‘The Pitt’ Season 2, Episode 14: A Bang, Not a Whimper

22:00Rob:Do you think that's the end for him? I would be surprised. I think we have to get Langdon back. I mean, a urine test can't take that long. I mean, not to insert myself into Frank Langdon's life too much, but I think he can get in and out of there in an hour. You've been watching a lot of Euphoria, so you know what it is to be drug tested. I do indeed. You know, maybe he too has a vial of someone else's urine on his leg. Who's to say? Taped to his thigh, yeah. I don't know about more Langdon. I guess the question is, are we going to get more Langdon? Do we need another Langdon-Robbie scene, or does this feel like enough of a, you know, Dan is like, you don't have to say goodbye.

22:38Rob:Robbie, you get your wish, you don't have to say goodbye to Frank. Like, is this, do you feel like that dynamic is concluded? That's my preference, is that like this feels like a great way to leave it, which is Robbie is getting the thing he thought he wanted, but he doesn't really want it anymore. He kind of wants that moment to talk to Langdon after this procedure and seeing this impressive thing he did. And he kind of blew it with some of his behavior earlier in the day, as far as the chance to actually have a conversation with Frank. On the like, they're having a really bad day, I need approval from Robbie.

23:11Rob:Samira, we come upon Samira just like crushed at the bedside of the Diazes. When Dana comes in, I'm like, oh, finally someone's here to like comfort Samira. But it was, we need the bed. Can you get them out of here? I mean, Dana, she said it quite nicely. Yeah, gently, for sure. You know, very gently, but she's like, and this is, you know, she does this all season. This is her thing. is like, hun, we need the bed sort of thing. But she's not here for Samira. But then we get a Robbie-Samira moment. Like, how are you doing? Well, listen, you tried. I'm not sure what else you could have done. It's all, again, going pretty well, honestly.

23:49Rob:Like, this is the Robbie-Samira dynamic, right? You're like, Robbie, you're doing it. It's happening. You're encouraging her. And then not picking a higher spot to jump from. Yeah. I mean, there is... Obviously, there is the Robbie talking about suicide, asking, like, honestly, like crying for help all day in ways that people cry for help. That's kind of in its own category and it's looped in here and we're going to talk about it in extended detail, I imagine. But there's also the part of this which is, even if that is true, even if you believe it, even if you really think that's what Orlando Diaz was attempting here, that is not what Samira Mohan needs to hear in this moment.

24:27It is the worst possible thing to say about the patient that she feels right or wrong that she let get away.

24:34Rob:At full volume inside of the halls of your busy ED. Now multiple different parties have overheard you floating this theory at different points. Yeah, yeah. How's it going to go for Samira next week? What do you think? Well, this is one of the things we have to get, right? Langdon may be optional depending on how much you want to loop him in with other stories. We need, if not a sense of finality with Mohan's arc this season, at least some indication of what she wants to do with her career, what's going to be happening in her life. She has had an absolutely miserable day in terms of even the things about this job that she usually finds rewarding.

25:08So many of them have been turned against her as far as trying to treat patients with this extra care and trying to go this extra mile. And she's been getting burned and having tough loss after tough loss after tough loss. It can't be this. There needs to be one more note. I'm open to what that is, but like she has to be a big part of the finale, I would imagine.

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28:05Rob:I'm gonna ask you a question and I hope it goes better than my spice of life question. Would you rather? What, you don't like salt and pepper? The spice of life is salt and pepper? Salt is literally a mineral that allows for life. You know, like on a chemical level, it's part of us. I'm taking your first answer, which was dill. That's the kind of - It's not even a spice. That's the kind of answer I was going for. Okay. Would you rather Cassie McKay's three Bs, which is book, bath, bed. Yeah. Or Monica's three M's, which is Mahjong, Margarita, MAGA. Well, you already know the answer to this, but I would say, you know, really she's about the four B's.

28:45It's book, bath, bed, bangs.

