‘The Pitt’ Season 2, Episode 3: What’s Worse Than Maggots?

Hello, welcome back to the PressU's TV podcast speed. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Rob Mahoney. We're here to talk to you about the pit. The pit. The pit. It's 9 a.m. is it not? It's 9 a.m. very flirty for 9 a.m. Oh yeah. I just think there's a lot of weird energy in the air in the pit at this hour. It's very bizarre. This just is not the time, certainly not the place. But people got to get this energy out where they can, I suppose. It's true. All right, so we're going to talk about the pit season two episode three. First, we're going to do some mailbag stuff. Where can people reach us for some form us? Joe always prestige tv at Spotify.com, especially for the pit. Dr. Sidebangs at gmail.com. In honor of Cassie McKay herself, who is the subject of multiple mens affections. It's true. I would say two varying degrees of sincerity. It just strikes me that the Walmart greeter, he feels like more of a recreational flirt. Mr. Montrose, you are dubious. I'm not dubious. It's just like for guys like that, it's just kind of a way of life. But then there's hot guy in the bed who's just been like any chance to make a comment about how he's interested. He's ready to go. Making it very well known. Well, sometimes you have to put yourself out there. That's Dr. Sidebangs d-o-c-t-o-r, not d-r. Dr. Sidebangs at gmail.com. We got a lot of emails from folks. A lot of folks wrote in, we talked last week about the July effect. And a lot of people in the medical community were like, that's bullshit. They did not like that we said that. It was like we wrote a pops-like college book with a loosely true premise that sounded right. And look, we're not medical professionals. We don't really know the research on this stuff. So I am thankful both to be introduced to the concept of the July effect and have it so quickly apparently debunked. I'm curious if the show agrees that the July effect is overblows. You know what I mean? Because the fact that they are showing all these new people starting in July, it might be something they're engaging with or not we'll see. But certainly our listeners were not impressed with us in voting the July effect. So some straight-up disappointed. Like some real finger-wagging responses, which look, if that's your specialty, this is your area, I get it. We're not trying to let you down. I promise. I gotta say like a podcast mail inbox is like primo finger-wagging territory. Very true. So yeah. Some concern also about the diagnosis boilish of the medical community. So we get a lot of medical professionals writing in with their like, hey, I think this is what's going on with Kylie or this is what's going on with Louis. I really value that input. But I also hear that people might think it's a spoiler. So I'm going to put like diagnosis corner at the bottom of the episode. We don't have any this week. Yeah. But if in future there are medical mysteries and and our lovely listeners who are medical professionals want to weigh in or people who have been doctor googling their way through life want to weigh in, we will talk about it. But I'm just going to I'm going to consider it like kind of a spoiler section, I guess. Spoiled by knowledge. Yes. That feels fair to everybody. Yeah. Okay. I also got a lot of people from people inside the medical community defending AI. How do we feel about that Rob? Next. Many points were made. Okay. Nate was one of the defenders, but he also said and I'm just going to highlight this part from Nate's email quote, there's an AI system doing med refills in Utah now. Who are we going to sue when it inevitably causes patient harm? I doubt the tech company will be held responsible. I think part of the social contract with the doctor patient relationship is that patients should should they be harmed have remedy against such harm ideally. We are firmly an anti AI podcast. I am willing to continue to read these emails definitely from folks in the medical community. We're talking about the time saved and charting and stuff like that. Hakes total sense. Obviously you guys understand your industry better than I do. It will be hard to sway me on this subject, but please keep writing and if you want to. I mean, we've never argued that there are zero practical applications in medicine, just that overstating them comes with dire consequences, including I don't know, hypothetically, that generative AI is 98% accurate. Mm-hmm. Tough. Okay. Dr. J, which came up last week. Yeah, we kind of blew this one, I think. Many people think it's joy. You agree with their argument? It checks out. I mean, just from the perspective of joy having really so little to do this season so far for a character in her position, like contrast how much screen time and how many lines she's had with Ogle V, for example. So something is coming for Joy. Right. She's on her phone all the time. Many people have suggested that Dr. J is joy and not only that, but that she's some kind of like TikTok Instagram influencer doctor. All of that adds up, but I think it's something that this show would be interested in tackling too. Do you think it matters that she's not a doctor? Of course. I guess it doesn't matter on TikTok maybe. Should we do that? Dr. Rob and Dr. Joe? Well, we shouldn't mention we just recently launched an Instagram feed for this podcast. Thank you so much for saying it. I meant to say it at the top. We have an Instagram. What do you want to say about it? That we will be giving real medical diagnoses to anyone who messages us. And that's a promise for me to you, Kai. We're getting sued. Don't worry about it. So we are on both Instagram and TikTok. Proceeds to be pod. Yes. So please follow us on all those make Kai, great. Our our favor pal look great at his job, which he is great at his job. Make us look like real podcasters. So give it a follow. TikTok, medical advice from us could be coming soon, but you'll have to subscribe to find out. I think it'll be invaluable to everyone involved. I think so too. Joy, I just want to shout out one of her line readings in this episode when they're talking about the potassium and she goes, that's crazy low. I thought that was really funny. She'd be a good TikTok doctor. I got to say that's true. Everything about her affect may not play well in an ER in the moment when she's being quizzed on what is best for a patient. I think it would play well for social media though. Okay. I love this theory. All right. I was in her Tina rodent just a quick fun note. The woman in season two episode one with a tiny perstog and the giant Ziploc bags of her husband's medicines was played by Sean Hadisys wife Kelly Albinese or Albinese. So that's really exciting. And then the woman with a super glue eyelashes who said Dr. J, that's Patrick Ball's partner. Alicia Roarback. So we're getting we're getting the the wags on the pit. Where are the husbands? Where are the boyfriends? I would like to see them. Many people are wondering. But this is the market and efficiency in TV right now. You know, nobody wants this. This to similar effect like, hey, Leigh and me stir come on down. Sure. Like let's just get, as you said, the wags involved. Yeah. But it does kind of signal to me that, you know, I was very interested in seeing those characters return with their giants at block bags full of medicine. Maybe the reason they got to come at so much screen time is just because they're affiliated unfortunately. You call them nebobe. I didn't say that. Okay. Well, I did. All right. I'm not. I think it was really sweet that they were on. Okay. Cecilia wrote a really interesting long email about nurse Hastings and Dr. Robbie and the idea of sad boy syndrome. And basically I can fix him. Yeah. Anything you want to weigh in on this from honey. What would you have me weigh in on Joe? I know. Like you can only call yourself out so much. I said