Brilliant Minds Chapter 10: The First Responder

Brilliant Minds Chapter 10 summary: The First Responder. We have two medical mysteries this week, both solved rather quickly. We also learn how much it sucks to have chronic pain. Dr. Carol continues to make poor decisions regarding her stalker. Dr. Kinney finds herself in a love triangle, and we learn that Dr. Dana Dang is gay. 

Wolf VOs about who you call first when you’re having a crisis. Meanwhile an ambulance gets a call about a 10 year old in psychiatric distress, and our focal point character is a pretty paramedic.  When we arrive with the paramedics, we see a man knocking at a locked door that’s covered with bloody handprints. He says his kid Finn is autistic and hurt himself while head banging. The paramedic gets the kid to stop by mentioning his toy cars. 

Wolf and all his interns are there to meet the kid when he arrives, and Wolf notices that our pretty paramedic is wincing. She says she has a headache, no big deal. 

The 10 year old, Finn, has a history of injuries, and his dad notes that he doesn’t complain of pain when he should. Using that smiley face pain scale (that was popularized by the folks who brought us the opioid crisis) the kid says he feels fine. 

Dr. Wolf asks Dr. Carol Pierce if she’s reported her car being smashed up by her former patient, and she says that she hasn’t. Friends, she really should. I just wrote a story on stalking, and all the experts say that filing police reports may feel dumb but it’s key to getting legal protection if things escalate. Stalkers ride the line between normal and creepy behavior on purpose, but if you feel harassed, then their behavior counts as harassment in most states. 

Finn’s dad feels guilty for letting his autistic son get into so many accidents. 

Finn rips his IV out without flinching, and Van, who has mirror-touch synesthesia, doesn’t appear to feel the pain either. Van gives the kid a stim toy to distract him. Kinney is impressed with Van’s bedside manner, but she also mentions Jacob, the jock intern who she has a crush on. (Reminder: Van is smitten with Kinney, and the two hooked up, but Kinney wants to keep it casual and doesn’t seem to be all that into Van, even though she admires him.)

Pretty Paramedic shows up again. She’s bringing in a patient who passed out but otherwise seems fine. Then she passes out. We learn her name is Katie. Wolf wants to run a bunch of tests, but the second he walks away, Katie gets up and tells Dana that she’s leaving because she doesn’t want the hospital bill and she feels fine.

Finn is diagnosed with CIP, congenital insensitivity to pain. (As far as I know this is not something Oliver Sacks ever wrote about. Any Sacks-ologists know otherwise? Maybe in “A Leg to Stand On”?)

Dr. Carol is talking to Dr. Josh Nichols (the neurosurgeon who Wolf is seeing on the sly) and she tries to set him up with a friend of hers who is a chiropractor. (I wonder if two people with vastly different medical philosophies can date without arguing too much?) Josh then asks Wolf why he’s keeping Carol in the dark when his MOM freaking knows they are hooking up. Wolf says that he doesn’t want her psychological analysis and follow up questions.

Flashback to Young Wolf and Carol. Wolf is wearing too much Drakkar Noir and waiting for his date to arrive -- and the guy has apparently stood him up. Carol tries to get Wolf to go out with her but he appears to want to stay home and perhaps polish off a bottle of cheap vodka.

Dr. Carol (Tamberla Perry) and Wolf (Zachary Quinto) chat about their love lives, or possibly their patients.

Our Pretty Paramedic Katie doesn’t even make it out of the hospital before she starts having another episode. She appears disoriented and faint-ey. Dana feels guilty for letting her go. Katie’s CT scan is normal. Her white blood cell count is high. Wolf asks for her to tell him about her day. Boy is it intense. Among her many passengers is a girl who attempted suicide after coming out to her parents and being rejected by them. “I get a lot of these.” Apparently Katie is also gay and tells them that she was scared to come out to her parents and that it does get better. 

Spinal tap comes back for Katie, apparently she caught meningitis from one of her patients.