28:49Rob:Oh. She's an enthusiast. Yeah. She is who she is. But like Monica, I mean, I do enjoy a game of Mahjong. I love a margarita. I love a margarita, certainly. You had me at those two. Can we stop at the two M's or is the third M to be involved? If it's Monica, it's part of the deal, man. Well, then I'm out and she's out for the day. Yeah, she's gone. She has removed herself. The old dinosaur is headed towards extinction, which is just a funny way to leave a room. I'd give her that. What do you make of her, like, glad I gave you a shot to Dana? Like, glad I was wrong about you. Okay. Okay, great. Whatever, Monica.

29:28All right.

29:28Rob:This is a huge Duke episode. This is, like, why we torturously brought Duke into the ED so that he could be here to work on the bike, talk to Robbie. Before he does all that, though. And I thought all this, I thought Jeff Cobra was great in this episode. And I thought all this stuff was really, really good. The Perla scene, though. You don't want none of that. You're not ready for all that. She's out of your league. What league am I in? The old-timers league. Like, this is a great Perla moment. I thought, I was wondering if, you know, he, she comes running in because he tries to take his leads off.

30:03Rob:And I was, like, wondering if this was, like, a Louis sort of trigger for her, right? because like Louis, Louis sends her like going off all day and then it being a false alarm, false alarm, then not. So like I was wondering if that was part of the reason, but also it was just like a great Perla moment and I'm a big fan in general. Especially when she has to play all that with a poker face because like she has seen Duke CT. So she knows what Robbie is going to come in to talk to him about. And I feel like she's just like perfectly attuned with like just gentle enough, but also just kind of like poking fun at him in the way that someone like Duke would be receptive to.

30:42It's just, like, it's great reading the room from Perla.

30:45Rob:How about the Robbie Duke, this is what's going on with you physically scene? I mean, Robbie's finally getting the chance to talk to him. I have to say, as far as what Duke's outlook is, it sounds quite promising if he gets this procedure. And so from that perspective, you can understand Robbie's anxiety about, if I leave and you don't do this, it could be catastrophic. And if I leave and even give you a follow-up call, maybe it'll nudge you in the direction, although Duke rightly calls him out that he's not going to be making that follow-up call. Well, I think especially when Duke is asking, like, what will it feel like?

31:18Rob:Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, so if I don't do this, if this happens, so if I die, I'm going to die. I've lived my life. I'm going to die. Maybe this is the way to go. You know what I mean? Is sort of the implication from Duke. It did sound maybe not painless, but relatively painless as these things go. Yeah, yeah. Some pain and then you'll pass out and it'll be over. And then we get the, after the ambulance has hit Robbie's bike and Antoine is like surprisingly like very defensive and protective of Robbie's bike. I was very surprised by this. So I was wondering that there were multiple bikes.

31:55Rob:Do you think one of them is Antoine? Does he think that's why he was mad? Yeah, I feel like maybe he was mad about his bike, but. Yeah. Do you think Antoine wears helmet? I would hope. Okay. I would certainly hope. I would hope that everyone does. But that is the moment where you know that things are really bad with Robbie, which is, yes, he has the, like, motherfucker outburst when he finds his bike. But the calm with which he receives the guy who was driving the ambulance is like, you know what? It's okay. I'm like, oh, this is bad. This man is in a horrible state, maybe even worse than we've imagined.

32:28Rob:That's okay. But then he, like, but then chewing out the other drivers about where they placed the sensors on the woman with the larger chest. You know, Dr. Al-Hashimi thanked him for it. Santos was certainly really into it. Dr. Al-Hashimi's like, I would have done it a little differently, but like, thank you for standing up for us. If Santos agrees with your managerial style, it might not be the best sign. And this is, I mean, I actually, we've talked about this a little bit this season, the way in which Santos is like modeling her behavior off of Robbie and it's just sort of like, maybe not, you know.

33:05Rob:I learned it from watching you dead. Yeah, exactly. On the Duke and Robbie conversation front, I thought this was like really top. Like this, I think I even liked it even more than like the Dana-Robbie confrontation because I think the Dana-Robbie emotional fights is supposed to be like, here's the pit taking its two heavyweight champions and having them fight each other. And that's supposed to be like the showstopper of the season. But there's something about this quieter conversation where Robbie's allowing himself to be more honest with someone, a bit more honest with someone. And then Duke having this perspective.

