The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13 ‘7:00 P.M.’ is, first of all, about as heartbreaking an hour as it gets. That’s saying something after all this series has already put us its characters through, yet it’s true. But the episode is also fascinating in how it’s constructed. Something about the pacing, the editing, and the camera work is just remarkable here because of how it navigates us through the story.
This isn’t the very beginning of the series’ mass casualty arc, but it’s not the end either. In fact, the healthcare workers at PTMH are just…stuck. They don’t know when this will all end, even if viewers know there probably aren’t more than two hours of work left since the season ends after Episode 15. And that sense of being somewhere lost in time — of everything being too urgent and happening too quickly, even as it all drags on — allows for some very interesting creative choices that play incredibly well.
We get to watch that sense of urgency play out as doctors rush to save lives, sure. But we also have little pauses, away from the action, as Dr. McKay goes to check on her son or when things really come to a grinding halt during the couple of moments we spend with Kiara and Lupe as they work with the victims’ loved ones. Yes, Dr. Robby frantically tries everything available — and then some — to save Jake’s girlfriend. At the same time, though, everyone around him also looks on, from the outside in, as they’re concerned not just for all the patients he could be helping, and not just for Leah, but for Robby, too.
All of these things, and more, add up to create an episode that gives us a sense of being settled in, of just getting through it. This is in stark contrast to initial anticipation, followed by the sudden onslaught, in Episode 12. Additionally, The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13 feels oddly quieter, slower…and (at least) ten times more chaotic. It’s as if we’re on the verge of normalizing this disaster, but we have just enough of our wits about us to know nothing here is normal at all.
MORE: Read our Shabana Azeez interview to learn more about what it was like preparing to film these mass shooting episodes. We also have interviews with Gerran Howell, Taylor Dearden, and Isa Briones.
“Not exactly in our mass casualty game plan.”
The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13 features many patients in terrible shape — to say the least. Everyone needs blood. People are dying. Others are going to die without airways, or without something, anything to stop the bleeding. And the doctors have to figure out increasingly-interesting ways to take care of them, something that Dr. Robby later calls a miracle. (When he’s in the middle of breaking down, no less.) Because of the lack of time and supplies, Robby sets a firm boundary fairly early on: Two liters of blood is “as much as we can afford per patient.” But that all changes when he finally, finally gets an update on Jake and Leah that is…not quite the update anyone wanted.
Yes, Jake is safe — if clearly traumatized — but Leah, on the other hand…does not survive the hour. Despite her obviously-fatal injuries, nothing can stop Robby from zeroing in on her care, fighting until the bitter end, and ignoring everything else. The rulebook goes out the window. This is someone he has to save. Dr. Abbot tries, unsuccessfully, to check in with him, ask him what his plan is, remind him that all those units of blood he’s giving Leah could actually save someone else. But Abbot is behind Robby, someone we see over his shoulder but almost never within his focus. Same goes for those concerned, then desperate, then resigned to pure grief expressions from Dana. Robby doesn’t see anything or anyone other than the girl he’s trying to save for Jake.
…but he doesn’t actually see Leah either. At one point, the camera gives us the perspective of her body, unresponsive as it’s jolted by the CPR efforts. In another glance, there’s just. so. much. blood. We learn, long before Robby — or even Dana, really, who recognizes reality sooner than he does — that this situation is hopeless. And as he devotes his time and efforts to creating hope that simply doesn’t exist, Abbot has to pick up the slack. The interns and the students have to make decisions and do procedures without the guidance they need. While what they accomplish under pressure is nothing short of remarkable, and their gambles mostly pay off, one can’t help but wonder how much better patient care might have been if Robby was still guiding everyone the way we’ve seen him do all season.
Eventually, he does give up. And, somehow, even that isn’t the hardest thing he has to do in The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13. Nope. That would be telling Jake, then showing Jake the makeshift morgue in the peds room. The notification scene is yet another example of not just Wyle’s mastery of his craft but the crew’s as well. When the camera focuses on Jake, we barely hear Robby. We’re in that kid’s head with him, the unreality of it all dampening his senses. So, our sight and sound go with him. And when we focus on Robby, we’re back to truly being viewers — all eyes on what this character we’ve followed for 12-plus hours is struggling with.
