10:00 A.M. with Fiona Dourif and Shabana Azeez

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I'm Dr. Elok Patell. I'm a doctor, journalist, and I am a fan of all things related to medical storytelling. And I am Hunter Harris, a screenwriter and cultural critic. This week, we're going inside episode 4 of the pet and talking about the 10 o'clock hour. We're also joined by two stars of the show, Fiona Dura, who plays Dr. McKay,

and Shabana Aziz, who plays Dr. Shavadi. Easy if you're on the doing a scene, if you went on the scene with her, and you feel doing background, you hear like, "I don't know, I don't know how to do it."

Okay, I'm sorry, it's always a huge reset, right?

Because there's like a hundred people behind you like acting out their own medical scenes. So every time you mess up, you're like, "God, I'm so sorry everybody, it was really fun." And then we'll go outside the pit to talk about real world, healthcare issues that show. Inside the show, there's a lot to discuss, especially in this episode, today's shift starts now.

“I love when you do that, but also your shift just ended, no?”

It actually did, listen, I wish I could say I was kind of putting on a character, but I literally have been up all night on a nice shift, rolled up, haven't shaved, haven't changed. I mean, listen, I'm in character. Thank you for, thank you for the commitment, I appreciate it. Another week, another episode hunter, I like took notes on this episode, my notes are loaded.

A lot happened, catch us up. You take notes on every episode. But this time there was like, there's a lot, there's so many little moments. Okay, so there's so much going on in this episode. First, there's a code black at Westbridge down the street,

and a lot of patients are coming in, diverted from the hospital, which is down. So we're expecting a lot of, I guess, increased traffic at the pit right now. And then Dr. Alhashmi has some choice words for Santos, say that she's behind on her charting, and she won't want her to repeat her R2 year, and that to me was like, oh my gosh.

Timely documentation is essential.

Let's fix this before end of shift. I'm on it, boss. Good. You wouldn't want to repeat your R2 year again because of this. I mean, I'll be honest, like charting sucks.

It's a lot of paperwork.

“But we're an hour four, I think, of this specific shift, too.”

Listen, I like Dr. Alhashmi, I like the energy she's bringing, but I don't know if I may immediately say, you're potentially going to have to repeat your R2 year, like that's, that's not a thing. We're not, we're not failing residents because they didn't chart,

properly in the first four hours of a shift in July. Yeah, no, that was the thing. It's like, okay, you're coming in a little bit hot right now, and you don't even know Santos that well. One of the patients in this episode is Tania and Vens,

who, like, fell in a parkour accident. They've been spelled 10 feet, and so he's being assessed in trauma 1. And then Whitaker has a big win this episode when he suspects a posterior MI. Can you tell me about that?

Post your MI, think about it like this. It's a heart attack that's affecting the back of your heart. And it's a lot less common than routine MI's. And there's a scene when Whitaker is looking at the EKG. And he notices some of these changes

that are a little different, not typical of a heart attack. So he goes and gets the approval from Dr. Robbie to do an EKG on his back. And then he sees those ST elevations. I mean, I'm with you.

That is a huge medical win for Whitaker. I love it. Let's take a look. Hey, I could use a second set of hands here. Postless V-tack. Start compressions.

Charging to 200. Hey, clear. Okay, resume compressions. Coach Demi, it was posterior. Yeah, good call.

You put the V-tack pads on? Yeah, just in case. Hold compressions. Normal sinus. All right.

You got strong pulsing at V-tack. All right, we'll prep them for careful help.

Hey, Mr.

We'll probably get you today.

Really good pick of Whitaker. Okay.

“Whitaker's the character you always root for.”

And those are rare. So if you have a posterior MI as part of a bigger heart attack, it's not that common, but a posterior MI on its own is even more rare. But the perfect cracks me up. I shouldn't say cracks up because we're in a heavy situation.

It's when Whitaker sees this event happening. He's like, I need an extra set of hands here. As if someone like had an accident on the floor. I'd be hitting the code button or something or screaming. Call the code.

We have a patient potentially died. Also this week, we get an update on Jackson Davis. So when he came into the ER, he was like very erratic. He had just been tased by a school security guard. And now when his sister Jada comes,

she's like, wait, this is not the brother that I know. He's so gentle and careful. And this is not behavior that I've ever seen him just played before. So that's a mystery that we need to solve. And then we have a really sad story with Orlando Diaz and his family.