33:43Rob:Duke being able to, both Dana and Duke can see through Robbie's bullshit to a certain degree. But Duke talking about the things he had done in his life and the regret that he had, the bad things. Not just the bad things anyone does, but I went to jail because I purposely hurt people. Bad things. Yeah. I thought all of this was just like tremendously good. Do you feel like it changed Robbie's outlook at all? What do you think? I think maybe it's like starting to move the needle a little bit in a way that it hasn't all day, right? Many people have tried to approach this thing as openly as you would with somebody in the middle of a workday, right?

34:20Like talking pretty clearly about what Robbie's intentions might be, how weirdly he's been acting and behaving and speaking to people all day. Like people have tried. McKay has tried many times for one. Ultimately, I feel like he's more receptive to Duke. And I'm wondering if you have any ideas for why that is, Joe. And you mentioned like, as being someone who has like lived through some shit and seen some shit, I think probably works in Duke's favor. Someone who's outside his normal kind of work orbit and is a different perspective might lead Robbie to be more receptive to him. He's also like clearly someone whose advice and opinion he takes seriously about other things.

34:56But do you see any other particular reason why Robbie might be open to this conversation at this time.

35:01Rob:Someone who doesn't trigger his mommy issues. I mean, that too. You know, that's what I think. And like, I think that's why, you know, in this episode, this is a very Abbott-lite episode, but we do get Dana sort of like pleading with Abbott to have a conversation with Robbie. So I have to imagine that's something we're getting in the finale. And, you know, again, I think Abbott is well-positioned to get through to Robbie in a way that Dana can't. And then, you know, it's just like, I don't think Robbie never listens to women but I think that there are just like certain things he can't hear from certain people, you know?

35:34I want to see about the Abbott thing because he's obviously a little resistant in this moment when Dana is bringing it up to him about whether he should talk to him, how he should talk to him. I can see the version of the finale where the conversation you're alluding to absolutely happens. And in terms of like heavyweight actors and characters on this show, it speaks to -

35:52Rob:Let's put him back on the roof or whatever, you know? Let's put him on the roof. It speaks to that closure in season one. I can absolutely see how we got there. I could also see this being more of a return to talk again with Duke or a different version of that manifesting where Abbott, for whatever reason, has kind of done this and feels like he can't get any further with Robbie and Robbie has to turn to someone else, whether that's Duke or Dana or maybe somebody off the board who we're not thinking about. It feels like this is such a Robbie, Duke, Langdon episode and most, like Santos and Whitaker, with the exception of that one, you know, and McKay and Mel are really just like on the charting beat.

36:34Rob:Like that's, they're just like sort of background in this episode. Do you agree or what do you think? Yeah. I mean, they're barely. And I would say Javadi as well, other than her uploading the video and having that conversation with Robbie. Yeah. What did you make of that? I mean, it's just like full condescending uncle dad mode right out of the gate for Robbie. and the unwillingness to even like let her explain or talk about it at all. It's tough. Finish a sentence. Can you imagine? It was deeply aggravating to watch McKay coming back and being like, listen, actually, she's trying to help Jessie.

37:10Rob:And also what she does is pretty cool. And this is like something that they, again, this is just the pit saying the thing. This is something that they said they were going to do this season, which is like Javadi and her social media influencer, but we're not here to make fun of it. We're here to like say, hey, it's actually kind of cool the way in which younger people can reach people. McKay just says the thing though, once again, which is just not the most elegant way to translate that to us. Also the way she says it, Joe, as like, it's kind of this badass self-care is the most mom that McKay has ever sounded on this show.

37:41Rob:Yeah. Just the most distant and out of touch with anything. But she is trying to be nice. She is being supportive, as you mentioned. I think the part of this that is Javadi using her reach and her influence to try to get information on Jessie. That part I like. The like, we're going to prop up this idea of who Javadi is as a self-care influencer, also without ever showing you what her content even looks like. Like, maybe just show us what it looks like. Well, that's what they said from the start was that they weren't going to show it, but I was just like, I wish - So you're just going to tell, not show?

38:11Yeah, exactly.

