Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 2.Brilliant Minds goes meta in “The Contestant” when a new patient suffers from delusions that she’s constantly being filmed for a dating reality show. Younger alum Molly Bernard stops by Bronx General this week as Lauren Brooks, a young woman who gets injured when trying to escape from a reality TV set — or so she thinks. It’s clear the writers had a lot of fun with this one, as Lauren is constantly pointing out to Wolf (Zachary Quinto) and his team that they have to be actors because they are too good-looking to be actual doctors. They even give us a slow-motion shot of Quinto putting on Wolf’s glasses like he’s a sophisticated new bombshell entering the villa. If someone GIFs the moment, it will be an automatic save to my favorites collection.
Wolf is thrilled to have such a puzzling new case to distract him from the fact that his dad, Noah (Mandy Patinkin), bailed at the end of the Season 2 premiere. Muriel (Donna Murphy), Carol (Tamberla Perry), and Josh (Teddy Sears) know that Oliver is not coping with Noah’s second impulsive exit, but they also realize that pushing Wolf to admit that is a fool’s errand. They need to stand by until he’s ready to deal with how his dad abandoning him again makes him feel. Is avoiding his feelings about Noah what leads Wolf to Hudson Oaks Psychiatric Center? New clues in the second episode indicate that it may be the case, but it’s also obvious that Brilliant Minds is going to slow-burn the reveals in the future storyline.
The Truman Show Comes to Bronx General
In “The More You Know” news, there’s something called The Truman Show Syndrome. Yes, it is named after the Jim Carrey film, and watching Oliver Wolf try to explain that to his interns is potentially the funniest moment Brilliant Minds has ever scripted. Wolf has not seen the film, nor has he seen Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. He thinks that pets solving crimes is ridiculous, thank you very much.
Truman Show Syndrome is Lauren’s diagnosis after Wolf evaluates her in the emergency department after she comes in with mysterious cuts on her face. She thinks she’s constantly being filmed for a reality show that NBC apparently couldn’t legally name Love Is Blind (but they did name a bunch of other NBCU alternatives including Summerhouse and The Traitors). Lauren is so convinced of her delusion that the team have to put her in an isolation room to stop her from escaping the hospital and potentially harming herself or someone else. Once she’s secluded, Wolf is able to get on her level and convince her that she’s the fan-favorite on the show, and so she needs to listen to the doctors so that she can finish the show.
Wolf’s heart-to-heart works, because they always do, but it doesn’t address what’s actually going on with Lauren. That becomes clear when all doctors are paged that Lauren is in severe abdominal pain. An ultrasound reveals she’s been going through IVF and recently underwent an egg retrieval surgery. Complications from the surgery are causing the pain, and once they resolve the leftover issues, Lauren is no longer trapped in her delusion.
The mental strain from her recent breakup, stress from working overtime to afford her IVF treatments, and the hormonal surge in her body creates a perfect storm in her body for a psychotic break. As her hormones even out and she gets some genuine rest, she’ll stop imagining cameras everywhere she goes. However, Lauren’s recovery depends on having a consistent support system in place. Her sister already has a young child and is expecting her second in a few weeks time, so now she’s not able to guarantee the around-the-clock care that Lauren needs in this moment. And that’s when a familiar face swoops in to offer an in-patient solution that puts Oliver Wolf on edge.
There’s a New Mystery About Hudson Oak in ‘Brilliant Minds’ Season 2, Episode 2
Bellamy Young joins the present-day timeline as Amelia Fredrick, the psychiatrist at Hudson Oak who stopped Wolf’s escape in the Season 2 premiere. Amelia magically appears at Bronx General as Wolf and Lauren are discussing her options for continued care after she’s cleared to leave the hospital, and offers Hudson Oak as a solution. If Lauren doesn’t have family support available, then inpatient treatment could be the answer she’s looking for. Oliver is not pleased that Amelia shows up out of nowhere and starts offering him treatment when they’ve never had a conversation before.
So instead of pushing Lauren towards Amelia Fredrick, Wolf pivots to Carol, who has won her job back (more on that later), to help Lauren explore all of her options. They decide that she can live on her own if she agrees to see Carol twice a week for check-ins. If living by herself becomes too much, Carol agrees they can revisit the Hudson Oak solution.
