The Pitt Seaon 2 finale fell into just about every trap available

There’s a stereotypical line parents allegedly say that I’ve never understood; mine weren’t the type, and I never wanted to - until last night, when I finally figured out how it’s used.

I’m not mad at The Pitt, I’m just disappointed, because last night’s season two finale fell into just about every trap available.

Actually, I’m a little mad, too. All indications are this show knows better than to make the mistakes it did, proven by how much they’ve been consistently doing right. Example: I just lost 20 minutes watching an emergency resuscitative hysterotomy – the main medical procedure(s) we saw on last night’s episode. It was beat-for-beat accurate to the point where The Pitt could and can function as an emergency medicine study guide.

Which we already knew – social media is full of ‘Doctors react to The Pitt’, all amazed how well and how accurately the show portrays daily life in the ER, and how it teaches the rest of us. We’re dropped in like medical students and learn as we go. (A few months ago, Kathleen and I agreed we could each probably successfully intubate with the other’s assistance, and unfortunately season two has only made me more confident on that front.) A GQ piece that dropped yesterday highlighted more of the show’s immersion techniques – no music, so you have to watch the show to process and interpret the dialogue, and lenses that most closely mimic the human eye. Combined with other methods like dressing crew members in scrubs and having a consistent BG, you really believe you’re in this Pittsburgh ER on the world’s longest shift.

So after all that immersive verisimilitude over two seasons, why veer suddenly, greedily, toward low-hanging drama instead? Last night’s episode, hour 15, is technically after Dr. Robby’s shift has ended and before he goes on sabbatical. In theory I can buy that he might have a conversation or two with colleagues he’s not going to see for a few months (or ever, as the show’s subtext-becoming-text reminds us, since he’s not sure he wants to be here anymore).

But Robby didn’t have a conversation or two, he had, at my very rough count, seven heart-to-hearts of varying degrees, all of which were just…two people standing in the middle of a hospital talking about their feelings (and an episode last week that was more of the same.) Not a single conversation was interrupted midway by an incoming trauma or other hospital business – Robby walked up to people and they walked up to him, and they talked about feelings without any euphemisms or veiled messages. They also weren’t doing anything else at the time; while I appreciate the anti-Grey’s Anatomy vibes in terms of not bringing personal problems into the trauma bay, I’m incredibly frustrated by the tidiness of everyone Robby wanted to talk to being available, aware of the subtext, and articulate about their own perspectives.

I’m sorry, this is a rookie writing mistake. People don’t just spout their feelings; in fact they work hard not to, no matter how emotionally raw they are at the end of a shift. I get that this season has been about Robby breaking down as he has to face his mental health, and could theoretically buy that this is where he is right now – for better and worse, Noah Wyle and co-creator R. Scott Gemill have made it clear this show is seen through his imperfect eyes, so even though I think the accusations of this season being one long Emmy submission for Wyle aren’t inaccurate, I could get behind it…except he’s not the only one!

This episode is lousy with day shifters having emotional realizations at their coworkers – Javadi, Langdon, Santos, Mohan! Again, the show is better than this. For example, we’ve watched all ‘day’ this season as Mel processes and reframes Becca as a grown adult with a social and sexual life, and as she realizes she’s been short-changing her own life and telling herself it was because her sister needed her. It was nicely done and understated – we don’t need a heart-to-heart where Langdon remarks, apropos of virtually nothing “sounds like your sister is pretty together” and Mel agrees. We already knew that from watching the excellent show you made. Telling us out loud makes that realization less effective, not more. Santos taking Mel for ‘primal scream therapy’ karaoke after work? Yes, I buy this:

@stuccomans YOOOOO WE GOT A POST CREDIT FOR THE PITT SEASON 2 ENDING AND ITS MENTOS (Mel and Santos) and it’s cool to see them outside of the Pitt and they look so free. #fyp #fypシ #pitt #thepitt #finale ♬ original sound - stuccomans

…but did they have to have a big talk about their emotions and their needs for a night out before they decided to go?

Actually, the more I think about it, I don’t love that they did this. It feels like fan service! I hate that they left the ED, puncturing again that immersive reality they wanted us to buy all the way into. It’s the end of the season, so in theory we’re ‘done working’ and can leave – but we already did that! This season’s equivalent of S1’s beers-in-the-park comedown happens on the roof as ‘day shift’ takes in the 4th of July fireworks and contemplates their existence…while America The Beautiful plays ironically and we pan over the diverse faces of the ED each processing in their own way. I did like the inclusion of Perlah’s flinching at each explosion, a wordless nod to a growing (though strenuously contested) awareness that fireworks and airshows often retraumatize residents who have experienced bombings and other realities of war, and I liked that the staff were in their street clothes, reminding us they’re all heading off to actual lives and what we see is just one work day in a long, unbroken chain of them. There was no need to go to a karaoke bar except that, per the above Tiktok, “Mentos” fans would love it.

And this (finally!) is the crux of my criticism of this finale.

The show’s whole point is that it’s not a ‘medical drama about the lives and loves of sexy doctors and nurses’ – it’s about an ER. Period. This was so beautifully exhibited, and not overexplained, in season one. They let us know about Abbot’s amputation wordlessly and never come back to it! McKay’s ankle bracelet and incarceration were so secondary to her medical practice that they didn’t have any effect on our opinion of her, which was precisely the point.

But the creators of The Pitt blinked.

They were worried they couldn’t do another season of the show that would be as beloved, maybe, so they did more – breaking the rules of the show by sending Langdon up to surgery and meeting Whitaker’s maybe-baby in the ambulance bay? It’s possible.

Or, despite Wyle and Gemmill’s repeated assurances that everyone on the show would come and go without fanfare because the show is about the department (the fact that all the white-presenting characters are predicted to return notwithstanding), maybe they got nervous at this season’s rabid but unhinged online reactions, the loudest of which almost uniformly displayed an alarming lack of narrative literacy, and decided the last episodes of the season needed to loudly instruct us how to feel instead of just trusting the viewers to understand.

Case in point: imagine if Robby hadn’t suddenly told us, via Mohan, that he always wanted a wife and two kids. Wouldn’t that end sequence with Baby Jane Doe be even more poignant as a result? Wouldn’t it feel better if we realized at the same time Robby did that maybe love would be what gave him something to live for, instead of having been primed for it ten minutes earlier?

The first season of The Pitt was The Pitt. The second season of The Pitt wanted to be the second season, but instead became a self-conscious mishmash – people want more of Robby being tortured and sexy? Dana being sassy? Mel being quirky? Let’s give everyone All The Things – and take away what made the show so incredible in the first place.

This is bad, but it isn’t fatal – there’s an available course-correction for the rapidly-approaching third season. However, it’s far from guaranteed.

It requires the showrunners climbing out of their own asses. No more panels, appearances, and thoughtful interviews, no more congratulating themselves for being the late-breaking saviors of ‘traditional’ television. It involves recentering the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, putting their heads down and figuring out compelling self-contained ER-focused stories that don’t rely on our favourite characters becoming cuddly neutered Barbies who say their best lines when you pull their strings. At this point, the prognosis? 50/50.

P.S. – I wasn’t kidding about the media literacy front, I can’t handle the number of people who think every throwaway line deserves follow up and resolution, like the ones clamoring for the name of the PittFest shooter. What the hell would that do for us? That said, I keep coming back to the focus on Javadi’s upcoming birthday next Tuesday. Why and for what reason did we need to know? That’s my ‘dangling chad’ of a throwaway, what was yours?

Attached - Taylor Dearden and Isa Briones at The Drew Barrymore Show yesterday in New York.