‘The Pitt’ Recap, Season 2 Episode 9: ‘3:00 PM’

Wow, okay, friends, I’ve repeatedly praised Javadi for her leveling up this season, in both skills and general confidence! Then this week, in hour nine, she goes and she blows it. Big time. I think I jinxed her and, well, that’s on me. My bad, Dr. J! Javadi’s steep fall in this episode is, however, a good reminder that she is still a med student, and on top of that, she’s working a shift that is not only inordinately stressful but also confusing as hell. Our sweet little Gen-Z baby probably had to Google what “forms in triplicate” are while taking copious medical histories during this holiday influx of patients — there’s a lot going on, okay? She just saw a fax machine for the first time in her life today! Give her a break!

I guess that’s easy to say since I’m not Mrs. Burns. Poor Mrs. Burns. Donnie is alarmed to find her in a room that, according to the board, is unoccupied. When Javadi recognizes he’s talking about her patient, she admits she never put her on the board because she assumed the nurses took care of that. Dana has to explain that everyone needs to pitch in, and everyone should be double-checking the board — if the patient isn’t on there, their labs aren’t getting processed, no one is checking in on them, and they don’t exist. On top of this gaffe, Javadi also has yet to present Mrs. Burns to a supervisor. She came in complaining of nausea, and while Javadi ordered blood tests and X-rays, Mrs. Burns has just been sitting there, waiting for an hour.

Javadi presents to Whitaker in a manner that screams she thinks this is a low-stress case and has it handled, while also telling us astute television viewers that this lady is dead. Thankfully, when Javadi and Whitaker arrive, Mrs. Burns isn’t dead, but she is unconscious and barely breathing. Robby joins in on the fun, which includes intubation, shocking her heart, and watching the terror of realizing she maybe killed someone wash over Javadi’s face. The three doctors race around to look at test results from Javadi’s initial order, and while most of those went nowhere, they are able to pull up an X-ray that clearly shows sigmoid volvulus — part of Mrs. Burns’s intestine has twisted around and cut off its blood supply — and she needs surgery immediately. This is bad. And as if Javadi didn’t already know that, Dr. Garcia makes it extra-clear when she rips her a new one, telling her that an hour ago, this would’ve been an easy fix, but now Mrs. Burns is headed in for major surgery. She calls Javadi a “nepo baby” and tells her she fucked up big time, and honestly, yes, this is the energy I would want from my surgeon. Give me empathetic and hardworking in the ER; give me a real dick in the OR. Javadi knows she could’ve killed Mrs. Burns and does look like she feels sufficiently horrible, but something tells me she’s going to feel even worse because apparently it’s her mother who will be operating on Mrs. Burns — which means Dr. Shamsi is definitely going to hear about what went down. If I were Javadi, I’d probably go jump into the Allegheny right now. You’d never hear from me again!

While I doubt Mrs. Burns will be the last patient who slips through the cracks during this hectic day — Oh, I am looking right at you, English teacher with maybe kidney stones being treated by Ogilvie and a distracted Mohan! — this episode also gives us examples of several patients who are being closely watched.

There is, of course, Becca King. That’s right, Mel’s sister is waiting in chairs with a terrible stomachache. I’m sorry she’s at the hospital, but also I’m not sorry she’s at the hospital, you know what I’m saying? It’s great for no other reason than getting to watch her meet Dr. Robby and go, “You’re Dr. Robby? That’s so cool.” Becca is living the dream. But yes, it’s also a welcome appearance because Becca’s presence immediately throws Mel off-kilter even more than she was with just the deposition looming. And when the hospital attorney finds Mel to bring her to the deposition, she is frantic as she tries to process both of these nightmare scenarios happening at once. (Let’s be clear; Becca doesn’t seem scared or agitated one bit.) The only thing keeping Mel’s head from exploding is probably the fact that Becca’s case gets handed over to Langdon. Langdon is, as expected, great with Becca — even Perlah says so. With just a few minutes of chatting (with the lights off, of course) it’s looking like Becca has a UTI. Nothing to worry about at all. Mel’s deposition, however? We’ll find out later how that goes down.

Becca isn’t the only patient receiving extra attention from our doctors. McKay and Whitaker treat Amaya, a 32-year-old with PCOS who has terrible abdominal pain. She explains to her doctors that it took a while to get her PCOS diagnosis (PCOS hive, rise up!) because she had to find a doctor who would actually listen to her and take her symptoms seriously. McKay takes this to heart, and even when Amaya’s transvaginal ultrasound doesn’t turn up anything unusual, she decides to keep Amaya around for observation. It winds up being the right call: Not much later, Amaya is in even worse pain than before and a second ultrasound reveals intermittent torsion of her ovary. It’s twisting randomly, cutting off the blood supply and causing all of that pain. She’ll need surgery, but since they caught it and can treat it so quickly, she shouldn’t be in any danger of losing her ovary. McKay made the right call in keeping her longer.

