In the whirlwind of activity at The Pitt, it takes a brief moment for everyone to notice Dr. Robby is absent. Most victims of the music festival shooting have stabilized, allowing the Yellow Zone patients to be made comfortable. When Whitaker rushes to Pedes, which serves as a makeshift morgue, to retrieve blankets, he finds his senior attending still weeping, holding his Star of David necklace while reciting the Shema prayer. Later, they will connect over faith as something tangible, if not truly divine. (Robby learned the Shema with his devout grandmother; Whitaker studied theology as a minor.) For now, it’s up to the fourth-year to find the right words to bring their leader back. And he knows what to say. “OK, give me your hand. You have to. Because if you don’t, we’re screwed.” Some staff members have only met today, but their collective efforts, even those unable to save lives, have united them.

Once Robby regains his composure and returns to the floor, one of his first encounters is with someone only loosely connected to the team. Gloria is upset about the “cowboys in ER” – Robby and Abbott – allowing staffers to offer unscreened blood donations. She blames Robby for having David in custody but letting him go, ignoring that A) Theresa’s son isn’t confirmed as the shooter, and B) hospital regulations could have tied Robby’s hands. In this post-breakdown state, Robby’s patience is thin. “Jesus, Gloria! The police are still searching – why don’t you return to your managerial ivory tower and let us get back to work!”

The focus shifts from “Where’s Robby” to “What’s wrong with Robby?” When a non-shooting patient arrives with a mysterious rash, Robby berates the kid’s parents for hesitating over a spinal tap that could safely preserve his life. (“Dr. Google nonsense.”) In the holding room, when David rejects the explanations from Mckay and Robby, Robby grimly tells his resident, “You made this mess. You’re going to have to resolve it.”

There is only one episode – hour – left of The PItt, and watching these characters anticipate the end of their harrowing shift is making us have feelings. We’ve never said this before about a series: we’ll miss them. How many days will we not see them at work, as the seniors continue to teach and the kids continue to learn? And how many Emmys will this show have won by January 2026, when The Pitt is scheduled to scrub back in with Season 2? We’re gonna take a flyer on a wild procedure we once read about in a medical journal and say all of them. Because even now, “The Pitt Effect” is real. How are we supposed to get onboard with another “young pretty doctors” medical drama after the vital way in which this one has redefined the form? 

In the calm after the mass casualty storm – calm is always relative at The Pitt, but still – Victoria Javadi shares a quiet moment with her “Utah,” her super-crush, Nurse Mateo. Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif’s real-life dad and a total legend, guest-stars as Cassie McKay’s dad. And night shifter Dr. Ellis takes heightened interest in Dr. Santos, pushing her to postulate a treatment plan for methemoglobinemia even as exhaustion takes over. “Tired?” Ellis asks. “Feet hurt? Brain feeling like mush? That patient doesn’t give a shit. He needs you. Let’s go.” After 13 hours at a job like theirs, we’re not sure we could even say methemoglobinemia, let alone treat it. 

But Ellis is also perceptive in other ways. “What’s the beef with Langdon?” Santos doesn’t break radio silence on Langdon’s benzos habit, but the senior resident is definitely still using his emergency return to lobby for renewed permanence. Robby isn’t touching any of that yet, but he does overhear Langdon comforting Jake about Leah, and complimenting Robby’s skill. There is still mentorship there, even if it’s been derailed by the circumstances.

We just can’t get over how artfully The Pitt has balanced the all-encompassing pressures and dramas of its mass shooting response episodes against its real-time bonafides and series mission statement. All of the simultaneous procedures, the pools of blood, the precipice of life and death at every turn – and this show did not sacrifice its technical medicine soul for easy grabby immediacy. It continues to amplify the drama through what we already knew about these characters, and applies that to the medicine and teaching at work. Treating a still-critical gunshot victim, Dr. Abbott reaches into his bag of studied calm and lifesaving savvy. “Nipples to navel is no man’s land. If he got shot while exhaling, the bullet possibly passed below the diaphragm.” While exhaling! We’d so much rather get lost down a rabbit hole of web searches about medical jargon than read another hot take about who’s sleeping with whom on a show about doctors.

“Today was chaos,” Dr. Robby tells Mel. “But you were awesome. Really glad you’re with us, Dr. King.” The captain might be frazzled and on his last vestige of emotional stability, but he recognizes all of what this staff has given. And everybody is thinking about finally going home. McKay is jazzed to eat pasta carbonara with Harrison and her parents when two Pittsburgh cops show up. Did she tamper with her court-issued ankle monitor? Of course the answer is yes – Cassie drilled a hole in the damn thing, because it was blaring and people needed helping. But the cops ignore Abbott and Dana’s protests, and Dr. McKay is put in cuffs, right there at the nurse’s station. The fun never ends at this place.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.