The Pitt Season 2, Episode 10, “4:00 P.M.,” tests Dr. Samira Mohan as the pressures she faces become unavoidable, pushing her to a breathtaking turning point this season. The episode, written by Simra Baidwan and directed by Damian Marcano, finally brings Supriya Ganesh’s character to the forefront with a resounding impact on Samira and the broader PTMC. It starts with an effective escalation. Samira’s mother’s frequent calls and texts to Samira aren’t limited to her personal phone; she calls the hospital.
That choice goes beyond texts during and after seeing patients and phone calls in the ambulance bay. This tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, changed by Samira’s mother’s choice to sell her childhood home and set out on a cruise with her boyfriend, takes another turn. (For Vulture, Ganesh has said, “One reason she’s so gutted about losing the house is because that was the last place she saw her dad alive.” She also explained that losing her mother in this way is like losing “one less person that’s going to remember her dad the way she wants him to be remembered.”) Her mother, who “sounds pretty upset” and “really needs to talk to,” Samira, per Perlah, crosses a boundary. The personal meets the professional with a clash that rings in Samira’s ear for the rest of the hour.
The larger truth is that this build-up of stress has been brewing since last season. Then, Samira rejects that her work-life balance is a problem. She doesn’t see it, but she does see and feel that her methods are in question. “Slow-Mo” is a criticism from her superior that sticks to her. After losing her father to medical mismanagement in an ER, Samira Mohan takes the extra time and resources to save someone else from what her father experienced, from what she experienced. The Pitt Season 2 puts that into motion with the storyline involving Orlando Diaz and his family, and it continues in “4:00 P.M.,” when Samira becomes a patient.
It starts in that first scene with her. Ganesh has such control of Samira’s headspace. There’s so much playing out on her face as she tells Perlah that she’s not available and looks down at the lab results bin. There’s some confusion, concern, and frustration. They all wind up together and create a ball that puts pressure on Samira’s chest — as if she doesn’t already have enough on her shoulders. The one person who was able to alleviate some of that for her (so far) this season — Dr. Jack Abbot — isn’t there anymore. In an attempt to get some sleep before his shift, Samira misses the opportunity to ask him to write a recommendation letter for her. (Little does she know, she can ask whenever, and he will do it. Shawn Hatosy has said that Jack believes Samira to be “the future” of medicine.) Of course, that mention of Jack adds that much more to their ever-strengthening dynamic. Hopefully, there’s more to that point later in the season.
Regardless, it folds back into the anxieties building in Samira: “I should have planned this better.” She did have another plan — she accepted a fellowship in New Jersey to be closer to her mother and live in her family home. Professionally, the White House cut funding for the study on racial disparities in healthcare in which Samira participated. Personally, Samira’s mother was lonely, and she found someone who made her feel less so. Even though Samira starts to understand that from her mother’s perspective, she struggles to turn that reflection inward. She keeps things practical (She’s now running out of time to find a professional placement) and clinical (In turn, by not going to New Jersey as planned, she has even less time to start a relationship and make any decisions regarding her fertility). Dana, who only clarifies that all the electives have already filled up, serves as a reminder that Samira is losing all the control she thought she had at a faster rate.
As Samira walks away, she says, “Don’t remind me. I’m gonna throw myself at the mercy of the court, beg for them to take me anyway. Just kill me now. It’ll be less painful.” It’s a bit overdramatic, but she’s telling the truth, and that hypothetical pain eventually becomes something very real. It’s also important for this specific episode to highlight Samira’s compassion fatigue as she tries to make her way to triage. Still, once she’s with Helen Torres, Samira focuses on Helen’s pain, not her own pain that’s starting to manifest in shortness of breath and visible sweat. That distinction feels similar to Samira steering Ogilvie back on track in the previous episode.
The scene that follows is simply incredible work from Ganesh. Samira’s attempt to get through the waiting room and to the fresh air is hard to watch. The room’s tension and literal temperature only vibrates with the addition of Dr. Samira Mohan. Patients are eager for care and crowd Samira’s space, amplifying her inability to catch her breath. Ganesh makes this panic attack all too familiar for someone who has experienced one. Samira’s breathing is more than labored; her chest is visibly tight; her body is struggling to stay upright; the sounds start to warp around her. It’s immersive, like The Pitt is wont to do, and terrifying. Seeing Joy demand that Samira get in the wheelchair and Samira accept the help is one of the first beats of relief.
