The Pitt Boss Breaks Down Season 2, Episode 7: Robby And Langdon's Rift, Al-Hashimi And Santos' Traumas — And That Abbot/Samira Moment

Before "The Pitt" goes analog at the end of Season 2, Episode 7, it delivers a half-dozen character beats bound to get the internet's heart rate up — including one moment series creator R. Scott Gemmill calls "a flower tossed to the crowd."

As Dana and Emma tend to a sexual assault victim, Langdon takes a moment to apologize to Robby — but doesn't get the response he's hoping for. Robby tells his former protégé he's glad he got the help he needed, but admits he's not sure he wants him working in his ER. Elsewhere, we're (maybe) given fresh insight into why Al-Hashimi froze over Baby Jane Doe at the close of Episode 1; Santos reveals unexpected vulnerability beneath her armor; and a certain Abbot/Samira scene proves the writers are paying attention to the HBO Max medical drama's very vocal — and very online — fandom.

In the Q&A below, Gemmill unpacks all of that and more.

TVLINE | "Law & Order: SVU" has long been credited with bringing significant awareness to the prevalence of sexual assault. But watching Episodes 7 and 8, I couldn't recall another series that has walked viewers step-by-step through a sexual assault forensic exam this thoroughly. What went into the decision to depict the process in such detail, and what conversations did you have about balancing realism with sensitivity for the audience and the actors?
I think for us it was an important story to tell. Obviously, it's a very prevalent problem. And I don't think we've ever really seen what somebody has to go through in that process immediately after. It takes a lot of bravery. You want to have somebody there like Dana — a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) who's there to help these people through what is the worst day of their life and get through it.

It felt like if we were going to tell a story about sexual assault, we should show it in all its ugliness — although, hopefully at the same time, there's comfort being provided by the nurses as much as possible, doing their best to make the best out of a horrible situation.

TVLINE | In Episode 6, Dana couldn't say why she keeps coming back to this job. Does guiding this patient through something so harrowing become part of that answer? Or does the toll it takes on her make it even harder to justify why she stays?
I think it's the former. She even gives voice to that later in a subsequent episode — what would have happened to this poor woman if she hadn't been there that day and there hadn't been a SANE on? Would she have had to wait 12 hours having to live with this? Or gotten impatient and left and not even reported it, or had it properly processed?

I think it becomes a reason for her to return. She understands why she comes back. It's for people like Ilana Miller — because they need her, and she needs to be there for them.

TVLINE | In Episode 7, you reaffirm that Robby's relationship with Jake remains intact. Was it important to underscore that because without that connection he might not be holding it together? And is there a risk he's relying on that relationship instead of doing the deeper work he needs to do to get healthy?
It was important just to give lip service to a part of his makeup and his past that played a huge role last year. I think his relationship with Jake has improved. He's a young man going through a lot of things, not just the death of his girlfriend.

For Robby, all his relationships are important. That's one of the few outside the hospital. Unfortunately, most of his relationships are with his coworkers — especially Dana and Abbot. So they're all important to him.

He's struggling and hasn't really put in the work he needs to. He's given it some lip service. He's gone to a few therapists but hasn't really landed on one that works for him. That may be more about his resistance than the quality of the therapy.

TVLINE | How serious is Robby when he says he doesn't want Langdon working in his ER? Is this a temporary reaction, or has Langdon crossed a line he can't come back from?
Langdon crossed a line that really cut him to the quick. He was his golden boy. Robby was his mentor. He had high hopes for him. I think what hurts the most is Robby probably feels a little stupid — that his belief in Langdon was so great it blinded him to what was going on. And the fact that it was Santos, a first-year resident, who found out on her first day, while Robby had been working with this guy for years and was oblivious. So a lot of it is misguided and misdirected toward Langdon when some of it is really about his own anger at himself.

TVLINE | Langdon is clearly thrown off in the aftermath. How much does that destabilization shape the rest of the season?
The whole day is a little off for him. He's got ring rust. Even if he'd been off for 10 months on a wonderful sabbatical, coming back would be difficult. But coming back with your tail between your legs, having to do mea culpas for what you did, already puts him on his back foot.