He has been like having his insulin doses to afford the medication. And his daughter, once she learned to her parents don't have insurance, starts to go fund me and he does not react to that very well. This little scene is a gut punch. Kind of illuminates these social factors that play into people's ability

to manage their health or chronic medical conditions. This one got to me, Hunter. This one got to me. Let's see this clip. Do you have a glucose monitor?

Oh, yes.

“But I can't afford the test strips every week.”

They're too expensive. Can we not talk about this in front of my family? Hi. Are my girls? Did you call your brothers?

There is so much so hard. I have good news. I started to go fund me for death. Oh, what? To help raise money for death's medical care

since we don't have insurance. No. Take it down. Now. But why?

I'm required. I'm going to be charity. But Dad, we've already run off. You heard me. Take it down.

You know, I saw a meme. Once and it said, "America does have universal health care. It's called Go Fund Me." Which should not laugh at it. But it sucks how many Go Fund Me pages we see

or we get shared on social media about people who are just trying to pay their medical bills on this shift that I'm still dressed for. Just like 10 hours ago, I was talking to a family who's worried about

how they're going to pay medical bills. And we've seen people get bankrupted, have to ration care. We see so much of it. Oh, man.

I'm glad that the writers included this little subplot. But I wish they didn't have to. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, a big internet forward episode because we also found out that Dr. Travody has a little side project that she is a TikTok girl with more followers than you would think.

And a patient comes in with her eye glued shut from Trinidad Play Lashes. Listen, Ben there. And she says I want Dr. J and LinkedIn is like, I don't know who Dr. J is.

It turns out that it's Dr. Travody. We're just kind of awesome.

Also, can we stop for a second?

You said you've been there before? Is it really? Have you actually glued your eyelashes shut or have you been there? I have glued my eyelashes shut.

But I have had some mishaps with Trinidad Play Lashes. I love eyelashes. Zoom me. Your lashes look great.

I'm guessing that this is based off a real case. So the fact that Javody is an influencer is such a good twist because I didn't see that coming. Dr. J, finally. It is so nice to meet you, Dr. J.

This is Willow, your new patient. I've actually seen Dr. I watched all of your videos. The one about coping with difficult co-workers was super helpful.

I've got to watch that. So what is Willow's health issue? Uh, my eye. It's super glint shut. Half way through in mineral oil, didn't work.

Nope. Then I would suggest cutting the full lash down. I concur, Dr. J. As long as you're the one doing it. Oh.

Okay. Yeah, sure. It feels a little shady when the patient is like, "Oh, I love your tech talk about working with difficult people." And he's like, "Hmm, I might have to watch that."

Like, we'll see. Acting with your eyes or some subtleties there. Can we talk a little bit more about Dr. Langdon for a second?

Because after Robbie basically banishes him

to triage, Dr. Alhashmi says, "Okay, we have too many patients coming in. We need to bring Langdon back." She's his advocate. But it seems like she also kind of believes in the process.

And she's like, "Hey, you went through therapy. This program and you're a great doctor. We need you." But, you know, Dr. Alhashmi advocates for him to come back so does Nurse Dana.

“But I think Dr. Robbie has that internal struggle.”

Yeah, I don't like that Dr. Alhashmi is like, right, like, ready to go easy on Langdon. But then there's like, really writing Santos. Good call.

Thank you.

Dr. McCay is kind of flirting with her patient.

“And they make a plan to go on a date for an art walk.”

That was a very sweet moment. Fun detail. He's got an England national football jersey on with those three lions. So I was like, "That's cool." Okay.

I don't know my football enough. I hope that means he has good taste. I mean, if he likes Dr. McCay, then he must. Then this was kind of the moment of the episode for me, is that we're in the trauma room.

The patient fence who fell from the parkour accident is stable. But then there's like a little piece of glass that I think they missed on a CT.

And Ogle V. So eager as always.

Vresh just to pull it out. He's like, "I've got eyes on it. I can get it right now." And okay, you'll have to explain exactly how this happens. But when the glass comes loose,

then the patient starts bleeding and is not stable anymore. I love the mode of Dr. Garcia coming in and saying, "Okay, why don't you let the adults pick the decisions from now on?" Yeah, she came in and she was rightfully angry and anxious about the situation.

You know, I'm not a trauma surgeon or a vascular surgeon, but like simply put. If there is something puncturing into your body, there's a possibility that it is also tamponauting or putting pressure on areas around it.

