In The Pitt Season 2 Episode 4, Ahmad’s betting board began attracting many candidates, because everyone wanted to win some money by correctly predicting the reason why Westbridge had initiated Code Black. To make things more spicy, Santos began a bit of office politics as she began complaining about Baran’s strict charting rules to Robby, even though it’s possible that Robby’s relatively loose approach to handling his doctors was why Santos was repeating her second year of residency. Moving on to the patient-doctor interactions, we finally learned that the “Dr. J” that Willow kept talking about was Victoria, who managed to fix Willow’s glued-shut eye by cutting off her eyelashes completely. While Jackson was unconscious, his sister, Jada, tried to figure out what had happened to him by conversing with Victoria and Baran. Santos and Mel subtly got Phylicia to admit that she had an eating disorder called bulimia, so that they could work on her physical as well as psychological treatment. Whitaker rescued Samba from a posterior myocardial infarction, and then he went with Ogilvie to drain Louie’s gum. That was when we learned that Collins had moved to Portland to live closer to her family and bring up the baby she had adopted. Ogilvie was on a high, and he was using his superior intellect to look down his nose at Victoria and Joy, but he was properly reprimanded by Robby and Garcia for being oversmart while pulling out a shard of glass from Vince’s body. Orlando regained consciousness and immediately began protesting against being treated at the PTMC because the bills were too much, going so far as to scream at his own daughter for opening a GoFundMe page. McKay fixed Montrose’s coccyx and set up a date with Hancock. And the episode came to a close with Langdon and Donnie theorizing about whether Debbie had MRSA or something worse. What happened next? Let’s talk about episode 5 of The Pitt Season 2 to find out.
Spoiler Alert
Robby Deals With Debbie’s Boss
Langdon and Donnie transfer Debbie from Triage to one of the Trauma rooms so that her foot can be looked at by Robby. He straight-up says to Debbie that she isn’t going back to work any time soon, and tells Jesse to start running the initial tests so that they have an idea of what exactly they are dealing with. Langdon doesn’t exactly feel welcomed in the ER because of Robby’s cold-shoulder behavior, but he decides to stay with Debbie, as he feels that she is his responsibility. Dana asks Santos if she wants to get in on that foot action, but Santos passes, because she has to focus on her charting, which is interrupted by Whitaker. Just when she is about to get back to her logs, Dana interrupts her and tells her to go look at the old lady with Ogilvie. From Santos’ POV, that seems unfair, but as pointed out by Dana, the Pitt isn’t exactly witnessing a slow day; hence, Santos has to strike some kind of balance between charting and looking after the patients.
Going back to Debbie, Langdon and Robby give her the lowdown on everything that they are doing to see what’s causing the reaction on her foot, but they are forced to give her some space so that she can talk to her overbearing boss who’ll probably fire her for… getting sick. When Robby notices that Debbie’s boss is adding to the fear and anxiety that she’s already experiencing, he takes her phone, gives the boss an earful, hangs up, and advises Debbie to relax because, in that room, her health is everyone’s top priority. I have to say that, after COVID-19, I thought that people would become more empathetic towards each other, especially when it comes to health-related complications. But since we were so focused on exploiting each other throughout that phase and increasing the economic gap, these so-called leaders of the job market can only react to adversity with aggression. And in situations like that, you have no choice but to meet aggression with even more aggression.
Debbie Is Suffering From Severe Sepsis
The redness in Debbie’s foot continues to get worse and worse with each passing second. Since none of the signs point to SIRS or MRSA yet, Robby tells Langdon to monitor her very closely and notify him if anything goes sideways in the slightest. A few moments later, when Robby comes to check in on her, he observes that not only is the redness still spreading, but there’s a bulla—which is like a blister—forming in that red region. When the lactic acid results come in, Langdon and Robby realize that this is a case of severe sepsis, not cellulitis. Robby sees this as an excuse to dismiss Langdon and bring in Garcia, because he is still letting his personal feelings about Langdon inform his decisions instead of seeing that anybody else in Langdon’s position would have done the same thing that he did. When Dana spots that, she again advises Robby to bury the hatchet and move on, because Langdon is a changed man now. And we see proof of that when Ahmad asks if Langdon wants to enter the betting pool, and he decides to stay away from it because he is working on his addiction. Donnie doesn’t shy away from indulging his addiction, though, as he doubles down by claiming that a sinkhole has caused the Code Black in Westbridge. Ahmad reacts to it by saying that Donnie has been watching too many movies, and since Donnie doesn’t deny it, I think he has watched Kim Ji-hoon’s Sinkhole recently.
