The Pitt’s Next Shift

Spoilers follow for the first season of The Pitt through season finale “9:00 P.M.,” which premiered on Max on April 10. 

After 15 long and grueling hours of maverick medical procedures, heartbreaking losses, and nightmarish IV-drilling sounds, our day-shift friends at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center can finally go home. And the question raised at the end of The Pitt’s finale, “9:00 P.M.,” is this: How many will come back?

The Pitt’s writers’ room is already at work on season two, and in interviews with Vulture earlier this year, creator R. Scott Gemmill, executive producer John Wells, and star Noah Wyle all shared that they were strongly considering a time jump: “I don’t think anybody would be interested in revisiting these characters in anything under, like, three months,” speculated Wyle. Given the trauma of Pitt Fest, combined with the always-fluid nature of hospital staffing, any time jump raises questions about how many new characters might join the PTMC and which existing ones will return. And even for established PTMC employees, Wyle noted, “where we plot the show next, you are going to experience totally new characters because they’re going to be — they have to be — informed by the circumstances they’ve gone through.”

Now, that time jump is definitive: There will be ten months between seasons one and two, with the latter taking place over the Fourth of July weekend. Get ready for a bunch of fireworks injuries, and maybe even some BBQ-skewer impalings! With the events of “9:00 P.M.” in mind, plus some theorizing based on industry norms for residents and medical students, it’s time to speculate: Which members of our beloved Pitt crew will still be working in the ER in ten months? (Just for the record, if everyone comes back, that would be nice!)

Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch: The show doesn’t exist without Wyle; Dr. Robby is of course coming back. However, I wouldn’t blame him if he suggested redecorating the pediatric wing of the ER. Those animals have simply seen too much, and I could see Langdon’s parting dig at Robby for “talking to cartoon animals in Pedes” bothering him more than he would like to admit.

Dr. Frank Langdon: Ten months feels like enough time to go to rehab for your benzos addiction, right? Maybe Langdon withdrew from his residency program, got clean, and then came back to finish his training, if PTMC would have him. Is Robby that forgiving? Based on that hearty “FUCK YOU” he sent Langdon’s way in “9:00 P.M.,” I am doubtful. I have a lot of concerns about how we’re going to see Dr. Ken again!

Dr. Heather Collins: Dr. Collins’s absence from the final third of The Pitt has invited some speculation that she might not come back at all, but I don’t think Collins’s storyline feels complete enough to write her off — especially if The Pitt wants to build on that ambulance-bay scene with Collins and Robby and do a slow-burn will-they-or-won’t-they-again thing. As a fourth-year resident, Dr. Collins will have likely completed her training at PTMC in ten months’ time, but she seemingly has a far better chance than Langdon of getting hired as a full-time attending by PTMC. And it would be great to get her in a scene with Dr. Parker Ellis, who I’m sure has asked Collins for hot goss about Robby before.

Charge nurse Dana Evans: Poor Dana. I hate to even suggest this, but — I think she might be, as she herself said more than once, “done.” She’s devoted 33 years of her life to the ER, and she’s respected and beloved by her colleagues, but how do you come back from such contempt as getting punched in the face by a patient you’re working to help? Packing up her workspace in “9:00 PM” feels very final, as does her refusal to get involved with the drama between Robby and Langdon. I will miss Dana immeasurably, but also, this woman deserves as long a break as she wants. You know she has PTO saved up. But even if she does hang up her scrubs and stethoscope for good, Dana seems like the kind of person who would, in time, find her way back to PTMC and the co-workers who were such important figures in her life. Maybe as a volunteer? Or to drop off beers for those post-shift park hangouts?

Dr. Mel King: Actress Taylor Reardon confirmed to Vulture that she’ll be back for season two, but was there really any doubt? Second-year resident King transferred to PTMC after spending two months at the VA, but we know she didn’t make the switch because of an issue with her previous residency placement. Her motivator was her sister with special needs getting into a Pittsburgh care facility, and as long as King’s sister is there, King is going to stay here, too. “I don’t require much sleep, and I have a fast metabolism” — what an icon.

Dr. Cassie McKay: Also a second-year resident, also with family ties to Pittsburgh through her son and her father, McKay’s not going anywhere. But hopefully that stasis is not because of her ankle monitor; Chadwick Harrison Ashcroft III really needs to convince “Bonus Mom” to drop that restraining order already (and throw out that T-shirt).

