Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0
4.3
Well, that was intense, heartwrenching, a bit cathartic, and then… unfinished.
The season finale came through with some powerful moments and some reality checks for Robby and Al-Hashimi, too. There’s a certain beauty in the breakthrough, and that’s where things land: it’s tentative, quieter for now; we’re left to sit with the fact that they made it through another day.
And maybe that’s all we get, especially with someone who has spiraled like Robby.
The Pitt once again reminds us that we never really know what happens after the credits roll, no more than we know what happens when we step outside of a hospital after exhausted heroes tirelessly saved our lives.
The finale doesn’t give us all the answers, and with some swan songs, it underwhelms. It feels like an ellipsis, which gives it an incomplete vibe, but maybe that’s the point.
Let’s recap!
Al-Hashimi tells Robby her seizures began after meningitis at age five. She did not drive until after her laser ablations.
Al-Hashimi hadn’t had seizures for a year until today. She thinks it may be due to stress, lack of sleep, or handling a Pedes case for the first time since Afghanistan.
Her options are upping her meds or undergoing some other procedures. Robby tells her that she needs to disclose her condition, and she says she knows and has a plan for it.
Drug tests are humiliating, and they show it when Langdon takes his. Hope he’s not a shy urinator, but he handles it like a pro, joking, “Come here often?” to the guy testing him. Ha!
Meanwhile, Dana checks on Baby Jane Doe, who is doing fine, by the way.
Robby asks her to keep an eye out for Al-Hashimi to ensure she doesn’t make any mistakes since she’s “tired.
Abbot: We are the night crawlers. We deal with the weirdest and the wildest because…
Night Shift: We are the weirdest and the wildest of them all!
Abbot: That is right, and tonight they are really going to be crawling, so go get some.
Night Shift: Oorah!
Night Shift has its own rally call led by Abbot. Again, WHERE IS MY SPINOFF? I BEG!
Abbot is on one tonight already. Cracking a joke since Santos is clearly falling asleep segues right into him following Robby outside to talk about his whole “spirit quest” thing.
Abbot has to put in his obligatory pep talk to Robby since Dana requested it, and it’s clear that he’s in a dark place again.
They thrive in the dark! But Robby is taking it too far.
However, Abbot does walk past Duke, which is funny because it’s one Robby Whisperer wondering about the other.
When people worry about you, it makes me think that I should be worried about you. And I don’t like worrying about things.
Abbot puts in a good effort, but Robby is just totally projecting as he tends to do.
But fret not. A pregnant woman steps out of the ambulance with complications; she may be avoiding prenatal care because she wants a “Wild Birth.”
Like, in nature or something. Good lord.
Whitaker takes a moment to chat with Javadi, and our girl is still reading the hell out of people. Love that for her.
She jokes about going to law school instead. Except maybe she isn’t joking.
And she runs down the full list of why everyone there is screwed up because that place ruins people.
She says that the more time she spends there, the more she realizes the importance of her mental health for the patients and for them.
Whitaker suggests that Javadi focus on that, and Javadi has an epiphany that she should pursue a career in mental health. Score! And a nerdy hug between Whitaker and Javadi.
Our Wild Birth Mama is in good hands, Crus control, baby. She has preeclampsia
The mom claims she doesn’t want any medical care, but she wants the headache gone. Ma’am, get real! And get drugs!
Mel checks in on Becca again, but Becca isn’t interested. They didn’t see fireworks; instead, they watched Elf at Adam’s house (Becca is pushy and always gets her way, doesn’t she?) And she’s spending the night there.
Well, it isn’t like she needs her virtue protected at this point!
Mel: Are you spending the night?
Becca: Yes, his parents invited me.
Mel: They need to ask me that.
Becca: Are you spending the night, too?
Mel needs to just let go of the illusion of control she thinks she has over Becca and find her own life.
Duke heads out, Robby walking with him. Duke refuses a formal goodbye, asking Robby to promise he’ll return to ride Robby’s motorcycle.
Robby says he’ll think about it but won’t commit.
Dana tells Robby that they have a dead body in chairs who had been there since five and had no DNR.
Apparently, it’s about to be a Night Shift problem.
They bring an OB nurse down, and they have to talk Judith, the free birth mom, into doing an ultrasound.
She needs the baby induced to save her and the baby. And… Judith refuses.
Why do people recite things about how things were done for thousands of years without considering all the other horrible things that happened too?
Our maternal and infant mortality rate is pretty abysmal, but compared to 1000 years ago, it is.
Ellis and Shen, the Chill Twins, try to remove Jasper, the dead body, from the waiting room without alerting anyone—not even the man beside him, who already knows Jasper is dead.
Hypernarcolepsy, they say!