boy, energy. I have no idea. All right. maggots and draining eggs. We talked about this for a long time. Folks need to be confused by your assertion, Rob, that it's weird to keep the egg in the shell. Well, how would it not be weird to keep the egg in the shell as you put it out in your yard? Most people think it's weirder to drain the egg out of the shell. Look, I don't know what to tell you. Some of us in this particular way are more evolved than others. And I, this is the rare area where I would say those of us who grew up in Texas seem to have figured it out. And I say that mostly because of the association with the Mexican text and community, which I think is where this stems from. Right. So several people wrote in asking about cascarones. Is that like something you have experienced with this is exactly it. Okay. Yes. And so either you drain them yourselves or you buy them from a Mexican supermarket and you either, you know, you can either decorate the eggs in traditional fashion or in my extended family, it was like an all out war in the yard in which these eggs are filled with confetti and you're smashing them all over each other. Great. Okay. This explains everything. We did not involve confetti with our Easter eggs. We do like what about violence? Was there violence? Well, maggots were involved. Also, our listener Lisa wrote in with the worst maggot story I've ever heard my entire life. It had changed me forever. Lisa, you know what you did. So I'm not going to share it. It's the worst thing I've ever read. You know what you're like? We asked. We did. And the listeners did infest our inbox with just some genuinely horrifying visuals. I did enjoy reading them on a certain level. But did you enjoy like a commiseration? Yes. Over your pain, over your trauma. We'll have strong maggot reactions. Lisa's story has scarred me forever. And I won't share what it was. Lisa also, maybe this will help you understand where Lisa's coming from. Lisa also shared this anecdote. We see a lot of extended erections and other sexual escapades in the ER. I have now witnessed three instances where men have gotten stuck inside women and these porceles have had to call 911, come in on a stretcher, stuck at the genitals. Unfortunately, two out of three were married, but the person they were stuck with was not their spouse. I have questions. Yeah. I don't know that they will be answered. Lisa might have answered. She might. Someone else might too, press the UTV at Spotify.com, Dr. Sidebangs at gmail.com. Yeah. Okay. One last maggot note, Joe. We did get an email from Christine who said that maggots in some like professionalized communities are known as disco rice. What? I think it's pretty self-experatory. What that means. I was just delighted by it. That's really tough for me to hear. Sorry. Our list are Sarah. This is for you, my friend. Ronan Asking if we had a nickname for Dr. Santos. She dishes them out. Yeah. She does retake them. That's a great point. I was reminded that Lane did last season in a bitchy way, called her Bright Spark. He did. But actually, really, that isn't like Bright Spark. And said less bitchyly is kind of like, what's wrong with Bright Spark? It's not bad. And also like, not a little bitchyly. You know, if you're going to be the person who makes up the nickname, you do have to take it. It's a little bitchy. It has to come and go. And I do think Santos, too, her credit is getting a little better about finding her place within this staff. And not just like bagging on people all the time. Yeah. I've really enjoyed her presence this season. I agree. If you have a great nickname for Dr. Santos, that is press to usubyandspotify.com. Or Dr. Sidebangs at gmail.com. Big picture question for you Rob Moni. It's 9 a.m. No wily wrote this episode ever heard of him. Wrigley familiar. Udibres of it's direct this episode. She's directing four episodes this season. She's a co-exec producer. So it's almost like my math is bad nearly a third of the season. Right? We just talked about her recently because she directed the Attila episode of Severin. She did. And she also, when we talked about that, I mentioned she directed my favorite episode of West World Kixuea. So I will always bring up Kixuea when we talk about this particular director. But like, okay, no wily wrote it. Udibres directed it. Did you like it? I really did. Okay, tell me why. This show can do a lot of different things. There are a lot of balls in the air. There are many characters. So many storylines. So many cases. Sure. And I just found like two of the patient cases in this episode in specific. Just kind of fucking decked me. And with very limited screen time. I would say like first and foremost, like Mark and Nancy, who were in the car accident together and suffering their consequences each over the course of this episode, as they are struggling to express to each other in simultaneous moments of consciousness, how regretful they are about the fight they were in precipitating the accident. Very tough, very invested in their story. And then Michael and Gretchen, aka the guy with the brain tumor who two episodes ago, you were like scared of this guy because of how aggressive he was being towards Dr. Bangs. I can't even tell you how important these two characters and their weird like shades of regret over a relationship that may have disintegrated for reasons beyond any of their control. Yeah. And the way and how like how elegantly that is played and profoundly between these two actors in this episode in like three maybe minutes of screen time. I told you that I was going to ask you like if there was a moment that got to like the most emotionally, would you say that it's Gretchen and her ex? I think it's them for sure. That's mine too. For me, it's a very specific idea that I think is conveyed here so well, which is what if the reason that the person you love became unrecognizable to you was not because you fell out of love or drifted apart or even something you did or didn't do for each other, but just like there was a literal mass growing in this man's brain and it changed the chemistry and the physiology of who he is and reckoning with all of the layers of grief and regret that come with that in this amount of time in this space. I think it's just like fucking remarkable TV. It was devastating to me. Gretchen, asking these questions of Dr. McKay, right, like could have this have been the reason Dr. McKay responsibly saying perhaps, right? Perhaps. Gretchen leaving anyway because it's not like they're tearfully reunited. Everything's going to be fine. Gretchen's married to someone else. She's going to be married to someone else. Her life has moved on. But she has to deal with this idea that she's like keep me as the emergency contact, but not like I'm going to stick around the hospital and help him through this. That was really devastating to me. And then his performance also, and we clocked us in the first episode because it was an act I recognized. So I was sort of like waiting for them to do something kind of special with him, but his delivery of like, you know, I heard you got married. Like I hope he treats you well. I don't know. I just want you to deserve that. Yeah. Really got me. Really, really got me. What really needled me, Joe, was that you didn't have to come, but I did. Like, yeah. That's just incredible. An incredibly romantic gesture. Is that the industry you call that? You know what? It's slightly more warmth here. Yeah. But again, like to the credit of the performances, like to go from being so intimidating and erratic in a waiting room to being here and like the warmth that you're getting out of these characters in the shared history, it's like it's so obvious. Like I feel like this is one of those scenes where even if you took all the dialogue out, if you showed someone this on mute, like they would have a sense of who these characters are