There probably aren’t words for what Noah Wyle does throughout this hour, as a doctor hellbent on saving that girl, as a man who admits defeat, and as someone notifying a boy who’s like his own son that he couldn’t save his girlfriend’s life. But the closing minutes of this episode, as he shakes his head “no,” as his voice breaks more and more, as he is an unrelenting flood of emotion, as all that pain just builds and builds while he names every patient who’s died today…Wyle outdoes himself. Not just once either. Again and again with each tiny escalation, each new detail, all of it.
That closing image of Dr. Robby, having gotten Jake out of the room just in time to slide down that wall, as he grabs his head, and sobs, wrapping his arms around himself and doubling over as he sobs even harder, ought to stay with us forever. And if it doesn’t, it will probably be because Wyle finds an even deeper well of emotion to tap into somewhere in these last two hours. We almost hope he doesn’t manage that particular feat because, uh, it’d be difficult to survive watching at this point.
MORE: This isn’t our first time seeing the doctors fight to save someone who couldn’t survive this season. Remember Mr. Milton, who Whitaker refused to give up on in The Pitt Season 1 Episode 3?
“Maybe they think the shooter’s coming here?”
Right from the hour’s opening scene, The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13 reminds viewers that this isn’t just any major trauma — the bodies are piling up because of a mass shooting. Because of that, not only is there a SWAT team present just in case the shooter decides to head toward the hospital, but there’s also this sense of danger that hangs over everything. After all, this is also a place where everyone’s just sitting ducks for this horrible person to show up and unleash (even more) horror on. So…what if?
When Dr. Langdon’s otherwise unresponsive patient regains consciousness as a pain response, his fight or flight instinct kicks in and screams “FIGHT.” That means reaching for his weapon while people are trying to help him. And everyone just takes cover. It’s urgent, it’s terrifying, and it’s yet another thing we probably don’t take into account when we see these countless stories about gun violence in the news. Not only do healthcare workers have to endure so much trauma and work under impossible conditions after a mass shooting, but until the person responsible is found and stopped, everyone is terrified. Rightly so.
At least for now, though, the shooter isn’t at the hospital. Langdon’s patient goes back down pretty easily. Cops confirm later that there’s no way he was involved — his gun was never of the right caliber to create some of these gruesome wounds anyway. But imagine if he were still not quite in his right mind, yet awake a bit more to have grabbed his weapon before Langdon and the others could stop him. Imagine if, in a chance to be the “good guy with the gun,” that hospital had turned into its own crime scene. Just the possibility for that…what a harrowing thought. And the way these people sloowwwwwwly stand back up before rushing back into action is yet another remarkable part of this episode. So many cast members to coordinate there, and they all nail it.
But…does the shooter actually come to the hospital? If he does, it doesn’t appear to be with an aim to kill more people. David, who we’ve kind of figured might do something like this since we first met him in The Pitt Season 1 Episode 1, comes back to the hospital to get his mom. That’s his plan, but he quickly finds himself tackled by cops, cuffed, and questioned. To say that he’s angry and talks back would be an understatement. Jackson Kelly is great here, both as someone who seems oblivious on his way in and with that rage as his character’s response to…well, all of it, really. Is he the shooter, though? If so, did he act alone? We still don’t know anything, not really.
Again, the thought that comes to mind is: This is scary…why do we keep letting it happen?
MORE: If only someone had been there to stop Doug Driscoll before he got to Dana at the end of The Pitt Season 1 Episode 9.
More on The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13
- No but that guy’s face. The exit wound.
- “DON’T SPREAD RUMORS.” Literally the only time I’ve been like “yesss, go off” to Dr. Shamsi.
- “I think we just stay back, and they bring the blood to us…I think.” Yes, that. Do not approach. You might lose an arm. (RIP to Dr. Romano, who also went splat when helicopter went boom.)
- “Wow. You must really love kids.” “…not really,” Amazing.
- “Lidocaine for the clown.” Would be hilarious if Whitaker hadn’t just done…that…
- “Is this ever gonna end?”
- “Why don’t we stock those?” “No room in the budget.” They could literally save lives. The Pitt is not going to let up on the scathing commentary about the healthcare system, and, like, GOOD.
- Literally, all the life gets sucked out of the scenes — sound, images, everything…gone — when Lupe and Kiara have to identify that dead man and, later, inform his wife. Oof.
- That pointed silence when Langdon asks Robby for his input on that one patient…help.
- RIP to Dr. McKay’s ankle monitor. We know she’s been trying to get rid of you since ‘8:00 A.M.’ Sure, tampering with a house arrest monitor in real life is VERY BAD™ and all, but this is both FICTION and an example of extraordinary circumstances within that fiction.
