In The Pitt Season 2 episode 13, it was revealed that Orlando had tried to die by suicide after escaping from the ER, because he supposedly felt that he had become a burden on his family. Since he didn’t die, he became an even bigger liability for his family, and he also traumatized Samira because she felt that she hadn’t tried hard enough to keep him in the ER. The whereabouts of Jesse, who had been arrested by ICE, were a big question mark and it dawned on his colleagues that they wouldn’t be getting an update on him until the end of the long weekend. Emma and Dana cleaned up Digby and sent him home because, yes, he had a home, and he also had a daughter who most likely loved and was waiting for her dad to come back. Green died in the OR, which deeply affected Ogilvie, so much so that he crashed out in the ambulance bay. Whitaker gave him a pep-talk and sent him on his way home, hoping that he’d find the courage to re-enter the ER the following day. Santos gave turmeric fans a much-needed wake-up call, because that spice is not a good substitute for every kind of medicine. Langdon almost killed an asthmatic kid because he kept trying to intubate him, which made him wonder if Robby was right about him not being fit for the ER. And Dana and Robby had a full-blown verbal battle where the latter admitted that he was indeed suicidal and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to return from his sabbatical alive. What happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Drama At The Hub
After his suicide confession to Dana, Robby returns to the hub to tell the day shift that they can’t leave until all the charts have been digitized. Santos seems to be the only one manning (womanning?) the scanning station, and when Whitaker comes to join her, he finds out that he has lost his ID card; if he doesn’t find his ID card, he won’t be able to log into any system, and if he can’t log into any system, he won’t be able to partake in the digitization process. So, Whitaker decides to spend the rest of the shift looking for his ID card, and Santos seemingly drops a Clue reference (Colonel Mustard was a character in that film). McKay is seen taking care of the reddest patient in the whole ER; it’s nothing serious, she just needs to take cool baths and apply aloe vera to all the sunburnt areas of her body (which means everywhere). As soon as McKay’s done with her, Robby puts her on chart-scanning duty. Robby then catches a hold of Victoria and accuses her of filming TikToks on the clock. Every time Victoria tries to get a word in that she’s doing what she’s doing because she’s worried about Jesse, Robby keeps cutting her off. Eventually, Victoria has no choice but to get snarky and state that the circumstances that she’s working in are pretty extreme and Robby’s “old school” method of dealing with work-related stress isn’t practical. That finally gets Robby to shut up.
I’d also like to point out the fact that Victoria’s shift had ended 2 hours ago; so, it’s not okay to prevent her from doing non-work-related stuff during her working hours. I think it’s because of this exchange with Victoria that Robby doesn’t stop Donnie from leaving. At the hub, Monica clocks out and, right before leaving, she gives Dana a pat on her back and advises her to “keep at it,” because she is what all the new nurses need. Although Monica doesn’t notice the effect her words have had on Dana, Abbot does and he asks her what’s worrying her. Dana tells Abbot about her exchange with Robby, and she requests that he knock some sense into Robby before he leaves; if he doesn’t, there’s a good chance that this is the first and last sabbatical Robby’s going to take. McKay gets to Robby and reprimands him for treating Victoria too harshly when she is doing wonders for the world of medicine by wielding the power of social media. Speaking of Victoria, she meets up with Lupe’s replacement and, as she’s complimenting her food, two of the Hansens return, and Victoria and Mateo wheel Sloan Hansen into the ER. After doing some of the initial prep, the case is handed over to Shen.
Going back to Whitaker, he takes a break from searching for his ID card to help an elderly woman, Mrs. Clymer, who has been discharged but doesn’t know how to get back home. Whitaker orders a Lyft cab for Clymer, and says that he’ll foot the bill, in the hopes that it’d help him earn some good karma and reunite him with his ID card. He then unloads some of his frustration about not finding the card on Langdon as he accuses him of treating him as his “little buddy” and not his equal. Langdon apologizes for coming off as a bully, even though that wasn’t his intention, but when Whitaker tries to apologize for retorting too harshly, Langdon tells him to never apologize for standing his ground. And then there are some people (Langdon haters, which includes Santos and Baran) who claim that Langdon isn’t a changed person and he’s faking it; yeah, sure. Anyway, Whitaker learns that his act of gaining “good karma” has properly backfired, because Clymer was a racist woman and her behavior with the driver has cost him a surcharge of $250, along with an official complaint against him. It’s hilarious, but I hope that it doesn’t turn Whitaker into a bad guy; I hope he keeps doing good deeds, even if it costs him his entire month’s salary.
