The Pitt: Why Whitaker Was The Perfect Person To Help Dr. Robby

This article contains discussions of mental health and mass violence.

Stop reading right now if you haven't watched "8:00 P.M.," episode 14 of "The Pitt." Spoilers ahead! 

In episode 13 of Max's massively successful new medical drama "The Pitt" — which, I should make clear, is not merely a spin-off of "ER," but its own unique thing — Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle, hits his limit. In one of the series' roughest and most heartbreaking scenes to date (thanks to an absolutely stunning performance by Wyle), Robby brings his surrogate son Jake (Taj Speights) to see the body of Jake's girlfriend Leah (Sloan Mannino), who was fatally wounded during a mass shooting at a local festival. Jake, overcome by grief, asks Robby why he didn't or couldn't save Leah, even though, as we know, Robby tried his hardest despite the fact that the young girl was shot in the heart. Robby starts crying and shaking, getting Jake out of the makeshift morgue (it's actually the ER's pediatric wing, making the whole thing sadder thanks to the murals of animals behind him) and has a panic attack on the floor next to the gurney that holds Leah's body, and the episode ends.

When the following episode, "8:00 P.M.," kicks off, nobody can find Robby until fourth year medical student Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell) goes to the morgue to get a blanket for a living patient and finds him reciting the Shema, a Jewish prayer, in the fetal position. Instead of providing outright comfort, Whitaker does the exact thing that Robby needs: he tells the trauma attending that the rest of the doctors are "f**ked" without him working by their side and, after sitting with him for a moment, gets the blanket he came for and tells Robby he'll see him back on the floor, calling him "captain." This snaps Robby out of his severe panic attack and gets him back to work.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Howell and Wyle explained why it was so important that Whitaker be the one to find a struggling Robby. "It was an interesting conversation. Who's gonna find Robby? It became so clear that it needed to be Whitaker," Wyle told Emma Fraser in a Zoom interview with Howell. "Because you're framing this experience between the youthful naivety of somebody coming into this environment for the first time and a very world-weary and battle-worn veteran who's having the aggregate collapse of his entire career coming on his shoulders."

"It seemed perfectly appropriate to have these two characters meet up again this late in the season, after having had this lovely exchange early on, where I talk about needing to find balance," Wyle added (and we'll circle back to that "lovely exchange" in just a moment.)

Dr. Robby, as everyone in the busy Pittsburgh ER calls him, leaves the morgue after his interaction with Whitaker and does something that, at this point in the series, feels exactly right: he walks through the ER and tells all of his colleagues that they're doing great work helping victims of the shooting. To that point, the "lovely exchange" mentioned by Noah Wyle in the interview happened back in episode 3, "9:00 A.M.," after Whitaker lost a patient for the first time in his relatively new medical career. Whitaker found the patient in question unresponsive in a hallway after the man was previously upright and talking. After Whitaker was unable to revive him, Robby helped the medical student grapple with his feelings of guilt.

That's what makes this moment between Whitaker and Dr. Robby particularly lovely, and later in "8:00 P.M.," Whitaker repeats what Robby told him nearly twelve hours earlier back to him, quoting a "wise man," as he puts it: "Learn to live with loss, learn to accept it, and find balance." So how did Gerran Howell handle all of this? 

"To find out, it was me who was going to walk in on him and ultimately help him in that moment, it was mind-blowing," Howell told The Daily Beast. In a separate interview with Vulture, he expanded upon that. "When I saw that appear in the script, I was like, Wow, Whitaker was the last person I imagined having to do this," Howell recalled. "But any win for Whitaker is very satisfying for me, because he's been through it. Outside of how Whitaker is doing and how capable he is as a doctor, this is where you see him step up and just be there for a person. He has value in this moment, and in mirroring Robby's words back to him." 

It's a great point by Howell, and speaks to the fact that the relationship between Robby and Whitaker is given room to blossom throughout this episode ... an aspect that highlights one of the greatest overall strengths of "The Pitt."

Another vital moment in "8:00 P.M." comes when Dr. Mel King, Taylor Dearden's second-year resident, gets emotionally overwhelmed as she reunites a mother and daughter who were separated during the shooting. As she leaves the room, overcome with emotion and starting to cry, she sees Robby and apologizes; he tells her that she should never be sorry for caring about her patients and then tells her she was "awesome" during the crisis, concluding with, "I'm really glad you're with us, Dr. King." It's yet another emotional moment in the episode, and also highlights that kindness isn't a bug on "The Pitt." It's a feature.

Wyle, who conceived the show with fellow "ER" veterans R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells, has been open about the fact that the series is meant as an ode to overworked, overwhelmed medical workers who suffered on the frontlines during the COVID-19 crisis. "The Pitt" does a great job of this, giving the spotlight to the doctors rather than the patients, and it also doesn't shy away from letting those doctors express empathy and kindness or ever claim that those characteristics are a weakness. Whitaker and Robby's relationship is built on kindness and empathy, and so is "The Pitt."

The season 1 finale of "The Pitt" airs on April 10 at 9 P.M. EST on Max, and thankfully, season 2 is on the way — and set to air in January 2026.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

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.