- “Would you rather I take him out there?” Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point.
- “Annnnd squeeze blood!”
- Whitaker keeps having all these little personal connections with patients, even during this, and I love him for that. (But if Grayson could…not make him think he’s lost another patient he thought was fine, that’d be fabulous.)
- “But I heard the shots. They just kept coming, gunshots and screaming. I’m never gonna get that out of my head.” Why do we keep letting this happen to people?
- See also: Carmen, in so much shock from the shooting and losing so much blood, she doesn’t even really feel her pain. AND LOOK AT HER LEG.
- “Ok so…coconut! I love coconut.”
- 100% would die for Dr. Ellis.
- His FACE when he recognizes Jake’s voice.
- It’s extra painful now that Langdon had to face consequences for his actions today of all days. Like, he’s very much on the outside looking in the entire time Robby’s trying to save Leah, yet he’s clearly the one who knows Robby and Jake best and has to fill the other outsiders in. For Robby to not have that extra support — either with Leah’s care or just emotionally — is also just needlessly cruel. But such is life.
- Taj Speights is just unbelievably good at portraying Jake’s side of all of this, too. He has the difficult task of showing us the real, in the moment grief while also giving the character a childlike enough quality that indicates we’re mostly observing him through Robby’s eyes. Nails it all.
- “NOW. GO!” Sir.
- “While you were overdosing on the fentanyl in a fake pill, there was a mass shooting at Pitt Fest.” Another thing that makes Langdon’s situation even more interesting: He’s in big “do as I say, not as I did” mode here with this patient.
- Love, love, love how Shawn Hatosy does all of Abbot’s little check-in lines. Abbot’s worried about Robby, but he’s not going to lose his cool because too much is at stake. And the writing lets him give all these nudges and hints, rather than outright hitting Robby over the head with how lost he’s letting himself get here.
- Whitaker’s “holy sh—!” Javadi’s dropped jaw with what I can only describe as jazz hands….uh. Same. Dr. Mohan is really stepping up here, but also OMFG WTF IS SHE DOING DEAR LORD.
- Meanwhile, Santos: “That’s sick. I get the next one.” Girl. These are people, not cool toys to play with.
- Tag yourself: I’m Bridget’s “like she said: WTF.”
- “Blood is for the ones we can save.” Kill me now.
- Mel’s super soft “are you OK” to that crying lady we met in Episode 12…TL;DR PROTECT MEL AT ALL COSTS.
- The nonverbal communication between Hatosy and Katherine LaNasa is utterly killer. Especially in the moment when Dana looks over at Abbot, like, lost.
- “But we’re gonna lose 10 other patients if you put all your efforts into saving this girl.” And there it is.
- We do not deserve Dr. Mohan, actually. The way Robby’s been on her all day about getting through patients faster, but she doesn’t rub his nose in how hypocritical this all is. Doesn’t even get a little bit smug. Just offers him help. She gets it. More than anyone, probably. Except maybe Jake, Dana, and Langdon.
- The traumatized lady…when she goes on that walk around and just…searches.
- “Never should’ve had that second coffee.” A thing I will never say.
- “No, man. I’m f—ing far from ok.” Me, too!
- Another great moment for perspective: Robby trapped on the inside with David, looking out through that window to see how the nurses prepare to take Leah’s body to peds.
- “Maybe she just needs a quiet place.” PROTECT. MEL.
- Poor thing has to deal with Santos going rogue and everything else. PROTECT HER.
- Ok but don’t encourage Santos, Dr. Abbot.
- No, really. That entire last scene. Every bit of dialogue. Everything Wyle does. Study it.
- “But you didn’t save Leah. “No. No, I didn’t. And I don’t know how many people I’ve helped today, but I can tell you every other person who has died.”
- …anyone else want to cry just thinking about it? Or are all y’all normal.
- “There was a guy named Mr. Spencer who died in front of his children, and an 18-year-old who — who was brain dead from a fentanyl overdose, and guy with a heart condition, and a little girl who drowned trying to save her sister. And I’m going to remember Leah long after you’ve forgotten her. Oh, f—…oh, f—. I’m sorry I’m sorry.” My God.
- Anyway. On brand for this series, but uh. That was sufficiently gutting.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of The Pitt Season 1 Episode 13? Leave us a comment.
New episodes of The Pitt stream Thursdays at 9/8c on Max.
