RECAP: ‘Brilliant Minds’ Season 2 Episode 18 — “Through the Looking Glass”

Wolf (Zachary Quinto) returns to Bronx General in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18, titled “Through the Looking Glass,” with open arms and too polite, “yes, these blueberry muffins you baked are definitely really good,” smiles. It’s an episode of reunions and continued healing, with a fascinating patient case at its center.

Carol and Wolf help a bank robber named Alyssa, who, while in the middle of holding up a bank, asks for a doctor as one of her demands. She’s experiencing spatial and temporal distortions; small objects appear large, large spaces appear small, and hours feel like minutes, and vice versa. The special effects in this episode are really great, very reminiscent of Season 1’s visual effects, putting the audience into the patient’s shoes. Small yet effective animated effects also enrich this episode’s patient case.

The nickname of Alyssa’s condition is appropriately called Alice in Wonderland syndrome. The answer to her condition ends up not being as fascinating as the syndrome itself, but the story in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18 around Alyssa and her girlfriend is quite moving. Alyssa’s been in and out of prison, but is generally a good person who just wants to provide for her family. The last time she was in prison, she got a tattoo as a way to promise she would change, but it ended up infected, which led to her brain, causing her symptoms.

Wolf’s reintegration with his team is going well in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18.

Everyone’s really nice to Wolf during Bronx General in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18, including telling him his blueberry muffins are really good. Josh (Teddy Sears) tells him this, too, and then, immediately, the two almost set up a date, but an awkward assumptions-based miscommunication has Wolf backtracking too early and suddenly finding himself hosting a dinner party at his house for his whole team.

Wolf’s plan to get Josh back is off to a rocky start, but his reintegration with his team, especially Dana (Aury Krebs), is going well. Their last interaction did not go well; Wolf, in the early stages of his downward spiral, was confronted by Dana’s “betrayal” of Carol. But Wolf apologizes to Dana, taking accountability for what he said and for how out of line he was.

This reconciliation in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18 could not come at a better time, as Dana finally decides what her grant project will be: investigating Amelia Fredricks. This comes in the wake of Dana’s recent revelation that she once spent time in a psychiatric facility, too, so she understands the vulnerability of the patients in there if they’re under the care of someone with ill intentions toward them. This will make for a nice team-up between Dana and Wolf. 

Throughout their case in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18, Ericka and Charlie do a bit of a switch-up.

Ericka and Charlie take on a botulism case when a young couple brings in their sick newborn. Their frantic energy is endearing, and their joint apologies to each other for giving their baby a high-end formula without the other knowing is a nice little ending to this B-story.

Throughout this case in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18, Ericka and Charlie do a bit of a switch-up. Charlie’s the one who wants to call Wolf for a second opinion, whereas Ericka doesn’t want to, eager to prove they handled themselves well while he was away. Considering their previous clashes with each other, the role reversal makes for an interesting dynamic between them.

It’s still kind of odd how it was Beau that decided to break it off with Josh instead of Josh realizing it for himself, but Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18 earns this angsty reunion. Having learned that Wolf walked into an active bank robbery, he decides to take it out on Silva for some reason, as if it’s Silva’s job to keep tabs on Wolf.

Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18 sets up a more grounded reunion for Wolf and Josh.

But in true Silva fashion, he uses the moment to tease Josh about his obvious feelings for Wolf and to tell him about saying Wolf’s name while he was dying from carbon monoxide poisoning in front of Beau. Josh pulls Silva into his office to freak out about this little detail he didn’t remember, which accounts for the denial of feelings and dragging his feet to break up with Beau. Silva loves every minute of this hospital soap opera he finds himself in.

But Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18 truly earns the angst by not immediately having Josh run to Wolf and say he wants to get back together. Josh shows up to Wolf’s dinner party alone, and when the two are alone in the kitchen cleaning dishes, Josh tells Wolf the reason for his and Beau’s breakup was that he thinks Josh still has feelings for Wolf. When Wolf asks if it’s true, Josh responds with “I’m still figuring it out.”

It’s not a totally easy getting-back-together arc, and that is deeply appreciated (even if there are only two episodes left in the series!). But it allows for a better, more grounded reunion than Josh getting back together with Wolf just because his ex-boyfriend pointed it out.

Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 18 is reminiscent of Season 1 episodes with its use of effective visuals that put the audience in the mind of the patient, and doesn’t make Josh and Wolf’s relationship easy, which makes it all the more worth it in the end.

Brilliant Minds Season 2 is available to stream on Peacock.

Previous Episode | Next Episode