‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Finale: Dance Through the Darkness

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Hello, welcome back to the prestige TV podcast.

I'm Dota Robinson.

I'm Rob Mahoney.

It's the pit finale.

Devastating Rob, honestly, very sad.

It's tough.

And we've been hearing from a lot of people that they're going to, quote, miss us when the

pit is over.

Yeah.

Guess what?

We'll still be here.

We're not going to pass from this mortal coil.

We're not expiring.

We're not going to the roof to watch fireworks.

We will still be here covering other shows.

Euphoria is happening.

A show that a lot of people are watching, including us, including us.

I'm having a good time so far.

I actually really like it, but a lot of people are watching it for other reasons.

And that's fine too.

Seems like a great reason to listen to a podcast of two people bantering about it delightfully.

Is that what we do?

I think so.

Okay.

Also, beef, the Netflix series season two of beef is dropping and a binge drop this week.

We will be covering it in three different episodes.

So if you want to hear us talk about beef, we will be doing that as well.

So Euphoria and Beef and many other shows to come.

So stick around.

We'll be here.

We'll be here.

This place needs us and we need it.

Oh, sure, sure.

Yeah, absolutely.

We're very important.

Anything you want to say before we get into our robust mailbag that we have here for the

finale.

Just that I enjoy this journey as always with you, Joe.

This is our first episode by episode for the pit specifically.

But every time we wind down one of these shows, it feels like the end of something.

Yeah, but it's, I guess it would be the longest continuous run we've done on anything.

It's true.

And because of that, it does feel like we have been doing this since the day I was born.

Like this is, it has felt like a long season, not in a bad way, but this is around this

all year.

Truly.

Mailbag time.

So Caroline, I'm going to start with some thirst from our listener, Caroline.

Okay.

Who said, I know we've talked about the various hotness factors, but for the love, what

are they cast?

What are the casting calls from the male EMTs?

The EMT that brought in Roxy, the EMT that brought in singing drunk head gunshot guy,

quote, looking for tall muscle men who fill out their short sleeves, look great and blue

and can flex their bicep as they hold items at a 90 degree for extended periods of time,

acting experience is a bonus end quote.

Caroline just wanted to appreciate the EMTs.

We actually got a couple of emails from like in a more serious way of people who will work

as EMTs who are like, Hey man, we wish our characters got a bit more respect on the

pit.

And here's Caroline, respecting them in a certain way.

Absolutely.

I would say, you know, we salute them and their biceps and their physiques and their expertise.

Absolutely.

But they did, especially last week, become a bit of a punching bag in an unfortunate way.

I wanted to, more broadly, a lot of the emails that we got last week were about Whitaker's

badge and a possible LinkedIn relapse, who's a very popular theory that was going around.

They did not wind up being true.

We got a couple great emails that don't have anything to do with that.

But I kind of want to talk to you more broadly about theories here at the end of the season.

Right?

Okay.

So the popular theory that Langdon stole Whitaker's badge and relapsed and that's why he came

out of the bathroom looking sweaty and something, something, something.

What is Santos going to do with her stolen scalpel?

That was like a question a lot of people were asking, he'd exhaustion mom or are we going

to learn something new and complicated about how complicit she was and what happened?

And the answer to all of that is nothing.

Right.

So does it change the way you think about theories and this show?

Is this a show that sort of teases you with potential mysteries and then like nothing

much comes of it?

Are there other ways in which theories pan out?

What do you think?

I think about it differently for patients versus doctors.

For patients, I kind of like that the structure of the pit almost emulates the doctor's experience

where you see these people for an intense brief period of time and then sort of Langdon popping

up to a higher floor to check on a patient.

You really don't know what happens to them after that.

And once they're in another doctor's hands and other department's hands, it's kind of

out of your control.

So the patients I kind of fully expect to not get any follow up.

The Langdon Whitaker badge stuff, I just, that would be such a bad plan.

Even if you are a desperate addict who's trying to get pills, like it's so easily traceable

back to you that it never really tracked to something that would be possible.

The Sansus thing, I think makes sense as someone who is not necessarily even actively engaging

in the practice of self-harm, but like is in a tough moment and sort of considering it

and ideating it.

And so it also feels truthful to where she's been this season that she's like for a lack

of a better phrasing, like keeping her options open as far as like what self-medicating

looks like for her.

And opting to drink and go to karaoke instead.

Much healthier.

We are.

Alannus, much healthier.

That's great.

Honestly, one of my favorite things that has ever happened on the head, like without question.

On the badge front, from Andy, who's a psychodynamic therapist, really interesting analysis of Whitaker

and the badge is sort of a character beat, which I really loved.

So this is what Andy said.

Whitaker, I imagine for him the badge signified his no longer being the farm boy Huckleberry

in addition to it symbolizing his capacity to accomplish things or either honor slash

disavow his family.

We really don't know much about Whitaker.

In my opinion, beyond how others engage with and define him or what we are shown happening

to him, who is Whitaker beyond acts of service to others?

I think this question that I have about Whitaker is one that Robbie is grappling with except

Whitaker being new hasn't yet reached the point of losing his sense of self and purpose

to the role of an ED physician.

So I love that idea from Andy.

It's not a did lengthen steel the badge or like, you know, because at the end of the day,

it's kind of just a punchline where the badge ends up.

But it's also not that kind of show.

But what, well, that was my question.

Is it that kind of show?

I don't know.

Is it sometimes that kind of show that it's not?

I never liked it again.

I said this all the time.

I never liked to tell people they're watching TV incorrectly.

But I do think it's interesting at the end of a season to sort of sit and say, okay,

is this a kind of show that is leading, is leaving those kinds of breadcrumbs for theories

or not?

But like this idea that Whitaker, who in the last week's episode in a scene that we didn't

love, but who said, like, hey, man, don't define me, you know, I'm not the awesucks, little

buddy, Gilligan, et cetera, that for him, the badge would mean something more than it

does for some other folks in the ED.

And so for him to lose it feels like, oh, I am just a fumbling farm boy, perhaps.

I am just the guy who gets who has to change his scrubs, you know, nine different times

in a shift or something like that.

So I thought that was interesting.

I do like it.

And I fully buy it for that character that those sorts of status symbols would mean something

for him.

In addition to the kind of endpoint we get for him in this season where Amy pulls up

with the truck with baby Theo.

And it's like, there's something about that whole moment that I think is very sweet and

very like it casts, I think his whole relationship and dynamic in the way it's portrayed this season

in a bit of a different light.

And some of it is just sort of the comfort with which he is falling into like, yes, maybe

there is a co-dependence there, right?

Maybe this isn't the healthiest relationship for either of them.

But there's something about the like, oh, she's like going to give up the driver's seat

and he's going to step into it.

And he's like assuming a different kind of status in that way with his like surrogate

family.

He's slipping into someone else's spot.

Truck certainly.

Yeah.

We got a great email about this where from Anna who said Amy is clearly showing up in

her husband's and I had gotten to see the episode early.

This is the only email we have that's about this finale because they screened the episode

both at Paleyfest and then also for healthcare work.

For a Paleyfest?

Cool.

At the Alamo Drop House, they did a screening for healthcare workers and so Anna attended

one of those greetings.