Robby Gives Samira Some Bad Advice
Dana goes to the trauma room that Orlando and Lorrie are in, and she informs Samira that they have an ICU bed ready for her patient. Samira is incredibly depressed, but she tells Dana that she’s going to prep Orlando for transfer ASAP. I don’t know if this is the right moment to address the elephant in the room, but maybe I should. Yeah, I am bummed that Samira (played so brilliantly by Supriya Ganesh) won’t be returning next season. This is the penultimate episode. I don’t know how her arc is going to be concluded. I understand that Samira’s story has been written in such a way that her exit from the show doesn’t seem odd. She is thinking about moving back to New Jersey to be with her mother, and at the same time, she’s looking for electives at the PTMC (Robby and Baran, both have nudged her in the direction of elderly care). Hence, she has a choice, and based on the revelation that she won’t return for Season 3, that means that she’s going back home. Some behavioral experts have predicted that Samira is actually suicidal; the foreshadowing of Robby dying by suicide is a red herring, and apparently it’s her that’s going to take that route. I think that’s going to be heart-breaking, and you are free to look at it through the “kill your darlings” perspective, however, it’s hard to not judge this development through the “off-screen politics” lens. I mean, almost every other character struggles every single day at the PTMC’s ER, but it’s only Supriya’s character that’s being written off? Yeah, that’s highly suspicious and it doesn’t sit well with me.
Anyway, going back to the plot, Robby chats with Samira to check how she’s doing and, as mentioned before, she obviously feels guilty about not taking proper care of Orlando. Robby assures her that Samira did everything that she could to give Orlando the treatment he needed. After that, Robby says something that’s supposed to be “darkly comedic” but is actually really scary; he says that if Orlando really cared about his family, he should have chosen a higher spot to jump from. Sure, Robby is probably talking about himself (the bike ride without the helmet is his “higher spot”), but saying that to Samira is dangerous. Thankfully, Caleb hears that and he catches a hold of Robby and gives him a good old shakedown. Let’s just hope that Robby’s words haven’t been burnt into Samira’s head. We don’t see Samira for the rest of this shift (this episode). So, yeah, if anyone is worried about Samira’s wellbeing, worry harder.
Langdon Gets His Attaboy From Robby
Ellis catches up with Langdon and he opens up to her about how he feels that Robby doesn’t want him to be in the ER. That’s when Ellis points out that, in the 10 months that Langdon wasn’t at the ER, Robby has regularly expressed regret over failing Langdon. I mean, during Robby’s venting session with Dana, it was pretty clear that the biggest reason why he was feeling so frustrated was because he felt that he hadn’t done a good job as one of the leaders of the ER; and now that he was contemplating suicide, he was worried how the ER would survive without him. The same sentiment applies to Langdon; Robby thinks that Langdon (almost) fell through the cracks because he didn’t monitor him closely enough. And he’s worried what’s going to happen to Langdon after he croaks. But, yeah, if you didn’t catch all that in the previous episode, it’s been underscored by Ellis. On that note, Ellis heads to the ambulance bay to welcome Barrett Dunkle and Toby Schneider; they were involved in a bar fight, and while Barrett has the American flag sticking out of his chest, Toby has a massive gash on his cheek.
What’s somehow more worrisome than that is that the ambulance bringing in Toby has collided with the bikes that were parked at the ambulance bay and damaged them. One of those bikes belongs to Robby, and since Antonine and Whitaker know how “excited” he is to go on his bike-bound sabbatical, they start working on holding the ambulance drivers accountable for the mishap and putting the bike back where it was. Going back to the patients, Ellis takes care of Toby (he’ll need plastic surgery to fix that cheek), while Barrett is taken to surgery because that flag has perforated his lung. Robby, Langdon, and Crus start working on Lyman, and they quickly come to the conclusion that they need to put the dislocated vertebrae back into their original position to relieve the pressure it’s putting on the spinal cord. It’s a risky maneuver; if done correctly, Lyman will be in the safe zone; if done wrong or if nothing is done at all, Lyman might be paralyzed for life. When both Lyman and Robby give Langdon the greenlight for the procedure, he takes the one-in-a-million shot and aces it. Robby applauds Langdon, and it’s evident that his confidence in himself is finally restored. He doesn’t have any time to celebrate it though, because he’s late for his routine drug test (so that the hospital knows that he’s indeed a recovering addict and not someone who is relapsing).
