The Pitt: 10:00 A. M.

“Sounds like ‘first week in July’ syndrome."

No, there is no evidence that patient mortality rates increase in early July when residencies first begin. That’s just an urban legend.

It felt like there was an increased focus on the characters as opposed to the cases this time around, which was definitely appreciated. Obviously, there was still the usual wide range of medical emergencies and non-emergencies, but we had more time with people between cases.

Like with Santos. She has always presented herself as someone who is incredibly confident and secure in her own abilities. Whether it was her overeagerness to perform procedures last season, or her hopes to double board in this one, she’s never faltered. It didn’t feel like false confidence either.

Now, though, she’s starting to wobble and struggle in ways that I don’t know if she really has before. She’s overwhelmed by the amount of charting that she has to do, and Dr. Al’s warning (low key threat?) that she might be forced to repeat a year if she doesn’t catch up clearly rattled her.

The fact that Whitaker is thriving and catching symptoms that directly lead him to saving someone’s life only made things worse. Santos now has a direct comparison, and it’s not one that she’s finding to be in her favor. Especially since Whitaker was so lost in the beginning of Season One.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Santos ends up turning to Dr. Al’s software as a way to just get her charting over with, nor would I be surprised if such a thing leads to chaos and incorrect information.

Okay, I don’t think that Dr. Al is actually threatening Santos over her charting. Santos is being very snarky and dismissive with her in that conversation initially, although telling Santos that she needed to stay on top of things because of billing was probably not the right tactic.

It just feels like a wild thing to bring up not even four hours into your first day, especially when you’re only going to be there for three months, especially on a holiday, especially when you’re about to get a lot more patients due to the Code Black.

Then again, I thought that it was wild that Santos clocked Langdon stealing drugs and exposed him on her first day, so maybe I need to accept that this is just a concession to how television works.

I am glad that Whitaker is flourishing, even to the point of having a “friend with farm benefits.” I was not expecting the burn victim widow to get a mention, and I do think that they are genuinely just friends. Whitaker looked far too appalled at the suggestion for it to be otherwise.

Even Javadi seems to have found her niche, even if it’s as a Tiktok influencer. I was holding my breath the entire time she was cutting the superglue patient’s eyelashes, just waiting for it to go wrong somehow.

Instead, it was Ogilvie who was the one who almost killed a patient. Look, even I know that you’re never supposed to pull out anything that has been impaled into a body just in case the object is the only thing stopping you from bleeding out. It doesn’t matter how small it looks.

At least it left him clearly shaken. He was pale enough that I firmly believed him when he promised that it would never happen again. He didn’t just brush it off. That’s a point in his favor. Now he just needs to learn to actually let Joy talk and I might start to like him.

I’ve officially warmed up to Joy. She just had to fully get away from Ogilvie in order to get engaged. I’m enjoying her deadpan snark more and more as well. She was a good counterbalance to Emma, who is still just full of nervous energy. Her face when she dropped the blood vial and it was immediately demolished made me laugh out loud. Poor girl.

Hopefully she gets her feet under her soon because the patients from Westbridge are not stopping. Things weren’t too overwhelming yet, but you could see where things are starting to get backed up. People are starting to be pulled in multiple directions at once, so it’s very reasonable that Dr. Al would want to pull Langdon off of triage and back with them.

I can see why Robby shot the idea down, though. Langdon wasn’t even initially supposed to come in today. Robby was not at all mentally prepared to deal with him, so he’s doing what he always does when there’s a situation that he isn’t comfortable with: he avoids it. I was genuinely surprised that Robby was even trying therapy to the extent of trying multiple therapists because his version of “zoom therapy” felt far more in character.

Robby can’t avoid him forever, though. Not with Dr. Al overriding Robby’s wishes. That’s going to be a very fun source of tension to watch moving forward.

I haven’t really talked about any of the patients in any detail, but I do want to touch on Orlando Diaz, the diabetic who no longer has health insurance. I think this is one of the first times that the show has actually mentioned the fact that there is a serious financial cost associated with going to the hospital. That insurance is something that needs to be considered, and that if you don’t have it then your options are very slim. I doubt that this will be the last time that we circle back to the Diaz family.

Random Thoughts

Mel’s deposition is in five hours. Again, what lawyer would take a deposition at roughly 3pm on the Fourth of July?

We were told why Collins isn’t here. She adopted a baby and moved to Portland to be closer to her family. Good for her. I’m happy with that conclusion of her character arc.

I can’t decide if I’m surprised that Santos is an astrology girlie or not.

Also, Santos asking Robby if they liked Dr. Al was a really interesting moment with regards to the dynamic between everyone in that scene.

McKay’s decision to ultimately ask that one patient out on a date would have landed a lot better if they actually had a conversation beyond her brushing off his flirting.

Speaking of flirting… was Dr. Al flirting with Robby? This was the second time she said something that could be interpreted like that.

So what do we think the infection at the very end is? MRSA or some kind of flesheating thing?

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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.

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