38:11Rob:I really wish you had shown it and then I could at home, sitting here at home, been like, wow, that's some badass self-care. You know what I mean? And not have Cassie McKay just say the thing. I will give him this. Yeah. Noah Wiley's delivery of, we did have cell phones, maybe not in the beginning. It was very funny and very good. That part is good. Really good. And then like the cases are all just kind of wrapping up. We get the Hanson family back again with the rope in the hand, which is one of the grossest things. I thought it was done for the day in terms of like, they can't get me anymore.

38:40Rob:And then it was the rope in the hand and I was just like really upset by it. What do you think this guy's grandpa name is? He feels like a pappy Hanson to me. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's pappy. He definitely has pappy energy. Or paw, paw, paw. Oh, I could see any variation of paw, paw, paw, paw. Yeah. Definitely in the zone for the Hansons. Do you call your grandparents any kind of cute grandparent name? One of my grandfathers we called Bear because he had a big, grisly, sort of lumbering gate. That's really cute. So you find it in sometimes the most unexpected places. But this is the joy of being a grandparent, I think, is you get to really reinvent yourself late in life.

39:18Rob:Sometimes the names are hard to navigate. Okay. Well, that seems like you're coming from experience, Joe. What do we got? Did you have any grandparent names? No, my grandparents were all like, you know, grandma and first name, you know, sort of thing. But like with my - Grandpa Joe style. With my, I mean, I don't want to throw my folks under the bus. I will just say that like my nephews call like their dad's parents, grandma, grandpa. And so then my parents decided they needed something very distinct. And so they went like real wild with the choices. It could not just be like, we're also grandma and grandpa.

39:54Rob:It had to be something very distinctive. So I'm having like a, I've had trouble with it, but it's not my business because they're not my grandparents. They're my parents. So also on the caseload front inside of this episode, like it's very minimal, just like weird, wacky night shift stuff. Like it's nothing, like we're wrapping up. It doesn't feel like we're gonna get in any like big emotional case other than Dr. Al-Hashimi herself. But like here at the end of the shift, what do you think? Yeah, so we have the Pappy Hansen tug of war case coming in. We have the dude who has fired a gun while wearing a pot on his head.

40:29And I guess, are we to interpret that the bullet like ricocheted or what happened with that guy?

40:34Rob:Right, gunshot wound to the head. So like it's, is it the bucket? I don't know. We don't really follow up on that very much. Yeah, okay. And there's also this woman who's wheeled in right at the end who was climbing a dumpster to try to get onto a roof has fallen and presumably broken her leg. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we barely hear anything about any of those cases going forward. And then the others, I mean, so this woman who came in with chest pain with the leads, maybe we get some follow-up if she's okay or not or kind of what her symptoms are. Is there anything else on the board here that we need answers for or you feel like we're going to get follow-up on?

41:08Rob:I don't think so unless we're forgetting something. I will say that I think the Rolling Rock to the face, that's our pitting out with a pit moment, right? Oh, truly. I mean, tough break for Yingling, too. Like, this was your moment and they just ripped it away from you. Are you a Yingling fan? Like, are you, do you like that? Not particularly, but it's like, I would think that would be the go-to pull in this particular situation and Rolling Rock just snatched it out from under them. Whenever I hear Yingling, I think of Brothers Bloom, right? When like one of - Wait, I don't even remember that Yingling dropped in that?

41:44Rob:One of the cover names is Yingling and someone's like, Yingling, like the beer? Like the beer? You know what? This is a great invitation to revisit the amazing movie, The Brothers Bloom. Yeah, exactly. Like Langdon, we just love a movie. We love a movie reference. We love referencing movies no one has ever seen. That's who we are. Let's talk about Dr. Al Hashimi and Robbie. So Detective Robbie has been on the case. Dr. Al Hashimi literally runs out of the room at one point to sort of avoid his questions. but then brings him in, and this is how she's choosing to reveal the information. He has also chosen this moment to be the first time that he calls her by her first name, which is something she asked him to do at the beginning of the shift.

42:26Rob:And this appears to be the diagnosis that our medical professional listeners gave Dr. Halashimi many, many, many, many episodes ago, this idea of the absence seizures. So what do you make of this? I want to give the creators, the cinematographers of the pit credit, because I did my damnedest joke to read this chart. Freeze Frame Mahoney. They thwarted Freeze Frame Mahoney. They did an amazing job of keeping it perpetually just out of focus, where it's like you can kind of start putting the words together, but not with any level of certainty. So I really tried to dig in. And so all we get is this initial information from Robbie.

