Sure, the narrative principle of Chekhov’s gun has its limits, taken literally, it would make any story predictable.
Still, it remains a broadly relevant tool, and I’m pretty sure that if Chekhov had loved The Pitt S1, he’d have reached for his gun in frustration after watching S2.
And here’s a list probably not even exhaustive of all the Chekhov’s guns that were apparently just there for decoration :
Al‑Hashimi already knowing Samira and Mel ? -> Completely pointless. She has no meaningful interaction with Mel, and the little she has with Mohan, or about Mohan, could just as well have been with someone else. Nothing was done to build any specific dynamic with Robby regarding his mentorship arc throughout the season. Even the scene after the panic attack could've happened about literally anyone, because Robby had just crossed every possible line.
The supposed "boundary work" around Whit(t)aker ? → absolutely no payoff. He still leaves with Amy and pockets Robby’s keys. And the Langdon subplot only matters if you’re watching through Santos’s lens ; but for him, it’s narratively empty. His dynamic with Langdon was never presented as a boundary problem in the first place. It just shows up out of nowhere, and sure, we can make all the conjectures we want about his hometown, his family, his friendship with Santos…that doesn’t change the fact that the show never set anything up on screen about him having a direct issue with Langdon.
Everything related to Mohan ? -> a shameful waste. mirrored dynamic with Robby ? Never developed. He’s almost consistently snide with her, and there’s no real moment where he reflects on how he treats her. Her mother and New Jersey thread ? Nothing. Her fellowship search ? Nothing. The tease with Abbot about a recommendation letter, which could have led to an actually interesting scene about her place in the ER, also goes nowhere. Her role as an R4 who’s supposed to manage the other residents and report back to Robby ? Completely forgotten. Interactions with Langdon now that they were both R4s, both in conflict with Robby ? Of course not. Nothing that was set up ever led to anything new for her.
Al-Hashimi’s approach, which is completely different from Robby’s -> What was the point in the end ? Other than making us understand that Robby was kind of right to doubt her from the start… And yes, you can say whatever you want "you’re not watching the show properly, that’s not the moral, they show her as competent the whole time,.." okay, sure, and ? That doesn’t change the fact that, after spending an entire season always finding something to disqualify her, their final exchange is literally Robby spelling out, point by point, that she shouldn’t be working there and that he’s going to talk to the administration. And in her last scene, Al‑Hashimi basically proves him right by not going home. There were a thousand different ways they could have handled it.
When it was finally her moment to snap, they didn’t give her the space to do it, even though it was completely legitimate. Robby still got the last word.
+ The AI question ? No follow‑through. Their philosophies on how to run an ED ? No conclusion. Al‑Hashimi discovering the mess he keeps sweeping under the rug ? No real fallout. She clearly sees the massive red flags in his mental health, yet she never truly confronts him, even though it keeps blowing up in her face. And don’t come at me with realism, this is a written story. They chose what to show. There was clearly a missed arc with Al‑Hashimi’s introduction in The Pitt and her relationship to Robby.
Instead of Abbot once again, she should’ve been the one pushing Robby to confront his emotional management but noooope... She was just another casualty of his volatility.
Mckay -> sorry, but you were just the functional character this season. Nothing about her social life, nothing about the stress of being out of sync with her own emotions. She was just there to deliver the season's big lessons.
And don’t start telling me it’s all build‑up for season 3. They’ve made it pretty clear that’s not how they structure their seasons. And honestly, they should’ve built season 2 with at least some narrative conclusions, not with more open doors than at the start of the season, given the show’s format.
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