all of which are references to the crimes and offenses that have supposedly been committed against him, thereby underscoring the fact that he is the one who has been wronged isn’t in fact the guilty party. Robby’s focus, though, is getting as many hands on deck as possible, because Davis is extremely agitated. He calls Victoria and Mel to help him and Baran with the case. The first responders and the other nurses hold Davis down while he’s sedated, because there’s no way to ascertain his vitals or pull out the taser barbs in his back without knocking him out. In the meantime, Tony Chinchiolo, the security guard of the college that Davis is from, walks into the ER with an injury on him, and allegations of Davis being a meth head spewing out of his mouth.
As Jesse takes a look at Tony’s wound, the campus security guard says that it’s been caused by the chair that Davis threw at him. Dana assures him that he’ll be given a full examination, and Tony says that he’ll wait there until the cops arrive so that he can give his statement regarding Davis’ actions. Going back to Davis, he’s finally unconscious, which allows Victoria and Mel to pull out the taser barbs. Later on, as Dana is informing Santos, Ogilvie, and Whitaker that their baby Jane Doe is doing alright, Officers Bingham and Inouye arrive to take Tony’s statement. Tony goes off on a rant, alleging that Davis is a junkie, but when the kid’s lab results come back, it becomes evident that Tony has been lying, because he doesn’t have any drugs in his body. This means that Tony attacked Davis without any kind of provocation, or, at the very least, Tony has to prove what really prompted him to unload his taser gun on Davis. With this context in mind, Davis’ anger and frustration are understandable, because he knows that he is going to be painted as the aggressor in this case while Tony will get away unscathed by pretending to be the victim.
Yana Is Traumatized By The 2018 Synagogue Shooting
As Ian is being walked out of the ER by Langdon, with his penis relatively flaccid now, Yana Kovalenko is wheeled in by Antoine. Emma tries to take a look at Yana’s injury, but she refuses to let her, as she’d rather wait for a doctor to tend to her. In the meantime, Emma tries to learn what exactly caused the injury. Yana says that, in preparation for the 4th of July celebrations, kids in her locality have been bursting firecrackers, and that has kept her on edge. So, when she was carrying a full samovar, which is like a massive metal pot that’s used for heating or boiling water, and the firecrackers went off again, she panicked and dropped it, thereby leading to the burns. As someone who has been dealing with idiots who begin bursting firecrackers one week before an auspicious day and continue bursting them one week after said auspicious day, I totally understand Yana’s anger. Don’t let anybody tell you that firecrackers are “fun,” because they are not, and those who enjoy them are probably apathetic to those who are traumatized by all that sound, light, and smoke. Anyway, Robby enters Yana’s room, and she instantly calms down and allows him to check out her wound, which looks pretty painful. As they begin talking about the usefulness of honey on burns and the synagogues they go to, it becomes apparent that Yana has PTSD from the real-life 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life, or L’Simcha Congregation Synagogue. The sound of the bullets still rings in Yana’s ears, and every time those fireworks go off, she is taken back to that dreadful day. But, much like that synagogue, Yana is trying to rebuild herself.
Robby removes some of the damaged skin tissue around her wound, but since he has to go and take care of another patient, Perlah takes the reins. Yana notices that Perlah is Muslim, and she gets emotional all over again because she remembers that it was the Muslim community that came out in droves after that shooting at the synagogue to help the Jews who had been hurt and traumatized by the actions of the perpetrator, Robert Bowers (who was sentenced to death in 2023, by the way). I am not going to get into the politics of this whole interaction, but I’ll say that it is important to inspire hope in our ability to empathize with each other during such polarizing times by scripting such fictional scenes. Anyway, all this seriousness is punctuated by Yana absolutely going off on Robby, when he comes to check on her, for deciding to travel to Alberta on his bike (for his sabbatical). She explicitly states that he is having a midlife crisis, and she advises him to not embark on this journey, because these things don’t end very well. I know Yana makes it sound humorous, but I think this is some subtle foreshadowing for what might happen in the third season or even at the end of this season. Yes, I am predicting that Robby is going to get in a traffic collision—which’ll be deadly because he doesn’t wear a helmet while riding his bike—and he’s going to end up in the ER with his friends trying to bring him back to life.
