Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Pitt Episode 12So far, The Pitt has juggled its confined structure perfectly. Within it, each episode encompasses an exact hour on one of the most catastrophic days for the ER of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. In the latest chapters, the doctors were looking forward to finishing their 12-hour shift and – since that meant 12 episodes – it raised the question about how the first season was supposed to continue given its 15-episode count.
Upping the chaos that Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) and co. have been facing on this fateful day, a mass shooting is reported at Pittfest, a music festival. For the staff, this means all hands on deck, forcing day shift doctors to extend their hours and night shift doctors to get in early. Requiring their extra effort and full focus, they have to attend to patients in a quick but assertive way. By having structure meeting chaos, the season’s storyline will continue until its end – adding extra hours to this seemingly neverending nightmarish shift.
Through the Mass Shooting, ‘The Pitt’s Worst Nightmare Comes True
The Pitt continues to touch on delicate subjects, this time tackling mass shootings. But, instead of coming out of the blue, precedents were set in the previous episodes – foreshadowing an event of this magnitude might come the doctors’ way. Ever since the first episode, Theresa (Joanna Going) has been trying to get help, for she fears her son David (Jackson Kelly) might commit a crime. With Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) deciding to call the police on this matter, the sense of alarm escalates. But, if David is the one responsible for the festival mass shooting, it’s all too late. While the theory is all but confirmed, in Theresa’s mind, David is the culprit, and her worst fear has come true.
Another parental figure who’s facing a nightmarish scenario is Dr. Robby himself. Having gifted Pittfest tickets to the son of one of his ex-girlfriends, Jake (Taj Speights), Robby is on edge because he hasn’t been able to locate him. Robby, being the senior attending on call, doesn’t lose focus of his responsibility to keep the ER running efficiently. But, at any chance he has, he searches for Jake among the patients who paramedics and police rush in. Though Robby doesn’t let anxiety consume him, it’s clear that he’s putting every ounce of effort into not losing his mind.

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Forget Dr. Robby — This Character Is the Real MVP of ‘The Pitt’
The ER would fall apart without her.
The Neverending Nature of ‘The Pitt’ is Highlighted Once Again in its Latest Episodes
In each episode, we get a glimpse of the neverending line of patients waiting to get urgent medical care. It’s exhausting and overwhelming for everyone, and after the mass shooting, it gets even worse. Executing Code Triage – the protocol for catastrophic events – the patients in the waiting room have to be sent to Family Medicine to get taken care of.
This clean slate is soon flooded by the incoming victims of the Pittfest shooting. The indications on how to handle patients go from color-coding according to their injury level to acting without tests, always pursuing a stable pulse and mental state. It’s an extreme but necessary answer to this extraordinary situation.
Two Doctors From ‘The Pitt’ Have Their Moment To Shine
It seems that, from Episode 12 on, it’s all hands on deck for the staff of The Pitt. Night shift doctors are called in early, with doctors from Anesthesiology and Surgery joining them. In need of extra hands, the hour sees the return of Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), who was shunned by Dr. Robby following his pill-stealing discovery. And while we wouldn’t say it’s triumphant, it sure tests his commitment to his vocation. Dr. Javadi (Shabana Azeez) gets to prove herself by improvising ways to intubate patients after falling short of chest tubes. This surprises Dr. Shamsi (Deepti Gupta), her mother, and allows her to step out from her shadow for once.
If we thought The Pitt was portraying a hellish day for the doctors, this last episode proves things can and will get worse. With the Pittfest shooting, the show’s fast and chaotic dynamic is guaranteed to make it through its final episodes. The twist to continue the doctor’s shift is seamless, but it also highlights the nightmarishly-endless nature of the job.
New episodes of The Pitt drop on Max on Thursdays on Max in the U.S.

- Release Date
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January 9, 2025
- Network
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Max
- Showrunner
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R. Scott Gemmill
- Directors
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Amanda Marsalis
- Writers
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Joe Sachs, Cynthia Adarkwa
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Noah Wyle
Dr. Michael ‘Robby’ Robinavitch
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Tracy Ifeachor
Uncredited
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