The Pitt Season 2 Episode 3 “9 AM” on HBO Max delves into the real-life tragedy that changed Pittsburgh forever. On October 27, 2018, a shooter attacked the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill, murdering eleven people and injuring still more. It was a grotesque act of anti-semitism and a horrific mass casualty event.
**Spoilers for The Pitt Season 2 Episode 3 “9 AM,” now streaming on HBO Max**
The Pitt Season 2 explores the aftermath of this tragic event by introducing a patient, Yana Kovalenko (Irina Dubova), who is hounded by PTSD years later. While treating her, Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) learns that Mrs. Kovalenko only burned herself by dropping a hot samovar because she mistook the sound of July 4 firecrackers for gunshots.
“The fact that we didn’t talk about Tree of Life in Season 1 gave us an opportunity to touch on it in Season 2,” Noah Wyle, who also wrote this week’s episode of The Pitt, told DECIDER last month.
“There was a lot of stories about the Tree of Life shooting and questions about whether or not my character was named for one of the people that was there that day, who was a doctor who was named Rabinowitz, I believe,” Wyle said. “So it was a way of understanding the importance of that event to the city and an opportunity to expose a little bit more of the backstory of the character.”
Wyle explained that by treating Mrs. Kovalenko, Robby is also able to explore his current relationship with his Jewish faith.
“Well, Robby’s faith, or lack thereof, or grappling with his faith last season and including him and his lowest moment reciting the Shema — almost like this childlike prayer, this sort of very primal plea for help — was a really important part of the character’s evolution,” Wyle said. “It would have been irresponsible to not pick up the thread in Season 2 in some fashion.”
Mrs. Kovalenko only reveals her connection to Tree of Life by asking Robby about where he practices his faith, if he does so at all. Robby instinctively returns the question, thus setting up not one, but two, profound conversations about the tragedy’s impact on Pittsburgh.
While Robby is busy doing his rounds in the ED, Nurse Perlah (Amielynn Abellera) treats Mrs. Kovalenko. Noticing Perlah’s hijab, Mrs. Kovalenko recalls the support that the local Muslim community gave to the Tree of Life survivors.
“In researching it, to write about it, I was really moved by the aspect of the Muslim community coming out in solidarity afterwards and raising money to pay for funerals and hospital bills,” Wyle said. “And how underreported that story was.”
Wyle explained that it was “important” to him as a writer to give these characters — Yana and Perlah — this moment without Robby present.
“It has nothing to do with Robby. Robby is not even privy to it, so that we got to talk about it without it being, you know, one to one with the character’s journey,” he said. “Seemed like an elegant way of touching on it.”
And it’s an elegant way of hitting upon one of The Pitt‘s greatest themes. As The Pitt‘s showrunner R. Scott Gemmill put it, while accepting the Golden Globe for Best TV Drama earlier this month: “We show people what we can do when a bunch of individuals, hundreds of us, have a common goal and we work together with decency and humanity, and just acceptance and respect for each other… We can do amazing things.”