Clint Is Fine, But Harlan Is Not
Clint’s burnt hand has been fixed, and he’s seen being walked out of the ER by Donnie. But the Hansens are not in the clear yet, because Mona and Clint spot their dad, Harlan, in the reception. Lupe tends to Dover, the deaf and mute patient in the reception, apologizes for ignoring the fact that she called out Dover’s name without checking her chart, and tells Lindsey, the Pitt’s ASL communications expert, to stay with her until her turn comes again. After that, she goes to the Hansens, and Harlan says that he forgot his blood pressure medication, got dizzy, and fell down. Langdon and Donnie take a look at Harlan’s blood pressure, which is actually very low. When Harlan says that he suffers from high blood pressure, everyone gets a bit confused, because how can someone’s blood pressure drop if they didn’t take their medication for high BP? When the Hansens begin bickering about their practice or pooling all their medicines on the table and randomly eating whatever they want when they want, Langdon tells all of them to shut the hell up, because that’s a horrible way to tackle health-related issues. The need of the hour is to ascertain what medicine Harlan had taken, and Zeke suggests that they video-call someone at their house and tell them to give them a tour of the medicine pool. While that’s going on, Langdon suggests that they move Harlan to the ER and give him all the vital fluids to stabilize him, and he and Donnie take off to extract some beads out of the nose of a kid called Duante, who has been brought in there by his father, Sherman.
I love that Duante’s reasoning for sticking those beads into his nose is that he wanted to shoot them out like rockets. But yeah, thanks to Duante, Langdon gets to drop some pearls of wisdom about fatherhood on Donnie and Sherman, which also goes to show how he’s healing from a psychological perspective. By the way, is Duante playing a VR game while a blue bead and a red bead are pulled out of his nose a Matrix reference? I know that’s a stretch, but indulge me and let me be delusional. Going back to Harlan, Mel manages to figure out that the medicine that her patient has consumed is propranolol, which is a high-blood-pressure medication, and Harlan admits that he had taken 4 or 5 of those, even though the prescribed dosage usually is just 2. That explains the sudden blood pressure fall, and Mel explains that since the medicine doesn’t stay in the body for a very long time, Harlan will be allowed to go in the next 4 hours and celebrate Independence Day. In the previous episode, Donnie and Langdon had tended to a man named Orlando; he had ketones in his breath. He’s doing relatively fine as well. However, while explaining his condition in front of Orlando’s daughter, Ana, Ogilvie and Victoria resume their intellect-measuring contest, which understandably confuses Ana. Ogilvie and Victoria’s expressions, once they realize that all their yapping wasn’t impressive at all, are hilarious.
Dana and Emma Take Care of Digby
Dana and Emma take care of Digby with the help of some IV antibiotics, because while his exterior has been more or less cleaned—I mean, the maggots are gone—his insides still need to be looked at. While doing all that, Dana tests Emma by asking her what needs to be documented in Digby’s chart. Once Emma gives the correct answers, Dana turns to Digby and asks him about the reason he took so long to come to the ER. Digby kind of beats around the bush, but Dana advises having a chat with Dylan so that he can benefit from the city’s healthcare system and any provisions that have been made for the unhoused community. When Digby accepts that suggestion, Dana asks him if he needs a sandwich, and Digby says that he’ll be glad to have one. While arranging for that sandwich, Dana educates Emma about the importance of treating unhoused people with all the respect and care they can possibly muster. People like Digby are alone out there, and loneliness can drive them to do some unsavory things to others and themselves. Hence, they need to be reminded that even if there’s no one around them, there are people in the Pitt who care about their well-being.
