The promo for Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 8 told us a pilot would suffer from seeing the world upside down after her plane crashed. It turns out that there is much more to the story.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 8.
Rather than opening immediately with the emergency, we open the night before. While in a club, our future patient, Elle, is dancing away. The next day, she’s flying to New York, and her captain can’t help but see glitter on her face, and of course, he hits on her.
When they’re given an order to circle the airport for a while, the captain turns off autopilot, tells Elle to take over, and heads to the bathroom. It’s then that there’s an emergency. Elle initially sees spots in her vision, and then she seems to fall asleep. When she wakes up, the world is upside down, but she doesn’t initially realize.
To make matters worse, one of the engine blows, and Elle is forced to perform an emergency landing while seeing the world upside down. What is going on, and has it all been her fault?
Ericka is shocked to find out it’s drug test time in Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 8
There is still focus on Jorge’s story, and this is sure to get bigger. Anna Torres is still by her son’s side, hoping that he will wake up, and Wolf wants to give her hope. However, Porter is worried about the situation.
Meanwhile, Carol has a patient of her own to worry about. A man named Hector is at Hudson Oaks, and Carol wants to understand why he isn’t being discharged yet.
It’s been two years since the residents were at the hospital, and despite having a six-month drug testing policy, they’ve not done one ever. Silva makes it clear that it’s time for Ericka and Dana to get drug tested, which naturally, puts Ericka in a spin. Dana thinks that the benzos should be out of her system by now, but that all gets much harder when the plane crash comes into the hospital.
When Wolf, Thorne, and others speak with Elle, she suddenly can’t move her arm. The first theory is that she’s had a stroke.
Carol pays Hudson Oaks a visit
If it is a stroke, there is a drug that can help, but Wolf notes that if it isn’t a stroke, this drug could lead to major blood loss. While Porter pushes for the drug, Thorne and Wolf tell him to shut up. Wolf doesn’t think that it’s a stroke, despite the signs, and he wants Elle to trust him with the decision not to take the drug.
Meanwhile, Ericka turns to Jacob. Since he used to be an athlete, he likely knew people who tried to fake a drug test. Jacob makes it clear that it isn’t a good idea. Nobody ever really passes, and Ericka needs to be honest with herself and with others about what is going on. He wants to help her deal with the emergencies in the ED, and that includes the captain, who has a twisted testicle. As soon as Ericka hears the way the captain speaks about Elle, she decides to do the treatment herself, because it’s going to hurt. What happened to do no harm? Although, that was fun to watch.
Over at Hudson Oaks, Carol waits for Amelia, who takes her straight to Hudson. There seems to be something fishy going on, but it’s impossible to put my finger on what that is just yet. All Carol wants is to speak with Hector, and Amelia doesn’t get in the way of that.
Back at the hospital, Elle is relieved to learn that everyone survived her emergency landing in the Hudson River. She also learns from Thorne that she hasn’t had a stroke. If there’s one thing I love about this episode, it’s seeing that Thorne actually likes Wolf now that he understands the way he works.
While Porter treats Jorge for another infection, the captain verbally attacks Elle to get her to tell the passengers about everything that happened, pointing out that she must have been on drugs. Things take some turns for the worse as Elle suddenly can’t speak in English (and it sounds like she should be in The Sims), and the Transportation Safety Board investigators show up.
Thorne is sure that it’s not drugs
We continue to see Thorne and Wolf team up in Brilliant Minds season 2 episode 8. While the investigators push Elle for answers, despite her medical condition, Wolf and Thorne discuss what is wrong. Thorne has seen patients on drugs, and Elle doesn’t match any of that. They need to get to the bottom of this before the investigators make their own decisions.
Meanwhile, Porter has some good news about Jorge in that his blood pressure is back to normal. They’re treating his infection, and he wants to continue to do that. However, he shares with Anna that he has been through this type of situation personally, and it could be time to stop doing more invasive procedures other than treating the infections.
Back at Hudson Oaks, Carol speaks with Hector, who shares how he’s scared about leaving. It’s an understandable fear. While he’s in Hudson Oaks, he’s surrounded by people like him. When he goes home, he needs to be surrounded by people who aren’t like him, and he’s worried about how they will look at him. However, Carol makes it clear that his family wants him back home.
It doesn’t take long for Dana to find out what Porter has done. She isn’t impressed with him, but there’s also a part of her that seems to agree with his decision. After all, he has a good point about false hope, but at what point is it false hope?
Dana gets a page and she rushes straight to find Wolf, who is hanging upside down to see the world the way Elle does. There’s a problem, though. There’s a video of Elle dancing circulating social media, and it’s only a matter of time before anyone continues to look into the genuine cause and makes some sort of biased suggestion.
