Do not clock into your ER shift if you have not watched “2:00 P.M.,” the newest episode of “The Pitt.” Spoilers forward!
A relentless on “The Pitt,” the HBO Max medical drama from showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, director and govt producer John Wells, and its star Noah Wyle, is that none of the characters are having a superb day. Set in a busy Pittsburgh emergency room and structured so that every episode takes place in a real-time “hour,” the sequence encompasses a really excellent ensemble solid (led by Wyle as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch) — and that features Taylor Dearden’s Dr. Mel King. Once more, no person on “The Pitt” has a “good” day, however Mel is having an exceptionally unhealthy one.
A giant a part of Mel’s no-good, very unhealthy day is her upcoming deposition in a medical malpractice case … and within the season’s eighth episode, we lastly study what the case considerations. Each Mel and her fellow resident, Dr. Parker Ellis (Ayesha Harris), are named within the lawsuit, and earlier than her personal deposition, Mel runs into Parker. They’re not likely supposed to debate the case in any conventional sense, so Parker delivers a “monologue,” as she phrases it. She then tells Mel:
“The malpractice case is frivolous. The mom of the measles child claims we brought on mental decline by performing a spinal faucet. However the faucet was good with no problems. Her son introduced with altered psychological standing as a result of low oxygen from measles pneumonia. Any change in mind was as a result of hypoxic mind damage. It had nothing to do together with your spinal faucet. Finish of monologue.”
Followers of “The Pitt” now know precisely why Mel is being deposed — it is associated to a pediatric measles case that made waves on the present again on the finish of season 1.
Let’s circle again to Dr. Mel King’s measles case in season 1 of The Pitt
Within the award-winning first season of “The Pitt,” the medical doctors are stymied and understandably fairly pissed off once they’re tasked with caring for a younger boy affected by measles-related pneumonia and different problems … solely to study he is unvaccinated as a result of his mother and father do not imagine within the confirmed efficacy of the vaccine. I do wish to word {that a} February 2026 article in The Atlantic famous that physicians are seeing way more deaths from measles, significantly amongst youngsters, as the US authorities steadily rolls again vaccine mandates and necessities for the youthful set. Why even convey this up? Effectively, “The Pitt” locations a concentrate on present American occasions via the sufferers it portrays.
Not solely is the younger affected person affected by measles that might show to be lethal or trigger lifelong psychological and bodily issues, however his mother and father are additionally unwilling to let Dr. Robby and Dr. Mel King carry out a spinal faucet that might assist him. (The medical doctors suspect that the boy has developed acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which principally implies that the mind and spinal twine are each swelling to the purpose the place it endangers a affected person’s life.) The daddy of the household ultimately agrees to permit a spinal faucet, overruling the boy’s mother, who’s enraged when she learns in regards to the process. Nonetheless, as Dr. Parker Ellis advised Mel, the spinal faucet was “good” and did not make the boy’s situation worse; had he been vaccinated in opposition to measles, none of this may have even occurred.
We do not know what is going on to occur with Mel’s deposition but or if we’ll even see it on display, however these are the details of the case. In any other case, is Mel having a half-decent day? No!
Dr. Mel King is having a tough day throughout season 2 of The Pitt
Similar to just about all of her colleagues, Dr. Mel King is having a reasonably cruddy day on season 2 of “The Pitt,” which takes place on the quintessential American vacation of July 4. Past her deposition — which proves extremely aggravating for her — Mel additionally will get attacked by a affected person she thinks is flirting along with her in the course of the season’s second episode, “8:00 A.M.” Because it seems, the man is a suspect in a neighborhood theft, and whereas they’re chatting in regards to the Renaissance Faire, of all issues, he flees, knocking Mel to the bottom and probably injuring her head. (In a candy scene, Mel’s mentor-of-sorts, Dr. Frank Langdon, performed by Patrick Ball, takes time to deal with her and ensure she’s okay, and even shuts off the lights over her ER mattress in order that she’s not overstimulated as a neurodivergent affected person.)
Mel does have an ideal save alongside Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), once they appropriately diagnose a younger lady with bulimia after noticing tell-tale indicators on her tooth … however the deposition fairly actually looms massive over her total day within the titular pit (she brings it up in nearly each scene, level in reality). Whilst she treats an inmate who was injured in jail — a troublesome feat contemplating that guards are surrounding the person and demand that he stay handcuffed — Mel frets in regards to the deposition, which is comprehensible!
In any case, we’ll study in regards to the aftermath of her authorized points as “The Pitt” season 2 continues; it airs new episodes each Thursday at 9 P.M. EST.
