Brooks returns as Mateo in the latter half of The Pitt season 2’s most recent episode, as the day shift continues trying to process and chart their various patients after having to go analogue amid the worry of a cyberattack. During these initial moments, audiences are also shown him briefly catching up with Javadi, while also recognizing the chaos the day shift went through.

Compared to his season 1 turn, Brooks’ role is relatively short in The Pitt season 2, which the star explains is both due to his busy schedule with Prime Video’s adaptation of Off Campus and a narrative decision on the creators’ part to move him to the night shift. In their early discussions about his scheduling conflict, the group actually came to realize it would “work out perfectly,” as Mateo’s night shift role would be an important transition for viewers:

Having a nurse that the audience is familiar with come in through the night shift with Abbott, it’s these two characters that can ground you in the night shift, so it’s not so unfamiliar. It was kind of nice narratively. But it all worked out, somehow, which is great to do two projects, and to leave The Pitt, but then also be able to come back. The timing worked out perfectly, but I know it’s props to the casting and all the writers to fit me in.

Brooks went on to share the conversations he and Hatosy had while filming The Pitt season 2 about getting to be the two returning characters working in the night shift, allowing viewers to feel that “we know some of those people” and could act as an “entry point” into the chaos of said shift. However, Brooks also denoted that one new creative muscle he got to flex was “stepping into [Mateo’s] relaxed, calm and more settled demeanor,” something he says the night shift requires.

Finding it to be a “really, really fun” chance to showcase a new side of his character, the star went on to point out that “it’s been 10 months since everything that happened” in The Pitt season 1, particularly the harrowing PittFest mass shooting. As such, Mateo has had the time to find “this balance” within himself of having “experienced this [tragedy],” but also still push himself to come back to work.

Turning to The Pitt season 2’s night shift cast, and getting to help introduce some of them to the series, Brooks recalled it being a “crazy” experience, particularly as he himself was “nervous to come back in.” However, he also compared it to the way Wyle viewed his younger co-stars in the series after having led ER for many years, as he “saw all of us come in and stumble with tools,” both as characters and actors in the medical drama. As such, Brooks found it to be “like riding a bike” to get back into the headspace of Mateo and that it was easier to help introduce new stars given they were all thrown right into the mix:

All of us were in traumas all the time, so everybody was just forced to pick it up and run with it, which is really cool to see. And I felt the same. I didn’t feel like I was in a different spot, because I was thrown in there quickly, too, but it was fun. We were always in the same traumas with each other, so there was a real Nightcrawlers’ team dynamic throughout the whole shoot, the last four episodes, it was really nice. We built a team, and it was cool to get that familiarity with all the newcomers.

The Pitt’s Realistic Medical Actions Had Brooks On Edge

After sharing a brief charming moment with Javadi and getting settled for his shift, Mateo is quickly thrown into the mix in The Pitt season 2 when William Guirola’s Orlando Diaz — who earlier came in with a case of diabetic ketoacidosis, but left due to intense medical debt — is brought in after having collapsed and fallen while at a construction site. This not only sees him working with Javadi, but also Supriya Ganesh’s Dr. Mohan, who was treating him during his first stay, to save Orlando.