The Pitt Season 1 Episode 14 Delivers Penultimate Emotional Punch Ahead of Finale

Are we passing the hat to collect bail money for our girl McKay?

I’m having a #FreeMcKay shirt made at this very second. Just when we thought maybe we were coming down from some of the high adrenaline of the mass casualty events, they left us spiraling when they cuffed one of The Pitt’s greatest.

Once again, The Pitt Season 1 Episode 14 delivers a penultimate episode that leaves us both anticipating and dreading the season finale.

The thing is, I’m not ready to say goodbye to The Pitt just yet, so when they presented us with another hour that sailed by far too quickly for my liking, I freaked out a little.

Of course, part of that could have been due to the comedown after the harrowing mass casualty event that had such an unexpected conclusion.

We had theories swirling left, right, and center over who was the shooter. Was it David? Driscoll? That poor, traumatized lady?

Some of us spent so much time speculating on who could’ve possibly committed such a heinous act when the reality is that it didn’t matter in the end because The Pitt is all about the ramifications.

When people are dying beneath your fingertips as you struggle to save them, does it even matter who did what? The damage is done, and I appreciate The Pitt for reminding us of that rather than turning into a big “whodunnit.”

It’s not that type of show, and I never teased that it would be. In the end, the shooter was some nameless, faceless person who took their own life offscreen and put an end to all the pandemonium.

I’m actually glad we never knew who the person was. It’s bad enough that people who perpetrate these heinous crimes get more attention than their victims or, in this case, the many people who have to save the lives of those victims.

Shifting the focus to the heroes and those forever changed and scarred by mass violence is much stronger commentary than any alternative, and that’s one of many things that makes this series so great.

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However, I admit they lost me a bit when Robby focused on David and McKay trying to make right with this young man. It felt beneath what we’ve learned of Robby that he’d even resort to an “I told you so” regarding David.

He was too dismissive of the red flags surrounding David, and I can only imagine that as sensitive, sympathetic, and significant as he is as a person, he still had some blind spots regarding violence against women and just how potentially dangerous David could be because of his mental health issues.

Fresh off of watching another spectacular series, Adolescence, it’s a confronting issue that many people, yes, but especially men, need to think about more.

Even as McKay went into the room and tried to talk to David, his hostility toward her was alarming, and he turned on his mother as quickly as he learned that she violated his privacy and had him placed on a 72-hour hold.

McKay wasn’t wrong to take David’s behavior and what we knew about him seriously, and it didn’t feel right that Robby referred to that situation as a “her mess” that she needed to clean up.

One can only hope that David can get the help he needs, as he’s still a troubled guy. And there was some commentary to make about how we tend to handle mental illness, criminalizing it and such, which is perhaps the point Robby was trying to make.

But on the other hand, that could be another example of Robby not being OK. His scene with McKay wasn’t the only alarming moment he displayed; it was just the only one that didn’t feel totally deserved.

He also nearly cursed out the anti-vax parents who almost lost their son because of freaking MEASLES and because the mother needed to Google the effects of a spinal tap.

But who didn’t want to cuss that lady out? I would’ve been fine if he had yelled harder. But he did the reasonable thing and extricated himself from the room and situation, with the always calm Shen ensuring he was good.

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Robby also finally yelled at Gloria when she went from complimenting them on their handling of things and giving them an update on the new supplies they were getting to reprimanding them for losing untested blood on patients.

But we also can’t act like Gloria didn’t have that outburst coming. She’s a nuisance and can’t read a room for anything in the world. There were still blood stains on the floor, and the light flicked out of two doctors’ eyes. Did they need a lecture after surviving that? No!

But Robby’s work wife and work brother are always there to save the day and defuse situations, so even his outburst with Gloria didn’t last too long.

It was evident that Robby was not doing well, and it was enough for Abbot and Dana to take notice and consult each other frequently about it. It makes me sad that they can admit that they’ve never seen him like this.

Could Robby really be at his breaking point? Losing Leah felt like the last straw for him.

That’s on top of a day where he had already lost too many other people, including two children, had his pseudo-son tell him that he blamed him for not saving his girlfriend, had his work son let him down with the drug thing, and casually found out that a woman he deeply cares about aborted their child a couple of years back.

