[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 5 “Once Upon a Time in America.”]
“Sometimes trying is all we can do,” Dr. Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) says in the Monday, October 20, episode of Brilliant Minds. And Dr. Josh Nichols (Teddy Sears) certainly does just that when the lives of two brothers, working as window repairmen, who fell 39 stories rest in his hands.
Josh is able to save Jorge, but Benny, who had been the first to wake, has a catastrophic stroke. Despite his best efforts, there’s nothing he can do. Their mother, who had been so focused on Jorge after Benny turned his back on what she believes, is devastated and curses Josh.
Below, Teddy Sears breaks down the episode and teases what’s ahead.
Tonight’s episode is one of the show’s best so far, and you are so good in it.
Teddy Sears: Well, thank you so much. How much do we love Paris Barclay? Can we just talk about — this episode in his hands, we knew we were teed up to do something special, and from what I’ve seen, it’s lived up to what we all believed was going to be a very special episode for our show. And yeah, I just want to give a big tip of the hat to a true television legend.
Talk about playing a Josh who does start as confident as he always is, only to be losing that a bit by the end because of what happens.
Well, it was really fun for me personally because I remember [showrunner] Michael Grassi at the beginning of the season saying to me, “We have enough episodes this season that we can give Josh a problem,” which I thought was a very nice and succinct way of saying, we’re going to be able to explore a little bit more about this character and yeah, maybe get to see a little bit more of his life at the hospital rate at minimum. So it was really fun for me because the episode takes us on sort of a complete ride. There’s a really beautiful arc from the beginning where Josh is riding high after another successful surgery. He’s this sort of, I don’t know, Superman at the top of his game, exercising in the office, staying on top of every little aspect of his life, keeping order and structure the way that Josh likes to only to have things not go according to plan towards the end of the episode.

Pief Weyman/NBC
And he’s really left wondering, I think, so many things. He’s superstitious like an athlete. “If I had only done this or that different, I wouldn’t have had a negative outcome.” “Why did I take this on to begin with?” “Did I think I was superhuman?” “Am I a victim of my own overconfidence?” All these things are sort of in the collective mental soup, if you will, in Josh’s mind when we wrap the episode.
And I also love that it ends on an unpredictable note. We see the Torres brothers’ mom played by a simply sensational Sol Miranda approach Josh in the hallway at the end of his very long day, and I think we are expecting — when I was reading the script, I was expecting — that she was going to essentially say, thank you for trying, thank you for doing your all in service of trying to save my sons. Of course, that’s not what happens at all. So, Josh’s left, completely rattled and irredeemed at the end of the episode, which I was thrilled to be able to try to give life to.
Talk about filming that scene cleaning up the OR floor with first Josh alone, then Wolf joining him. It’s a quiet moment after the rush of the rest of the episode.
I remember that being a very significant opportunity for me to show and for the audience to see Josh’s humanity, if you will, the most tender and vulnerable parts of Josh. I remember during rehearsal being overtaken by emotion and thinking, “Oh God, this is happening now,” because it is such a devastating scene, and it’s such a beautiful scene because who was there to comfort Josh but Oliver to tell him just what he needs to hear and to be his metaphorical shoulder to cry on? And I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when we started to film it.
Like I said, I was overtaken by emotion during the rehearsal and I thought, oh boy, I mean, this is probably where the scene lives. But you do a scene enough times, it’s hard to keep that sort of level of emotion up, and sometimes things change. So I am hopeful that the editors and Paris picked the most raw version that we shot because I thought that that was very appropriate.
Josh is ever the dutiful soldier, always very professional and ordered and probably wearing a very thick mask in his day-to-day life. And this was the chance to see through that and to have all that fall away and to just see the person underneath. And so it was a real lift to shoot because there was a whole lot going on internally that wanted to come out. And it was also a really beautiful moment for these two characters, Josh and Wolf, to have together at this stage in their professional and personal relationship, whatever that may be.
Josh assigns out a surgery he usually loves, and he attributes it to his job as chief, but where is his head when it comes to stepping back in the OR after what happened?
