There are a lot of balls in the air on The Pitt Season 2 as all your fave doctors are back in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center on the HBO Max hit. But there’s also one very big addition to the staff: actress Sepideh Moafi as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. And the season premiere — spoilers past this point — ends with a curiously ominous final scene, as the seemingly locked up Al-Hashimi stares at a baby. So what’s up with the new doc and the baby? What’s going on here?
Just to provide a little more context from the episode, Al-Hashimi arrives a day early at The Pitt because she’s taking over for Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle), who is about to head off on a three-month motorcycle road trip sabbatical. Robby was hoping to have a normal day at the office, and instead the go-with-your-gut doctor runs head first into Al-Hashimi’s more by-the-books demeanor; and in particular her clear reliance on AI. More like AI-Hashimi, am I right? That’s hard to read because lower-case “L”s and upper-case “I”s look the same on websites, but I digress.
While they both jockey for control of the hospital floor, a mysterious newborn baby is discovered in the bathroom off the waiting room, leading to the doctors hurriedly trying to track down the mother who potentially abandoned the baby, as well as figuring out if it’s sick with, well, anything. The baby even gets its own incubator in the family room, and a lot more attention than some of the patients in the waiting room who have been there for hours without any AC, jeez louise.
Anyway, as mentioned, at the end of the episode the precise, on-it Al-Hashimi completely zones out staring at the baby in the incubator, the first time we’ve seen her off her game all hour. To quote the great scholar Keenan Thompson from SNL: what’s up with that?
I’m going to give you a mild non-spoiler: we don’t know. And not only that, you won’t get much more clarity on the burgeoning beef between AI Doc and Bathroom Baby in the nine episodes screened for critics (see our The Pitt Season 2 review for more on that), though there are some strong hints about what’s going on with AI-Hashimi. That said, without any spoilers, let’s throw out some possibilities:
Theory #1: AI-Hashimi Gave Up Her Own Baby
Given that AI-Hashimi is spacing out over a baby, it certainly seems likely that whatever is happening is because of the baby itself. It could be that she gave up her own baby for adoption, even maybe left it in a bathroom like whoever left Bathroom Baby in The Pitt. It’s less likely that she’s thinking about how she never had or can’t have a baby, as we already had that plotline with the now-absent Dr. Heather Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) in Season 1. And in fact, while topics like adoption, abortion, etc are evergreen, it would overall be a strange sub to have the one departing cast member and the biggest newly arriving cast-member have parallel plotlines. So what happens is probably not specifically about that baby, though certainly could be.
Theory #2: Al-Hashimi Has Something Else Going On, Medically Speaking
Speaking as a professional doctor, what if AI-Hashimi has some sort of medical thingie? Meaning, her spacing out could be a byproduct of something else happening, not about the baby itself. If so, that could cross with her locked up nature, if she is trying to control things because there is something that is, in fact, out of her control. And I say this as someone has attended years of medical school (editor’s note: watched a lot of medical dramas).
Theory #3: AI-Hashimi Wants To Eat/Fight The Baby
Slightly less likely is that AI-Hashimi is staring at the baby because she sees it as an enemy and/or food. It is an adorable baby and I would very much like to nibble on its toes, personally. But I don’t see The Pitt Season 2 ending with one of the doctors eating a whole baby, despite how few lunch breaks they get on shift. I also don’t see her fighting a baby, though I would very much watch that (my money is on the baby).
As for what is actually happening with AI-Hashimi and the baby? And where the baby’s mother is? And any other open questions? Well, it’s just the season premiere, and we’ve got 14 more episodes to go. So stay tuned.
The Pitt Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of The Pitt premiere Thursdays on HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. While the full episode release schedule has yet to be officially announced, the season will run 15 episodes, and we currently expect it to run straight through without breaks, with one episode premiering per week.
We also expect that it will follow the same real-time format hour by hour as Season 1. While the first nine episode “titles” are confirmed it’s always possible there could be a twist at the end of the season. So full caveat here that this may change, TBA by HBO Max.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in The Pitt Season 2 with premiere dates.
- Thursday, January 8, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 1 – “7:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, January 15, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 2 – “8:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, January 22, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 3 – “9:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, January 29, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 4 – “10:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, February 5, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 5 – “11:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, February 12, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 6 – “12:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, February 19, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 7 – “1:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, February 26, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 8 – “2:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 5, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 9 – “3:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 12, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 10 – “4:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 19, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 11 – “5:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 26, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 12 – “6:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, April 2, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 13 – “7:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, April 9, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 14 – “8:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, April 16, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 15 – “9:00 P.M.” *Season Finale*
Where To Watch The Pitt
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.