The Pitt season 2 episode 4: Noah Wyle on Tree of Life inclusion

One thing that has become very clear while watching The Pitt is the effort they put in to every single part of the story — even if that means touching on events that are difficult and tragic.

For episode 4 in particular (which Noah Wyle wrote), that meant taking a look at the tragic attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue, which killed 11 people back in October 2018. The story was told through a Jewish woman who arrived at the hospital, someone dealing with an immense amount of trauma from what transpired. She also shined a light on the solidarity that existed between the local Jewish and Muslim communities at that time.

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Speaking about this further to Variety, Wyle discussed why it was so important to include the event on the show:

“That being such a significant event in the city of Pittsburgh, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity … When I started researching it, the aspects of it that moved me the most were the community outcry afterward from the Muslim community and the solidarity with the Jewish community of Pittsburgh working together to grieve and mourn the loss. It was the most underreported aspect of the story, and perhaps the most hopeful moving forward.”

We do think that this element of hope is a big part of what The Pitt is about, where you see doctors continue to press on even in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances. They want to explore a world that exists beyond headlines, or a social-media ecosystem that can tend to pit various groups opposite each other.

Meanwhile, here is more of what executive producer R. Scott Gemmill had to say about showing what happened:

“You can’t do a medical show, set in Pittsburgh, with a Jewish doctor without addressing that … It felt like a very important story to tell. There are important elements of that that hadn’t been told, or hadn’t really made the news cycle. The fact that the Muslim community came together and paid for all the funerals, that’s the kind of information that needed to be out there. We wanted to tell that part of the story, and address the story itself.”

Related – See more of what is ahead on The Pitt next week

How do you feel about how The Pitt depicted the Tree of Life attack and the aftermath?

Let us know in the comments, and then also come back for some other updates moving forward.