What we see in 6, which is our Halloween episode, is that Josh is rattled. He’s rattled, and he is finding ways not to take on surgeries. We see a glimpse of it when he foregoes doing surgery he typically loves and assigning it to his fellow to do. He is looking for more excuses to do that in [Episode] 6. And there, again, the wise counsel of Dr. Wolf, there is a one-on-one scene in the office where he essentially tells Josh in classic Moonstruck form to snap out of it.
So, Josh is rattled, and that’s going to be a fun thing to carry forward in Episode 6 and then to sort of see where it goes going forward. That has a very direct carryover for our future episodes.
Speaking of Josh and Wolf, because they’re settling into this new dynamic both on the job with Josh now chief, which I’m liking seeing, it’s fun to see Josh in this new role —
Yeah, it’s really fun for me. I’m enjoying seeing it. It’s one thing to read it and it’s another thing to watch it come to life. And I’ve been very happy how it’s come to life because I do think that Josh is very — in addition to being a very talented and a very driven surgeon, there’s some level of aptitude for I think the politics of running a hospital and the attention to detail that has allowed him to still thrive as a surgeon. He’s able to apply it in this sort of administrative role, which I actually think it’s working.
So, thank you for saying that. I’m very happy to be doing it. It allows me to wear different hats, but also allows me to do more on the show, which as a greedy, selfish actor who just loves to go to work, is really very exciting.
With what you said, it also speaks to Josh’s need for control. He’s very much in control and has control in this new position.
That’s a very, very good point, which I didn’t quite consider, but you’re right on. Josh does love to be in control. I think that’s where we see him in the beginning of Episode 5. He’s riding high because he’s once again controlled the outcome in this very complicated surgery, and it’s at this point, old hat to him. he’s brimming with confidence and ever on top of everything, personally, professionally, emotionally. And yes, I do think you’re right that it’s directly applicable to this whole other area of the hospital, which, even though it has its headaches, really does suit him and his personality. So I’m glad the writers, I don’t know how they came up with it. I’m glad that they thought of me for this role in Season 2. It’s definitely one that I’ve been very happy to play, but I also think it totally fits with who we know Josh to be as a character.

Pief Weyman/NBC
Going back to the original question, about Josh and Wolf’s new dynamic, it’s also different off the job because they’re exes and trying to be friends. Where is Josh’s heart when it comes to Wolf right now, and what can you say about potential hope for them to get back together?
I think the short answer is these two lacked the firm foundation, if you will, of people who — They never established, I think, a foundation of friendship. They have the respect at work, they have attraction, certainly good banter, enjoyed each other’s company, but I wasn’t sure foundationally what was really there for them. So, I hope what we’re seeing is a greater foundation laid through their continued interactions at work and all the time that they’re spending around each other.
I do think that Josh has pulled back emotionally. His heart was open for Wolf, wanted there to be more at the end of Season 1, being stood up, which I think is a thing that Josh could get over, but emotionally Wolf has not confronted and dealt with all of his trauma related to his father. And I think that Josh has figured until that work is done, I can’t be so readily available emotionally, and I just think it’s better to park that and let’s get on with the business of what we do here at the hospital. I think Josh’s heart is closed off right now to Oliver.
What does that mean going forward? I wish I knew. I told the writers I don’t want to know what’s coming. But I loved those scenes with Wolf, I love the relationship with Wolf, and I would love to see it grow. My guess is that these two are going to have to go through their paces professionally, and it’s not going to happen until Wolf gets his s**t straight, but it doesn’t mean it won’t be — we’re not even through half of the season yet. But I think what we will continue to see is a lot of really great one-on-one scenes between these two because I just think there’s something about, put me in a room with Zach and we just have a really great rapport and it just becomes like a playground, like an acting playground for me. It’s so fun to see what he’s going to do and respond accordingly. That’s such a dorky actor answer, but that’s how I feel.
I have to say, I’ve loved the Josh and Carol (Tamberla Perry) stuff that we’ve gotten. I mean, Episode 2, that stuff was so great.