Going back to Debbie, the blister on her foot continues to increase in size, and Garcia still hasn’t arrived at the scene. As Robby is examining Debbie, her blood pressure begins to drop rapidly as a result of the infection. Jesse rushes to stabilize her, and Robby tells him that if the need arises, he shouldn’t hesitate to intubate her. Robby runs into Dana again, who gives him a proper earful this time for constantly trying to find excuses to sideline Langdon. That’s interrupted by Allen’s return to the Pitt. Yeah, his armpit was fixed in the PTMC, but due to some medical insurance-related complications, Hastings had him moved to Westbridge, but then Westbridge went into Code Black mode, and that’s why our man is back in the PTMC. Hence, Robby apologizes to Allen for the inconvenience and tells Dana to inform Hastings and ortho so that they begin performing surgery on Allen, something that they could have done a few hours ago if he was allowed to remain in the PTMC. With that out of the way, Robby returns to Debbie and absolutely loses his cool when surgery sends someone who was a med student two weeks ago instead of Garcia, and he orders the dude to bring her in ASAP because this is not the time for games. When Garcia arrives, she says that they need to do a CT before moving forward with an operation. However, Robby has just about had it, and he opens up Debbie’s foot with a scalpel to demonstrate what’s inside, thereby bypassing the need for a CT and forcing Garcia to take her straight to surgery.
Joy Helps the Diazes With Their Financial Woes
Lorrie reprimands Orlando for going off on their daughter for merely trying to help them with their financial situation. Orlando responds to that by saying that he’s simply going to leave, thereby saving everyone a lot of money. Samira tells Orlando that that’ll be unwise, because even though his blood sugar has stabilized again, the ketones are still in his bloodstream. She assures him that Pitt’s case manager, Hastings, will find a way to ensure that the Diazes don’t go completely bankrupt and Orlando gets the care that he needs. But to do that, Orlando has to stay in the ER. Lorrie signs off on that while Joy goes off to look for Ana, since she is nowhere to be seen after storming out of the room when Orlando yelled at her. Hastings arrives and says the same thing that she did to Samira in the previous episodes: the Diazes earn too much to apply for PENNIE or the hospital’s charity care, but they don’t earn enough to afford the health-care premiums. But Hastings assures them that this has happened so many times that they have some remedies for situations like these, starting with the PTMC’s financial assistance program, where the patient party will pay 60 percent of the cost and the hospital will handle the other 40 percent. Ana joins them while they are having this discussion, and Orlando immediately apologizes to her for scolding her even though she was just being thoughtful. However, right after that, he starts worrying that, despite the massive discount, a stay in the PTMC will be costly for them. So, Joy comes up with the idea of putting Orlando in the Medical-Surgery department instead of the ICU.
Samira argues that since Orlando has an insulin drip, Med-Surg won’t accept him, but Hastings says that she can try and find a loophole that’ll compel Med-Surg to give Orlando a spot. Since she’s down in the ER anyway, she has a chat with Robby because she doesn’t even want him to go on that biking trip, not because she is going to miss him, but because it’s too risky. That’s not enough to dissuade Robby, and he goes off to check on his patients; meanwhile, Hastings hangs back at the hub to engage in some gossip with Dana, which understandably scandalizes her. Eventually, they come to the conclusion that maybe Robby needs to do this in order to fight the demons inside his head. Hastings returns to Orlando to inform him and his doctors that Joy’s suggestion has worked and Med-Surg is willing to take him in as soon as possible. Which means that their hospital bill is going to get cut by two-thirds. Even after that, Orlando is a little skeptical about how much he needs to pay, but Hastings tells him that the hospital will work out a payment plan where he won’t need to cough up the entire amount in one go. Lorrie and Ana say that that’s manageable, and when Hastings notices that the Diazes are getting vulnerable, she nudges Samira and Joy to exit the room so they can have some private time. Once outside, Hastings congratulates Joy for thinking on her feet, and Samira apologizes for doubting Joy’s methods. This prompts Joy to talk a little about her backstory with her grandma, and how she and her family had to find all these loopholes to make sure that she got the best care possible without burning a hole in their wallet. I don’t know about Samira, but this completely changes the way we have been looking at Joy. So far, she has been coming off as a bit of a brat, but it’s apparent that she has seen a lot of hardship, and she is probably one of the most pragmatic people in that ER.
