Looks Like Dr. Robby’s Sabbatical Didn’t Help at All

2 min readI mean, did you really think The Pitt’s Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) would return from his sabbatical soaking in Goop exfoliator, giving high-fives to every bloodied patient, and bragging about the helmet he bought for his motorcycle trip?Nope! This Friday morning, HBO Max dropped the first teaser for The Pitt season 3, along with a batch of first-look images. (You can view them here.) The preview for the next chapter of the medical drama, which returns this January, confirms that this season will take place on Dr. Robby’s first day back from his sabbatical. As a reminder: Wyle already confirmed that this season will take place in November, just before the holidays.Aside from that, the teaser—which is decidedly grim, sans the usual amount of Robinavitchian quips—is mostly a montage of the usual amount of shit hitting the proverbial fan at PTMC. Personally, I can’t wait to see what’s up with the Hannibal Lecter-y dude who we see smashing his face against plexiglass. (Fun fact: The Silence of the Lambs was mostly filmed in Pittsburgh!)Even though the teaser and new images are light on story beats, I do have a few takeaways and predictions about The Pitt’s trilogy-capper. Given that the footage begins with Shawn Hatosy and his squad at work, wondering aloud whether or not Dr. Robby will show up, The Pitt’s writers clearly wanted to show some love to those clamoring for a night shift season.Plus, the teaser has a look at the inevitable next bout of Robby v. Langdon (Patrick Ball), but photos show the much-anticipated conversation between Robby and Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) as well. It’s also interesting to see Dr. Javadi (Shabana Azeez) in the thick of patient care, after she hinted in the season 2 finale that she may pursue psychiatry going forward. Also, Robby needs some better deodorant! He’s looking sweatier than he is rested.That said, digging into what Wyle has teased about season 3 on the awards trail, I might be wrong. "Robby, who's been on a sabbatical for four months, is seemingly coming back in a better headspace,” Wyle told Gold Derby this week. “What he was doing and what happened on that journey becomes a lovely backstory for the season."We’ll see for ourselves either way in a few months. In the meantime, you can watch the full teaser for The Pitt season 3 below. Let’s hope Dr. Robby takes a shower before the shift really ramps up. I’m sure his patients will thank him.