Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Brilliant Minds” Season 2, Episode 1.
“Brilliant Minds” plunges viewers into what we can only imagine is Dr. Oliver Wolf’s worst nightmare in the Season 2 premiere, when he can be seen desperately trying to escape a mental institution and this time, Zachary Quinto’s Wolf is the patient not the doctor.
Rather than a nightmare, viewers quickly learn these flash-forwards happen six months in the future. The story of how Wolf ended up in the institution, named Hudson Oaks, will be sprinkled across the NBC medical drama’s second season, according to showrunner Michael Grassi.
“A lot of last season was about understanding Oliver’s past and his relationship with his father and his mom, and how complicated that was, and how a lot of that made him the doctor he is today,” Grassi told TheWrap. “This season is about continuing that story, but in a brand new way, with this propulsive, new device of these flash forwards and finding Oliver in this very specific situation where he’s fighting for his life … What’s going to be the thing that breaks Oliver and sends him to Hudson Oaks?
Given “Brilliant Minds’” focus on neurology, psychiatry and mental health, Grassi hopes the new storyline will shine a light on these newer types of mental health institutions that are accessible to more than just the uber rich and aren’t the “asylums of the past.” “We’re digging into what these facilities in America look like today, and how patients can really benefit from them and … how it can be hard to accept help from them,” Grassi said.
A breadcrumb as to what led Wolf to a supposed mental health crisis is left at the end of the Season 2 premiere, when Wolf returns home to see that his dad, Noah (Mandy Patinkin), left him again, just shy of a month after Oliver agreed to let Noah live with him as he investigated Noah’s brain condition.
“Wolf is in a really strange situation, because he spent his whole life and a lot of Season 1, dealing with that and processing that, and he’s, in so many ways, grieved his father,” Grassi said, noting that Wolf’s grief of losing his father again and how he deals with that grief is a big part of Season 2. Grassi, however, remained tight-lipped about whether Season 2 would see Patinkin return as Noah.
Below, Grassi unpacks the growth in Oliver’s relationship with his mother and his ongoing tension with Josh and teases what that new resident has in store.
TheWrap: Oliver is also coming to terms with the fact that his mom lied to him abut his dad, but she’s also there when he leaves again. Where do they stand right now?
Grassi: A lot of last season, we spent a lot of time with Wolf putting some of his feelings onto mom and showing the strains of their relationships, and when his dad re-emerged, I think his mind immediately clicked into, “My mom orchestrated this,” but a lot of that episode was learning that it actually wasn’t her, it’s what his father wanted. That was a big step in healing and seeing that it wasn’t always his mom who was manipulating situations — sometimes it was his dad as well, and she really does apologize to him at the end of 113, so when we catch up to them in the new season, there are still big feelings, and there’s a lot boiling under the surface, but I think they’re in a new place together and a brand new dynamic, and it’s really fun to see their scene work and where they go. Seeing Muriel be worried about Oliver so interesting and exciting. It’s never more exciting to me than when Donna [Murphy] and Zach are in scenes together.
Oliver also burned the bridge with Josh but they still clearly have some tension. What can you tease about their relationship this season?
Listen, they’re both complicated guys, and that’s what makes their scenes so good. Wolf was dealing with a lot last season — whether standing up Nichols was right or wrong, it’s what he needed to do in that moment, and I think that was hurtful to Nichols for a number of reasons, but Josh has had some weird things with Wolf like, “Do you respect what I do?” so they’ve had some interesting work tension as well … which is very real to what neurologists and neurosurgeons deal with in real life. There’s always a little bit of tension between those two doctors … they’re still working through what they mean to each other and what their relationship means, but it’s about to get way more complicated than it is easier. What’s nice is they will always be in each other’s orbit, and these are two people who care deeply about each other. It’s a bit of a roller coaster with Josh and Wolf this season, but what I’ll say is that there’s a lot of respect there.
We also see Carol enjoying the luxuries of private medicine but it’s not enough for her and she eventually asks for her job back. Where is she at in terms of how she feels about what happened?
The same way she fights for her patients, the same way Wolf fights for his patients, I think she wants to fight for her job back. A lot of the next episode is going to be seeing her navigate what that means and how that looks for her, and how she’s going to go about that. What she’s dealing with is really nuanced and complex, and yes, she made a mistake, but she also saved someone’s life, and that’s complicated, and we’re going to see her work through that.
We also meet a new resident Charlie, whose intentions don’t quite seem pure. What can you tell us about him and how he shakes up dynamics with the interns?
I love all of our interns so much, and we had them be this surrogate family last year, where they really leaned on each other, and they were group hugging, and they were learning hard lessons with Wolf. Charlie comes in and he sees them, and he’s like, “What is this?” This is not what he’s used to in professional settings. He’s just looking to poke at this and maybe upend a little bit of what we’ve established last season, but in a way that feels real to medicine and his perspective on medicine, which we’ll continue to learn more about throughout the season. Charlie pursued this job, he pursued this position, to work with Wolf, the big question is, why?
You have so many fun guest stars this season, from Jane Krakowski to Porsha Williams. How did Porsha’s casting come together and what was it like working w her?
She is just such a star and she’s so beloved in the “Real Housewives” franchise, and having her come to set was so fun for us. I was flying to Toronto, and my phone rings in the airport, and it’s Porsha, and she just called me to say that she had the best time on the show, and she loved working with Tamberla [Perry] and she was like, “Bitsy, needs to come back.”
Same with someone like Jane Krakowski, she was always my number one. And when we cooked up, this is a story that we’ve always sort of wanted to tell about a woman under in a conservatorship, and when we were brainstorming, the first person we thought of was Jane Krakowski — she would be so perfect with this, because she can handle some of the more comedic elements story, but at the same time also the emotional and more nuanced part of the storytelling that we do on “Brilliant Minds.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Brilliant Minds” premieres Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
