The Pitt star Noah Wyle addresses 'wild theories' behind shooter identity in season 1
"Why give it any attention?"
The Pitt season 1 leaves one huge unanswered question: who was the shooter? Well, according to Noah Wyle, there’s a reason we never find out.
The HBO Max series may have premiered in the US last year, but it has literally just arrived in the UK. That means the show has found a new audience – and they’re just discovering the chaotic, bloody, and traumatic ups and downs of The Pitt’s first shift.
For the unacquainted, The Pitt takes place over one 15-hour day. Wyle plays Dr “Robby”, the ER’s attending and senior physician.
At the end of episode 11, it’s revealed that the hospital is about to get a mass influx of patients due to a “mass casualty” event. Naturally, everyone wants to know more about the shooter responsible.
***Warning: spoilers for The Pitt season 1 ahead***
What happened to the shooter in The Pitt?
In The Pitt season 1, a gunman opens fire at Pittfest, a music festival in – you guessed it – Pittsburgh.
We don’t see the shooting. However, we do experience the aftermath as dozens of victims arrive at the hospital, either suffering from gunshot wounds, bruises and fractures from being trampled, or other injuries.
At first, Robby fears the worst: could David (Jackson Kelly), the troubled teen who made a list of girls he seemingly wanted to “eliminate”, be responsible? Other viewers theorised it could have been Doug Driscoll (Drew Powell), the angry oaf who sucker-punched Dana (Katherine LaNasa) in the face.
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David ends up in handcuffs and locked in a secure room in the ER. Throughout episodes 12 and 13, rumours start to spread that he was the shooter.
However, he wasn’t responsible. Instead, Gloria (Michael Hyatt) reveals that the shooter had been found with a bag of ammo and an AR-15 – and, crucially, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
So, who was the shooter?
The Pitt never reveals the identity of the shooter. When one of the staff asks if there was a motive, Dana replies: “Does it matter?”
That should sum up the show’s stance on the gunman: their identity is meaningless. All that matters is the unimaginable bloodshed, the havoc they wreaked, and the grief en masse they caused.
This was echoed by Noah Wyle in an interview with TV Line last year. “[Their identity] has absolutely nothing to do with the horrific nature of the work that these [doctors and nurses] have to perform in the aftermath of this, so why give it any attention?” he asked.
“It’s certainly not going to make any difference at this point in any of the people’s lives who are in our environment.”
That doesn’t mean Wyle and the show’s team didn’t enjoy people’s theories that it was David or Doug. “You know, I even read some wilder theories on that,” he admitted.
“But that was to underscore the storyline that we really wanted to explore with David’s character, which is about misunderstanding at every level.”
Amazingly, despite viewers’ attempts to figure out the shooter’s identity, the decision to keep them anonymous was mostly praised.
“The shooter’s identity and reasons are unimportant. The show desires to focus on the victims and the heroes working to save their lives,” one fan wrote on Reddit.
“All that matters is this change affects those impacted by the shooting,” another wrote. “We all did exactly they wanted us to do. Try to figure who it is, but the answer is moot. It can be anyone. That’s the point,” a third added.
“We should start anonymising all shooters, give them no glory and nobody to remember them,” a fourth argued.
Read more: The Pitt viewers slam season 2 release schedule after HBO Max UK launch: ‘Kill me now’
