The Pitt Season 2 Episode 3 Revisits A Real World Tragedy

Season 2 of The Pitt continues to turn compassion and competence into great television, but it also looks to the broader culture and addresses many real-world issues. Episode 3 continues this trend when a Jewish woman visits the emergency room with severe burns to her leg to reveal that she was actually present at the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh — the city in which The Pitt is set.

‘The Pitt’ returned to screens in January 2026 with the Season 2 premiere that proved the show hasn’t lost a step. Last season, we were all simultaneously awestruck and horrified by the experience of watching Noah Wyle’s Dr. Michael “Robbie” Rubinavitch and his team struggle through an emergency room transformation from hell. But it wasn’t just the drama and tragedy that made the show watchable. “The Pitt” has won plaudits for its realism and medical accuracy, as well as its willingness, even insistence, to address real-world social and political issues.

Obviously nothing has changed in Season 2. In fact, the series seems to be doubling down on its efforts to incorporate real-life issues faced by patients and doctors alike. In Episode 3, we get one of the most graphic and tragic examples yet when a Jewish patient arrives and reveals that her injury is the result of sustained trauma from witnessing the Tree of Life being shot live.

So far in Season 2 of The Pitt, we’ve had plenty of callbacks to Season 1, like when Gerran Howell’s Dennis Whittaker followed Dr. Michael Rubinavitch’s example in honoring deceased patients with a moment of silence. Season 2 of ‘The Pitt’ also promises to fix a plot point of the first season that failed, and we’ve seen the return of many of our favorite characters even though their continued involvement seems questionable after last season. Furthermore, the show maintains its social commentary, but while last season focused on doctors and their experiences in a post-coronavirus world, this season we’re seeing more references to problems outside the emergency room.

Episode 3 features Yana Kovalenko (Irina Dubova), a Jewish woman who visits the Pittsburgh Trauma Center with severe burns to her leg. She explains to nurse Emma Nolan (Letitia Hollard) how she dropped a container full of hot tea, known as a samovar, on her leg after being startled by firecrackers. Dr. Ruby then enters the treatment room and the two bond over their shared Jewish heritage.

But things soon take a sad turn. Ms. Kovalenko reveals that she attends the Tree of Life Synagogue. We then learn that she dropped the samovar after being startled by the firecrackers, bringing her back to her horrific experience on October 27, 2018. On that date, a man entered the synagogue with a gun, killing 11 attendees and carrying out what remains the deadliest attack on Jews in US history. Ms. Kovalenko then reveals that she was in the synagogue during the shooting, thus serving as a proxy through which the show can explore the lingering effects of this very real trauma.

After hearing Yana Kovalenko’s story, Dr. Michael Rubinavitch here asserts, “There is no clock on how long it lasts,” suggesting that trauma is primarily a product of its repetition. Then he leaves and asks Perla Alawi (Emiliene Abillera) to bandage the patient’s wound. “The Pitt” has truly shown once again how empathy and connection can make for compelling television, and has shown how these horrific real-world events don’t end once they leave the news cycle. There are lifelong consequences to such things, and “The Pitt” uses its status as one of the most popular new shows to remind us of that fact. In the first season, it was all about showing how doctors have yet to recover from the shock of the global pandemic. In Season 2, this theme continues but in a much broader sense, as “The Pitt” explores other persistent societal wounds.

That in itself would have been enough to make for a powerful scene, but later we return to visit Mrs. Kovalenko while Perla is dressing her wound. The injured patient asks the nurse if she is Muslim, before explaining how Muslims supported the Jewish community in the wake of the shooting, raising money and paying for funerals. It’s a great way to wrap up a series that tackles some undeniably disturbing topics, and shows once again how this series is keen to tackle big real-world societal issues but ultimately looks to find meaning and connection.

It will be interesting to see how “The Pitt” deals with the major cultural issue of artificial intelligence. Let’s hope this decision is on the side of those who, unlike Joe Russo, don’t want to see the future of neglected AI come to fruition.