The Pitt's Most Hated Character Is A Hilarious Medical Easter Egg

You know, and likely hate, James Ogilvie, the student doctor played by Lucas Iverson on season 2 of "The Pitt." But did you know his name is a medical Easter egg?

As it turns out, someone in the writers' room was having a really fun day when they decided on names for "The Pitt" season 2 characters. Why? There's a syndrome called Ogilvie syndrome, and it's ... gross. Described to me by an actual doctor as "an obstruction without a mechanical cause," Ogilvie syndrome is defined by Cleveland Clinic as an "intestinal pseudo-obstruction." I'll let the rest of the basic definition speak for itself here:

"Ogilvie syndrome, also known as acute colonic pseudo-obstruction (ACPO), is a sudden and unexplained paralysis of your colon. Your colon acts like it's blocked or obstructed by something (pseudo-obstruction) but nothing is physically obstructing it. The problem is in your colon's motor system. It stops moving food along, allowing it to build up inside and causing the walls to dilate (widen)."

That's right! The character on season 2 of "The Pitt" that nobody likes and who screws up pretty much everything he touches is named after a fake bowel obstruction that causes symptoms like nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and distension, and constipation or diarrhea. That is objectively funny, and considering the fact that "The Pitt" works with real medical professionals to be as accurate as possible, there's absolutely no way that this name choice was unintentional. Not only that, but if you've been watching "The Pitt" season 2 all the way through, you might remember a pretty significant moment centered around Ogilvie that might be a ... cheeky little reference to his colon-related namesake.

First things first, though: Why do viewers hate Lucas Iverson's James Ogilvie? As a fourth-year medical student who's working under newly-minted doctor Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and alongside fellow med students Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) and Joy Kwon (Irene Choi), Ogilvie is exceedingly arrogant and way too sure of his own abilities, which makes him look like formidable competition for Javadi and Joy before the show's fourth episode "10:00 AM," where he helps physicians like Whitaker and Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) treat a man who fell from a skylight. Without asking anybody, Ogilvie grabs a shard of glass from the patient's back and removes it, causing unexpected complications; add this to his less-than-stellar bedside manner with several of the day's patients, and you've got a very annoying medical student on your hands.

In the following episode, "11:00 A.M.," Ogilvie gets his comeuppance in a very real way. During a fecal disimpaction on an elderly patient, Whitaker warns Ogilvie to move out of the way just a little too late, and her bowel obstruction ends up splattered all over Ogilvie's protective medical gear. At that point in the season, it's satisfying and funny to see Ogilvie get literally crapped on after he's been a huge jerk to most of his colleagues and even some of his patients. As season 2 continues, though, he finds himself in an actual existential crisis after something drastic and severe happens to another of his patients.

After James Ogilvie takes a whole bunch of poop to the chest, things don't really improve for him during his emergency department shift. Not only do Joy and Javadi show him up by correctly diagnosing and treating patients, but his world-changing event happens in the series' 11th episode "5:00 P.M." Alongside Supriya Ganesh's Dr. Samira Mohan (who's leaving "The Pitt" after the end of season 2), Ogilvie treats a man who seems to be having kidney issues, only for the two of them to discover that Ogilvie didn't do his due diligence and check the patient's aorta. How do they discover this, exactly? The patient has an abdominal aortic aneurysm that ruptures and ultimately kills him despite emergency surgical intervention, leaving Ogilvie feeling responsible and Mohan chastised by superiors like Robby for failing to properly supervise her medical student.

As fun as it is to hate on Ogilvie, that character's death is his fault, and it's pretty easy to understand why he fully breaks down after that case concludes. In episode 13, "7:00 P.M.," we see Whitaker find Ogilvie in the ambulance bay; Ogilvie actually scrubbed in for the surgery and witnessed the patient die. Whitaker, who was the right person to help Dr. Robby through a tough moment in season 1, uses his considerable empathy and kindness to talk Ogilvie through this moment, and when the medical student suggests that maybe he doesn't want to work in the emergency department, Whitaker tells him to head home and think it over.

As of this writing, that's the last we see of Ogilvie on "The Pitt," and we don't know if he'll return. Still, now that you know, you have full permission to giggle a little at the hidden meaning behind his name.