The Pitt's Noah Wyle Talks Major Robby/Collins Reveal And Warns: 'We Hit You Squarely In The Face With What's Coming Next'

Noah Wyle knew that fans of The Pitt would be champing at the bit for backstory at this point in its run — and boy, does Episode 11 deliver.

During a tender exchange, the depth of Robby's relationship with Dr. Heather Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) is revealed. She initially confides in her ex about her recent IVF journey that ended in miscarriage, and suggests that she is not strong enough to try again.

"I've never known you to give up on anything," he tells her. "Except... maybe me."

Collins then reveals to Robby that she was pregnant a few years ago, but she wasn't ready to be a mother. What's more, "I wasn't sure about the relationship. I never told him."

Though it isn't explicitly stated, Robby's wide-eyed reaction is meant to infer that Collins got pregnant, and chose to have an abortion, while she and Robby were still together.

"I was afraid of... all of it," she explains. "But mostly, I was afraid he would hate me for being selfish."

Robby takes a beat, then assures Collins that she was not selfish.

"Do you think he'd forgive me if he knew?" she asks him.

"Yes," he answers. "More importantly, I know he would want you to forgive yourself."

So, why offer this information dump up now...? "Well, we want you to lean in nice and close so that we can hit you squarely in the face with what's coming next," Wyle tells me in this final excerpt from our in-studio interview. "Certain moments get earned. You need to indulge in the professional for a while, and then you need to reveal the toll that's taking on the personal. You're kind of going micro, macro — inside our characters, and outside our characters. By the time you get to Episode 11, you've invested quite a bit in our characters, and they've carried quite a lot of their day up until that moment, so it earns the breath.

"The audience is thirsty for context, and it seems appropriate to give it," he continues. "There's an opportunity with two characters sitting in an ambulance, and nobody else needing them at that moment, for it to feel organic and not forced. Also, like I said, there's a little bit of a reset" ahead of Season 1's remaining four episodes, which will see Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center's emergency department overwhelmed following a mass shooting at PittFest.

What did you think of The Pitt Season 1, Episode 11? Drop your thoughts in a comment below.