In episode 3 of The Pitt Season 2, it was revealed that Davis had been wrongfully tased by the campus security guard, Chinchiolo, who assumed that Davis was on some kind of drugs. Since the doctors didn’t find any kind of drugs in Davis’ system, they had to focus on the reason behind his erratic actions. A burn patient named Yana brought up the 2018 synagogue shooting that had traumatized her, and she recalled how the Muslim community had come out in droves to help the Jews recover and repair. In addition to that, Yana reprimanded Robby for his plans to travel all the way to Alberta on his motorcycle, saying that that was a tell-tale sign of his midlife crisis going into overdrive. While one of the Hansens, Clint, got his burnt hand fixed, Harlan entered the ER with extremely low BP. Thanks to some quick thinking from his family and Mel, they were able to stabilize him, and Mel assured Harlan that he’d be well enough to enjoy the Independence Day festivities in the next few hours. Dana and Emma ensured that Digby not only got the treatment he needed presently, but also if and when he ran into some complications in the future.
Kylie’s dad, Benny, finally showed up, and things got tense when it was insinuated that Benny’s “roughhousing” with Kylie had led to the injuries. To make things worse, Benny accused Gina of being careless and letting Kylie get injured. After the test results showed that Kylie had ITP, Gina decided to part ways with Benny because he clearly had anger-management issues. McKay and Gretchen found out that Williams had a mass in his head that was leading to behavioral and motor issues. Louie’s stomach had been drained, but his tooth had started to act up all of a sudden. Mark and Nancy had been in a traffic collision with a motorcyclist, and while the motorcyclist didn’t make it, Mark was fixed up in the ER and Nancy was moved to the OR. And just when things were starting to move smoothly, it was revealed that Westbridge had announced Code Black, which meant that all the ambulances that would have gone there were about to be diverted to the Pitt. What happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
The Betting and Politics Are On
Hour 4 of The Pitt Season 2 opens with Robby and Dana introducing Baran to the betting board, which is handled by Ahmad, and she learns that whoever correctly guesses the reason behind the Code Black at Westbridge wins the pot. Robby plays it safe and says that they are suffering from some kind of severe flooding; they’ll be down for 3 hours, and 20 of their patients will be sent to the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Baran also says that Westbridge has been hit by a flooding issue, but she adds that they’ll be down for 4 hours and the Pitt will tackle 30 of their patients. Dana asks Robby if they should bring in Langdon from Triage, because they’ll need the extra pair of hands; Robby shoots down that request, because he thinks Langdon isn’t ready for all that yet. Princess gets Victoria chatting about her birthday, which prompts Whitaker to guess her zodiac sign, a habit that he claims he has picked up from Santos. Santos doesn’t take that jibe lightly, and she reveals that Whitaker has been “playing house” with Amy Miller—the wife of the burn victim, Teddy Miller—and her child because they remind him of his home on the farm. Whitaker states that Amy is just a friend, but Santos claims that there’s something wrong going on between the two of them. Before we can get to the juicier bits of this “messy” tale, Dana orders the trio to head to the ambulance bay because the patients who would have gone to Westbridge are coming in.
Baran stops Santos in her tracks and tells her to be more particular with her charting. Santos tries to take that lightly, but Baran underscores the fact that she should try her best to avoid repeating her second year of residency again, which involves focusing on the charting. Santos doesn’t say anything to Baran’s face, but as soon as she joins Victoria, Whitaker, and Robby at the ambulance bay, she starts complaining about Baran’s attitude. Robby doesn’t entertain her and stays mum. Victoria actually critiques Santos for trying to engage in office politics. And Whitaker? Whitaker compliments Robby’s bike, which, by the way, still seems like some subtle foreshadowing for the traffic collision that Robby might encounter en route to his sabbatical. With all that out of the way, they welcome Pamela Perry, who is suffering from abdominal pain after eating chilaquiles with fried eggs; Jean Samba, who has chest pain and a history of hypertension; and Vince Cole, who took a 10-foot drop into the skylight of a florist shop while parkouring with his girlfriend, Tanya Young, who was filming the whole thing. While jumping between cases, Baran asks Robby if it’s finally time to transfer Langdon from Triage, and Robby rejects that proposal, because he thinks Langdon needs to suffer down there for a while longer. While talking about the bets, Baran seemingly flirts with Robby. Personally speaking, I don’t like this romantic setup. Later on, at Ahmad’s betting center, Jesse posits the theory that the Code Black has been caused by somebody setting off fireworks in the washroom. Whitaker joins the betting pool and puts down $40 on a power outage, which is cheered by Ahmad, Jesse, and Antoine, because they have never gotten to see this side of Huckleberry.
