“Abbot lands and he’s only in Season 1 for four hours out of the 15, but you come away from it sort of seeing him as a regular,” Shawn Hatosy says.
That’s certainly true. He’s left his mark on The Pitt enough that he’s become a fan-favorite and it’s landed him his first Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. And so TV Insider had him rewatch the finale rooftop scene, in which Abbot talks Robby (Noah Wyle) down — from closer to the ledge than the vet had been himself in the premiere — for our latest Scene Study. You can watch that full video above.
As he recalls, that scene in the finale was the third he filmed for the show; it was filmed months ahead of the rest of the episode, so he, Wyle, director John Wells, and writer R. Scott Gemmill didn’t even know what was in Robby’s speech.
“It’s really cool the way that John put this scene together because it mirrors that first scene where they never really look at each other, I mean, ever,” says Hatosy. “It’s kind of a reverse of what was set up in the first scene, except now, Robby is literally standing in Abbot’s position, and Noah’s just doing such beautiful work, and the way it’s filmed is so fantastic because you’re seeing two guys not really able to look at each other. Robby doesn’t want to look at him. … It was my goal to get him to look at me. So finally, there’s a moment there where it happens, and I think it really pays off where they actually do make contact. Not easy with Robby. He doesn’t like to look at you.”
He also points out the work of editor Mark Strand on the scene. (He worked with him previously on Animal Kingdom.) “You’re on Noah’s face while Abbot is talking a lot, which, a lot of the times, the choice might be to put on the person that’s speaking, but it is really Robby’s point of view, and it makes it land so much more. The things that Abbot is saying about, all we could do is focus on the medicine, the medicine is what keeps us sane, we’re the bees who protect the hive, hearing it in speaker form, but seeing it on the great Noah Wyle is a masterclass in directing, editing, acting, all of it.”
Hatosy credits Robby looking at Abbot as an equal as part of the reason why he’s seen as a regular presence. “Also, he’s presented in such a way in that first episode, and he hands off the letter, which keeps him alive through another episode. He talks about the teen, which keeps him alive. He talks about the Kraken. So even though Abbot isn’t there, his experience is there and what he needs is there,” he notes.
But we still don’t know much about him. He wears a wedding ring, but it’s from Hatosy we know that he’s widowed. It’s not until the finale’s last scene in the park that we learn he has a prosthetic leg when he takes it off to clean it. “He has his own hidden trauma,” Hatosy tells us. “There are other things that are underneath Abbot that we don’t know, that I don’t even know. But they’re there. I know Scott knows what they are, and they will be revealed.”
When we meet him on the roof in the first episode, he’s “questioning his purpose,” explains the actor. “But I think through the mass casualty event and seeing a colleague who he has tremendous respect for suffer from combat fatigue in a way which Abbot has seen, and then ushering this way of doctoring with the younger residents and new interns, he understands what his purpose is. … There’s tremendous comfort in knowing what your purpose is. So I think that at the end of this episode, you’re seeing a fully formed character in an interesting way that you didn’t expect.”
Watch the full video above with Shawn Hatosy as he breaks down the rooftop scene, takes a look at Abbot’s arc, discusses the fans’ love for Abbot/Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), and more.
The Pitt, Season 2, January 2026, HBO Max