The Pitt Season 2, Episode 11, “5:00 P.M.” Spoilers Ahead
The Pitt Season 2, Episode 11, “5:00 P.M.,” pushes Mel King to her limits after her confidence is shaken by her deposition and her sister flips her world on its axis. Written by Valerie Chu and directed by Uta Briesewitz, the episode picks up with Mel reacting to Becca having a boyfriend, Adam, with whom she’s sexually active. From there, Mel begins to break down piece by piece until she admits out loud that she’s afraid she’ll be left completely alone. With every expression and line delivery, Taylor Dearden uncovers new layers to Mel that make her much richer as a character.
When we pick back up with Mel and Becca at the start of the episode, Mel has a hard time absorbing the news. In fact, she believes Adam might be taking advantage of her sister. As Becca dodges her questioning, Mel’s voice begins to rise more and more until she’s full-on yelling. She can’t understand why Becca won’t answer her questions or why she didn’t tell her about Adam sooner. Mel’s anger gets ahead of her, something we’ve never seen before, so much so, she has to step out and take a breather.
After Mel calms down more, she apologizes for yelling at her. Mel was surprised because for something like this, she thought Becca would want to tell her. It’s then that Becca tells Mel that it was she who asked Adam to have sex with her, not the other way around. It turns out Becca really enjoys sex. Again, this information shocks Mel. She thought she knew everything about her sister, but she didn’t know this. Becca is more independent than she realized. (As a side note: It’s really cool to see this type of autism representation in media. Becca’s autism doesn’t limit her from the things she wants, including what she wants sexually. Good for her!)
Things seem mostly patched up between the King sisters by the time Becca is discharged. However, Becca throws Mel another loop when she informs her that she’s planning to watch the fireworks with Adam and his parents. Mel and Becca had plans to watch them at the park together, but now Becca is ditching her for her boyfriend. As Mel presses for Adam’s parents’ phone numbers, Becca is officially done with the conversation and leaves. More than the deposition and Becca having a boyfriend, this is what sets Mel’s spiraling into gear.
Despite not getting an answer from Becca, Mel attempts to contact Adam’s parents using the emergency phone behind the charge desk when she’s not on a case. She feels completely unsettled, and that feeling won’t go away until she’s able to reach someone in Becca’s orbit. After she’s done overseeing a procedure with Santos and Whitaker, her patience officially runs out. Mel can’t afford to wait for them to decide who will write up the procedure notes. For a second time that hour, she raises her voice as she puts the clipboard on the ground and walks away. She’s frustrated, and she’s had enough.
Later, when Dana finds Mel in the stairwell, Mel isn’t soothing herself with a lava lamp on her phone, nor is she pumping herself up with Megan Thee Stallion. She’s sitting up against the side of it, like she’s leaning on it for the support she desperately needs. As Dana asks about her sister, Mel reveals that Becca has a boyfriend and that her sister is having a lot of great sex. What’s worse, Becca lied to Mel for six months about Adam; she even calls Becca a f–ing liar, which, for us in the audience, is the first time we’ve ever heard Mel King curse. It signifies just how hurt Mel feels by all this, but it also points to what’s really bugging Mel.
Mel continues to spiral as she expresses her fears to Dana — Becca doesn’t need Mel. Thanks to supported decision-making, Becca can make her own decisions. She has the autonomy to watch fireworks with her boyfriend and his parents. Becca has a say in the living community she wants to be at. Becca has the right to be with her boyfriend, fall in love, and get married, which is what Mel believes will happen. And that leaves Mel completely alone.
Mel’s whole world is her sister. She chose to be at PTMC because of its distance from Becca’s living community. She’s worked so hard to keep her job in order to support the two of them that the deposition has her afraid she could lose it. She’s watched Elf 164 times because Becca loves Elf and it makes Becca happy. When Robby asks her who she has to talk to about her feelings, she admits that she has no one, just as his attention is pulled to Dr. McKay. (Also, Robby, who do you have to talk to about your feelings, sir?) Mel King doesn’t have friends or family outside of Becca. It’s just the King sisters against the world. If she isn’t taking care of Becca or if she isn’t working at the Pitt, then who is Mel? What makes Mel happy?
That’s the question she was posed with at the beginning of her Fourth of July shift. Mel is asked by a patient (who later knocks her on the ground) point-blank what she likes to do for fun outside of spending time with Becca. She’s slow to come up with a response, but eventually recalls her enjoyment of ren fair and boba tea. But it’s few and far between. Similarly to Samira Mohan, Mel doesn’t really have a life or an identity beyond her sister. In the ten months she’s worked at PTMC, Mel hasn’t made any friends. She gets along with her fellow doctors, definitely, but they aren’t her friends. Like Robby midway through this episode, her peers keep leaving her mid-sentence. Even Dana in the stairwell doesn’t fully listen to Mel’s fears; she gives her a motherly shake to stop pitying herself and finish out her shift.
Mel needed help to get out of her own head, but her conversation with Dana doesn’t help her feel better. No one is really paying attention to her or sticking around long enough to get to know her, but then again, she hasn’t given herself the chance to know herself either.
Mel’s sensitivity is her superpower in the ED. It’s what makes her one of the best residents Robby has ever trained. PTMC is a better hospital because she’s there. Her deposition has made her question her abilities despite her talent and the respect she’s gained over the last few months. With her confidence rattled and Becca exerting her independence, Mel is on an island, carrying this weight on her own.
On her first day at PTMC, Mel worked with an elderly patient and her caretaker daughter. The daughter had caretaker stress, and there was a brief period when Mel thought she had abandoned her mom after Mel suggested she take a break. When she later does return, Mel has her meet with Kiara, the social worker, to come up with some support options for her and her mother. Ten months later, Mel is in need of her own type of support — a friend she can trust to share her feelings without feeling like a burden.
This three-episode Mel and Becca arc that started in “3:00 P.M.” and ends in “5:00 P.M.” has brought out a side of Mel we hadn’t seen before. Exploring her relationship with her sister in the midst of intimidating legal action has provided the type of pressure cooker setting for Mel to express her more aggressive emotions. It’s also forced her to grapple with her own fears and the awareness that she’s more lonely than she realized. In an ensemble stacked with captivating, complex characters, I’m in awe of the level of character development Mel King has been given, and my admiration for her only grows.
Now streaming on HBO Max: What are your thoughts on Mel King’s arc in The Pitt Season 2, Episode 11, “5:00 P.M.?” Let us know in the comments below.
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