Willow Finally Meets Dr. J
During hour 2 of The Pitt, Langdon had tended to a patient, Willow Baptiste, who had glued her eyelids shut by using superglue to put on fake eyelashes. Now, we learn that Langdon had told her to put some kind of mineral oil on her eye and wait for 20 minutes. 20 minutes have turned into 2 hours, and that method has clearly not worked; that’s why Willow wants to learn when Langdon can check on her again. Lupe assures her that they are extremely busy and Langdon will get to her as soon as possible. A few minutes later, we see Willow sitting before Langdon, who gives her 2 options: waiting it out for a couple of weeks so that the superglue breaks down on its own, or trimming the eyelashes halfway. Since Willow is hosting an Independence Day party later that evening, she opts for the 2nd choice, and, hilariously enough, it still doesn’t work! At this point, Willow has clearly had it, and she wants to be treated by “Dr. J.” Langdon has no clue who this “Dr. J” is, even though Willow claims that she is one of the best doctors in Pittsburgh. I immediately assumed that she’s talking about Victoria because her last name is Javadi. Some Pitt fans claimed that it could be Joy, because she’s always on her phone. Guess who’s correct, though? Everyone who predicted that the woman of the hour is Victoria.
It’s fascinating to see this side of Victoria, by the way, because the way she talked about hating celebrating her birthday, I thought she stayed away from social media too. Well, I stand corrected, because she has a big TikTok account where she gives medical advice from one of the stairwells of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Willow finally heaves a sigh of relief after seeing Victoria in the flesh. As for Victoria, she gives her signature “shocked Pikachu” expression, because her jig is up and she knows that Langdon is going to tell everyone about her social media presence. Amidst all the leg-pulling, Victoria advises that they cut off the whole eyelash, and Willow says that she is willing to do that if Victoria is the one holding the scissors. Langdon happily lets Victoria take the stage, and Willow finally gets to use both of her eyes. To everybody’s shock, once Willow realizes that her eyelash-less look won’t fly at her party, she asks “Dr. J” and Langdon if she can still put on fake eyelashes. I know that the doctors wanted to loudly yell “No,” because some people never really learn from their bitter experiences.
Jackson’s Situation Is Still Questionable
Jackson’s sister, Jada, arrives at the Pitt to check on how her brother is doing. Lupe obviously doesn’t know every patient that’s been brought in. So, she tells Jada to take a seat, and as soon as the doctors think it’s okay to visit him, she’ll let Jada know. A few minutes later, we see Princess bringing in Jada to have a look at Jackson as he’s being taken for a CT scan, and the first question she asks is why Jackson is unconscious. Victoria says that he was very “uncooperative” when he was brought in, which is why he had to be sedated. Jada tries to learn why the campus security guard had tased him, and Baran says that they are trying to get more info on that. They know that he wasn’t on any kind of drugs, which is why they need to check if he has any physiological or psychological issues that might have triggered a breakdown, or if he was attacked for no reason at all. While waiting for the CT results, Victoria catches up with Jada, who reiterates that this is the first time that Jackson has freaked out so violently. As per Jada, Jackson is perfect from every perceivable angle, and he has a bright future in the field of law ahead of him.
Jada subtly admits that she herself isn’t the favorite child in the family, and even though she isn’t on good terms with her parents, she wonders if she should call them. Victoria says that she should, because there’s a good chance that things might just get serious. That’s when Princess and another nurse bring Jackson back from the CT, and Victoria informs Jada that Jackson’s head, blood, and urine seem alright. Which means that they have to do a spinal tap and see if he has viral encephalitis. Once Victoria and Baran are done with that, Caleb arrives for consultation. The only issue here is that Jackson hasn’t resumed consciousness, which is why Caleb doesn’t have anyone to consult. Caleb advises Victoria to call for him only when the patient is awake, not before; and Victoria assures him that that mistake will never happen again. Caleb doesn’t let his visit to the ER go to waste, and he finally corners Robby for a conversation about his mental health. Caleb says that he has a therapist in line who’ll definitely be up to Robby’s standards. Robby says that he’s going on his sabbatical in the next few hours, and biking is going to be his therapy for the next few days. Caleb has no option but to watch Robby walk away from that conversation. Hopefully, the next time they meet, Robby is still standing on his own two feet and not in a bed in the ICU because of the bike accident the show has been foreshadowing.
