Yourstruly5

I could probably write endlessly on this subject, and insofar as Jewishness is a major theme in my fan fiction, I basically do, but now that Season 2 is behind us, I wanted to share some thoughts.

I watched The Pitt months after the last episode of Season 1 aired. I binged Season 1 over a single weekend in late June 2025 after seeing lots of buzz about the show and remembering fondly how much I had enjoyed seeing Noah Wyle make his debut on E.R. when I was in college. I wrote my first Pitt fan fiction a couple weeks later.

The Pitt knocked me sideways. I was immediately engrossed in the story, and found myself relating to Dr. Robby in a way that I never had to any other character on TV. I saw Robby, a non-observant but still very Jewish Gen Xer navigating the world and felt thoroughly seen in a way I never had before. To see a Jewish character my age portrayed in such a nuanced and emotionally real way was literally life-changing.

The Pitt got me thinking about who I am as a person, and how much of who I am is a grounded in my identity as a Jew. About six months after the show aired, the same week Season 2 debuted, I attended synagogue for the first time in nearly 25 years. In the months that followed, I joined a shul, and I'm regularly attending Shabbat services again. (Fun fact: the prayers, the melodies, and the little traditions immediately come back to me, because they were woven so snugly into me in the first twenty-something years of my life that they'll always be a part of me. My liturgical Hebrew is a little rusty, but I can absolutely sing along in shul and can recite most of the major prayers with little prompting, even after a quarter century.)

I was absolutely amazed to read Noah Wyle talk about how working on The Pitt and playing Dr. Robby has helped him reconnect with his own Jewishness. I can't tell you how many times I've rewatched the scenes in episode 2.3 with Yana and Dr. Robby. (At least six or seven times. So, so good.)

When people in fandom use Robby's Jewishness or Noah's Jewish heritage as a fulcrum for criticizing the show or its show runners, it feels personal. It hurts. Some days more than others. Even when I try to curate that kind of shite out of my feed through the liberal use of the block button. Fandom can be a rough space for a Jew.

But you know what? The show and its fandom have reminded me how many kind and wonderful people there are out there. I've had lots of non-Jewish fans reach out to me and express support or curiosity about Jewish themes in the show (and my Pitt fan fiction) that is so genuine and so beautiful, it gives me so much hope that the light will overcome the darkness we see around us.

If you are a non-Jewish fan of the show and want to chat about the Jewish threads that are woven into its narrative, feel free to reach out to me or one of my fellow "Red Sea pedestrians" (as one of my friends describes herself). A lot of us love nothing more than to talk about our culture and history. We want to be better understood by members of society writ large, and are all too happy to chat about our traditions. (Beware of the old adage about two Jews having three opinions. We are an interesting and opinionated bunch. That part of the stereotype is accurate af.)

And if you see antisemitism in fandom (and there's a lot of it in certain spaces), please, please consider calling it out. The hateful stuff you see spewed in online fan spaces hurts real people.

But, for some reason, after a particularly disgusting case, he forgets to grab a pair of latex gloves to pull off his latest set of soiled scrubs. He tries to find a dry portion of his scrubs to grab onto, but this last patient put him through the wringer.

Robby happens to pass by, and Dennis desperately calls out, “Dr. Robby!”

The older man turns to look at him, his smile growing when he sees his current predicament.

Dennis sighs and holds out his bare hands in explanation. “Help?”

But Robby seems to misunderstand or thinks his own gloved hands are faster, because he’s suddenly in Dennis’ space pulling the top off of him.

Robby tosses the shirt into the scrub exchange and raises his eyebrows. “I don’t suppose you need help with your pants?”

Dennis just stares at him, his mouth agape.

“Whitaker.”

What he wants to say is yes, please help me out of my pants, but can we do this again after our shift sometime? Instead, he says, “Buy me dinner first.” Which is arguably worse.

He needs to stop spending so much time with Trinity.

Robby’s eyebrows skyrocket and he turns a cute shade of pink as he steps closer to him. He reaches out, untying the strings of his scrub bottoms, and lowly says, “How does tonight sound?”

“Great,” Dennis chokes out as Robby hooks his fingers into his waistband.

He tugs lightly but doesn’t actually pull them down. Instead, he snaps them against his waist, and says, “Looking forward to it.” Before heading off as if he didn’t commit many HR violations.

Dennis trips as he pulls off his pants, stumbling into the machine and making a fool of himself as he watches Robby walk away.

thank you for horny posting in my askbox

They gambled on the audience being able to piece things together and gave people the opportunity to reflect on their own biased responses towards previously decontextualised behaviours - a lesson we ALL need to learn because LIFE is just a series of decontextualised behaviours.