Meanwhile, Carol gets to speak with Amelia again, who confirms that she will discharge Hector. She also shares her vision for Hudson Oaks as a place for people without money to come to, as she grew up without money and watched her mom suffer mentally due to a lack of affordability. This is far too sickly sweet for my liking. Is Carol really falling for this?
Despite the video, Elle says that she was sober. She just likes dancing because it feels freeing. That’s when she shares that she saw black dots before the vision twisted upside down. She even writes on a chalkboard upside down, proving to Wolf and Thorne that this is how her brain is currently perceiving and processing the world. Now Wolf knows what is wrong with her.
Wolf and Carol help Elle
It’s a complex migraine, and the black spots were an aura telling her that a migraine was coming. While Elle has never had migraines before, Wolf shares that it’s not about treating the symptom. They need to figure out why the migraine happened so that she can keep flying.
Wolf also has Porter to deal with, as he learns that Porter has convinced Anna to agree to no more invasive treatments. This is now what Wolf wanted to hear, but there’s clearly more to this.
However, we need to find out why Elle is getting all these migraines. She’s never had one before, and flying isn’t stressful. It turns out that the encounter with the captain is what triggered something. She’s never had to deal with a captain like that, and she felt trapped in the cockpit. That links back to an experience growing up with an abusive stepfather. She left her mom with her stepfather and never looked back, sharing that that was the hardest thing she has ever had to do.
This moment in the cockpit brought back the feelings of being trapped, and that led to the migraine. To be able to get a handle of them, Elle needs to deal with her trauma and her pain. Her stepdad has now died, but Elle still hasn’t forgiven her mom for staying with an abusive man. Maybe it’s about time to see her mom.
Ericka is finally honest with Silva on Brilliant Minds
As Silva reminds Ericka about the drug test, she panics again. This time, she starts looking for a way to get herself injured so that she can go to occupational health and get time for the benzos to wear off. She tells Van this, who apologizes for not realizing just how anxious Ericka was. He then makes it clear that the best thing she can do is talk to Silva.
Well, she does, and it goes well. Silva is shocked that Ericka has taken a drug, and immediately assumes that it’s an illegal one. When she shares about the benzos and talking them without a prescription, he realizes the dangers of all this. He wants Ericka to get the mental health help that she needs and deserves, and then he tells her to see him in two weeks.
Meanwhile, Wolf and Carol talk with the transportation investigators with Elle to explain the entire situation. Now with a treatment plan, Elle should be safe to fly. Elle also makes it clear that she doesn’t regret her actions, as she was able to land a plane by trusting her instruments and her gut while her vision was off.
The investigators agree with this. They found some concerning photos of the captain’s phone and he is being suspended. On top of that, there was a recreational drone in the airspace that shouldn’t have been there, and that’s what led to one of the engines blowing out. Elle did all the right things, and while the investigation will continue, they’re not recommending that Elle be suspended. She is good to continue with her dream job.
We end this part of the episode with Porter going to see Wolf. Porter remains eerily calm as Wolf loses his cool, and it’s clear to see that this is exactly what Porter wants. Porter even goes as far as claiming that Wolf is so focused on helping Jorge because he is Josh’s patient. It’s annoying to see Porter so cool and somewhat in the right. There was no reason for Wolf to get so angry.
Back to the Hudson Oaks storyline
Even Wolf knows that what he said wasn’t right, and he tells Carol that she shouldn’t have gone so hard on Porter. Thorne disagrees, saying that Porter should have worked with the team and not against it. Can I say any more good about this man? I knew Thorne was going to be one of the good ones in the hospital!
Carol does want to get to the bottom of Wolf’s mental state, though. He’s sleeping at the hospital and his desk is a mess. It also turns out that he hasn’t swam in the Hudson since his dad left. He’s not dealing with his dad abandoning him, and Carol can see it.
Wolf isn’t the only one who needs Carol’s help, as Ericka comes to see her. However, this isn’t to make Carol her therapist. She wants a referral, which is smart to keep work and health separate as much as possible,
We end the episode with some positive moves at first. Elle and Wolf go up in a plane so that Elle can start trusting herself again, and Jorge moves his fingers, showing signs that he is waking up. Carol gets a call from Amelia to say that she has started the discharge paperwork. While Carol says that she is impressed with Amelia’s facility, it’s clear that Amelia hasn’t been completely honest. Not with that car she drives!
That’s why it’s not surprising that we go to four months later, with Wolf in the facility. He tells Amelia that she’s lying, and she makes it clear that it’s his word against hers, and she has people to corroborate her story. Who is one of those people? Only Hector, Carol’s patient Amelia was meant to discharge.
Brilliant Minds airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.