43:06But as you say, it's pretty much consistent with what a lot of people have been theorizing that she's been having these seizures. I'm okay with this delivery system. It's a little coy, but like it's TV. And I think it plays well in the moment and setting it up as they've had this long shift together and have earned this begrudging respect. I kind of like how far Robbie and Alashimi have come together over the course of the day. It is a little bit undone by his whole detective search. And it leaves me wondering, did you need the detective search to begin with? Did you need that level of skepticism if you were just going to reveal it in this fashion?

43:41Rob:Right. Could this just have been more of a, not he's on my case, but I do trust him and I can tell him this thing that I'm worried about, you know? And wouldn't it hit harder and be even more impactful if he had learned to trust her over the course of the day and then was kind of sideswiped by this thing? Yeah. So for folks who are listening to this who maybe didn't listen, because we kept a lot of our conversation about this in a sort of like medical spoiler section in previous podcasts. So like if you didn't listen to that previously, we were quite concerned with Dr. El-Hashimi's decision to practice medicine in this, you know, because absence seizures are very rare in adults, but they can be triggered by stressful situations.

44:22Rob:And so like, is the ED just like a place that she cannot practice medicine because it is too stressful. Can she not practice medicine at all in general? I don't think so because I think in like a sort of sedate, you know, GP or, you know, like specialist, like, yeah, there's just like plenty of places, but in the like, in the moment you need to make a decision and sometimes you need to like be physically acting, you need to make sharp mental decisions. You need to be able to like, you know, dig in there and do something physically immediately and if she is incapable of that because it's unpredictable when these things are going to happen to her can she physically run the ed and then this is something i've just been worried about all season because then it's just like okay so then robbie's right that like the woman who is hired to take over for him is unqualified to take over for him and then like so he can't leave because his replacement is incapable is that is that overhead like Like, I'm really curious how that all resolves in the finale because that's like, that doesn't feel, it feels like no lessons learned for Robbie inside of a dynamic like that.

45:30Rob:You know what I mean? Well, I do think as far as that part of Robbie's whole deal, I do like the way the story treats the concept that he can do things other doctors don't do well, right? Like he clearly is a great doctor. He identifies problems. He knows a lot of potential treatments and remedies and things that are not necessarily traditional, but effective in this particular context. And so the idea that he has this God complex in the ED, part of it is like, I don't want to say well-earned, but like you can see how he got there. And so his sense of superiority feeding into the idea that I am the person holding this together, that feels like a well-sculpted character to me.

46:11How it is then fed in the way you described by just like, I was skeptical of this woman and I guess I was right all along and therefore I'm even more infallible. Clearly that's like a dangerous kind of affirmation, but also from a storytelling perspective, like where does that take us? Like where is the road if Robbie was just right and Alashimi was just wrong? And yes, they've come to a great understanding of each other over the course of the day, but that feels like we didn't really go anywhere at all.

46:36Rob:Right, yeah. I'm really worried about how this is gonna resolve. This is something I've been like a little bit in because yeah, we have this moment of mutual respect, but how, like, is that just going to go out the window once he, like, you know, we get the next part of this conversation, you know, the next part of the cliffhanger? I don't know. I'm really curious. Like, again, I don't need, I don't need characters. You really encapsulated it perfectly because, like, I don't need characters to be well-behaved or, you know, all this sort of stuff like that. But for Robbie to, like, believe he's right and then just is right is so dramatically inert, you know, inside of a season.

47:17Rob:And like when we are getting a character who is talking so steadily about ending his life, surely he has to have some sort of transformative epiphany to say, ah, it's worth going on. It's worth going forward. And if it's just, it's worth going forward because everything falls apart without me. And that's the dynamic that has put him in a place where he is considering ending his life in the first place. Like, yeah, narratively, I don't know if that's satisfying. Yeah. So, I don't know. I think the only reason I'm hopeful that that's not exactly what's going to happen is just the way that they've been talking about what the messaging of season two is and what the messaging of season three potentially will be.

