With a new chief out, it’s time for a new chief to enter the building in Brilliant Minds season 2, episode 3. What does this mean for Wolf and the interns?
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Brilliant Minds season 2, episode 3.
In the newest episode of Brilliant Minds, we start with the soon-to-be patient yet again. This start is a little different to all the others, as we get what seems to be a crime investigation rather than a medical situation.
A woman walks down the stairs of the subway, and it’s clear that she knows some of the people on there so uses it routinely. A man is following her, and we see him run toward her as the train comes. It looks like he pushes her onto the tracks, and the train barrels toward the woman.
Katie and Max are called to the subway, and they find the woman is under the train, but could be alive. The electricity hasn’t been turned off yet, but Katie jumps on the tracks anyway to get the woman out.
Van’s ex turns to Van and the team for help in Brilliant Minds season 2, episode 3
At the hospital, Wolf is celebrating his mom retiring, but he fails to realize that someone worse could take over. Carol quickly points that out, and Wolf wishes that she could be the next chief.
At the ED, the woman, Gloria, is pulled in. Thorne rushes in, making it clear that Gloria cannot be moved at all, but she needs to have a respirator put in. Jacob gets the opportunity to do it, giving us the chance to see Thorne’s teaching style. I like him so far, and he better not mess up! With Gloria now on a respirator, it’s time for Nichols to jump in to deal with the brain injury.
Van is quick to point out to Dana that Katie saved that woman’s life by jumping on the tracks. Of course, Dana is not impressed that Katie jumped on those tracks. There isn’t much time to discuss this, though, as Van’s ex, Michelle, turns up at the hospital. She has a man called Adam who may have been the one to push the woman, Gloria. There was only him and Gloria on the subway at the time, but there are a lot of issues with this case.
Adam is a man with autism who is non-verbal. Because of his inability to communicate properly, she fears that he won’t be given a fair chance, and he has already hit his head while in jail. She thought the hospital was the safest place, especially with Wolf, Van, and the others.
How do you communicate with someone different?
There are a lot of important topics coming up in Brilliant Minds season 2, episode 3. The world is quick to right off people like Adam, but Michelle wants to make sure he’s cared for.
While everyone around the hospital is talking about how amazing Katie was in the save, the others are focused on Adam, finding a way to gain his trust. Adam gets more and more agitated with them, even in the isolated room from everyone else, but one thing Wolf notices is that he’s a smart man. He’s doing a puzzle upside down.
Wolf explains that they need to find Adam’s way of communication to build trust, and they need to figure out what Adam is feeling. Well, why not get Van in the room? This is great, but it doesn’t work as normal. As Van explains how certain emotions feel, he realizes that Adam seems to be feeling everything. However, a small outburst from Adam helps Van realize that he needs headphones to close off the sounds around him.
With this, Adam is able to calm down enough to say “Sayeh” to the group. Now they need to figure out what that means, but Van can tell that Adam is scared.
While all that is going on, Carol turns to Dana and Ericka and apologizes for bringing them into the deep dive on Alison. When she explains that Alison didn’t report her, they’re shocked, and Ericka decides that she needs to know who did it.
Getting to the bottom of Adam’s mystery word
The group of doctors regroup on their options. Van and Michelle need to head to Adam’s group home to see if there is anything that could connect to “Sayeh,” while Wolf asks Carol to stall the police. She won’t do that, so Wolf says that he’ll do it instead.
As Carol leaves Wolf’s office, she bumps into Thorne, who wants to see how Carol is doing. We learn that he was once in marriage counselling, but it doesn’t look like things worked out. I’m definitely interested in these two at least having some fun together.
At Adam’s group home, there’s nothing that really stands out. It’s only when his roommate comes in that they’re able to get to the bottom of it. Michelle sees that the roommate has movie posters that are all linked to spies, so she tells him that they’re on a top secret mission. While it doesn’t get to the bottom of the word, it does help them learn that Adam is about to age out of the group home. Gloria was taking him looking at apartments, which he didn’t like.
This is also a chance for Van and Michelle to reconnect. They see a drawing in Adam’s room of the place they went on their first date to. Is there a chance of reconciliation?
Back at the hospital, Ericka is spending all her time trying to figure out who reported Carol. While Carol says that she doesn’t want to know, Ericka thinks that she needs to know so that she can stop looking over her shoulder. As Katie turns up, Dana throws shade about her taking off her bandage, clearly picking a fight, but it's not like that can go anywhere, as there's a huge bang from the rec room.
