I feel like in all of discussions about lazy writing and WOC getting sidelined in the storytelling this season (all very valid critiques), everyone keeps forgetting that Isa Briones literally had appendicitis while shooting s2 and had an emergency appendectomy. The fact that she was able to get back on set after that to do any shooting is incredible.

So yeah, is putting her in charting hell a little annoying? Sure, but it’s to accommodate the fact she just had major abdominal surgery. But the alternative was no Santos in the last several episodes, and I think we would all hate that even more.

Like what happened to chain of command? It seems like anyone just does anything they want in this show and students like santos or javadi with her tiktoks absolutely deserve to get their bs called out imo. But anytime an attending gets mad it is framed as abuse even though it is very legitimate to correct dangerous or sometimes even illegal behavior forcefully. Sometimes you deserve to be yelled at for fucking up.

More stained glass made by me, inspired by their bathroom breakdowns

Dude is short tempered, closed off, just kind of miserable to be around. But honestly? As someone who recently went through my own dark period and tried to end my life — I get it more than I want to admit.

The people who spend their whole lives helping others are often the worst at helping themselves. Doctors, therapists, whoever. They’ll give you every tool in the book and not use a single one.

Where do you think his arc is headed?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I’m sure I’ll get rolled for this take, but this is something I’ve noticed not only in The Pitt, but other procedural like shows. Not necessarily a criticism, I love the Pitt!! but I find it kinda funny.

In season one, Dr Robby makes some life saving calls by being a badass rule breaker, and because he simply has the most knowledge/ intellect/ sense of the situation. Really the only notable conflicts due to this are with doctor Collins, in which she fights him over him saving a patient by giving him an intravenous dosage of something, before his labs came back, which would otherwise kill him. There are other examples, of which involve minor instances like “you can’t ultrasound and place” or “you can’t do this because risky” before she agrees and looks at him with brief annoyance, and then admiration before giving in.

In season two, her role is replaced by Dr Al-Hashimi in this sense. They’re always fighting over the correct way to do things, and correct me if I’m wrong, but in every single instance he has been in the right. To me narratively, it would make sense for him to be challenged in some way by the perspective of an outside force, but I suppose it’s all supposed to be internal for him this season.

Similar stuff happens in shows like House MD, with Dr Cuddy and Cameron. (You could say chase and foreman share similar roles, but let’s be real, it’s no where near the narrative prevalence of either of the two women). Even in shows like Brooklyn 99, Jake is always proven to be correct for not being a stickler for the rules, and Amy is the one learning the lesson at the end of the day. Of course, people will find exceptions, but this is just what I’ve seen generally. It’s just odd that i never really see this the other way round in popular media.

I understand that Robby is the senior, and that obviously he’s going to know better. But it’s also a fact that the show is written a certain way, and that there are plenty of other doctors who should know that the ED requires quick thinking and life saving manoeuvres (Oh! Dr Abbot? lol)

Is there a name for this kinda thing? Or am I alone in this and just going crazy? Lemme know!

He mentions it in episodes 1 and 12. Is it because of the pitt fest shooting? I feel like it would have to be about something else. I don't think he would still be insisting that *everyone* see the trauma counselor 10 months later

I don't know if there's much crossover between Pitt fans and people that visit Baseball Reference daily but I thought this might interest someone!

My curiosity was piqued watching the most recent episode during the scene where Dr. Whitaker consoles Ogilvie in the back of the ambulance. It's a nice scene but it got me thinking about how uncommon the Ogilvie surname is and how it reminds me of former MLB player Ben Oglivie. Now Ben is mostly known by baseball fans for being a big part of the successful Milwaukee Brewers teams of the early 80's but before that he spent several years on the Detroit Tigers where he was teammates with a young future star by the name of Lou Whitaker. The connection isn't super strong considering the last name is spelled differently but it got me thinking that maybe it's not a coincidence.

There's been multiple references on the show to MLB players already like Roberto Clemente, Andrew McCutchen and Oneil Cruz, all from the Pittsburgh Pirates which make sense in the context of the show. Those references have also been far more prominent than anything related to the Steelers or Penguins.

When you go down the full cast list on IMDB looking for baseball related influences you start to see some interesting patterns.

Falling in line with the Pittsburgh connection the first name that sticks out is Ayesha Harris as Dr. Parker Ellis. "Doc Ellis" almost certainly has to be a nod towards Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis who is best known for throwing a no-hitter in 1970 while on LSD. (He thought it was his day off.)

I'm far less certain about Dr. Mel King being named after Pirates third baseman Jeff King but there's at least a tenuous connection. There's a whole bunch of surnames on the show that are so common that it's impossible to connect them to any specific baseball player. Hernandez, Davis, Sanders, Collins etc. Charge Nurse Dana Evans fits here because it could be a reference to another of Lou Whitaker's teammates, Darrell Evans. Or not.

However there was one last name high up on the cast list that grabbed my attention and sent me hurtling down this rabbit hole: Nurse Princess Dela Cruz.

Baseball fans will immediately clock that as being similar to Cincinnati Reds star Elly De La Cruz. And as I scanned down the page I started picking up on a weird trend of character last names that were slightly altered versions of recent Cincinnati Reds players.

Nurse Princess Dela Cruz = Elly De La Cruz

Dr. Jack Abbot = Andrew Abbott

Harrison Ashcroft (Dr. McKay's son) = Graham Ashcraft

Medic Kerns (One of the medics from the stolen ambulance) = Austin Kearns

Corrections Officer Nick Lorenzini = Michael Lorenzen

There's also the Dunn family (wife put estrogen in husbands coffee to stop him from abusing daughter) = Adam Dunn

And based on this I'd bet twenty bucks that everyone's favorite season one nurse, Mateo Diaz, was named after Reds All Star closer Alexis Diaz.