He was hoping Robby would forgive him, welcome him with open arms and say, "Let's try again." That's not what happened. So it rattles him. It gets to a point later [in Season 2] where he's very unsure about a risky procedure, and Robby gives him some tough love to get him past his indecision. Whether that's handled properly is the question. But the end result is hopefully that Langdon gets his mojo back.

TVLINE | Al-Hashimi froze at the end of Episode 1 while checking on Baby Jane Doe. Early in Episode 7, we see her call the Pittsburgh Neuro Science Group as a patient, not as a physician. And later, she references working in a maternity ward in Dasht-e-Barchi in 2020, prompting Abbot to acknowledge a "tragedy" — which echoes a real-life suicide bombing at a maternity hospital that year. Was Al-Hashimi a survivor of that attack? And are the moments we've seen — the freezing, the neuro consult — meant to signal that she's living with PTSD stemming from that experience?
Whether or not she has some PTSD from her time overseas, I'm sure she does. I don't think you can live through that without coming away with residual trauma. But whether that's what's causing her moments remains to be seen and will play out over the course of the season.

TVLINE | When the C-suite consults Al-Hashimi about the cyberattack instead of Robby, it's hard not to read that as a shift in internal power dynamics. Is she actively positioning herself for Robby's job, or is this more about the administration's longstanding concerns about his leadership that were first voiced by Gloria in Season 1?
It's probably a little of both. She's trying to establish her territory within the ER. She has specific ideas about how to improve things, and some of those are counterintuitive to what Robby would like to do.

There is friction there. But she also knows Robby's going away for three months, and this will be her responsibility. She's trying to make the place in her vision [because] she knows how she likes to run things. They're jockeying for position. Fortunately for both of them, he's leaving and it will be in her hands.

TVLINE | Santos singing to Baby Jane Doe is such a tender beat. Was that moment built specifically to showcase Isa Briones' voice? And what can you say about the origins of that Tagalog lullaby?
I reached out to Isa even before we started shooting at the end of Season 1 because I knew she could sing. I thought it would be a great moment to see her share that gift with only an infant that no one else is going to hear.

It shows she's a great person. She just has an acerbic personality. I asked her if there was a Tagalog lullaby. She talked to her dad [musical theater veteran Jon Jon Briones] and they found one. It was wonderful. I didn't tell anybody for a long time. I wanted it to be a surprise — a nice little Easter egg.

TVLINE | In a subsequent scene, we briefly glimpse scars on Santos' leg, suggesting a history of self-harm. We already knew she had a history of sexual abuse — but was this specific detail always part of her backstory?
I don't know if it was always part of her backstory. But it was an extension of it. It was a nice counterpoint to what we had just seen and helps you understand her character and personality more.

TVLINE | Are her scars meant to look like they're recent?
We "newed up" a few of them in post-production with VFX. So the idea may be not that long ago.

TVLINE | There's a vocal segment of the audience that reads romantic subtext into Abbot and Samira's scenes. When you write moments like this one, are you conscious of those interpretations?
[Laughs] I leaned into that a little bit. That was a flower tossed to the crowd. But I think there's something interesting there anyway — two people who maybe aren't even that self-aware. He's certainly oblivious in a lot of ways, which makes it more fun.

That may be something to explore down the line. They may be good for each other. They just don't realize it yet.

TVLINE | When Robby sees Samira tending to Abbot's wound — was that reaction scripted? Or was that a Noah Wyle ad lib?
No, that was scripted. We had some some really big [reaction] takes, and some of it got to be a little bit too much — like, suddenly, I'm doing Bill Lawrence's "Scrubs." So I had to pull it back a bit.

TVLINE | It's funny you reference "Scrubs," because the take you used includes a slight squeak as Robby walks by, as if Wyle dragged his foot along the floor. I couldn't help but wonder if that squeak actually occurred, or whether you added that in post production.
I can't remember if that's production or not, to be honest. I think that's why we chose that take. [Laughs]

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