When they rush in, Porter and Adam are alone, and Porter claims that Adam threw him to the ground.
Their conversation is cut short when they learn that Gloria is awake, but when Jacob is in there, Gloria is coughing up blood.
Dana learns to be honest in Brilliant Minds
The good news is Gloria hasn’t died, but she needs to have surgery again. The doctors need to figure out what happened, but one thing they all agree on is that Jacob didn’t do any harm when putting the respirator in. That’s great news for him.
Ericka brings up the idea that Max reported Carol, but Dana shoots that down quickly. What she really wants to know is why she’s searching so hard for this. Ericka points out to Dana that Wolf has done so much and not been reported, but women, especially women of color, aren’t given the same benefit of the doubt. It’s time they stand up for people like them.
Back with the group looking for answers about Adam, Michelle is worried that they won’t get what they need. It’s only as Porter explains that Adam grabbed his jacket and then pushed him away that Michelle realizes Adam didn’t do it maliciously. Adam was trying to get a pen, and that leads to them all going back to Adam.
Sure enough, he wanted to draw something. He wants to draw a black, squiggly X. It means nothing to any of them, especially with Adam saying “Sayeh” over and over again. It looks like everything will go against Adam when the cops show up at the hospital again. They arrest Adam, sharing that there’s footage of Adam running out of the subway. They’re sure of his guilt.
With all that, Michelle needs to get to the police station to help Adam in any way that she can. Van uses this chance to see if there is hope for the two of them getting back together, but Michelle quickly shoots him down. She makes it clear that they didn’t communicate enough.
Speaking of communication, Dana goes into the breakroom to see Katie sleeping, and immediately fears the worst. It offers the two of them a chance to speak, as Dana makes it clear that she doesn’t like that Katie rushes into dangerous situations. It makes her feel like Katie doesn’t value her life, and that leads to her fear of losing Katie like she’s lost her sister.
Well, it turns out Katie does value life. She views every situation like Dana’s sister’s, and she wants to save people because of that.
Wolf and others are walking around the hospital trying to figure out what is going on with Gloria, when they walk past a doctor checking on a patient. As the doctor says, “Say ah,” Wolf has figured it all out. He then rushes to the room to get Carol to look at the drawing that Adam did. When she says that it looks like a butterfly, Wolf and the interns have worked it all out.
Sure enough, Gloria has a treatable illness, but she needs steroids. She has lupus, which has a butterfly-shaped rash when there’s a flare-up. This is what Adam was trying to tell everyone, and she’s heartened by the fact.
It turns out that Adam didn’t push her. She was walking him through the subway as she always does, with him staying a bit behind her because he doesn’t like the noises. However, as Gloria fainted, Adam tried to rush to catch her before she hit the tracks. When that didn’t happen, he clearly ran out in fear.
The truth will set you free (but it can also ruin friendships)
With all that, Adam is released and able to get back to the hospital. Gloria explains that on the day of the incident, they were heading to the lawyer’s office so that Gloria could become Adam’s fulltime guardian. He is going to live with her now that he’s aged out of the group home. They’re definitely a great pair.
In Carol’s office, Thorne decides to tell her that Ericka is looking around for who reported her, and he shares that he knows. He and some of the guys have a pickleball tournament that a board member wants in on, so Thorne got the details for Carol. However, when Carol thinks about it, she realizes that she doesn’t want to know who did it. There are these checks for a reason, and whoever did it, did the right thing. Thorne points out that now Carol has her answer: it doesn’t matter who reported her.
Well, we do get to find out who reported her. As Ericka is sharing that she also thinks it doesn’t matter and that secrets hurt, she’s actually getting ready to tell Dana about the medication she’s taking. Instead, Dana admits that she was the one who reported Carol, which angers Ericka considering Dana allowed Ericka to waste so much time throughout the day.
Dana shares that she’s not sorry for reporting Carol, and she also doesn’t have to explain herself to Ericka. Dana would do it again if she had to. It looks like that friendship could be on the outs.
Finally, Carol goes to the rec room to see why Wolf wanted to see her. It’s for Wolf to throw her a welcome back party and to thank her for choosing to come back. The party doesn’t go on for long before Wolf is asked to go to see the new chief. Who could it be? Well, I think we’re all surprised to see Dr. Nichols, who had spent the episode avoiding Wolf, in the office. Just how much is that going to ruin this relationship? It's time for the two to talk.
Brilliant Minds airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.