Phylicia Has Bulimia
Phylicia Ronson is the woman who had found that baby in the bathroom. Well, she wasn’t taking a stroll in the ER; she’s there to get herself checked out. But while doing so, Ronson asks Langdon how the baby is doing, and he tells her that the Jane Doe is doing alright. After that, Langdon informs Ronson that she doesn’t have COVID, influenza, or RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). However, there can be other reasons for the cough that she’s suffering from. After checking her oxygen levels, Langdon is shocked to see that that number’s decreasing exponentially and she’s running a fever. Langdon wants to start her medication by giving her some Tylenol, but since he eventually wants to take her to the ER, she makes it clear that she can’t skip work just because she’s sick. So, some kind of quick fix is preferable. Langdon isn’t so easily swayed, and he tells her that he has officially commenced her holiday weekend. Before heading in to take a look at Ronson, Mel chats with Santos about her deposition and her tryst with Sanders.
It seems like nothing is going to stop Mel from freaking the hell out about those two cases looming over her head (yeah, she has to tell the police about her encounter with Sanders). For now, she puts her worries on the back burner, though, and begins her analysis of Ronson while Santos checks her vitals. Based on Santos’ analysis, Mel says that Ronson will need a chest X-ray to see the real reason behind her cough and rise in body temperature. A few minutes later, Mel approaches Santos with Ronson’s X-ray, and they arrive at the conclusion that she has aspiration pneumonia. What’s the reason behind it, though? Bulimia. Now, when Mel and Santos try to get Ronson to admit that she suffers from this eating disorder, initially, she gets extremely agitated. But eventually, she opens up about her body image issues and how that prompted her to puke out her food on a regular basis to get that “perfect” body shape. That allows Mel and Santos to recommend remedies and therapy, and Ronson deeply appreciates them for treating her with so much empathy. Once Mel and Santos leave her room, Santos pats Mel on the back for identifying Ronson’s main issue. Mel says that she and her sister used to be very picky eaters, which is why she did a lot of research on the subject in med school. Mel clearly wants to have an in-depth discussion on this with Santos, but Santos wants to focus on her charting. Mel gives her a piece of advice on how to do that quickly and, well, hopefully, Santos will accept that suggestion.
Whitaker Saves Samba After a Strange Heart Attack
Jesse brings in Samba’s vitals to Santos and Whitaker, and Santos says that there’s no STEMI and that he doesn’t need to be sent to the cardiac catheterization lab. But Whitaker asks Jesse if he can repeat the test, but this time with the chest leads on the back, because he thinks this could be a posterior myocardial infarction. Jesse tells Whitaker that he’ll do it if Robby or Baran signs off on it. While Robby does approve of the process, Jesse isn’t available anymore to repeat the test by putting the chest leads on Samba’s back, because Jesse has to deal with a septic patient who’s headed to the ICU. Which means that Whitaker has to do the test himself. Since Samba is sweating like anything, Whitaker has some trouble sticking the leads onto his back. Thankfully, Perlah arrives to inform him about Louie being primed and ready for his tooth draining session, and she ends up giving Whitaker some useful advice about dealing with sweaty backs. Whitaker’s assumption about the posterior STEMI turns out to be correct, and before he can explain to Samba how that’s the worst kind of heart attack, the patient passes out. As Whitaker attempts to revive him, Ogilvie joins him and starts compressions. Also, since Whitaker had anticipated this exact scenario, he had put the defib pads on Samba, which allowed him to not waste any time and get straight to delivering electric shocks to his heart.
Samba regains consciousness, and Robby appreciates Whitaker’s presence of mind. As Samba stabilizes, Whitaker and Ogilvie go and finally take care of that tooth that Louie has been complaining about. Whitaker does remind Louie this procedure is a temporary fix, and he’ll need to go to a dentist to get that tooth properly looked at. Louie wonders if Collins is around, because she’s helped him about several times in the past. This is where we learn that Collins has finished her residency and is working as an attending physician in Portland. Apparently she has adopted a baby after her miscarriage, and being in Portland allows her to be closer to her own family. Louie says that that’s beautiful, but I think this is a really weird way of writing out a character. I think Collins was supposed to take over for Robby as the chief attending physician of the ER, but for some reason, she has been replaced by Baran. I don’t mind Baran, but at the same time, I wanted to see more of Collins. Anyway, going back to the plot, Louie’s gum is drained, and he’ll finally be free of the pain that he has been suffering for quite a while. Whitaker heads to the hub, where he gives Santos an update on Samba. Santos, who is already agitated with her charting, gets angry at the fact that Whitaker caught the posterior MI and she didn’t.