Finn gets discharged. Van and Kinney chat about how parenting must be very hard. Van has a secret kid, btw. Kinney says that she never wants kids. “Not for me.” I hear ya, girl! They make plans to meet up later. 

Wolf helps Carol get a snack out of the snack machine by hitting it (like his dad used to do.) Then he blurts out that he’s “kinda dating Josh.” Carol has no follow up questions. 

Flashback to young Carol and Wolf. Carol comes back from her night out where she meets Morris and calls him a “sexy Sinbad.” She finds Wolf (who she calls Ollie) passed out on the bathroom floor. She holds his hair back as he barfs into the toilet and tells him to never do “that” again. (Seem dead? Drink too much?)

Katie is not responding to antibiotics. Dana explains the lifesaving question: Why is Katie dying from an infection that usually only kills the elderly or immunocompromised.

Dr. Carol runs into her stalker, Allison, the woman who Carol’s husband hooked up with either once or had an entire relationship with, we have no idea. “Morris did this to both of us,” she says. Dr. Carol tells her to get help. She confesses to smashing Dr. Carol’s car. 

Wolf and Josh have dinner at Wolf’s place, which is apparently full of ferns and humidity. 

Flashback to young Wolf and Carol. Young Wolf says he has a fear of abandonment because of his dad. 

The Wolf Pack riffles through Katie’s ambulance, finds a prescription pad, and sees that she’s self medicating with prednisone, to hide her pain so she can work all the time. She tells Wolf a story about how she recently got shot in the arm. “Gunshot wound healed but the pain never left.” “The moment you can't carry your weight in the field you’re done,” she says, as to why she couldn’t tell anyone. Wolf tells her about Chronic Pain and how they can help her. 

Poor Morris (Rainbow Sun Francks). Every time we see him, he’s getting yelled at, apologizing insufficiently, and getting kicked out of Dr. Carol’s office.

The Wolf Pack uses Naloxone (which Katie used earlier to revive a guy with opioid overdose) to turn on Finn’s pain receptors for a few hours. (This is legit! In 2015, scientists used Naloxone to help a 39-year-old woman feel pain for the first time in her life.)

Katie has to sleep sitting up. Chronic pain really sucks. 

Dr. Carol brings in Morris to yell at him for letting Allison have lunch with their daughter. Morris admits to sleeping with Allison more than once. Dr. Carol asks if he was in love with her and Morris hesitates. Wrong answer! He’s kicked out of her office. Wolf shows up and hugs her.

The Wolf Pack makes Katie do an ice bath to manager her pain and inflammation. Dana says that Katie reminds her of Haley Graham from ‘Stick It’ which was a crucial moment in her gay awakening. Didn’t know Dana Dang was gay! Katie says whatever happened to “we’re in it together,” and she tells Dana to get in the ice bath with her. 

Extended outro: Wolf VO’s about pain and some people having too much while others have not enough, Dana tells Jock Intern (Dr. Jacob Nash) to shoot his shot with Kinney. Jacob tells her that she has chemistry with Pretty Paramedic Kate. Some pop song plays over the diegetic sound.

Dr. Carol thanks Wolf for being her first responder. Wolf catches her up on the gossip, like being caught making out with neurosurgeon Josh by his mom (chief medical officer Murial who we haven’t seen in a while) in the hospital elevator. 

Wolf VOs that pain tells us to pay attention. Jacob shows up unannounced at Kenny’s house with her favorite ice cream. Kenny sends him on his way because Van is over and they are hooking up. Apparently Van is good in bed, perhaps due to his mirror-touch?

Dr. Carol receives a bouquet of white roses with a card from her stalker, Allison. “You win. You’ll never see me again.” She grabs her coat and runs out the door. Next scene she’s at Allison’s apartment with a paramedic on a welfare check. Odd that she would go. Anyway, Allison is collapsed on the floor and it’s unclear if she’s dead or not.

So what do you think? Is stalker Allison dead? If so, will Dr. Carol feel guilty? Would you feel guilty in her position? I don’t think I would.