Saagar Kote
The second season of NBC’s ‘Brilliant Minds’ continues the journey of Oliver Wolf as he comes to terms with his new reality at Hudson Oaks and Bronx General. The story shifts back and forth between the future and the present. The central mystery of why Oliver Wolf is admitted to the medical facility of Hudson Oaks remains unanswered. However, bits and pieces of his experiences at the facility are revealed through brief sequences. In the present, the protagonist tries to handle the aftermath of his mother quitting Bronx General and the inexplicable disappearance of his father.
While Ericka struggles with drug addiction, Carol faces her own problems due to familial issues. As new patients come and go, the doctors are tested beyond their limits by the difficult medical conditions of the patients. Wolf and Nichols face emotional complexities in their conversations with each other, while also looking to solve complex problems. The narrative intensifies in “Once Upon a Time in America,” the fifth episode of the second season. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fall of the Two Brothers
Josh Nichols cleans bloodstained instruments and medical gear. The narrative shifts to seventeen hours earlier, where a woman enters her office with her colleague. The two ladies talk about their love lives as they head to the 39th floor. As the window at the office gets repaired, one of the ladies tells the other to try dating one of the window repairmen. However, when the ladies approach the men hanging by the window of the 39th floor and get a date for the night, the structure supporting them collapses, causing their fall. Nichols works out at his office as Oliver walks in, and the two of them have a conversation about some paperwork. Nichols signs the paperwork. Thorne continues to flirt with Carol as they talk about the latter’s relationship with her daughter.
Nichols introduces Oliver to a male nurse named Nico Silva and tells them to team up. The ED brings in the two window repairmen who got severely injured earlier. Nichols and Oliver take charge of the situation and try to save Jorge and Benny. The families of the two injured men express fear and doubt. Seeing that they only speak Spanish, Ericka steps in and speaks in Spanish to comfort them. Oliver tells the family members that the next twenty-four hours are crucial, but there’s still hope for the two men. It is revealed that Jorge and Benny are brothers, but the mother seems to care more about Jorge alone. She gives Nichols a Christian necklace, and he promises to take care of the sons. Benny starts to show signs of life in the ward, but his family seems to care little about him.
A Mother’s Faith is Tested
Silva asks Ericka and Dana about Oliver’s face blindness. Carol expresses concerns about the hospital’s budgetary concerns. When Carol approaches Jorge’s mother, she says that the Bible is the only therapy she needs. Ericka talks to Jacob about Dana’s past reporting of Carol. They worry about the repairmen. Oliver struggles with his face blindness when he talks to the nurses, and Silva advises the protagonist to remember the nurses’ names. Benny wakes up, and Ericka welcomes him back to the world. Oliver tells Benny that he defied overwhelming odds to survive. Benny insists on talking to his brother Jorge, who seems to be at greater risk. Due to the new bleeding, Nichols says that he needs to perform a dangerous procedure on Jorge.
Benny tells Oliver that his mother hates him, revealing that she doesn’t really see him. Benny gets emotional about his mother and says he can’t fix things easily, after which Oliver tells him to try. When Ericka and Carol inform Jorge’s mother about Benny’s condition, she doesn’t seem to care and instead prays for Jorge’s health. She shows them an old bracelet from Puerto Rico and tells them that Benny is a difficult boy to handle. The mother says that when she moved to the US with her family, Benny made decisions with which she disagreed, but she was particularly angered when he stopped being a Christian. She finds it difficult to betray her faith. Carol tells her that Benny needs her, despite all the differences.
A Case of Bilingual Aphasia
The mother, named Ana, visits Benny’s ward and tells him that if Jorge dies, it will be his fault. Shockingly, when the mother talks to Benny in Spanish, he cannot understand a single word, despite knowing Spanish and it being his native tongue throughout his life. Oliver recognizes this to be a condition called “Bilingual Aphasia,” which is caused by head injury. It affects the linguistic abilities of bilingual individuals. Oliver says that Benny’s neural pathways are affected in a way that somehow erased his Spanish linguistic skill, but kept English intact. Nichols tries to do his best to save Jorge. Benny is given a minor treatment to test his language skills, but he struggles to remember simple words in Spanish. Meanwhile, Oliver uses pictures of nurses with their names marked to remember them.
The protagonist tells Silva that the nurses love him despite his condition. He then asks Silva, who is Latino and speaks Spanish, to help Ana and Benny communicate with each other. Ana says she will welcome Benny openly, as God has given him a second chance. Silva willingly mistranslates Benny’s words and says that he will be willing to accept God. This makes Ana happy, and she says she loves him. Suddenly, Benny goes into shock, and the doctors rush in to help him. Carol, Oliver, Ericka, Dana, and Jacob join Ana’s family to pray for the lives of the two brothers. Nichols works tirelessly to save them somehow. Nichols walks out of the operating room and reveals that Jorge is stable, but Benny died due to a massive stroke.
The Battle of Josh Nichols
Ana starts to cry out loud, learning about Benny’s fate. Nichols gets heartbroken and leaves the area. Dana has an emotional moment, and Ericka tries to comfort her by saying that she is her best friend. The two hug each other in an emotional moment. Thorne and Jacob have a conversation about Jorge, after which Nichols comforts his operating team, assuring them that they did everything they could to save Benny. Oliver walks into the room to help Nichols clean the blood off the floor, and also tells him not to feel regret over Benny’s death. Ana prays for Jorge’s recovery in the ward, and Oliver talks to her about Benny. He says that Benny’s gamma waves before his death showed a surge in brain activity. Ana says that he probably remembered their life together before dying.
When Ana wonders why God gave her hope for Benny just to take him away, Oliver and Ericka have no answer. After a tough day at work, Carol’s daughter reunites with her mom, and Thorne continues to flirt with the psychiatrist. Oliver goes to the nurses’ ward and remembers every name, making them happy. Silva and Oliver develop a friendly professional relationship. Later, the women from the beginning of the episode visit Jorge’s ward to present flowers. They say that the brothers looked happy before their fall, which makes Ana happy. However, Ana then angrily heads towards Nichols and slaps him, cursing him so that he may never find peace.
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