48:00That, to me, like, the way they're framing those ideas suggests some level of growth that we haven't seen yet. And so, yeah, that epiphany, that moment, like, something has to turn within Robbie to pull him back from the edge. And again, there are a lot of different ways that could happen, but it has to be pretty significant in a way that the pit honestly hesitates to go to, right? Like they've talked about with the show, there can only be so much of an arc over the course of a day. Yeah. But this needs to be a life-saving arc if Noah Wiley and Dr. Robbie are going to continue to be on the show.

48:29Rob:Which we want. Like I want Dr. Robbie to be on the show. I love what Noah Wiley does with the role. I am interested, like, this is such a extreme place to push someone in season two of a show that you want to run for a while. It's like season two is the season where he is like, is this going to be a perpetual thing for Robbie? Robbie's always on the brink of something, maybe, but like, I don't know. I'm really interested to see, is it an Abbott conversation? Is it a Duke conversation? Is it something with baby Jane Doe? Is Langdon coming back downstairs? Is Mohan going to be a conversation? That is potential of just something.

49:08Rob:I don't know. What if baby Jane Doe is a conversation? What if baby Jane Doe could talk this whole time and is the one to have the heart to heart? And she's like, listen, Robbie. Let me tell you what this is all about. I've been watching you all day and I've got to read for you. I did like the conversation that he had with Caleb, who's the psych doctor, who's been sort of like on the margins of this conversation all day. And Caleb being like, do me the respect, right? You're disrespecting me as a person. No pithy retort, you know, but just sort of this, you know, physician heal thyself or something like that.

49:38Rob:but here's a physician whose job it is to diagnose things has diagnosed you with something quite seriously. And are you going to heal yourself or not? I don't know. It's the first time I would say all day that Robbie has looked ashamed of his behavior, right? Like being forced to confront what he has just said about Orlando Diaz is as sheepish as we've seen Robbie. I did think it was kind of weird that Caleb, I'm sure not for lack of trying over the past months because we're told and it's alluded to that basically he's been trying to get Robbie into treatment and he's been very resistant. But that this is all that Caleb is willing and wanting to do, that's a pretty extreme thing to say out there in front of everybody.

50:17And Caleb is kind of just like, I guess you have my number. Please don't do this again. Bye.

50:25Rob:Did you like this episode? How did you feel about it? I don't know. Ultimately, I felt like it was a pretty good episode in what is a pretty good season and kind of was representative of a lot of the things that I've been left wanting with in season two. I think that Duke stuff is so successful for me in this episode that I think overall my review has to be high. Again, I think Jeff Kober is like perfect casting for this role. And I think he's just like, just an incredible character, especially as we talk about how disconnected Robbie is and who in his life can help him. and it's like the guy, the random guy he met who worked on his bike.

51:08Rob:You know what I mean? It's not a family member, but it's this guy. And it's not Noel. Well, the Zen and the motorcycle maintenance go together. Right, right. It's not Noel. It's this guy, Duke. And I just, I think, other than Langdon and Dr. Al-Hashimi right here at the end, everything else gets kind of sidelined in this episode for this Duke-Robbie stuff as we build to a culmination. And they needed to land that in order for me to be satisfied with this episode. And I think they did. There's a lot of other things that I have questions about, but that is like all season. He's like, my buddy Duke's coming in.

51:43Rob:My buddy Duke is coming in. And Duke has been waiting for his CDs and all this sort of stuff like that. And so it had to pay off here. And I think it did. So, yeah. Those scenes were so good that they sort of recontextualized the my buddy Duke is coming in stuff all day. Where, I mean, to what we were talking about earlier about why Rob even has this conversation with him in the first place. I would imagine there's like a part of that person of Dr. Rabinovich. It's like, I kind of know Duke will try to talk me out of some of this. I know that he sees me in a particular way that maybe other people don't or can reach me in a way that other people don't.

52:19And it's like, in the way that he's asking for help, begging his friend to come in to talk him out of doing the thing that he wants to do. I think he identifies that in Duke a little bit and it does pay off. The scenes are incredible. And I think this is the only reason, I think I'm sort of interpreting the Dana stuff a little differently, where I'm with you that they don't quite work. They don't quite hit. To me, they feel sculpted to be a little stunted, right? It's like, it's meant to be not the big heavyweight bout, but like a failure to launch conversation that doesn't quite work for anyone involved.

