‘The Pitt’ producers break down the gripping finale and what to expect in Season 2

By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN

(CNN) — In the season finale of “The Pitt,” Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinovitch looks over at medical student Victoria Javadi and begins to laugh almost maniacally. Weary from a day when the ER in which they work was inundated with patients from a mass shooting and recovering from a mental health breakdown that happened in the aftermath, he speaks: “I just realized this is your first shift.”

More laughing. Others join in.

“I can pretty much guarantee the next one will be easier,” Rabinovitch, played by actor Noah Wyle, tells the character played by Shabana Azeez.

It probably will be, but viewers won’t see it in Season 2.

The hit drama’s sophomore outing will actually take place 10 months later, set during Fourth of July weekend, according to executive producer R. Scott Gemmill. And the action will, once again, be intense. That is, of course, by design.

With a season of “The Pitt” set entirely in a single hospital shift, plotting out character development and story seems as precise as the intubations depicted on the show.

“I think we sort of do what we did in the first season…any information you got was just out of conversation and behavior,” Gemmill said. “It was a challenge, for sure, and it remains such, but it’s also a great way to write because you have to show a certain amount of restraint. I think that makes it also feel authentic because we only get sort of pieces of people’s stories. We’re not ones to sit down and talk for two and a half hours about someone’s backstory when we meet them.”

Gemmill, a longtime producer whose credits include “JAG” and “ER,” spoke with CNN alongside fellow executive producer John Wells, a legend whose IMDb page reads like a listicle of preeminent television.

For his part, Wells thinks “The Pitt,” which had a breakout debut season, owes some of its success to trusting “the intelligence of the audience.”

“Audiences are very literate about story and about character, and we don’t have to spoon-feed (them),” he said. ” You can give little bits and hints and I think it’s enjoyable for the audience members to figure things out about people in the same way that we try and figure things out about people that we just meet.”

More from the conversation is below. Questions and responses have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

CNN: The storytelling this season has been incredible – almost spooky sometimes, because you all essentially predicted the measles outbreak, for example. Are you the new “Simpsons”? Are you going to start predicting Super Bowl scores and media mergers?

JOHN WELLS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: [Laughs]

R. SCOTT GEMMILL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Part of our job is to be accurate with the medicine and what the trends are and what’s going on in society. So, when you talk to the experts and talk about what concerns them, what worries them, what do they see happening, if we’re doing our jobs correctly, we are coming up with stuff as it comes to fruition. The thing about the emergency department is it sees everything – all of society’s ills – before the rest of the society. They saw the fentanyl overdoses, they saw the AIDS cases, they saw COVID. They see it long before we do because they’re sort of the safety net for the world. So if we’re talking about a story that hasn’t hit the mainstream yet, probably by the time it airs it will be.

Is that research process already underway for Season 2?

GEMMILL: Yeah, we had an expert today just to talk about changes in the availability of healthcare and how that’s gonna affect people, especially people of color with diabetes. And, basically, if you think there’s a health crisis now, if things keep going, it’s going to be just as bad, if not worse. It’s very disheartening, and so we try and do our best to bring that to the audience’s attention.

WELLS: I think it’s fair to say that in any given week during this whole process, (we’re) speaking to at least three or four separate subject experts. And then we have a lot of doctors who are in the writers’ room and available at all times. So, it’s a constant research project.

CNN: In the Season 1 finale, Dana (Katherine LaNasa) and Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) have very open-ended storylines. The reality is that emergency rooms are like any workplace; they can be revolving doors. What can you say, first, about those characters and what might be in store for them, but also about how brutal you’re willing to be in the name of staying authentic to the experience of working in medicine, which is that people move on?

GEMMILL: Well, to the first question, we’re hoping to see several faces return. Some (of the characters) will have to go through their own process to determine whether they want to come back or not. And some have to jump through some other hoops before they’re allowed to come back. In terms of how brutal we’re willing to be, you’d be surprised. I think we’re very much about authenticity and some characters are more likely to leave than others based on where they are in their medical profession. No one yet. But on the show, we may have to see people leave just to keep it authentic because they wouldn’t necessarily be sticking around.

WELLS: And people work different shifts. Not all the shifts are 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM. Just ‘cause you don’t see someone in the first episodes doesn’t mean they’re not working.

CNN: With regards to Santos (Isa Briones) and Whitaker (Gerran Howell), they became roommates at the end of the season. This almost feels like an opportunity to build in some humor. Was that something you discussed in response to any feedback about the show being too intense? Because, I’ll be honest, watching the show gives me terrible anxiety, in the best way.

GEMMILL: Well, we always knew that Whitaker was living in the hospital. We were playing with that from day one, and there are little hints throughout the season about that. The Santos of it all didn’t come until later and that was just a thought that after she’s just brutalized this guy all day, what if she throws him an olive branch? It just seemed like a really nice gesture because I think these two bonded because of what they went through. I think we earned it. I don’t think it felt like a false move.

WELLS: Although, I think we are really considering a spinoff sitcom. [Laughs]

CNN: “A multi-cam. Totally unexpected.”

WELLS: Exactly.

CNN: I want to nerd out a bit about Abbott (Shawn Hatosy) and Robby’s rooftop conversation, which was incredibly acted. If they don’t get Emmy attention for that, I’ll be very angry.

GEMMILL: I would say the through line of the first season is really Robby and his journey, and his – up until this day – denial of what’s really eating him. He’s never come to terms with the PTSD of what he went through with Covid and normally doesn’t even work this day. We just put him in a pressure cooker that was full of triggers. And, at some point, the thing that he’s tried so hard to forget and almost is in denial about, it ruptures. It comes to the surface and forces him to acknowledge it because there’s no more denying it because other people have seen it. If Whitaker hadn’t seen him in there, I don’t know if Robby would’ve been on a path to healing, but I think he is now.

Abbott having this sort of existential crisis at the beginning was done for fun, but also, it’s part of who he is. It didn’t come out this season, but he’s a widower. And he’s lost his leg and he’s been in combat and I think he was having a crisis of faith a little bit at the beginning, which is renewed through seeing the mass casualty (event because it) is what he does best. I think for Abbott, it convinced him of what he should be doing, and he found himself. Robby kind of lost himself, but they end up both at the same place and in reverse positions. Now it’s Robby looking into the abyss, and it’s Abbott who’s there to pull him back. I think that speaks to that kind of friendship and what they have. It’s a real brotherhood in medicine kind of moment.

CNN: This whole season has been a love letter to healthcare workers, honoring their sacrifices and struggles. Robby jokes in the finale with one of the young doctors that “the next one will be easier,” that every shift won’t be this bad. The irony of that is that viewers know next season won’t be about ponies and rainbows.

GEMMILL: Well, that was about “I hope to God there isn’t another mass shooting.” That more spoke to the mass killing aspect. I think that was a wishful thinking (on Robby’s part), but I also think we drop in on them on the crazy days. I think there are days where it’s probably not quite as crazy, but they don’t make for as good of television [laughs]. So the days when they only get four patients, we’re not gonna show that episode.

CNN: Because you don’t have 24 to fill! You have 15 and have to use them well.

GEMMILL: That’s right. Although, I think we were ready to pull the plug after 12, but we pushed through. [Laughs]

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