Spoilers are ahead for Episode 9 of The Pitt Season 2 in the 2026 TV schedule, available streaming with an HBO Max subscription shortly after the medical drama scored more awards.
The second season of The Pitt is picking steam as the day shift gets later into the afternoon, and that's been especially tough for Mel. Taylor Dearden's character has been dreading her deposition all season, and it finally arrived this week. In Episode 9, directed by cast member Shawn Hatosy, Mel's sister also arrived at PTMC just minutes before she'd have to go upstairs for the legal proceeding. Mel may be in that deposition for a while, and watching her stress level rising really made me see why the actress said things can get "all mushy" on set.
I spoke with Taylor Dearden at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta about her role on The Simpsons and starting her career with a credit as "Sad Faced Girl" on Breaking Bad. With an episode directed by Shawn Hatosy in Season 2, I also asked the actress about being directed by a co-star. Dearden started out by sharing something that I think fans will be able to relate to:
It all gets mushy for us. I don't remember what happens in any episode. It's all like [mushed] together.
As somebody who binge-watched the first season of The Pitt, I can definitely understand the idea of episodes getting mushed together while working on an entire season. With each hour of the show set in the same exact day and no wardrobe changes for the actors, why wouldn't everything blend together? In fact, for Mel, part of her stress level in Episode 9 seemed to be that everything was happening all at once.
That's not to say that Dearden had nothing to say about Shawn Hatosy directing in Season 2, with his episode following shortly after Noah Wyle directed the episode that focused on the nurses. She went on to share the perks of "having the actors" on board as directors:
Noah directed and Shawn directed, and so having actors direct is such a treat for us, because we get to really play. They give us time and space to do character work, which, you know, usually we don't get that. And so it's really fun to be able to play.
It would be hard to find any director with more experience on medical dramas than Noah Wyle, who was credited with more than 250 episodes of ER between 1994-2009. Shawn Hatosy also has plenty of experience on intense shows, as a regular on Southland and Animal Kingdom before recurring on Chicago P.D. and Fire Country. Apparently, both of Taylor Dearden's co-stars bring a great touch as actors to directing The Pitt.
Mel wasn't actually in Episode 9 beyond the first fifteen minutes or so, after she had to go from just worrying about her deposition to also worrying about her sister. Based on all of my fictional medical expertise from watching doctors on TV, Becca's symptoms seem to point towards a simple UTI, and Dr. Langdon didn't seem too worried after stepping up to treat Mel's sister.
But Mel didn't actually get to learn that before having to leave her sister to Langdon's care, so it should be interesting to see how she's doing once she's back in the ED. For all she knew heading into her deposition, Becca's belly pain is much more serious than a UTI. Hopefully we'll see her full reaction in Episode 10, both because I'd hate to miss Mel for a whole extra week and because Mel is stressed enough without a deposition lasting for more than an hour.
See how she's handling all the deposition pressure on top of Becca being admitted to the hospital with new episodes of The Pitt on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max. I can imagine that knowing Dr. Langdon is the one treating Becca might help Mel's nerves at least a little bit. She doesn't have the trust issues with him that Robby does, and he clearly won her over as Becca's doctor as soon as he asked Mel to turn off the lights on the way out.
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