to each other. And that's a really powerful thing. I was less high on the episode overall. Like the, the questions of really got me in there are a couple of storylines that really, really got me, but I would say. There was a sense of like trying to hit a theme kind of hard in this episode where like a lot of the cases felt more related than they usually do. And then there was, I would say particularly, you know, I said last week, the Langdon stuff I'm really susceptible to. But when he's like quoting lengthy passages from a John O'Donohue book, like I just thought that was really, there were just some moments that were like very bizarre to me. So like. I mean, just like memorizing an entire blessing about fatherhood so that you can then recite it at work. I mean, I understand that he's in recovery and there are things you do in recovery. But I, that was just like an odd, a really odd moment in a show that like doesn't usually strike those odd moments for me. So there were just like a couple of those in this episode that felt a little like a few screws were loose on the, on the machinery. Extremely. That's what I would say. I think this, maybe this is me excusing the show, but there's something about the pit where like I am willing to accept a certain element of like ham fistedness with the writing on this show that I'm not in other places. And I think it's, maybe some of it's because they have to pack in so much. Yeah. And that sometimes they are just like very emotionally direct. Like for example, with Mark, you know, the man who's been in the car accident, who's been in and out of consciousness finally wakes up to find that his wife is now in surgery. And he has the like realization moment of like, oh, is this when everything comes into perspective? And the way that is written is like again, they just say it. They just say it. Yeah. But also I'm getting goosebumps from them saying it. So I, I don't know what it is about the layout of this show that makes me more forgiving of it in that way. But I, and honestly, maybe it is the way it's grounded. Maybe it is the fact that like so much of the show is so intentionally trying to display what life in the ER is like. That when they do get a little trickle and they certainly do, I'm just kind of cool with it. I'm just kind of cool with that register. People say there was something about this episode, you know, the pit has always been good at bleeding one case into another or back, but there were this episode felt particularly filled with a character from this storyline is in the background, you know, like Mark sees what's happening with Kylie and her dad and her dad's girlfriend. And that's what really sort of inspires him to record this message with Dana, et cetera. But we watch him watching them. There's a triage sequence where we're just like following one character after another sort of through a shot. The, the woman who has dementia, Whitaker interacted with so much last episode is in this episode. She doesn't have a storyline, but she's just like in the background. So like that, they've always done it, but it felt even more so in this episode. And that's a positive. Like I don't know if that was something no wily wrote into the script or if that's in the direction or some combination of the two, but I really felt that sort of like the weave of the, like, I don't know if this is a terrible mixed metaphor, but like the screws felt loose on the machine. And yet the same time that we felt really tight on the tapestry. Well, that is what happens to the loom, no? Sure. We're weverse. We know how that works. Without a doubt. We did have a question from listener Tyler who was asking if we wanted to share our most squeamish moment for each episode. I don't really have anything on the level of maggots as we had from last week. So I don't know if I can mash that this week, but something I really need to keep in mind for sure. For sure. Yeah, I don't think there was a lot of physical squeamishness in this. If anything, I would say my most squeamish moment was watching Kylie's dad scream in his girlfriend, Gina's face for absolutely no reason. Turns out like, you know, maybe he isn't exactly what Santa was supposed to be was, but he's just like a regular old, great A asshole. Let's talk about Kylie and her dad. Let's let's go there first since you brought us there. So actually before we talk about Kylie or dad, I want to talk about something I really, really loved in this episode. And it's revealing something to me. It's it. I noted it during the Kylie sequence when I think it's when Dylan and Santa walked at some point, the nurse Jesse is just in there like playing with a ball, like sort of distracting Kylie. We also see in this episode, Jesse is like checking in on Don't Eat in Chillow, the like security guy who comes in. Thank God. Tony Chintillo is here to protect us all. I like I noted I really like Jesse as a character and it's a really interesting kind of character. I don't know if this is like profound or not, but like he doesn't have a storyline. He's just always there in the background like shouting out Statsur ever. And there's a number of nurses that are there's just like something about this time you spend in a in a space with a character like Jesse who's like, it sounds like an insult to call him like a wallpaper character. But he's just like the furniture in like a good way like Perla and Princess and Donnie all have like stories sort of a dash Mateo certainly did last season. That's not the function Jesse serves, but he just makes the whole place feel more real in a life to need. That makes sense. Completely. And he gives us as an audience who's uninitiated and a lot of this stuff like the gut check response of a correction for example, like when a med student suggests something that's like way off base, you'll just see him in the back. I'm going. I don't know. You know, that initial feedback like he is kind of a temperature check on the show. Right. Who is right and wrong in this moment? What should we be feeling here if it's not immediately present like how is Jesse reacting? How is Jesse reacting? Yeah, you could go very far watching the pit just watching Jesse. I love that. Okay. So Kylie and her dad Dylan, our social worker tries to have like a private moment with Kylie's dad with Kylie's dad like no, let's have this conversation here. Yeah. I do think it's really I think it's interesting that Santos is wrong about this. Which you know, Robbie and Dylan were caught like, Hey, slow your horses. Like we don't know what the truth is. Right. Last season Santos was her got was right about so many things in this case. She's wrong. And we talked about that a lot of the pit that people should be right and should be wrong. Definitely. But I also like the added nuance of and also this guy isn't fucking asking. Yeah. I thought that was really interesting. Like you're wrong and like you don't have to eat crow to him necessarily. Right. But there is like a little bit of a come up in that like there's a humbling in this moment for Santos. And I wouldn't be as surprised if we see this as a theme throughout this season. You know, we talked last week Joe about the kind of gut versus AI elements of the show or kind of gut versus informational analysis or however you want to paint that debate. Yeah. And like this is a character who is going off like almost entirely gut, right? Like physical evidence, obviously circumstantial evidence, personal experience. And it's all pointing her to say it's probably this one distinct thing that I am very familiar with. If we see characters kind of bumping up against that left and right, I think that would position the whole season in an interesting way to kind of shape our opinions about what doctors should or shouldn't be doing in these circumstances. She has an interesting throwaway line when she's like being hard on herself about