The Pitt Season 2, Episode 3 Honors the Tree of Life Synagogue Victims
This story contains spoilers for The Pitt season 2, episode 3.
On October 27, 2018, a man named Robert Bowers entered Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, then shot and killed eleven of its congregants. The horrific act of antisemitism was—and still is—an unfathomable tragedy, one that was hardly the first or last of its kind in this country. It devastated three congregations—Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and the New Light Congregation—as well as the city of Pittsburgh and the entire Jewish community. Bowers was sentenced to death in August 2023. He remains on death row.
At the time, I had been living in New York City for a year and a half—I moved from Pittsburgh, my hometown, to work at Esquire—and was desperately missing home. When I was in college, I lived at the very bottom of Wilkins Avenue, a couple-mile-long hill wedged between campuses. At the very top was Tree of Life: tall, proud, a home to so many, for so long. I'd never felt so helpless. All I could do was call my family, who still lived in various neighborhoods around the city, and ask if they were okay.
As is the case with countless others, I'll never forget that morning—which is why it was so beautiful to see this week's episode of The Pitt pay such an honorable tribute to those affected by the Tree of Life shooting. Season 2, episode 3 of the HBO Max series introduces a patient named Yana Kovalenko. She is an older woman who is suffering from burn wounds after dropping a samovar on the ground; she was startled by the sound of firecrackers.
Once Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) begins to treat her—unveiling serious skin damage—we learn that this was no mere accident. Soon after she learns Robby's full last name, Robinovich, she asks if he is Jewish. When he answers the affirmative, she feels safe enough to not only reveal that she was a Tree of Life congregant, but that she was about to enter the synagogue just when the carnage began. "I was on my way inside to the synagogue when the shooting started," she says. "There was nothing I could do. I went in after the police arrived. I felt I had to. I’m better now. But New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July, when kids have their fireworks and firecrackers, I…"
As The Pitt has done so well time and time again, the series gives the spotlight to very real, incredibly pervasive issues in our country by way of a patient in the hospital. In episode 3, it's gun violence, antisemitism, PTSD, and survivors who must live on and try their damndest to honor those who didn't.
As for Robby, his brush with Ms. Kovalenko marks a delicate next step in The Pitt's exploration of his on-and-off relationship to his faith. If you'll remember: season 1, episode 14 saw Robby turn to prayer after his breakdown amidst the PittFest shooting. "We've sort of set up that he is Jewish, he was raised in a Jewish household, and he doesn't really talk to God anymore," Wyle told me following the episode. "That's not a conversation that's present in his life." Robby likely didn't treat the victims that day—Tree of Life is a few neighborhoods away from PTMC—but he was no doubt affected by the tragedy. The look on his face says everything.
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https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a70080416/the-pitt-season-2-episode-3-recap/