Jada Is Sad To Learn That Jackson Is Still Unconscious
Jada asks Baran and Victoria why it’s taking so much time for Jackson to regain consciousness, and Victoria tells her that since he has been given some very heavy sedatives, it’s a bit difficult to tell when he’ll wake up. Baran asks Jada about their parents, and she tells her that they are on their way back from Columbus. So, Baran advises Jada to go to the cafeteria, grab some food, and chill out for a bit. Jada doesn’t want to leave her brother’s side, and she wants to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the unwarranted attack on him by the campus security guard, but Baran insists that she take care of her mental well-being, because if she becomes weak, physically or psychologically, she won’t be of any help to her brother. Once Victoria assures Jada that she’ll give her a call as soon as Jackson’s lumbar puncture results arrive, Jada agrees to go to the cafeteria. Later on, it’s mentioned in passing that Jackson has regained consciousness, but we have to wait till next week to know more about him.
Mrs. Randolph Shoots Poop At Ogilvie
Santos and Ogilvie check on Mrs. Randolph’s bowel issues, and their initial conclusion is that they should do an X-ray of her abdomen so as to ensure that she isn’t suffering from sigmoid volvulus. Later on, Perlah informs Santos that Mrs. Randolph’s results are back, and while she doesn’t have any form of volvulus, she does have a lot of fecal material stuck in and around her rectum. An enema is out of the question, because it hasn’t worked before, which means that it has to be manually removed by digging into Mrs. Randolph’s butt (Santos’ words, not mine). Ogilvie tries to wiggle his way out of this mess by saying that he hasn’t done this before, which is why he should observe. Santos spots Whitaker and tells him to go to Ogilvie to teach him “how to do a disimpaction.” Is it a little unfair that Santos is getting back at Whitaker for nothing? Yes. Is it entertaining to watch Whitaker and Ogilvie (or as fans like to call him, evil Whitaker) deal with fecal matter? Also, yes.
It doesn’t take too long for Whitaker to figure out that he has been ambushed, but since he’s such a nice guy, he becomes the teacher that Ogilvie needs him to be and starts showing him the art of pulling poop out of a butt. By the time Ogilvie gets his hands dirty, Mrs. Randolph’s anus turns into a cannon and shoots out poop at the poor guy. The first season had a lot of bodily fluids and just fluids in general being unloaded on Whitaker. I have seen people complaining that Season 2 doesn’t have a lot of projectile fluid action. Well, there you go. Happy now? Anyway, Santos immediately goes back to charting, and when Baran notices that, she begins peddling her generative AI app again. Robby critiques the use of generative AI, because that’s a tool that’s actively destroying jobs that are done by humans. Baran assures him that she doesn’t want to take away anybody’s jobs; she just wants to embrace technology so that she can clock out faster and spend more time with her son—which, to be honest, is a fair stance.
McKay and Victoria Tackle a Cancer Patient with a Fracture
Roxie is a 42-year-old home hospice patient with a history of lung cancer who has suffered a tonic-clonic seizure and has pain in the right lower leg because she hit it on the coffee table while passing out. Her primary caregiver is her husband, Paul. McKay and Victoria take on the case and put her in one of the trauma rooms. Princess joins them and ensures that Roxie is as comfortable as possible while they are doing all the tests. As the meds begin to work their magic, Roxie joins the conversation between Paul, McKay, and Victoria regarding her cancer, the fact that it has spread to her bones despite the high-level treatment she has received, and how Paul is managing all this with very little help from medical experts. Seeing them apologize to each other, because Roxie probably thinks she is a burden on Paul while Paul thinks of himself as an irresponsible husband, did make me cry. While Victoria is explaining the nature of the fracture that Roxie has sustained, a woman called Lena barges in, and initially, it seems like she is a member of the family. But Lena clarifies that she is Roxie’s “death doula,” which is a profession that entails helping people like Roxie transition peacefully into the afterlife.