this misdiagnosis. And she says zebra, right? Like you hear hoof print of beets you should think horses, but thinking zebra is instead or something like that. I really nailed that analogy. Anyway. Two things. One, Dana is involvement in breaking up this fight here with the coming in with the labs and the correct diagnosis. Right. Right. We got a name off my listener. I'm arena. When talking about Dana, following up on Dana's storyline from last season. And this listener wrote, I work around a lot of PTSD in my field. It was incredibly subtle, but in Dana Evans initial appearance in the first episode, before she clocks Robbie's bike. She seems to be showing some extremely subtle hyper vigilance, by the way, she scans or surroundings seemingly on the lookout for any potential threats. I'm curious if you will see any other heightened PTSD responses as more crisis gets piled on later in the season. So like her, we saw her break up fights in season one. It's something that Dana does. Another day at the office. Yeah, but I was wondering if there was like something even a little bit more punchy about her in terms of breaking, deescalating this particular moment. It didn't seem like maybe there was. And I want to get into this a little later with the Mrs. Kovalenko kind of plot about the PTSD elements that this show is like starting to dig into, which I think could kind of all dovetail together in the way that the pit often does. But like in these moments, like having Dana not be the cooler head in some ways, like come off a little hotter under the collar than we're used to seeing her, I think is very stark because this is a character that kind of always has the answers, right? She's in some ways the most calm person in the entire ER. And so yeah, it's, it sticks out for sure. I'm eager to see what they do with it and where it goes. How literally how do they have time for all this? I'm, I'm always fascinated to see how they juggle it. Um, last night, Lisa on, on Kylie's dad, Benian, his girlfriend, um, when she leaves, she says happy and dependent stay. Yeah. And I believe she means it in the martinemic bride's sense. Blood freedom ring, right? There's no question that she does. Okay. Just make sure. Shout to Gina, you can in fact do better. I assure you. Oh, this is your latest project. It's heavy with information, data, and exactly 36 pages of waffle. But with Acrobat Studio, you can create a PDF space, an AI powered workspace that turns documents into summaries and insights and even generates reports or presentations out of it. You can cut through the waffle, work smarter and save time. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more and try it out on Adobe.com. Gina, like call us please. Let's go back to the beginning. Jackson Davis versus Tony Chinchillo. Okay. Jackson comes in calling out what my googling and that's great stuff. Right. I think it's legal terminology. Seems to be to me statutes, precedents, various kinds. Yeah. And also stop talking to me. So are we, this is giving law student, right? He was taking the campus library and I'm not putting this spoiler section because I'm not a doctor. Yeah. It's a frenia. I mean, definitely something that's like gadgets will be coming into contact with. Yeah. I would think. Stop talking to me is like voices is schizophrenic to me. But I, again, I'm not a doctor. Someone who's having some kind of episode that clearly is unusual for him. Like it seems to be catching him by surprise as much as anything else. And yeah, Tony Chinchillo. Tony Chinchillo vigilant, overly vigilant. Sky sucks. Absolutely sucks. I think he's already, like early contender for worst hang of the season. Tony Chinchillo. And we have been hanging with literal maggots. So. Yeah. Tony, Tony's using some really charming language here. He calls this young man the animal. He goes junky jungle like it's deeply fucked up. How did you enjoy the charming fantasy where the cops call out Tony for his shit when Jackson's talk screen comes back? We live in a very fictional world. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah. And rallying the troops all around to say, fuck this guy. Yeah, fuck this guy. I'm Tony. I simply don't believe that it would happen that way in real life. But in this moment, I'm happy for it. Tony Chinchillo definitively sucks. Worst and maggots you heard it here first. I talk about Donnie and Langdon. I'm calling them the triage bros. Really interesting. Okay, I did like a lot of this episode. So I don't mean to like pick this. No, I think you're right, though. Early when they're sort of like going and like knocking cases out, right? They do a treatum and street them. And then they say Langdon says pros from Dover. Did you look this up? I did look this up. Okay, so this is from the film mash. Yes. Right. Okay, at least appears in it. Maybe it predates that. No, it's from, well, it's from the book. So in the book, mash, a fictional book you may not have read. I sure you might have not. But Trappercone and Hawkeye are sort of like rock star doctors in mash are talking about being, are talking about golfing and a con. And it kind of got partially translated into the movie where we have LA Gools character saying like we're pros from Dover. And because only part of it from the book made us win into the movie that got sort of misinterpreted by people to mean outside experts consultants like without understanding that he's referring to like a con he used to pull but they've got their golf clubs on anyway, their golf pros pros from Dover bottom line is a mash movie reference. That is something I believe know a whiley born in 1971 would write. Yes. But I don't believe that Frank Langdon born in 1989 would say nor do I like and I really don't think Donnie would give him an acknowledging fist bump to it. Like I just don't think either of those guys are film bros, but I could be wrong. But first of all, I want to say this. I feel very qualified as a white guy to make this assertion. Langdon with the least cool fist bump in the history of humanity. And he did it twice. Did it twice keeps going back to it. Very weird Langdon episode. I think he's he's had quite an endearing start in some spots, you know, self deprecation, a little poor pitiful me sure. Yeah. It seems to be making some kind of effort to kind of work his way back into the mix and make the requisite apologies and kind of like take a step forward in his life. And then in this episode, it's like, I don't even know who this character is. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know what these jokes in these comments are. I don't know why he's as we said, just like reciting entire blessings off the dome. Right. The the idea of like work dads like Donnie's a new dad. It just didn't like, it just didn't feel very like deep to me. It felt very surface to me. It struck me as a writers room that said, okay, here's the two characters. What do they have in common? There it is. What could they possibly talk about? They sure are. Okay. If you were born 1989 or later, by the way, that's my best guess because as you as I texted you, I could not find a super accurate date of birth for Patrick Ball on the internet. But if you're born 1989 or later and you regularly quote the film, not the TV show, the film mash and you already knew what the phrase pros from Doverman, press e should be at spotify.com. I would like to be corrected. I would love to hear your testimony. You're wagged in my face about this. It was very out to me. What I will say, and this is my film reference. By the way, I love the movie mash. It's a great movie. Equally is good. The George Clooney joint one fine day. Have you seen it? I've never seen it. In that movie, a child gets a beat stuck up or might be a like something stuck up their nose and they have to go to the doctor and they like the parents are talking about how like this is a common occurrence