[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 3, “The Lost Biker.”]
Three episodes into its freshman season and Brilliant Minds is already having a gay old time! Not only has the new drama starring the perfectly cast Zachary Quinto as genius neurosurgeon Oliver Wolf drawn very healthy numbers in its first two airings, but it’s also just revealed that Wolf isn’t the only homosexual healer on staff at Bronx General. Turns out, the Chair of Neurology—and frequent thorn in his side—Dr. Josh Nichols (our old pal from The Flash, Teddy Sears) is also a member of the Rainbow mafia.
In tonight’s just-aired episode, Wolf and Nichols found themselves in a very sticky situation while (literally) racing to help a motorcycle gang member (Steve Howey) suffering from hydrocephalus. During the bumpy ride to the hospital, Nichols’ phone linked to his car sound system and that damn Siri began reading off a voicemail from a fella he’d had a different kind of bumpy ride with the night before. Busted but not bashful, Nichols downplayed the moment but we all saw Wolf’s reaction. So what does this mean? Will we see a meeting of the Minds? Sears isn’t spilling that tea just yet, although it feels like a brilliant move to let these two simmer until at least later in the season!
Sir! How have you been? Showrunner Michael Grassi hinted this summer that your character was going to bring some conflict, but that Nichols and Wolf would find, I think he said, “common ground” in some places. And I was like, what’s happening here? Did you know what was up with Josh coming into the show?
Teddy Sears: I mean, I think I knew as much as they did when they were conceiving the characters when the pilot script was written. When I auditioned for it, it was all in the breakdown. This is a very ordered, very structured, very by-the-book, traditional medical surgeon, and he’s very successful because of that, and of course, a contrast to Wolf’s approach. And they also [said] there is also a potential for him, I don’t know, to be sort of match is maybe the right word. A potential partner.
Brendan Meadows/NBC
Okay. And don’t worry, this won’t run until after the episode airs. Because we want people to get to listen to the voicemail message from the guy from Equinox.
[Laughs] Yes! Dustin from the Abs class. Yes, we do find out in the midst of a very burly biker situation that Josh is gay. But here’s something: It was revealed in the original pilot! We shot a really wonderful scene at a bar that funnily [was used] in one of the promos. It’s a scene we’ll never see. So we knew this going in that they had this moment at this bar…essentially in the pilot, it was two scenes. I go to Wolf’s office and say essentially, “Hey, hey, man, I think we started off on the wrong foot. Let me buy a drink.” And then they cut to a bar and they’re just in the middle of talking, having a nice time. But Wolf is like, “What do you know about me?” And I say, “You have quite the reputation in the community.” Wolf’s like, “In the doctor community” and I say, “The gay doctor community.” And then I tell him—and the audience—the legend of who Wolf is. For whatever reason, they didn’t think it was necessary. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe they just thought, let’s not have these guys be chummy until later.
Maybe they didn’t want to expose the fact that there is a gay doctor community! It’s probably a secret society!
[Laughs] That’s right! Maybe they took a hard look at the whole thing and they thought, let’s pull back from that. But either way, we do learn in Episode 3 that Josh is gay, that Josh clearly he has a thriving, if not interesting, life outside of the hospital that comes up at the most sort of inopportune time. That was a very, very stressful, very high-tension scene…and we talk so fast! Zach and I talk so fast, and that’s something that I think you’ll see throughout the season is these two characters sort of match cadence. They go toe-to-toe really well. And to circle back on what Michael said this summer, these two absolutely approach their patients and their attempts to reach resolution differently. But there’s a massive amount of respect because ultimately, they both care about the well-being of the patient, not just about getting the surgery done and moving on to the next patient, if that makes any sense.
Absolutely! It’s actually so refreshing that neither of these doctors nor the interns are interested in being hotshot doctors.
Right, right. Because we’ve seen that before. We’ve seen that show before, like, “Here comes the hotshot doctor. He’s the s**t!” I mean, there’s an element of that though to Josh that we spoke about, that surgeons in general, specifically neurosurgeons, want others who know that they’re the surgeon. There’s sort of a pecking order of the hospital. So sometimes, there’ll be a surgical cap worn around the floors of the hospital when it doesn’t need to be worn, to sort of let others know who’s important. [Laughs] Josh, I think, sort of loves being good at his job and it’s a big part of his identity.
Another thing that’s interesting about Episode 3 is that it was the first time for me—and for Josh—where we had to think about things like bedside manner. How do I speak to a patient? How do I pitch ideas for how to solve this particular medical issue? How do I speak, how do I deliver news, right? As an actor, I hadn’t figured out what my bedside manner was yet, how I would present my course of treatment or deliver news. So this was the episode where we see all those things and I got a chance to figure that out and that sort of helped the trajectory of the character.
Brendan Meadows/NBC
That makes sense, too, because this is really the first time we get to see him at work. Up ’til now, it’s been him observing and exchanging dialogue with other characters, but really not getting into the job. And then, there’s a hint that Josh is as unconventional as Wolf is. Why is this guy driving around with spinal needles in his car?!
Right?! Like, what’s going on in this guy’s life that he has those? [Laughs] We’re going to learn more as the show goes on, why this guy is so prepared and why there’s sort of all these contingencies at the ready, if you will. And that has a lot to do with his background and what he was and who he was before he became a surgeon. When I read the script, too, I was like, “Why is this in his glove compartment?” But I could get my head around why when I learned more about Josh, specifically in Episode 5.
So we do get to find out more about Nichols. The stuff between you and Quinto is so good, but do you get to interact with the other characters more?
Oh, absolutely. At various stages of the season, you’ll see me interact with all of ’em. And in particular, there are a few notable scenes with Donna Murphy kind of midway through the season. And then, Wolf and I primarily team up on stuff and that’s sort of where that is. I will say we also have such dynamite guest stars, which says a lot about this show. I think there is a desire for great actors to seek out good material. Maybe I am biased, but I really do think the writing is spectacular.
Brilliant Minds, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC