One Of The Pitt's Best Scenes Was Shot Before The Show Was Fully Written

This article contains discussions of mental health and mass violence.

"The Pitt" ended its massively successful debut season as a Max original on April 10 of this year — and don't worry, it's already coming back for season 2 — and on that very same day, showrunner R. Scott Gemmill and star Noah Wyle sat down with Ryan Schwartz of TVLine to reveal something genuinely surprising. A major scene in the finale, which sees Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinabvitch (Wyle) hanging on by a thread and standing on a precarious rooftop ledge, was written before everything else in season 1 was put down on paper.

As Schwartz pointed out, Robby standing on the proverbial and literal ledge brings the season "full circle" — because in the series premiere, Robby arrives for his shift at 7:00 A.M. (the show is structured "in real time" and represents 15 hours in the emergency room) and finds his night shift counterpart Dr. Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) doing the exact same thing.  "You obviously knew this is where things were headed, but what did it feel like to have Robby on the opposite side of that guardrail?" Schwartz asked.

"Well, in the way that movie business sometimes plays itself out, we shot the show completely in sequence... except for those scenes in Pittsburgh, which we shot in September — the park scene, the helicopter stuff, and the roof scenes," Wyle revealed, making it clear that the show does shoot on location for its canonical Pittsburgh setting. He continued: 

Both the first scene and the last scene were shot on the same day, in Pittsburgh, in September, so Shawn and I woke up really early, we went up there for sunrise, and then we went back at nightfall, and we shot the other half of it. And in between were 15 episodes that mostly hadn't been shot, and certainly hadn't been written, and we were guessing — we were guessing about what was going to happen to get him up on that roof. We make references to Robby having given a speech that had not been written — and so, to answer your question honestly, it was more excitement that the puzzle pieces all fit, and when we put that [scene] in, it actually felt earned, and in continuity with everything we've done. That felt really gratifying."

Noah Wyle also spoke to the fact that, of all people in the fictional Pittsburgh hospital where "The Pitt" is set, one of the only people who can talk him off the ledge is Shawn Hatosy's Dr. Jack Abbot. "Structurally, it worked really nicely to have Abbot be a guy who likes to flirt with the idea of danger because he has come so close to it," Wyle told Ryan Schwartz, likely referencing Jack's past as a combat medic (we also learn, in the season 1 finale, that Jack lost his leg while serving). "It makes him feel alive to flirt with death, and that's actually what sends him back home — looking into the abyss. Robby is the opposite of that. Robby is now thinking that the abyss looks a lot better than home, and that's what he gets from the Abbot character — of course you [feel that way] because of what you've just been through, and what you've just been through is abnormal, and the brain only knows how to deal with abnormal one way, and that is to deconstruct, desensitize and check out, and you just proved that you were human, not that you were fallible."

One could argue — and I will go ahead and do just that — that the sound rejection from his surrogate stepson Jake (Taj Speights) in the season 1 finale of "The Pitt" pushed Robby over the edge mentally. After a mass shooting at a local festival, Jake and his girlfriend Leah (Sloan Mannino) are rushed to the hospital, and Leah is fatally wounded. Despite Robby's best efforts, he can't save her, and Jake, misplacing his anger and grief, blames Robby, even telling the good doctor "f*** you" when Robby tries to offer comfort. Wyle said that fracture between Jake and Robby is definitely a contributor to Robby's rough state at the end of season 1 of "The Pitt," particularly when you add in the fact that he had to tell Leah's parents what happened.

"You can't ever save them all, you can't even save the ones you love the most, and at the end of the day, you're going to go home alone, now with one less person in your life," Wyle mused about everything Robby loses in season 1. "I think that's what drives him up to the roof and out a little farther than Abbot had stood that morning, and a little bit more into the existential void than he's ever been in before. It would have been interesting to see where the scene would have gone if Abbot hadn't come out."

After all of the trauma we saw Robby endure in season 1 of "The Pitt," what might be in store for him in the show's forthcoming second season (which, we've been told, should premiere in January 2026)? Ryan Schwartz asked showrunner and creator R. Scott Gemmill where Robby might be mentally in the series' sophomore season, inquiring, "Does there need to be some sort of trauma engine, or might you explore what it's like when he doesn't have something that it was weighing him down?"

"I think it's a little bit of both," Gemmill said. "I will say that Robby has taken steps in the interim to get better. Whether those go as well as one could hope is another thing. I think Season 2 will be about him and a journey, but I think he has moved to a good place with the Adamson of it all." (Here, Gemmill is referencing the death of Robby's unseen mentor Dr. Adamson, who died during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic; the day of season 1's 15-hour shift takes place on the anniversary of Dr. Adamson's passing, and the specter of COVID-19 still looms over the show.)

"I think he has come to terms with it," Gemmill continued. "Ultimately, I think his meltdown at the end of Episode 13 was probably the best thing, in some ways, that has ever happened to him, because now it's out there, you know? He's been stuffing it down for so long, and it was eating him away from the inside, and finally, he couldn't control that monster anymore, and now he has to face it. In doing so, we'll move past it."

I think I can speak for many fans of "The Pitt" when I say that Robby probably deserves to have an easier day in the show's second season, but there is absolutely no denying that watching Robby confront his demons is powerful and astounding to watch, thanks in large part to Wyle's masterful performance. Season 1 of "The Pitt" is available to stream on Max now.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

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