And almost kind of controlling the bleeding. And then when you remove it, all of a sudden you've removed that pressure. So blood can happen. This is why people have probably heard

or seen that age-old advice said, "If you get stabbed with something

and it's still in your body, do not remove it."

Have you removed in a hospital? Another big scene this episode that I was really intrigued by is Dr. Jefferson having a moment with Dr. Robby to talk about the motorcycle trip that he's taking.

And I really liked Dr. Robby saying that he hasn't found the right therapist. He's still trying to feel it all out. And that moment of him going, "I've got therapy.

It's like me on my bike. It was so cool." That was a good interaction because you can tell that they have some type of past and Dr. Robby immediately says,

"Hey, I'm not on your couch right now." You know, I don't need to be talked out of going on my sabbatical with Jefferson's kind of pushing back a little bit. That's a good moment.

And also, we know he wasn't wearing a helmet at the top of the season. Okay, let's kind of dig in a little bit more to this episode because there's a lot to discuss.

I mean, starting with what do you think the code black is? Like, what would you put money on on the board? I love that they start out immediately by just making bets.

Like, half the ER is like, "Oh, my gosh, it's an emergency." You know, we can't catch a break and then meanwhile, the guards like, "Let's make some money rain."

And then everyone's character kind of comes out. Dr. Alohashmi gets in on it. I love seeing Whitaker throw down 40 bucks. I mean, like, I got the direct deposit cash from money. Anyway, I struggle with this

and I worry just because I know how this show rolls that it's going to be something kind of dramatic. Maybe it's a bomb threat. Am I going to dark here? Yeah. Oh, geez.

I mean, what if it brought Robin was like, it could be an exploded toilet? Who knows? It could be, it could be. But I just, I don't know.

I just feel, in my mind, I'm like an exploded toilet would lead to flooding, which could cause a code black,

“but I feel like I think this is going to be a social element to it.”

Okay. But this is the kind of thing that we'll, that you think can, it'll be a runner this season that will be, we'll keep seeing a lot of patients from the code black. I think so.

And I think that we're going to, the code black is either going to be related to something really dramatic, or it's going to be a longer discussion about health care. So if you would just generically say code black,

it's basically a non medical emergency.

Could be flooding. It could be a natural disaster. It could also be a staff shortage. It could be, you know, a situation where you don't a hospital doesn't have the resources,

the nurses or whatever, to be able to properly staff or open their hospital. So it could be something in that nature also. It just depends. Like the term code black is going to differ from institution to institution.

So I don't know. We could be going into social commentary. Could just be some dramatic TV. I don't know. I mean, I think that's definitely some added intrigue this season.

And I mean, already the ER is being overrun. So we'll see what happens. You know, Pundra, I love how much you're analyzing. The Langdon, Dr. Robbie kind of back and forth. And so in this specific episode,

we see Dr. Robbie again, say Langdon is back in triage. He's not coming up here. Some curious. What do you make of all this?

And also, how do you think Dr. Alhashmi kind of make in our own decision about Langdon is then going to affect the triangle of relationship between Alhashmi and Robbie, Dr. Robbie and Langdon, Langdon and Alhashmi. Like give me some thoughts. Yeah.

“Well, I think it's a really good escalation in this,”

you know, Robby, Langdon drama for Robby to keep trying to push Langdon away. Langdon is like not really sure what, you know, how to put his best foot forward and come back into Dr. Robby's life. And Dr. Alhashmi is like, okay, we can't have like, a doctor this senior still in triage.

He needs to come back.

We need to help.

“So I like that these two men are going to be kind of pushed together.”

But at the same time,

it's just another relationship where Dr. Robbie doesn't really know where it stands

or how even he feels, I think. And that's maybe the most complicated part of this is that we're seeing Dr. Robbie, like not seeing him make up his mind, but seeing him like try not to make up his mind, try to keep pushing this away,

kind of procrastinating his emotional, his emotional confrontation here, I guess. And I like that it's also coupled in the same episode with this moment that we get about Dr. Collins, who has, we hear Dr. Wittaker say,

moved to Portland and had a baby. And the fact that that in that scene, we have the camera on Dr. Robbie's face and seeing that kind of like, a little bit of emotion, a little bit of sadness,

a little bit of like, like as a somber beat, I think, to see him in the same scene, not knowing how he feels about Dr. Lee in the big back.

