'The Pitt' Season 2 Episode 5 Recap and Review - "11:00 am"
While the early-going pace of the sophomore season seems to be building towards a storm, this episode finds a piece that reminds audiences what’s been missing.
This review of The Pitt contains spoilers.
Over these past few weeks, as much as this writer has reveled in the fact our beloved Pitt is back, there always felt like something was missing. It wasn’t our Pitt family, all the little sisters and brothers were there, the baby faces of Javadi (Shabana Azeeze) and Whitaker (Gerran Howell), the annoying older sister Santos (Isa Briones), the streetwise mom, Dana (Katherine LaNasa) and, of course, Dr. Michael Robinavitch (Noah Wylie) who has likely 90% of the viewers wanting to call him ‘Daddy’.
It wasn’t the interpersonal relationships. Much like a real family, there were issues. Whitaker and Santos, despite living together, still very much treat each other like siblings, and that means they’re bound to bicker (even though we all know Santos is to blame when they fight). There has been major tension between Dr. Robby and Langdon (Patrick Ball) due to their falling out last season, and even more tension between Robby and new-Mom, Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi). So far, the show has checked all the major boxes not only for another memorable season, but for a typical Thanksgiving in my household.
Yet there’s that feeling again. There’s something missing. It wasn’t until this episode’s hour, ironically the 11th hour where it dawned on this writer what was missing from the family dinner. The guests. Not the family, but that larger than life boyfriend of your cousins, or your aunt’s flamboyant best friend. The people who make the family’s journey that much more memorable.
Guest starring in this week’s episode is Mayor of Kingstown’s Taylor Handley, an extremely natural actor who has been a strong cast member of his own show which is a major cog in the Paramount-Taylor Sheridan machine. Handley plays Paul Hamler, who came in after his wife, Roxie (Brittany Allen) who is suffering from cancer suddenly went into a seizure. Allen is no slouch herself, being a Young and the Restless regular and an Emmy award winning actor.
The two brought a beautiful subplot surrounding this couple, dealing with the fact that Roxie may not live that much longer. Both are saying so much without saying a thing, Handley especially as he has a pair of golden retriever eyes where you can see the love and pain as he looks he stares at Roxie. This also gave Lesley Boone, who plays charge Nurse Lena Handzo an opportunity to come in during the day shift. So far, we’ve only seen her as she updates Dana or comes in to relieve her. Lena acts as Roxie’s death doula, someone who helps transition families in the last steps of life, which was presented with The Pitt’s typical sense of education and tact. It’s easy in this week’s episode to get sucked up into the tragic love story that is presented before you, and that is exactly what has been missing since the premiere.
As much as there has been a few subplots that have introduced patients that you care about, it does not compare at all to the same point of last season. By episode five of season 1, there were already at least three or four different minor plot lines that reduced you to emotional jelly. Most notably, an older brother and sister duo saying goodbye to their ailing father. It was such a touching story that reminded us what it is to love, and what it is to be human, that tragically hasn’t been as apparent in this second season.
Most of the interesting storylines seem to have disappeared already, and that’s one major critique this writer would have for The Pitt this season. They set up Baby Jane Doe to be what looked like the first major hook of this sophomore season, but instead, after a bizarrely forgotten and overlooked cliffhanger in the first episode, has been reduced to a few sentences here and there merely to remind you that the poor little one is still around with no sign of who left her.
It seems that this season, which showrunner R. Scott Gemmill has deemed one of healing and redemption has chosen to focus specifically on the healing and redemption of the doctors, rather than the patients. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that, it has been the show’s modus operandi to focus on telling the real story of health workers across America, but the premiere season seemed so much better at balancing both the A and B story every single episode. This writer would personally like to know about the people such as the Diaz family - those who struggle in an awfully imperfect healthcare system. As a Canadian, this writer still cannot fathom some of the situations that people have to deal with in America, and once again, this episode deals with those who fall ‘between the cracks’ - those who can’t afford insurance, but make too much to be subsidized - with that aforementioned tactful and hard hitting truth.
Their situation in this week’s episode also served as an opportunity to get to know Joy Kwan (Irene Choi) a little bit more, and let’s be honest, while she has been funny, she hasn’t been the most welcomed new character, and there are many viewers who perhaps didn’t want to get to know her better. However, a tiny redemption arc was inevitable. While her newcomer compatriot, Ogilve (Lucas Iverson) is dealing with a crappy situation, Joy came in and with some quick thinking was able to help out the Diaz family by transferring them to a new unit where treatment would be cheaper. It was an interesting insight into what’s perhaps her doctor origin story, and made her sympathetic for the first time.
The major conflict this season has come primarily from the Robby-Langdon dynamic, and this writer is all for it. These are two extremely gifted actors, who, once again make anything they do seem genuine and heartfelt. Langon’s inflated sense of self-esteem has not completely deflated even after his stint in rehab, and when Robby was not giving him an inch over a patient who is in a very difficult situation, Langdon was standing his ground, pushing back a little to subtly tell Robby that he did everything right. Personally, this writer does believe that Robby is being incessantly harsh with Langdon, and as a physician should know the dangers and even genetic disposition towards addiction. The betrayal is so obvious in Wylie’s performance, that even a single word in this episode ‘when’ is at one time spit out with a venom more powerful than any painkiller Langdon took.
While this writer may have been critical of the lack of balance in some respects to the show’s writing, it is very refreshing and almost a balm for the tension that Langdon is victim to, that he has been given so many comedic subplots so far. His bromance with Nurse Donnie (Brandon Mendez Homer) and the escapades they’ve had to put up with in triage has arguably been the memorable highlight of almost every episode thus far.
As much as this season has fallen a little flat at times, this particular episode really had it all. The gravitas that came from the Handley storyline was a much needed shot in the arm that infused three great actors into a subplot that this writer is already preparing for emotionally. Let’s hope, like so many of the great B plots last season, that The Pitt writers chose to keep the Handley’s around for a little while so we can see their journey, even if it ends, unfold.