Summary
Brilliant Minds Season 2 delivers a brilliant Fall finale, revealing Porter’s true identity and motivations and leaving a ton of threads unresolved for later.
I hate to say I told you so, but I did. To be fair, Brilliant Minds Season 2 hasn’t exactly been secretive about Charlie Porter’s ill intentions, and the Halloween special dropped a pretty big clue about his real motivations. Episode 10, “The Resident”, confirms my theory about Porter’s real identity, but also provides a nice, very on-brand breakthrough in Sam’s case, and leaves things on a major cliffhanger as all good Fall finales should.
But let’s get the obvious thing out of the way. Yes, Charlie is the son of Wolf’s former patient, the woman who was dying from a malignant brain tumour, whom he continued to try and “save” despite her terminal prognosis. This was also, as we now know, what was being alluded to in Episode 8, when Porter and Wolf clashed over the former’s conversation with Ana. The writing really was on the wall.
But “The Resident” contrives a pretty grandiose setting for all this – a swanky fundraising gala hosted by Hudson Oaks. Porter takes to the stage at Muriel’s invitation to share his heartwarming story of how he became a doctor, and that’s when the pieces slot into place for Wolf. It’s a brutal moment for him, and handily recontextualises all of Porter’s prior behaviour for us. Now we know why he couldn’t stand to see Wolf give his patients what he considered to be false hope (even though he was wrong about Jorge); why he couldn’t tolerate being scolded by Wolf over a mistake, even if it might have resulted in a patient dying. After all, hasn’t Wolf himself made mistakes that cost the lives of his patients?
It’s still not entirely clear what Porter’s motive in joining Wolf’s team is, and we still don’t know how Wolf ends up in Hudson Oaks himself. We do know that Porter had the location of Wolf’s father, though whether that’s a trap – which I suspect it might be – or not will have to wait. But we know something bad is coming between these two, and knowing this show, Wolf is going to have so much self-loathing about being reminded of his lowest ebb that he’ll walk right into it.
Now for the good news – Sam is saved! Well, we think. If nothing else, he’s able to get the new liver he needed, and the surgery went well. He will presumably be on the road to recovery now, at least physically, but his mental health issues aren’t going anywhere, so he’ll need support along the way. But props to Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 10, for bringing this turn about in the most Brilliant Minds way possible. At the gala, after Ericka tried and failed to schmooze the head of the hospital’s transplant department into adding Sam to the list, Wolf took to the stage to very publicly thank him for his altruism in agreeing to help Sam, forcing him into a position where he had no choice but to help him. How very Oliver Wolf.
But whatever works. Ericka and Wolf share a bit of a cuddle after this success that I surprisingly found quite moving, since Wolf isn’t necessarily prone to public displays of affection. But there seems to be something in the air in “The Resident” in that regard. Ericka’s so excited about Sam – we haven’t mentioned her Benzo addiction for a while, have we? – that she renews her relationship, or at the very least her physical intimacy, with Jacob. And this is perhaps coming at the right time, since he was just considering moving back to Texas to take his dream job.
Van fares less well. He and Michelle seem to be back on the cards, and things are going well enough, but she’s becoming increasingly resistant to his attempts to make the relationship official. She is, after all, a bit wary about putting their kid through another break-up, let alone dealing with one herself, and that’s fair enough. But a bit of forthrightness from Van seems to save the day. Michelle agrees to meet him at the gala, but seems to have stood him up… until the closing scene of the episode reveals that she has been involved in a nasty-looking car crash. Oh, no!
There are plenty of threads for the next episode to pick up on, including not only all this but the fallout from the revelation that Thorne isn’t as single as he has been making out to Carol. There’s still half a season to go – how much more dramatic can things get?!
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