While we usually get a cold open involving the patient, Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 6 opens with the interns and Porter on a group outing to a haunted house. Ericka certainly has her points about the use of mental asylums for haunted houses, but it's clear that she's also scared.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 6.
In fact, all of them end up scared as they work through the haunted house and end up splitting up. It's clear that this is going to be a big Ericka-focused episode when it comes to the interns' arcs, as she is trapped in what is supposed to be an elevator, and she panics, with Jacob helping her get out.
Wolf's mind starts playing tricks on him in Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 6
After the credits, we head to Wolf's house, where he's getting ready for some sort of event. A knock on the door interrupts him, and he rushes to the door, hoping that it's his dad. Nobody is there, though, and when Wolf gets back to the mirror, he sees a woman in a hospital gown coming down his stairs.
Sure enough, it's a nightmare, but this is going to come up during the episode.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, an emergency comes in. A man was found without a pulse in an ice bath, but nobody wants to call time of death just yet. As we all know from medical dramas, you're not dead when icy cold. You're only dead when you're warm and dead.
On Wolf's floor, Silva is ruining the Halloween fun for everyone, although I can see his arguments against wearing costumes. There is the talk of curses, as it turns out three patients in a row have died in room 313, so Silva suggests they close the room for the night. Josh doesn't want to believe in curses, but when there's a suggestion to put Jorge Torres from Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 5 in that room, he decides against it.
There may be a curse against Josh, as he is served. Is it the Torres family? We're sure to find out.
As Wolf comes into the hospital, he sees Carol, who usually doesn't work at Halloween. She enjoys this night, but this year, it's without Morris and that means no couples costumes. They pass the patient's friend, who panics that this could be the end of things, but sure enough, the patient from the ED comes back to life.
The push for eternal life
Now that the patient is awake, Wolf starts running some tests on the patient, Cyrus. It turns out that Cyrus is a biohacker, and he is doing everything he can to make sure he lives forever. Thomas isn’t his friend, but his assistant.
Back in the ED, we learn that Sam is back in the waiting room. Ericka desperately wants to help him, but she manages to find another way to do that. She decides to go find him some better food.
As for Carol, she has her patient to see, but I don’t think this patient is going to get any help. This patient is dressed as a clown, and I can fully relate to Carol’s fear of clowns.
We do learn who is suing Wolf, and it’s linked to a Brilliant Minds season 1 episode. Remember the episode that involved the group of hysterical pregnancies and the witch coven? Well, Sarah Kim’s parents are suing for the costs of all the tests that were ordered. Naturally, the board is asking questions, and Wolf may need to defend his actions.
Wolf has something more important to deal with right now, though. Thomas, the assistant, collapses as tests show that Cyrus’s hemoglobin levels are high. As Thomas utters something about getting blood to Cyrus, they rush in to find that Cyrus is standing in front of lamps getting a blood transfusion that was most definitely not ordered.
Cyrus has gone to the extreme to life forever
Thomas’s blood was in the blood bags, and that’s something Thomas signed up for. There is a history of people using young blood to stay young forever, and Wolf decides he wants to get to the bottom of why Cyrus is so afraid to die. What was his trauma?
Well, Cyrus was diagnosed with breast cancer, and he spent two years fighting it. When he went into remission, he was left with no purpose, and that led to him searching for a way to live the healthiest life possible. It’s not that he’s afraid to die, but that he feels like he’s doing something with all his biohacking.
Porter actually shows some sympathy in Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 6 when speaking with Thomas. He shares how his grandfather lived to 100, but at the end of the day, his grandfather said that life was too short. Thomas has had to give up everything to remain healthy for the blood transfusions, and Porter wonders if his life was worth it. Is it worth the lack of quality of life?
What the doctors do learn is that Thomas’s blood wasn’t the reason for Cyrus to collapse. It turns out that Cyrus is on immunosuppressants, and the meds have led to him becoming sicker. It shouldn’t take long for the doctors to get to the bottom of things, as Cyrus has a seizure. What’s interesting during the seizure is that needles stick to his fingers. What is going on?
Throughout all this, we see Josh asking the interns about the coven patients and the tests ordered. We also see Pierce turn to Van to help her see the patient, and he quickly notices that she’s feeling scared. Well, wouldn’t you when the clown jumps up against the window of the room?
There is also another instance of Wolf seeing the female patient in the hospital gown from his nightmare. This is a much bigger situation, but does it link to why he’s in Hudson Oaks in six months?