One of the most heartbreaking details is that Samira doesn’t even think she’s having a panic attack. When Langdon comes to her side and breathes with her, Samira is certain she’s having an MI. Her mind is right there with her father again – still. Ganesh said, “So in those moments, what was going through my head was like, ‘Is this what my dad felt like when he was in an E.R.?'” It’s Robby who recognizes it with too much vitriol. Any consideration he has, which he does have when he enters the room, leaves his body when he names it a panic attack. Compassion hardens into almost disgust that comes from an obvious projection after his own panic attack in that same ED just 10 months prior. Suddenly, the time between shrinks into a heaviness that sits in that room.
That visible change in his demeanor happens as Samira breathlessly opens up: “I’m doing everything right. It’s everything around me that’s all f–ed up. It’s just my mom moving and calling me over and over again, and now I’m scrambling to find a job next year. I had it all planned out, and now everything’s just out the window.” Robby doesn’t offer empathy but the opposite, infantilizing and simplifying her experience as “mommy issues” and calling her “a liability” who should go home. He even looks around the room as he all but laughs at Samira, egging on anyone else to take part. Langdon, Joy, Dana, Perlah, and Dr. Al-Hashimi don’t join in. They are taken aback by Robby’s behavior. (Robby told Langdon to go home at this point last season.)
However, it’s not entirely shocking that Robby can’t have empathy for Samira. (He practically rolls his eyes when Whitaker asks if she’s okay in the following scene.) Ganesh describes the characters’ situation like this: “It’s interesting because I think a lot of what he doesn’t like about Samira, he really sees in himself. It’s that same thing of that part of yourself you don’t like—if you see it in someone else, you don’t want to have empathy for it.” Last season, Robby told Whitaker, who helped Robby up off the floor after his panic attack, “I don’t know what that was, I just felt like I was drowning.” Now, he can’t spare a second to understand Samira, whose words — “I don’t know. I just got really hot, and I started having trouble breathing,” — sound so similar to his.
Doing so would require self-reflection that Robby rejects. The Pitt shows that when Dana gently presses Robby on his “pep talk.” Instead of taking any accountability, he says, “She’s going to be fine, but I’m not sure her head is in the game.” Dr. Al-Hashimi questions Robby’s actions as Samira’s superior and doubts his choice to call it “tough love.” He implies that Samira may be “the faint of heart,” meaning that the ED may not be for her. Robby insinuates that the conditions of Samira’s panic attack don’t qualify for any genuine consideration. He says, “Samira’s not having a panic attack because of her patient. She’s having one because of personal baggage.” Again, Robby projects his own negative self-talk onto Samira. After all, last season, Dr. Collins told Robby to leave his “baggage at the door like everyone else.” All of which makes it so impactful when Dr. Al-Hashimi asks Robby, “What do you need to get some basic empathy back?”
It’s such a delicately framed question because the language implies that Dr. Al-Hashimi knows that Robby had it once. She saw it during Louie’s debrief earlier this season. But with every episode, Robby is detaching in genuinely concerning ways — the goodbye scene with Abbot, telling Whitaker that he can have his house if he doesn’t come back, bringing Duke in for a check-up as a “thank you” for the motorcycle. The latter is particularly interesting, given Robby’s insistence that Samira wasted time and resources with her patients in Season 1. That point makes the irony sting when Robby apologizes to Samira but follows it with, “But now I kind of need you to stop feeling sorry for yourself and focus back on your patients. Think you can do that?”
As if Dr. Samira Mohan does anything other than focus on her patients. As if she doesn’t do so at the expense of her personal life. As if she wasn’t trying to do that amid a panic attack that stole her ability to do so. As if he didn’t just decimate her confidence after the progress she built last season. Luckily, just like Dana tells Joy, Samira is “tougher than she looks.” The events of The Pitt Season 2, Episode 10, “4:00 P.M.” will surely rock her. This episode feels like the intensification of an arc that will carry her through the rest of the season. She will likely question her place at PTMC even more, but one thing is certain: That ED needs more compassionate and empathetic people like her.
Now streaming on HBO Max: What are your thoughts on Samira Mohan’s arc in The Pitt Season 2, Episode 10, “4:00 P.M.?” Let us know in the comments below.
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