52:50And then he goes outside with Duke and has the actual conversation. Yeah. And Jeff Kober sells it. And Jeff Kober, all season, I think it's just been like a weariness to Duke that is really unique among this cast and has brought a different dynamic and energy to basically every scene that he's in in a way that we've seen from like guest stars on their like three episode arcs or whatever, but he's been around for a while now. And he's been having just like fun conversations and lively conversations and now the real shit.

53:17Rob:Has that been like the real success of the season? Because we, you know, we talked about Digby being sort of like the highlight of last week's episode. Has that been like a way in which the pit has really nailed it this season is in these sort of like side characters coming in. I think it's been pretty successful. And as far as most of my hesitations or my problems with the season have been more like, what are we doing with the main cast? What are we doing with these doctors and nurses that we know about and care about? The Pit is great at introductions. Like they're great at throwing people into the mix and giving you a pretty clear version of who those characters are and then kind of paying them off.

53:52I think we're going to have to see over two and three and four seasons or however long the show ends up running, what you do with Dr. Santos over four years, what you do with Whitaker over four years, how you write characters in and out of the show over time. It's not easy to do. And I think season two has kind of bumped up against the limits of the structure and the development cycle. And I say that in terms of like the character development cycle within the show. And they're trying to figure out like how to manage an ensemble that's this big.

54:19Rob:Who do you think has been the least well-served this season? I think it's Mel, Dr. Mel King, right? Mel feels like the go-to. Taylor Dearden is so good. And we loved this character in season one. And I still love this character. But the whole deposition... The Becca stuff was quite good. But the Becca stuff was two episodes. And so I really feel like we get another Ren Faire reenactor. Pitting out with a pit. Sort of sequence with her for Makeda. Also, that was bait. Her also liking the Civil War reenactors. That's just straight bait. But like, yeah. Mel is a place in which they miss. And then Samira, it all depends on how it resolves.

55:03Rob:It does. Mohan, I would say, has been one of the doctors that the season is most interested in her psychological profile and the impact a day can have, a day in the ED can have on someone as capable as her. So let's see how it all resolves. but that's a way in which they have a real chance to have really done something this season with the character. So, yeah. Very much so. I hope they land it, especially because those two examples, those are people at the opposite ends of the screen time spectrum, right? That's what I'm saying, yeah, yeah. You can fail in both ways. You can succeed in both ways.

55:41It just really depends. Of all the characters, I really hope they figure it out with Moan.

55:48Rob:All right. Anything else you want to say about this episode? Joe, I do want to talk to you more about Styx. It never occurred to me and I'm like vaguely familiar, you know, on a hits level with Styx's discography, that they would be a July 4th band. How familiar are you with the Independence Day lore of Styx? Rob, I'm so excited to learn this from you. What is this? Well, here's the thing. My problem was I'm familiar with many Styx songs. Renegade, Obvious Banger, Mr. Roboto, referencing this episode, Sail Away. Everybody knows that. Sail Away. Was not familiar with this song, Sweet Madam Blue.

56:22Have you ever heard Sweet Madam Blue?

56:24Rob:No, are you going to sing it for us? I'm not going to sing it, but I would like to read for you the lyrics of the bridge to Sweet Madam Blue. I'll settle for a recitation, but I would prefer a serenade, but thank you. Well, let me know how you interpret this. Okay. These are the lyrics to the bridge of Sweet Madam Blue. America, America, America, America. America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America. America, America, America, America. Great stuff. America, America, America, America. That makes me want to jam a flag into my chest, you know, and just like really go for it.

57:03Who are we if we're not Iwo Jima-ing each other at the end of the day? Exactly, exactly.

57:09Rob:Is Sticks like a, like, is that a song that is played on a lot of 4th of July, like, firework shows or like whatever? Apparently it's not only played, but they often perform on the 4th of July. because of this song and some other like vaguely related ones in their catalog. But this does seem like the, we're really saluting the flag of the mix. Thank you for that rendition. You're welcome. I thought that was like a decent burn from Ellis about like, you know, shout out Spotify, the Spotify age of your playlist. Mine last year, I think I told you was like in the 80s or something like that. But like, as in they thought.

