Robby and Abbot Are Truly 'The Pitt's' Best Relationship
One of the things about being a person who writes about TV professionally that most people are unaware of is that it means being constantly, often wildly, behind on shows you're not actually covering. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Often, it means you don't get the chance to pitch or write about a series when an episode or topic is at its most timely. (Curse. And a big reason this newsletter exists.) Occasionally, it means you'll find yourself unwillingly spoiled for some big plot twist you didn't know was coming. (Curse. What happened to internet etiquette?) But, sometimes, if you're lucky, it can mean you completely miss the hot Discourse of the Moment about that particular show, leaving you free to enjoy something you love in relative peace. (Blessing. True freedom!)
Yes, this is a post about The Pitt Season 2.
The critically acclaimed, wildly popular HBO Max medical drama was bigger than ever in its second season, using its real-time emergency room format to tackle stories that touched on everything from ICE raids and the backlog of untested rape kits to the challenges of caring for patients who can't afford the costs of a hospital admission. It was great, and a welcome, necessary reminder of how much we're all longing for the return of weekly appointment TV.
Online discourse, however, was a different story, devolving into a seemingly never-ending stream of arguments, as fans went to war over everything from shipping preferences and character arcs to casting decisions and Noah Wyle's politics. Mercifully, yours truly managed to miss most of this, occasionally rubbernecking in a kind of horrified fashion, but generally staying removed enough that by the time I actually managed to watch the show's second outing, it felt fresh in a fascinating and strangely untouched way. Which may or may not have given me a...let's just call it unconventional read on its overall themes and quality.
Because while The Pitt Season 2 was about many things — mental health, politics, and the way we, as a society, treat the least among us – for me, it was really a story about love. Maybe that's strange to say about a season that sees the show's lead character, Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinovitch (Noah Wyle), actively wrestling with what is essentially suicidal ideation. But it is through the lens of his slow-moving mental breakdown that we are reminded how much our bonds with one another matter — and the reason the show's best relationship gets the chance to shine.
Robby and his night-shift attending/bestie, Dr. Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy), don't actually share the screen all that often — or at least as much as some of us (read: me) — might like. Since they work different schedules, their interactions are primarily restricted to the gray areas of a shift change, when Robby's crew are slogging through their unfinished paperwork, and Abbot's gang of late-night misfits are just clocking in. (Though, this is also The Pitt and it's not uncommon that some emergency draws Abbot in early.) Yet despite their limited time together, their relationship is still one of the most fully realized on the show's canvas.
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The Pitt's unique premise — each season takes place during a single day — means that its audience is left to fill in a lot of emotional and narrative gaps, particularly when it comes to relationships between the show's characters. We know relatively little about their lives outside of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, though we're occasionally given glimpses at the larger impact of their stressful, time-consuming jobs. See also: McKay's (Fiona Dourif) child custody struggle, Mel's (Taylor Dearden) relationship with her sister.
But even though we don't get a ton of specifics about Robby or Abbot's respective backgrounds — the former was abandoned by his mother, the latter lost a leg as a combat medic in the Middle East — the show still manages to ground their bond in a real, lived-in history with one another.
It's immediately apparent from their first scene together that the two have a unique bond. Robby's relief when Abbot arrives to help in the aftermath of the PittFest shooting is palpable, and he literally runs straight over to hug him in gratitude. (And as this show has proven many times over, Robby is not someone who is particularly affectionate or initiates much physical contact.)
It makes sense that they'd be close. Both men are talented doctors, natural leaders, and have plenty of personal trauma, which neither is particularly great at masking. Still, they clearly trust one another implicitly and, if their behavior in the aftermath of PittFest is anything to go by, have seriously Seen Some Shit together. Brothers-in-arms is one word for it. Trauma-bonded is another. Whatever you call it, their relationship is one that involves both commiseration beers after a rough shift and literally talking one another off the roof when things get too dark.
They are, in every way that matters in this show's universe, a matched set. Sure, their specific broken edges are jagged in different ways, and they suffer from different flavors of mental distress, but they understand one another in a way that no one else — not even Dana (Katherine LaNasa) — can manage. Is it a particularly healthy relationship? Not always, considering that some portion of it seems to involve them both taking turns keeping the other alive. But they're also emotionally honest in a way that neither manages with anyone else, and their particular brand of non-toxic masculinity is something many shows could stand to emulate.
Abbot is repeatedly shown as the only person Robby will truly listen to, and everyone knows it. It's Abbot who sees through his alternatively performative and/or desperate bullshit, who forces him to face the things he'd rather pretend aren't there. What's more, he's also the only person that Robby seems willing to be honest with about the darkness he faces, and how unsure he is about whether he can — or if he even wants to — find his way out of it.
And it's Abbot who shows up when Robby needs it, whether to tell him the hard things other people won't, or simply to remind him that he's still his emergency contact, and he'd very much like to not be contacted, thanks very much. (In guyspeak, this is basically an "I love you".)
Robby and Abbott, of course, aren't particularly demonstrative men. They're middle-aged ER doctors who live in Pittsburgh, after all. (The fact that we've seen them hug multiple times is probably itself a miracle.) But there's no doubt how important they are to one another or how key their relationship is to keeping them both sane.
In a world like The Pitt, vulnerability and connection can often be seen as a weakness, if only because it means things hurt more when they go wrong. Yet, these two have clearly come to rely on each other to provide a space where they can be vulnerable without judgment, and trust that the other will be there to help them to the other side. It's honestly beautiful, and one has to assume that bumping Hatosy up to a series regular for Season 3 means HBO realizes how important this relationship is to the show — and its future. Hug it out some more, boys.
The Pitt Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on HBO Max. Season 3 will arrive in January 2027.
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