Chapter Two: The Disembodied Woman

Brilliant Minds Recap

Overall Episode Grade: C

Points deducted for: Unrealistic neurological presentations; pointless home visits; speechifying; needless flashbacks;

Points given for: Realistic mom-adult child interactions; delightful intern character development

Friends, we have a new opener for Brilliant Minds! It superimposes squares from the periodic table of the elements onto the tops of buildings while Dr. Wolf (Zachary Quinto) in voiceover explains… I’m not quite sure what. He seems to conflate the fact that all humans have DNA that is 99.9% the same and the idea that all matter in the universe is made up of the same elements. Writers, do you want us to feel a deep, spiritual link to all our fellow humans, or with our kitchen spatulas? Pick one.

Also: The score is weird! You know the two-note Jaws theme? Well the “Brilliant Minds” opener music is the exact same rhythm and instruments (strings). The only difference is that it’s a whole step, instead of a half step. So it almost generates tension, but then … doesn’t. Is this intentionally telegraphing the series’ theme?

The camera pans down to a freaked out 20-something, who asks Dr. Wolf if he can also see the dragon. Dr. Wolf hedges, saying, “I don't think that there is any standard way of being or perceiving.” I totally agree! This is the point of my whole book. However, the philosophical overtones are probably missed by the kid in the throes of a psychotic episode.

Pete (David Klein), the 20-something in the throes of a florid psychotic hallucination, seemed to miss this important message. Interestingly, we do not see the dragon from Jesse’s point of view — while in the past, we have gotten to beam into the patients’ lived experience. This is a missed opportunity, becasse if we learned anything from “Game of Thrones,” and the various Tolkien franchises, it’s that dragons are great for ratings.

It’s “bring a plot device to work” day, as Dr. Wolf consults the interns, who we will be calling the Paw Patrol. They demonstrate their vast pop culture dragon knowledge, while Dr. Wolf expresses befuddlement.

My friend Joanne, who is a neurologist, says that patients like Pete are exceedingly common, and would not normally attract the attention and fascination of hospital staff.

Cut to Wolf and his work bestie, psychiatrist Carol (Tamberla Perry), being assigned a case by Wolf’s mom, who we now know is the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Muriel Landon (Donna Murphy). The patient is a former WNBA all-star who came in for routine gallbladder surgery and then freaked out and backed out of it.

Dr. Wolf is now in his office, and our basketball star Jesse Williams (Nedra Marie Taylor) wanders in and explains that she had a spooky dream where she felt disembodied. Then she drops a big hunk of agate and breaks it. “Basketball players should be better with their hands,” she says.

Dr. Wolf assures her that her problem is not “psychosomatic.” Jesse is relieved by this.

An aside: Psychosomatic has become a term that people use to mean “originating in your mind and therefore not ‘real,’” However, an enlightened neurologist like Dr. Wolf certainly understands that psychogenic issues often have physical manifestations. Jesse’s anxiety is one good example: The mind’s perception of stress causes a cascade of physiological responses, including elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, muscle tension, and even gastrointestinal issues. All of these symptoms are very real and measurable. Psychosomatic doesn’t mean “Not real,” or that you’re making stuff up (that would be malingering), or being a drama queen.

We’re back to our guy Pete, who barfs into a trashcan. The Paw Patrol decides to test him for drugs.

Jesse the WBNA star decides to go ahead with her gallbladder surgery. Then she freaks out again and changes her mind.

Flashback to Dr. Wolf as a kid — hereafter called Wolf Cub (Jaden Waldman) — in a dissection lab. His teacher tells him to sit with another student by name. The kids’ faces are blurry — not my favorite depiction of prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. A room full of nearly identical looking people would be better in my opinion. People with prosopagnosia, like me, see faces just as clearly as anyone. Our problem is that we can’t remember them — sort of how you probably think squirrel faces all look the same.

Wolf Cub frees his doomed frog instead of euthanizing him — I mean, who wouldn’t? He frets that his failure to dissect the critters means that he won’t ever be a doctor, so his mom does what any mom would do: Takes him to dissect a human body. (Actually, this happens a little later, but I thought I’d consolidate the scattered flashbacks for you.)

Now Dr. Wolf and Jesse are playing basketball. We’ll just assume that Bronx General has a basketball court especially reserved for patients who are having second thoughts about surgery. Jesse explains that “when they were prepping me for surgery, it felt like my body was dead, or not mine.” This is called depersonalization or derealization and it’s pretty common, as far as psychiatric/neurologic symptoms go. It could result from stress over having surgery, or even the result epilepsy, but Dr. Wolf somehow intuits that her problem is rarer.

We’re back to our college kid, Pete. He did take LSD, but it was a while ago, so that wouldn’t explain his persistent visual hallucination. Dr. Carol says that since Pete knows the dragon is not real, that means his problem is neurological, not psychological.

If only things were this easy! According to my friend Joanne, who is a neurologist, people with schizophrenia often understand their hallucinations are not real. And conversely, people in the throes of neurological-based hallucinations (e.g. due to epilepsy) often have no insight into the fact that they are seeing things that are not really there.

Intern Jock Jacob (Spence Moore II) finds a red herring in Jesse’s bedside smoothie.

Wolf decides to give Jesse a spinal tap, and Anxious Intern Van (Alex MacNicoll) can’t do it. Dr. Wolf asks him what’s up. He says that he literally feels his patients’ pain. That would seem to be a big problem for an intern on rotation, especially in the ER or Ob-Gyn!

