All You Need to Know Before the Brilliant Minds Season 2 Premiere

When Brilliant Minds premiered, it looked like NBC was giving us House, M.D. with a faceblind twist. But by the finale, it had drifted into full-on soap opera territory — think Grey’s Anatomy with even more parental trauma, elevator-related peril, and metaphor-heavy voiceovers.

That said, I heartily agree with almost everything this show stands for: camaraderie, celebrating neurodiversity, treating the whole person instead of just the disease. The message is right on. But the medicine? Not so much. These doctors spend approximately 1,000 hours per patient, doing things like rifling through dorm rooms and finding their long-lost lovers instead of, say, ordering an MRI. Also, mirror-touch synesthesia gives one intern ESP powers, and faceblindness — a major plot point in the pilot — basically vanishes after episode one.

The good news: you really only need to watch two episodes — the pilot (for the premise) and “the elevator one” (for the big traumatic collapse). Everything else is delightful fluff. Here’s your cheat sheet.

The Main Characters (aka the Seven Dwarves of Bronx General)

• Dr. Oliver Wolf (a.k.a. Broody)
  Our main neurologist hero, very loosely based on Oliver Sacks. Haunted by a traumatic childhood, a possibly dead (but not actually dead) dad, and a serious case of prosopagnosia (aka faceblindness). He’s House if House weren’t a jerk, just misunderstood because of his neurodivergence. Also: rides a motorcycle, is gay and flirts badly.

• Dr. Ericka Kenny (a.k.a. Kiss-Up)
  The perfectionist intern. Survives an apartment building collapse but loses her new elevator bestie in the process. Ends up traumatized, homeless, and crashing with Dana.

• Dr. Dana Dang (a.k.a. Chill)
  The dissociation queen and low-key hacker. Stays cool under pressure, holds the interns together, and starts a romance with a hot EMT. Possibly the only person in the hospital with boundaries.

• Dr. Josh Nichols (a.k.a. Beefy)
  A neurosurgeon who has to keep reminding people he’s not “just” a neurologist. Alternates between saving lives and pouting that Wolf doesn’t want to date him. Brings Arby’s in for comic relief.

• Intern Van Markus (a.k.a. Sensitive)
  Has mirror-touch synesthesia, which at one point gives him psychic-seeming diagnostic powers. Also has a secret kid, which becomes less secret thanks to…

• Intern Jacob Nash (a.k.a. Sporty)
  Competitive, manipulative, and in a weird love triangle with Van and Ericka. Only personality trait is that he’s a former college football player.

• Dr. Carol Pierce (a.k.a. Fixer)
  Wolf’s bestie and the hospital’s therapist-in-chief. Is divorcing her husband who seems like a nice guy, and gets fired for knowingly seeing “the other woman” as a patient.

• Mama Wolf (a.k.a. Rock)
  The hospital’s chief medical officer and resident calm presence — except when she’s hiding the fact that Wolf’s dad isn’t dead after all.

• Papa Wolf (a.k.a. Ghost)
  Long presumed dead, actually hanging around and surveilling his son, which is possible only because Oliver Wolf is faceblind. Shows up at the end of the series acting as if he wants to reconnect, but actually in search of a cure for an as-yet-described fatal disorder.

The Medical Mysteries (Greatly Simplified)

• Pilot: Faceblindness introduced, then promptly forgotten. A patient with Alzheimers is briefly restored through the magic of music.

• Chapter 2: A basketball star loses her sense of where her body is in space (proprioception).

• Chapter 3: A biker with a brain tumor faces an Memento-style future without new memories. (I actually have the developmental form of this disorder, it’s not that big of a deal.)

• Chapter 4: A bride with drug-induced amnesia wanders into the ER in a bloody wedding dress, and her groom is missing!

• Chapter 5: A haunted marine with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and paranoia about government microchips.

• Chapter 6: A high school mass-hysteria “pregnancy outbreak.”

• Chapter 7: A terminal patient chooses dignity at Wolf’s apartment. Cue soap-level melodrama.

• Chapter 9: A painter loses all color vision — cue a psychedelic mushroom trip.

• Chapter 10: A boy who can’t feel pain, and a paramedic hiding chronic pain behind prednisone.

• Chapter 11: A Tourette’s drummer seeks deep brain stimulation surgery.

• Chapter 12 (“the elevator one”): Collapse! Pulsatile tinnitus saves a grandpa, but a woman we just met plummets to her death.

• Finale: A pastor mistakes her husband for a hat — straight out of Oliver Sacks. Wolf’s long-lost dad comes home.

So, Should You Watch?

If you want a medically accurate exploration of neurology? No.
If you want to see Zachary Quinto mope while interns with one personality trait apiece solve medical mysteries and sometimes kiss one another? Absolutely.

And if you want realistic, fascinating stories about actual rare neurological conditions (including faceblindness, aphantasia, and severely deficient autobiographical memory) — that’s what my book is for. Check out Do I Know You? and follow me on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for the real deal.