‘The Pitt’ Sneak Peek: Robby Asks Whitaker for Favor — Why He’s Not Turning to Abbot (VIDEO)

As The Pitt Season 2 continues, we’re getting closer to the end of this Fourth of July shift — and therefore closer to the sabbatical that Robby (Noah Wyle) is taking, riding off on his motorcycle, at the end of it. And so he’s starting to plan for that, which you can see in TV Insider’s exclusive sneak peek of the Thursday, March 5, episode, Hour 9, “3:00 P.M.”

In the break room, Robby stops Whitaker (Gerran Howell) as he goes to leave. “You’re a very empathetical soul,” he notes, but that’s not all. “And you want to be there for all your patients.” “Don’t you?” Whitaker asks, and Robby shushes him. He then brings up what’s concerning him: Whitaker helping the widow of the burn victim from Season 1, Amy. He points out he grew up on a farm. Doesn’t she have friends and family who could help? “I think they try, but mostly, she’s just leaning on … me,” Whitaker admits.

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Robby stresses the importance of boundaries before seemingly offering a solution: Whitaker can house sit for him while he’s away on his sabbatical. “You’d actually be helping me out, and you could save some money on rent,” he says, stressing no smoking, no parties, no pets, “no babies, yours or anyone else’s.”

Then Robby explains why he’d rather have Whitaker do it than the person he was originally going to ask, Abbot (Shawn Hatosy). “He does nude yoga at sunrise, and I don’t think some of my elderly neighbors would survive seeing that,” he says. Watch the rest of the clip above and make sure to see what Robby has to say about just how long Whitaker might be able to stay at his place.

The more we hear about this sabbatical and from Robby, the more concerned we are, if we’re being honest. Plus, there’s the fact that Wyle told us earlier this season, “I don’t think he can work another shift. I think he’s really come to the end of his capacity to show up there as a full human being.”

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He added, “I think he’s going through the motions of what’s expected of an attending physician to be modeling to a staff on the other side of a mass casualty crisis. I think his friendship with Abbot and Abbot’s willingness to disclose his own mental health journey opened up the possibility that [therapy] could be something for Robby. But the thesis of Season 1 for me is the doctor is the patient. The thesis of Season 2 is, ‘Doctors make terrible patients,’ and Robby epitomizes that. All of his focus is vocationally going outward and not inward. And once you begin to put that lens back on yourself, if you are an unexamined person with some trauma, it’s going to be a difficult experience, which is part of the reason why he’s got a difficult time being around Langdon [Patrick Ball] because Langdon is kryptonite. Having just come back from the therapeutic process and facing his demons and walking the repentant road, he is the living embodiment of everything that Robby does not want to deal with at the moment.”

Executive producer R. Scott Gemmill also noted that the opening song, “Better Off Without You” by The Clarks, is “a comment about what Robby’s trajectory is over the course of the season. Last year, it was Abbot having an existential crisis. This year, I think it’s a little bit more on Robby’s plate.”

What are you hoping to see from the rest of The Pitt Season 2? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Pitt, Thursdays, 9/8c, HBO Max