that people that like children put things up their nose. And it's like, I've always lived in fear of being in charge of a child who randomly shoves something, be it a Lego or a beat or whatever up their nose. So it's just where human ingenuity takes you as a child. You know, does this go up my nose? You won wonders and one has to find out. Mrs. Covalenko, what do you want to say about this? To our previous conversation, clearly there is like a priming of a PTSD awareness, right? And like hyper vigilance like in Dana's case, I mean, that seems like part of the job description for a lot of these people working in this space where you just have to be aware of everything and all these patients all times. But everyone here has been through an incredibly traumatic event together. Everyone working at the pit. Right. The mask casualty event of season one. And so we know that they're basically in almost mandatory therapy that they're being they're required to talk to somebody as a result of this. I would think the season will reckon with it in some way or another, whether it's with Dana or another character, using those ideas here, I think make a lot of sense. And having someone come in with all of this past trauma that is hyper localized, it's very specific, makes a lot of sense. More broadly, I would say on like of two minds about the Mrs. Covalenko stuff. One, I think the pit makes a really honest effort to tell us and show us what living and working in Pittsburgh is like. I almost did a like Pittsburgh history section. To have the tree of life synagogue shooting, which is this very traumatic event that happened in Pittsburgh. And then also, I mean, feels odd to group them, but like we get a firework history lesson. And like last season, we got like sort of the ambulance history, you know, there are like various like this is what it means to be from Pittsburgh. Right. And even every reference is like, this is an actual deli in Pittsburgh. Like this is the supermarket you would go to. It's like, it all feels again, very earnest. I'm not saying they bad like a thousand on it, but they, it seems like they're really trying. And so I appreciate that, especially in the respect of like the tree of life shooting, this is the kind of like targeted perpetrated hate crime that looms large over a community for a long, long time. And so people will walk in the door with the baggage of something like that for a while. That makes total sense to me. On the other hand, this was the closest the show has ever come to feeling like the newsroom for me. And I don't mean that as a compliment. You rarely do. It's one of those things where it's like, it's really not subject matter. It's execution. Yeah. And when you're weaving really delicate, really tragic real life events into the drama and sometimes mellow drama of the pit, it'd be very careful about how you do it. And I'm not saying they did anything wrong and I'm not saying they like stepped on any particular problem area. Yeah, but there's something like quite sort of neat about like we're going to have Perla in here. Right. And then we're going to have this conversation about the Muslim community and the tree of life synagogue. I really like Mrs. Kovalego's character a lot. She's a performance was so good. A delightful performance. Giving like Robbie shit, her being like your single, where do you work? Like, you know, not wanting to talk about her, the horrifying burn on her like at all. She's like, she's like more importantly, are you single? Like, where do you worship all this sort of stuff? I really liked her a lot. I agree with you. Like I think it's especially like fireworks, fourth of July. Like let's talk about the way in which that is like completely a different kind of stress for people who have been through something like this. And I think all of that is really interesting. And then that like there are just like a few steps further down the road that they don't get, which again, like sort of similar to it just felt like throughout the set. So people are just saying the thing. They are saying the thing. You know, a lot. Yes. And this was one area where it just didn't work for me. And maybe maybe it was in context. I'm already processing so much of the saying of the other things very directly that this was one too many. But yeah, something about these scenes, again, separate the performance, which I agree was wonderful. And like very funny in spots and very touching in spots. Something about the balance of it just didn't work for me. Right. I really like the idea of this. And I didn't love the entirety of the execution. I guess that's what I would say. I think that's totally fair. Digby. Okay. So we get another like check in with digby, just digby, not Mr. digby with Emma Dana sort of wanting to check back in with and helping him. Dana talking about like we continually just like repeatedly art or help just so that they know we will always offer and we were always here. And we did get an email from our listener Alex who was like, hey, man, when you were like focusing on how like squicked out you were by the maggots, you missed this important character moment where digby, as a character was like looking so vulnerable about, and I literally did not see it because I was literally so excited about the package. So I apologize, I literally did miss this, but Alex's description. and I didn't go back and watch it because I'm sorry I couldn't, but like Alex's description of the vulnerability, and this is like another, I don't wanna hit this too hard live out with a pit because the pit is for everyone. But the empathy that these doctors have for people in their care is one of the best parts about the pit. And so like the way in which Dana is very like no nonsense, here's the guy we're gonna burn his clothes. It's like all of this stuff is going on, but we're just gonna give him what dignity, as much dignity as he deserves, which is all the dignity in the world. And so that is like how you want them to be treating all their patients and we see the med student class usually like learning this lesson, what does a Louie get from a whittaker versus an oboe or a joy, that's the question. Yeah, you see all those characters taking their cues from Dana, taking their cues from Robbie, and there's kind of that funny moment with Joy and Robbie in this where like she's gonna take our moment of silence for this fall in motorcyclist. And it's like you have to triage the emotions too in a lot of senses, right? Like that can wait and we will have those times and we're gonna be directing compassionate and kind of alternating fashion, right? Like sometimes you just have to take the stuff head on. And I think no one encapsulates that better than Dana. Like she is as you said, like exactly as straightforward as she needs to be and exactly is comforting as she needs to be. And I, something about the way she put that as you mentioned, Joe, like that we're gonna keep offering. I think there's so many barriers to healthcare in this country. There's so many barriers, and I don't say that just systemically, but like the shame involved in people getting the kind of treatment they need, the internalized like macho, like I don't need to see a doctor. We just absorb so much that prevents us from doing the things proactively that we need to do to take care of ourselves. And there's something about just like we're just gonna keep saying it over and over, especially for people that probably don't get offered things over and over that often. That I just want to be incredibly sweet. Like a really, and it's just a really trenchant idea of why these systems could and should work. Yeah. And like listen, you know, like I've been a little tough on Robbie a bit this season, but like again, to go back to the Mrs. Kovalenko, it's seen like, you know, his gentle treatment of her, I thought was really beautiful. Like that care, that