Warning: This review contains full spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 11!
We’re coming off what was undoubtedly the best episode of The Pitt Season 2 to date, and the series doesn’t lose much steam in the follow-up chapter. “5:00 PM” is a slightly quieter but still very gripping hour of television that reminds us there’s no limit to the new ways in which things can go wrong in the ER.
Never one to shy away from the politics of modern medicine and healthcare, The Pitt feels especially timely in this episode as it deals with the negative impact ICE has on the doctors’ collective ability to provide medical care. It’s heartbreaking and infuriating in equal measure to watch the immediate chaos that unfolds as the two agents stroll into the hospital and cause a mass exodus of patients and nurses. It’s an unexpected but welcome way of adding tension to the series that doesn’t revolve simply around inundating the doctors with more emergency cases.
It’s a subplot that also dovetails nicely with Robby’s (Noah Wyle) ongoing arc. He may not necessarily be heading toward a full-on psychological breakdown like he was in Season 1, but this episode really emphasizes how much he’s starting to feel the pressure of the job and cracking around the edges. We see his pent-up frustration bubble out several times, whether he’s blowing up at poor Samira (Supriya Ganesh) again or giving the ICE agents a well-deserved tongue-lashing. He’s a guy who simply wants to get out of Dodge and start his sabbatical, but now we know he’s in this hell shift for the long haul.
Apart from Robby himself, Mel (Taylor Dearden) and Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) get the lion’s share of the attention this week. That’s especially welcome when it comes to McKay, as she hasn’t really been in the spotlight as much as I’d like this season. We get a sad but fitting resolution to the Roxie storyline. Interestingly, this episode takes a pretty low-key approach to depicting Roxie’s death, treating it very matter-of-factly rather than lingering on the moment. It suits the stark, grounded tone of the series.
It also works well that the focus is less on Roxie’s death and more on the fact that McKay wasn’t there to deal with the immediate fallout. Instead, she’s off doing the morally righteous but legally questionable thing by caring for an unhoused patient outside hospital grounds. An interesting ethical dilemma.
The other benefit of this McKay subplot is that Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) gets dragged into the mix, giving the series a golden opportunity to address its most nagging flaw. Ogilvie has been a frustratingly unlikable character from the first episode, but this episode finally makes some real strides in fleshing him out and forcing him to confront his own lack of empathy toward others. Whether it’s seeing firsthand what a devastating drug addiction can do to a person or realizing that he missed something vital that may cost his kidney stone patient his life, Ogilvie is subjected to a much-needed dose of reality in “5:00 PM.” And to his credit, Iverson delivers a convincing performance as a young, ambitious student whose confidence is suddenly and badly shaken.
It’s kind of a shame that this episode balances out the Ogilvie of it all by revealing that Joy (Irene Choi) can be just as cold and cruel to patients, but apparently, The Pitt just got saddled with an especially cranky batch of med students this year. On the plus side, Joy’s callous dismissal of the mother of the heat stroke patient pays off when we see – very dramatically – just how much the grief is tearing the mother up inside.
As for Mel, this episode features what is easily Dearden’s best performance yet from either season. Mel finally reaches her personal breaking point from the tag-team combo of a disastrous deposition and the discovery that her sister is an actual adult with a romantic and sexual life of her own. In the process, Dearden delivers a very convincing portrait of a woman not used to expressing herself who struggles to come to grips with her myriad of emotions and her own innate loneliness. That culminates in a great scene between Mel and Dana (Katherine LaNasa), where the latter delivers all the tough love you’d expect.
All in all, this is another very strong episode under Season 2’s belt. And it ends on an especially strong note, first with the dramatic escalation of the ICE situation and Jesse’s (Ned Bower) arrest, and then with Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) finding herself in sudden mortal danger. Not a bad way to kick off the final third of the season.
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