I thought that Lena was being a bit too overbearing, but the more Roxie and Paul talk about her, the more it becomes apparent that she has been a real guiding light for the Hamlers. When McKay and Victoria return to Roxie’s room after doing their rounds, they notice that her foot has been plastered up and she has been hooked up to her personal morphine dispenser. McKay says that while Roxie is free to go back home, she’ll need more care than she was already getting for that fracture to heal. Paul and Lena are obviously up for that, but you can see that guilty conscience creeping into Roxie’s mind as she begins to feel like a liability. She tries to counter that feeling by trying to go to the bathroom by herself instead of using a bedpan. However, as soon as she puts her legs down, she realizes that she isn’t up for this yet, and that it’s perfectly fine to take the help that she needs, that too from the people who are willing to give it to her out of the love in their hearts.
Baran, Mel, and Whitaker Deal With a Prisoner
Gus Varney is a 50-year-old criminal who has been assaulted pretty brutally in prison, leading to bruising almost all over his body, as well as laceration on his left arm. Whitaker, Baran, Samira, and Mel oversee this case, and Mel’s first question to Officer Nick Lorenzini is if the cuff on Varney’s wrist can be removed so that he can be looked after properly, but Nick says that that’s not possible because, well, he is a violent individual. So, they have no choice but to wheel him into one of the trauma rooms whilst he is chained to his stretcher. Once the tests are done and the doctors are about to start mending Varney, Whitaker tries to convince Lorenzini to stop cuffing him after every small move, but it seems like the officer is in no mood to listen to them, because he is a stickler for protocol. Hence, Whitaker resorts to some subtle verbal jabs to let Lorenzini know that his rules are making things difficult for the doctor. After dealing with fractures and some of the internal wounds, Mel and Whitaker try to close up the laceration on Varney’s arm, and they find it incredibly difficult to stitch it up, because the surgical thread keeps sliding through his skin like a hot knife through butter. Why? Because the nutritional value of the food that Varney gets in the prison is so bad, his skin resembles that of an 80-year-old.
Now, I’m sure that many will say that that’s the kind of food he deserves because why should the taxpayers’ money be wasted on literal criminals? To which I’d say that the taxpayers’ money is being misused by politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen in such mind-boggling ways that if you knew the truth about how the world spins, then you’d be okay with the government using your money to make the lives of regular criminals somewhat comfortable. In fact, you’ll demand that your money be spent on people like Varney if it means that it won’t go into the pockets of people who make the worst fictional villains look like the Teletubbies. Anyway, Baran advises Whitaker and Mel to use Steri-Strips with benzoin and suggests that they perform the stitching along each wound edge instead of in the criss-cross fashion. While Baran is saying all this, her Spidey senses tell her that Robby is observing her from afar; hence, she asks him if he wants to give his two cents on the matter. Robby has nothing to add; he just name-drops MacGyver, which is probably his way of complimenting Baran’s ability to adapt in sticky situations. With the stitching in place, Baran and Whitaker order a bunch of tests before Varney can be sent to surgery for the fracturing in his ribs and mandible.
Ogilvie Tackles A Tuberculosis Patient
Robby checks in on Santos, who is busy charting and supervising, and she informs him that she is currently handling Ogilvie, who is handling a patient with a bad cough. Ogilvie tries his best to be cordial and warm with his patient, but since those attributes don’t come naturally to him, he rubs her the wrong way. Anyway, Ogilvie informs her that her tests have come back negative for COVID and influenza, but he’s going to order a chest X-ray to get a good idea of what’s going on in her lungs. Santos takes one look at that X-ray and says that the woman has active TB. So, in addition to the extra tests and medication that the woman has to undergo, they have to alert infection control and public health. Since Ogilvie has been handling the woman, he himself has to be treated as a patient as well, just to make sure that he hasn’t contracted TB. Also, he is advised to wear a mask so that he doesn’t make things worse for himself and others.
A few minutes later, Ogilvie informs Santos that he has moved the TB patient to isolation for verified medication administration, and that they have started RIPE therapy too—which is a TB treatment regimen that involves rifampin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. Next steps involve informing a social worker, so that they can commence contact tracing to identify all the people that their patient has come in contact with, and reminding infection control to check on all the people in the waiting room, in case they have caught TB while sitting near the patient. All of this understandably causes Ogilvie to tense up, which is why Santos tells him to calm down and take off his mask, because his chances of having TB are slim to none. In addition to that, Santos gives him and us a little tidbit about how many doctors contract TB during their careers, which is pretty startling and underscores the fact that the health sector is no walk in the park.
