Brilliant Minds' Zachary Quinto Discusses Oliver's Complicated Relationship With His Mom

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Brilliant Minds, "The Disembodied Woman." Read at your own risk. 

It was another emotionally draining day for Oliver Wolf (Zachary Quinto) on Brilliant Minds. The brain specialist and his team of interns had two patients this week: a college student with delusions of a dragon and Jessica (Tedra Marie Taylor), a local basketball player who suddenly loses control of her body. The latter patient became a real struggle for Oliver as her condition deteriorated, and the team could not figure out why. 

Spoiler alert: The team never actually figured out what is wrong with Jessica, but Oliver did figure out a way to treat her. He helped her learn a new way to think about moving her body. She had to relearn everything from breathing to writing her own name and walking. It was another case about learning to rewire the brain rather than actually treating it, and Oliver got to make a point about how important it is to care about your patients and their care. 

While Oliver changed the lives of his patients, he struggled to make similar inroads with his mother, Dr. Muriel London (Donna Murphy), who also happens to be his mom. The two butted heads as Muriel pressed Oliver to pay as much attention to hospital policy as he does to finding out-of-the-box ways to help the patients that come to see him. By the end of the episode, Oliver did make a more concerted effort to get along with his mother, while also claiming a mysterious John Doe patient. Muriel has more up her sleeve than we thought, though, because the episode ended with Muriel asking Carol (Tamberla Perry) to babysit Oliver because there are "things in my son's past" that even Carol doesn't know. 

Ominous, right? TV Guide spoke with Brilliant Minds star Zachary Quinto about the latest episode and what lays ahead for Doctor Oliver Wolf in the first season. 

What were you most excited to explore in Episode 2 once all of the pilot's exposition was out of the way?
Zachary Quinto: Certainly, Wolf's relationship with his mother. We learned at the end of the pilot that his mother is also his boss, so I felt really excited to dive into that storyline. I was also excited to continue exploring the relationship between Wolf and Pierce. Carol and Oliver are a really strong anchor for the show. When you're doing a pilot, you've got to throw everything in. Everybody has to know who everybody is, what their relationships are, what the past is, where they're going, where they are in this moment. There was just this idea that we could all breathe a little bit when we got to make the series itself. ... [Showrunner] Michael Grassi and our team of incredible writers created stories that we couldn't have anticipated. These patients that come in each week reflect back things at the doctors that they're going through in their own lives and experiences. As the season went on, I felt like that was this wonderful confluence of the patients and doctors. 

On the topic of Wolf's mother, Carol makes an interesting point in this episode that Oliver doesn't afford his mom the same leeway that he gives to his patients. Why do you think that is?
Quinto: Do you have a mother? I think we all have an understanding of how difficult it can be to extend that courtesy. It's one of the really interesting dynamics of this character, how difficult it can be to extend the same generosity of spirit to those that maybe we're closest to or have the most complicated relationship with. I had that experience with my own mom, and it adds to the depth of character and circumstance of the show, which I think is really relatable. You also learn a lot through the first season about Oliver through flashbacks and through the relationship he had with both of his parents when he was much younger. [Brilliant Minds] explores how we become who we are in the current experience that we're having in the world and how that's affected by the contributions of our family, even against our will or sometimes unconsciously. We don't always know the effect that those contributions will have on us later. Our show deals with a lot of that — a lot of awakening, a lot of discovery, and a lot of forgiveness and acceptance.

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Wolf's mom asks Carol to babysit him, for lack of a better term, at the end of the episode. How is that going to underline his ongoing trust issues?
Quinto: I think that Oliver Wolf evolves relatively quickly in his new environment. Carol is an impetus for that evolution. His need to work with his mother and find some common ground actually leads to some pretty significant breakthroughs for him relatively early in the season. I think people will see that we address that and we move toward it pretty quickly which to me, is a really good engine for the drama of the show.

Wolf doesn't seem to have a lot of patience for the interns in this episode, until the end. How does Jessica's case help him become a better mentor for them?
Quinto: He sees that there is more value in collaboration than in conflict. He sees that these are serious-minded young people who could benefit from his perspective and his point of view. A lot happens for Wolf very quickly when he takes this job and he realizes the kinds of patients he's going to be interacting with, and the kinds of situations that he's going to be confronted with. He realizes that a team is going to be better in executing his plan than if he tries to be a lone wolf, for lack of a better term.

He latches on to the John Doe patient at the end of this episode. What can you say about how that case is going to challenge him going forward?
Quinto: What's most exciting for me about the John Doe case is that it's one of the cases that carries through multiple episodes of the season. While we get to meet patients every week and really work to solve their medical mysteries, it's really nice to have a patient that represents that kind of bond that can take place between a doctor and a patient, and the way a patient can really influence a doctor's relationship with the work. John Doe really represented that and the connection that Oliver feels for this patient, who is non-communicative. He's essentially in a vegetative state, but Oliver Wolf, much like Oliver Sacks, becomes singularly focused on understanding who this person was. It's not just another body in a hospital bed that is hooked up to machines. Oliver Wolf becomes focused on the mystery of who this person was and, therefore, who this person still is. That is derived right from the life of Oliver Sacks. I love that the John Doe storyline really, really represents that endless curiosity and profound commitment that Oliver Sacks had to his patients.

That profound commitment has worked really well for him so far. He's had two kind of miraculous saves in a row, but it made me curious about what Oliver's reaction will be when inevitably there's a case that doesn't go his way or that he can't figure out.
Quinto: That's a huge part of the journey that he takes this season. It's going to be something that we'll see him and the people around him reckon with pretty soon. He is a brilliant doctor. He knows a lot about these very unusual and, some would say, insurmountable challenges, presenting in a lot of his patients. Every now and again, he's not able to predict the way it's going to go. He's not able to control the way it's going to go. If he is true to himself as a doctor, there are decisions that he's going to have to make in his journey and we'll see him have to make them on the show, that are really at odds with the way he'd like to see things unfold. How does someone move with a sense of adaptability? Adaptability is a huge theme of Brilliant Minds. How does Wolf encourage patients to accept a new normal? How does Wolf himself accept a new normal?

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Do you have a favorite case coming up that you want to tease?
Quinto: I'd have to say the eighth episode of the show, which stars my dear friend Susan Bay Nimoy, the wife of Leonard Nimoy. Susan plays a woman who suffers from a condition that causes her to experience hyper sexuality. So essentially, she's playing an 80-year old nymphomaniac, an octogenarian nymphomaniac, which was so delightful to watch my friend Susan explore. She hasn't acted in almost 40 years and to bring her into this experience and to share it with her, to watch her thrive and do such a beautiful job, I'm really proud of her and really excited to share that performance with the audience. That's probably my favorite case.

But I am fascinated by all of the cases in the show. I can't tell you the number of times that I'd be reading scripts early in the season and my reaction would be, "Well, that can't be real. There's no way that's true." Everything you see on the show is true and accurate to as much a degree of authenticity as we could achieve. These are real neurological disorders and the fixes that we come up with on the show are viable fixes in the real world. It's a fascinating landscape to explore and to consider. It feels stranger than science fiction, but the reality is that it's very much of the real world and these things do happen, and have happened in many different ways to different people. 

Brilliant Minds continues Monday at 10/9c on NBC. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.