It's a Health Habit - The Pitt s02e14

About halfway through this episode, my partner pointed out that while Robby has been talking about leaving all day, at no point has anyone told him not to leave.

While so much of the season has been about obscuring Robby's mental state, it's here, finally, that the show has sledgehammered enough of this wall that the sunlight on the other side shines through. Only took thirteen hours.

Two episodes ago, the veneer of subtext came down enough for everyone to cut through the bullshit and have some honest conversations. Now we're at the point where the show more or less backgrounds the ensemble to give Robby that last push before whatever promised end is next episode. To do that, the show not only puts Noah Wyle in front of the camera emoting, but also uses his radial artery as an inkwell, using that for the medium of him quilling his emotions onto the page in his own blood.

System limitations

The biggest mistake Robby makes in this episode is blurting out "he should have found a higher place to jump from". It's a tasteless comment in any context, but much like Ogilvie's idea of sending Howard Knox to the zoo for a CT scan, it coming after a day like this with so many warning signs of Robby's suicidal ideation feels especially dark.

Caleb the psychiatrist overhearing is a slight wrinkle in Robby's attempts to escape without incident. But Robby is smart enough and has been around psychiatrists long enough to know what to say or not say to trigger their mental health action obligations. He's danced around Caleb in every interaction, giving the man just enough that he can't push farther but not nearly enough so that he intercedes.

Really, this is the great danger. When those who need help know how to game the system, it makes it extremely hard to use the system to help that person. Codification delineates boundaries defining what people do and do not cross when they act. But any line has a liminal space where the gray zone lies. For all that these can help mental health workers like Caleb help vast swaths of the population, it means that others can slip between the cracks if they know exactly where the line is. It's like that law for banks where any deposit over $10,000 triggers an automatic report to the government. But consistently making smaller deposits into accounts is not necessarily a red flag even if it's happening with semi-regularity, (which was a plot point in the movie Sicario).

This ties Caleb's hands. As a friend and co-worker of Robby's he sees a lot a lot of smoke, but without the flicker he can't break down the door to put out the fire he knows is inside. The best he can do is call Robby on the comment he overhears, see if it triggers anything suspicious beyond an apology (which he knows it won't), and then hope that the chances of improvement come from the road rather than the pressure cooker of running a busy and overworked trauma department. So basically, get the promise Robby will call him if things get bad (as he suspects they will), and hope for the best.

It's a dire situation, but it's hard to catch Hannibal if he's a chicken in a hen house.

Lifeline to the outside world

While the professional world will not save a man who doesn't want saving, it's not like Robby's personal life has much going on as well. Everyone else has stuff in their lives outside. Mohan's mother is stressing her out. Dr. J has her TikToks. Mel has her sister. Santos, Garcia. Whitaker, the farm/Amy. Langdon has his family and his marriage. Even Cassie is starting to get out there to start dating again now that her job has settled into a regular routine.

Given its format, all of that is not stuff the show has the capacity to explore thoroughly. But we've heard about all of these many times over the course of the day. Some (like Becca's UTI) have even permeated the forcefield Robby told Mohan to erect. Everyone is struggling, but there is a balance everyone else can find balancing their personal with their professional.

For Robby, this isn't possible. At work, he has colleagues, not friends. He was close with Langdon last season, but then there was the betrayal. He was close with Collins, who (though he was her superior) treated him like a peer and wasn't afraid to call him on his shit... but she's gone. He talks to Dana, but that's within the context of work. Even trying to move outside the walls of the hospital they discuss the aftermath of Doug Driscoll assaulting her last season. Part of the reason their conversation at the end of last episode shakes Dana so deeply in this one is because Robby does not show her any warmth that should come from a close friend. She's being straight with him. That's what friends do. But he gives her near hostility. In talking to Abbot, her bereftness comes from seeing her dear friend in pain and recognizing that nothing she says or do will make a difference. It's as though their relationship doesn't matter.

Duke is the antidote to that. Duke is the one thing that has pierced the bubble of Robby's outside life all season. Robby is more comfortable around Duke than anything. Hell, Langdon speaks to Whitaker with more enthusiasm about Robby's pad than Robby did himself.

While Jeff Kober is an actor who immediately clicked for me, his capacity to build empathy, warmth, and compassion within the character of Duke is bottomless. Like Caleb, Duke doesn't tell Robby not to go, but he does force the doubts on Robby. Why is he going? What is he feeling? "Death can't be changed." "That ain't riding. That's runnin'."

All of this is excellent character work, and while it supports the complaint that this season is too Robby-top heavy (despite the fact that everyone in the ensemble has gotten great stuff throughout), it speaks to the show's larger themes of strict procedure not being the answer for anything. There need to be custom solutions to problems, and needling in on something specific can make for more progress than the codification of a broad safety net.