In this long day, Robby has had a lot to reconcile emotionally and no time to do it, and it’s evident that 14 hours in, he’s cracking at the seams.

It’s what made his breakdown during The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13 so powerful. But it’s also why Whitaker being the person to get him out of that room was so gratifying.

Sure, we could’ve had a more detailed, potentially more emotional, and revealing moment if it had been Dana, Abbot, or even Langdon who found him in that room.

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But it’s not lost on me that one of the interns he spent the last two hours of the shift trying to ensure if he was mentally and emotionally OK was the one to give him the tough love he needed to get up and get out there.

I’ve never been so happy with Whitaker losing a bet in my life. Good grief. Can you imagine what would have happened if Santos had found Robby instead of Whitaker? She would’ve had the words to handle that, and even if she pulled them out of her ass, I wouldn’t have been moved by it.

Whitaker displayed so much of how he’s grown in that scene with Robby. He took a minute to sit beside him, told him exactly what he needed to hear, reminded Robby that he’s the captain of this ship and there’s no time for abandoning it, and went about his day.

It was easily one of my favorite scenes of the hour and the follow-up conversation. Robby is such a caretaker but doesn’t know how to allow anyone to do that for him.

It was as unsurprising that he pushed Whitaker away from him after he helped him up as it was that he had to ensure Whitaker didn’t say anything about the ordeal and downplayed it.

I loved the two bonding over religion. Robby shared that it was a prayer in Hebrew he recited with his grandmother that he kept saying, and Whitaker shared a scripture because he used to be a Theology major. It totally suits him.

There were many glimmers in Robby’s breakdown and the aftereffects, leaving me wondering what’s in store for him moving forward.

We still didn’t get a scene between Robby and Langdon unpacking their last big moment together, but we did get that nice one where Robby overheard Langdon talking to Jake and reminding him that Robby did all that he could.

However, we had that awkward tension between Langdon and Santos as they worked together on the Blue Man. Even Ellis couldn’t stop talking about how much they hated each other.

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It was great to spend more time with Ellis. She was not only funny and competent as a doctor, but she also knew how to check Santos as needed.

I loved how she reminded Santos to respect the hierarchy when she got all nasty with Langdon again. Ellis also reminded Santos that her being tired doesn’t mean anything to sick patients.

Pitt really excels at capturing what it means for them to be a teaching hospital, and one of my favorite parts of this hour was seeing how that never lets up. We had all these great sparks of mentorship.

Abbot, who I remain obsessed with, was fantastic with Mohan walking her through that risky technique for the embolism patient, only to get under Walsh’s skin and later claim he wouldn’t have done it himself.

He’s a hoot!

Most doctors, regardless of ranking, never stop learning and do not carry themselves as if they have all the answers. Shen was like that with the Measles, for example.

Overall, it was a great hour to recover from the frantic shooting, which leaves me wondering what might be in store for the final hour.

Chit Chat from the Nurse’s Station:

• Pearla and Princess broke my heart when Pearla tearfully wondered if it would ever end. They’re supposed to happily gossip about people, not deal with all this.
• Whitaker’s being a Theology student is the most perfect bit of information we’ve learned about him yet. I love that man.
• Jack Abbot is the gift that keeps giving. I could watch him for a full hour by himself. He brings the levity and badassery to every moment.
• Shen commits the ultimate sin of remarking how quiet it is only to conjure up more drama, so on brand. I had to laugh.
• Fiona Dourif’s real-life dad playing her dad was simply the best. And he had all the smoke for Chad, which made me cackle. Go, Papa McKay, go!
• Mateo and Javadi are so cute. Get it, girl.
• OK, it’s not funny anymore. Where the hell is Myrna.

Over to you, The Pitt Fanatics. Thoughts on Robby’s actions during this one? Are you ready to riot over McKay’s arrest? Let’s hear it all below!

Remember, you can check out our The Pitt Season 1 Episode 14 recap, which breaks down the hour.

Also, stay tuned for our exclusive interviews with Fiona Dourif (McKay) and Patrick Ball (Langdon).

Watch The Pitt Online

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