‘The Pitt’ Bosses Unpack the Finale: Robby’s Breaking Point, Gun Violence and Season 2 Plans

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Pitt” Episode 15.

“The Pitt” ended its triumphant first season with a welcome shift change, once the team of medical professionals worked through treating the victims of the devastating mass shooting at Pitt Fest.

Episode 15, taking place at 9 p.m., followed as Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) and the rest of the team wrapped up a heart-wrenching day of treating patients and plenty of interpersonal drama. He noted that the ER saw 112 mass casualty patients arrive in just four hours, and only six of them died. The impressive achievement did little to appease Robby’s inner turmoil, whose unresolved trauma from the COVID-era led to a breakdown after her failed to save the girlfriend of his almost stepson Jake (Taj Speights) from injuries sustained in the shooting.

After getting through the patient rush, Robby fought back tears as he delivered an impassioned speech to the staff for letting “the worst of humanity” inspire their best work. After that, Jake gave him the cold shoulder once again and Robby informed Jake’s girlfriend’s parents about her death, which led him back to the rooftop for a full-circle conversation with Dr. Abbott (Shawn Hatosy).

“In the beginning of the season, Robby seems to be the one who has everything under control and Abbott is literally on the edge. When Robby has his meltdown, he takes solace in the same place Abbott did, and there seems to be a booked element to that,” series creator R. Scott Gemmill told TheWrap. “I don’t think Abbott or Robby were ever going to jump, but he was in a bad place and needed some refuge.”

The conversation between the friends and colleagues takes a turn when Abbott reveals he’s been seeing a therapist. Robby asks if it helps, and Abbott jokes that it’s kept him from jumping off the roof thus far.

“I don’t think he can pretend to himself any longer that he’s OK,” Wyle said about Robby possibly seeking treatment himself. “I think he may put up a good facade and not be the most willing patient. No doctor makes a very good patient … But he likes a challenge, and him getting on the road to recovery may be the biggest one he’s had to face yet.”

For Gemmill and executive producer John Wells, who directed Episode 15, bringing to light the effects of gun violence on first responders was the key theme for the first season of “The Pitt.”

“The federal government did note that gun violence is a health crisis … Because of our policies, we ask medical professionals to clean up the mess,” Wells told TheWrap. “It’s very important for people to understand the emotional cost that our current policies require of the people we asked to take care of what happens. Thoughts and prayers will only go so far.”

“The Pitt” finale also left viewers with some big moments before saying goodbye. Robby and Langdon (Patrick Ball) had one last confrontation, where each called out the other for their unresolved issues. Dana (Katherine LaNasa) seemed to pack up her things with the intention of not returning, while Cassie (Fiona Dourif) left with the intention of dealing with her damaged ankle monitor in the morning. Mel ended the day picking up her sister, with promises of eating spaghetti and pizza and watching “Elf” despite arriving to get her later than expected. And Santos (Isa Briones) invited Whitaker (Gerran Howell) to move in with her after finding him in an unoccupied room at the hospital.

The season ended with Robby, Abbott — who viewers find out has a prosthetic leg — and some of the other doctors sharing a beer at the park outside the hospital. They all laugh when Javadi (Shabana Azeez) reminds them that this traumatic shift happened to be her first day on the job.

With Season 2 already in the works, Gemmill said the show will pick up 10 months later, revolving around Fourth of July weekend. He said the time jump allows for the characters’ lives to push forward, including giving Langdon the time to get through rehab and be back in the fold.

“I would think the majority of the characters will be back. There may be some who are not back because they’re working the night shift, and we might not see them til later … Kind of like we did with Abbott,” he added. “Most of your favorite characters will definitely be back in some capacity.”

Below, Gemmill and Wells reflect on the show being praised by the medical community and where the show will go next.

TheWrap: I have never seen the medical community rally behind a medical drama quite like it’s happened with “The Pitt.” How does it feel to see the show resonating with those viewers?

Gemmill: It’s great. That validation makes us feel like what we’re doing has some value beyond just entertainment. Those are the most important critics to us, the real frontline workers. If we can do good by them, then I think we’ve done a good job.

Wells: We worked really hard to try to both celebrate and show what our frontline workers, our medical personnel really go through for us. We put a lot of effort into it, but you never know if you’re actually getting there. So it’s really fantastic to see them responding to it and saying, “I can show this to my family and now they understand what I do, and why I’m tired when I get home and am sometimes emotionally spent.” That’s very gratifying.

Dr. Robby had this day-long panic attack, but the show wisely avoided building to some big breakdown where he unloaded all of his feelings on someone and “got better.” He leaned on Whitaker and Abbott when he reached a breaking point, but there was no “Here’s how we fix it” monologue, which feels true to life. How did you approach threading this arc for Robby over the course of the season?

