Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5.0
4.5
We all have ghosts to deal with.
In Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 5, several characters deal with different types of ghosts, starting with Marine Corps veteran Steve Hill, who is haunted by one of his fellow Marines.
Elsewhere, Dr. Wolfe relives more childhood trauma as he and his intern try to communicate with John Doe, and Van reveals his secret to one of his friends.
Meanwhile, some relationships flourish. Brilliant Minds takes the time to build these relationships naturally so the audience becomes invested in them.
Haunted by the past and holding the military responsible
With so many veterans haunted by ghosts, Carol and the interns speculated that Steve initially suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s a good guess, but it doesn’t explain his friend Aiden’s recent hallucinations.
When Steve thinks the military has implanted a chip in his brain to control him, it feels like we’ve stepped into a science fiction series or Days of Our Lives.
He’s not the only Marine who’s started acting strange since returning from his last overseas trip, so Dr. Wolfe wants to tread lightly.
As we see through his father’s flashbacks, dealing with someone suffering from paranoid delusions can be dangerous.
That’s why it makes sense that Steve Hill, Aiden Miller and so many other Marines believe the military controls them. They need help, not discipline.
Find a hopeful solution that leaves no one behind
It was a rare case of three doctors working together to help Steve. No one expected CTE to be the culprit because Steve had never played sports, but Nichols’ military experience and experiments showed how it could happen.
You have to feel for Aiden’s parents. They had just buried their son and now these doctors wanted to exhume the body for scientific reasons.
There was nothing Dr. Wolfe or Dr. Pierce could say to ease their pain, except that they were trying to prevent another family from going through this tragedy and hoping they could give them clear answers.
It was equally difficult to convince Steve that it wasn’t a chip in his head.
He’s been living with this delusion for so long that he’s come to believe it. He felt he had let his family down with his dishonorable discharge because he could no longer provide for them.
This made Wolff even more determined to fight for Steve and other veterans. Often, when Wolf appeals to the board, he fails. But this time, he has the support of his staff, which shows the seriousness of the military.
Wolff and Nichols bonded
I haven’t seen a romantic connection between these two until this episode. I saw them reach an uneasy truce and a grudging respect.
Starting in Brilliant Minds Season 1, Episode 3, they slowly became friends and acknowledged their differences.
However, things changed when Nichols took Wolfe to a shooting range. First, he confided in Wolfe that joining the army had changed him. He was close to one member of the team, but they made their relationship work.
He and Wolfe shared an intimate moment as he guided Wolfe’s fingers and showed him how to shoot.
I love how this episode shows these two are better as a team than competition. I love the enemies-to-lovers tropes, but I initially thought they were enemies-to-best-friends tropes.
There was nothing better than a supportive nod from Nichols when Wolfe faced the board, or when Wolfe approached Nichols with his experimental plan to save John Doe. These two make an interesting duo!
Van’s secret is revealed and he and Dana help Jane Doe
Ever since his previous breakdown in front of a patient, Van had considered his specular sense to be a curse. He hated being seen as different, but he wanted to help others.
Here’s a highlight reel of Van (played by Alex McNicholl). Given Dr. Wolfe’s prosopagnosia, you’d think he would understand how to treat the condition with caution and not ask Van tough questions in front of other interns.
I would have loved it if Van revealed his secret to Erica, but the reason he told Dana makes sense.
She was the most observant and had the most brotherly bond with him. She would never judge him for being different.
Dana and Van formed a winning team because they came up with the idea of using John Doe’s eye movements to communicate with colorful yes and no signs.
It’s fun to mix up the different intern friendship dynamics and see how they develop.
While we don’t actively see this, it’s implied that Van senses John Doe becoming anxious and nearly giving up due to these mental exercises.
Although Mrs. Petrov initially seemed like a busybody, she was able to crack the code John Doe needed. She speaks his language and realizes that he is alone and that everyone else has given up on him.
This triggered some thoughts in Dr. Wolfe, and he became more determined to correct his previous mistakes.
Dr. Wolf remembers his father’s ghost
Oliver’s father had more problems than he first remembered, and he’d still rather have that version than no father at all.
While treating Steve Hill and John Doe, he was reminded of his family’s secrets. When Oliver went camping with his father, his father seemed to suffer from similar hallucinations and believed they were hiding from dangerous ghostly hikers.
Oliver’s mother worried that it would make more sense for him to be alone with his father. When his father declares that Oliver is smart and the Messiah, it sounds like he needs help.
He wants to protect his son, but while they are in the forest, no one can protect Oliver from his father if his condition worsens.
What a dilemma it was for a young boy, and all the more reason why he studied neurology.
These flashbacks provide a deeper understanding of his family life and make his mother’s perspective easier to understand. She loves her son and wants to protect him.
It makes me wonder if Oliver is starting to fear his father and that’s why he can’t forgive himself. Did he finally take sides in the divorce and choose his mother?
Love triangle heats up
The love triangle between Van, Erica and Jacob goes in a different direction.
No one expected Van to swear off dating, and he may have done so simply to convince Mrs. Petrov that he was not interested in her granddaughter. That scene was priceless!
Erica and Jacob were paired up again when he and Dana helped Dr. Wolfe with John Doe. This was the first time Jacob showed any real fear from an old concussion.
Normally, he acts like a sexy guy, but he lets his guard down in front of Erica and shares how scared he is. They shared another intimate moment and almost kissed again.
What is telling, though, is that they each chose the other as the one who wanted to have the surgery if something went wrong.
However, Erica’s love life is about to get even more complicated when Dana spills Van’s secret and Erica is the first to come to Van’s defense.
So, Brilliant Minds Fanatics, which ship do you prefer? Do you enjoy these character-rich storylines?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Don’t miss our exclusive post-mortem interview with Alex MacNicoll on Tuesday morning.
Watch Brilliant Minds online
