The Pitt Episode 13 Features Noah Wyle's Best Performance Yet – Here's How It Happened

This article contains discussions of addiction and mass violence.

Stop reading now if you haven't watched "The Pitt" season 1, episode 13, "7:00 P.M." Spoilers ahead.

Throughout the first season of the impressively medically accurate Max original series "The Pitt," the writing has been firmly on the wall when it comes to Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, played by "ER" veteran Noah Wyle. What I mean by that is that this senior trauma attending working in the overcrowded, hectic emergency department of a Pittsburgh hospital has been heading for a crash-out basically since the first moment of his shift. As we learn from charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa), the day we see chronicled hour-by-hour in season 1 of "The Pitt" is the anniversary of the death of his mentor Dr. Adamson during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 12th hour of Dr. Robby's shift (which has him working with a team that includes two medical students spending their first full day in the ER), news breaks that there's been a mass shooting at a local festival, and before long, the ER is filled with victims that need immediate treatment.

Robby's makeshift stepson from a previous relationship, Jake (Taj Speights), brings his girlfriend Leah (Sloan Mannino) to the ER, and it's clear to the audience that Leah isn't going to make it; to put it indelicately, she's suffered a gunshot directly to the heart. Robby breaks the rules repeatedly to give Leah four blood transfusions — each patient is supposed to be limited to just two bags during an emergency of this magnitude — but he can't save her. After telling Jake what happened, Robby breaks down in the series' most gutting scene to date, experiencing a full-blown panic attack in the pediatric wing that's serving as a makeshift morgue. (The murals of animals behind Robby and multiple dead bodies makes the entire moment feel even more grotesque.)

This is the moment Robby's time on "The Pitt" has been building to all season, and it is devastating and heartbreaking to watch as Robby is felled by the mere thought of his lost patients (and mentor). So, how did this all come together, and what does Wyle have to say about it?

I already mentioned that fans of "The Pitt" knew Dr. Robby was headed for a major crash-out. However, if you read Noah Wyle's interview in Vulture that released alongside the previous episode, "6:00 P.M." (which focuses on the first wave of gunshot victims entering the ER), he told us all we were in for a rough ride. "What you're seeing is the water level in his eyes. He's almost going under," Wyle explained to Vulture's Roxana Hadidi as they discussed that episode before revealing something about the show's strategy with entertainment journalists. "We gave the press the first 10 episodes. Everybody's enjoying this train ride. I'm the only one that knows we take this train over a cliff."

Wyle has been working pretty steadily on television since he played Dr. John Carter on "ER" (of which "The Pitt" is a spiritual successor, not a direct spin-off), and although he's phenomenal during his 11 seasons on that NBC medical drama, his work on "The Pitt" should prove to the world that Wyle is one of our finest working performers. Wyle, for his part, recognizes that playing Robby is an opportunity for him to show just how much he's learned over the years. When Wyle spoke to TheWrap about "7:00 P.M.," he told the outlet that this kind of creative challenge is a gift. "I wanted, at 53 years old, to see whether I could touch the ceiling of my own talents and really go deeper than I've gone in a long time," Wyle mused. "In terms of my own creative exploration, this was one of the most satisfying experiences I've ever had. I'm just thrilled that it's resonating with audiences that they're going to let us continue to tell it, because I am in my happy place right now."

I've praised Wyle's performance in "7:00 P.M." quite a bit already, though I should also say that the work Wyle does throughout the entire first season builds to this point and makes it more striking as a result. Still, it bears repeating that Wyle is incredible in the final moments of the episode. Faced with Jake's pain and his own, Robby succumbs to his complete despair, unable to function as he thinks about every patient he's failed to save — not just during this shift, but throughout his career. Remarkably, in a different interview, Wyle said he was excited to film this scene, which became one of the most gut-wrenching TV scenes in history the second it aired.

Noah Wyle's been playing doctor for literal decades, and it's not like his Dr. John Carter had it easy on "ER." In just one of his plotlines, John gets stabbed by a patient suffering from severe mental illness, which leads to lifelong kidney problems and struggles with opioid addiction. In an interview with TVLine, Wyle was asked by interviewer Ryan Schwartz what his "process" was to get into a "very dark place" for his big scene on "The Pitt," Wyle was ... downright cheerful.

"Well, I'm a little funny," Wyle said candidly. "I look at days of work like that like Christmas morning. I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to that day. I've been waiting for that day for five years — a day where I could go in there and channel my own pent-up grief, disappointment, anger, frustration, [and] fear that I carry — that I've been carrying. It was harder to keep it in over the course of the season, where it was inappropriate to have it come out, than it was to shoot that. I just remember thinking, you know, in the way that actors can be masochists, like, 'Oh boy! Today, I get to f**k some s**t up!'"

Not only that, but Wyle also teased that season 1's final two episodes will, perhaps, be even tougher to watch, but that the entire season creates something that he sees as intensely beautiful. "It is exactly the kind of work that turns me on," Wyle said of Robby's season-long arc. "It's such fine brush work. It's really detailed. You have to bring the last episode into the next, and the last two into the next, and the last three into the next ... and I love the challenge, I love the focus, I love the sense of camaraderie it fostered among everybody working in there together."

If there's any justice in the world, Wyle will win a whole bunch of awards for his work as Dr. Robby. If nothing else, though, the world now knows, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Wyle is a singular talent. There are two episodes left in season 1 of "The Pitt," which premieres new installments on Max every Thursday night at 9 P.M EST. (Thankfully, season 2 has already been ordered and is on the way.)

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you have been impacted by incidents of mass violence, or are experiencing emotional distress related to incidents of mass violence, you can call or text Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 for support.