Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 5 recap and review: "The Haunted Marine"

Brilliant Minds has put so many rare and extraordinary diseases and conditions to the forefront of its show. The latest episode, “The Haunted Marine,” is no different.

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 5.

One thing the series does is make it clear that a diagnosis does not give people a pass to act how they want. I would have loved to see a resolution for the bride in the previous episode, but it was pretty clear that she was going to get the book thrown at her by the police. She killed a man, and while Wolf could argue that it wasn’t murder, there are still lesser charges out there and he can’t find a way around them.

However, some episodes do focus on just helping a patient. That’s the case in the new episode, when a former Marine comes to the hospital for help.

Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 5 review: More than just a case of PTSD

Look, I think that PTSD is important to highlight on a TV series. However, there are more conditions that affect veterans, and sometimes, those conditions need to come up. Former Marine, Steve Hill, was suffering from something that was far worse than PTSD.

He was seeing a dead Marine next to him. While this Marine, Aiden, was dressed in combat gear, it turned out that Aiden didn’t die in combat. He died by suicide. On top of that, Aiden and Steve never saw combat. They didn’t have PTSD, and they didn’t have brain injuries. It was getting so bad that Steve was close to taking his own life, but Wolf and the interns did everything they could to stop that. After all, Steve had a wife at home and a baby on the way.

After finding out that Steve never saw combat, Wolf had to figure out what was going on with Steve’s brain. He turned to Dr. Nichols for help. Wolf suggested that Steve had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE. It’s a degenerative disease with no cure. While it usually affects those who have suffered repeated concussions or traumatic brain injuries, Nichols realizes that there is a way that Steve could have suffered.

I adore this moment. Nichols is learning that Wolf has his moments of genius. Rather than just disregard it this time, he actually started to think about how it was possible. As a veteran, he knew right away, but he wanted to show and not tell. He took Wolf to a range to allow Wolf to fire a gun to feel the recoil. Learning that Steve and his platoon were dealing with much bigger weapons, it all started to make sense. It was the recoil that led to problems—and it’s affecting many members of the platoon.

It was in this moment at the range that I saw it between Wolf and Nichols. I want to see where this relationship could go, especially with how open Nichols was with Wolf about his time with the military and the “one particular” guy.

Now Wolf needed to prove it, but the only way to do that is to get a brain that has suffered from it to cut it open. It meant asking the parents of Aiden to have his body exhumed to check it. Of course, these parents didn’t want to at first, but there was a compelling speech that led to helping Steve and others. You see, Steve had lost his veteran benefits because he had been dishonorably discharged due to his condition. At one point he thought there was a chip in his head! With the parents’ help and Wolf’s passionate speech at the board, the ruling was overturned and Steve got his benefits back.

There is this light for Steve and his family. We saw just how much Wolf cares about his patients and others who are going through unfair things in the world. His character is what makes this show so compelling to watch.

Figuring out who John Doe is

Another part of Brilliant Minds has been figuring out John Doe, who is not in a coma after all. He has Locked-In Syndrome, which can happen after multiple strokes, which John Doe has had. Knowing that his eyes can move and he can hear and understand, Wolf and the interns figure out a way to communicate.

There’s just another problem. He doesn’t seem to be understanding. It turns out that he just doesn’t understand English. When a woman speaking another language walks past and he understands what she’s saying, the interns get to work to help.

In the end, Wolf learns that John Doe spells out “don’t leave me.” There are some Wolf flashbacks that show us how Wolf was left in the woods by his dad, who was starting to go crazy and believed that Wolf was the Messiah. However, it’s not his dad that he’s focused on here. It’s the “don’t leave me,” and now Wolf will do everything he can to help John Doe.

He turns to Nichols to run an idea by him—again, loving this relationship forming here! What if Nichols could put a chip in John Doe’s head to allow them to get more brainwave patterns to see what’s actually going on? Could it help John Doe in the end? I don’t fully understand this idea just yet, but I’m here for it just because it will mean more Wolf/Nichols moments.

This episode here with John Doe and the interns is interesting. Dr. Van Markus has mirror-touch synesthesia. This is heightened empathy in a way, but he can’t feel anything that John Doe is feeling. He can’t tell the doctors what’s going on, and this is clearly meaningful. Is it because John Doe can only feel on an emotional level in his head? Has Locked-In Syndrome prevented Van’s MTS from working properly, or is MTS just something that Van can’t control right now?

Van did tell Dana what he had, and she promised not to tell anyone. I loved seeing Van’s brain at work here, though. We all know that Dana isn’t the one to tell a secret to. She means well, but she can’t keep things to herself, and Van knew that. So, when Ericka and Jacob found out by the end, Van wasn’t surprised or angry. It prevented him sharing it three times!

Jacob turns to Ericka for support in Brilliant Minds

After the previous episode, it was clear that there is potentially something between Jacob and Ericka. Ericka started this episode looking up Jacob’s football past, and Jacob ended up coming over while drunk to lean on Ericka.

This was when we learned that Jacob never wanted to leave his football career. However, after too many concussions, he was advised not to keep playing. The next one could kill him, but he regrets walking away. Now it’s all over, and seeing how Steve was dealing with this CET, Jacob was sure that it would be something he would get.

There’s an openness to Jacob that is surprising in this episode, but I like it. We all need someone who we can be completely vulnerable to, and Ericka is that person. As I said, Dana isn’t the secret keeper, but Ericka is. Just how much can Ericka take? And why is she so obsessed about Jacob rather than Dana and Van?

I’ll admit that the actual medical cases aren’t the compelling stories in this series. It’s all about the characters. This is a character-driven storyline that happens to be a medical drama, and I adore it. The flashbacks with Wolf and his dad weren’t all that interesting this time until the very end, but I’m so here for more Wolf and Nichols together. There was something there at the range.

Brilliant Minds airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC. Catch up the following day on Peacock.

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