Langdon Treats Alex’s Dry Ice Burn
Langdon and Perlah take a look at Alex, who has burned himself with dry ice. Alex clarifies that it’s not an accident. He actually asked his brother to brand him by sticking the branding iron (which had the family crest on it) in dry ice instead of fire and then putting it on his chest. Alex claims that he had pulled it off successfully when he did that to his brother, but his brother somehow messed it up. Either way, Langdon has to go and get some scissors to clear up all the dead skin around the wound. That’s when he encounters Baran, who checks in on him to see how he’s holding up; Langdon assures her that he is doing alright. However, he does bring up the fact that Robby isn’t all that happy to have him in the ER. Baran blatantly states that Robby won’t be around for the upcoming few months; she will. She needs Langdon’s expertise on that floor while Robby goes around biking. And if she thinks Langdon is an essential member of the hospital, then that’s all that matters.
Langdon then returns to Alex and starts clearing up the wounded area. Hilariously enough, that’s when Donnie brings in Alex’s brother, Aaron. He tries to pacify Alex by saying that the wound doesn’t look all that bad, but eventually he is forced to admit that it does look absolutely horrible. To add insult to injury, Aaron even offers to show videographic proof of the incident, and the enthusiasm with which Langdon and Donnie accept that offer had me chuckling. What makes the whole thing funnier is that this family crest in question isn’t even a family crest; it’s the logo for the Pittsburgh Penguins! Alex says that they would have been bonded for life if this crest maneuver had gone off successfully; Langdon says that that’s pointless, because they are already bonded for life, by blood. When Alex notices that Aaron is feeling pretty sad about what he has done, he assures his brother that he’ll heal pretty soon. Aaron’s major takeaway from that is that they can try the dry ice branding in a couple of months again, which prompts Langdon and Donnie to loudly shut down any plans that involve branding irons or dry ice.
Louie Is Probably Dead
Langdon checks in on Louie and notices that his hand is shaking pretty violently. He tells Perlah to order the required meds, but since Whitaker enters the room, he takes on the job of making the order while Perlah takes off to acquire the meds from PDS. This leads to an awkward moment, and my initial reading on it was that this was a case of accidental classism displayed by Whitaker, as he didn’t allow Perlah to do her job, and instead forced her to deliver the meds. But, as explained by Whitaker later on, this move of his made it seem like he was preventing Langdon from getting his hands on the Librium because of his benzo addiction. Maybe it was an instinctive reaction from Whitaker, maybe he was just doing his job as Louie’s assigned physician, or maybe he wasn’t mindful enough about Langdon’s feelings; either way, this little moment feels like rubbing chili powder into Langdon’s wounds, and Langdon makes sure that Whitaker knows what he has done. Back at the hub, Robby catches up with Baran and Santos regarding all the patients their doctors have dealt with in the past hour or so. Dana spots Allen almost helping himself to some beer that’s been smuggled into the ER by Allen’s well-wisher, Kaison, and she confiscates the icebox. That’s because Allen can’t have any food, and he certainly can’t have any alcoholic beverages before surgery. Robby doesn’t have any such restrictions, which is why he nicks a beer that he intends to give to Louie as a parting gift.
In the ending of The Pitt Season 2 episode 5, Langdon hears a loud beeping noise coming out of Louie’s room, and he assumes that he has accidentally removed his pulse oximeter for the umpteenth time. However, he is shocked to see that Louie has actually lost consciousness. Robby arrives there at the same time, and he joins Langdon in his efforts to resuscitate Louie, but it seems like Louie is unresponsive. As I have mentioned in the recaps for the previous episodes, Louie’s gum issue and his inflated stomach seem like precursors for some other underlying problems that have gone unnoticed. Given how Louie is a regular in the PTMC, everyone probably thought that he was going to bounce back from this as well. That said, I think he is a goner, and it’s going to impact Whitaker and Ogilvie the most, because they were in charge of doing all his tests. Yes, Langdon and Robby will be heartbroken over the fact that they couldn’t revive Louie. But if Whitaker and Ogilvie have missed something that’s been staring them right in the face, the next few hours of this shift as well as the rest of their careers are going to be painful. Well, those are just my thoughts on this episode. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
