Why Noah Wyle’s Dr. Robby Doesn’t Wear a Motorcycle Helmet in Pitt Season 2

Ahead of ‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Premiere, Fans Are Wondering a clip from the first season’s opening that shows our hero, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle), riding a motorcycle across one of Pittsburgh’s many bridges. Cool, right? One problem: Robby notably doesn’t wear a helmet. Based on an in-depth review of the second season of the Emmy-winning medical series by Sam Anderson in The New York TimesWyle really, really fought for Robby to go without head protection, even though fans and medical experts probably cringed at the mere sight of the fictional doctor riding in a vehicle that some doctors call a “donor” (due to the extremely high rate of serious accidents).

After Anderson recounted his time on set while filming Season 2 of “The Pitt” — the highly anticipated and thankfully annual release of the now-beloved medical drama — he mentioned that premiere, where Robby, who is preparing to take a long sabbatical on his fucking motorcyclegets to work without a helmet. As Anderson rightly points out, there’s one of the first patients in Season 2 of “The Pitt” who shows up in the emergency room with head trauma after a motorcycle accident. without helmet, giving Robby’s colleagues a welcome opportunity to hurt him. He assures them that he wears one while he rides, but thanks to this opening scene, we already know that he goes without one. As Wyle told Anderson, he wanted this to happen and wanted the public to know that Robby wasn’t telling his friends and colleagues the truth (and he had to make that call, because It’s late to write And I am also directing this season of “The Pitt”). So what is the purpose of this potentially dangerous lie?

Let’s step back for a second and note that, even though the second season of “The Pitt” takes place 10 months after the firstRobby is still dealing with incredibly significant personal trauma. Not only did his mentor die while working on the front lines during the initial COVID-19 quarantine (something we learned about in Season 1), but during Season 1, he treated over 100 patients with gunshot wounds at a local gathering called PittFest after a mass casualty event. One of these patients – one of the few he lost – was the girlfriend of Robby’s ex-girlfriend’s son, Jake (Taj Speights), whom Robby once considered a de facto son. In the process, Robby experienced a heartbreaking, heartbreaking crisiscollapsing under pressure and pain in the emergency pediatric ward that became a makeshift morgue at the height of the massacre.

I say all of this to explain that, perhaps, Dr. Robby’s objectively insane driving without a helmet is a symptom of his PTSD. Noah Wyle, for his part, was enigmatic about the whole thing. “I created a character that is now extremely loved sentimentally by a lot of people,” he said, noting that he thought about the charismatic and sinister dichotomy of Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka while playing Robby in Season 2. “And I want to take that sentimentality and play with it a little bit.”

In the end, the team behind season 2 of “The Pitt” made two openings: one with the helmet and one without. The one that’s out is the one that’s broadcast, and we now know that Robby is lying to his fellow doctors and nurses. What could this mean for the next season of Robby?

Now I’m not going to stand here and say that I actually believe Dr. Robby, one of the most beloved and popular characters in recent memorywill have a huge motorcycle accident and die in season 2 of “The Pitt”. Unless Noah Wyle hates his job or something (and all signs point to that not being the case), he’s not going anywhere. AlwaysI don’t think Wyle pushed the whole “helmet vs. no helmet” thing by accident, nor do I think it was accidental that Robby and his team were treating a guy who was in a motorcycle accident.

What I think, and this is pure conjecture on my part, is that Robby is pushing his personal boundaries largely because his job requires him to be the most responsible person in the room at all times, and the lack of a headset is a symptom of this potentially unconscious desire in the good doctor. What I don’t know, at this point, is whether the helmet thing will result in a near miss for Robby or whether someone (ideally, Katherine LaNasa’s fierce nurse in charge, Dana, who can read anyone for dirt) will see through his lie and call him out on it. Here’s what I know: As executive producer and star of the series, Wyle is an invaluable creative force on “The Pitt,” and I’m fascinated that he wants to play with his character’s reputation both in his fictionalized version of Pittsburgh And for loyal viewers and returning fans after Season 1. We’ll see what happens to Robby and his noggin when “The Pitt” Season 2 premieres January 8 on HBO Max at 9 p.m.