Another hour of the day is here, and this one brings up some important discussions about the cost of medical care. Meanwhile, The Pitt season 2 episode 4 reveals the identity of “Dr. J.”
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from The Pitt season 2 episode 4.
With Westbridge being closed to emergencies, the doctors immediately start betting on the reason and for the length of time it will be down for. I get the sense that this is going to be much darker and scarier than it seems at first — and it’s going to be something far bigger than a flood.
Meanwhile, the doctors continue to treat their current patients and see the new ones coming in. This leads to answers to some questions, while also getting a few teases of problems to come.
Who is Dr. J on The Pitt season 2 episode 4?
The big question from a couple of episodes ago was who Dr. J would be. The girl who had literally superglued her eye shut just wanted to see Dr. J, but Langdon had no idea who that was. Was anyone else going through the characters to find one with a J? Did you all guess it would be Victoria as well?
When the woman shows Langdon the social media profile, he immediately recognizes Victoria. It turns out that she offers some tips on the workplace as well as basic medical help, and she has a large enough following that people are literally going to the hospital to see her. Langdon seems more impressed than annoyed, and it helps that she does help to open the woman’s eye up — even if it means cutting off all the eyelashes!
An update about Whitaker’s living situation
In the middle of treating patients, we finally get to find out what’s going on with Whitaker and Santos on The Pitt season 2. Yes, he did move in with her, but he doesn’t seem to be around for long. He’s been spending time with the widow from the first season, helping her out at the farm. He says it’s all platonic, but is it?
Santos seems to think there’s something else. However, she has her own issues to deal with. Al-Hashimi is on her back about her reporting again. While Mel tries to offer some advice on dictation to help, Santos doesn’t seem interested in taking up that advice. Maybe she should. Look, there is nothing wrong with dictation software to speed up processes, but technology shouldn’t be relied upon.
It’s clear Santos is struggling with the work building up, though. She snaps at Whitaker after he spots something on the EKG that she didn’t, leading to him helping the patient suffering from the heart attack, and doesn’t really seem interested in the patient with aspiration pneumonia. Mel is quick to catch that it was likely caused by an eating disorder, and it was. It takes some time, but the patient eventually opens up.
Mel shares a little more about her personal life, but Santos isn’t all that interested. However, it’s a great look at how someone can get focused on a topic. Because of her picky eating, Mel went down a rabbit hole of researching eating disorders, and she learned that Black women are more likely to be overlooked for having one, and she didn’t want this patient to be a statistic.
A topic of insurance and medical needs on The Pitt
Like many medical dramas, the discussion of insurance and cost of medication came up. As Orlando’s wife and daughter arrive at the hospital, Mohan explains that Orlando will need to spend some nights in the hospital. However, the wife explains that they don’t have insurance.
It’s a problem with society and assistance. The two parents work multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet, and since they’re part-time, they don’t receive benefits. However, together, they make too much for government help. The best thing for them to do is to pay for private insurance, but can they even afford that? They’re working multiple jobs because they need to pay the bills.
So, they worry, and when the daughter learns that they don’t have insurance, she puts together a GoFundMe. However, like many other people, Orlando is a proud man, and he doesn’t want help. What nobody in his family knows is that he’s having to cut his diabetes medication in half, and he can’t afford the strips for his glucose monitor, which led to him suffering. So many people are doing this in real life, and still, nothing is being done to get them the medical treatments they need.
Health is a right and not a privilege everywhere but in America, it would seem.
Jefferson checks in on Robby
While the workload starts to go up, Jefferson decides to check in on Robby. He has another therapist recommendation for him, but Robby points out that he is heading off on his sabbatical, and it’s all about his bike. Maybe he’ll look into it when he’s back. With everything that’s about to go on in The Pitt, he’ll probably want to think about it sooner.
Dana has some great advice for him, as well. She thinks that he should speak with Langdon. The doctor was called in because of someone else calling out sick, and Dana thinks it could be the universe’s way to get Robby and Langdon back in the same room together sooner so that they can air out their differences.
She’s probably not wrong, but Robby is being a little too stubborn right now.
Langdon has a medical problem of his own, though. The girl with the infected foot comes back in. That infection has spread rapidly, and now they need to figure out what’s causing it. Could it be MRSA or something worse?
We’ll have to wait another week to find out.
The Pitt airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.