What he leaves behind...

On the podcast about this week's episode, its director (Uta Briesewitz) spoke about her process, how she (like other directors) keeps very in tune with the actors and their capacity at any given moment. Do they want to warm up to the big emotion, do they want to fire it off early....? When talking to Wyle about shooting this episode and its intense emotional burdens, he told her "you can shoot me right away, there's a lot where this is coming from."

When The Pitt started, it created an immediate metatext for itself. It's a network show in prestige drama couture, yes, but... this it's also about ER.

When ER started, Noah Wyle's John Carter was a day-one character. He was a medical student who was learning emergency medicine and selecting a specialty for his career. He was the young guy on the staff, all fresh-faced and clean shaven and boyishly handsome. It's strange to watch now, especially considering Wyle has so dialed into the role of Doctor Michael Robinavitch. Before he's even opened his mouth, the wardrobe he wears, the beard on his face, the bags under his eyes... they all show the wear and tear of the thirty years since the man got his big break.

Wyle stayed on ER for eleven years. Despite starting as the young buck, by the time he left he had seen the departure of 12 other main characters. Some of those started and left during his tenure. And on his way out the door two other leads left when he did.

The story of ER isn't quite the story of John Carter, but the dude was on the show for the entire length of Cheers. Based on discussions other people, the show runs out of things for Carter to do long before his departure. A dear friend of mine started ER in the wake of watching The Pitt and said that by season six the Carter storylines were running thin. Nevermind that she was only halfway through his tenure at that point.

It's not his fault for staying on ER. Hell. I don't blame him. That sort of job stability is tremendously valuable to a young actor. But that sort of run can define a career. He's been a working actor in the two decades since leaving the show, and has even had major roles on cable shows like Falling Skies, The Librarians, and Leverage: Redemption. But nothing has reached the relative heights of ER, a show for which he shared in four straight Emmy wins as a part of the ensemble.

That would be his legacy.

It still might.

Now, though, Wyle's career is a different story.

The Pitt is something new, different, and massive. Mass popularity like ER's is not possible today, but The Pitt comes as close to that in this media environment as any show could. Television lovers watch it and its created a massive fanbase in the last 16 months. Even doctors watch and love it.

Unlike for ER, Wyle won an Emmy for his performance in The Pitt's first season. He has a very good chance of winning here too. The show's popularity exploded between seasons (to the detriment of its online discourse). It's still ascending. Who knows how many seasons it will take to reach critical mass.

But that creates a possible challenge for Wyle. He clearly loves his job, but when I look at the dude who got his career off a high-profile, massively popular medical drama and then didn't leave for eleven seasons what I see is a dude who was scared to leave. Now he's back doing the thing everyone knows him for. To the untrained eye, it looks like a retreat, like a guy who is trying to relive his glory days.

While The Pitt is its own animal, this entire season has been about a guy who only knows how to do one thing. And it's eating him alive.

Robby: I don't know if I wanna be here anymore.
Duke: I don't know how you stand 12 minutes in there, let alone 12 hours, 20 years.
Robby: No. That's the only place I can be. I have purpose in there. I can be distracted in there. I don't know that I wanna be... anywhere anymore.
Duke: So what's the plan?
Robby: Ride.
Duke: Toward what?
Robby: I don't know.
Duke: Away from what?
Robby: Everything.
Duke: Well, that's not riding. That's running. Is that your final lesson for these kids?

Noah Wyle is so good on The Pitt not just because he's a great actor. He's great because he has tremendous experience doing a show like this. Before production on the first season started, there was talk about the speech Wyle gave to the cast, about what the show would mean, how it could change their lives, what it could be. That they were at the start of some grand adventure that would run for however long and probably be one of the definitional monuments of their career. It was the speech he wished he'd have gotten on day one. At least it could have prepared him for whatever life threw at him in the 30 years since cameras started rolling on the Michael Crichton-penned Pilot.

Now, he is the one passing down the lessons to the next generation. Everyone is younger, but still outrageously good from top to bottom. There's not a weak link in the chain. Even the more initially-annoying characters like Ogilvie or the slow burn ones like Dr. Al have proven to be rich canvases upon which the show can paint greatness.

Of course Robby has doubts. Of course Wyle thinks he's hitting the end of his line. Robby is still here. Wyle is still doing this. And wouldn't it be so nice to just ride out to the horizon and never look back. If nothing else, the dude has eleven plus seasons of ER residuals to live off for the rest of his life. He never has to work again.

But the balance is missing. No one is telling Robby/Wyle to not go on vacation. They're just trying to get him to a place where he can continue to be the genius facilitator everyone knows him to be. Because like him, everyone knows that this is the place where he belongs.

So what would it take for Robby to get on the path of self-acceptance and healing?