But she wrote, Amy is clearly showing up in her husband's old truck and the role Whitaker

plays in her life is so this like to show how they immediately switch places so that Whitaker

can drive.

Clearly, there's a cultural component of Amy's traditional farmhouse lifestyle requiring

the man in her life take the front seat, but the fact that her presumably less than one

year old babies in the back seat past 10 p.m. indicates that she doesn't have a support

system.

The fact that Amy picks Whitaker up draws attention to the fact that he likely doesn't have

a car with his financial insecurity.

I think there's some codependency there.

But given both of their upbringings, I can see this resulting in marriage on the line.

It's giving ring before spring energy.

And I really agree.

But I'm also like, you know, Robbie's so concerned about it.

Yeah.

But when you see it, you're like, this doesn't look

dysfunctional.

This looks quite sweet.

And when Robbie's watching it happen, I don't quite know like how he's interpreting that

moment, but it seems like he's like, oh, that looks like a full life in a way that

I don't have.

I was judging him for doing that.

But like he's putting the music on.

He's got a relationship with this baby already.

Like, you know, Amy's quite fond of him.

Like, I don't know.

It looks kind of nice.

It seems like something.

And of all the people to take real life advice from at work, Robbie is not the guy.

Right.

The last thing on the Wittaker badge front is our listener Larry identified before

saying this episode, identified the exact moment Wittaker lost his badge, which is when

he collides with the new intern in the last week's episode when she was freaked out by

seeing the dummy.

Yes.

And she's like, what's that?

He lost his badge like in the vicinity of the dummy.

And that is like where Digby found it.

Because we see him with the dummy later on, et cetera.

So how are you feeling about the way that Digby's story wrapped up and the way that Wittaker

has the story wrapped up there?

I thought the Digby, I mean, it's kind of silly.

It's funny.

It's fine.

I kind of would prefer that he just wheel off with the dummy in the badge.

I don't know why we need this like speech about fireworks.

Other than everyone in the greater Pittsburgh area is an expert on the history of fireworks.

Listen, Pittsburgh pride, it matters.

Apparently so.

We've got a couple, I would say many emails about a couple things.

You want to talk about sticks and what we missed about the band sticks?

Please.

Okay.

I mean, I really don't know a lot about sticks other than the hits.

So I would love to be educated.

Oh, I think every Steelers game, they play Renegade in the fourth quarter.

As they should.

They play a traditional, so sticks has a strong association with Pittsburgh.

I would love for the origin of that because it feels more raiders coded to me.

Yeah.

Okay.

Maybe that's me projecting a little bit too much on like the true raiders psychos out there

that are like Mad Max style decked out in cosplay.

Oh, my father, are you really?

Who is the No Glitter's fan?

Whoa, didn't know this.

We're going to have done that.

On the greater Pennsylvania knowledge front Joe, we did get many, many emails and comments

about our raising of youngling versus rolling rock would be the accurate beer in this particular

occasion.

Happy to defer and say we were wrong.

You know what?

Rolling rock more regionally appropriate.

It turns out again, still on the Whitaker front.

We got a lot of Whitaker emails.

The people love Dennis.

This feels weird calling him Dennis, but it feels very familiar.

The Gilligan's Island question, right?

We were asking whether or not someone his age would be that familiar with Gilligan's

Island.

We got a lot of email from people saying, Hey, man, he grew up in rural Nebraska.

Sure.

Perhaps in rural Nebraska, they watch a lot of Gilligan's Island.

Here's what I was going to say.

Yeah.

So every summer, I used to go to Spokane, Washington, which is where I grandpa lives and right

outside Spokane is Sprig Washington, where we had like family who owned a farm.

So like super rural Washington, you know, they let me drive the combine.

I learned how to ride a horse on this farm, et cetera, et cetera.

They did have like, they could not get normal television on there.

So they had like satellite.

Yes.

And then a lot of people wrote in saying like, I could see them having a DVD collection of

Gilligan's Island.

We grew up watching Gilligan's Island on DVD.

So like, is there an aspect of being from rural Nebraska, a wholesome family friendly

show like Gilligan's Island could perhaps be in Dennis's repertoire a bit more than

it might be in your average Gen Z doctors repertoire?

I reject the assumption.

Okay.

And because the exact thing you mentioned, which is honestly the first people I ever knew

who had satellite TV were in extremely rural areas and had the hundreds, if not thousands

of channels.

There are so many ways to get content and TV and shows and movies.

But maybe like some people don't even have satellite and they just have like their DVD collection.

I mean, we support physical media on this podcast.

We do.

We do.

So I look, it's possible.

I just wouldn't assume that just because someone grew up in a rural area, they're watching

shows from the 60s.

Hashtag not all farmers Rob said.

Someone has to stand up for.

Shout out to Pat and Willard who taught me how to play Krippage.

Oh, on what the spice of life is, which is a question we asked last week.

Yep.

A game I don't think you played very well.

I think I answered it quite literally.

But is literal a fun way to play a game?

It's not.

Look, the non-literal way is.

That was like a real no but not a yes and no but it's literally salt.

It's literally one answer to this question.

Unfortunately, I think the actual answer for me is paprika.

That would be my spice of life if I were to pick one that is not salt or black pepper.

Thank you for playing this game.

Great road into.

Actually, hold on.

I need to comment here the podcast once again.

I did see some commentary calling me basic for picking salt and pepper.

Let me tell you, you're wrong.

Like ultimately.

I mean, S&P is important.

S&P is not only important, but the baseline of a lot of modern, at least Western cooking.

And most importantly, if you can't make good food with just salt and pepper, you're not

a very good cook.

I'm sorry to say.

Tough.

It's still a cardamom or a achievement.

But Great Road didn't talk about a thing that landed his wife and the ED, which was having

too much nutmeg.

Oh.

She was, I think she making yogurt was meant to sprinkle some nutmeg on and said dumped

nutmeg and was like, oh, well, I guess I'll just go with it.

I love pumpkin pie.

Why not?

Let's do it.

Struggled through it.

And then it made her high, essentially, the nutmeg gave her like, she did.

Yeah, she did.

She spiced it.

So she had to go to the ED and they said their only solution was ride it out, baby.

Ride the nutmeg high all the way.

I didn't know the nutmeg could do that.

I didn't know it could do that.

I mean, it is a spice that you obviously use in pretty sparing amounts, but I will say

to you, I don't know what your experience is with grading your own nutmeg, a real game

changer really elevates the whole thing.

I agree, but for some reason, there's something about the experience of grating nutmeg

versus, let's say garlic, but you know, microplaning nutmeg versus garlic or ginger

and like that, where I'm more inclined to like fuck up my own fingers or nails.

Cause the round.

It's hard to get a handle.

It's tough.

It's hard to do in business if you want the most aromatic possible Thanksgiving desserts.

Okay, guess what?

I'm almost done.

What is this podcast about again?

Nutmeg rolling rock.

Furries.

Shane.

Okay, Shane wrote in.

I didn't prep you for this.

So it's okay if you don't have an answer, but Shane wrote in saying, can we get a final

ranking of our biggest enemies this season?

Did Ogle V successfully cry his way off the list?