Dr. Samira Mohan: Mohan’s an interesting case, because she has so much friction with Robby over the course of the season; he criticizes how long she spends with patients, and what he sees as her indecision and lack of confidence. Before the mass-casualty storyline, I would have said Mohan is being set up to transfer to another residency program as a result of Robby’s not-that-supportive mentorship. But she really comes into her own during those final episodes, saving a number of patients and earning praise from Abbot for executing a risky maneuver that he coaches her through. There might be some foreshadowing in McKay telling her, “This job can’t be your life, Samira,” but I’m hoping that just means Mohan starts dating instead of spending every waking minute obsessing over work. Or, maybe her bond with Abbot inspires her to switch the night shift, and she internalizes his “fuck standard of care” ideology to continue treating patients as she sees fit under his tutelage? There are options here!

Dr. Trinity Santos: Santos is a tricky one, too. On the one hand, she impresses Abbot and befriends Ellis; they give her the validation she clearly craves. On the other hand, her being right about Langdon tampering with the unit’s drug supply puts her on the wrong side of former ally Dr. Yolanda Garcia, and I’m not sure Robby sees her as trustworthy at this point. I think she’ll be back for next season, since a first-year resident bailing on their program would look pretty bad. And now that she’s invited unhoused fourth-year medical student Dennis Whitaker to move in with her, there’s some permanence to that living arrangement. But even ten months from now, I could see her still rubbing her co-workers in the ER the wrong way if she hasn’t stopped chasing cases that interest her most rather than treating the patients who need her first.

Victoria Javadi: Put Javadi down alongside Dana in the “I’m not sure they want to come back” column. As a third-year medical student, Javadi’s time in the ER is an educational core rotation, which for this department typically lasts four weeks. Any time jump longer than a month, then, means that Javadi should have cycled out of the ER. She would be doing rotations in other PTMC departments, though, so could still be an ancillary part of the show that way; her mom working at PTMC also keeps her in the Pitt universe. But putting aside all that, did Javadi like her time in the ER? She had some highs of putting her mom in her place and flirting with Mateo, but think of how exhausted Javadi is by the end of her (unusually eventful, granted) first shift. I could see her deciding against clinical medicine and instead planning for a research career after earning her medical degree. She’s 20; she’s got time to figure it out.

Dennis Whitaker: Our favorite rat-killer and falsetto singer! Whitaker is a fourth-year medical student who seemingly attends a different school than Javadi, one where the ER rotation is in the fourth year rather than the third year (which isn’t that uncommon, according to the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association). But the same timing issue that applies for Javadi applies for Whitaker: Any time jump longer than four weeks means he’d be out of the ER. Similar exceptions apply, too: He could be doing rotations in other departments in PTMC; he now lives with Santos, which keeps him in The Pitt’s orbit. Also, a ten-month time jump gives Whitaker enough time to graduate medical school and, if he wanted and was matched at PTMC, start a residency there in emergency medicine — perhaps fulfilling his season-one destiny of volunteering for the street team that cares for unhoused people. Whatever happens, can we all agree that we at least need Whitaker back for a scene where he teaches a younger trainee how to use the scrubs machine?

Nurses Princess, Perlah, Mateo, Donnie, Jesse, and Kim: The Pitt emphasized more than once this season that there’s a nationwide nursing shortage, which was true before COVID and only got worse afterward. And hey, it was fun to see Princess and Perlah tear into Gloria about her refusal to hire more nurses! Theoretically, that shortage means nurses have leverage to move between jobs and go from one hospital to another for better pay, hours, or benefits. But the bonds between the ER crew seem tight enough that I’m going to cross my fingers and hope they all stick around, especially because Princess and Perlah talking shit in Arabic and Tagalog is a consistent series highlight.

Dr. Jack Abbot: We want The Pitt: Night Shift spinoff starring our favorite doctor with the go-bag, and we want it now. Tell Casey Bloys! Pair Dr. Abbot with fellow nighttime attending Dr. John Shen, nighttime senior resident Dr. Parker Ellis (who could also turn into a permanent hire with a ten-month jump), and nighttime charge nurse Bridget, and we’ve got a whole new group to love.

Doug Driscoll: Yes, this list is concerned with the health-care professionals on The Pitt, but we’ll make an exception for this patient, who seems like the type to incur a July 4th fireworks injury. Bring this man back so that Mateo can punch him in the face!