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The Pitt Season 1 Finally Debunks The Biggest David Theory After 4 Episodes

Published

1 week ago

6th April 2025

This article discusses a fictional mass shooting and suicide.

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Pitt season 1, episode 14.David Saunders (Jackson Kelly) was a major source of speculation in The Pitt, but the penultimate episode of season 1 just debunked a huge theory about him. Ever since his mother, Theresa (Joanna Going), brought David into the hospital by faking her own sickness, the teenager had been suspicious. Plenty of viewers – myself included – thought David was going to commit a school shooting in The Pitt. Theresa, after all, mentioned that he had a list of girls that he wanted to physically harm, and he didn’t show up to school after storming out of the hospital.

Once the Pittfest shooting started and victims started rolling in, it was getting easier and easier to believe that David had done something awful. The Pitt had focused on Dr. Robby’s (Noah Wyle) disagreement with Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) on how to handle David, and it looked like the show was building up to showing that Robby had made the wrong decision. However, in typical fashion, The Pitt was much more unpredictable than that, and it subverted our expectations of David in favor of telling a much more nuanced story that undermined a lot of theories.

The Pitt Season 1 Episode 14 Confirms David Isn’t The Shooter

The Pittfest Shooter Was An Unidentified Man, Not David Saunders

Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) looking sweaty and out of breath and David Saunders (Jackson Kelly) in The Pitt — Custom image by Sean Morrison

Episode 14 finally confirmed the identity of the Pittfest shooter in The Pitt, and it cleared David’s name in the process. As Gloria (Michael Hyatt) explained, the police found an unidentified man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, an AR-15, and several bags of ammunition, marking him as the Pittfest shooter. Unfortunately, that was only after Dr. McKay had called the police on David and his mother had revealed that she went through his personal items and thought he was capable of being a mass murderer. Now, The Pitt will have to deal with the fallout of Dr. McKay being wrong about David.

What David’s Innocence Means For His Story In The Pitt’s Season 1 Finale

David Could Be A Big Source Of Regret & Painful Emotions In The Pitt Season 1 Finale

As soon as David found out that his mother and Dr. McKay both thought he was capable of committing a mass shooting, his mental health got even worse. He started swearing at McKay and felt betrayed by Theresa, and he continued to refuse to talk to a psychiatrist. David has to stay at the hospital for a mandatory 72-hour observation, which means The Pitt season 1 finale will have to dive even deeper into David’s mental health crisis. Now that Dr. McKay was arrested, she won’t be able to talk with David anymore, and Robby is going to have to do it himself.

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There’s also a disturbing possibility that David’s story hasn’t seen its last bit of tragedy. If Robby can’t get through to David in the last hour of his shift, he may decide to do something rash. David’s clearly in need of mental help, and after being attacked by the police and “betrayed” by his mother, he may attempt suicide. In the chaos of the ER, he could even get access to some kind of weapon. Even if that doesn’t happen, David could be the final straw that sends Dr. Robby to the roof of the hospital in tears, as we saw in a trailer for The Pitt.