Did I mention I love those two?!
Mel and Langdon folks will be thrilled about her and Langdon standing outside in the ambulance bay watching fireworks together.
He checks in with her, and they actually have a sweet exchange about their day.
Langdon is totally still shaking from that cervical procedure he did, and she’s super eager about it and even asks him to teach her someday.
I mean, I’m not a shipper of these two, but surely medical drama aficionados will appreciate the “teach me” moment that harkens back to Slexie on Grey’s Anatomy, no?
Langdon thanks Mel for talking him down earlier, and he apologizes for snapping at her earlier, too. It’s such a cute moment.
Dana is on the lookout for someone to kinship foster Baby Jane Doe. One of the nurses or doctors can take Baby Jane Doe home until she gets her emergency placement.
Samira is not a game. She needs to find a job. McKay says she has her hands full with her own kid, and they say that a sleeping Santos is already babysitting Whitaker. Ha!
Dana says her husband Benji will kill her if she does it. WHO is taking Jane Doe?
Judith starts seizing. It’s a bit of a shit show.
Robby asks about Al-Hashimi, then pulls Javadi aside to talk about her posts. He says he’s been watching her videos and thinks they’re great as long as she follows HIPAA laws and does it after her shift.
She asks him about emergency psychiatry, and he tells her she’d be great at anything that she puts her mind to.
Awwww. Mentorship. Sweetness.
Paralytics to stop the seizing, intubation, and EEGs; a lot is going on with Ms. Free Birth Mama, and it’s been all hands on deck since she got there. Sheesh!
Robby is still on the hunt for Al-Hashimi. He stops long enough to ignore Samira’s snark about her probably quitting after the day they’ve had, and to use a glove to snap Santos because she’s still asleep.
The hospital lawyer gives him the skinny on how the deposition went, and they both acknowledge that Mel is sensitive and … things aren’t remotely close to over yet.
Dr. Ellis was a pitbull. Dr. King was a petunia.
Seriously? That was such a straightforward case!
They’re calling Mel back for more in the depo. Ugh.
Robby also soft-launches that he may need to blow the whistle on Al-Hashimi, but wants to see if he can do so without violating HIPAA.
Is he serious?! Didn’t she say she was disclosing it? Is he just… trying to make up for not telling on Langdon? Or is this part of his issue with Al-Hashimi, or the martyr complex that he can use to justify staying there after claiming he has to go?
Mel tells Santos about the deposition, and Santos invites her to drinks and karaoke.
Okay, brownie points for Santos being really sweet to Mel and actually reading as a friend.
Judith’s case gets more dire. She’s coding. They have to work on her.
And Robby and Abbot have to perform a C-section. They call in McKay to work on the baby when she comes out.
Performing this C-section with all of this chaos is riveting. The baby is out but dangerously blue and non-responsive. McKay and Shen are trying to work a miracle on this baby.
Abbot and Robby are trying to bring this woman back to life. They get the placenta out intact. She’s bleeding everywhere.
It’s a mess.
And my eyes cannot veer away from the screen.
Dana gets her moment to ream out detectives when they’re about to leave after arresting someone.
She tells them about the rape kits, and of course, the one detective claims it’s not on theme. But sheesh, just… CARE.
But they’re taking the rape kits to drop them off where they need to be—small miracles, and all of that.
Back in the room with Judith, they have SOMEHOW brought this woman back.
And the baby is back, too. She starts crying. I’m trying not to cry.
Robby is straight-up crying now, too. And Abbot is totally noticing how emotional Robby just got.
Is this the breakthrough he needed?!
He can go home, but he still won’t. He’s still looking for Whitaker, Al-Hashimi, and Langdon, too.
He even seems a bit bummed when he learns that Langdon just checked out, and he missed him.
Except Langdon is still there, just on a different floor. He wants to check on Cohen, the woman with the fasciitis who lost her leg.
It was above the knee, and he’s still in his feelings about missing things the first time.
Robby catches up with Whitaker to give him all of his information and keys. He still won’t say when he’s returning.
And Farm Widow pulls up in the beat-up pickup truck to get him, switches over to the passenger seat, and Whitaker gets behind the wheel after greeting the baby.
Yeah, it definitely looks like they’re a little family.
Robby also sees Samira standing outside and starts making small talk.
He asks her if she figured out her path, and she tells him she may go into geriatrics.
They talk about her mother, second chances, and it never being too late for either of them, and she tells him to stay safe, come back because they need him, even if he’s a dick.
Robby catches up to Al-Hashimi when she gets inside, and Al-Hashimi tells her that she spoke with her neurologist, that they have a plan for her meds, and that she just won’t do critical procedures on patients.