The previews for the finale feature an interaction where Langdon talks about the people in rehab and how they're not better but at least admitting problems and on the road to recovery. This mirrors Patrick Ball's own comments in a behind-the-scenes featurette from a few episodes ago, where he talks about Langdon as someone who faced his demons and came out the other side. Robby is jealous of Langdon being able to start the journey of healing while Robby is still stuck stalled out behind the starting line.

Like everyone else, Langdon has had a bad day. This being his first day back in ten months makes him shaky. Robby has avoided him, and after Langdon tried to clear the air, Robby slammed him with comments and tests designed to kneecap his confidence. Last episode was a breaking point, where Langdon crumpled after almost attempting to intubate (and thusly almost assuredly killing) an asthmatic child. Between that, Robby's tests, Santos not accepting his apology, Dr. Al abruptly avoiding him, and saving a child suffering from heatstroke, it makes sense that he's on edge.

This episode is the first time I legitimately worried that Langdon was going to fall back into drug use, or that he secretly might have already. The way he talked about his back hurting, or the way that he popped aspirin in front of Whitaker. It felt like all of it was hitting a breaking point. For all the progress of the last ten months were, all it takes is one moment of weakness to relapse and reset the clock.

But... anxious as he is for being late turning in his urine sample, there's a confidence and responsibility and eagerness at keeping on the straight and narrow. The drug tests were one of Robby's conditions for his return. Langdon does his happily. In all the ways that matter, he is walking the walk.

All of Langdon's anxiety uncoils the moment he manages to realign accident victim Lyman Paine's neck. Sometimes this show has moments that are truly harrowing, and while this wasn't quite the visceral terror of Dr. Al's slash trach, the physical acting of Noah Wyle, Patrick Ball, Eugene Byrd, and Luke Tennie really sold the tension of the procedure. The joy and elation of the strained "my legs are starting to tingle" sell just how miraculous it is what Langdon achieves.

While Langdon's momentary euphoria (before the drug test reminder interrupts him) is the most powerful moment of the sequence, the second most is Robby's reaction to the successful procedure. Langdon was always a hell of a doctor, and the addiction skewed perceptions such that Robby felt he didn't know the man after thinking so highly of him. Now, he can barely choke out a "great job" before having to leave because this has made him so emotional.

More than that, Robby could not have done this procedure. He lacked the experience of even having seen it done before. That's exactly the same as what happened with the slash trach. Only Dr. Al's presence saved that boy's life. What did Robby do today? His big maverick move was slicing open the necrotizing fasciitis infection to prove to Garcia that they needed to get that patient into surgery immediately. That was far more grotesque and angry, far less elegant and wonderful than the procedures from Langdon or Dr. Al.

There is no problem with this. Accepting one's limitations is a necessity for self-actualization. It's not that Langdon threatens Robby for being such a good doctor. Langdon threatens Robby because Langdon had a major issue that was far bigger and flashier than Robby's and the younger man did the initial hard work, came out the other side, and is on the path towards healing and a more satisfying life.

And it's why the cliffhanger is such a huge deal. It's not us learning "what's up with Dr. Al" after it's threaded the entire season. It's that Dr. Al met Robby not 14 hours ago and she's letting him in on the major medical diagnosis of her life. Sharing with him one of her deepest and most private vulnerabilities in the name of transparency and trust-building. Her peace offering is to let him know that even with her seeming limitations, he is leaving the department in good hands. She is telling him that after his return they can be the incredible team they've been all day, and that he doesn't have to be alone.

Meanwhile, Robby's been working with some of these co-workers for years, and he has still been less open with them than she is with him right now.

For Robby/Noah Wyle, The Pitt is about taking the isolation and loneliness that comes from knowing one's definitive purpose and transforming it into a sense of acceptance and strength. It is about understanding that this, finally, truly, unequivocally is absolutely where he belongs.

Meanwhile, around the trauma center...