Ogilvie Messes Up With Vince
McKay, Ogilvie, Garcia, and Joy join Robby on the Cole case, and Garcia instantly points out that Young has been shooting everything that has happened in the ER so far. Robby tells her to get out, but Young is hellbent on getting her “creative partner’s” probable dying moments on camera so that it can be uploaded on their TikTok page (yes, that’s what she literally says) to make the most of the Independence Day hype. McKay gets very agitated, and Robby tells Sean, one of the nurses, to escort her out to Triage and get the cut on her hand checked out. Garcia says that if Young had asked nicely, she might’ve let her stay there; there’s a hint of a sexual undertone in that statement, which is surprising, because I don’t know how Garcia can be so lustful all the time while being surrounded by disease and death. Anyway, Cole needs to be intubated, and McKay is usually the one who does that, because she’s just that good at it, but this time around, Ogilvie wants to take the steering wheel. He’s allowed to do so, and later on, when he runs into Whitaker, we learn that he has pulled it off successfully (I love the little verbal jabs that Joy keeps throwing at Ogilvie for being so proud of himself).
After that, we see Joy pulling out the tiny shards of glass lodged in Cole’s body. McKay tries to test Joy’s knowledge on all the different kinds of procedures needed to be employed for all the different kinds of cuts, but Ogilvie, oversmart as usual, jumps in with the answer. Joy gets a bit distracted while delivering her comeback, which is why she cuts her finger on one of the glass shards, which means that she’ll be out of commission for a while as she gets tested for any and every kind of disease she might’ve picked up from Cole’s blood. Ogilvie tries to extend that period of temporary retirement, but Baran shuts him down immediately by saying that the rapid HIV test is reliable enough. Dana and Emma tend to Joy, and while Emma aces it in the blood-extraction part of the process, she fumbles it in terms of holding on to the vials of blood as one of them rolls out of her hand and gets crushed by one of the stretchers passing by. McKay gives Young an update on how Cole is doing, and Young notices blood oozing from Cole’s back. That somehow gets Ogilvie to start smiling, because he gets to pull out a glass shard from the patient.
However, as soon as Ogilvie yanks the piece of glass, the blood that was slowly oozing so far begins gushing out, which means that our not-so-golden boy has nicked an artery. Robby and McKay begin working on measures to stop that while Ogilvie can do nothing but look around for instructions. Yeah, anyone who’s been hating Ogilvie and his oversmartness, here’s your moment to truly hate on him. When the experts are in the room, consult them properly first before using your sea of theoretical knowledge, because theory will only ever get you so far. I mean, that’s essentially what Garcia says when she reaches the trauma room. The shard is finally pulled out by McKay, and almost at the same time, Robby injects the X-Stat, which is a syringe filled with tiny, rapid-expanding hemostatic sponges (that’s awesome, and I wonder how many ERs across the world have access to such things). That finally stops the bleeding, and that’s when radiology calls in to say that they missed that piece of glass. I’d like to say “better late than never,” but in this case, if you’re late, then it’s as good as never. By the way, I do think that this irresponsible radiologist is the same “hot” guy that Princess talks about to Victoria.
Orlando Is Against Charity
Perlah brings over Lorrie Diaz, Orlando’s wife, to Samira, and once Lorrie is reunited with her husband and her daughter, she is relieved. This is also when Orlando regains consciousness and wants to know how he got to the Pitt. Samira gives everyone the lowdown on what has transpired so far and what needs to be done before Orlando can be discharged. When Jesse arrives to check Orlando’s blood sugar, and Ana is focused on Orlando, Lorrie takes Samira to the side and tells her that her family doesn’t have health insurance. Hence, she isn’t sure if they’ll be able to afford the services the ER is providing. Samira says that she’ll inform Hastings about it, and they’ll figure something out so that Orlando gets the help that he needs and it doesn’t burn a hole in the wallets of the Diazes. Later on, Hastings informs Samira that Orlando and Lorrie work multiple part-time jobs, none of which offer insurance. They can’t even apply for Medicaid, because that’s meant for families that can’t make ends meet, which means that the Diazes earn too much and not enough at the same time. Hence, Hastings tells Samira to advise them to buy private insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
Ana overhears this whole conversation, and once Hastings leaves the scene, she approaches Samira to learn more about this whole problem. Samira’s prediction about the bill causes Ana to freak out, but she doesn’t get totally overwhelmed, and opens a GoFundMe for her dad. In the meantime, Samira and Joy check on Orlando to talk about his diabetes. Orlando straight-up admits that he has been taking a lower dose of insulin so as to save on the medicine. Sure, but that method is affecting his health and has sent him to the ER, where he’ll need to spend all the money he had probably saved by not medicating himself properly. That’s not a jibe at Orlando, though. This subplot highlights the fact that so many jobs, especially post-pandemic, don’t offer insurance because capitalists have realized that they can get away with anything whilst exploiting the working class. The situation is so bad that Orlando can’t even afford the test strips for his glucose monitor, but he doesn’t want to bring it up in front of his family because he is clearly ashamed that, as a man, he is not only failing to provide for his family, but he has also become a burden for them. Hence, when Ana reveals the GoFundMe, Orlando goes absolutely ballistic because he thinks that makes his family look like beggars.
