'The Pitt' Season 2 Stars Reveal Why Dana and Langdon Are Still Struggling After a 10-Month Time Jump

Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers up to The Pitt Season 2 Episode 6.

With HBO's The Pitt finally back for Season 2, fans aren't immediately checking back in with the doctors and nurses working in the emergency department of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. It's actually been 10 months since the events of Season 1, and the jump ahead is a way for R. Scott Gemmill, John Wells, and Noah Wyle's medical drama to acknowledge the struggles that some of the Pitt's staff are having — chiefly, charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) and senior resident Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball). There's little time for either of them to really process being back, however, now that the ED is overwhelmed with patients being diverted from another hospital due to a mysterious "Code Black" and frequent flier Louie (Ernest Harden Jr.) has just flatlined out of nowhere.

Ahead of The Pitt's return, Collider had the opportunity to speak with the show's creators and cast alike about some of Season 2's most pivotal moments over the first six episodes, including LaNasa and Ball. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, the two discuss their characters' challenges returning to the Pitt after that 10-month time jump, from Dana's trauma to Langdon's recovery journey, as well as what Dana's exchange with new nurse Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) in Episode 6 reveals about her current state of mind.

COLLIDER: One of the things that I spoke with John [Wells] and Scott [Gemmill] about is that Season 2 picks up 10 months after the events of Season 1, and obviously, we see how things have changed inside the Pitt, but then also for your characters in particular. They're coming back after an absence — or in the case of Dana, she's been back, but also there may have been a break in between. How do you feel that distance, that time away, has changed both your characters' lives now that they're back for another shift in Season 2?

KATHERINE LANASA: Patrick’s story is a little more dynamic because it's such a thing to try to overcome. Dana has a more subtle issue, I think, with how is she gonna attend to herself post assault? I think that she tries to white-knuckle it. In my mind, her adult daughter told her that this is not working and that she needed to get some help, so in my mind, she went to get some counseling. I think that Dana has never processed the grief of her own mother. Her mother died when she was in high school, and she started working at the hospital around that time, and then she's been a full-time employee for, I guess it's 33 years now. So, this environment with all this trauma is a great way for her to avoid dealing with what's going on inside her.

The punch was very humiliating, and it really took her out of her place. It cracked her sense of self and her sense of belonging. I don't think she ever thought that that was a danger for her, really. I think she felt so respected there that I don't think it ever really entered her mind that something like that could happen. So I think she's been trying to knit herself back together and doing some therapy, and maybe even doing some self-defense, so that she could come back and try to have a few more boundaries with people, which she's not always very good at.

So, I think we see a Dana that's still reeling from that, and that is still broken from it, and is still hypervigilant. That's what I love about The Pitt is that so many of the stories are just so universal. So many women have been assaulted in one way or another, and you never forget that assault. It is always up here, and you feel it in the back of your head. You're always looking for that person. You're always looking for that assailant on some level. So this is still really fresh, and I think viewers will really enjoy seeing that play out through the character over the course of the season.

PATRICK BALL: For Langdon, he's been away for 10 months. He's gone to rehab. He spent probably much of these 10 months at home with his wife and two kids in a way that he might not have been able to do when he was working every day in the Pitt. He's done some serious soul-searching over that time. The Langdon that you meet in Season 1 is really confident and competent, and knows what his job is. He knows what his role is. He likes to move fast, and he likes to be the best, and he likes to work hard. You realize that that confidence was propped up in a profound way. Now, over the last 10 months, he's lost that crutch, and he's done the work of early recovery, and now he's coming back into the Pitt, back into this environment, surrounded by people that he has loved and knows that he has also disappointed and also lied to and also hurt, and he's got a lot of repair work to do.

Patrick Ball Explains Why Robby and Langdon's Relationship Is Still "Complicated" in 'The Pitt' Season 2

"I think they have a lot of difficult conversations that need to be had, and I hope they have them."

Chiefly among the repair work, it feels like Robby and Langdon have a lot of unfinished business, and Langdon, to his credit, tries to extend the olive branch, tries to reach out, and Robby is very clearly not interested in going down that road, at least at the moment. Then we see, as the season continues, they're forced back into each other's orbits because Langdon has a patient with the necrotizing fasciitis, and Robby has to get involved when things start to worsen there. What can you say about what their relationship looks like this season, and whether these two were actually going to have a face-to-face conversation, especially with Robby preparing to leave for his sabbatical for three months?

BALL: This relationship between Langdon and Robby is a very complicated one, and it's a very intense one. Robby is somebody that Langdon has probably spent most of his life modeling himself after and looks up to him as a mentor, and is probably one of his closest friends in the world. The loss of that relationship is a big blow. I think it's a big blow to both of them. I think they have a lot of difficult conversations that need to be had, and I hope they have them.

Talking about mentors this season, Dana is in a really interesting position with the new nurse, Emma, and takes her under her wing. There's a scene where she defends her against an aggressive patient, but the scene that really stuck out to me is in Episode 6, after Louie dies, the beloved patient that everyone has come to know and care for. They're talking, and Emma asks Dana why she keeps coming back to the E.R., and Dana doesn't have an answer for her. You just turn and exit the conversation. Do you think Dana even has an answer to that? Do you think she can even articulate that to herself, or as we've been talking about, is she still processing everything and really trying to figure out how much longer she wants to be here?

LANASA: I don't think, to Dana, it’s trying to process how much longer she wants to be here. I think Dana wants the Pitt to work for her. I don't think she's really known anything other than that. Like I said, I think she gets her whole sense of self there, really, and her sense of purpose from what she does, and she's really good at it. But I think it's really interesting that you pointed out that question, because that's really the question that Dana has for the whole season. That's her season-long journey, is looking for the answer to that question: Why does she keep coming back? I think the little nurse asking that makes Dana ask herself that. So, I think in that moment, I realized that I don't know the answer to that, and I think it bothers me for the rest of the day.