Ericka tries to help Sam in Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 6
Cyrus has been through multiple body modifications, including putting magnets in his fingers. Since there are magnets, the doctors can’t do an MRI, so they need to do a contrast CT.
While waiting for the results, Wolf and Carol get a chance to talk about trauma. The woman that Wolf keeps seeing is a patient who died when he was a junior resident. She had a grade 3 brain tumor, but she wasn’t willing to give up the fight to live. However, Wolf could tell that it was a losing battle. He didn’t have the heart to not let her try to fight it, and she ended up dying on Halloween night in a lot of pain. It’s a loss that haunts him. Literally, it seems!
I do have to question the consistency in the writing for Wolf here. He questions the life quality that this woman had in her remaining days because of the fight against the tumor. However, wouldn’t that have come up in Brilliant Minds season 1 when they were dealing with the patient with locked-in syndrome who just wanted to die? Why did he think that it was so important to live when there arguably wasn’t the quality of life?
The conversation ends with Carol realizing that she needs to treat her clown patient, and that’s when Porter comes into the room. The scans are in, and there’s something that could be upsetting to Cyrus. There could be a tumor in his brain, but right now, all they can see is a mass. They need to do surgery to find out, but for now, Cyrus believes it’s cancer.
Back in the ED, Sam continues to struggle with the voices in his head, but Ericka manages to get him to agree to signing himself into the hospital for 48 hours. This is a chance for him to get the psychiatric help that he needs. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, how about an elevator? The place Sam needs to go is on the third floor, and they decide to take the elevator, despite both of them disliking closed-in spaces. Sam starts to panic as the voices tell him that it’s dangerous to be there, and he pushes the emergency button. That leads to Ericka having a panic attack.
Jacob and Wolf help friends in need
We continue to see Jacob as a supportive friend in Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 6. Ericka, who is still struggling with the way she reacted in the elevator, shares that she had been stealing some of Dana’s medication before heading to the retreat in Mexico. While in Mexico, she had to get in the elevator, and she struggled with that, leading to her getting benzos from the pharmacy there.
Jacob points out that Ericka is doing things that everyone does. However, he also agrees that she needs to get some help to deal with her mental health issues.
Jacob isn’t the only person helping others. Wolf goes into Josh’s office when he learns that Josh isn’t doing the surgery. While Josh says that he’s busy, Wolf points out that Josh has barely done surgeries since the Torres family, and it’s clear that he’s focusing on losing Benny rather than saving Jorge. It’s time for Josh to step back up and get back into surgeries rather than focusing on the curse.
Meanwhile, Carol goes to see the clow. She doesn’t last in there, though, and I really don’t blame her. It does sound like this guy could have killed a cat. Fortunately for her, Ericka interrupts, asking for help.
We end this part of Brilliant Minds with Wolf seeing his former patient again, this time seeing the woman in a hospital bed. Porter interrupts the visions, sharing that Josh has finished with Cyrus’s surgery. It’s time to bring him some surprising news.
Thomas stands up for himself
Ericka wasn’t getting the help for herself. She wanted to get Carol to Sam rather than take Sam to Carol, and as Sam hears the voices in his head again, he decides to ask Carol for some help. It’s a huge step for him.
As for Cyrus, he had a parasitic tapeworm, which could have come from a couple of the things he tried during his biohacking tests. He decides it’s time to cut back on some of the “treatments,” and he wants Thomas to test all of his food first. Well, Thomas has had enough. While he wishes Cyrus well, Cyrus is on his own, because Thomas wants to live his life.
While Porter explains that some of Wolf’s ways rubbed off on him and that’s why Thomas stood up for himself, Porter asks Wolf if he’s scared of death. For himself, Wolf isn’t scared. However, he is scared for his patients.
We close out the episode with Josh turning to Jorge to ask for a miracle, as that’s what he needs to keep believing in right now. Carol decides that she does miss going out for Halloween, and Wolf has listened to her love for couples costumes. He has a great one, which connects to another on eof Zachary Quinto’s projects, Star Trek.
As for Porter, he sees the same woman Wolf saw in the mirror of his locker. So, this patient links Porter and Wolf, and I’m going to take a guess and say it’s Porter’s mom or sister, and he blames Wolf for the way the woman died. One thing is certain: every doctor has a graveyard.
Sure enough, back to the six months later storyline (which is now four months later), we see Wolf back at Hudson Oaks. He has a visitor, who just happens to be Porter, who seems to be there to gloat. However, as Porter says Wolf looks like he's seen a ghost, it's clear that Porter is the last person Wolf expected.
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Brilliant Minds airs on Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.