Reaction: The Pitt, "5:00 PM" | Season 1, Episode 11

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Somehow, each hour of The Pitt finds new ways to increase my anxiety levels. Episode 11 continues this pattern with a couple of touch-and-go cases that allow the medical team to demonstrate their life-saving skills. There is zero time for a breather. However, “5:00 PM” has an element of clearing the decks, and tying up some loose ends to accommodate the storyline we have been speculating about. At the end of the hour, there is a “code triage” alert due to an active shooter at PittFest. While we don’t know the scale yet, it will likely dominate the remaining four episodes. But first, The Pitt takes an ambitious and impressive swing in the delivery room.

What follows are the observations I took from this eleventh episode.

• Labor scenes on TV usually stay above the waist, but the benefits of airing on Max (as I’ve previously mentioned) is being able to show more. I was not expecting quite this many close-ups of this labor, and I want to applaud The Pitt for its ambitious scope. If we can see a beating heart or a degloved foot, why can’t we see a shot of a crowning baby? Childbirth is so commonplace on TV, yet this felt revelatory in not shying away from depicting the bloody reality. Once again, the prosthetics are incredible and I hope the special makeup effects team get an Emmy nomination because wow. I had the ER episode “Love’s Labor Lost” in the back of my mind, and I am likely not alone (it placed at number 16 in last year’s Rolling Stone Best Episodes of All Time list). There has already been so much heartbreak this season and I am glad this didn’t end in tragedy, yet still showed childbirth complications. Having Dr. Robby going between two emergencies definitely increased my stress levels and I let out a sigh of relief when both women (and the baby) survived.

• Parenthood is an overarching theme beyond the newborn. Last week, I highlighted the tender Dana and Dr. Collins interaction, and now we get not one but two one-on-one scenes between Robby and Heather (Robby switches to her first name) highlighting their intimate past. Collins reveals she had a miscarriage and that she has been doing IVF on her own. Their second chat in the ambulance rig is more soul-baring and, to me, there is ambiguity as to whether Robby is the guy she was with when she had an abortion. Robby’s reaction suggests he thinks he might be the person she refers to, and I am curious if others read it like this.1 Either way, I think his response would be the same. Though Robby might regret sending Collins home, considering the last hour of the shift is about to change from the normal “keeping head above water” to “outright triage.”

• Not every conversation is as nuanced as this and The Pitt doesn’t always trust the audience to see the connection without heavy-handed dialogue to point the way. One such case is the daughter of the woman with Hepatitis B, in how it links to Dr. McKay’s family complications and missteps, though it gives Shabana Azeez another priceless comedic moment in expressing Victoria’s complex dynamic with her surgeon mom—her answer to whether she is close with her mom did give a much needed laugh.2 Elsewhere, I thought Dr. Mohan’s speech to the drug seeking father edged perilously close to contrivance territory. It only avoids being overtly hacky because Dr. Mohan has mentioned her dad to a different patient earlier in the day, and the denial has pushed her buttons. Dr. Mohan hasn’t lost her cool throughout the shift, and less patience for patients by the eleventh hour is forgivable—and makes her human.

• Robby’s observations about people with an addiction doubles as directly talking to the audience about why anyone can get hooked on pain meds, including charming Dr. Langdon—and yes, I also thought of his ER character, Dr. Carter. As predicted, the rumor mill is in full swing and the season-long runner of Perla and Princess gossiping in Tagalog this week earns a rebuke from Robby and reveals that Santos speaks this language. There is still an obnoxious undertone, but Isa Briones gets to show different shades to Santos this week beyond unearned cockiness. Some of the Langdon plotting is still uneven to me, but how the staff discuss it is on point. Robby confides in Dana without revealing all the specifics, but the drugs audit request is pretty explicit. Santos has lost some of her DGAF edge, which I wasn’t entirely expecting; Garcia’s “You’re trouble” statement has the most significant impact. Do they want doctors stealing drugs? Of course not, but Santos has gone against the team on her first day, so the reaction from someone like Garcia is fueled by this. Langdon isn’t letting it go either. While we don’t see him this week, he is persistently phoning the main line and personal cells—plus, they could do with his help. I also agree with Roxana Hadadi’s Vulture essay that The Pitt is testing our biases, but like Myles said last week, the ratio is off.

• At the start of the shift, Theresa shows Dr. Robby her son’s extremely troubling Instagram post. Unfortunately, Robby keeps getting sidetracked with other emergencies and is preoccupied with the Langdon situation. When Robby allows himself to take a beat, the PTSD kicks in and The Pitt’s sound design (rather than a score) captures his mental state. It isn’t until near the end of the hour that Theresa catches Robby again, and he lays out a great case as to why psychiatric care is the right course of action in a speech that hits all the relevant talking points. Last week’s comments noted the various issues piling up for Robby (including being down at least one senior physician, now two). I dread to think what this combination of lack of resources, guilt and PTSD will do to Robby’s state of mind.

Of course, there is a personal connection with the overarching events and we are reminded that Robby’s “sort of stepson” Jake (it is confirmed that Robby dated Jake’s mom—mystery solved!) is at this event via FaceTime. Jake calls to say thanks for the tickets and to introduce his girlfriend. It is sweet, but part of me was worried something would happen at PittFest during the call. Instead, it is the cliffhanger. Robby is outside talking to Dana (on a supervised smoke break), who insisted on finishing her shift after the assault, but like Robby, when she takes a pause, the reality hits. Earlier, Robby said he doesn’t know what they would do without her, and I feel the same about this character. Perhaps the incoming emergency will tip her back into wanting to stay—or send her further down the quitting road.

My first response to the active shooter news is similar to how I felt about the Langdon reveal, which is a tinge of disappointment.3 However, I want to see how it plays out before writing this choice off as overly sensational storytelling. How do you feel about the episode and its cliffhanger?