‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Episode 7 Sees the Return of Dr. Jack Abbott

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for The Pitt Season 2, Episode 7.The doctors on The Pitt are halfway through their grueling shift in Season 2, Episode 7, “1:00 P.M.” They’re facing a more frantic day than ever with patients coming in from a nearby hospital that has been temporarily shut down due to a cyberattack. Patients arrive with all types of injuries, including many with serious ones, and are carted in on stretchers and need immediate attention.

One of these patients arrives with a team, a member of which is Dr. Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy), the beloved night shift attending physician who played a pivotal role in The Pitt Season 1. He’s in a different position doing the same admirable work, and fans were delighted to see him.

Dr. Jack Abbot From ‘The Pitt’ Can’t Sit Still

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We didn’t see Dr. Abbot for the first half of The Pitt Season 2, and we didn’t expect to see him since he works the night shift. However, fans had confirmation that the character was coming back, unlike Dr. Heather Collins (Tracey Ifeachor). We might think that while he was waiting to start his shift, he relaxed at home, and maybe even got some much-needed sleep. But it seems like he was doing anything but. As it turns out, he keeps himself busy outside of the hospital by continuing to serve patients in another role during the day.

Abbot arrives in full SWAT uniform with a patient, an officer who is intubated and suffering serious injuries from a gunshot wound. It turns out that a warehouse robbery went sideways. Abbot springs into action, and new attending physician Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) is confused since she doesn’t know who he is and why a field medic is assisting them. However, she quickly realizes that he’s part of this team, too, and that he absolutely knows what he’s doing and can take the lead. It isn’t his shift, but it doesn’t matter. This is one of his own, and he’s going to leap into action to save his friend.

Rather than relax and take time off, Dr. Abbot continues to work. As a SWAT physician, he’s tasked with tending to injuries. But it’s evident from his explanation of what went on, and from his own injuries, that he was in the direct line of fire as well. He’s combining both his medical and combat experience, unable to let go of the latter if a situation calls for it. He’s the personification of someone who will take a bullet for the greater good.

Dr. Abbot Could Be Crucial to Dr. Al-Hashimi’s Story in ‘The Pitt’

Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi in The Pitt holding a tablet.

Dr. Abbot’s appearance may play a crucial role in The Pitt Season 2, and he could make an impact on one of the newest and most mysterious characters. During this episode that proves The Pitt was one of the best shows of 2025 (and continues to be a stand-out in 2026), Dr. Al-Hashimi inserts herself everywhere. She’s naturally trying to get acclimated since she will be in charge for the next three months. But she also seems to be getting in the way of the natural flow of things. While Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) is visibly annoyed with her at times, he does a good job of hiding it. Dr. Abbot is instantly warm, calm, and not offended. You quickly get the feeling that she likes him from the jump.

She understands his level of respect and duty to these individuals, having worked in a war zone herself before. She knows he’s a veteran, and there’s an instant kinship. Although she’s often serious, his personality charms here as they bond over their shared time working in warzones. They even discuss getting together for a beer to discuss war stories, which Dr. Robby overhears. His subtle facial expression suggests that he has odd feelings about this.

The most compelling scene is when Dr. Abbot describes Dr. Al-Hashimi’s previous work at a maternity ward as a “tragedy,” suggesting the trauma she clearly suffers from has something to do with that. The Pitt has hinted several times that she had a traumatic experience in her past, but nothing has ever been revealed. First, she spaces out while looking at the abandoned baby in an earlier episode. In this episode, Dr. Al-Hashimi has to excuse herself from the patient who has been hearing voices. She rushes to the bathroom and makes a call to someone who we assume is her therapist, asking for the next available appointment.

While everyone at the hospital has experience dealing with death, injuries, and sadness, Dr. Abbot can understand her in a way no one else can because of his experience as a veteran. He may become the one person who can get her to open up about her past. He clearly knows what happened there, and whatever it was, it was horrific. These two could become closer as The Pitt Season 2 continues, which could be pivotal for her story and Dr. Robby’s, too.

‘The Pitt’s Dr. Abbot is a Selfless Veteran

Dr. Abbott and Robby walking outside in The Pitt.

Fans love Dr. Abbot for more reasons than one. Most of all, we appreciate his totally selfless nature. While he deals with severe trauma following his time in the war that cost him his leg, he doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to his work. Arguably, he throws himself into it as a distraction, unable to rest and sit with his thoughts. He “sucks at golf,” he tells Dr. Al-Hashimi when she questions why he does this SWAT work on the side. He later tells Dr. Samira Mohan, played by Supriya Ganesh, one of The Pitt stars with real-life medical experience, that his therapist told him that he needed a hobby.

Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) also keeps himself occupied with work to avoid thinking of the trauma he endured during the pandemic, the loss of his friend, and all the sadness he’s surrounded by daily. His upcoming motorcycle trip suggests that he’s finally deciding to take some time for himself. Perhaps Dr. Abbot could be inspired to do the same. Since he puts his life in danger to help others when he isn’t at the hospital, he definitely needs a healthier, less dangerous outlet.

Dr. Abbot is a good person who wants to help people. One of the best scenes is when he tells Dr. Mohan, who has come to the room with a bag of items to give her diabetes patient (who has sadly left against her recommendation), to use them at home. Dr. Abbot is trying to fix himself up in an empty room. When she explains the situation with her patient and his inability to afford care, Dr. Abbot nonchalantly offers to pay for her to take the items to the patient’s house since the hospital obviously won’t. She has a problem, he has a solution. He doesn’t care about protocol; he only cares about helping people.

Dr. Abbot might not deal with his trauma in the healthiest ways, but as we saw in his conversations with Dr. Robby in The Pitt Season 1, he’s working through it. He’s finding ways to use his trauma to help others, while also presumably helping himself in the process. Is it highly stressful and apparently also dangerous? Yes. But he feels as though he has a purpose.

The most meaningful part of The Pitt Season 2, Episode 7, is when Dr. Mohan observes Dr. Abbot desperately trying to reach around to the wound on his back to clean it when it’s clearly in a place he can’t reach. He knows he needs help, but he refuses to ask for it. When Dr. Mohan puts on gloves and assists him, it’s a clear sign that there are people who will be there for him.

For now, this is how Dr. Abbot is dealing with his pain. But slowly, he might begin to heal in a way he never has before. I suspect that just as he helped Dr. Robby off the ledge in Season 1, he’ll be a voice of guidance for Dr. Al-Hashimi, too, and continue his work as one of the most skilled doctors, but also one of the most stand-up individuals, on The Pitt.