Inside ‘Brilliant Minds’ New Doctors, Family Betrayals & Romantic Struggles of Season 2

That’s a mighty big promise for the series inspired by real-life British groundbreaker Dr. Oliver Sacks. In the first season’s final hours, a building collapse flooded the fictional Bronx General with patients; Zachary Quinto‘s unconventional neurologist Oliver Wolf learned that his father Noah (Mandy Patinkin), whom he’d been led to believe had died by suicide years earlier, was not only alive but suffering from an undiagnosable neuro issue; and Oliver’s bestie, psychiatrist Carol Pierce (Tamberla Perry), was put on administrative leave due to a mysterious ethical complaint.

Add in the fact that his neurosurgeon beau Josh Nichols (Teddy Sears) was ticked off by Ollie ghosting him right before a big gala to meet up with his dad, and that Wolf’s team of interns (Ashleigh LaThrop, Alex MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, and Spence Moore II) are caught up in their own Gen Z dramas, and you’d think the stakes were already higher than a salt addict’s blood pressure.

Thankfully, they’ve all gotten a chance to catch their breath. “Season 2 picks up about a month and a half after Season 1 ends, so people have had time to adjust to their new normals and the new realities of their lives,” says Quinto, adding that “the strength of the show is the balance of the medical and the emotional, the doctors and each other and their families.” When we see Wolf again, he’s trapped between those worlds. “He is really focused on helping his dad, but also feels incredibly betrayed by his dad,” the actor continues. “There’s this push-pull where he is focused on helping from the medical standpoint, but from the personal side of things, is keeping Noah at arm’s length.”

Parental Supervision

As for his mother, Bronx General boss Muriel (Donna Murphy), her complicity in this decades-long lie — Noah left them to protect his son from his volatile mental state — may not be as damning as she fears. “This was dad’s request, and mom went along with it. They both agreed it was best for Oliver,” explains Grassi, optimistically noting that Oliver and Muriel’s fractious relationship has weathered similar setbacks. “While there has been a lot of healing, it’s still incredibly complicated, and we’ll continue to explore that moving forward, for sure.”

At the same time, Oliver will be feeling the absence of the still-suspended Carol, leading him to turn the tables on the woman who originally convinced him to join Bronx General. “Wolf is bereft without her,” admits Quinto of his pal, now busy with a bevy of private clients. (The opener features Porsha Williams of The Real Housewives of Atlanta as, fittingly, an Upper East Side housewife in crisis.) “And in the beginning of Season 2, he is the one who’s entreating Carol to come back and do whatever she needs to do to reclaim her position.”

Whether Oliver can win back Josh as easily will be trickier, especially since there continues to be what Grassi calls an “ongoing medical-professional tension between them” over what benefits patients more, surgery or psychology. “We’re going to be digging into Wolf-and-Josh stuff,” Grassi confirms. “There are a few complications and curveballs that they’ll have to navigate, and I think they’re surprising.”

Viewers are also in for an expansion of the drama’s hospital staff. “Bronx General is a big place and there are other departments,” Grassi points out, adding that in the real world, “people don’t just deal with mental health in neuro and psych.” To that end, he is introducing Anthony Thorne (John Clarence Stewart), an ER doc “dealing with, on some days, hundreds of patients a day, whereas Wolf sometimes spends days with patients and goes on field trips.” Also making rounds: Dr. Charlie Porter (Brian Altemus), a new neuro resident set to shake things up for the interns. And a little later, Days of Our Lives alum Al Calderon bows as Scotty Silva, described by Grassi as “the best nurse at Bronx General [who is] put on the neuro floor to help whip the place into shape.” And perhaps ruffle some feathers?

“We’re going to play some really fun dynamics between Wolf and Silva and Josh and Carol and all of the interns,” he teases. “It’s a new sort of energy that’s entering our world and there’s going to be a lot of fun.”

It certainly sounds like a Brilliant treatment plan.

Brilliant Minds, Season 2 Premiere, Monday, September 22, 10/9c, NBC (Next day streaming on Peacock)

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