RECAP: ‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Episode 15 – “9:00 P.M.”

It’s time to clock out for our second shift of The Pitt. Things don’t close as narratively satisfying as the first season, but The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 delivers an incredibly harrowing final case as it wraps up most of the season’s main storylines. 

The main patient case in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 is a pregnant woman with preeclampsia, but who has refused all medical intervention for her pregnancy. This keeps the night shift pretty occupied throughout the episode. It’s a great tension builder and carries much of the drama into the finale. It’s determined they need to do a C-section since the woman is too far along in her pregnancy, and the only way to deal with preeclampsia is to deliver the baby.

It’s a dramatic process that brings in Robby (Noah Wyle) and McKay as well. Both exhausted from their shifts and various existential crises, they end up saving both the mother and the baby, a satisfying outcome for McKay, who didn’t hesitate to jump in even though she was almost done charting and ready to go home. But also for Robby, who holds back enough tears that it’s clear seeing the survival of the mother and the baby might be a breaking point if he lets it.

The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 tries to tie up a lot of the day-shift stories.

The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 tries to tie up a lot of the day-shift stories. Javadi (Shabana Azeez) has an epiphany, thanks to Whitaker’s (Gerran Howell) encouragement, about what she wants to specialize in. After Robby tells her he actually likes her videos, she tells him she thinks she wants to go into emergency psychiatry and asks him if he thinks she can do it. Robby tells her she can do anything she puts her mind to, a nice little nod to how consistently he’s believed in her while accepting her new idea for a specialty.

Javadi’s decision comes after realizing how much this job tears you down, as witnessed by what it does to her coworkers, like Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), Santos (Isa Briones), Dana, and especially Robby. Even if she’s blunt in her assessments of them, we’ve seen how she is with patients and their loved ones, like Jada, whom Javadi helped reassure and comfort when Jada was confused about her brother’s mental illness diagnosis.

Whitaker leaves during The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 without finding his new badge, but he does manage to get the keys to Robby’s house. Robby sees him off as Whitaker leaves with Amy and the baby, a somewhat anticlimactic closeout for Whitaker. However, his support for people like Javadi and Santos was a major highlight of the past few episodes.

One of the more disappointing send-offs in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 is Mohan.

One of the more disappointing send-offs is Mohan, and a lot of that has to do with knowing Ganesh is not returning for Season 3. Mohan spent the majority of The Pitt Season 2 stressed about finding a new job after her plans to move to New Jersey fell through when her mother decided to go on a months-long cruise.

 That stress hit a breaking point in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 10 when a panic attack overtook Mohan. The cause of the panic attack, being of a personal nature, sent Robby into a fit, yelling at Mohan to keep her personal drama outside of his ER, a very ironic statement coming from Robby, who is also letting his struggles affect his work.

But that outburst from Robby in that episode was a part of his season-long breakdown, in which his suicidal ideation and depression become clearer as the season goes on. Since that outburst, Mohan and Robby have been dancing around each other, but in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15, Mohan steps outside just as Whitaker drives off, leaving her on the same curbside as Robby.

Robby opens up to Abbott in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15.

Mohan tells Robby that she and her mom are no longer talking, and then apologizes for letting her personal stuff distract her all day. Her exhaustion is clear in her voice and posture, just as it was in The Pitt Season 1 finale. But then, there was still a sense of accomplishment despite the tragedy of the day. Here, there’s just exhaustion and a sense of bitter acceptance that all there is what the job takes from you.

Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) finally has that talk with Robby, and it pretty much feels like a part two to what he says in The Pitt Season 1 finale, in which he offers to give Robby his therapist’s phone number. But this one had more energy to it, like Abbott can feel Robby slipping away, too.

His point about how Robby’s presence allowed the mother and baby to survive in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 might be unfair, but it works to get Robby talking. He says that everything important he’s done right there in that hospital, but seeing so many people die is leeching off a part of his soul. Abbott suggests a cruise and a therapist, and then they’re interrupted by more patients.

Al-Hashimi contends with the return of her seizures in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15.

Abbott’s not the only one to tell Robby he needs to talk to someone. Shortly after, in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15, Langdon (Patrick Ball) confronts Robby about his avoidance all day and about wanting to have a chat with him. Rehab and therapy have done Langdon a lot of good, and he tells Robby he needs the same in not-so-kind terms.

Langdon spends The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 getting his drug test done and checking up on his waitress patient from earlier in the season. He got his confidence back, and hearing that his patient survived is good news to end the night on. If there’s anything from Langdon’s story this season that feels unsatisfying, it’s where things get left off with Santos after so much build-up during the season.

Al-Hashimi contends with the return of her seizures in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 and Robby’s insistence that she notify the medical board of her condition, even though the neurologist said she could work on a new medication. She ends the season crying in the car that she doesn’t feel she can drive home now. Her future at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center feels unclear, but if she gets the help she needs, she could be back. Her addition to the season created some great tension between her and Robby, but plenty of things remained hanging with her, like the patient passport charts, her AI app, and her insistence that Santos get caught up on charting.

The day shift closes out their shift and The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 on the rooftop to watch the fireworks.

Mel’s (Taylor Dearden) informed in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 that things with her deposition are not over, which brings her down from the peaceful moment she just had outside with Langdon, in which the two sat and watched some of the fireworks together. Santos notices Mel’s down demeanor and decides to invite her out after work for karaoke. For two characters who have more of a “just a colleague” vibe between them, the invite is a pleasant surprise that turns into a wonderful end-credits scene in which the two rock out with their hair down to Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.”

The day shift closes out their shift and The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 on the rooftop to watch the fireworks. They’ve got a good view, but the bright lights and celebratory atmosphere can’t mask the emotions and exhaustion of the day, leaving everyone in tears. It’s Perlah who cries first, whom Dana hugs, and the rest follow.

There’s no dialogue that allows the heaviness to linger. As frontline workers in the health and care of Americans and non-citizens alike, this celebration of American patriotism feels uncanny and wrong, something that should come with all the promises it espouses.

The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 struggles to wrap up threads it sets up for its characters throughout the season.

But the reality is today, one of their patients ends up on life support because he couldn’t afford the cost of the insurance or the medical care that would keep him alive. ICE agents disrupted the care of a patient to arrest her, and when her nurse stepped in, they arrested him too. Patients were left without getting the care they were there for because of ICE’s presence, as were some of the staff, even if they were citizens or had the proper paperwork. The mental health of doctors and nurses can’t keep up with the staff shortage or the hospital system’s refusal to pay a living wage.

The episode ends with Robby holding baby Jane Doe as he tells her that she has so much to look forward to. It’s an ambiguous ending to Robby’s journey this season, one that promised he would be hopping on a motorcycle at the end of the night. But after the events of the day and his promises to Duke and Abbott in The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 that he’ll return, his uncertainty about what he should do feels even bigger. But in comforting baby Jane Doe, he’s almost comforting himself, or trying to convince himself that there’s still hope and something to live for.

The Pitt Season 2 Episode 15 closes this second season with a strong patient case, but struggles a bit more to wrap up the various threads it sets up for its characters throughout the season.

The Pitt Season 2 airs new episodes at 8 p.m. Central every Thursday on HBO Max.

Previous Episode | Next Episode