Shane offers up this list.

Boba guy.

Yeah.

Golf douche ice magamanica.

I said, as a model.

Magamanica.

Yeah.

Power trip security guard.

Generative AI.

The hospital CEO, the hackers.

The entire US healthcare system and the EMTs that were afraid of boobs.

Who's number one?

I think it might be ice.

Here's the thing.

Ice is going to be number one in the list.

I'm sorry to say.

Magamanica doesn't even make the list when you have these points of comparison.

I kind of agree.

I kind of agree.

What she called someone a snowflake.

Yeah.

There's so much work.

Someone literally held hospitals for ransom.

Yeah.

I just think there's there are worse villains.

Okay.

So Ogle V and Magamanica innocent.

Your favorite characters in the season, I think.

It did not say that.

Sorry.

Did we get on the list?

The security guard who takes Jackson.

Okay.

Power trip security guard.

Power trip security guard.

Gotta be pretty high on the list as well.

I agree.

PressyCV is Spotify.com or for the last time this season.

Yeah.

Dr. SideBangs at Gmail.com.

If you have other enemies, I just like to know if we missed anyone.

Yes.

I also want to say if you're catching this podcast late, we will still receive the emails

from Dr. SideBangs at Gmail.com.

Forever.

Will we have a means to respond to them on a podcast?

Who knows?

There are several weeks behind the UK.

I think they're only on like episode three.

So we did get a couple like a maggot emails this week from people who are just like

sort of catching up with the season.

So I look forward to those continuing to roll in.

Last but not least, there you go.

Wriggle in.

Yeah.

Last but not least, several members of the cast were at Pellie Fest at an event this weekend

with the finale.

I did get to moderate the panel.

That was very cool.

Thank you so much for smirking at me Rob.

It's a huge deal.

I don't know why we're not celebrating.

I just I just wanted to shout out that my favorite thing that happened on the panel

was Taylor Deard.

This has been clipped.

But Taylor Deard and was talking about how you know, I was asking them the question of

like, what is something your character has been very wrong about this season?

Because it's something we like about the pit.

Definitely.

It's like when these characters are behaving badly and it's very human, right?

It's very well rounded.

And so Taylor Deard and was talking about how, you know, she had her answer.

It was about backup, of course, et cetera.

But she said, what I like is all of these missteps from these people feel very much in character.

There's always a reason for it.

It's always in line with something.

She's like, so Robbie's really bad with women.

Oh, his mom abandoned him.

Okay.

So like that, that was a great Taylor Deard in moment.

I thought from the panel and I was just people to check it out.

Her deliver is better than mine.

But yeah.

You know what my highlight of the panel was?

What's that on?

Seeing the very warm reception to our own Joanna Robinson and the work you did on said

panel.

I mean, this is, this is just a highlight for me personally.

Okay.

I had a great time.

I don't really want to go beat by beaten this episode.

I kind of want to just check in on our favorite characters.

I think we've already covered Whitaker, you know, end to end.

But like check in with our favorite characters and see how they're doing at the end of this

day, how we feel about their arc this season and how it all panned out.

I want to start with with Dr. McKay, Dr. Sidebangs herself.

Yeah.

We got some meals from folks saying like, they really felt like she got sidelined for a

lot of the season.

And I think other than, you know, being heavily flirted with, good for her.

Yes, repeatedly.

And then this, the Roxy case was like sort of her big story this season.

And then the last couple episodes really just kind of hanging around.

She gets, and she gets drawn into the sort of the wild pregnancy, you know, emergency

case here at the end.

She's on the, she's with the, the, the baby, the event, et cetera.

But in general, how do you feel like McKay's story sort of wrapped up this season?

It's hard to top, you know, the ankle monitor, ex-husband, child, dad, all the other stuff

that she had going on last season.

I think there was a bit of a handoff.

And look, this is just going to be one of the realities of a show with this kind of

ensemble, right?

Not every season is going to be a heavy McKay season.

And so I feel like we got a bit of a handoff from some McKay heavy stuff in season one to

more Samir Mohan heavy stuff in season two.

Your mileage may vary on how all of that landed in the finale.

But that to me is some of the tradeoff in terms of screen time.

I do think as far as cases go, Roxy turned out to be one of the signature cases of the

season.

I agree.

In terms of patients rolling through the door and also lasted five, six episodes like

it was quite a nordeal emotionally in terms of screen time, in terms of the effects and

all the people in the room.

So she was at the center of a kind of action.

It's just not drilling an ankle monitor.

I agree.

On the one hand, I agree with you that there will be tradeoffs on the other hand.

I do think season one did a slightly better job of evenly distributing the stories.

I think this season Langdon's admittedly like quite dramatic sort of return to the ED.

And then Robbie's whole thing took a lot of space for sure this season.

And so yeah, we'll talk about Samir of course.

But I think characters like Mel and characters like McKay, you know, suffered as a result.

Santos a little bit too.

You know, like we're just kind of background in a bit this season.

I think that speaks to the season overall and the finale in particular, which was this

was a good enough season.

I thought it was a pretty solid finale.

But I do think the pit in season two struggled with that misallocation of resources, the

most crucial of which is being screen time for some of these people and some of these

stories where if you're paying so much attention to Langdon, what does that come at a cost

of?

If you're saying paying so much attention to Dr. Alashimi, which I just think that story

completely flopped here in the finale.

I really agree.

Well, yeah, what are you trading off to do that?

Dr. Alashimi, let's talk about her.

I want to again, we're recording this a little early.

We don't get to see sort of all the post-mortem interviews that the various cast members have

given.

I did get to moderate this panel.

I did ask them about Dr. Alashimi.

They gave a fairly, I thought generic answer.

And that's fine.

That's their right to do on a panel.

But I don't think they really illuminated.

I was just sort of like, what was the point of this arc?

And they were just sort of described literally what happened rather than sort of talk about

what larger point they were trying to make.

That's fine.

The friend of the pod, Kitty Rich, told me that she did interview Semi Muafi.

So I would really like people to go listen to that interview on the Ancler pressies junkie

podcast.

So I do not want to like scoop her coverage or whatever.

But I was really, we were both a bit baffled by Semi who plays Dr. Alashimi her interpretation,

which was not.

So what's your interpretation of how the Dr. Alashimi storyline wraps up in this episode?

My interpretation is that this woman is very smart.

Dr. Alashimi, very smart, very qualified and absolutely fucking unfit to do this job.

And the fact that she has talked herself into thinking that she could even attempt it

is almost like unfathomable to me.

And I think the most charitable read on that is, you know, when we want something so badly,

we're willing to explain a way a lot about ourselves and our circumstances.

And especially if like your circumstances are changing under your feet in a real time,

I get how a really ambitious and driven person would try to convince themselves and others

that they still deserve to do the thing they want to do.

But watching it play out and specifically watching the absolute lack of momentum or movement

on this story, basically every step of the way, like Robbie was skeptical of her from

episode one.

It turns out as you raised this being like a potential issue that he was just kind of validated

in that skepticism.

And she in this episode, it's just like, I have no idea how to connect with her perspective

on the argument she's trying to make.

What's your interpretation of her sort of outburst in the car at the very end of the

episode?

I think acceptance.