Then we get a flash to six months later to see Wolf signing himself into Hudson Oak. He’s clearly on the rebound or in the midst of a break himself, but he is the one who signs the paperwork to be admitted to the hospital. Worse yet, Carol is there and encourages him to sign the papers. If Wolf voluntarily joins Hudson Oak, why is he trying to escape in the premiere? What has gone so wrong that Carol agrees he needs inpatient psychiatric care? The episode wants us to believe that Wolf gets so worked up over Noah leaving that it leads to him signing into Hudson Oak, but there has to be something more going on. Perhaps Wolf is putting those acting skills Lauren accused him of having to good use, and he’s going undercover at Hudson Oak to uncover a larger mystery. Or maybe I’m giving the writers too much credit, but I have to do something with the scant information we are being given about the Hudson Oak mystery.
Amelia Isn’t the Only One Acting Fishy in ‘Brilliant Minds’
I can’t prove it yet, but my gut tells me that Charlie Porter (Brian Altemus) is also part of the Hudson Oak situation. The second-year resident is still acting suspicious as hell in the second episode. He’s sucking up to Wolf one minute, and then calling patients crazy behind their back the next. How can you be a neuro guy and talk about mental conditions like that? It’s 2025, dude. Read a sensitivity manual before it becomes even more obvious that you are a complete fraud.
Charlie is the number one bad guy on my radar because he keeps targeting Ericka (Ashleigh LaThrop). He catches her taking her Lorazepam in the staff locker room and deliberately fails to wake her up from her on-call nap when the team is being paged about Lauren being in pain. That gets her in trouble with Wolf, and Charlie makes sure Ericka knows that he knows she’s taking pills to deal with her continuing anxiety. Lauren may be right that Charlie is pretty, but man does he suck. I hope Ericka is the one to finally expose him to Wolf before the season is over.
Carol Gets Her Job Back, but It Comes at a Cost
The other pressing matter in “The Contestant” is whether Carol will get her job back after her hearing with the board. Josh (Teddy Sears) helps her practice for the interrogation, and they realize that she is backed into a corner if she tells the truth about continuing to see Allison (Julia Chan) after discovering her patient was having an affair with her husband. But Carol can’t violate her ethics by lying to the board, even with Wolf’s encouragement. She gives an impassioned speech about what she means to her patients and how it is inevitable for boundaries to slip when connection and high emotions are involved in a case.
The testimony is moving, but the jury is split. The odds tip in Carol’s favor when Muriel agrees to step down as Chief Medical Officer of the hospital in exchange for Carol getting the Head of Psych job back. She claims she’s been looking for a reason to retire for a while and this comes at a time when she can devote herself to being Wolf’s mom instead of his boss. Still, that’s a hell of a sword to fall on just to get Carol her job back. Perhaps this is a cost-cutting measure, so the show doesn’t have to use Murphy in as many episodes? Losing Muriel as the head of the hospital cuts a lot of tension for Wolf at the workplace. If both she and Noah are not making Wolf’s personal life more difficult, what is going to create that inner life conflict for the rest of the season? Kicking Muriel out of the hospital cuts Brilliant Minds out of one of its most potent sources of drama, so it is an interesting and potentially devastating pivot.
Carol does not have time to worry about Muriel’s sacrifice because she has a new quandary to solve. Muriel stepping down and a surprise statement of support from Allison shifts the board to approve Carol’s return. Why would Allison give a statement of support and say Carol saved her life if Allison is the one who filed the complaint in the first place? It turns out the former patient didn’t, so Carol needs to go back to square one to figure out who is trying to get her out of her job. At least Wolf has one ally back in the hospital, and he got to solve a case that didn’t involve a phantom/independent limb (or maybe that’s just for me?). He’s going to need all the help he can get if a psychotic break is truly on the horizon for the doctor.
Brilliant Minds continues Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Episodes are available the next day on Peacock.
- Release Date
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September 23, 2024
- Directors
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Lee Toland Krieger, David Katzenberg, Dawn Wilkinson, Harry Jierjian, Jordan Canning, Maggie Kiley, Sudz Sutherland, Charles Randolph-Wright, Deborah Kampmeier
- Writers
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Sara Saedi, Ryan Knighton, Will Ewing, Daniela Lamas, Davia Carter, Stasia Demick, William Yu, David Carter, Alex Berger, Shannon Looney
Pros & Cons
- Dr. Wolf trying to comprehend Jim Carrey’s filmography was perfect
- This was an absolutely fascinating new case
- Carol is back on the job
- The Hudson Oaks mystery is rolling out very slowly
- Muriel leaving Bronx General eliminates a lot of drama for Oliver
- Charlie is a bad actor too often to be successful con man