Also maybe not knowing how he feels about Dr. Collins being gone.

And again, it's like, yeah, Robbie is kind of running from his emotions and as Dr. Jefferson says, that's not a place to be. That's especially in someone of his position.

I'm thinking of complexity. Let's go to something that's actually very fun that I'm super stoked about. And that's McCay. And the fact that she is just like,

Cupid's arrow right now. So you have like previously, she was dancing with this guy who seems like he's got an issue with his tailbone. And he's hit on her earlier,

but cast a noble over here in the England National Soccer jersey. Sorry, football from my European friends, Jersey. He kind of like talks to her about

to have her as a doctor anymore. She drops his line where she's like, you know, you're not going to see me anymore as a patient. Are you as giddy about all this,

as I am? And what do you make of this in terms of kind of like the ongoing blurring between Dr. McCay's personal and work life? Like, where are you at in this?

I was, I was going to go check out a few of the art galleries and more in civil tonight. Have you been to that one on 40 if I'm well there? No, I was going to go by, maybe around nine.

Okay. Cool. Is he going to change clothes or is he going to wear that soccer jersey? Hmm.

Maybe he'll wear the soccer. No, he'll definitely change clothes. I'm happy that McCay was so, for how hairy she was in season one with this ankle bracelet on her ankle monitor on her.

Now she's like, a lot more relaxed without that piece of jewelry. And also, you know, a few love connections. Same with Dr. Javadi, who's really coming into her own in the season as an influencer. But also as a doctor, of course.

And we actually got to talk to the actress who play these characters, Fiona Dures and Shibana Aziz. And this was maybe the most fun interview we've had this season so far. They're so funny.

I didn't actually didn't know that Shibana was also Australian, like super impressive for trail of Javadi. Yes, her American accent is so good. Let's take a look.

First question, I am obsessed with Javadi being an influencer.

When a patient says that Dr. J is the best doctor in Pittsburgh and that she has more followers than you would think. Can you tell us about that development about how,

“like, her Javadi's youthfulness shows up in her work?”

I was so grateful to be representing Gen Z in this show. I think that like young people in social media, like so maligned. We think of it when we're talking about these biases. People have about it and like how I think you might think it's

like anti-intellectual or like, you know, she's smart, but she does this influence a thing. But actually I think it's all part of the same package of like a smart young woman who's using the tools that at her disposal to make the world a better place with the tools she has.

Like she knows about medicine and she has social media. And she has such a unique perspective after experiencing something like the mass casualty with everybody. On what it's like to be a front-line worker. And I'm looking forward to playing with people's expectations

about that storyline. Can you also tell me about this kind of, almost rivalry she has now with the new character Orgle V. That he is just as smart as she is, but they kind of, it gets kind of tense between them.

Yeah, I think he's going down. I think that's the right is on the wall of it. No, I'm really excited by his character.

“I think it's really exciting to show a different side of Javadi.”

I think last season we see her sort of be like Santus' punching bag a little bit and not know quite what to do about it, but she's grown in that time and she's thick and test skin and become a little stronger. And then separate to that I think Orgle V is coming in

and he like triggers this part of her brain that nobody else ever has and she becomes this snappy competitive person that she,

She's like, what is going on?

She doesn't want to do it and think of herself like this,

“but he's inspired this version of her that is like,”

mean. And he's going down. Yeah. What is it like playing those scenes? I'm like so quick.

So fun. Yeah, so much medical jogging. So quick. Because we're answering these, you know, all these scenes are, somebody goes and wants this thing and we go,

we just like a bunch of medical jogging. I just like, it's like really intense. We do a lot of Lucas and I did a lot of line running beforehand and like a lot of checking accent for me. Because I didn't, like there are some words while I heard

that I'm saying that on an American accent. And then like in Ceil, I used to say in Ceiline, but it's in Ceiline. In Ceiline. In Ceiline.

All like, oh God, I've been saying, oh, so what's the things like just adding to you said. Neurosurgery? I thought I thought it was like neurosurgery, but it's neurosurgery.

Neurosurgery. Neurosurgery. Fiona, I'm pretty sure we all like were cheering when Dr. McKay put the drill to the ankle monitor. I'm going to tell you, I feel like McKay is a drama show

within a drama show. [laughter]

Susan, why are you talking to me?