The second season premiere of Beautiful Minds finds Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) enduring another emotional blow, courtesy of his estranged father, Noah. The elder Wolf leaves without saying goodbye, despite appearing in the season one finale and pleading with Oliver to help him uncover his mysterious illness.
Does this have something to do with the episode's opening, which finds Oliver in the midst of a mental health crisis at a long-term care facility? Maybe, series star and producer Zachary Quinto tells TVLine. Read on for the episode's highlights, and don't miss Quinto's teasers for the rest of the season.
Stars: Zachary Quinto, Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop
It's nighttime at a healthcare facility, and a nurse silently goes from room to room, handing out medication. Oliver approaches and grabs his key card from the cart; realizing it, he alerts security. It turns out Oliver isn't a doctor at this facility—he's a patient. They detain him in a stairwell, where the guards take him down (he fights them off) and quickly inject him with a sedative while a female voice assures him there's nowhere to go and no one will hurt him.
Then we jump back six months. Jacob now works in the ER alongside Dr. Anthony Thorne (played by John Clarence Stewart, from Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist), and they're on duty when paramedic Katie brings in an MMA fighter who inexplicably started beating himself up while training. While Jacob calls for a consultation, we meet with the Wolf interns. Ericka went on vacation to Tulum; the time off seems to have done her good. Van still has a knack for sensing what people are feeling. Dana and Katie are very close. And the neurology department has a new second-year resident: Dr. Charlie Porter, a boastful jerk (played by Brian Altemus, from Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin).
As Wolf's team begins to unravel the case of the week, the boxer is diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disorder called corticobasal degeneration, and he needs to stop boxing before it gets worse. It turns out the boxer's father knew about the diagnosis and had been hiding it from him so his son would continue boxing. It's an insidious betrayal that, coupled with Muriel's (Donna Murphy) suspicion that Oliver's father might be withholding information, makes Oliver begin to wonder if his own father is telling him the truth.
While all this is happening, Oliver is with Muriel, explaining what he's learned about the mysterious illness his father, Noah, suffers from. "Dad says his body goes rigid and then he can't move, like he's turning to stone," he explains, although he hasn't seen any of these episodes in person, despite Noah living with him. Muriel senses that Oliver doesn't spend much time at home, but that's all it takes before the interns (and Porter) burst in and ask Dr. Wolf to accompany them to the ER. It's worth noting: Within minutes of meeting him, Oliver instantly believes Porter is there to spy on him on Muriel's behalf.
Wolf and his henchmen go down to examine the boxer, named Tommy, who ends up punching Oliver when he tries to stop him from leaving without a neurological exam.
And that brings us to the first interaction between Wolf and Nichols this season, which is, I'll say it: pretty rude. Josh notices Oliver icing his eye and comments on the black eye. "You should see the other one," Oliver says, noting that Nichols has a nice tan. "Weekend in the Hamptons," Nichols retorts. "You should see the other one." Oops!
The boxer's father/trainer and "doctor" (though I use the term loosely; the guy is suspicious) say nothing's wrong with him. So Oliver relents and agrees to release him, provided he sees the psychiatrist she recommends: Carol.
The season two premiere of Beautiful Minds finds Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) enduring yet another emotional blow, courtesy of his estranged father, Noah. The elder Wolf leaves without saying goodbye, despite appearing in the season one finale and begging Oliver for help uncovering his mysterious illness.
Does this have something to do with the episode's opening, which finds Oliver in the midst of a mental health crisis in a long-term care facility? Maybe, series star/producer Zachary Quinto tells TVLine. Read on for highlights from the episode, and then be sure to scroll down for Quinto's teasers for the rest of the season.
Tommy's session with Carol goes well until they start talking about how fighting connects his close relationship with his father. As they begin to discuss how he's been losing fights lately, Tommy punches the wall without warning. Later, Carol tells Oliver that she doesn't think Tommy has anger issues (the punch seemed to come out of nowhere) and finds it odd that, even though he's left-handed, the injuries he inflicted are on his right side. "What if Tommy doesn't control his own arm?" Wolf wonders.
Wolf is right (of course!). "It's called alien hand syndrome," he later explains to his interns... but what bigger problem does it indicate? When Wolf goes to the gym to try to get Tommy to agree to more tests, his father kicks him out. But his symptoms worsen, leading Tommy's panicked wife to rush him to the hospital. They learn he has a form of Parkinson's disease—and that fake doctor never told her. The worst part is that Tommy's father controls all of his supplements and appears to have been medicating his son for his illness for some time.
Tommy's father arrives, outraged, and threatening Wolf, who refuses to hand over his son. "If you lay a hand on him, you're leaving here on a stretcher," Nichols says, stepping in to protect her boyfriend. Wolf is moved, but points out that they both swore to do no harm. (But they're not at all reunited: Wolf says he needs to get his house in order before moving on with Josh, and Nichols understands, but also indicates that he can't wait forever.) "I didn't sign any oath," Tommy says, approaching his father and leaving him frozen.
That said, Tommy wants one more victory before he retires. Wolf insists he not do it, but when he realizes Tommy will do it anyway, he tries to help him retrain his brain. And he succeeds! Tommy wins his final battle, with Oliver, Carol, and the inmates present, and a happy Oliver decides it's time to confront Noah by returning home.
However, upon arriving home, Oliver finds it empty. Noah has left a letter addressed to his son on the kitchen island, but Wolf, the eldest, is missing.
The episode ends with a return to the present, where Oliver has just been sedated in the stairwell of the mental health facility. We get a better look at the administrator who assured him he had nothing to fear: Dr. Amelia Frederick (Scandal's Bellamy Young). At the end of the hour, we learn that Oliver is a patient at a facility called Hudson Oaks.
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