Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of “The Pit,” now streaming on HBO Max.
The first season of “The Pit” started off in a way no one expected. But then the daunting question became how to top that in season two. Luckily, star and executive producer Noah Wyle recalls being told by director/EP John Wells and creator R. Scott Gemmill, “You don’t have to be bigger, better, faster, stronger, funnier, bloodier. Just stay true to the character you’ve established and say who it is.” Ten months on the other side of this mass casualty incident? ”
From there, a new 15 hours was born 10 months later. When his shift begins at 7 a.m. on July 4, Wylie’s Dr. Roby will be on his last shift before a three-month sabbatical, riding his motorcycle to Alberta. (He drove without a helmet and passed an ambulance on a bridge, an act that may have been foreshadowing.)
“It was important for Robbie to convey that he couldn’t pretend he didn’t have problems anymore,” Weil said of the trip. “We wanted to show what it’s like when you know you need help, but you don’t really want it. You don’t really know how to ask for help, and what you want is a quick fix and when… It’s easier to compartmentalize than to open a Pandora’s box where there’s no guarantee that it’s going to work. So that’s what I wanted to really play with. There are many different aspects to that form of rejection.
Robbie’s bike trip, which his co-workers roll their eyes at, is one manifestation of that denial. “Instead of sticking to therapy, he fixes up an old bike and decides to go on a very romantic, literary journey to find himself,” says Weil. “These are maybe avoidance techniques, maybe therapeutic techniques. And as the season progresses, we start to look a little more closely at all these choices and motivations, not just for Robbie, but for everyone. If we’re going to plant a seed in the minds of our viewers. , I would like to say: Look at what everyone is showing you. This is what we want to show you at work now. This is what we want to present and project ourselves. But whether it is really who we are, whether we can sustain it. It’s going to be interesting to see him stay calm for 15 hours straight.”
This plan is disrupted by Pitt’s new doctor, Dr. Al Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), who takes over the day shift in Pitt’s absence. Not only does she have a different mindset, but she also has no spatial boundaries. This was very intentional.
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“We wanted to make her a bit of a target, but it also fell in line with what I’ve been playing with Robbie since we started, which is that he doesn’t really like being touched. He sometimes touches other people or puts his arm around someone, but when that happens to him, he usually flinches from it,” says Weil. “So if you’re put in a situation with a character who doesn’t have spatial boundaries, and it’s someone who doesn’t want to be invaded too much, that manifests itself as physical awkwardness and all sorts of interesting behavior. Dr. Al Hashimi is the perfect foil for the situation that Robbie is in right now, because he’s going to leave her to take care of his baby. And he doesn’t like your parenting style. It’s a really awkward place to be.” ”
Gemmil agreed, adding: “Robbie is literally trying to distance himself from her and yet she’s always in his space. So it’s just to make him even more uncomfortable and raise the stakes a little bit more.”
Her views — she’s “very interested in modern medicine and trying to bring AI into the emergency department” — create “some friction” not only with Robbie but also with the other doctors in the room, Wells said.
The premiere also features Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), who was caught stealing drugs last season and returned to work after months of rehabilitation. Dr. Robbie spends the first hour of her shift avoiding him, but that doesn’t last forever.
“For their health, their sense of closure, and their peace of mind, they need to be serious about each other. Fifteen hours is a very short amount of time to accomplish something this big,” says Weil. “Fifteen hours is not that long for people to radically change their opinion. It’s enough time to plant a seed and start sprouting. Positive, negative, fear, tears, tragedy. All of these things start from one place and end up in another, but they’re kind of micro-journeys.”
For the producers, they wanted to show the “reality of recovery” with Langdon’s return and how it would affect everyone involved.
“Langdon feels like he’s accomplished something and he’s worked hard and it’s been hard. He’s not really looking for a parade, but at the same time he’s hoping for recognition for how hard it was and how much of a strain it put on his family, not working and maybe damaging his career,” Wells says. “Others just (think) we had to work twice as hard to fill that time for you. In Robbie’s case, he was his disciple. I loved him and respected him and felt so betrayed. So I think it’s really important to show the reality of how difficult recovery is, and at the same time show how you shouldn’t have expectations that everyone will accept you for making it.”
Santos (Isa Briones) and Langdon also end up working together, but they have not been in contact since she reported her drug problem.
“There’s a lot of hard feelings and unresolved feelings between these two,” Gemmill says. “She’s trying to avoid it partly because she doesn’t know how she’ll react. He’ll end up overacting, but I don’t know how well that will sit with her.”
“The Pit” airs every Thursday at 9pm ET on HBO Max.