Dr. Wolf is at home reading the hospital manual and carping about the American for-profit- medical-industrial-insurance complex (agree!), when his landline rings. He’s needed back at the hospital.

What’s the medical emergency? Jesse is lying flat on her back with her arms sticking straight up into the air. According to Joanne, this could be a bilateral seizure whereby you are somehow still alert and awake, but it’s more likely that Jesse is becoming a zombie.

Dr. Wolf asks Jesse to take a few steps, and she falls through the floor, rotating 360 degrees back to where she started. It’s a nifty visual effect, but she simply can’t feel the floor with her toes, which I think would be better represented as an abyss opening up beneath her bed.

Demo time! Dr. Wolf puts Intern Van in a box and shines a light on his head. He’s trying to demonstrate the concept of proprioception, which is your body’s sense of where it is in space absent visual feedback. Wolf’s theory is that Jesse is rapidly losing this ability.

Wolf’s mom shows up and calls him “Mugwump,” which is apparently 19th century slang for sanctimonious. Solid.

Wolf’s mom tells him to do a spinal tap and he’s like, I was ALREADY DOING that. Geez mom! Stay out of my beeswax.

This kind of exchange would never happen in a hospital, Joanne says, because physicians stick to their specialties and are way too busy to second guess eachother but I find the overall family dynamic delightfully realistic.

Wolf is looking at Jesse’s MRIs and seeing nothing. Neurosurgeon Nichols (Teddy Sears) shows up and concurs. Then he complains that Dr. Wolf never acknowledges him in the hallway. Dr. Wolf explains that he has prosopagnosia.

Surely Dr. Nichols knows about prosopagnosia, but he lets Dr. Wolf mansplain it to him. Wolf mentions that he uses distinctive features to tell people apart, and then takes the opportunity to neg Nichols about his pallor and crows feet. Later, it turns out that Wolf has settled on Nichols “freakishly large hands.”

Since Nichols is apparently the only full-fledged doctor in the hospital besides Carol and Wolf, I think it should be pretty easy to pick him out. This show seriously needs to populate the hallways with more extras!

Jacob the Jock visits Jesse for an otherwise pointless character-building exercise, whereby he expresses sadness over having to give up his Div. 1 football career.

Interns Drug-Doing Dana Dang and Ericka “Kiss-up” Kenny riffle through Pete’s dorm room. Ericka talks about how all she did in college was study and work to support herself, and she seems sad about the fact that she didn’t have time for fun.

While staring out the window, Kiss-up Kenny notices a neon dragon advertisement for a Chinese food restaurant. She infers that this is the dragon Pete has been “seeing,” — which means it’s a persistent vision of something he’s actually seen, rather than a pure hallucination.

Joanne comments that ordering MRIs would be more efficient and diagnostically illuminating than breaking into a patient’s dorm room.

Dr. Wolf and the Paw Patrol puzzle over Jesse, who has gone unresponsive. Then — as they are watching — the she randomly goes into cardiac arrest. Wolf starts shouting directions to people.

“Why is the neurologist running the code?” asks my friend Joanne.

Joanne explains that a real doctor would call for the crash team — people with special training and protocols for dealing with cardiac arrest.

Cut to somber music. Wolf and the Paw Patrol stare dolefully at Jesse.

“Sadly, the patient died because the neurologist was running the codes,” Joanne VOs.

Actually, Jesse is alive, but she’s on a ventilator. Her total proprioception loss has advanced to the point where she’s “forgotten” how to breathe.

My understanding is that breathing is an autonomic function. Obviously, you can take control of it. But I’m pretty sure that even a total proprioception loss wouldn’t cause you to stop breathing. Joanne isn’t so sure. What do you think? Any pulmonologists in the house?

We’re back to Pete where the discovery of the dorm-room dragon convinces Dr. Wolf to order an(other?) MRI. Wolf also orders a spinal MRI for Jesse.

Flashback: Wolf Cub seeks advice from his dad about how to do dissections. His dad recommends dissociation.

What key insight does Dr. Wolf glean from this memory? The importance of believing in yourself.

Pete’s MRI shows bleeding in his dura (the outer covering of the brain) near the occipital lobe (the primary visual area, which is in the back of your head.) The hallucination was an early sign of what would have become a much bigger problem, so the dragon actually saved him. Yay!

Dr. Wolf gathers the Paw Patrol for the episode’s climax: The removal of Jesse’s breathing tube. With Wolf’s coaching, Jesse somehow uses the visual feedback of her breath fogging a tray to remember how to breathe. It’s true that people with proprioception loss (e.g. due to advanced syphilis causing spinal cord degeneration) can relearn how to guide their bodies visually, but we’re talking arms and hands and legs here, not lungs. So, again, this doesn’t seem very likely to me.

Denouement: Jesse gets out of a wheelchair and walks unsteadily across the hospital’s pre-op basketball court. Wolf VOs that we may never know what caused Jesse to lose all her proprioception. But looking at the spinal MRI might have given us some clue information, right? I’m not a doctor, but wouldn’t it have at least been a step in the right direction?

Joanne: “Maybe the real spinal MRIs were the friends we made along the way.” Ha!

Final Scene: The interns binge drink together. Kiss-up Kenny finally gets to have some fun! Adorbs.