Kylie’s Dad Finally Shows Up
Santos gets an update about Kylie from Dylan, and although they don’t say that the girl might be a victim of abuse, Santos keeps alleging that Kylie has been abused by her father, especially because he hasn’t shown up at the point in time they are having that conversation. After a while, Kylie’s dad, Benny, finally arrives. While taking Benny to Kylie’s bed, Santos tells Dana to notify Dylan and Ahmad, which means that she anticipates Benny will do something abusive and that things are about to go sideways. She then proceeds to bring Benny up to speed, and as soon as Benny starts blaming Gina, pretty loudly I’d say, for causing Kylie’s injury by playing with her on the stairs of their house, Santos feels that all her fears about the guy are turning out to be true. Dylan arrives to break up the argument and take Benny to the family room for a conversation. Before they can even get there, though, Santos reveals that she knows about Benny’s habit of partaking in a bit of “roughhousing” with Kylie, alleging that that’s the reason for all the non-sport-related injuries. This angers Benny even more, and he goes absolutely ballistic on Gina for allegedly presenting his habit of wrestling with Kylie as something nefarious. As the situation starts spiraling out of control, Dana arrives with Kylie’s blood report, which shows that her platelets are only at 9000. Santos explains to Kylie, Benny, Gina, and Kylie’s mother that the little girl has ITP (immune thrombocytopenic purpura) and the good thing about it is that it’s treatable.
Kylie will be kept in the hospital for the next 3 days, and once they’re sure that the treatment is working, she’ll be allowed to go home. Kylie’s mother says that she’ll be there by 11 AM, and then she’ll discuss this issue in detail with Santos. In the meantime, Santos takes off to see if Kylie can be shifted from the ER to one of the wards in the hospital. That’s when she overhears Gina and Benny getting into a fight, because the latter chose to humiliate her in front of everyone by accusing her of hurting Kylie just because he thought that Gina had accused him of hurting Kylie. The couple breaks up on the spot in a really dramatic fashion, and Santos reacts to it in a quietly animated fashion. Now, I know that the internet loves to hate Santos, but, in my opinion, I understand why she assumed that Kylie was being abused. It has been hinted throughout these 2 seasons that Santos might be a victim of child abuse herself, and that’s something that doesn’t go away. So, it’s natural for her to jump to that conclusion whenever she sees a child in distress. As for her supposed happiness upon seeing Gina break up with Benny, that’s justified too because, while Benny might not be abusing Kylie, it’s clear that he has anger management issues. I mean, I can assume that that’s one of the reasons why his wife left him, and now his girlfriend has parted ways with him as well. If Benny doesn’t understand where the problem lies, Kylie might end up severing her ties with her father as well.
Williams Probably Has A Tumor In His Head
In between her conversations with Williams, McKay can be seen dealing with an elderly patient called Mr. Montrose, who keeps flirting with her in a very old-fashioned, non-creepy, and charming way. She also gets “flirted upon” by another guy near Montrose’s room. Is it safe to say that McKay is quite the man magnet? Also, I’m afraid that something’s going to go wrong with Montrose. That’s how it usually goes with these kinds of narratives. They introduce a happy-go-lucky guy, and one moment they’re doing fine, and the next the crew of the Pitt is pulling off some complex maneuvers to bring them back to life. We’ll see how well Montrose’s luck favors him. But going back to Williams, McKay gets the CT results, and she immediately gets very serious. Why? Because Williams has a mass in his frontal lobe. That’s the reason Williams took a tumble, but the only way to know if it is cancerous, benign, or something else entirely is by performing a brain biopsy. Williams isn’t sure about that, but once McKay assures him that it is an amazing process and that most patients go home the day after that operation, he changes his mind. Later on, Williams’ ex-wife, Gretchen, arrives because she was listed as his emergency contact, something that Williams forgot to change after their divorce. Initially, Gretchen isn’t all that happy about coming all the way to the ER for her ex-husband, but as soon as she learns about the mass in his head and that he might need to get a biopsy, her anger dissipates.