See that is so again, I'm not trying to scoop my pal, Katie Rich.

Yeah.

I really would like people to check out that interview.

That is not the actress's interpretation.

Wow.

That it is her frustration that she believes her character's right and Robbie is wrong.

And that it's about sort of like making accommodations for people's, I don't know if this is the right

word, but like disabilities.

Like what are the accommodations you can make inside of a workplace where people who have

things that are obstacles for their, you know, like, I don't, I don't, first of all,

I find it hard to uncover that interpretation inside of the episode that was presented

to us, whether it's in the edit or something like that.

To me, that looked like defeat.

Her stopping her car specifically because when Robbie's like, you shouldn't even be driving.

So her pumping the brakes and he is right.

And her pumping the brakes on the car.

I, my interpretation was, this is her acceptance that she cannot even drive, let alone do this

job, the way that she wants to do it.

The question I have to ask myself though is like, this actress is meant to be here next

season.

So what, you know, what is, she's talked about, she's going back to work on season three.

So like what role is Dr. Alhajimbi playing in season three?

I'm like quite confused by it.

Again, you know, I know a while he articulated this very well on the PaleoFest panel talking

about how he likes, he's like, we caught Robbie on a very particularly bad day.

For sure.

I like that he, that we allow him to be petty, you know, to be shitty inside of this episode.

Samira calls him a dick, you know, like Dr. Lingans, like you need help, you know, so

100% fucked up.

There are many ways in which the show is not saying, Dr. Robbie, he's great and fine.

Right.

But when he's like, kind of right about Dr. Alhajimbi from the start, when he's seemingly

kind of right about Samira, I really hated how that conversation went.

Like I was actually having quite a bad time with this finale until the Alonism War is

that karaoke happened because between the, the Mohan scene and the Alhajimbi scene,

I was just like, this is just Robbie thinks two women can't do their job and both women

kind of seem like they agree with him because like Samira, Samira telling Robbie, he's

a bit of a dick, but that the ED needs him and she hopes he comes back and her mother

was treating her like a child and she let her and she's just sort of like, it's a very

much, I was wrong kind of conversation and Robbie not really saying I was wrong and I shouldn't

have treated you that way and I was projecting my mommy issues onto you or my own like experience,

like he has no concession on his side.

So I was just sort of like, what, what are we doing here?

I was really confused by it.

The Mohan stuff is very frustrating, but I kind of want to put a pin in it because to me,

it's like a whole separate conversation about the future of this show and that character.

With Alhajimbi, I think part of the problem I'm having with this endpoint, whether you

see it as frustration, whether you see it as defeat, the way she has concealed this secret

about herself, makes me reconsider almost everything she has raised over the course of

the season.

Like, should there be two attendings on the floor, that no longer feels like I'm trying

to do what's best for the ED.

It feels like I'm trying to do what allows me to do this job.

I think it can be both.

It can't be both, but it's like even something like, you know, the argument she gets into

with Robbie earlier about being named in a lawsuit.

It's like, does she now want to be named in a lawsuit because she doesn't want scrutiny

that comes with something like that?

The cheers want to be deposed, like Mel's being deposed.

Possibly, but I think it's more, I mean, from what she's explained to him, this is not

something that has been an ongoing issue inside of her career as a medical professional.

This is an exceptional day that this has happened to her.

And I'm not saying, I'm not saying, you know, you and I both raised this, we raised it

in sort of like the medical diagnosis boiler section.

So it's possible that people didn't hear us talk about it earlier, but like, we were

both appalled by the idea that she was hiding this thing that is a very risky thing for

her to grapple with inside of a job where she needs to be able to act quickly, think

quickly.

You know, and she's, she's pushing back on Robbie.

I'm not really on her side like you.

I'm not really on her side, but overall, it's just a very dissatisfying storyline for

Robbie to just be, just think no one else can do this job better than I can and look this

woman physically cannot do this job is a really weird outcome, I think at the end of the

day.

I just think it's so much messier than trying to make space in accommodation for people

with disability or different needs.

And some of that is like, look, even within this episode, two attendings on the floor,

you transpose Dr. Robbie, who was a good but flawed physician with Dr. Alashimi with Judith

and her baby.

We've seen already this season, Alashimi frees, have one of her seizures at this moment

which is confronted with this past trauma from working with doctors, the abortors and

like the very specific pain of that cause.

Like, is she fit to be in that room in that like split second emergency where if they

do not get this baby out in seconds, right?

There's huge risk to both the baby and the mother.

It's just like the fact that you're raising that within this episode as she's trying to

defend herself.

And I think almost most damningly, the fact that she's going to the chief neurologist

to basically get a permission slip tells you that she knows there's something wrong

with this.

Like if it was fine, you don't need anyone's approval to do this.

Where I would disagree with you is that is there a role that she can play on the floor

that is extremely helpful?

Yes.

And that's her argument that doesn't require her being in those particular moments.

I think that's absolutely true in the case.

It's not being an attending though.

Or an attending that plays a different role.

You know, I don't know the exact parameters of the job definition, you know, because like

this is a teaching hospital.

We are instructing people.

You know, there's a lot of things that attendings do and especially, you know, we talked

about the night shift.

There are two attendings on the night shift, right?

So like, do we need both Abbott and Shen doing the exact same job if they're both there?

It doesn't seem like Abbott is the slightly senior attending over Shen is what it appears

to be.

He's the one giving the like who raw sort of motivational speeches to the troops.

So I don't know.

I don't have the answer.

I am very curious to see how the rest of the cast and the people who worked on this episode

talk about it after everyone's seen it.

I'm very curious to see how audiences react to it.

But like, on the one hand, I am with you in that I am like, I'm frustrated with this

character for concealing this information.

On the other hand, I don't think it means there's no future for her inside of this department.

You know, I don't think they're saying either.

Yeah, I don't think it's that there's no future.

I think it's not the future that she wants, right?

Like she wants to take over this department in Robbie's absence and bring in a second

attending and kind of like reshape what the pit looks like.

And she could definitely be involved in that particular effort.

But the day-to-day minute-to-minute second-to-second reality of being an attending just doesn't

feel reasonable with her circumstance.

But is the second-to-second reality of being attending Robbie's definition of what

that is and is that in a completely unsustainable, untenable, like, you know, definition of what

it means to be an attending?

Yeah, I think she's hands on to probably an unhealthy degree.

But in a best case scenario, I would think an attending in this context is like the ultimate

safety net, right?

It's like it's a teaching hospital.

You're trying to delegate and assign and help people learn first.

But when things get really bad, you have to be able to jump in.

And those are the exact moments where, and honestly, even she froze teaching earlier

this season when she was trying to explain like the asthmatic medications, even that

was a moment of a seizure for her.

And so there's something about this environment that doesn't seem very conducive to the

way that she, like, whatever state she's incurring with all this.

Yeah, it's interesting.

And then like, I find myself largely disassified with the storyline this season.

And I'll be curious to see how it plays out.

And I want to be very clear, not with Sepede Moafi's performance, which I really liked.

And I think part of the reason I'm frustrated by the character beats here at the end is I

came to really like Dr. Ashimi at points in the season.

