Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 3 recap and review: "The Lost Biker"

It’s time for another episode that delves into the mind. Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 3 delves into memory and a look at what makes us who we are.

Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from Brilliant Minds season 1, episode 3

Steve Howey guest stars as Wyatt, a biker who fixes up Dr. Wolf’s bike in return for medical treatment. He’s the vice president of a biker gang, and that means some questionable things happen. If he goes to the hospital for some of the treatment, the doctors need to report to the authorities, and the bikers don’t want that.

In this case, it’s a gunshot, but it’s clear that there is something innocent and more to this story. Wolf doesn’t ask questions about how Wyatt was shot in the arm, but he does ask about the tremors that Wyatt mentions. This links to something else medical, and that intrigues Wolf.

How did Wyatt get shot in Brilliant Minds?

Dr. Wolf doesn’t get a choice at the start of the episode. The biker gang barges into his house because Wyatt needs medical treatment. He was shot in the arm. While Wolf doesn’t ask questions, Wyatt explains that he gets a tremor sometimes, and he actually shot himself by accident. With the way the rest of the episode goes, I do believe him on this.

Wolf is interested in the tremor. Wyatt doesn’t want to go into too much detail with the guys around. He’s a tough guy, and that means downplaying a serious situation. Although, it’s clear that these guys aren’t always all that tough. I did have to chuckle at the comment about the tea. Look, if I’m ever in danger from someone or my kids are missing, it’s biker gangs I’m turning to for help.

Back to the medical situation at hand. Wyatt agrees to getting an MRI, but while he’s there, he ends up attacking one of the doctors. Wolf has to rush to Wyatt to remind him where he is. It’s clear that this situation is far more serious, and Wolf pays a house visit to find out what’s going on with Wyatt.

He’s suffering from memory loss. He doesn’t understand it, and he hates it.

The good news is that Wolf has figured out what it is. It’s a tumor. Now for the bad news. The tumor is on the part of the brain that affects the memory. If it’s removed, Wyatt won’t be able to form new memories. He’ll have his old ones, but he won’t remember anything that happens moving forward. It’s like 50 First Dates for him.

Does Wyatt get the surgery?

This is where we get this heartbreaking moment. Would you be able to live without the ability to remember it? Is that something that you would want to do? Wyatt has to think about that and choose whether it’s something that he can do.

He doesn’t want to at first. He’d rather die than lose his ability to create memories. His wife, on the other hand, would at least like him to be around. Of course, Wyatt doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone, and we’re reminded that sometimes, it takes a village and we have to rely on that village. There’s no shame in this.

Wyatt has another issue. He has an estranged daughter. I love that he admits that the estrangement is all on him. He was the parent, and he was responsible for being there for her, and he wasn’t. He doesn’t blame her for not wanting to speak to him. This is something all parents should think about. It’s not a child’s responsibility to have a relationship with a parent. It’s a parent’s responsibility to be someone a child wants a relationship with. When they are children at least. As they become adults, things change, but it all comes down to the parent to begin with.

Wolf doesn’t want Wyatt to have the surgery without trying to make amends with his daughter first. So, what does he do? He tracks her down, finds out she works at a bar, and takes Wyatt there just before surgery. It’s a problem for the hospital, and it doesn’t even seem to work at first. His daughter wants nothing to do with him.

When he collapses, she has a change of heart. However, he’s not able to hear that she forgives him before he’s rushed into surgery. The last words he’ll remember from her are how she hates him.

In the end, Wyatt pulls through the surgery, but his ability to create new memories are gone. That doesn’t stop his village from being around him. His wife leaves notes all over the house to help, while his daughter comes over every day to see him. Wyatt writes everything down that happens in a day, and there’s a beautiful moment with his daughter. As she tells him she loves him and forgives him, he smiles and asks her to remind him tomorrow. There’s no animosity or hatred in this moment. His daughter simply accepts this is needed now, and she will be there for him.

What’s going on with the interns in Brilliant Minds?

The interns have another situation to deal with. A young girl constantly has seizures, and no doctor has been able to figure it out yet. Wolf is tasked with working it out, and it means she has to be honest with what she was doing during the last seizure.

Well, she was watching The Three Stooges, so Wolf puts it on. He, the interns, and the young girl watch an episode. As she starts laughing, she suddenly collapses. She isn’t having a seizure at all. Her heart temporarily stops.

That’s not all, but Dr. Markus collapses. Wolf can’t deal with him right away, but he does come back to that situation. He’s not angry about what happened to Markus. Instead, he curious.

Back to the young girl, it turns out that whenever she laughs a lot, her heart stops. The interns need to find a way to allow her to laugh and be a human but without her heart stopping. Markus figures it out. A pacemaker! Sure enough, it works!

Markus isn’t being fired. Instead, Wolf shares he knows what is going on. It turns out Markus has a condition that allows him to feel everything someone else is feeling, good and bad. Wolf is excited about this. Markus can use it as his superpower. I love seeing the joy and excitement in Wolf’s face and love how he continues to practice what he preaches: looking at the person and not the symptom.

A couple of personal storylines in the episode

As for Wolf, we end the episode with a reminder that the memory isn’t static or always reliable. Wolf always remembered a lesson in plants with his dad. It wasn’t his dad at all. It was his mom, and she has always allowed Wolf to remember things his way knowing that was what he needed to remember his dad in a good light. I thought we were going to get this mother who had too high of an expectation for her son in Brilliant Minds, but instead, we’re seeing this compassionate and caring Chief. Please continue to defy my expectations.

The other personal storyline was for Pierce. Her husband was in her office, wanting to speak with her about their marriage. It sounds like there’s been some sort of infidelity and they can’t move past it. They’ve tried therapy, but Pierce is done at this point. It’s time to separate. Her husband wants it to be a trial, but Pierce seems to have made up her mind.

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

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