57:43Rob:What was it that anchored you into the 80s? Like, why did they think I was 80 years old? Yeah, were you like, you know, was it old show tunes? Was it, you know, folk ballads? What are we doing? I think you know it was old show tunes. I suspected. I just, I didn't want to put your business out there. Except you asked me. Yeah, I think it was definitely old show tunes. What was your age range again? It was high. I honestly can't remember. It was not as high as 80. I was probably more in like the 50s, 60s range. So too old for Ellis. What do you think got you in the 50s, 60s range? I think it's a lot of Beatles in the mix, to be honest with you.

58:16Rob:That's another contender for me. They're on every playlist. Sometimes we're just spinning whole albums. It's just what's happening around here. What's your favorite Beatles album? I'm an Abbey Road guy. Yeah, that sounds right. Well, how about you? It's probably Abbey Road. It was Rubber Soul for a really long time, but I think it's matured into Abbey Road. The White Album is the second CD I ever owned because my mom took me to Borders and she said, you can get one CD. And I tricked her into getting me a double album. The double? You got to get your money's worth. So, yeah. But this is my origin story, too.

58:53Abbey Road was the first CD I ever bought. So, you know, we're imprinted at an early age.

58:57Rob:There we go. All right. Well, that is the pit with a side of the Beatles. Send us your Spotify-wrapped ages. Why not? Some corporate synergy for us. Send us your, yeah, your thoughts about this episode and your thoughts about Robbie and your thoughts about Dr. El-Hashimi. I'm really curious to hear from our listeners how this episode landed with them. Because it's a tough, like, a penultimate episode is a tough, you know, because we're in like a sort of holding pattern for something conclusive in the finale. Again, I don't think we're having beers in the park, but I'm curious to see how this all resolves itself.

59:31Rob:Are people just going to continue to trickle out the door? Are we going to have something more conclusive than that? I don't know. Is Robbie going to get on that motorcycle at the end of the day? Is he not? Is someone going to to show up for baby Jane Doe. I don't know. Well, Joe, is there anything that you want? Like we talked about the Mohan stuff. Obviously there's going to be a lot more Robbie, any story big or small that you're like, I would really love another button on that. Where's Whitaker's badge? Where is it? And like, why does that matter? You know? Yeah. Was that meant to be just like a random throwaway note or like a plot point?

1:00:05Rob:I felt there was so much time dedicated to it that it felt like a plot point, right? Or is it just a reason to get Whitaker out in the ambulance bay so that he could be there to comically try to hold up a bicycle that he is way too small to hold up? And then to be walking around to facilitate the Uber for the old lady who then incurred a vomit and racist surcharge. Tough. Well tough. I will say the moment of this episode that I think I enjoyed the absolute most was when he first gets the alert about the$250 charge on his account and is displaying some shock Santos hits him with the like what cow in labor and I did laugh I did enjoy it just sniping in on this episode consistently hilarious we love her work do you Whitaker's like there goes my first paycheck is he getting paid $200 a month I really hope not you know I'm a little fuzzy on the economics of, you know, incoming doctors and residents and like when you start actually making money to begin with.

1:01:07But I hope he's making money.

1:01:08Rob:Well, he was like, I'm finally making money. And I'm like, is it$200? Well, he lost some on the betting pool already. And now he's losing this. Yeah. And I'm sure he's going to have to pay for, I mean, maybe the repairs on Robbie's motorcycle will get talked to by the end of the day. Good Samaritan that he is. How do you think Princess is spending her money? she feels like a foot massage person to me she feels like she's she's really paying i mean some badass self-care you know really doing it that sounds like the fourth kind of fourth of july that i want um there we go okay so here's to princess getting her uh foot massage uh while eating some delicious barbecue and here's everyone else hopefully wrapping up the season again do let us know what you thought of this episode i'll be very curious um shout out to jeff cober just an incredible legend Buffy alum and an incredible showing on this season and shout out to Kai Grady for his work on this show and we will be back with Euphoria Sunday night and then pit finale and beef and more Euphoria and the content just keeps coming alright see you soon bye

1:02:23you