like gentleness. And I love the way too with Robbie. It's not, it's not the way every actor would play it. And I think I would have to imagine some of this is no a while enough, of course, like given his involvement in the writing of this episode, there's kind of a dual pronged approach there, but the way he walks it in his first interactions with Mrs. Kovalenko are him and a monitor. Right. Back turned to her. Back turned to her. Yeah. Like paying attention to her, but only so much attention to her, like going through the motions, doing the process. And it's like, with every word, you can feel him kind of settling into what sort of conversation this is going to be. And never, never more heavily than when she mentions Tree of Life, but it really extends to every part of their interaction together. Yeah. To go back to the motorcycle accident, really strong folly on the peeling back of the reveal of the brain matter. Yeah, that was probably the gnarliest. Yeah, I did look, but I wanted to not hear that what do you make of Robbie lying and saying that he wears his helmet? Very interesting. Yeah. Clearly doesn't care enough to wear the helmet, but cares enough to want the appearance and not have to answer the questions about not wearing the helmet. One of our listeners pointed out that Robbie doesn't wear the helmet, but he carried the helmet inside with him. So this is Jenny who emailed us about that like incredible observation. He's right. There's like theater to this for Robbie. I thought that was really interesting. I mean, speaking of going through the motions. Yeah, it's like, is it a death wish? Is it walking a line of a kind of like vulnerability? Like who knows what it is for him? Right. He already was dealing with a lot even before season one, but it does say something when it's like conspiracy to commit. It's like he's going the extra step to pretend to be kind of okay, even though everyone knows he's not okay. And so then who are you doing that performance for? Perhaps to your point to stop them from asking questions of you. Yeah. I do think it's interesting to go back to what you're saying about the Barry of Entry for so many people in terms of getting the care that they need. And how those people often wind up in the ER because they've let something go and tell us an emergency, right? But I love how that applies to your robbies and your Santoses who are like refusing to get therapy that they need, you know, a physician heal they self sort of think where it's like even people inside the medical community will ignore a problem until it explodes. So that was interesting. They are butt flawed fucked up human beings who are full of hypocrisy like the rest of us. I'm happy to report. Here's the question on the on the market Nancy story line. And this is something that I thought about in season one but I haven't officially asked our medical community listeners. So please email us, are loved ones allowed in the trauma rooms as often as they come in on the pit? Like Nancy's in there, you know, and sometimes they'll have like a nurse guide them out. But I was just like sort of surprised that they're even allowed. And especially I think that's trauma room one or when I like the main one that's right there where usually shit is very bad is your loved one allowed in there. I was thinking about this with like in season one with a little girl who drowns in like her entire family. Like when they're certain there's nothing they can do. Right. The entire family being in there makes sense to me. But then there's like they're doing emergency measures sort of around loved ones sometime in a way that I'm just like is that, I don't know. Is that happen? It's I'm asking questions. It feels like by policy probably not. Should it. And the reality of the moment might happen sometimes. Right. In this case it's like Nancy is outside looking in until they stabilize her husband. And then they bring her in to kind of tell her about the scans that they're going to run to figure out why he's not responding and why he appears to be paralyzed. And then everything gets into gear. So it's like she just I think is in the wrong place at the wrong time. But you're right. Like in reality someone probably usheres her out of the room in that moment. Right. Okay. Also something I thought was super interesting inside the story line is this little moment where Robbie backs up Samira when Garcia is giving them shit. Definitely. Like why didn't you look at Nancy? You should have done this. You know, and Robbie sort of steps into help Samira. We got this interesting email from Lucas who wrote, I had a thought listening to the first podcast for the season about Dr. Robbie and Dr. Mohan Samira. I thought an important moment of season one was when Robbie put Mohan on the red team during the mask casually event, signifying that even though he was hard and her consistently, he knows she's one of the best doctors in the year. So I love that. Yeah. That we saw Robbie really hard on Mohan and see him season one. But there are ways in which he does like consistently, not consistently, inconsistently have the backs of the people on his team. Yeah, selectively. Yes, electively. There you go. And I just I really liked that moment when he's just like, was there for her. Totally agree. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I was being an asshole like she likes to do. And that's representative of where she is. Like I do trust Samira Mohan's judgment. Basically above and beyond almost anyone who isn't Robbie as far as the doctors are concerned. Like she has a good head on her shoulders. This was her whole arc in the first season was kind of bringing all of these sides of her experience and expertise together and becoming this really balanced, really efficient, but also like really empathetic doctor. And the level of detail that she's able to bring, I think it's just very different than what you would get even from Langdon at his like best medicinal moments. Stay at the pit, Samira. Don't go to New Jersey. Please. I would be honestly devastated if she is gone from season three. I know. If this just turns into the kind of show where like true to life, doctors are coming in out of the hospital. Like that's just what happens, but it would make me very upset personally. So please do not. Don't upset Rob. Speaking of upsetting Rob, Rob how did you feel? We talked about this a little bit pre-pod. Yeah. Mr. Montrose, a very amorous Walmart greeter who has busted his tailbone in some way. Yeah. Hating on our girl, Dr. Banks, calls her Dr. Hazelize. How did you feel about that? Just rude. Yeah. It's not her name. It felt called out by the staff. No, while he knows that you called her Dr. Banks and he wrote Dr. Hazelize into the script instead. I don't mean to presuppose, but I like to think that we as a collective came to the understanding that she was Dr. Banks together. That it's just one of these things that we all reached into the ether of our shared consciousness. Right. And it's like, this is obviously what this character's name is. Montrose is played by Michael Norrie who has been around for a long time, but like speaking of fans of the original bash film, this is the hottie from Flash Dance. Like he is a famous 80s hottie. So to cast famous 80s hottie Michael Norrie who we should be clear landed Jennifer Beals in her Flash Dance era. That's a quite the achievement. And he is quite a charmer. Is here just like laying on quite that with Dr. McKay? It works. I gotta say, like it is very charming. And I think she kind of takes it in the spirit in which it's intended, right? It's like we're having a laugh. Oh, yeah. Like he knows what he's doing. I know what he's doing. Like there is a compatibility to that that makes sense. Now this other guy chiming in from the sidelines, like, this is Brian Hancock is the patient's name for a by Lawrence Robinson no relation. Love's