NEED TO KNOW

• The Pitt star Shabana Azeez exclusively opens up to PEOPLE about the reveal that her character, medical student Victoria Javadi, is a popular medical influencer

• The fourth episode of season 2 shows the continuing care of a patient who tells her doctor that she wants to be treated by a mysterious Dr. J

• Azeez, whose character is revealed to be Dr. J, says, “It’s really important that we don’t dismiss the TikTok element of her personality as an unintellectual thing”

Dr. J is in the hospital!

Shabana Azeez exclusively opens up to PEOPLE about the reveal that her character, medical student Victoria Javadi, is a popular medical influencer.

The fourth episode of season 2, which aired Thursday, Jan. 29, shows the continuing care of a patient who accidentally glued her eyelashes together. The patient tells her doctor that she wants to be treated by a mysterious Dr. J, a medical professional who gives advice on social media.

Dr. Frank Langdon, played by Patrick Ball, reacts in confusion and inquires about the influencer. The patient, played by Ball’s real-life girlfriend Elysia Roorbach, then shows him a video on her phone of Javadi.

Langdon later introduces Javadi to the patient. “This is Willow, your new patient,” he tells her, and she clarifies to the patient, “I’m a student doctor.”

“I’ve watched all of your videos,” Willow says to Javadi as Langdon watches. “The one about coping with difficult coworkers was super helpful.” The medical student suggests the same treatment as Langdon, and Willow jumps at the opportunity to have the influencer take the lead.

“All you, doc,” Langdon tells Javadi, before asking about her follower count. In response, she teases, “More than you’d guess.”

Azeez tells PEOPLE that she was “so excited” to learn of her character’s secret identity. “There’s something really interesting about playing a young woman who’s in a different generation than everybody else,” she says.

“Young women have such purchasing power. They’re such an important market in terms of our society,” the actress continues. “They build culture in a way that other demographics don’t really do, and we need to take them more seriously. With Javadi, I really wanted to play her in a way that was like, she’s girly pop, but she’s also smart.”

“She’s exactly like all the other girls and she’s really smart. Those things aren’t in opposition with each other,” Azeez continues of her character. “To get the social media storyline was really exciting because it’s an opportunity to be like, this TikTok thing is not antithetical to her intelligence. It’s a part of it.”

“It’s a way to explore medicine. It’s a way to explore these really human things that she’s going through. It’s really important that we don’t dismiss the TikTok element of her personality as an unintellectual thing,” she says.

Azeez admits that she has thought about the audience potentially seeing her character as just “another girl on TikTok,” but it doesn’t scare her. “That’s an old social script that I think we can do away with,” she says.

The Pitt season 2 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes debuting Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT until the finale on April 16.

Read the original article on People