‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Introduced A New Character Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Pitt Season 1 and Season 2.Now that The Pitt Season 2 has premiered, fans have been introduced to a new main character, and the story might not be going in the right direction. When The Pitt Season 1 premiered on HBO Max in January 2025, Dr. Robby Robinavitch’s (Noah Wyle) captivating character arc began, and 15 episodes were definitely not enough to tell his gripping story. Before the series, we knew that a medical drama could be a lot of fun. Watch any episode of Grey’s Anatomy, and it’s clear there’s a reason why the Shonda Rhimes-created series still has a huge fanbase. But The Pitt has much stronger character development, which is why it felt impossible to wait for the second season.

Season 2, Episode 1, “7:00 A.M.” finds Robby back at work, and he’s running the emergency room as confidently as he did before. While only one episode has dropped so far, a lot has already happened, from Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) returning from rehab to the doctors, medical students, and nurses getting ready for what is certain to be a busy, shocking Fourth of July.

‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Just Introduced a Compelling New Main Character

HBO Max

Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) is a fantastic new character on The Pitt Season 2. She’s smart, ambitious, and has big ideas about how to help the hospital run smoothly. Since Robby is about to take a three-month leave from the hospital, she’s introduced as his replacement in the Season 2 premiere. While a few new characters are joining The Pitt, she’s the most interesting one since she and Robby are both in charge… at least during this one 15-hour shift.

In just one brief scene, Dr. Al-Hashimi and Robby have a memorable interaction. When she mentions the program she’s implementing at various hospitals, including “patient passports” which let them know what tests and treatment to expect, Robby does his best to be polite… but it’s clear that he doesn’t agree that this is the best path to go down. In this short interaction, viewers see Robby’s intelligence, confidence, and experience, and it’s a reminder of how good he is at his job. He knows that it’s best to focus on what matters (saving people and helping them), not administrative details and organizational questions.

So far, we don’t know that much about the new doctor, and that could be because there are so many other characters to juggle. In The Pitt Season 2 premiere alone, which picks up 10 months after the first season ended, fans catch up with beloved characters like charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), but they also meet new medical students, like James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) and Joy Kwon (Irene Choi).

Will ‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Still Focus on Robby’s Important Arc of Healing From Trauma?

Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch in HBO's The Pitt. — Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in HBO’s The Pitt

The Pitt Season 2 is taking a big creative risk because it might not be the best storytelling decision to have Dr. Robby leave for three months after this 15-hour shift is over. Sure, he’s going to be here for all 15 episodes, but it would be compelling to watch this journey unfold. Since he’s planning to travel and focus on healing, that means we won’t get to see him actually work through the trauma he’s been ignoring for a long time. But shouldn’t that take place onscreen, not off?

Some parts of The Pitt Season 1 are confusing, but Robby’s Season 1 arc is perfect. It’s all about internal conflict, and that’s why it’s so moving. We see him reflecting on the death of his mentor, Dr. Montgomery Adamson, and in one devastating but beautiful scene, he breaks down crying and finally lets all his emotions out. Now, with him working closely beside another doctor, the conflict is external. In The Pitt Season 2 premiere, he and Dr. Al-Hashimi both try to take charge, which leads to some confusion about who should say what to the less experienced hospital employees.

It’s clear that the two doctors aren’t going to get along that well for the rest of the season, and this creates two problems. First of all, it makes The Pitt feel like a bit more of a traditional medical drama, like the long-running Grey’s Anatomy. The Pitt is so fun and thrilling because it doesn’t feel like a regular hospital show. It skips the romantic drama, love triangles, and affairs of other series and focuses on the moving experiences that the characters have while doing their jobs. We’ve seen tension between doctors jockeying for position before, and that doesn’t need to happen here, too.

So, when watching Dr. Robby and Dr. Al-Hashimi together, it’s hard not to be nervous that they’re going to start fighting, which would mean that the rest of The Pitt Season 2 will play into a tired trope that really doesn’t need to be there. Hopefully, they can work peacefully together, and the focus can stay on Robby trying to figure out how to keep doing his job while working through his trauma.

Creating this tension between the two characters is also disappointing because it takes the focus away from Robby and Al-Hashimi’s individual character arcs. It would be great to get to know Al-Hashimi as the intelligent and interesting person that she seems to be, rather than only seeing her as Robby’s replacement. The Pitt hasn’t let us down so far, and there are still 14 more episodes to go. So, let’s hope there’s more to this story.