Dr. Robby Isn’t Suicidal, He’s Dying, And ‘The Pitt’ Episode 13 Just Gave It Away
‘The Pitt’ has been so heavy handed with its foreshadowing this season, that it’s becoming a running joke: “We all get it, Robby is a doctor with a death wish, and he’s going to die in a motorcycle accident.”
But what if that’s been a red herring this whole time?
Every colleague has addressed his erratic behavior this season.
Dana delivered a low blow by comparing Robby to his mentor Adamson. The ER can survive without both of them.
McKay compared him to friends from her past as a drug addict. People who wanted to know where the edge was and inevitably found it. Every time.
The case worker he’s been seeing knows “well enough not to get in between a man and his vision quest.” That’s her “nice way” of putting it. She thinks he’ll be back in a week.
We’ve seen motorcycle accidents. Heard the helmet safety talks. Watched him ride to work in the opening scenes without one. He knows the risks. Knows better. Is still headed to a destination called “Smash My Head In”. Just because he saves lives doesn’t mean he can’t self-sabotage his own.
But Robby has been too preoccupied with how he’s leaving things for this suicidal storyline to fit.
He tells Whitaker he’ll have a sweet bachelor pad if he doesn’t come back. He forces Javadi to stay for one more procedure because it’s a huge opportunity for her, and he doesn’t want her to get lazy and end up specializing in derm. He’s butting heads with Dana, digging into Al-Hashimi’s past with Mohan, and can’t leave without making sure he delivers Duke an update himself.
Everything about his behavior does imply he’s not coming back from this trip, but this hesitancy to leave is the dead giveaway that he’s not leaving by choice.
He’s either been diagnosed with a terminal illness, or he needs some kind of treatment with a low survival rate. There are two context clues to support my theory.
First, his reaction to Duke’s diagnosis. He could have send anyone to deliver the news. He didn’t. He tells Dana, “it needs to come from a friend, not a stranger”. He’s talking not like a doctor, but like a patient. Someone who has been in the same situation. Someone who knows that the delivery has an impact on how you handle that situation. How you find the courage to handle it. How you decide to fight back.
Second, his emotional exit from that conversation. When he drops that bomb on Dana. When he finally says the words everyone has been thinking out loud. He doesn’t look like someone who has given up. Like someone who has checked out on life. He looks sad. He looks scared. He looks helpless.
This might explain why he was so hard on Mohan during her panic attack. Once he finds out it’s not a heart attack, he rips into her. The second he knows her life isn’t at risk, his concern vanishes. He doesn’t have the time to deal with her mental health struggles.
He’s a pro at compartmentalizing his own issues, but there’s clearly something he can’t bottle up or block out. It has to be physical, and it has to be serious, and that’s why he can’t stop minimizing everyone else’s problems. Because he’s clearly comparing them to his own.