And ultimately, like, the bringing us along and getting us on her side, I think that part

was successful.

And so I just feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me, not in a narratively

satisfying way, but in a way where it's just like, what was all this for?

And this, I mean, to go back to sort of my question about theories this season, this

is one of the instances where I was like, this is a mystery that the show was asking viewers

to ask questions about and try to follow breadcrumbs and say, what's going on from the

very beating of the season.

What is going on with Dr. Alhish?

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Ask

impression of her and I like it didn't feel like it was written like a final scene for a character.

The report in variety was that this was a story driven decision to write Samira Mohan off the show.

Where is the drive here? Where is that motivation? I just feel like this is a wildly unsatisfying

and unsatisfactory really. It's not about I don't need Mohan to have wins. I don't need her to try

I don't even need her to have perfect clarity. But we need a turn in her story where she is

angling towards something. It doesn't have to be a complete moment of realization. It's like,

oh, I need to be in geriatrics or whatever. But where we leave her is just like languishing in

the ambulance bay beaten down by the day and by Robbie. And I guess she's just going to leave.

I mean, do we need her angling towards something or is it realistic for some people to just wash out?

Oh no, I don't I don't even mean that. I just mean from a character standpoint. Yeah.

And turning a corner towards some kind of understanding of what it is she's meant to do or not be here.

But like, is that where we find her just sort of like beaten down and washed out?

I think part of what which I hate. Yes. Yes.

Where we find her, you know, I think that idea that there are some people who and we were just

talking about this with Elshimi too, who are just like great doctors, but maybe not best suited

for this kind of medicine. Yeah. That's an interesting idea. I don't think we ever got to the point

where like those ideas were raised but never processed. And maybe that's unreasonable to expect

within the context of one day. But this, yeah. I think that's the main issue is like this is the

limitation of a TV show like the pit in order to do this over the course of, you know, because the

story arc for for Samir Mahan and season one was Robbie's on her ass for being too slow. And yet

sometimes when she takes the slow and steady approach, she finds things that other people miss.

Yes. And then at the very end in the absolute moment of crisis, she comes through as an absolute rock star.

That's her arc in season one. That's one day. And we get another day and it's just a complete

washout for this person. And so like that's a question I had. I don't think I got a chance to

ask during the panel, but that was a question I have is like can one bad day just do rail a person?

It is that is that something that the pit writers feel like they can demonstrate. Did we need to

meet Samir at the beginning of this day a bit more on the ropes than we met her for this to be sort of

like the final straw of her time in the ED. We meet her, her mom's calling her. She has this

plan to go to New Jersey like her plan, but like it's all a lot to happen over the course of the day.

And I kind of feel like if this were a season of washing her like again wash out, which is not

something I want for a character that I really like. And I think is really good at her job in many,

many ways. But would it make more sense if it happened over the course of a year or a couple

months in this person's life? Yeah. I think the one bad day as the final straw. And we almost

get that with Robbie in this episode where I think there are so many moments when he and all the

other doctors are treating Judith and her baby and trying to get them back to stay right where you

can tell like she needs a complete win, right? It's like if anything happens to either Judith or

the baby, that's maybe it for Dr. Rubin of it, right? With the day he's had with the momentum with

all of this suicidal ideation and like vocalizing it all day, he's in such a delicate place that he

needs this one thing to go right. I don't have any sense of that with Samira over the course of

the season that it was like the Orlando Diaz case for as tough as that is like a loss for a doctor

to take. And she tried so hard at so many points to make that work that it would be the kind of thing

that would dramatically change the entire course of her career. Yeah. And especially like with the

knowledge that we had that you know, maybe we would rather not have looming over the last few

episodes that the actress wasn't coming back. Yeah. It just I think it it re-contextualized the whole

story like for us. It's really tough. I don't I don't know both full story of what's happening with

Cypriot Ganesh, but like this does not feel like a clean clear, we're writing this first of all.

No. Did I with Dr. Collins last season? You know, so. And yeah, both just left hanging in a way that

yeah, I get you're wanting to capture the reality of a day and you don't want to have every character

who leaves the show, which structurally there will be characters who leave the show based on the

realities of these sorts of departments. They're not all going to get like their big dramatic send-off

where everyone cuts a piece of cake and salutes them all. Dr. Shen wishes there's a piece of cake

for every send-off. Sometimes so do I. Yeah. So like I'm open to lots of different versions of this.

I think what this felt like was they didn't quite know if they were going to have Dr. Mohan back

on the show or not and wrote it in this like ambiguous up in the air sort of way that does not work

for our character that's this important to the pit. And it also left me like hanging on every word

even when she is trying to give Robbie a note of like encouragement on the way out as far as his

own mental health struggle. What she says is have a good trip. Please be safe. We need you here.

Not they need you here. Not the pit needs you. Not this place needs you. It's like

that's not a character in that moment has already decided she's gone. And maybe that's fine for

the kind of story you're trying to tell. But it certainly doesn't seem like your writer's room was

like going into this moment in the scene fully understanding that this was going to be her exit.

It's really fascinating. So at the Paley Fest event watching the episode backstage the people

who were there on the panel were watching the episode. So like watching Kathleen also like laugh

at the funnier parts of the episode really delightful and stuff like that. But the most like

but you could hear the audience watching the episode and they're laughing and they're gasping

and they're doing all this stuff because it was a huge crowd at the Paley Fest event.

There was the most the moment that like really surprised everyone. Scott Gammel who wrote this

episode included was when Robbie was nice and encouraging to Victoria and the whole theater

person to applaud. They were like Robbie managed to be nice and everyone got really excited about it.

So I thought that was really interesting but like that he could find that grace for

Javadi. Like I still don't feel like I have nailed down like when Robbie can find it within himself

to be a supportive mentor telling Victoria you can do anything right. Right. Right. Not just like I

think you could do that you could do it just like the kind of blanket approval from Daddy that like

you want. It was a little too blanket for my taste. Fine fair. But like nothing not a crumb for

Samira. Yeah. Not a crumb of like I get it moms are tough or like what are the way you want.

Or we need you here too or you know medicine needs you or something like that. Just like nothing

for her really tough. Well, even the way he has talked all season about whether what her future

should hold it was never your talents would be really suited towards this. It's like the pace of

this place doesn't work for you. Yeah. You need to wash out to be in something else. Well, I mean,

he almost gets there a couple times like he's like there's a lot of all of us. Anyway, okay,

let's talk about Victoria. So the new so you're talking about something that feels as factory for

a character at the end of season is pointing in a specific direction. And so you get that very

explicitly Victoria pointing into the direction of mental health inside of this. This is Whitaker's

idea. Bad ass self care perhaps. Robbie approves. Yeah. How do you how do you how do you feel about this

storyline? I actually really like this one because it feels like a culmination of everything she's

been going through all day. And specifically the kinds of cases we've seen animate her, right? Like

when she was working with Jackson and his family, you could tell like that's a difficult situation.