A lot of people are like, yes, I keep hearing this, that this is, and I love Tam. We love each other, same as Zach. We love each other. We spend time together, we hang out. So it’s great that they’re giving us more one-on-one stuff to do. I agree. It’s so much fun.
Is any more coming up? I feel like he might have something to say about, say, Carol and Thorne (John Clarence Stewart) and what seems to be going on there.
[Laughs] Absolutely. We’re going to shoot something tomorrow night that is — yes, it’s going to be tender, it’s going to be sweet, and it’s going to be more of this Carol and Josh friendship that I am really pleased to see the writers investing more screen time in. So yes, yes. And again, there’s sort of different factions at the hospital. There’s sort of the senior brass, if you will, of Wolf, Carol, and Josh. We’re all the same age in life and we’re all the same age on screen. And then the interns and sort of the younger cohort. So the three of us, I think they’re finding more stuff. Certainly the Wolf and Carol stuff’s incredible to watch, so much fun, but Josh and Carol and Josh and Wolf. So the writers are really expanding on their ability to allow us to broaden our relationship on screen, which is really cool.

Pief Weyman/NBC
Eric Dane‘s guest starring. Is there anything between your characters, because it doesn’t sound like his character will need a surgeon, but with you as chief, I feel like that could be a way…
My wife had a daughter during Episode 9.
Congratulations!
Thank you. Literally, she’s not even two weeks old yet. So, while I am in the episode, it doesn’t involve Eric’s case, it involves Sam, our schizoaffective patient. I wish I had been around to meet Eric, but his storyline does not involve me. And really that’s just the mechanics of [scheduling] and we want you to be home with your family. Otherwise, I think they probably would’ve spun it up differently.
We got a glimpse of you in the flashforwards in last week’s episode. Josh gave Wolf a phone going in, kind of suggesting that they’re working together on something. Then there’s Charlie (Brian Altemus) being in Josh’s office. So first of all, what is Josh’s take on Charlie?
There’s going to be some amazing revelations about that, which we’re shooting now. So you’re going to learn a whole lot more about Charlie in the first half of the season. It really accelerates very quickly. I don’t know how we got there, to be honest. And like I said, I haven’t asked. I like to open the script and sort of see what’s happening unless there’s something they want me to know about. I’m left to believe that in Oliver’s absence, Charlie’s now running neuro and reporting to me, and of course we’re working together because Josh is a neurosurgeon. But the gap between the flashforward and when the actual timeline gets there, anyone’s guess, I have no idea, but I’m very excited to see because he’s up to something.
And then there’s also what Wolf is doing in Hudson Oaks and how much Josh is involved and that phone call. Did you have any theories once you read that?
Well, it’s funny. Someone in my family was like, “Oh, that look you threw tells me that there’s something that you know.” And no, when we shot that, I mean, maybe I didn’t do my job very well, but it’s a very, I mean, disconcerting is putting it mildly it. That conversation rattles me because Oliver is clearly in distress and I don’t really know what to do about it. I want to listen to Charlie, who has clearly been entrusted to run the department.
However, you talk about heart and you talk about concern and love, there’s something underneath through Wolf’s voice or just the fact that he got this fevered phone call that really unsettles Josh. So, I think Josh is wrestling in that moment with, what do we do here, and being reassured by Charlie on the spot. So, that’s what I was attempting with my look to attempt to reconcile in real time. He’s very concerned with what he’s hearing and all this is going to come to a head at some point. And I don’t know what that’s going to look like, but I hope it involves a grand gesture and a breakout attempt. But I have no idea what’s coming.
Yeah, I have a feeling that Oliver and Josh are up to something, and I feel like Carol is probably involved, especially with what you’re talking about with getting three of them in more scenes together.
Well, here’s what’s exciting is that theories are forming because if you as a viewing audience don’t know and it’s sparking a desire to try to figure it out, that’s cool. That means we got our hooks in you and we’re doing something right because I mean, I can speak honestly and tell you that I don’t really know, but the fact that it could go this way, it could go that way, that makes for good TV and the writers are going to deliver because they just keep delivering insanely good scripts. And I don’t see how we won’t give a very satisfying end to this whole thing.
Brilliant Minds, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC
More Headlines: