MaxThe Pitt Episode 14 saw the Pittfest shooting storyline draw to a close, but chose not to reveal the shooter’s identity. Star Noah Wyle has since explained why, and it’s a surprising reason.
If you can get through an episode of The Pitt without having a heart attack or temporarily stopping breathing, pat yourself on the back. With all 15 Season 1 episodes taking place over the course of one hospital shift, the stakes are incredibly high – and stay that way.
Episode 12 saw the introduction of the most shocking plot to date: a mass shooting taking place at a local music festival. The unidentified shooter was supposedly on the run, and heading straight for the hospital. Casualties were rolling in thick and fast, and the new TV show became unending chaos.
Thankfully, Episode 14 began to see some sort of relief as the ER calmed down, but Dr Robby revealed a twist. The shooter had been apprehended by a SWAT team and died, with David free from suspicion. Now, star Noah Wyle explains why we never found out who was behind the tragedy.
The Pitt’s shooter “isn’t relevant” to Episode 14 or Season 1
Speaking to TV Line, Wyle – who plays senior attending medic Dr. Robby – explained the identity of the shooter wasn’t “relevant” to the show, instead enjoying the “misdirection” of David’s issues as a red herring.
HBO“That has absolutely nothing to do with the horrific nature of the work that these [doctors and nurses] have to perform in the aftermath of this, so why give it any attention?” he explained. “It’s certainly not going to make any difference at this point in any of the people’s lives who are in our environment.
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“That said, we did enjoy the misdirection of having a lot of people think it was David or Doug Driscoll or… you know, I even read some wilder theories on that. But that was to underscore the storyline that we really wanted to explore with David’s character, which is about misunderstanding at every level,”
Wyle continued, “Trying to connect, but missing crucial moments when that connection really needs to be in place. Otherwise, it can trigger suspicion, paranoia, panic, over-involvement, lapse in judgment — all sorts of things happen in the wake of our bias, our misinterpretation and our misunderstanding of David’s behavior.”
MaxDavid’s storyline was introduced in the very first episode, and is now bound to have severe repercussions in the season finale. Pretending to be sick for medical attention, David’s mom took the hit in order for her son to be seen by doctors. She’d previously found a ‘kill list’ of girls at school he wanted to hurt, convinced an intervention was needed to stop him from doing something terrible.
By Episode 14, that meant keeping him under observation for 72 hours, handcuffing David in a separate room. It’s a decision Cassie made that could backfire, especially as she’s now been arrested herself.
“Were we wrong to intervene? Maybe not,” Wyle continued. “But we were wrong, in this particular case, to assume that it was one-to-one. I think that’s another important lesson to take from this — that while thought crimes are not crimes, they can be cries for help, or needs for attention or analysis, and I think that was an important message to get across.”
The Pitt is streaming on Max now. For more, check out new TV shows streaming this month, the best TV shows of the year so far, and anticipated 2025 releases you cannot miss.