McKay takes Gretchen to Williams, and although their relationship might have ended on horrible terms, Gretchen empathizes with Williams’ plight, and Williams appreciates the fact that Gretchen responded to the call even though she totally didn’t have to. Williams even congratulates her for finding love again and getting married. McKay notices that the two need to catch up, and she exits the scene so that the former lovebirds can do so in peace. This is a pretty emotional scene, and, I am going to be honest, I almost had tears in my eyes. Once they are done talking, McKay accompanies Gretchen as she is about to leave, and that’s when she hypothesizes that maybe that mass in Williams’ head could have been the reason for his anger issues, which eventually led to the divorce. When McKay acknowledges that theory, Gretchen probably starts to think that they separated because of an undiagnosed medical reason, not necessarily an ideological one. As Gretchen processes all that, she asks McKay to keep her as his emergency contact if he doesn’t request a change, and McKay assures her that it’ll stay that way.
Louie’s Tooth Acts Up
Whitaker and Ogilvie visit Louie’s room, and he has already filled up 4 bottles of fluid from his stomach and is hyped to go for bottle number 5. Although everyone keeps telling Louie to go easy on the alcohol, as soon as he starts feeling better, he starts talking about drinking again. Whitaker knows that there’s no point in educating Louise. So, he assures him after he’s done pouring out 2 more bottles’ worth of fluid, he’ll tend to his aching tooth, and then he’ll be ready to go to celebrate the 4th of July in whichever way he sees fit. Louie starts talking about meeting a certain Mr. Zambelli, who is apparently known for making Pittsburgh the firework capital of the United States of America, and Whitaker and Ogilvie give away the fact that they are too young to be familiar with that name. But yes, Zambelli Fireworks is a real company that was founded in the 1800s in Naples, Italy. After Antonio Zambelli immigrated to the US, he established the company’s roots in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1960. They have since produced shows all over America, both the north and the south, and they have offices all over the USA as well.
If Zambelli is that integral to the history of Pennsylvania, it’s kind of a shame that Whitaker and Ogilvie are totally oblivious to its existence. If they have avoided fireworks for environmental reasons throughout their lives, then their lack of knowledge about Zambelli is understandable. Later on, when Whitaker and Ogilvie return to Louie’s chambers to check how he’s doing, it seems like the condition of his tooth has worsened. Whitaker assures Louie that since the fluid from his abdomen has been drained, in the next 10 minutes, they’ll be taking care of his tooth. He understands that Louie is in a great deal of pain, and he tries to distract him by getting him to talk about Zambelli, but Louie makes it clear that he doesn’t want to talk about Zambelli anymore; he just wants his tooth to be fixed. Based on a “moment of silence” scene from the trailers, where almost the entire staff of the ER is present, many have theorized that Louie won’t be making it to the end of the season. So, yeah, there’s a possibility that Louie’s tooth is indicative of a much more serious issue that’s going to rear its ugly head eventually.
Mark and Nancy Yee Were in a Traffic Collision
Robby and Baran tend to Mark Yee. He was involved in a traffic collision and has been rendered unconscious after the incident. His wife, Nancy, who was in the passenger’s seat in the front, is relatively fine. Dana takes Nancy to the side so that Robby and Baran can get Mark into one of the trauma rooms. Robby orders Samira to go with Baran, and he asks Joy to come with him while they look at the motorcyclist who crashed into Mark’s car. Jesse and Garcia join Robby and Joy, but they quickly learn that the biker is dead. He had taken a PennDOT Motorcycle Safety Course, which is why he wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time of the collision. Garcia points out that Robby has taken the same course, and Robby immediately claims that he has, but he wears a helmet. Nobody corrects Robby because nobody, except for the viewers of this show and the drivers of the ambulance that he overtook in the first episode of The Pitt Season 2, has seen him riding his bike without a helmet! Anyway, once they are sure that the biker is dead, Robby and Garcia move to Mark’s room. Joy wonders why they aren’t doing that “moment of silence” thing for the dead biker, and Robby assures her that they’ll do that once they have saved Mark. Preliminary assessment shows that he has signs of paralysis, but they’ll need to take some more tests before being sure.
