The Pitt Season 1 Episode 14 Had A Brilliant Callback To A Classic Noah Wyle E.R. Episode -

People of a certain age may have noticed Dr. Robby making a cheeky blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod in the most recent episode of The Pitt to an episode of E.R. The Pitt season 1, episode 14 finds things at the E.R. starting to calm down a bit from the chaos of treating the endless waves of mass shooting victims from PittFest. The previous episode of The Pitt, episode 13, found Dr. Robby finally suffering from a mental breakdown as the weight of the day and his PTSD combine to collapse the fragile mental framework he’s built around his trauma to get through the shift.

The end of that episode and the beginning of this one make a case for Noah Wyle to earn an Emmy nomination this year; his performance throughout this season has been nothing short of stellar. As the veteran presence in The Pitt‘s cast of characters, both on screen and off, Wyle’s Dr. Robby has been, along with charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), the rock upon which all the other characters rely. While The Pitt has made a careful point of separating itself from Wyle’s predecessor medical drama, however, episode 14 couldn’t help but poke a little bit of fun at his veteran role.

Dr. Robby Made A Clever Reference To A Noah Wyle Storyline From E.R.

This Isn’t His First Measles Rodeo

Resident Dr. Mel King and brand-new attending Dr. John Shen are stumped by a strange case before them. Flynn is an unconscious 13-year-old kid with sepsis and pneumonia, but also with a weird, faded rash on his chest and legs that they can’t figure out. That’s where Dr. Robby steps in and delivers a line that works within the context of The Pitt but is also a cheeky nod to Wyle’s first medical drama, E.R.: “You ever see anything like this before?” he asks the doctors, who shake their heads. “Well, that just goes to show you how old I am,” he deadpans. “This looks like measles.”

In E.R. season 7, episode 14, Wyle’s Dr. John Carter treats Zack, an unvaccinated child who has contracted measles. That E.R. episode first aired 24 years ago on February 15, 2001, which feels like an entire lifetime ago – and is, for some people who weren’t even born then, who may be watching The Pitt today. It was a pre-9/11 world, when both medicine and the world in general were vastly different.

He’s older now – a lot older – and both he and the audience know it.

While Dr. Robby delivers the line in seriousness, anyone who knows that storyline from E.R. (or even that he was on E.R.) will find some amusement in seeing Noah Wyle transition from playing the baby-faced, third-year resident in E.R. to the grizzled, gray-bearded veteran senior attending in The Pitt. He’s older now – a lot older – and both he and the audience know it.

The Pitt’s Measles Storyline Is Eerily Timely

Measles Is Making A Terrifying Comeback In The United States

Noah Wyle smiling in The Pitt season 1, episode 3

Sadly, Dr. Robby’s line about recognizing measles isn’t just a fun little nod to Wyle’s career. It’s also an acknowledgment that, thanks to certain previously contained diseases making comebacks thanks to dangerous antivax sentiment, there are diseases that younger doctors may not recognize on sight because they never had to – and frankly shouldn’t have to. That holds true of the show and the real world: with the recent news that a second child in Texas has reportedly died from measles (via The Guardian), The Pitt‘s storyline is both prescient and terrifying.

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Dr. Robby, who has been in the medical field for decades, may have started his career after measles was eradicated thanks to vaccines, but he’s still been around long enough to have run into it before, and for the same reason. Like Zack’s parents in E.R., the parents of Flynn in The Pitt refused to vaccinate their kids.

Zack’s case in E.R. shows the consequences of that failure to vaccinate. With acute pneumonia and in critical condition, Zack’s case is a dire one, and he is only properly diagnosed because Dr. Carter spots the rash and correctly guesses it might be measles. His fellow doctor, Dr. Chen (Ming-Na Wen), is shocked, as no one gets measles anymore, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is, indeed, measles. Sadly, the patient in E.R., Zack, doesn’t make it; it remains to be seen if Flynn, the patient in The Pitt, will pull through.

The Pitt Has Tackled Important Topics Without Being Preachy

It’s Balanced Common Sense Fact-Dropping With Empathy For The Characters

The storyline of the unvaccinated child with measles offered up another example of what The Pitt , which has been renewed for season 2, has done so beautifully this season. The show has unflinchingly dealt with the harsh reality of being a healthcare worker, especially in emergency medicine, in a post-Covid, post-unregulated social media world, from mass shootings to violence against hospital workers. Yet, it’s done it in a way that hasn’t felt preachy.

A composite image of Noah Wyle looking over his shoulder in front of two doctors in dressing gowns in The Pitt

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Instead, The Pitt approaches these now-thorny storylines from a common-sense angle that humanizes healthcare workers and their frustrations. What used to be accepted, basic scientific facts, such as vaccinations helping stop disease and wearing masks protecting you and others from germs, have become wildly politicized in a way that’s actively working against doctors being able to do their jobs.

As Dr. Robby says in The Pitt, as many as 1 in 20 children who contract measles develop pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death for young children with measles (via CDC). That can lead to encephalitis, or a swelling of the brain, the death rate of which is considerably higher.

It’s no wonder that Dr. Robby finally blows up on Flynn’s mother, who keeps regurgitating the antivax disinformation she Googled while her critically ill child is dying. When she refuses to allow them to do a spinal tap in order to properly treat Flynn, even after hearing all the ways that he could go blind, deaf, develop intellectual disabilities, or even die, Dr. Robby snaps. “Can you put your damn phone away?” he yells. “Your son is critically ill. The longer that we wait, the higher the risk of permanent brain damage. What is not clear here?“

Doctors no longer have to just fight against diseases, but also against people who slow treatment of those diseases down because they’ve bought into conspiracy theories.

Because we’ve seen what he’s been through, we’re fully inclined to sympathize with Dr. Robby rather than the irrational mother being tricked by false information. Noah Wyle has often said that he wanted The Pitt not to just be another E.R., but to reflect the actual reality of emergency room healthcare workers in a post-Covid world. In so many ways, the measles storyline is the most true-to-life. Doctors no longer have to just fight against diseases, but also against people who slow treatment of those diseases down because they’ve bought into conspiracy theories. It’s no wonder that so many of them, like Dr. Robby, are burning out.

Sources: The Guardian, CDC