Ten months after the finale of its groundbreaking first season, The Pitt is back in all its emergency room drama glory (and guts) for a second season that takes viewers along for the wild ride of a Fourth of July weekend shift at an emergency room.
Created by ER alum R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt stars veteran TV doctor Noah Wyle (also an executive producer, writer, and director) as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a chief attending physician at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center who is responsible for overseeing the doctors, nurses, residents, interns, and medical students tasked with caring for the teaching hospital’s emergency department patients. However, this time around, Robby, still-suffering from pandemic-induced PTSD, is one shift away from a three-month leave that he plans to spend on a cross-country motorcycle trip.
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“He’s created a sort of self-help version of a mental health plan where he could fix up this old motorcycle and take it on this slightly romantic, slightly literary odyssey-trip of self discovery,” Wyle told the Associated Press of his character’s headspace.
But as Robby is (supposedly) on his way out, some fresh faces are navigating their very first day in the fray of the Pitt. Here’s your guide to the new doctors and nurses popping up in Season 2 of everyone’s current medical drama fixation.
Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi
With Dr. Robby set to jet off on a three-month-long sabbatical-meets-motorcycle pilgrimage following one final shift, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi of The Deuce, The L Word: Generation Q, and Blackbird) has been brought in to take over as PTMC’s new chief attending physician in his absence. Naturally, the two have some trouble adjusting to each other’s differing medical philosophies, with Robby preferring to maintain a more old-school approach to running the ER while Al-Hashimi is a proponent of introducing new technological initiatives like “patient passports” and AI charting tools. Robby clearly has his hackles up where Al-Hashimi is concerned, but their tension also seems to sometimes border on flirtatious—even if Moafi claims romance isn’t necessarily in the cards for the pair.
“I can assure there will be no broom closets involved,” she told USA Today. “The way I pictured it when I read the scripts was that we’re two animals in the wild sort of circling and sniffing each other out. Sometimes they stop and stare, and they’re curious. That’s the dynamic. Something explosive, but all under the surface. She’s used to high stress and men undercutting her. There’s something about Dr. Robby that’s unique.”
Joy Kwon
Playing by recurring Community guest star Irene Choi—who has, more recently, appeared in Truth Be Told and Pam & Tommy—Joy Kwon is a third-year medical student working under the mentorship of Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell) who has a pretty clinical outlook on patient care. That is to say, she doesn’t seem all that interested in treating them at all. Unfortunately for her, apathy doesn’t appear to be part of the recipe for a long and successful career at PTMC.
James Ogilvie
Whitaker’s other charge, fourth-year med student James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson, who has appeared in The Gilded Age), comes off as an arrogant know-it-all whose overconfidence and lack of empathy seem like they’re probably going to end up getting him in trouble. The Pitt definitely feels like the type of workplace where conceited doctors-in-training are pretty much guaranteed to quickly get knocked down a peg.
Emma Nolan
Compared to her medical student counterparts, recent nursing school graduate Emma Nolan (Laëtitia Hollard in the Juilliard alum’s first major on-screen role) is a breath of fresh air. Hailing from upper Michigan—practically Canada—the bright-eyed trainee of Nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) has a can-do attitude but a lot to learn. Although she may seem a little naive, we’re trusting she’ll eventually find her footing in her new high-stress role.
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