Gemmill: At some point during his career and his life, what he has been avoiding and what he’s been swallowing for so long is going to come to the surface. It’s not a matter of if it happens, it was a matter of when. In Robby’s case, what is going to trigger that? What event or situation is going to be significant enough that he won’t have the ability to override it?

Another thread throughout the season was the storyline with the mom worried about her troubled teen, who becomes the prime suspect in the Pitt Fest shooting. By the end of the season we learn he was not the shooter, which Robby believed from the start, but we still get that important conversation between David (Jackson Kelly) and Cassie. Why did you want to weave that conversation into the season, but then not have him be the killer?

Gemmill: When we look at some of the individuals who are responsible for these crimes in the real world, we have to figure out why it happened and it’s obviously always tied to mental health issues. The character of David was not our shooter this time. But could he have been it with the right stressors and over time if he didn’t get the help? This was basically giving you a glimpse into someone who could grow into that.

I don’t know if Robby was 100% sure that David was not the shooter, I think he was hopeful that he was not the shooter. When these things happen, people who know the perpetrators sometimes are also surprised. The Internet has become this breeding ground for individuals who need professional help and who, unfortunately, are seeking it elsewhere. In some cases, what they get is pushing them in the wrong direction.

Wells: The online influences and what we are actually doing to young boys and men is an issue that we just absolutely have to address. Through entertainment, we can at least call attention to it so that people pay a little bit more attention.

That final scene in the park felt like a great epilogue to the chaos, and shows how these workers find a way to push forward. How did you go about writing, and directing this pivotal moment?

Gemmill: That was written months and months ago. John shot that in September, within two days of shooting the roof scenes with Robby and Abbott. So all that stuff was shot months and months ago. The tricky part was making sure whatever we did got us to the same spot. The joke was that the scene on the roof with Robby where Abbott says, “That was a great speech. I wish I’d given it.” Noah kept saying to me, I can’t wait to see this speech, but there was no speech written at that point. So I was like, “Yeah, I can’t wait to see it either.”

Wells: This is really like a 15-hour movie, because it’s one day and it’s a complete arc. So it’s very similar to what you have to do in films, where you’re shooting the final scene months before you’re actually shooting the scenes that lead up to it. It’s a real testament to Scott and the writing team’s abilities to lay this out in such a way that what we were shooting months in advance actually is the proper coda.

Beyond gun violence, Season 1 tackled many major issues like sickle-cell, measles outbreaks, unbalanced patient care, vaccines and more. What themes are you interested in pursuing with Season 2?

Gemmill: Part of what we do in the very early process of a new season is about going back to the experts. We’re talking to immigration specialists, autism specialists. We’re talking to PTSD specialists, because everybody has gone through this trauma now, as well. If you can think of it, we’re talking about it.

Wells: Unfortunately, there is no lack of new subjects. A lot of the process is talking to the physicians and nurses who are in the field and saying, “So, what’s on your mind? What are you concerned about? What’s coming in? What are you thinking about? What are you worried about?” We’re not going to run out of those issues anytime soon.

And sometimes, we just run into an issue. The measles thing, which is now a big thing, was all written and shot months ago. There was concern within the medical community about what’s going on with the lack of faith in vaccines and that came up. We are going to seem as if we are timely a lot of times, when what it really is is just an issue that medical professionals knew was coming. What’s happening with measles now is what they told us would happen a year ago.

Have you mapped out an overall plan for “The Pitt” or is it more of like a season-by-season thing for you?

Wells: It’s more day-to-day. We have both done shows that lasted for many, many seasons, and we have done shows that lasted for six episodes. I know this is going to sound a little glib, but you just go in and try and do your best work, and hope that the audience shows up. Every attempt to predict what’s going to work or not work, or what direction the industry is going in or not. It’s a flip of the coin, no matter what. So get good writers, hire some good actors and hope that what you’re interested in is what the audience is interested in.

Last time we talked you said the team could definitely have Season 2 turned around for a similar release timeline. Is that still the goal now that things are official and you are in the writers’ room?

Wells: We will deliver the show so that it can be on at the same time. But we don’t schedule it, and there are a lot of other considerations at Max. But I think in general, we can assume we’re going to see it at the beginning of next year. You know whether it’s an exact year, who knows? They have got a lot of other balls in the air that they have to deal with. But it’s not going to be two years from now. It will be next year.

That is great to hear because it’s a concern for fans of streaming shows for fans. Like, “Oh, now we have to wait two years for the next season.”

Wells: And it’s such a recent phenomenon. “The Sopranos” was on at the same time every year, and “Six Feet Under” was on at the same time. Part of that is that these big huge shows — and I love them — have so many visual effects and are so complicated to pull together and have movie stars, or stars who have many other commitments. It can just take a while to get them all put together and done again, which means you end up having these big periods of time. But we don’t have those issues. There’s no reason that this show can’t deliver on an annual basis.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“The Pitt” Season 1 is now streaming on Max.

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