her Witches Cackle. Does is just laying on quite thick himself, even though he's immobile. Like Montrose can dance with her in sing-la-marit to her if he wants to. This guy is just shooting his shot consistently from the corner of the frame. If he can get her attention, he will. We talked previously when fucking boba guy was hitting on Mel. We got emails from listeners being like, hey, don't date your patients. But are you into Dr. McKay? And Brian Hancock? Well, first of all, I think we need to rename boba guy. Like I think he's just liquor store banded at this point or something to that effect. He is lost boba guy privilege. Wait, wait, wait, wait, is it number one Tony Chinchillo? Number two, boba guy, number three maggots? Here's the thing, boba guy slashed the liquor store banded. Yeah. I think has an appeal in like an I'm being worked sort of way. Sure. You know, like a con man kind of charisma. Right. We're Tony Chinchillo is just costly. Oh, brother. He just sucks. Okay. I get everyone agrees. Every nurse is looking at him sideways. It's so clear immediately. How much he sucks? I got to watch him. Yeah, I got to stay here and document this. Yes. But yeah, I'm eager to see kind of what they do with Dr. Banks in this moment. Dr. Banks, who has said for the record, I am quite like I am ready to Dr. Bang. Yes. And this guy's like, I am also ready. I'm ready to swoop those side bangs, baby. I am here for you. I am interested. I'm qualified. I am ready. In theory, you know, we'll see how she responds to him. So far, it's like again, she's kind of entertaining it to keep moving. She's like sure, sure. Yes. Okay. But we do appreciate even as he's watching her be wheeled around the yard floor. No, he doesn't seem very threatened to buy any of this. You know, he's just watching from the sidelines respectfully. Get in his comments and when he can. They even answer me. I think he's playing his cards well. Is he playing his cards in a way that will be legally fulfilling for all involved? It seems not, but crazier things have happened on the pit. Tune in to find out. Speaking of Pittsburgh history, let's talk about Louis and fireworks. What was the Pittsburgh history in that? Just Dr. Bang's being about town? Why did I say speaking? I don't know. Great question. I'm very close with my segways. Honestly, how dare you? Okay. Louis is still draining. He loves fireworks and he mentions Mr. Zambelly. Yes. We got to say, I got really excited because we got a very long email about Mr. Zambelly from a listener like a couple weeks ago. We tried to. You were asking about fireworks in Pittsburgh and our listener, Kristen, delivered. I am, Kai, you are welcome to cut some of this. I'm going to read this entire email because I couldn't figure out how to cut it down. It's so good to me. It's full of information. We love information. I want the background. And frankly, I am charmed by the times that the pit itself turns into a Wikipedia page. Yeah. And so that our podcasts could follow suit accordingly. I think we have to do it. Here we go. Buckle up for some firework history in Pennsylvania. Newcastle, Pennsylvania, population 21,000 is called the fireworks capital of America. And it's only 50 miles outside the city. Newcastle is home to both Zambelly fireworks, the oldest and one of the largest fireworks manufacturers in the US. And pyrotechnico, the largest provider of large scale fireworks displays in the US. Newcastle, Pennsylvania has a hospital. And I just look, Kristen has gone deep. She's like, Newcastle has a hospital. It's only a level two trauma center. So a large scale fireworks accident would be sending folks to the level one trauma centers in Pittsburgh and Youngstown. And Youngstown, she says, doesn't even have a burn unit. Seems like a mistake. All right. Pittsburghers will find any excuse to set off fireworks, both large scale displays and in our backyards. And Fourth of July is a really big deal. The city puts on a huge fireworks display that rivals the ones in much larger cities. Kristen says she lives in a high spot in her area. And from her yard, she can see three suburban fireworks displays. To give an idea of the, I'm sorry, it's all fascinating. To give an idea of the level of municipal fireworks displays around the area, her suburb, population 33,000 spends between 65 and 70,000 on their Fourth of July celebration. And the city spends 350,000 for its celebration. But she mentions that the big, big fireworks display in Pittsburgh is off a barge in the water, I believe. And she also mentioned that to get to the park where you watch this, why are you laughing in my fireworks? I'm not laughing. I'm delighted by your joy. I am delighted by, I just have never, I have never clocked a Joanna Robinson listener more than Kristen. Like this is just such an email that would come to one of the shows that you host first in a foremost. I mean, that is a sincere compliment to you folks. What does that mean? I just think there is a level of detail and there is a level of lore here that is who you are. And Kristen clearly identified that swooped in with the very specific regional knowledge that you needed to understand the fireworks, like overall landscape. She's crunching numbers, she's got budgets, she's got populations, she's got everything I need. Kristen, thank you. The point is there's one narrow bridge that goes to this park where they watch the fireworks launch from the barge. And she's about 30 to 40 thousand of folks who go down to the city fireworks show, watch it from the point. And she said people will be crushed if a launch went wrong and Yensers are going to Yens. She's like, will there be like a mass-damped event and a fireworks show goes wrong something that we were wondering like what will be the firework impact. We already got this moment with Mrs. Kovalenko. We get the Zembelly fireworks job. Kristen, thank you so much for filling my life. I know so much about this is what it asked for. It's true. And I got, she has way more information. Last but not least, there's something called Phantom fireworks tents that are like the spirit Halloween of fireworks. And so they like crop up all of the place. This is where you can get your fireworks in Pittsburgh like on the corner. So it's the only way to get fireworks anywhere. If it is a brick and mortar structure, I would never buy fireworks. Definitely not. Definitely not. Like a roadside stance or a situation. Absolutely. I've never bought illegal fireworks. So I feel like I've never bought legal or illegal. Don't project that on us. Last but not least, Kristen says, Fourth of July is a bigger drinking day than your New Year's Eve in these parts. So I fully expect to see a lot of drunk insers with burns and missing fingers in the pit, which we've been expecting. But thank you so much. The pit for just saying the words and belly, which gave me an excuse to read this thing that might get edited fully out of the show. I don't know. Kai might have a better head than I do, but that is what I wanted to share with you, Rob Mahoney. Well, also thanks to Louie in conjunction for the line, y'all don't know nothing about pyrotechnics, which we do now. Yeah. I love it. Like Whitaker was trying to sort of glad, Hannah, and he's like, no, we're talking. Fixes my teeth. We're done with this portion of the exam. Where I tell you, Charming Enigdots about my life. Fixes my teeth. Numbed up, please. Yeah. All right. We already talked about Mr. Williams and his ex-wife, Retchon, the Hanson stuff. What do you want to say about the Hanson fam? I've all the fucked up things we've seen on this show. Med pooling? The pill pile. He's deranged. Who would think this is a good idea? Who would meds is how he've always done it? He says. Oh my God. This is a really light male episode. Maybe that's why it wasn't my most enchanting experience because I love mel so much. But she gets to