Earl’s The Pitt Season 1 Running Gag Left An Interesting Mystery That I Doubt Will Finally Be Solved In Season 2

DGIX

May 11, 2025

Earl (Hansford Prince) was one of the funniest parts of The Pitt season 1, but there’s still a mystery surrounding him that probably won’t be solved in season 2. While the cast of The Pitt mainly consisted of doctors and nurses, the regular patients of Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital made the show come to life. From Myrna (Jeannette O’Connor) in The Pitt, who regularly called Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) “Fruitcake,” to Earl asking for sandwiches, PTMC felt like a real hospital with a lot of personality and character. Hopefully, The Pitt season 2 will continue to focus on those hospital regulars.

As funny as Earl was in The Pitt season 1, he also created a big mystery for the coming season. There are still plenty of unanswered questions after the ending of The Pitt season 1, from whether Jake (Taj Speights) will forgive Robby to how Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) will handle rehab. Most of those questions are going to be answered by The Pitt season 2, as they have massive implications for the main cast of characters. Earl’s unanswered question, however, is a lot less certain.

The Pitt Never Revealed Why Earl Was In The Hospital Or Why He Needed So Many Sandwiches

We Don’t Know What Earl Was Hospitalized For Or Even If He’s Unhoused

Even though he appeared in six episodes, no one ever actually explained why Earl was in the hospital in The Pitt season 1. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) tried to ask him once, but Earl only said that he was there to get a sandwich. Doug Driscoll (Drew Powell) insinuated that Earl was unhoused, which could explain that he was in the hospital either to get off the street or for some chronic condition. However, we can’t really trust Doug’s opinion, and we don’t actually know for sure whether Earl was unhoused or not. Even if he was unhoused, there still wasn’t an explanation for Earl’s seemingly frequent hospitalizations.

Another part of Earl’s character that The Pitt season 2 never explained was his love of sandwiches. One of the few things that was actually revealed about Earl was that he could never get enough of PTMC’s sandwiches, and that he hated egg salad sandwiches. He was constantly eating them or going out into the lobby to buy food from the vending machine. If Earl was unhoused, it would partially explain his desire to get as much food as he could while it was free. However, even an unhoused man wouldn’t be able to eat as many sandwiches as Earl did in just a few hours.

Earl Most Likely Won’t Be Back In The Pitt Season 2

Earl Does Come To The Hospital Often, But The Pitt Season 2’s Time Jump Means He Might Not Reappear

Unfortunately, it looks like the mysteries surrounding Earl’s sandwich habit and the reason for his hospitalization aren’t going to be solved in The Pitt season 2. The time jump of The Pitt season 2 means it will take place over the Fourth of July weekend, but it also means there’s a good chance Earl won’t be at the hospital anymore. Earl and Myrna were regulars of the hospital, but they couldn’t be there every single day of the year. While it would be nice to see him again, there’s no guarantee The Pitt will bring Earl back again.

Dr. Melissa King (Taylor Dearden) and her sister Becca (Tal Anderson) in The Pitt Season 1 Ep 15

Every Character In The Pitt Confirmed To Return For Season 2

The Pitt featured a huge ensemble cast, but only a few are already confirmed to return for the second season of Max’s intense medical drama.

There’s another reason why Earl may not come back: he doesn’t yet have a reason to. Myrna could easily appear in The Pitt season 2 because she experiences chronic seizures, a condition which requires her to be hospitalized frequently. We don’t know what Earl was hospitalized for, so we have no idea if he was there for a chronic condition or if he just comes in on days he thinks will be slow so he can get free meals. If the latter is true, Earl may not come on the Fourth of July because he knows ahead of time that the hospital will be busy dealing with injuries.

Earl may not come on the Fourth of July because he knows ahead of time that the hospital will be busy dealing with injuries.

Luckily, there are also a few reasons why Earl might return in The Pitt season 2. Series creator R. Scott Gemmill teased that The Pitt season 2 will introduce new characters and that the hospital will experience a lot of changes in the offseason. While those new characters and changes will keep the show fresh, they also run the risk of making The Pitt season 2 feel too different. An easy way to solve that would be by having more returning characters, like Earl, appear just to provide some continuity. Earl also adds some much-needed humor to The Pitt, so Gemmill may decide to include him anyway.