She's learning on the fly. It's not something that she's like inherently suited for has like the

knowledge understanding of how to do it yet. But she has the compassion for it and the attention

to detail for it. And you can see her like learning in real time how to be better at this part of

her job. And also she gets to if she does end up going into emergency psych specifically, the parts

of working in an ED that appeal to her are still there, right? The urgency, the adrenaline like

helping people in in very specific need right now. That's still there. But there's not necessarily

the roxy level mortality events, right? It's like you are brought into console with people who need

help who are looking for some kind of outlook and you're trying to help them find it. But you're not

having to deal with just like the loss after loss after loss that as she lays out is basically

eating everybody in this department alive. She reads everyone to filth very accurately.

Except what a girl she mercifully stops short. She diagnosis all of them. So yeah, perhaps this

is a great future. But how did you feel about it? This is this work for you? Yeah. I mean like

I love the idea of Victoria finding something that is her own. It's not dermatology. It's not what

her mom wants. It's not even just like doing what she's currently doing. It's something specific,

something she's interested in. I really love that. I would love you know, and I would love that

for for all of them. Just sort of you know, it's the anti-Someric. As Samaria is just like casting

around for just sort of like ultrasound felt like what fellowship can I follow that? You know,

she just does not have a bead on on what animates her, what she's passionate about. And since we

spent all this time with these people, we care about them. We want them to be animated in full

of passion, you know, which is something that like for better for worse, like Abbott has found

the the joy inside of all of this. And Robbie is just being pulverized by this. And so like where

where's the joy? Where is the yeah, where's the passion? And so like for her to find that,

I'm excited for for that potentiality. Yeah, I think that's great. Mel King and Santos.

This is incredible stuff. I love them as a as a unit together. I love this idea of

it's an unlikely animal friendship, you know, like a lion and a dog, a baby lion and a puppy

that just found each other in the wild. But Mel being like slightly immune to to Trinity

Santos's like sharper cuts, you know what I mean? She just lets it kind of roll a bit.

True. And Santos really needing like another wittaker, like another pal, because you know, he's

off on the farm and that seems like where he's going to stay. So this was great. Mel,

something that Taylor Deirdre inside of the panel is she was like, she's like, I don't think Mel

King drinks. And so I was trying to figure out like how to do this. Right. Sober. And then she

said he's super honest who plays. Santos said like, oh yeah, but Santos is the kind of person

who would just spike Mel's drink. And she's like, okay. So that's what they played. But like her

little dance moves, not just like the taking out the hair and the glasses, but just like these

little like little hoppy dance moves. She does like that is like incredibly precious. Very good.

Yeah. Melee being drunk in characters really hard or half drunk in character dancing in

character, very difficult. And yet everything she does feels like exactly Mel. I love, I love

these two people who desperately just need like a friend finding each other at the end of their

shift. I get it really is one of the best moments of the finale. I would love a little karaoke

on core at the end of every season if we want to keep going back to it. I was just on cloud nine.

Honestly, it was so good. As you know, I love a musical moment. I thought this was so good.

Before we hit like Dana and Robbie and Langdon who are like sort of the big three I would say in

this finale, can we talk about my favorite finale tradition, which is Dr. Shannon, Dr. Ellis,

like Tom Foulery. And the Tom Foulery we get in this particular episode because like last

last season, people were called call it was like the fork up the nose moment. Oh yeah. And like

wanting to take a photo of it. And so this like we get the code for our dead body was the DB,

right? DB in the chair in chairs. This sort of argument back and forth about like whose

responsibility is it is the night shift responsibility is the day shift responsibility.

I do love that element with Robbie and Abbott both. It's always like how can they shirk the

responsibility of this patient to another another shift. And then for Ellis and Shen to just like

come out into chairs and just be like so it was so funny. What is the hyper and archilepsy?

Yeah, it's a serious condition. Are you are you a doctor? I'm not. Yeah. But this guy's been here

since 5 a.m. Does he smell okay? He's got to be a little gamey. Yeah. It's been hot in the

in that that's what I'm saying. It's he hasn't been in the fridge. You know, really tough. But yeah,

they just hoisted him out of there and it's pretty phenomenal work. But this episode needs some of

that right? It's like where can you find the humor in it? And I think there are very intense

emotional scenes like Abbott does a good job of it's like emotional truth and hard reality. And

undercutting ourselves without like necessarily making light of what Robbie is going through.

And this is where in anywhere you can find it like a little joke, a little barb, a little something

just to keep us feeling like engage in a live and not like we're all about to be driven like

buffalo off of the cliff. Great call. Thanks, Joe. Well, I think it's a similar moment of just sort of

I don't know emotional connection was when we get the women of Ender's assembling on the roof to

watch the fireworks. No, man, there's like a one man blurly in the background, but not any of our

main characters. And we get the hug between Perla and Dana. That's very sweet. That's just like

really hit for me. What did you think about something about we've seen lots of characters cry on the

pit and almost cry on the pit. Something about Perla with tears and arise watching the fireworks

at the end of this kind of day really hit me. Yeah, I think overall, yeah, there's a lot of stuff in

this episode that doesn't work. There are a lot of individual character arcs I'm not super pleased with.

Some of the big emotional stuff did. And I think some of that is like Robbie oriented,

some of its baby Jane Doe oriented. Some of it's just little things like this where it's like a

character we have this kind of time spent with who I care about. And just seeing her like have a

moment of emotional outburst if that. Anything else you want to say about Dana this season Dana,

you know, she gets a to dress down the cops and talk about the rape kits once again,

but doesn't have anything else sort of like major in this episode. It's kind of just a wrap-up

episode for Dana. Anything else you want to mention here? I thought this was pretty Dana light

actually. Like she is in the mix consistently and she's going around figuring out if there's like a

way for somebody to foster baby Jane Doe unsurprisingly, not a lot of takers on that one for this staff

like people heart passed. Yeah, I mean they've got a lot going on. And I approve of all of them

hard passing completely. Yeah. Did you feel any whiplash at all by the Dana Robbie dynamic in this

episode? Because we've just seen for episodes on end hours on end in their shift. They've just

been like going at each other and they've been trading those sorts of barbs. They've just been like

at each other's throats. This episode starts and it's just like they're just cutting up like old

times. And maybe it's just like all that tension is sort of fizzled out as they've gotten exhausted,

but it did feel like a pretty sharp turn from where we were last week. I kind of felt like it was

her handing off the responsibility to Abbott to a certain degree like she has enlisted Abbott.

And she's like I've done everything I can do. Yeah. I'm done fighting this battle. I'll just be

supportive to my my friend and colleague here and hope that this other person can get through to

hand. Not her monkey, not her circus. Exactly. This is a Langdon episode in a Robbie episode is what

it feels like. And I, you know, I've been invested in the Langdon story all season. So we got a

really interesting email from our listener Pat about last week's episode, Robbie complimenting Langdon.

