Dr. Melissa King is far from okay in The Pitt Season 2 after one of the reviews spoiled that she has a looming challenge ahead. HBO Max's original medical drama series introduced a massive ensemble of talented actors, and one of them became a fan-favorite from Season 1: Taylor Dearden's Dr. Melissa King. The character was deemed the most experienced among her peers and was given more responsibilities and patients throughout Season 1's chaotic shift of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. However, similar to other doctors, she is far from perfect, and a costly mistake from the previous season has come back to bite her in Season 2.
Awards Watch posted its review for The Pitt Season 2, which included an excerpt revealing a massive revelation about Dr. Melissa King's predicament in the upcoming season. As it turned out, Dr. King is in deep trouble in Season 2 because she is set to report for "a deposition in a malpractice case filed by the parents of a teenager who died from the measles last year."
For the uninitiated, a deposition is a recorded question-and-answer session where those accused are typically involved in medical malpractice or personal injury lawsuits. The teenager who died from Season 1 is Flynn Edwards, a patient introduced in Episode 14. It's worth noting, though, that he didn't die on-screen in the show's debut season.
Although Dr. King was pretty good at handling problematic patients in The Pitt Season 1, she tried her best to provide the best care possible for Flynn, but his condition was too serious because they diagnosed him with measles complicated by possible acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a post-infection immune response that has a 20% death rate.
What made it even more complicated was the fact that Flynn and her sister, Georgia, were initially brought to the hospital without their parents because they were at the movies.
The Pitt explores real-time episodic structure by showing what happens to the fictional hospital hour by hour until the doctors' shifts are over. Joining Dearden in The Pitt's stacked cast are the likes of Noah Wyle, Shawn Hatosy, Patrick Ball, Supriya Ganesh, Fiona Dourif, Isa Briones, and Katherine LaNasa. The Pitt Season 2 premiered on HBO Max on January 8, 2026.
What Happened to Flynn in 'The Pitt' Season 1
Flynn and Georgie's parents eventually arrive at the hospital, and they are hesitant to give consent to the doctors to give Flynn a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to confirm if he really has ADEM because they would need his spinal fluid. Flynn's mother, Hillary, refused to give a go-ahead for the procedure, citing their anti-vaccine stance and misinformation from the internet about high-risk procedures (she said that she read online that kids might end up being paralyzed after a spinal tap). Her husband, Larry, was more open, but conflicted due to his wife's stand.
The lumbar puncture is needed to avoid further complications for Flynn because it would make it harder for them to decipher the treatment necessary for him to get better. In the Season 1 finale, Dr. Robby pulled off a Hail Mary by being honest with Larry about the importance of the spinal tap to Flynn's survival (and showing him the countless dead bodies in the morgue) because they needed it to give him the best shot at recovery. Essentially, the longer they wait, the greater the risk of Flynn dying or at least permanent brain damage.
Hillary was still not budging, and she told Robby and Dr. King that their family physician was making arrangements to transfer Flynn to another hospital. Dr. King, though, doubted the move because no hospital would accept the patient without a spinal tap. Larry eventually gave in, telling Dr. King that they wanted to move forward with the spinal tap to save Flynn.
Dr. King was the one who did the spinal tap procedure, making her solely responsible for Flynn's well-being. While she was able to collect the spinal fluid they needed for the laboratory tests, Hillary swooped in and demanded they take the needle out of Flynn's spine.
Although Flynn was deemed safe at the time, The Pitt Season 2 appeared to have spoiled his fate by confirming his death, mainly due to Dr. King being summoned for a medical malpractice case. There might be a loophole, though, since Hillary's husband actually gave consent to Dr. King to move forward with the procedure. Moreover, the spinal tap was needed for the hospital transfer to happen, and Flynn could have died in West Penn (the second hospital) due to unknown complications that could have happened there.
Amid the legal chaos, Dr. King's saving grace might be Dr. Robby, considering that he was well aware of Flynn's case. At one point, Robby even called out to Hillary to stop using her phone to Google potential complications and trust that the doctors know what they are doing.
