Samira does her best to keep Whitaker on the right track. A teen overdose sparks conflict in the ER.
Robby has the medical expertise to know Whitaker's patient has been down too long to revive, the overdosed college student is braindead and the stats of the elderly man with dementia will continue to go down. His role is to provide emotional comfort and support for everyone to come to terms with these realities. It's a teaching moment for Whitaker. It's something every doctor has faced. Robby cautions that it's all about finding balance. It's a noble goal. It may be unattainable. It's still something those who practice emergency medicine should strive for. They grapple with death. Whitaker did everything right. Even in reviewing the case after the fact, no one sees any glaring mistakes. Whitaker fears he wasn't monitoring his patient. He got distracted by the chaotic work in the Pitt. He was waiting on results before checking in again. And yet, the test results didn't signal this terminal event was coming. It couldn't have been predicted. Robby checks in on the fourth-year medical student. Everyone knows to keep an eye on him. He is encouraged to get back to work. He needs a moment to decompress and acknowledge what has happened. He takes it. Everyone hopes he has better shifts moving forward. Yet this is his defining moment of the shift that outlines the course of this season.
Robby has a responsibility to train and care for the doctors and nurses within the Pitt. This is part of the job. It's meaningful that the staff takes the time to mourn. Whitaker provides the basic personal details he gathered from his patient. It's simplistic. It's all he has to give. He wishes he could have done more. He did everything he was suppose to do. That's the truth he must accept. It's hard to expect a ton of growth from the characters considering everything plays out in real time. Whitaker is afraid of the board. He wants to avoid the same fate with the next patient. He has to keep working. Similarly, Mohan can't focus all her energy on one patient. She may have the best patient satisfaction scores. Robby still pushes her to do better. She does herself a disservice by limiting her education to one patient per hour. That may be nice and cathartic in the moment. It does little to alleviate the stress on the system. People are waiting for hours to be treated. Mohan has to manage her time wisely. She must help as many people as she can. She must do so responsibly. No one sets forth extreme standards that are impossible to reach. Robby knows she is capable of more. He has seen that. He's still waiting to make an assessment of Whitaker.
Robby extends compassion to the patients and their loved ones. He listens to their concerns. He makes them aware of their medical options. He advises them. He follows through on the decisions made. It was clear an hour ago that his patients wouldn't recover. The loved ones need time to cope with that. They can't be monsters who delight in the suffering. They are human. They need someone to blame for tragedy. The father of the college kid wants to believe he was given drugs by someone with ill intent. The truth may be more complicated than that. The kid gave these tainted pills to someone else too. Another patient enters the Pitt with a drug overdose. This one is able to be revived. As such, her friends believe it wasn't too serious. They can exaggerate in their retelling of the events. Yet they have the comfort of knowing everything will be okay. The doctors plead with them to alert their friends the dangers of taking pills without a prescription. It resulted in one death on campus already. Robby can technically order more tests. At this point, it's cruel to offer more false hope. He helps the parents accept the truth. Others are quick to suggest organ donation. Robby knows they are far from being open to that conversation. He doesn't push things. His judgment is trusted.
Robby goes everywhere. He is pulled from one case to the next. He doesn't even have time to go to the bathroom. He knows how to spring into action immediately. He's an excellent doctor. When actions can be taken, he does them. He aims to save as many lives as he can. That isn't always the case. He is only doing more harm to his elderly patient. The daughter refuses to give up. She needs more time with her father. He was intubated at the top of the hour. That was meant to ease his pain. His health would improve. She wants him to recover. Robby knew that wasn't going to happen. The inevitable is only being prolonged. These are heart-wrenching stories. The Pitt has a social worker willing to jump in whenever needed. Yet the doctors themselves have to fulfill the roles at times too. They may not always get things right. McKay is more alarmed than Robby is about David being missing. She fears for the girls on his list. They should be warned. Disaster has the potential to be prevented. Robby is persuaded. He has limits on what he can do. He asks how ethical it would be to lie about the health of David's mother to lure him back to the Pitt. He will seemingly put that plan into motion next. He just needs a free moment to make it happen.
Those are few and far in between though. Even when Dana goes out for a smoke break, a paramedic is clipped by her ambulance being stolen. Everything that happens in or around the Pitt has the potential to go from bad to worse. That's the underlying message of this narrative. It can shift in a moment's notice. Whitaker experienced that firsthand. And now, he struggles with the automation meant to make everything easier. He's still learning. People offer their understanding of losing patients. They each have stories. They endure this alongside him. However, that's mostly used as introductory details to the rest of the ensemble. Santos is eager to perform certain procedures. She seeks them out instead of lending a hand to ease the burden from others. She uses sarcasm as a coping mechanism. But even that is said sarcastically. She closes herself off while demanding attention. She plots for the future without making genuine connections in the present. Javadi and Mel just have to endure her. They don't befriend her even though the topic comes up. This family is dysfunctional. That's the only way it can be managed. No one makes any progress by beating around the bush. They have to be upfront with what they need. That lesson is slowly being learned while Robby displays the more brutal emotional complexities of this work.