Duke Works On Robby And His Bike
Perlah spots Duke trying to escape and tells him to settle down until he’s discharged. Duke says that if he has to stay there, he’d prefer it if he was taken care of by ViVi. They have a humorous exchange about ViVi being out of Duke’s league and ViVi’s fiance, who’s a jujitsu instructor, literally breaking Duke’s malfunctioning heart if they find out that Duke’s hitting on her; and then Perlah leaves. A few minutes later, Robby arrives and gives Duke the lowdown on his affliction. Duke understands that if he undergoes surgery, he’ll need around 6 months to get up to “full speed,” and if he doesn’t undergo surgery, then he’s gonna die pretty painfully. Now, Robby is worried that if he doesn’t stick around, Duke isn’t going to show up for his periodic health checkups, and he won’t go through with the surgery. Instead of assuaging Robby’s fears, Duke tells him to go on his rounds while he sits in his room and processes all the information that’s been dumped on him. In the meantime, Robby learns about his bike and absolutely loses his mind in the ambulance bay. He doesn’t get a lot of time to deal with his emotions, or give the ambulance drivers who have wrecked his bike an earful though, because he has to take care of Elbridge Gerry, a 25-year-old guy who has let himself get shot in the head while he was wearing only an aluminum pot as a protective helmet.
After getting Elbridge into the trauma room, he and Duke arrive at the ambulance bay to take a look at the bike. Duke’s diagnosis is that it’s still functional, and after some cosmetic repairs, it’ll be as good as new. Duke wants to do the repairs himself, because it’s the least he can do for Robby before he takes off. Robby tells Duke that the biggest favor that he can do for him is coming in for his checkups on a regular basis. Duke doesn’t make any promises and changes the topic to Robby’s retirement plans. Robby says that he intends to work as long as he can and teach the next generation of doctors to be capable enough to deal with any kind of medical emergency. Speaking of medical emergencies, Robby gets the details of an incoming patient, Lyman Paine, a 53-year-old guy who has been in a head-on collision with a telephone pole, and tells the medics to take him into the ER and tell the doctors to get him prepped. He then goes back to Duke, who tells him to go take care of his patient while he works on the bike, and they can continue their chat later on. After making sure that Lyman is in the safe zone, Robby goes back to Duke, and this time he admits that he is suicidal. So, Duke tells Robby to ask himself what kinda lesson he is gonna teach to his students by killing himself. Robby doesn’t have an answer, but it’s evident that those words have made him rethink his whole plan.
Baran Suffers From Absent Seizures
Baran takes one last look at Grady and informs Naomi what she’s going to need to take care of her son, and Naomi’s primary concern is that she won’t be able to pay for the meds that are being prescribed. Baran assures Naomi that they’ll figure out a payment plan that ensures that Naomi isn’t overburdened by the medical bills and Grady gets the help that he requires. Baran then takes off to tend to Edith Lynch, who is suffering from chest pain. She is joined by Nazely and Robby, who notices that the anterior leads for the ECG are placed way too low on Edith’s body, and as soon as he tries to adjust it, Edith loses consciousness. She is brought back via defibrillation, and then Baran and Robby hand over her case to Shen and Crus. When Bosco and Otero, the medics who are responsible for the improper placement of the ECG leads, arrive with another patient, Robby creates a scene in order to teach them the importance of treating patients properly. He says that when it comes to saving someone’s life, they have to forget about stuff like modesty, and if you need to get under somebody’s breast to place an ECG lead, you have to do it. Because if you don’t, it’ll result in an improper diagnosis, and an improper diagnosis can kill a patient. Bosco and Otero are of the opinion that Robby could have given them that lesson in private, but Robby is off the rails, and he doesn’t care if he is hurting anybody’s sentiments. Baran actually congratulates him for “losing his filter” and for making a salient point about something that hurts a lot of female patients.
And then, in the ending of The Pitt Season 2 episode 14, Baran takes Robby to a private room and shows her prescription to him to get a diagnosis. She has a history of seizure disorder. She has been suffering from seizures for the past 35 years, and she has also suffered from viral meningitis, and the infection has altered her brain severely. Does this explain the moments where Baran loses focus or seems absent-minded? I am sure we are going to get the medically-accurate explanation in the next episode, but from what I have read on the internet, she gets absence or absent seizures. When we hear “seizure,” we imagine that the person getting it will fall down and start convulsing or something. However, in this case they stay perfectly upright and experience a seizure. They look like they are thinking about something but they actually go completely blank. I think most people who suffer from this ailment don’t realize it. That said, since Baran is a doctor, she knows. How can Robby help her with this? I don’t think he can. Baran’s ailment means that Robby has to come back from his sabbatical, because she can’t be his permanent replacement. This is probably Baran’s last hurrah, and she is going to retire from this job after her stint at the PTMC. Even though Robby doesn’t want to say it explicitly, he was starting to believe that Baran would be able to handle the ER for the foreseeable future. But, yeah, after this revelation, he really needs to postpone his suicidal plans if he actually wants to ensure that ER functions properly.