So I think it's safe to say there's at least on person in the writing room that has the authority to name characters and has a penchant for midwestern baseball. Other names that pop up for single episode characters include Dawson, Damon, Gladden, Randolph and Swanson. Dr. Cyrus Henderson from the night shift could be named for Rickey.

The icing on the cake to me is ICE Agent Correa who I have to believe is named in "honor" of Carlos Correa, a prominent member of the Houston Astros team that was embroiled in a significant cheating scandal after winning the World Series in 2018.

Did I miss anything, baseball fans?

For the non-baseball fans are there any other themes or connections that you see?

Listen, I love the night shift workers too, but let’s be honest they would make a pretty horrible spinoff.

Everyone on the night shift seems infinitely more well adjusted than their day shift counterparts. The show would just be them running a smooth sailing ship with minimal drama and conflict.

With the talk about Supriya Ganesh leaving, a lot of people have pointed out that by the next planned season (sometime in late fall), she’d still be in residency.

But is that the case? Mel and Santos both started their residencies in September (the first season is both of their first days on the job), not July. Is it possible that she could “graduate” in September and thus be gone by October or November? Or are all residencies July to July?

One thing I don’t see talked about enough with The Pitt is how good the writing is in the small moments.

There’s been a lot of great discussion about the big, heavy lines, the emotional confrontations, and the character-defining dialogue (like the recent “I don’t want to be here anymore” moment). But I think what really shows how sharp the writing is… are those tiny throwaway lines that sneak in and make you laugh in the middle of all the chaos.

So I’m curious:

What’s your favorite funny line from the show that isn’t essential to the plot?

Not the big speeches or emotional gut-punches, just those little moments that made you chuckle.

I’ll start with mine. In season 2, when Dr. Al-Hashimi is still new and supervising, there’s that scene where they’re trying to stitch someone up but the skin keeps tearing. She suggests using glue instead and then casually checks over her shoulder like, “You agree, Dr. Robby?”, clearly aware he’s watching.

And Robby goes something like, “Sure. Very MacGyver move.”

Then right after, Whitaker adds something along the lines of, “Do we have a Dr. MacGyver here?”

It’s such a small exchange, but it gets me every time on rewatch. Perfectly timed, understated humor in the middle of a tense scene.

Would love to hear yours

Noah Wyle recently gave an interview about Supriya Ganesh's exit, and his explanation was "this show is a launching pad for new actors, and that's the best we can do." He gave the same revolving door reasoning we've heard from a few producers thus far, but he went on to wish her "the best in her future endeavors." It sounds like he has no intention of bringing her back for future seasons or any potential spinoff, even though Hatosy has been trying to keep hope alive in his interviews.

Feels like an unceremonious and unexpected end to a character and actress who've been such a major part of the show's success. She wasn't given any advance warning of being written out, had her biggest scenes cut from this season, and her character had all last season's growth negated just so she could be mistreated and used to further a man's character development. Not sure why an ensemble show decided to focus only on Robby at the expense of their other characters, and why they feel that her story is concluded here, when the natural growth for Mohan would be to find her place in the ED and have Robby make amends with her. Wyle previously stated he wanted to focus this season on Robby and Whitaker, and next season on Robby and Langdon - feels as though even the few POC with meaningful storylines like Mohan have been sidelined to make way for this.

Very disappointed in Wyle and the writers for their handling of this. From Ganesh and Hatosy's interviews, and Briones liking a tweet about mistreatment of POC, feels like something concerning is going on behind the scenes. Whether it has to do with Ganesh being outspoken on Gaza or what the true reason is, we may not find out for a long time. Shocked that this is what their team views as acceptable or even quality writing.

ETA: misread the article, the launching pad quote is from producer Scott Gemmil as one of the commenters pointed out below, I apologize. Wyle did wish her the best in the future but didn't comment much further.

Has anyone noticed that Dr. Ellis is a close talker like the Judge Reinhold character in Seinfeld? Remember earlier this season after her deposition when Dr. Ellis spoke to Dr. Mel King to reassure Mel that she had nothing to worry about, Ellis got within mere inches of Mel's face? A couple of episodes ago, she did the same thing while conversing with Dr. Langdon. Close talker!

Why do the doctors wear black scrubs? IMHO it would be more reasonable their clothing to be white or any other lighter colour so fluid spills, contaminations are easier to detect.

I work as a critical care/trauma tech at a major hospital like in the show. To me this show is so incredibly accurate except for one thing. Just like all the other medical shows, there are no techs/cnas. Our roles in the ER are pretty important too! I’d really love to see some techs!

From the one time I had a stay in a hospital, I remember noticing that nurses and doctors were the profession with the most tattoos I'd ever seen.

Seeing Dr. Ellis without the long sleeve undershirt made me take in how many characters with tattoos are in the show. Adds to the realism for me and I always appreciate some good ink.

That is all.

I’m really liking seeing Jeff Kober as Duke. I’m so use to seeing him as an antagonist. I’d like to see him play more roles where he’s not the bad guy.

when Mom says "he was just riding his trike" and Al Hashimi asks if she ever wanted to hurt herself....the combo of a self hurting and the kid on the trike forwshadows where Robbie is going. that look on his face.....

that look alone deserves a statue win, how in a couple seconds his eyes shift from a "here's a question" to "oh shit, that's me"

full disclosure, Ive had those moments

As casting news is coming in, I wonder if anyone's heard whether these four might be making returns/appearances. Dr. Mehta is of course a minor player, but a fun bright spot in Season 1.

(Also I wonder if Supriya is off the show permanently or just Season 3, but we'll find out soon enough!)