McKay Deals With Montrose and Hancock
McKay informs Montrose that the fall has fractured his coccyx, and it’ll take six weeks for it to heal naturally. Montrose is a busy guy, though, and he has dinner plans, which is why he needs a quick remedy. McKay says that there’s an alternative, but it’ll hurt really bad, at least for a few seconds, and then he’ll be ready to go. Montrose is ready to take on that challenge; so, McKay begins preparing Montrose for that procedure. She also checks in on Hancock, the patient that desperately wants to get romantically involved with McKay. After giving Hancock the rundown on what he needs to do in order to take care of his foot, McKay says that she’s willing to go on a date with him at the art galleries in Lawrenceville at 9 PM. That’s very optimistic of McKay, because this is Independence Day and Westbridge is in Code Black mode. So, it’s pretty obvious that things are going to go horribly wrong by the end of the day. I have my doubts if McKay will be able to make it to 40th and Butler on time. Going back to Montrose, the “quick fix” in question involves McKay sticking her finger up his bum and properly aligning his coccyx. As predicted, Montrose does experience immense pain for a moment, but after that, he’s free. Montrose wants to hug McKay, but she tells him that she’ll get back to him later.
Debbie Probably Has MRSA
Donnie checks on Harlow Graham, but he makes the cardinal mistake of looking at the ASL interpreter, Lindsey, while trying to learn what’s bothering her. It doesn’t exactly offend Harlow, but she sarcastically points out that your eyes should be on your patient, and your ear should be towards the interpreter; that way the patient can feel included in the conversation. Donnie acknowledges his mistake—it’s an honest mistake, and it’s a good thing that he is willing to learn—and tells Harlow that they’ll start off with some blood tests to see what’s going on. Langdon checks on Louie, who already wants a drink because his mouth is working fine after the gum draining. Langdon says that he can either give him water or orange juice, and Louie says that he’ll pass on that offer. Louie then asks Langdon about his kids, and he says that they are doing alright. Langdon makes an offhanded comment about his dog digging up the backyard, and Louie gives him some really sound advice about how to grow the grass and also keep the dog away from it. Langdon wonders how Louie knows about that, and Louie reveals that, back in the day, he used to be a groundskeeper.
Robby and Baran notice this conversation, and while Robby goes off to chat with Dana, Baran tells Langdon to wrap things up in Triage and join the rest of the crew in the ER, because she expects things are about to get more and more heated up since Westbridge hasn’t opened its doors to the public yet. As for Dana, she essentially tells Robby to be chill about Langdon’s return, because the guy is really working on himself and doesn’t need to be treated like a felon all the time. In the ending of The Pitt Season 2 episode 4, Donnie meets up with Langdon to talk about Debbie Cohen. She appeared in the first episode of this season, and she had a red mark on her foot, which Langdon had circled out with a marker, probably to check if it was spreading. He told her that the antibiotics should do the magic, but he advised her to stay off them for the next few days while taking Tylenol and Advil for the pain. Cohen said that she needed a quick fix, because she had to work. Langdon told her to take breaks and frequently elevate her foot and come back to the ER if the pain remained constant or increased.
Yeah, well, Cohen is back, and the reddening that was limited to her foot has spread all the way to her shin! Cohen wonders if it’s bad, and Langdon says that if they can get a handle on it, they can fix it. Donnie predicts that it’s MRSA, but Langdon theorizes that it can be something worse. Well, MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; it causes infections that are very difficult to treat, and it’s claimed more than 100,000 lives in 2019. Its initial symptoms appear in the form of pimples, boils, or spider bites on the skin, which then escalate and get more and more painful. Almost everyone is at risk of contracting this kind of infection, and treatment should be administered urgently, or else the consequences can be fatal. The only reason Langdon says that this could be something worse than MRSA is because her foot didn’t have any boils and the redness has spread in a matter of hours rather than days. If there are any medical experts reading this, feel free to give your two cents on this matter in the comments section below.
