SPOILER ALERT: The following will reveal plot points from the Season 2 finale of HBO Max‘s The Pitt.
Noah Wyle had fans of HBO Max’s The Pitt in a tizzy during the show’s second season, as his character, Dr. Robby, descended into darkness and into a mental health crisis.
As we revealed last night, series creator R. Scott Gemmill confirmed that even with the extreme lengths they went to with Robby this season, he has yet to hit rock bottom.
In conversation with Deadline last week, Wyle said, “Well, I think we’ll find out what that rock bottom looks like next year.”
He added, “I like to think we are all engaged collectively in a five to six-year mental health journey that takes a character from a place of real brokenness to a place of health. Hopefully, we’ll get them there together.”
It’s scary to think that if Robby were considering ending his life this season, he could go even lower. With his struggles starting to affect his job, could rock bottom mean he loses the job that means the most to him? At this point, anything is possible.
When asked, Wyle suggested Dr. Robby “go away and do some serious evaluations.” But that, of course, is easier said than done.
“I think what he’ll find is that he hasn’t been himself for a really long time, and if he had been aware of his own behavior, he wouldn’t feel very proud of himself. But I don’t think he was feeling very proud of himself even while he was exhibiting that behavior. I think a lot of that was projection against how he didn’t want to feel,” Wyle shared.
He continued, “It was hard to see weakness in others when you don’t want to see it in yourself. And I maintain, although it’s not a very popular attitude online I’m told, that Robbie really loves Samira [Supriya Ganesh] and thinks she’s a rock star doctor and hates that she falls short of her own potential and sabotages her own progress. And yes, his tough love attitude with her is totally inappropriate and unprofessional, but it’s grounded in a desire for her to see herself the way he sees her, which is a lot more talented and a lot more full of potential.”
For Wyle as an actor, it’s been tough yet rewarding to go on this journey with Dr. Robby.
“Some days are easier than others, but ultimately, it’s been one of the more rewarding things I’ve ever been part of. Not the least reason being I find it very cathartic. It’s a little masochistic to mine these feelings, but at the same time, it feels also kind of healthy and catalytic to conversations. And when I get back the resonance from people who really feel an identification with what he’s going through, I find it very gratifying,” he said.