12-02-2025
The Pitt's Noah Wyle Marks 25 Years Since ER Stabbing, Reveals Wild Inspiration Behind Carter's Reaction
On Feb. 10, 2000, during a Valentine's Day party at Chicago's County General, a cake knife went missing — as did med student Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin), who was waiting on a psych consult for her patient, Paul Sobriki (David Krumholtz), in curtain three.
When Lucy's supervisor, Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle), went to find her, all the lights in Paul's room had been turned off. The schizophrenic then emerged from a dark corner and stabbed Carter — not once, but twice. Once Carter collapsed to the ground in agony, he locked eyes with Lucy, who was already bleeding out on the opposite end of the floor.
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One week later, nearly 40 million people tuned in to see if Carter and Lucy pulled through — R.I.P., Lucy! And 25 years later, almost to the day, Wyle paid a visit to TVLine's New York City studio for a wide-ranging interview about his current hit medical drama, The Pitt — and we couldn't let him go without acknowledging this grisly anniversary. What we didn't anticipate, however, was new insight into Carter's impalement, and how Wyle chose to play the scene.
'It sounds trite, but I have almost total recall about certain aspects of that show — and that storyline, in particular. I remember every moment,' Wyle tells TVLine. 'That was Laura Innes' directorial debut, which is such a strong piece of work for her first time at bat… I remember that music ['Battleflag' by Low Fidelity All Stars] that was playing at the party down the hall… and I remember I had worked with an English actor, years earlier, named Carl Brincat.
'I have no idea where Carl is now, but he had shared with me, as we were changing into our costumes, that the scars on his thigh had come from being in a bar fight where a guy had taken an X-Acto knife and shredded his thigh, and he hadn't felt it until after the fight was over,' Wyle recalls. 'And I remember thinking, 'Wow, how can you get stabbed by something and not feel it until…?' And I thought, 'Oh, I'm going to use that.' So, if you have occasion to rewatch that episode, you'll notice he stabs me, and I sort of reach back like it's a tickle, or an annoyance, and then it's the realization of what has happened that increases the horror of the moment. So, thank you, Carl Brincat, for that inspiration.'
We will have much more from our sit-down with Wyle — specifically about his role as star and executive producer of The Pitt — in the coming days. (New episodes of The Pitt drop Thursdays at 9/8c on Max.) In the meantime, watch the five-time Emmy nominee reminisce about above, then hit the comments with your reactions.
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