'The Pitt' Hasn't Lost a Beat

The Pitt, in its second-season premiere, does not waste any time laying on the anxiety. It’s been one episode, and I already feel like I need blood-pressure medication. There’s no better way to leave us in suspense than to introduce a lot of issues and leave everything unsaid. The episode is one giant ellipsis. And are we sure that was 50 minutes, not 10? Does any show go by as quickly as The Pitt?

Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) arrives at 7 a.m. on the Fourth of July for his last shift before taking a three-month sabbatical. And though we won’t see the next three months, his future absence already leaves The Pitt feeling unmoored. The attending who will replace him during that sabbatical, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), has already stepped in, and she’s making changes: adding patient passports, testing interns on dummies, and even advocating for changing the hospital’s nickname from The Pitt. She’s trying to apply order to chaos, and Dr. Robby is already bristling. You can tell he’s of two minds: 1) I can’t wait to get the hell out of here, and 2) Maybe I shouldn’t leave, because the E.R. I return to in three months may no longer look the same. It’s Dr. Robby’s ER, damnit. He likes to do things his way, and it feels like someone is trying to replace him, not just fill in while he’s gone.

That’s one source of tension. Another is the return of Dr. Langdon from rehab and counseling. He looks good. He looks clean. He’s already apologized to Louis for stealing his meds. And he wants to talk to Dr. Robby, to get everything out in the open and maybe apologize. But Dr. Robby puts him off. He insists on leaving the kettle on the stove, and it’s going to blow in a few episodes if he doesn’t tend to it.

Still, it’s so good to see these characters we grew close to in the first season again. It’s almost like being reunited with family. Dr. Whittaker has clearly come a long way, and in the way he handles a dead patient, it’s clear he’s on Team Robby. So, it appears, is Dr. Santos, who has regained her (deserved) arrogance. Dr. Javadi, meanwhile, is noncommittal on Dr. Al. She has other worries: she’s about to turn 21, and her mother is still breathing down her neck (and Dr. Robby’s, too). Dr. McKay just wants to get laid, and Dr. Mohan has mom problems as well. Her mother has married a man she’s only known for a year and has decided to take a cruise around the world. Dr. Mel, meanwhile, has her deposition in a legal malpractice suit today, and she’s nervous about it (although, as Dr. Santos reminds her, such suits are common and she’s immunized by the hospital).

Elsewhere, Dana did not quit. She took some time off after the events of last season, but she’s back as the charge nurse and handling things, including a new nurse, Emma (Laëtitia Hollard), who is very green. We’re an hour into the shift, and Dana is already holding the hospital up on her shoulders, per usual. She’s keeping an eye on Dr. Langdon, training the new nurse, dealing with a very smelly patient who needs a shower (Charles Baker, who has been cast as recurring, so we’ll see a lot of him), and helping oversee an infant who was apparently left in the bathroom by her mother.

There are other patients whose day feels like it’s just beginning. Louis still has an alcohol problem and needs to have fluid drained. There’s a little girl covered in bruises, which may or may not have been inflicted by her father (they were definitely inflicted by someone, although I hope it’s not the father’s new girlfriend, who brought her in). There’s an older woman who’s eaten a lot of pot cookies, which may be exacerbating her dementia, an Alzheimer’s patient who was just brought in, and a brusque middle-aged man with injuries to his wrist and knee who is also clearly suffering from memory loss. His character is a doctor, according to IMDb (which may or may not be accurate). Oh, and there are two more interns added to the mix, Dr. Kwon (Irene Choi) and Dr. Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson).

And if that weren’t enough, while it seems like Dr. Al is robotic and has everything under control with all of her ideas about how to make The Pitt run more efficiently, the infant left behind has clearly triggered something in her personal life. She’s not as composed as she presents, and she’s also clearly the story reason Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) is not in the second season.

There’s a lot going on in only one episode, and a week is way too long to wait for the second hour of the shift. The Pitt hasn’t lost a beat.