McKay is making a real effort to be there for another patient of hers, too: Roxie. I fear we are close to the end of Roxie’s journey on The Pitt. Roxie is still in pain and asks for even more morphine, revealing to her husband that she’s been in a lot of pain this whole time but kept it from him, not wanting to worry him, but she can’t hold it in anymore. When Roxie’s parents come back with the boys and ice cream, it’s starting to feel very last meal up in there. There’s just something about the older son who makes me cry literally every time he appears onscreen, so yeah, I did sob when he made sure to give his mom the sea-salt=caramel ice cream first because it’s her favorite. When McKay checks in on Roxie later, resting alone in the dark, she talks about how unfair it is to be given a family she adores only to be ripped away from them like this. She asks McKay, who has seen a lot of death, if she has any tips, because, well, she’s never died before. This family is going to ruin me, and I’ve come to terms with that.

If you’re looking for other story lines to break your heart, The Pitt has options in “3:00 PM.” Consider Jude, the 12-year-old who blows off two of his fingers when he holds onto a firecracker a little too long. His story only gets sadder. While cleaning out his wound before surgery arrives, Santos, who is really making a case for a future in pediatrics this season, smells alcohol on his breath. This situation just got a whole lot trickier. Jude’s parents aren’t around, and his sister, Chantal, is his legal guardian. She is livid when she arrives and hears about his hand, even more so when she learns about the alcohol, but what really sets her off is when Robby and Santos tell her about a possible visit from CPS.

In a conversation with Robby, Santos, and social worker Dylan, Chantal, who has been a little cagey on the situation at home, finally opens up about her parents: They were deported to Haiti nine months ago after being detained at one of their immigration hearings. She had to drop out of college to take care of Jude, otherwise he would be deported with them, even though he was born in the United States. Their parents desperately wanted Jude to stay in the U.S. It’s been painful and challenging for all of them, but she isn’t going to lose her brother. As Chantal and Dylan continue their conversation, Santos asks Robby if they really have to get child services involved — it’s not right to separate them. “A lot of what happens to people around here is not right,” he tells her. Wow, both true and not at all comforting. In the end, Dylan doesn’t think they’ll need a visit while they’re in the hospital, but there will surely be a home visit at some point. He doesn’t think there’s anything to worry about, but I guess one never knows in this hellscape.

Need another emotional punch to the gut? Howard Knox is back from his CT scan at Presbyterian, and Abbot has some bad news to deliver. Howard has a perforated diverticular abscess — there’s a small hole in his colon leaking bacteria into his abdomen. He’ll need surgery. Without it, he’ll have a 100 percent chance of death. With it, because of his weight, a 50 percent chance. Howard is distraught. The one bit of good news here though is that Whitaker got a hold of Howard’s estranged sister and she would like to talk to her brother before he goes into surgery. Garcia doesn’t want to wait to get this guy into the OR, but Abbot sees how much Howard wants this — needs this — and he can’t help himself.

They get him out to the ambulance bay where there’s cell service and the Knox siblings have a teary-eyed catch-up, made all the more emotional by the fact that Howard is still intubated and has to use that tablet to speak. He looks so scared! They wheel him back in to make his way to the OR. Abbot is sure their surgeons will get him through this. Robby crosses his fingers. Again, Robby, not at all comforting here.

• Dana is a conduit for both hospital past and future in this episode. She calls in Monica Peters, a retired clerk who “runs a tight ship” and immediately makes things in the analog ED much less chaotic. She also takes a moment to tell Emma how well she did with sexual-assault victim Ilana. Emma should be proud of herself.

• The Pitt season two is not beating the horny allegations! There’s everyone drooling over the hot radiologist, Ahmad getting flirty hellos from Makedah in Admin, and Abbot worried about Robby on the road alone, telling him to call if he winds up in a dark mental headspace. Okay, fine, that last thing is maybe only horny in my head, but I said what I said!

• Pittsburgh’s annual furry convention takes place over the Fourth of July, so you knew someone would be walking in wearing a costume. How great would it have been if that fox head came off and it was just Dr. Shen arriving for the night shift? (Or Robby’s evil twin?) It’s not. It’s a woman suffering from dehydration who tells Santos she would make an excellent dragon if she was interested in attending Anthrocon. Maybe Santos should consider it after another awkward interaction with Garcia, who reminds her that they’re “keeping it casual.”

• Robby keeps his promise to have a chat with Whitaker about boundaries with patients, especially farm-based ones, and it seems to resonate with the young doc. Robby asks him to house-sit while he’s away — a favor to him but also perhaps a helpful tool to begin creating some distance from the farm. Robby also tells Whitaker he’s proud of him while handing him his shiny new “Doctor” badge, and I guess Whitaker can pack it in now — his life has peaked.

• Robby assuming that his neighbors wouldn’t appreciate watching Abbot do nude yoga at sunrise is honestly the most inconsiderate this man has ever been, because how does he know? HOW DOES HE KNOW THAT?