Gets this little morsel of approval from daddy, right? And he says, um, Pat wrote the Langdon scene

after Robbie complimented him with tough was a tough watch. The relief on his face seemed to me to

be the dynamics of a codependent relationship. My father was an alcoholic with a temper. When he

was mad at you, he wouldn't talk for days. When he finally did the relief was overwhelmingly

emotional. There's a cruelty to purposely withholding love as a form of control. At least I

projected my experience on to Langdon's reaction. It's not the only example this season or even this

episode, but I think it displays the emotional trauma. Robbie is yielding in the ED. I really

love that analysis, especially when we get in this episode, Langdon confronting Robbie and saying,

you remind me of a lot of people that I met and rehab your behavior is that of a substance

abuser. And if it is not, you know, addiction to drugs or alcohol, it is addiction to the adrenaline

of the ED. It is your sort of like emotional addiction, like whatever whatever the case may be, but

you need psychiatric help, which people have been telling him all day. Yes. Robbie's like,

no, thank you for your analysis here, you know, while like just pushing back, right? Just being

very snide, um, as no, while he put on the panel, like very petty, all of this sort of stuff. Um,

but I thought this is a great Langdon Moie, you know, Langdon has his drug test,

which presumably he he passed, um, despite a lot of email theories that he wouldn't.

That's a little, a little cute about the process. It's like, yeah, you have to be observed

taking your urine test. That's because you've been watching a lot of you for a while.

It's true. I'm, I'm, I'm, those, those are mom distributed urine tests. Don't even get me

started about the official capacity. Um, as you mentioned, we go up to a different floor,

very unusual moment for the pit. We follow Langdon following the, the neck,

fasch case to sort of end and like, he gets a compliment from the, from the nurse who's like,

you know, you did a good job. And, but he's going to be hard at himself because of the

invitation above the knee, which is a much harder, uh, you know, reality to navigate going forward.

And so, you know, he's being told you did a good job, good catch, and all he sees is the ways

in which he failed and someone down, which is kind of an echo the conversation has with Mel too,

where she kind of tells him a version of the same thing. Exactly. And so like, he has,

yet, of course, the conversation with Mel in this finale, like, when is he not going to find a

moment to talk to Mel? Um, and then he has his conversation with Robbie. And I really, I really liked,

I really, really liked this scene. What did you think? I like most of it. I think the Langdon stuff,

especially him going to check in on his patient, yeah, just like the larger, where is your confidence

level on a day like this? Yeah. Thread that has been like, strewn throughout his season. I think

it's been really effective. And it makes total sense for where that character would be coming from

after all this time off. Right. The Robbie stuff. I'm a little mixed on. And I think this is just like

a me a personal thing where I'm finding a little bit of clash between a character as a person

and a character as a vehicle for drama. Right. And so it's like, as a person, Dr Langdon coming to Dr.

Robbie, a guy who's important in his life and telling him like, you need help in the most direct

fashion possible. It's never going to work because of how test you their relationship is. And so

it's like, you still have to try if that person matters to you. And this, and he has been acting

all day the way that Robbie has been acting. So I get it from it from it from as a real life person

in the scenario, I get it. For dramatic purposes, I'm not sure that he says a lot that Abbot didn't

just say. And so it does feel like it's a little bit of a hat on a hat. And I get some of that is

baked into the process of so many people having these sorts of conversations with Robbie at this

stage in the season. But I was left wondering, wouldn't it have been true to the arc these two

guys have been on for Robbie not to be able to find Langdon when he finally did want to talk to him?

Relenton to have already been gone. I think that would be interesting. I don't disagree with you.

I do think it's even if it were the identical words. I think the source is so different.

For sure. Abbot versus Langdon. We got some emails from people talking about like, why is it that

Robbie can hear certain things from like Duke and Abbot and not various other people? And the point

that a couple of our listeners made was like, these are the only people who are not subordinate to

Robbie. Abbot and Duke are the only two people who are, I mean, they're other. Same in shorts,

you know, like they're a couple of their people. But like that are talking to him in this manner,

right? And so from Langdon, this is coming from a subordinate who has disappointed Robbie or make

me, you know, as Noah Wiley has been talking about all season, made Robbie disappointed in himself.

Like I let him down as a leader or something like that. So all of that is true. But I think also

Langdon pushing back and like Robbie, like abused him all day. Like shit on him all day.

Other than the one little crumb of approval he gave in last week's episode. And for someone to not

just take it and to push back on him, I think is an important interaction for him to have. I did

ask Noah Wiley at the Pale Fess panel is Robbie going on his trip and Izzy coming back. And he said

yes to both. Yes, he's going on his trip. Yes, he's, I mean, like we knew he was coming back. But I

was curious if he was going to go at all. Like if Dr., if if this Dr. Alashimi revelation was

going to stop him or something like that. Yes, he's going. Yes, he's coming back. And then I

asked him like was there a moment inside of this episode? Was it swaddling the baby? Was it

talking to Abbott? Was it, you know, that that sort of changed his mind? And he said no, it's

accumulation of all of it, which is understandable, which is something you just said. But like so I

think that Langdon element is important. Yeah. To not just have Abbott say it to him, but to have

Langdon pushed back on him and just say like you can't treat me like shit all day and get away

with it. Samira kind of lets him get, you know, we need you here. Sort of like Samira lets him get

away with it. But like Langdon doesn't. And that's I think it's important. So maybe that is what I

wanted from Samira for her to not let all she says is you're kind of a dick sometimes. Because very

mild compared to like what he deserves for the way that he treats. Especially to come off of like

I was just letting my mom treat me like a child. And now you're letting Robbie kind of treat you

like a child very tough. I hear what you're saying about the accumulation. I think that makes total

sense. I also think just sort of reframing this as we're talking about it as much more of a Langdon

moment than a Robbie moment like those elements. I do think are important for his character and

the sticking up for himself and kind of asserting a different place within this E.D. Like he's not

the golden boy anymore. He's not Robbie's chosen one to succeed him or follow in his footsteps.

But he's going to have to charge something new for himself. And that that kind of thing is going to

have to be a little bit more adversarial at times. I love that. Last but not least, Robbie himself.

Several mental health professionals wrote into the podcast to note that if all of these people

including a you know a literal psychiatrist in last episode are asking Robbie about, hey man,

you're saying some things that are a little troubling. Several mental health professionals wrote

into say it is very odd that no one asked Robbie directly about suicidal ideation. That it is

standard procedure. If you suspect you asked, you don't beat around the bush. You don't hem and

haw. You asked directly and no one is doing that with Robbie. And these are people who would know

exactly that that that's the procedure. So they all thought that that was like really strange.

Yeah. It's a great call. But yeah, we get the Abbott conversation, we get the baby Jane Doe moment,

we get the Mohan confrontation, we get the Javadi encouragement, we get the Langdon confrontation.

I want to read one last email from our listener Andy who gave that interesting analysis of the

badge and what occurred. And this is most of Andy's email was about Robbie though. The loss of Robbie's

mentor, Adamson, and seeing lost constantly also plays a role in his sense of importance and a

hyper responsibility in my perception. We know he feels responsible for Adamson's death and cannot

truly forgive himself. In this as well is perhaps more selfish thought from a juvenile place of being

furious that his mentor abandoned him. I think that's a great call. What a conflict to hold in mind

if that's a factor. In my experience with patients, that sort of conflict is pretty common.

It's like the emotional equivalent of digby's arm untended with decaying bits being eaten by maggots

because shame and a sense of unsightliness or expendability has prevented help seeking. There's

just a lot of festering under the service for Robbie and it's being intensely projected outward

or mismanaged in inappropriate ways such as in his relationship with Whitaker with whom he is

overidentified and whose boundaries he violates after extolling the virtues of setting limits.