• While Robby is barely handling the management of being the only attending on the madcap day shift, the interplay between Shen and Abbot as joint attendings ("man to man or zone?") shows just what's possible with teamwork. I'm sure they have their own problems (and I would love for The Pitt: Nights to happen), but it's so, so different from what's happening elsewhere.
• Whitaker's missing badge is a really odd problem to come up in the penultimate episode. Already there's tons and tons of theories online about what it means or why they're doing this or who might have nicked it. It is, though, one of those things we'll just have to figure out int he finale.
• Seeing the sunburn patient again was a jump scare, but the best was seeing her sit up from the hospital bed and noticing that her entire back is as alabaster as her skin normally is. This isn't surprising, but it's a great attention to detail.
• God I can't wait for Ellis to come in next season. The casual way she talks to Langdon is fabulous: "he's not mad at you, he's mad at himself for failing you" reveals a lot, but the "white knight, white noise" line absolutely got me.
• I do draw the line at Robby going after Dr. J for TikToks "on the clock". Thank god Cassie came in and set him straight about not only what she was doing, but the value that comes from her dispensing solid medical advice into the oceanous wasteland of vertical video.
• While this shift is over, I wasn't expecting to see people leave early like this. Joy two episodes ago, Ogilvie last week, and now Donnie and Emma are out. Ugh. Such a bummer.
• To speak briefly about Abbot, the scene where Dana begs him to talk to Robby is incredible not just because Katherine LaNasa is as good as ever, but because watching his face change as she tells him what he has to do is just exquisite acting. Passing through the stages of grief and acceptance all on Shawn Hatosy's face is one of the great joys about watching him on this show.
• I've seen teamsters parallel park massive trucks into compact spaces better than most people could parallel park with lots of space to maneuver. So... it's wild to watch the ambulance smash the bikes like it does. "I thought I cleared it!" Really dude? Maybe learn to drive better. Considering EMTs drive ambulances all day this is maybe the most unbelievable moment in the history of the show?
• My partner loved the Rolling Rock shoutout. More, Langdon saying "Rolling Rock. Nice," got a huge fist pump.
• American flag stabbing through a dude's heart is a great image, but also pointed in a season where ICE agents scared swaths of both patients and hospital staff out of the hospital.
• Kobel is so good in the conversation with Robby in the ambulance bay, but getting the news, diagnosis, and treatment plan in his hospital room is something else. He's asking all the right questions and trying to figure out if there's any way to avoid this aortic aneurysm. 50% chance of death within 12 months vs a 1-2% chance of dying on the operating table and then 3-6 months of recovery. "Quite the coin flip" is a hell of a sentiment. But "what would I feel if it ruptured" says so much about his state of mind.
  • Man we need to destigmatize medicine and healthcare.
• The guy who wants the flag pulled out is even funnier than normal. It's like the moment earlier in the season when Ogilvie tried to pull out the shard of glass and caused a massive bleeding complication.
• The lateral STEMI on the big breasted woman is utterly terrifying, but there's so much value in talking about how healthcare workers being precious with their own sensitivities is to the detriment of serving actual care to those who need. The way every woman raises their hand because they know what Robby's talking about when he polls them says so much about how the universality of this situation.
• And while Robby might be over the line for the public shaming (especially after slamming Mohan in front of other doctors), it didn't seem to bother anyone else. Hell, Santos saying "agreed" just solidifies her place as the one in the department most simpatico with Robby and his methods.
• Everything with Mrs. Clymer was amazing. Being so dottering and helpless only to cost Whitaker $250 and a ding against his Lyft account for spouting racist nonsense and then vomiting in the back of the car? Hilarious.
• If there's a part of this episode I didn't super like, it's the scene with Whitaker and Langdon in the lounge. The idea of Whitaker really trying to set him straight is a good one, but going as deep as they did into Gilligan's Island felt like broad, abstract culture debate (like a less insular Kevin Smith script). My guess is Wyle loved writing it and Gemmill liked it so much that it stayed in. But it still felt... so weird.
• Mel's favorite school trip was Colonial Williamsburg? God I love her.
• Next time I go through this season I'm gonna do a check on every time someone rolled through this shift with some ominous portent of what would happen if Robby hit the road tonight. Lyman Paine's car crash because he possibly fell asleep at the wheel goes onto the list. The entire show is haunting Robby to tell him not to get on his bike at the end of the shift.
• "Hard place to leave, harder place to stay."
• "Doctor the fuck up" is a terrific line, but also see above about the metatext of everything between Robby and Langdon.
• And... god. Sepideh Moafi is so good when she calls Robby in for a read of her medical chart. Ugh. I've loved her from day one, but if she's done after this season I'm going to lose my mind that the show let a character/actor this good get away.
• Gross-out moment of the week: Delightful as it is to see members of the Hansen family back again after their stop in triage early in the shift, that tug of war rope literally tearing through Sloan Hansen's hand is absolutely terrifying. The rope still dangling? It probably grating on bone? Eugh. I'd always heard (and accepted) that Tug of War is a game where you shouldn't mess with the rope, but seeing it for real like this? Nightmare fuel.

Next Time...

The best thing about these trailers is that they're like "One! Hour! Left!" and it's just people talking about stuff. It's so, so different from the Pittfest shooting last season where everyone was at their limit and there was blood everywhere. That's still emotionally happening, but it's different.

Anyways... Langdon and Robby gonna finally really talk about stuff I guess. And Robby's still gonna be a dick to Dr. Al. And... also a childbirth is gonna happen. Will we resolve Baby Jane Doe? There's so much to do. The mind boggles.

We'll find out soon!