‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Reveals Robby Has a “New Favorite” in Whitaker: “Langdon Isn’t Quite Sure Where He Belongs in This Place Anymore”

The Pitt Season 2 opens a full nine months after the traumatic events of the HBO Max show’s critically-acclaimed first season. Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) is getting ready to clock out for a much-needed three month sabbatical, riding his motorcycle across North America. The ED’s resident “Huckleberry,” Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), has blossomed into a self-assured doctor, capable of handling whatever the day throws at him. Oh, and Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball), who ended his last shift in Season 1 in a tense screaming match with Robby, is back in scrubs after nearly a year of counseling and rehab for his painkiller addiction.

When DECIDER spoke with Noah Wyle last year, he compared the fissure that cracks between Robby and Langdon in Season 1 to a “break-up,” noting that his character felt “betrayed” by his closest friend and colleague.

“Like any breakup, it’s really hard to be in the same room as someone that you felt intimate with and felt betrayed by,” Wyle said. “Even if you have to work next to them, even if they still are good at what they do, it’s really tricky to bridge both the professional and the personal at the same time after you’ve gotten the rug pulled out from underneath you.”

So it should come as no surprise that when a now sober and contrite Langdon returns to the Pitt in Season 2, Robby wants to avoid him at all costs. However, Wyle told DECIDER last month that there’s another angle to the tension crackling between Robby and Langdon this season.

“He had a Number One that was Langdon last year. That Number One disappointed and betrayed him or he felt he failed as an educator and a mentor,” Wyle said. “So it’s a little bit like I’ve got a new favorite and Langdon coming back is going to contend with the fact that he’s no longer the golden boy and that he’s been replaced.”

Langdon’s replacement? None other than Dr. Whitaker. 

“I think that’s the aspect of being a doctor that Robby enjoys most, is passing the torch and seeing somebody go from a place of terrified fear and anxiety to a feeling of competence and confidence,” Wyle said. “And nobody exemplifies that better than a med student who’s coming into their first year or second year residency.”

“To have, you know, our Nebraska farmboy, Whitaker, who was the butt of every joke and on the receiving end of every fluid, become a confident physician in his own right was gratifying to the character.”

When DECIDER then asked actor Patrick Ball about this development, he cooly said in a deadpan, “I…wish Whitaker luck,” that even made co-star Katherine LaNasa laugh.

“He wasn’t bitter, then?” Gerran Howell said when DECIDER told him about this.

“No, it’s just love,” Isa Briones said.

“No, it’s true. It’s true,” Ball said. “I think Langdon, in Season 1, was bit of a golden boy. I think he received a lot of attention and a lot of privilege for being sort of Robby’s favorite. I think that there was a relationship that was very dear to both of them and I think that has been severed in a way. And I think it was very difficult for Langdon to come back and realize that the wheel has turned over and it’s the next man up.”

“Langdon isn’t quite sure where he belongs in this place anymore. I think it is somewhat painful to say, ‘Okay, you know, he’s moved on. I’m happy for him. He seems happy. They seem happy together.’ You know, I think that’s a complicated experience and I wish them both well,” Ball said with two thumbs up.

Howell told DECIDER that he believed that Robby and Whitaker have a “weird trauma bond” after the events of The Pitt Season 1. “I think everyone is kind of trauma-bonded from that first shift, but Whitaker and Robby have got a weird thing going on where they’ve really seen each other at their lowest,” he said.

“Again, they won’t ever sort of admit that they’re that close. Robby will never go, ‘Hey, man, you’re my favorite. You’re Number One.’ It’ll be, you know, subtle things,” Howell said. “Sometimes he’ll give me the room or if Whitaker isn’t speaking up in the room, he will defer to Whitaker a little. Things like that.”

“So, yeah, I think Whitaker’s aware that he’s being given responsibility now, but it is awkward when Langdon comes back in. It becomes clear that Langdon is definitely not Robby’s Number One anymore. Whoever is Number One is not Langdon. So that’s kind of awkward for Whitaker.”

Awkward for Whitaker, but potentially great for Pitt fans.

The Pitt Season 2 premieres tonight at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT on HBO Max.