So yeah, I mean, like here's the thing about Robbie, Dr. Rubenich. I like him as a person much less

this season than I like to mincee in one. I kind of love him as a character. I think this because

it's by design. I think Noah Wiley is doing a tremendous job in this performance. And this is just like

you know, I think we came into the show especially watching Robbie like give speeches about sort of like

especially in season one speeches about emotional management or what it means to be in the ED

and we're like this is our leader of this is our coach Taylor like this is our guy. And not this season,

you know, and that's just like a human reality. He is a human character. He is messy. He is frustrating.

And he is all these things and it is being performed very well. And it's like thinking back on

YAR, I show that this is definitely not a spin off of. Absolutely not a spin off of YAR. Not a

spin off of YAR. Yeah, there's characters like Anthony Edwards character Dr. Green, having like a

season where you're just sort of like what is going on with Dr. Green who is like a leader that

we're used to looking up to or people who are in higher levels in the hospital who were assholes

from the start who are always assholes. You know, and so like that kind of archetype is one that

that medical shows and specifically the medical show that Noah Wiley cut his teeth on like spend a

lot of time with. It's just I think it's that day in a life aspect again. I'm just like watching a

day in in Robbie's life where he was struggling in season one but still showing up as like an

encouraging mentor in many cases not always but in many ways. And this day he's just not up to the

task man and we're just experiencing that over several months of viewership. We're experiencing one

guy's really bad maybe his worst day you know. But that investment in terms of story and track laid

I think does pay off here in the finale. Yeah. And really leading into with the episode two I think

the conversation with Duke the conversation with Abbott some of those other send offs of the other

characters intersperses in there and then where he ends up swaddling baby Jane Dobreley swaddling

himself that stuff I think all really hits and like hits in a really deep emotional place that

the pit is very good at accessing through often Noah Wiley who I I agree with you the performance

is breathtaking. I think just kind of the the defeated way he's carrying himself throughout this

episode in particular when he has to glove up to go like help save this baby and just like the

he just he just is so clearly carrying so much at that point he's physically transformed.

There's also many you know this episode is directed by it was written by Scott Gamble and directed

by John Wells like powerhouse people and the many times inside of this episode where Robbie is like

on the other side of glass yeah where audio is muffled where he's just sort of like space you know

sort of all has to me like sort of spacing out inside of this episode I thought I thought was

like a really great depiction of his isolation is but like more so than I think we've gotten in

previous episodes it just felt like a really a directorial flourish of just sort of positioning and

but then there's also this moment and this this is brought brought up to me in the panel by someone

at HBO and they had mentioned and I don't know who but another journalist had pointed this out to

them that in the scene where he is swaddling the baby but actually swaddling himself he's in the

nursery which is his like most triggering spot the place that he lost Adamson.

But he had his own breakdown last season.

He had his own breakdown last season and there's a son in the mural on the wall and at one point

it sort of framed behind him to almost look like a halo.

Yeah.

Um interesting stuff.

Very interesting stuff.

I'm tremendously moved by where Robbie ends up this season.

I'm with you that as a character I find him fascinating as a person like endlessly frustrating

as the show wants you to be.

Um I think there is though a fundamental tension between how much and we talked about this

earlier in the season.

This is a Dr. Robbie Noah Wiley show and how much it is an ensemble show.

And there are I think there was always going to be a portion of people who love and watch the

pit who love Mel King or love Frank Langdon or love Dana and I think Dana may be a little more

impervious to this and other characters but by nature of the ensemble like we were talking about

earlier like somebody is going to get less screen time and it's not going to be Dr. Robbie.

Anything else you want to say about the pit?

I had such a good time covering the show.

Honestly I mean a very close season to talk about.

However spicy I feel about the finale I feel quite mixed about it but like I feel quite

positive about the experience occurring the show.

I don't think this is the best show on television but I do understand why it's probably going

to win the Emmy again.

Sure.

And it has become just in terms of a practice of watching a story weekend week out.

Getting invested, emotionally invested in characters that we spend so much time with.

Especially in shows that we cover on this podcast just the length of time we spend with them.

Oh yeah.

It's just a very special thing.

So I'm going to miss talking about the pit but it'll be back next year and as they've

announced set in November.

Not coming back in November but next season will be set in November.

So do you think it's going to be Thanksgiving proper or do you think it's going to be

blackout Wednesday or whatever it is we decided the night before Thanksgiving was called?

Blackout Wednesday would be great.

Honestly like Black Friday someone just got trampled in a rush for like a new flat screen TV.

It would also be pretty fun.

I can't wait to see the winter time fits that are that are rolling in.

You know we had the humidity this season we had like the busted AC we had just like people

sweat and bullets out there.

I want to see everyone cozy time.

Yeah.

Let's see what we look like.

Come on.

All right.

We've talked about all these character arcs.

We talked about the season and what paid off and what didn't.

And there's just like one thing that rung out from this episode for me because it's like the one

actual medical case with Judith and her baby and the whole like wild birth situation which

I don't even want to fucking touch with a 10 foot pole.

But as it was happening in real time, a great character moment that's uniting all of a lot

of these different arcs, especially robbies.

But also just like the one constant of the show even more than Noah Wiley even more than the

ensemble that we love even more than like the various emotional storylines that were pulled into

the production on this show.

The viscera.

The viscera is unreal.

And I said yeah.

The amniotic sack ripple.

I rewatched that like four different times.

What even is that?

How did they do all the panel they talked about the fact that that woman it was like all person

that like neck up she was like sitting and then it was just like an entire prosthetic body like

on the table in front of her that they could like reset it and do it multiple times.

But yeah, the amniotic sack slicing was a real but like then like the baby coming out like so

like that was actually a really, really tough one for for me to watch.

And just terrifying a case as we've had on this show.

Yeah, absolutely.

It was interesting.

Um, Scott Gammel didn't answer this but I was curious like what the thought process was behind like

you know, okay, so you want a case in your finale where you're going to get like

abbots in there, mucasin there, you know, uh, crews in there, um, like ton of doctors are in there.

So like what goes behind the sort of like, what kind of case do you want?

And he's like, oh, we lead that up to our medical consultants.

We just tell them we need a case where all these people will be involved.

Give us a real scary one.

Yeah, and they come up with something and I was like, okay.

Why is terror?

I thought it was going to be a little bit more story.

And it's story driven but like, um, but I was like, the answer was our medical professionals come

out with that. I'm like, okay, well, it was a great, it was a great one.

It was a very harrowing.

Um, the dice rolled the medical professional spoke and it was exactly what this episode needed.

So just like a shout out to that case in particular, which yeah, I was consistently terrified by,

but also the way it's executed on the pit is just exceptional.

Yeah, I really good.

Shout out to the amniotic sack.

Shout to all our amniotic sacks out there.

Shout out to everyone who's here in sickamore today,

helping us out Jacobs on the show today.

Ky Grady.

Go ahead and bump me on today for many different reasons.

Just our fame.

So glad that he's here.

They just don't make them like Ky Grady.

They don't. They don't.

Thank you to all of our listeners for hanging out with the pit all season.

And stick around for euphoria and beef and we'll see you soon.

Bye.

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