Baran and Robby convey that information to Nancy, who is visibly traumatized and disturbed, but when Baran says that she should be checked out as well, Nancy aggressively says that she’s doing fine and that she just wants to stay beside her husband. Robby tells Princess to accompany Nancy when Mark is taken for his CT scan. On that note, Robby and Baran go their separate ways, at least until the scans arrive. Their chemistry seems better at 9 AM than it was at 7 AM, that’s for sure. A few minutes later, Robby and Baran reconvene in the trauma room because Mark has returned from the CT. Before Robby can take a look at him, Nancy gets ahold of him and requests that he fix Mark, because she won’t be able to bear it if Mark’s last memory before dying is his argument with Nancy. Quarrels are inevitable in a marriage, or any kind of relationship for that matter, but when that’s followed by something totally accidental, it kind of puts things into perspective and makes you wonder if you should learn to deal with problems in a calm and composed manner. Death is always around the corner, and anything can be your last memory. Therefore, if you are educated and civilized enough to discuss things rationally, you should always do that. Going back to the plot, Samira learns that Mark’s issue is hypokalemic periodic paralysis, which is a rare condition caused by potassium getting shifted into one’s cells. Baran assures Nancy that now that they know what the problem is, they’ll be able to help Mark return to normalcy in a few hours.
Westbridge Has A Code Black
As Nancy, Joy, Robby, and Baran are discussing what triggers the rare disease that Mark has, his heart shuts down momentarily. Obviously, everyone acts quickly and manages to get his heart pumping again, though. Baran again informs Nancy that that’s a good sign, and that she has nothing to worry about. That said, as soon as Nancy notices that Mark is healthy enough to look at her, she faints. Robby starts checking for injuries and finds bruising around the area where her spleen is, which has evidently been caused by the accident. She was probably not feeling the pain because she was so anxious about her husband, but when she realized that her husband was okay, her body just gave up. Nancy’s situation is seemingly more critical than Mike’s, and she needs to be moved to the OR. Baran and Robby update Mark about this development, and he begins to feel the same kind of guilt that his wife was experiencing right before she passed out. Robby acknowledges the fact that the ER, and hospitals in general, is a place where people realize how fleeting life is, what they should prioritize, and what they should learn to ignore. In the ending of The Pitt Season 2 episode 3, Dana checks up on Mark, who requests her to record a message for Nancy, which she can watch when she comes out of surgery, as Mark probably won’t be able to meet her physically for the time being. Dana then returns to the hub, and just when Robby says that the ER is working smoothly, she gets a call saying that Westbridge has a Code Black and they have closed their doors to deal with an internal disaster.
This means that all the ambulance traffic will be diverted to the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. There’s no mention of how long it will take for Westbridge to fix things, or what the reason is behind this crisis. Baran theorizes that it’s possible that a bunch of doctors took an unannounced leave to celebrate Independence Day, and now our protagonists have to bear the consequences of their actions. Ahmad gets his betting board ready, because it’s going to get particularly chaotic there. By the way, a Code Black can also mean a bomb threat, and since it’s the 4th of July, it’s possible that somebody has decided to target hospitals to make some kind of a political statement. In the previous season, when there was an active shooter on the run, the people in the Pitt feared that they might enter the premises and riddle them with bullets. So, maybe the writers are going to echo that phase of dread and anxiety while raising the stakes. Whether or not Robby and his team will succeed in weathering this storm is the big question. Also, I’d like to remind everyone that Allen was shifted to Westbridge because of Robby and Hastings, even though McKay told them not to. Will that create some conflict between the three of them? We’ll have to wait till next week to find out.
