TV Romance
Mel & Langdon Romance on ‘The Pitt’? Cast Reacts to Fans Shipping the Docs
Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden) and Dr. Frank Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) sweet bond during all the hospital chaos has endeared fans to The Pitt docs. Some viewers have even started hoping that Mel and Langdon’s relationship will turn romantic at some point. (An important note: Langdon is married with a kid at home!)
Mel and Langdon’s friendship is certainly one of the highlights of The Pitt’s first season, but will it go there? Swooon is breaking down the Mel and Langdon dynamic and what the stars themselves have said about shipping these characters.
Mel and Langdon’s relationship so far on The Pitt
The Mel and Langdon shipping really kicked into high gear when Episode 9 dropped. Mel takes some time to decompress after a child’s drowning death and sits with a patient’s dog in a quiet room. Langdon finds her and sits down next to her on the floor. “This is a tough place for sensitive people,” he says to her. “But we need them badly.”
Langdon has a tough-as-nails (and often arrogant) attitude with everyone, but he’s so gentle with Mel. He recognizes her skill and doesn’t chastise her for having empathy. “Langdon has been wanting to be Robby for so long, wanting to be an attending and a mentor for so long, and there just weren’t any willing participants,” Dearden told Vulture. “Then comes Mel, who is so wanting a mentor to latch on to. It kind of clicks that Mel is pretty much egoless. They clicked because both needs were met.”
Langdon always checks on Mel to make sure she’s okay. When Robby (Noah Wyle) essentially fires Langdon for stealing medication from the hospital (he says he’s weaning himself off the drugs), he leaves without a word. Mel asks Santos (Isa Briones) about Langdon, and she’s upset to learn he left without saying goodbye.
it really is That serious pic.twitter.com/wnthmy5nbK
— jack (@seniarov) March 29, 2025
In Episode 12, Langdon returns to the hospital when it’s all hands on deck after the PittFest mass shooting. “You’re here!” Mel exclaims in the middle of the hospital havoc. Mel still doesn’t know why Langdon left initially, but she’s thrilled her friend is back.
Will there be a Mel and Langdon romance on The Pitt?
Don’t get your hopes up for a Mel and Langdon romance. Both Dearden and Ball have said that Mel and Langdon’s dynamic is sibling-like.
“I think Mel is asexual,” Dearden told Us Weekly. “I don’t think that’s part of how Mel would think — especially at work. She’s a hyper professional.”
When asked about the fans shipping Mel and Langdon together, Dearden replied, “I didn’t know people were thinking that. That’s really funny. The funny thing is Patrick is always like, ‘God, you remind me of my sister.'”
Ball told the outlet that he believes the shipping “has to do with the fact that audiences have been trained by most medical dramas for love affairs more than it has to do with me and Mel.” (Granted, most medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy, The Resident, New Amsterdam, etc. have central romances.)
The actor acknowledged that Dearden reminds him “so much” of his sister. “That’s the relationship that I thought we were having,” he continued. “So it was really strange to have people trying to ship us off like that. I think what Langdon sees in Mel is that she’s got the right stuff. She sees the world the right way. She understands what this job is. She’s really smart and she’s really competent and she’s also a caregiver.”
In an interview with TooFab, Ball said, “Just something about how Taylor operates and how Mel operates, I was like, ‘You just feel like my sister.’ I just immediately feel this sort of like brotherly attachment to you. So the fact that the Internet is trying to, like, make this a different thing is kind of insane to me. So funny.”
The Pitt has been renewed for Season 2, which is already underway. The first season didn’t have any romantic plotlines (a rarity in medical dramas), but could that change in Season 2? Only time will tell! Fans are also shipping Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) and Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) together.
Do you ship Mel and Langdon together? Vote below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
The Pitt, Season 1 Finale, April 10, Max
