Brilliant Minds returned from its winter break with its two-hour finale. In Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 12, it was all about the collapsed building.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 12.
The penultimate episode quickly picked up off the back of the fall finale. Ericka’s building had collapsed, and we knew that she was inside when it happened. Wolf and the others didn’t know, but they had a feeling. Nobody had seen Ericka and they couldn’t get a hold of her.
Sure enough, Wolf headed out to the building. Nichols had been called out to treat a patient, who was trapped under the rubble, and Wolf wasn’t going to let him go alone. Meanwhile, the interns needed to deal with patients coming into the hospital, and Ericka had a medical emergency of his own.
Ericka treats a patient in the elevator in Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 12
We left Ericka in the elevator with a woman about her own age and the woman’s grandfather. Sure enough, they were trapped in there, but they weren’t just going to sit around and die. Not when they started to hear the cables holding the elevator up snap.
Of course, this led to a medical emergency. As you would expect, the grandfather tried to bash his way out of the vent at the top only to collapse on the floor. Ericka, ever so cool and calm, was able to treat her patient. At first, she treated him for a stroke, but as the granddaughter mentioned the tapping her grandfather had been doing, Ericka realized that it was something else.
She believed the grandfather was suffering from pulsatile tinnitus, a rare form of tinnitus that causes a rhythmic sound of the pulse in the ears. The grandfather was tapping the sound of his heartbeat, and it meant that Ericka could treat it.
Of course, we had to remember that there were cables snapping. Just how many of those cables were left? In the world of TV, there’s always only one, and it snaps just before the last person gets out of the elevator. I don’t think it was that surprising to see the last cable snap just as the firefighters got to the elevator and got the grandfather and Ericka out. This is something that will live with Ericka for some time.
A reminder of social isolation and its dangers
Many people have suffered the consequences of social isolation since the pandemic. Brilliant Minds touched on this in the episode, with Karen Robinson playing the role of a woman who suffered from dehydration, poor kidney function, and malnutrition. They were all signs of social isolation, especially when you linked the fact that she had nobody to call and no visitors.
One of the things that Brilliant Minds has done is show us that it’s okay to ask for help. With the right doctors, a treatment can be found, and sometimes, it’s a case of finding someone friends. Pierce is able to do that as she sits and listens to the patient’s story of how she lost those close to her and lost her job. Slowly, she found only her four walls were her company.
There is hope for her at the end. There were people in the building who cared about her, and they ended up coming together by the end of the episode. It’s a reminder to check on your neighbors, especially the ones who live alone.
Jacob has Van’s back
Seeing how the interns have all come together as a family has been one of my favorite parts of Brilliant Minds. We’ve had a chance to see how four very different people with different life experiences can become like a family.
Despite the arguments over Ericka just an episode ago, the two realized that they needed to have each other’s back. In fact, they were both going to head out to Ericka’s building until Dana stopped them and made it clear the needed to treat the patients at the hospital.
The hospital was too much for Van, though. He couldn’t take the pain and the fear without Ericka around. This was a point I adored seeing Jacob step up. He didn’t make fun or try to get ahead. He simply stood by Van and became his anchor. He would stay calm for his friend.
We also see a beautiful moment between Dana and Ericka. When Ericka needed someone to talk to about the situation she experienced, Dana was the one there for her. In fact, this moment helped Dana get over her aversion of telling people that their loved ones had died. She stepped up to the plate so Ericka didn’t have to face the grandfather. It’s a moment that allows Dana the growth she’s needed this season.
Muriel even noticed just how much the interns had grown. At the start of the series, I thought she would be a uptight Chief of Surgery, who expected far too much from her son. Instead, she has turned out to be a caring and supportive woman. Of course, the end of the episode makes it clear that she has kept some dark secrets, and now we need the season 1 finale to know whether those secrets and lies were justified.
Wolf finds a dog in Brilliant Minds season 1
Wolf and Nichols headed to the apartment building. Nichols was needed considering he could do brain surgery. Wolf needed to find Ericka. Of course, sending a man with face blindness into a building full of panicked people was a bit of a crazy idea.
What was even worse for Wolf was that he ended up on a hunt for someone called Stuart. The patient wouldn’t allowed herself to be moved or have surgery without Stuart, and off Wolf went to find the boyfriend.
Only, it wasn’t the boyfriend. Mandy Patinkin’s character, who was “a doctor,” realized that it was a dog. With the dog back by the patient’s side, her vitals went back up and Nichols was able to perform the surgery needed.
We get to see how much Wolf’s feelings have grown for Nichols in this episode. When Katie, the paramedic, told him that first responders were told to go into the building at their own risk, Wolf could only think of Nichols. He couldn’t imagine life without him, and it shows just how much he has let Nichols into his life.
Of course, there is still one episode to go. While things are ending well for now and Ericka has a home in Dana’s apartment, there is always time for something to turn upside down. The end of the episode brought the reveal that Patinkin’s “doctor” was actually Noah Wolf. So, he wasn’t dead, after all. Why would Muriel allow her son to believe that? And will Wolf learn the truth about his dad in the finale?
Brilliant Minds is available to stream on Peacock.
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