Summary
Brilliant Minds continues to improve consistently and “The Lost Biker” is an episode that highlights the show’s potential.
I’ve pointed out the potential of Brilliant Minds already, but I feel especially validated by Episode 3, “The Lost Biker”. This, I think, is the show operating on a slightly new level, with all its disparate elements – the unique cases, the dynamics between Wolf and the interns, the backstory, and the occasional formal flourishes – coming together better than in the mixed bag premiere and a very good but still flawed follow-up.
Don’t get me wrong, I have quibbles since I always do. But I’m probably asking too much for a fairly quaint NBC medical drama to lean too heavily into Dr. Wolf’s relationship with a biker gang. It’s not that kind of show.
Wolf’s Side Gig
Yes, in case it wasn’t obvious from the title, Episode 3 of Brilliant Minds features a biker gang with which Wolf has a longstanding arrangement. They fix up his motorcycle, and he patches them up when they get shot.
It’s probably par for the course at this point that the bikers all seem like nice, reasonable people; a bunch of them sit around drinking herbal tea in Wolf’s home while he takes a look at Wyatt (Steve Howey), the club’s president who has, thanks to a tremor, shot himself in the arm.
The gunshot is the least of Wyatt’s problems. The tremor is caused by a growing brain tumor also affecting his memory. If it’s left to get any bigger, it’ll kill him, but the operation to remove it, while doable, will prohibit him from forming any new memories. This is better than having no memories at all, but only just.
Road Trips and Potential Romances
A lot of “The Lost Biker” revolves around Wolf trying to convince Wyatt to get the procedure in his usual off-kilter manner, especially once he learns through Wyatt’s partner Rosie that he’s estranged from his daughter, Hailey. Like in the premiere, Wolf essentially kidnaps his patient to take him to the bar where Hailey works in the hopes of a reconciliation, the idea being that the final memory he can retain is an important one.
But the plan backfires. Hailey tells her dad she’ll never forgive him and the stress causes Wyatt to collapse. Luckily, Dr. Nichols, who was scheduled to perform the surgery, pulls up outside the bar in the nick of time. Between them, they’re able to get Wyatt back to Bronx General, albeit with Wolf having to jam a needle into Wyatt’s brain while the vehicle is still moving.
During the drive, Nichols gets an embarrassing message that plays loudly in the car. Since it’s from a man talking about how fun last night was, I think my suggestion that there was a bit of sexual chemistry between Nichols and Wolf being hinted at in the previous episode is spot on. Something to keep an eye on as we go.
Happy Endings
Brilliant Minds | Image via NBC
The Wyatt thing is resolved pretty neatly. Hailey quickly backtracks on her promise to never forgive her father and is there waiting when he comes out of surgery; we see in the subsequent montage that they maintain their relationship as Wyatt adjusts to living with the help of Post-Its and notebooks. This has been a theme in all three episodes; a resolution that isn’t wholly positive, with the patient nonetheless adapting to a new life with their condition.
The episode’s B-plot has a similar outcome but requires less adjustment. This one revolves around Emily, a young girl who gets mysterious seizures that are eventually diagnosed as being caused by a heart condition, not a neurological one. It’s Van who comes up with the solution to address the issue with a pacemaker, and Emily seems fine with that.
Internal Struggle
This subplot mostly exists for two other reasons. One is to reiterate that Wolf is an unusual doctor and that his predecessor wasn’t concerned about his patients in the same way. The other is to reveal that Van has an extremely rare neurological condition that is like being an empath on steroids – if he sees someone eating, for instance, he can feel the food entering his mouth. This is why he struggled with the lumbar puncture in the second episode and why, in Brilliant Minds Episode 3, when Emily collapses with a stopped heart, so does he.
The upside of this is that it adds an interesting wrinkle to Van’s character that will doubtlessly affect his relationship with Wolf; the downside is that it makes him the most interesting intern by a considerable margin. If all the rest of them turn out to have some heretofore-hidden neurological issue, it’s going to seem a bit too much of a coincidence. But if they don’t, they’re going to seem a bit mundane by comparison.
Still, I like Brilliant Minds, and I suspect it’s going to develop into a real breakout hit for NBC. With other subplots bubbling in the background, like Carol’s marital woes, Wolf’s history with his mother and father, and the enigmatic John Doe case, which doesn’t get a mention in “The Lost Biker”, there’s a ton going on here with the potential to bear ripe fruit down the line.
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