The Pitt – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Hour One: 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Episode 1 of The Pitt starts with a look at our protagonist, Dr. Michael Robinavitch. He arrives at work bright and early, where the waiting room is already full of people. However, as we soon learn later on, this is actually pretty quiet given it’s usually absolutely packed and waiting times are between 8-12 hours.

As for Michael (who’s affectionately referred to as Robby here by his colleagues), he’s clearly got some trauma that hasn’t been properly resolved. As we soon find out later on, this is due to an incident 5 years back during COVID. Today marks the anniversary of the death for his mentor, Dr. Adamson, who tragically passed. Robby is still trying to process this and it’s clear that this is a difficult day for him.

It’s here we also meet senior Dr Collins, who is pregnant but keeping it a secret for the time being. The only one who seems to know is Dana Evans, another fellow doctor and the ringleader of this circus as the Charge Nurse. The other senior Doctor here is Langdon.

There’s a whole bunch of new interns here today, alongside a fresh-faced second-year resident called Melissa. With new and old faces mingling together, we meet a whole bunch of different patients and learn that beds are like gold dust. Robby encourages them all to work efficiently, encouraged to try and get patients in and out as quickly as possible.

The thing is, this hospital is underfunded and overcrowded, and when it comes to the bureaucracy BS that comes with that, the suits upstairs aren’t happy about the satisfaction rating of the emergency ward. The place that Robby amusingly calls “the pit”. There’s clearly friction here between him and those in charge, and as there’s not enough beds and a shortage of nurses nationwide, Robby is told to step up or step aside.

The major case we cover this episode though stems from a nasty injury involving two individuals. A man named Sam Wallace jumped onto the subway tracks to save a woman who seems to have been pushed. However, the man who saved her slipped in the process and ended up with a nasty head wound.

The woman he saved doesn’t speak any English and she’s got some pretty horrible injuries of her own too.

In the midst of this, we also meet an athlete called Otis Williams who has shortness of breath and actually crashes while being examined. When Robby finds out, he immediately jumps in with a treatment. Dr Collins is not happy and doesn’t think it’s the right thing to do, but Robby immediately shoots her down and ploughs on with treatment all the same. Thankfully it turns out to be the right call. However, he confidently retorts to Collins that it’s “his ass on the line” so he’s willing to take the hit if need be.

However, Robby clearly also has a respectful human side too, as evidenced by a patient that passes in the ER. While his colleagues are quite quick to get up and leave, he stops them so they can take a moment to honour their passing. Unfortunately, this is thrown into disarray given one of the interns’ phones goes off.

There’s some interesting developments with the interns too this episode, and they all get nicknames quite quickly. There’s farm boy “Huckleberry” (Dennis Whitaker) and “Crash” (Victoria Javadi) who passes out in the ER. Robby is reluctant to bring her along for more gnarly injuries, and while reprimanding her in the hallway, Robby is surprised to find Eileen Shamsi show up. This is one of the surgical nurses in the hospital and she’s also Crash’s mum!

In the wake of this, there’s a third main case that we follow throughout the episode. Here, Theresa is brought in by her 18 year old son, David after she’s been involuntarily vomiting. Dr McKay and Crash end up checking her over but the former gets a bad vibe from David. She brings Robby in, who decides to find out what’s going on.

It turns out, Theresa actually did this herself in order to get David out of school. He has some “problems” and wants him to get professional help, given she’s found some of his work that includes a list of women he wants to hurt.

When Robby finds out, he’s unsure what to do. Given David is now legally an adult, it’s out of her hands. Thankfully there’s no guns in the house but it’s still a precarious situation that involves speaking to social worker Kiara Alfaro for her take.

Robby brings Kiara over to speak to David, probing him over the loss of his father and problems at school. Unfortunately, he does a runner. Robby tries to follow, but there’s another emergency patient brought in and there’s not much he can do.

However, standing in the waiting room, Robby has flashes of the past, which threaten to consume him.

The Episode Review

Welcome to the new ER! The Pitt is absolutely relentless and the first 10 minutes work incredibly effectively to jump straight into the hustle, bustle and general craziness of the ER and Robby’s workplace.

The introduction of these new interns is a nice way of adding an extra layer of characterisation to an already established group, while there’s clearly pockets of drama bubbling up in the background.

Dr Collins and Robby have very different ways of doing things, and we see glimmers of characterisation through these interactions. We know that Collins is much more by-the-book while Robby is happy to play hard and fast with the rules if it means getting patients treated faster. And if he’s wrong? Well, he has no problem going toe to toe with the suits upstairs.

The cases we follow across the episode work to give everything a dramatic, tense feel as you’re never quite sure what’s coming in through the doors next.

The Pitt does a very good job of setting the scene for the series to follow and I’d imagine we’ll get a mix of episodic and serialized storylines across the season. With a second episode already released, thankfully we don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next!