Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | January 23, 2026
In 2018, before she began working as the Executive Director of the Maine ACLU (it’s been a hard week, y’all), she ran the state’s largest Jewish organization. I can personally attest to what the burn victim, Yana Kovalenko, said to Nurse Alawi in this week’s episode: The first people to reach out to my wife after Tree of Life were members of the Muslim community. In many ways, the shooting brought the Jewish and Muslim communities closer in the years that followed. My wife hosted several well-attended interfaith events in its wake. And for what it’s worth, local synagogues are doing everything in their power this week to support the communities being targeted by ICE during a bleak, devastating, and inhumane surge here in Maine.
Noah Wyle wrote this week’s episode of The Pitt, and it shows. It’s the first episode this season to bring on the waterworks, and not just because of Yana Kovalenko’s gratitude toward the Muslim community, but because of the way the Yees came to understand, in the aftermath of their respective injuries, what really matters. “You think things are important, that everything is so important, and then you end up here, and you see.”
“Yeah, that’s how it works.”
It’s hard not to feel that line echo beyond the episode. When my kid spent six months in the hospital being treated for cancer, my wife started a chapter of HIAS from his hospital room. Over the following year, HIAS helped bring in, house, and feed hundreds of the very same people being targeted this week by the ICE surge. Now she’s on the other side, trying to protect them. Families are living in fear. Parents are scrambling to make emergency plans in case they’re detained or deported to countries their children have never known, or places they fled because of the danger they posed.
“You think things are important, that everything is so important, and then you end up here, and you see.”
Anyway, you’re here for a The Pitt recap. Mr. Williams has a tumor in his brain. It may be benign. It may be cancer. It may be a cyst. It may also explain the erratic behavior that contributed to the collapse of his marriage to Gretchen, who clearly loved the man he was before the tumor. It’s also nice to see Amanda Schull (Suits) again.
Elsewhere, the kid with all the bruises: The good news is that her dad did not abuse her. The bad news is that she has idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, which is causing the bleeding (a doctor once explained to me that “idiopathic” means, “We have no f****** idea”). Her father is something of a hothead, but so was the girlfriend, and they’re split up now. That’s probably for the best. Still, if my kid showed up covered in bruises and I knew I wasn’t responsible, I’d be suspicious, too.
I’m getting worried about Louie. Gallons of fluid are being drained, but that toothache is especially concerning. That doesn’t seem normal. I did some Googling, and a serious toothache can be a sign of an impending heart attack. Combined with all that excess fluid, it could also point to liver failure. None of that is great.
Since the college student didn’t have drugs in his system, I also looked up the dangers of being tased. One risk is an adrenaline surge that can cause “excited delirium,” and even kidney failure. It certainly looks like that campus security guard got overeager and decided to flex. A racist response feels very much in play.
One of my favorite moments in the episode was a small one: the father helping his child get beads removed from her nose, followed by Langdon’s blessing about fatherhood. “May you be gentle and loving, clear and sure. May you trust the unseen Providence that has chosen you to be a family. May you stand sure on your ground and know that every grace you need will unfold before you like all the mornings of your life.”
Lovely, but I actually preferred the father’s blessing: “Support your woman and pack good snacks.” Amen.
It was that kind of episode. Wyle wasn’t focused on the big, terrifying emergencies ER doctors face every day, but on the smaller moments of meaning, like Nurse Evans showing compassion to the unhoused man, Mr. Digby. Just letting him know they’re there for him, even if he never accepts their help. The sandwich helps, too.
And that’s it. Small acts of kindness. They matter more than anyone may realize right now.