like, FaceTime with them to like sort of see if she can figure out which pill it is. Anything else you want to say about? Are we going to see more Hansons as the day go on? I always mind it. They do have that kind of like weird sitcom family that pops in as a recurring bit. And your neighbors, your wacky neighbors, the Hansons. I would love them to hang around at some capacity or just like one more family member keeps like, treacle in the door. They never leave because there's just another person injured. I think that would be great. And they have to find them in a room off to the side just to fit everybody by the end of the day. I think it would be great. I gotta say, I'm really disappointed with our listeners who have we got so many maggot emails, not a single ramacan email. Nobody's writing in with any of the ramacan deals. Actually, one person. We did get one. I was like, we did because somebody suggested specifically, I'm so sorry, I don't have the name off top of my head to go to secondhand stores to load up on the ramacans. Yes. How do you feel about that advice? I think it's great advice. Yeah. But this is where my OCD color coordination comes in direct contact with pragmatic Rob. I need the set. I needed to fit. I needed to make sense. But I also need ramacans of many different sizes to fit my souffle needs. So what are you supposed to do? What is your, what is the color scheme of your dishware? I don't have to answer that. No, there is a lot of white for the neutrality. Yeah. And then it's kind of like, there's some dark kind of black gray plateware. I think there's a little like, no pop of color. Oh, no, it's like splashes of, I'm trying to think of the exact shade of blue, kind of a blue green situation. Okay. Not quite full-teal and blue more blue than that. Is that your, your Lake Crusade color is the sort of like, my Lake Crusade life is chaotic. There's a little bit of that blue. There's a little bit of the pure red. I kind of like having it where it's like, that's the red crock pot. Sorry, that's the red dutch oven, you know? Yeah, the red and the like flame orange. The flame orange. That's not really like ice. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, if you are out and about and you see a deal on some ramacans in a white, hit me up, black or blue green color neutrals. Neutral. You know, we're into the neutrals. Okay. All right, Rob. I don't want to pop with the ramacan. That's not what it's for. I disagree. I think a ramacan because it's actually like a cute little thing in your kitchen. That's where you could really go a little wild with some color. You could have a red ramacan, I think. I feel like if you're going to do a statement, you make the statement. You don't pick like the smallest piece of furniture to make brightly colored. Do you have a butter warmer? I don't have a butter warmer. I do have a butter warmer and it is red. Okay. I'll come to our podcast about the pit. Dr. L and Robbie. Very little. This is my et cetera section. Yeah. Very little on this, but we get this exchange where Robbie says, I got to say, a bit bitchly splitting up so soon. And she says, I'm looking for cooperation, not commitment, which I thought was a great response. How did you feel about this exchange? I thought it was wonderful. I'm just a gas that they let this woman be charming. She was also very nice to Nancy Yee. I know. She had that like warmth to her that you were looking for from her. You were like, as you always say, if you want to get your smile more. Okay. Don't do that to me. For a bit for such a short. My point is simply, they gave this woman like two lines and one joke. Yeah. And I'm like very charmed. Okay. You're right. I wouldn't say I'm in, but like some of my concern about where this character could be going is diminishes by the fact that like she can, she is capable of cracking a joke. If she drops her AI devices in the garbage, are you in? Absolutely. Yeah, you're all right. I'm completely in at that point. I just want to see her have human interactions with other people. And this was one of the first ones we've seen all season. We've seen human interactions and that was a proper segue. Thank you so much. Dana kicks Ogleby out of her chair in a way that I really enjoy. Ogleby continues. It's like, it's like Tony Chattillo, Boba Guy, maggots, Ogleby. That's where I am right now. She's just trying to way too hard. And this is another vital role that Samir Mohan plays on this show is like she is often the like continued eye roller in chief. And this is named in Javadi's direction as well. But they're like chorus of symptom listing and complication explaining in the face of absolutely no reason whatsoever to get into all that. I'm glad that she's there to at least set them straight in her silence. And that was surrounding her diabetic patient. Yes. Who's daughter is there and is like my mom's on the way. So this is like an ongoing case that we will check back in with. I assume. Definitely. Loupé apologizes to our deaf patient in the chair that she's like, you know, we got an email from a listener being like shouldn't this have been on her patient passport like to begin with. Flo in the system. Flo in the system. Um, I do when I didn't shout this out before Mrs. Copolanco later when Robbie says she's turning my trip into a midlife crisis and all of the reactions we got from everyone to that phenomenal. Yeah. Burdened with incredible medical knowledge, not a lot of self awareness. Dr. Robbie. And then we get the hook into the next step. So right, the phone rings. This is the drill is this a joke. Got it. Thanks. I love running all this traffic to us. A mod's like we got a new bedding grid. Let's go. Yep. How do you feel about this is like a hook into the next episode? Do I love a code? Yeah. I simply love a code. I love the lingo. I love the jargon. I love that everyone knows. Oh, this should about to get extra real. It's already been quite real, but there are levels to this. I loved the bedding pool with the ambolence last season. I thought that was great. I'm not mad that we're running it back. If there's an ambulance, if there's like a bedding pool in season three, will you be like enough now enough or like how do you think? Maybe. Look, this is the trick with these shows is they are built on repetition. They are built on these people living the same life and day over and over and over and having the experience to know how to navigate it better the next time. So it's like, you kind of have to have some of that stuff. I just hope they find ways to jazz it up a little bit. Plus I love gambling. Last but not least, Noah Wiley wrote this episode and he gave himself a sitcom. Outro line where he goes, a should of left last night. Oh, brother. Here we go. I don't know about that one. Not my favorite episode of the paper. There was a lot to love and I'm really excited to see where we go next. There's a lot of cases where I'm like interested to find out what's going on with Jackson and like a lot of other patients. Will Dr. McKay break her oath and go out with that guy? I think she should honestly. Will the resex fire works for her tonight? Are ED patient? No. I think we have to wait and find out. All right. I hit an hour on the nose. But with edits, it might be less than that. If Kai edits out that entire fire working mill, it might be less than that. I think he should stretch it out. I think that whole stretch should be like 0.5 speed. Let's really get into it. Let's let's look jury. It does nine minutes for social. Everyone was going to love that real. Thank you, Rob Monty. Thank you, Joe. Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. I'm going to be a little bit more patient. Thank you, Joe. Thanks for our listeners. Thanks to Kai Grady, who's just the best. Thanks to the pit. We'll be back with episode four. It's 10 a.m. What's going to happen? We'll find out next week. Bye.