Review: The Pitt, "5:00 PM" | Season 2, Episode 11
Well, that escalated quickly
Given that the eleventh episode last season ended with news of the mass shooting at PittFest, there is an expectation that something critical would befall PTMC late in this shift. The network shutdown (which is ongoing) at the end of Episode 7 played around with that formula; the waterpark incident did not deliver a high volume of patients. Instead, what The Pitt does is continue to show how an already off-kilter emergency department is unraveling in an outing that had me yelling and gasping out loud. Additional elements introduced in “5:00 PM” explode within the hour when ICE agents enter the ED. Much like Mel, I need to take a break in the stairwell to digest what might be the most stressful series of events at PTMC so far. The terror of that final scene is hard to shake.
For the first 20 minutes, it is business as usual—well, whatever usual means on the Fourth of July. Fluidity between storylines is a Pitt strength, evident in how seamlessly the material moves from the already mounting issues to a new source of friction. Having an overextended Robby jump from one crisis to the next in quick succession without resolution underscores how fragmented this day has become.
In this instance, he goes from asking Mel how she is doing post-deposition to being immediately sidetracked by McKay's reappearance (while Mel is in the middle of saying she doesn’t really have anyone to confide in). Then, when he airs his frustrations that McKay took a brief field trip to the park with Ogilvie to treat an unhoused woman, dread levels instantly rise when the camera reveals who Robby’s elongated, hushed “shit” is reacting to. Dressing down McKay is quickly forgotten.
