‘The Pitt’ season 2, episode 2 recap: meet Robby’s NSA girlfriend
Robby has a secret girlfriend in the ER; Al-Hashimi's AI crusade; maggots in the house; Whitaker's fifty first deaths. It's all in a day's work at the Pitt
By 
This recap contains spoilers for The Pitt season 2, episode 2.
ATTENTION ALL STUDENT DOCTORS, it is now time to clock in for The Pitt season two. It’s “8:00 A.M.” and still the early hours (or weeks, rather, for us watching at home) on the Fourth of July, a day that’ll surely deluge PTMC with bloody cases caused by fireworks. (Fire cracker to the face, anyone?) Comparatively, this week’s episode is smooth sailing, planting the seeds for pyrotechnic tensions between our residents and attendings.
First up, Dr Al-Hashimi is still caught off guard by the baby Jane Doe that was left in the toilet stall. King’s supposed love-interest this season turns out to be a fugitive (our girl, Melpractice, can’t have anything nice to take her mind off her deposition). Dr Santos suspects she has another child abuse case on her hands. Langdon is in triage excile. Javadi is turning 21 and our Ate Nurses (Tagalog for sister; pronounced ah-teh), Princess and Perlah, are planning a big bash. And lot’s more happening, which we will recap below.
Whitaker’s fifty first deaths
If the Pitt were a restaurant, Louie Cloverfield would be a regular diner. He spends so much time in the ER to get his bloated stomach drained, caused by chronic his alcohol consumption, that he knows the correct procedures before Whitaker can say to aiding student doctors Kwon and Ogilvie. Today: they’re draining potentially six litres of his “high-octane premium”, which makes Kwon grimace. Later, Louie’s toothache persists, a cyst-looking bulb on his gum line ready for draining. He’s in good hands.
In another room, the widow of Whitaker’s patient who died last episode has arrived. Breaking news of deceased loved ones is something Huckleberry is still working on since last season after the death of that farmer. Though the widow is a unique case: she might have Alzheimer’s. He’s had to break the news twice now; as this dawns on him, Whitaker approaches it differently, sort of like Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates. In the end, he shows rather than tells as he brings her by the arm to the viewing room.
King’s bad boy
Dr King’s favourite thing to do outside of work? Slurping on a big ‘ol cup of boba. It seemed last episode that Dr King – who steadfastly takes care of her autistic sister when she’s off-duty – might have a relationship brewing with a patient. But as she’s patching up Mr Boba, he darts out at the sight of two cops looking for him, knocking King backwards off her stool. Turns out, he’s wanted for robbing a liquor store the night before and supposedly hiding out in the ER. I’d hate to think he was flirting with her as a cover. So, if he returns later on, this will be a bad boy ‘ship worth watching.
For a good hour in Pitt time, he took King’s mind off her deposition happening after her shift. Naturally, our usually attentive doctor has been out of it, and Robby catches on. He tells her that the doctor is always right nine times out of ten; he’s been named in countless lawsuits. Dr Al? Zilch. Not instilling much confidence, but she’s there for King if she needs a chat.
White boy knows Farsi
Kudos to Ogilvie for learning Farsi. The awkward student doctor supposedly learned enough of the language to “break the ice” while studying at UCLA where most of his friends are Persian. If Al-Hashimi leaves when Robby returns from his sabbatical, she’ll be taking Ogilvie to the VA, I hope. Hilariously, this makes Javadi and Kwon squirm at the white boy speaking a non-English language.
Between the two student doctors, Ogilvie has been the most proactive; Kwon couldn’t care for much, but he’s sure making Javadi’s place feel threatened. Indeed, she’s found her main foe, these two Hermione Granger types. Dr Santos only makes her feel more insecure when she reveals he’s from out of state, which gives him a survivalist edge as he vies for a spot at a hospital in Pittsburgh.
Dr J
Also, I suspect Dr Javadi might be dabbling in another career as a medical influencer on TikTok. I say this because Dr Langdon is attending to a patient who super glued her eyelash extension on, sealing her left eyelid in the process. He’s hard to nail the right procedure (men), so she asks to see a “Dr J”, who apparently works there. Langdon has no clue who she’s talking about. But after how Javadi bonded with the cosmetic patient from last season, maybe she took to social media as a calling.
On another eye-related case, Javadi and Mohan are dealing with a nun with gonorrhea in her eye, which Santos quips as an “immaculate infection”. Stunning work. Turns out she hasn’t been wearing gloves when she cleans and sorts through dirty laundry and sheets at her mission.
“Okay, big girl”
On the red carpet at the season premiere, Noah Wyle teased at a new love-interest (Dr Collins to yet to be seen) for Dr Robby this season, one that’s “very NSA”. It’s nurse Noelle Hastings, who arrives in the ER wearing a Balmain-esque double-breasted power blazer and high-ponytail ready to help transfer patients and insurance cases. Dr McKay naturally catches on. The relationship might be a few months old by this point, but remains totally NSA. Hastings seems like she’ll miss Robby on his sabbatical, telling by the longing glances they share (clocked by Dana). But she’s a big girl, she can handle it.
Maggots in the Pitt
The wee young’uns from season one have grown into their confidence; Javadi has shed the comic relief mantle. That now falls on our new student nurse, Emma, who’s shadowing Dana around the Pitt, learning things she wouldn’t otherwise from her textbook. First up is treating the homeless man who wandered in last episode, who’s putrid smell pushed him to the front of the line after other patients in the waiting room where complaining. His ailment? An itching cast that’s been on longer than needed.
Breathing through their mouths, Dr Mohan cuts it open, revealing a grumble of maggots that have made their nest inside the cast. Unlike Javadi (and certainly unlike this recapper), Emma didn’t faint at the sight; though she steps away as Dana hands her a vomit bag.
Al-Hashimi’s AI crusade
One of Al-Hashimi’s main initiative’s she’d like to implement during Robby’s sabbatical is the use of AI in the Pitt. Not a bad idea as she recommends for the young doctors to use the AI dictation software when filling out patient reports to save on time writing at a desk when they could instead be saving lives. Robby and Langdon are sceptical of it; she urges everyone proofreads their reports with all the Harry Potter sounding Latin jargon and medication names.
As for the baby Jane Doe, we ended last episode with Al-Hashimi being quite affected by it. Maybe a child-related trauma? Like Robby, this squeky clean attending has some baggage that needs to be unloaded – all in due course as the season progresses.
Related:
