Summary
Brilliant Minds Episode 8 presents a… novel case, while continuing to do some solid romantic work in the background.
Once you get over the obvious hilarity of the premise – it’s about a sweet old lady who wants to have sex all the time, to the horror of her two adult sons – Episode 8 of Brilliant Minds is quite charming. “Chapter Eight: The Lovesick Widow” is fundamentally about finding oneself and doing what makes you happy, which is a lesson that several of the characters, including Dr. Wolf, could stand to learn.
But it is funny, there’s no doubt about that. It’s also a little weird, especially in some subplots involving Carol’s marriage and Ericka’s love triangle with Jacob and Van, with the latter especially leading to an out-of-nowhere ending that doesn’t make a great deal of sense according to what we’ve been shown. But I’m not one to nitpick.
The Horny Grandmother
The A-plot involves June, an elderly woman who has been rushed to hospital by her sons for exhibiting signs of dementia – confusion, entering the rooms of other patients in the assisted-living facility, that kind of thing. As it turns out, she’s not confused at all – she’s sleeping around.
The kids are horrified, naturally. They’ve never seen their mother be so sexually enthusiastic or open – this is a woman who was with the same man for decades. The downturn came after her husband’s death which leads to the theory that it’s perhaps grief-related. But that’s not right either.
It turns out June has neurosyphilis, which you can only get after having had syphilis. June and her husband contracted it years ago because he was a serial cheat, and the kids didn’t know this because June made the decision to stay with him and put up with it to preserve their unit. She kept the family together, but she lost some of herself in the process.
Feeling sexually liberated, even if it was due to a neurological condition, has given June a bit of a pep in her step. She doesn’t want to give up promiscuity, even if it means leaving herself at great risk of a stroke (neurosyphilis can be fatal.) The kids are appalled, but Wolf and several of the interns are inspired. Here’s a woman who has earned the right to live how she wants, and is determined to do it. Even when she eventually relents so she can stick around to spend time with her grandkids, her sons agree to some hormone therapy and suchlike to keep her libido up. You can’t keep a good woman down.
Wolf’s Relationship With Nichols Hits Its First Roadblock
It just so happens that this case comes along right as everyone in Brilliant Minds is experiencing their own romantic woes, and chief among them in Episode 8 are Dr. Wolf and Dr. Nichols.
At the end of the previous episode, the two men kissed, finally putting weeks of sexual tension to good use. They spend the entirety of “The Lovesick Widow” taking any opportunity they find to jump all over each other – in the office, in the elevator, you name it. The problem with the latter choice is that the doors open to reveal Muriel, who catches them in the midst of a passionate smooch.
Muriel says nothing at the time, but later on, she warns Nichols not to hurt her son, and he takes that as a hint to break things off before they get too serious. Wolf pretends to take it well but then storms to his mother’s office to go ballistic at her. This isn’t the first time she has interfered in his love life.
Donna Murphy, Teddy Sears and Zachary Quinto in Brilliant Minds | Image via NBC
We know this thanks to flashbacks. There weren’t very many in the previous episode, which was a nice change of pace, but they’re back with a vengeance here. What we’re seeing is young Wolf’s sexual awakening as he gradually falls for and eventually kisses an English exchange student named Tom. Muriel saw him that time, too. When he woke up the next morning, Tom was gone.
Muriel’s dismissal of Tom was a defense mechanism – he was a bit older than Wolf, in a different stage of his life – but she never explained that at the time. She was clearly uncomfortable with her son’s sexuality – “It was a different time then,” she says by way of paltry explanation – and didn’t want to have to confront it. Her silence left Wolf feeling rejected for years.
Determined not to allow his mother to ruin another relationship that might make him happy, Wolf returns to Nichols and they both decide to give things a proper go. Yay!
Now for the Weird Stuff
Brilliant Minds Episode 8 also has a couple of weird subplots involving Carol and Ericka. I’m really not sure about either of these, so let’s go through them together.
Carol, it turns out, has been treating her husband’s mistress unknowingly for months. Something the patient says makes her suspicious, and once she learns who she really is, her revelations about her feelings – how much she misses her ex and all the things they did together – cause Carol even more pain. Her husband had insisted he only slept with her once. But apparently not.
There’s no chance the patient doesn’t know who Carol is, right? What’s her game? I don’t know what we’re supposed to accept at face value here.
And then there’s Ericka. We’ve seen the sexual chemistry developing between her and Jacob for weeks, and when Van brought it up, she seemed to confirm that the attraction was genuine. When June tells her – I’m paraphrasing – that she needs to get laid, Ericka resolves to do just that, and it seems very much like it’s Jacob she’s targeting.
But it’s Van who she invites to her apartment and puts the moves on. Huh. I’m not sure what’s going on here either, since a scene earlier with a topless Jacob talking about the importance of physical attraction seemed to resonate with Ericka. It’s a bit of an odd swerve to take, and I suspect it’ll make for a slightly uncomfortable love triangle in the next few episodes, but something about it just didn’t sit right.
