SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 4.

The chief issue with Brilliant Minds Season 1 was that it didn’t stand out enough compared to other “brilliant but unorthodox doctor” shows. The NBC series took too long to develop its characters and ideas beyond what people had seen before, but it eventually got there. Season 2, Episode 4, “Lady Liberty” feels like it’s going in reverse.

The strength of the episode again is its guest star—this week it’s Jane Krakowski, and the viewers who recall her bubbly role on Ally McBeal will be stunned to see her Brilliant Minds character so subdued. Krakowski plays one of Bronx General’s biggest donors, Arianna Burnett, who’s been diagnosed with dementia. The hospital can’t afford to lose her financial backing, so interim chief Dr. Josh Nichols asks Dr. Oliver Wolf and Dr. Carol Pierce to check in on Arianna. Krakowski is the perfect person to play a character breaking out of her shell, as it turns out that Arianna doesn’t have dementia; she’s a natural thrill-seeker, for better and for worse.

Yet so much of “Lady Liberty” feels either predictable or stunted. The spiel Nichols gives Wolf about needing to rein his department in could have been lifted out of House or other shows like it. Of course Wolf ignores this and takes Arianna out of the hospital, and viewers will see it coming that she runs away when he gets a phone call from Carol. Wolf, of all people, should know not to turn his back on a patient he’s supposed to be watching. The medical conclusion—in which Wolf explains to Arianna’s husband and daughter what’s actually happening and they change their attitude toward her—quickly ties things up conveniently. It lacks the emotional impact that other Brilliant Minds episodes have had with their cases.

Within the hospital, the audience knows where most of the subplots are going. There’s an attempt at comic relief because Carol goes on a blind date with one of Nichols’ friends, but it’s already been made clear that Dr. Anthony Thorne has been set up as her new love interest—and a few more hints are dropped herein—so it’s no surprise that the date doesn’t work out. Dr. Ericka Kinney tries to treat an allegedly schizophrenic man she meets while on a run, but it goes disastrously before Wolf spells out for her (and the fans) that she’s doing this to compensate for the woman she failed to save at the end of Season 1. Actors Alex MacNicoll and Spence Moore II get this episode off, as Van and Jacob are mentioned once but not seen; one wonders if this is another instance of a TV show saving money by reducing the number of cast members in a given episode.

The entire fourth act of “Lady Liberty” just doesn’t launch. Viewers finally learn the point of Dr. Charlie Porter’s annoyingly abrasive character: he’s the antagonist who takes over Wolf’s job after Wolf commits himself to the Hudson Oaks psychiatric care facility. That knowledge doesn’t make him any more interesting. The exchanges between Wolf and Nichols even sound awkward. While it’s nice that Brilliant Minds is letting their professional conflict stand separate from their former personal relationship, the characters talk like they don’t know each other. It’s obvious the beats that the script wants actors Zachary Quinto and Teddy Sears to hit, like Wolf telling Nichols that he can get another neurosurgeon, but those lines don’t have enough conviction.

The underlying idea of Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 4 is people trying to get out of the boxes other people want to put them in. Arianna and Wolf are alike in that way—something else that Wolf says out loud. But this is also true of the entire episode. Brilliant Minds has found what makes it unique, and yet “Lady Liberty” is simply too much inside the box.

Brilliant Minds airs Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Photo Credit: Courtesy of NBC.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.