All season long on HBO Max‘s The Pitt, we’ve been wondering what’s up with Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi). The new attending physician in the Emergency Department (ED) who is filling in for Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) while he’s on sabbatical has been having strange space out moments since the premiere, to the point that the increasingly unhinged Robby has noticed something is very, very wrong. Well, as of Season 2, Episode 14 we know what is wrong with Dr. Al-Hashimi, and it’s a doozy.
Spoilers past this point, but in the final minutes of the episode, Al-Hashimi calls Robby into a private room for a second opinion on a case. She brings him into one of the rooms, closes the door, and brings up a chart for him to look at.
“I have some experience with this,” Al-Hashimi says, “But I’d appreciate a fresh perspective.”
Dr. Robby laughs, putting on his glasses, and answers, “After 14 hours, I don’t know how fresh my perspective is, but I will give you what I got.”
Al-Hashimi tells Robby that she’s come to respect his opinion, a big turnaround from the AI doc versus go from the gut doc butting of heads that began the season. He nods, thanks her, says “likewise,” and reads off the chart.
“OK, patient is a 40-year-old female with a history of seizure disorder for the past 35 years,” Robby reads. “She had no perinatal complications and was in excellent health until age five, when she had the onset seizure activity following prolonged illness with viral meningitis. Her altered mental status from the infec…”
At this, as Al-Hashimi nervously paces back and forth, Robby trails off. He slowly takes his glasses off, and looks at his fellow physician. “Baran,” he gently asks, “is this you?”
She doesn’t answer, but her still, nearly crying face is confirmation enough.
So, what’s going on here? Full transparency, I’m not a doctor, and we’re also only getting to see half this scene; the full explanation, likely, will come on next week’s Season 2 finale. But the key here is “seizure disorder.” While you likely think of a seizure as falling to the floor and convulsing, there are numerous ways seizure activity can exhibit itself in the brain and the body, per the Cleveland Clinic.
In fact, in the second paragraph on that page, they note that, “Not all seizures look the same. You might stop what you’re doing and stare off into space for a few seconds.” And that’s exactly what’s been happening to Al-Hashimi. While it seems she’s managing enough to live and work as a doctor, with Robby already on the edge, not believing he can leave the ED because nobody is as capable as him, how will he feel knowing that the physician in charge has potentially had at least two seizures in the past 14 hours? We’ll find out next week when this all wraps up — and hopefully not with Robby dying. Or Al-Hashimi, for that matter.
The Pitt Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of The Pitt premiere Thursdays on HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. While the full episode release schedule has yet to be officially announced, the season will run 15 episodes, and we currently expect it to run straight through without breaks, with one episode premiering per week.
We also expect that it will follow the same real-time format hour by hour as Season 1. While the first nine episode “titles” are confirmed it’s always possible there could be a twist at the end of the season. So full caveat here that this may change, TBA by HBO Max.