He’s making this into a bigger deal by telling her it’s not her call and that it can’t work if the person she’s working with is busy.
They bicker back and forth, and he claims he wants what is best for the department while telling her what she can’t do.
She brings up Langdon, but he says he did get Langdon proper help and gives her an ultimatum.
She has until Monday to tell the admin about her issues.
Abbot sees things getting heated through the glass and takes note as Robby storms off.
Thank goodness for that, because it leads to one of the season’s greatest scenes.
Abbot and Robby have fantastic moments. They’re both men who stand in the darkness; it’s just that Abbot does the work and is better adjusted than Robby.
Again, we have Robby opening up about how the only time he feels he has purpose is when he’s in that hospital, but it’s simultaneously killing him.
Every time he loses a patient and someone dies, he feels it takes a piece of his soul.
His bone-weary, tired, and it shows, and Abbot can acknowledge that because he feels it too.
Abbot gets down to Robby’s level and talks about how hard he had to work not to kill himself after the war, losing his leg, his wife, all of it.
He gets emotional, they both do, talking about saving that woman and her child, because that’s what matters, and the difference that they make, and why they need to still be in this world.
Abbot tells him that he needs to get away and get some help, but he needs this place, too, as much as it needs him.
They talk about him being fucked up, but they both are, and Abbot tells him that he needs to find someone to help him “dance in the darkness.”
Brothers talking about real heavy stuff. LOVE THEM.
Abbot brings the perfect amount of humor, emotion, and heart. He’s also his emergency contact, and he doesn’t want to be contacted for an emergency.
They hug. There are tears. It’s the type of stuff I’m going to be repeating frequently, and all of the dialogue in that moment is just perfect.
Abbot: Look, don’t make me look stupid. You come back to us in one piece. I’m still your emergency contact, and I do not want to be contacted.
Nazely comes in to tell them they have an emergency because a guy nearly blew his face off. Good times!
The bros hug, and Abbot is onto the next crazy emergency. Nightcrawlers indeed!
Al-Hashimi heads to her SUV, gets in, beaten down and stressed about what Robby said, and starts driving even though she’s not supposed to, but she changes her mind.
While we flip to a humorous moment of Digby, who has left the hospital, has the CPR dummy he’s pushing, and he’s the one who stole Whitaker’s badge! Hilarious!
On the roof, Javadi, Samira, Santos, Mel, McKay, and others are watching the fireworks together and having a drink.
Perlah walks up to watch too, and she’s emotional. Dana sees it and hugs her. It’s such a sweet moment, and it’s been such a long day.
Robby finally bumps into Langdon, who has given up on trying to talk to Robby.
Of course, now Robby wants to talk, and Langdon calls him out on it.
They finally talk. Robby seems to take pride in pointing out that, without his hard methods that day, Langdon would still have been questioning himself.
And Langdon calls bullshit on it and serves up some harsh truths for Robby, too.
Langdon: You know what I saw in rehab? I saw a bunch of guys just like you. The only difference is that they’ve accepted that they need help. I think you’re afraid to admit that the might Dr. Roinavitch isn’t perfect.
Robby: I never claimed to be perfect.
Langdon: No, but you expect it of yourself, and it’s not realistic, man. How can any of us live up to your standards if you can’t even do it? You need help, Robby. You need help.
Robby: Finished?
Langdon: You don’t have to be honest with me, man. At least be honest with yourself.
Langdon calls Robby out, and it’s delicious! He’s right about how Robby keeps projecting impossible standards on people that he can’t even meet himself.
It’s a well-earned reckoning for Robby and a great moment for Robby and Langdon.
Just one of many to tell Robby he needs to get his shit together, and this one hurts and lands even harder given where Langdon is coming from as someone who has fallen.
Robby has to take that one to the chin, but he moves on when he hears baby Jane Doe crying, and he goes in to stay with her, turns the lights off, plays music for her, and swaddles and holds her.
He tells Jane Doe about how he got abandoned, too, when he was eight, and he got through it, so he thinks the baby can get through it, too.
He tells her about all there is to see in life, and wonderful things to experience, and people who will love her. And it’s ultimately like he’s speaking to himself.
Maybe Robby is going to be okay after all.
Bonus: Santos and Mel screaming along to Alanis Morissette’s Oughta Know and at the top of their lungs at karaoke is such a fine post-credits scene! I’m here for this friendship!
It’s the end. Another season is under our belts, and it’s been a ride. We’ve had some strong moments, and we’ll definitely see some of the cast getting their Emmy nods.
The sophomore season wasn’t as strong as The Pitt Season 1, but it’s still one of the best series out there!
But now I need to hear what you thought about that finale, so sound off below!
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