(Warning: The following text contains HUGE spoilers for the Brilliant minds series premiere.)
“What does a doctor see when he looks at a patient? The disease or the person? I am convinced that you cannot treat a patient without understanding who he really is. And sometimes the only way to treat him is to break the rules.” Brilliant mindswhich in some ways feels like House meets New Amsterdambegins with the voiceover of neurologist Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto).
We see him taking an Alzheimer’s patient (André De Shields) on “a little trip” – completely ignoring the nurses who try to stop him (“People say he can’t recognize faces, I just think he’s an asshole,” one of them says of him) – to his granddaughter’s wedding. Although his patient apparently doesn’t remember his granddaughter, he plays “God Only Knows” and recognizes her; as Oliver explains, music unlocks his memories. But when the family threatens to sue, Oliver – despite an impassioned plea (“I want to change the way the world sees my patients”) – is fired.
The head of psychiatry and his old friend Dr. Carol Pierce (Tamberla Perry) recruits him to be a neurologist at Bronx General. He tries to decline (saying she knows why he can’t work there), but she points out that his training, Bach flowers and plants are a “coping mechanism” and she knows he’s lost without his patients. She puts a case in front of him: a single mother whose behavior changed after an operation for her epilepsy. After a swim in the Hudson – and remembering his childhood at the pool with his father, who gave him some tips on remembering people and being sick (which Oliver’s mother advised him to keep to himself) – he goes to Bronx General. He’s not too pleased to hear he has interns, as he thought he was going to be a one-man operation; she recommends that he open up to them about his face blindness, but he does not do so because they are treating their patient who does not recognize her children.
During the course of this medical case, Oliver clashes with neurosurgeon Dr. Josh Nichols (Teddy Sears), who operated on the patient, arguing that his job is to cure her epilepsy, which he succeeded in doing. But thanks to Oliver’s unconventional approach to treating the patient’s Capgras syndrome – she recognizes her children’s voices, so Oliver has her make auditory contact first and wear glasses that slightly alter her vision to train her brain to prefer hearing to seeing – the family is able to stay together.
Oliver finally tells the residents about his face blindness after helping the patient. “I try to focus on certain features to remember people, but it’s not an exact science, especially in large crowds or with new people,” he explains. “It only works if we open up to each other, even if it’s uncomfortable.” Carol sees his face blindness as a gift because “it allows you to see much deeper. You see the things the rest of us miss.”
As it turns out in the final moments, the head doctor of the hospital, whom Oliver had previously avoided in the episode, is his mother.
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Brilliant mindsMondays, 10/9c, NBC
