Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because two TV doctors finally confessed their feelings and, with the help of a plant metaphor, reunited.
Yep, Drs. Oliver Wolf (played by Zachary Quinto) and Josh Nichols (Teddy Sears) put on their big-boy lab coats in the series finale of “Brilliant Minds” and admitted that they love each other. And the closure on their relationship is very welcome, given that the episode ends on a pretty big cliffhanger.
Though the final hour doesn’t feel at all like a series ending — thanks to the show’s cancellation in May — it does offers up baseball, a breakup (of sorts), and Ed Begley Jr. and Anne Archer. Oh, and Van is back! (Albeit briefly.)
In a moment, we’ll want to know what you thought of the series finale, “The Way Home.” But first, a brief recap of the hour.
In the episode’s first scene, an elderly man named Duke (“St. Elsewhere” alum Begley Jr.) wanders the streets, clearly confused. We later learn that he’s Nichols’ father, and he’s got dementia that seems to be worsening; all he can focus on is the idea of going “home.”
Nichols is sharing the news of his promotion — he’s officially been named the hospital’s chief medical officer — with Wolf when Duke, his wife/Josh’s mom Bonnie (Anne Archer, “Fatal Attraction”), and Josh’s surly sister, Serena, arrive. They’re worried about Duke’s increasing cognitive decline, but Oliver thinks he can help. So he formally takes on Duke as a patient.
Oliver’s sister makes contact
Meanwhile, Oliver’s sister, Margot — though you may know her as the hallucinated Sofia — arrives at the hospital, wanting to talk to her brother. After a brief double-take in which Oliver asks Silva to confirm that Sarah Steele’s character really is standing there, Wolf invites his half-sister into his office. That’s where she tells him she only found out about him a few weeks before, then delivers her sad news: Their dad, Noah, died in a motorcycle accident in California. As Wolf absorbs this information, she asks if he wants to help her clean out Noah’s New York apartment? He does.
Oliver’s treatment of Duke involves a visit to the Nichols’ family home, where Oliver tries to connect with his patient/invoke happy memories by singing Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy in New York” while playing the banjo. (Side note: Anyone else see “Cult of Love” on Broadway? Zachary Quinto Banjo Stans, unite!) Everything is going well until Duke thinks Josh is actually Duke’s dad; when Josh corrects him, Duke growls, “I don’t have a son!” Nichols later sadly tells Oliver that his being gay created a divide between him and his father, with whom he only ever wanted connection.
Then a few things happen in quick succession. Beau lets Oliver know that he and Josh broke up. (“I don’t know if you were the rebound, or I was,” Pedrosa says.) Later, Oliver figures out that Duke’s desire to go “home” is a reference to baseball, and the happy years he played on a team when he was growing up. So Oliver organizes an elaborate, indoor baseball game in which pretty much everyone who’s ever worked at Bronx General — as well as the Nichols family — suits up and plays. Duke hits a homerun, and Josh helps him run the bases, and all is well in the world. During a quiet interlude, Carol takes Josh aside to let him know that Noah died.
What’s up with the rest of the hospital crew?
Let’s pause all of that for a second to handle the other developments that unfold during the hour. Ericka tracks down her birth mother, who is a diner waitress named Joan Marie (played by Kecia Lewis, “The Passage”). But when Ericka tells Joan Marie that she suspects they’re related, the older woman shuts down, saying that she never gave a baby up for adoption. Outside the restaurant, Ericka cries as Dana and Van hug her.
Also, Carol and Anthony get into a disagreement when he goes against her medical advice and has an ailing ER patient deemed unable to make decisions in his best interest. When her anger cools, she lets Thorne know that she wants to press pause on their relationship for now. He’s bummed, but he understands. “Just let me know when you want to press play again,” he says in parting. And in a weird coda to that story, we later learn that the ER patient — who didn’t want heart surgery but got it, anyway — might’ve killed his wife?!
Wolf and Nichols reunite!
OK, back to hot doctors realizing they are each other’s lobsters. Nichols is waiting for Wolf when he gets home from cleaning out Noah’s pied a terre with Margot. Josh likens Oliver to a potted fern that needs extra TLC (“I love you, Oliver. I want to play Bach for you. I want to put you in the sun”), which sounds odd, but is on point for these two. Oliver replies that he loves Josh, too, but he worries that maybe they’re not right for each other. But all of that fades away after Wolf rushes Nichols, kissing him. They can’t take their hands off each other as they stumble inside, pulling at each other’s clothes. A montage shows us that they do, indeed, stay together — and even get it on in the hospital’s hyperbaric chamber.
At the end of the episode, the guys and Carol are in Mexico together, enjoying the vacation that we saw Muriel helping Oliver plan at the start of the hour. But when the trio heads down to breakfast, they’re alarmed to find everyone in the lobby either unconscious or incapacitated with seizures. The finale ends as the three doctors spring into action.
Now it’s your turn. Grade the “Brilliant Minds” series finale, and Season 2 as a whole, via the polls below. Then hit the comments with all of your thoughts!
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