'Brilliant Minds' Star Mandy Patinkin and Showrunner Michael Grassi Break Down That Explosive Finale Family Reunion

Brilliant Minds served up an unexpected family reunion in the two-part finale, which aired Monday night. The first hour picked up where the fall finale left off, with Erika’s (Ashleigh LaThrop) building in near-collapse after someone ran a car into the foundation. Firefighters arrived on the scene declaring the building could fall at any moment and it was all hands on deck to get people out.

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The EMTs were greeted by an elderly doctor, played by Mandy Patinkin, who was helping a female resident of the building trapped under the rubble. Dr. Nichols (Teddy Sears) was called in to help with the woman’s head wound, and Oliver (Zachary Quinto) tagged along. With some teamwork, the trio was able to save the woman and get her to the hospital without amputating her legs. Erika was also freed from the building elevator but lost a young patient as she was being pulled out of the death trap.

All of this would be worthy of celebration. But the final moments of the first half revealed that Mandy Patinkin is actually playing Oliver’s father, Noah, who faked his own death when Oliver was 14 because his schizophrenia made him incapable of raising the young boy. Muriel (Donna Murphy) begged Noah to give her some time to figure out how to tell Oliver the truth. But apparently, impatience runs in the family. Noah decided to pop in on Oliver and just reveal that he’s alive without consulting anyone.

As you would expect, Oliver did not take the news well, exploding on his father, Muriel, and Carol (Tamberla Perry) (the latter of which found out the truth and immediately coerced Muriel into telling her son). It took Oliver the rest of the episode to process this truth, even when his mother explained that Noah coerced her into telling the lie. The fact that she waited 30 years to come clean didn’t really help her case. It seemed that Oliver was willing to give his father a chance though, ditching Josh and the gala they were supposed to attend together to meet his father in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. It’s there Noah reveals that he has a mystery disease on top of his mental disorder, and that Oliver is the only one who could potentially save him and give them more time together.

Brilliant Minds is still waiting for a Season 2 renewal, but Parade caught up with Mandy Patinkin and showrunner Michael Grassi to break down the two-part finale and tease what could be ahead in the sophomore season.

Related: Everything to Know About Brilliant Minds Season 1

When did you know that you wanted Mandy Patinkin to play this vital role in the series?
Michael Grassi: Zach had read the script, and he and I met on Zoom. I pitched him what the season storyline would be, and then I said, “Towards the end of the season, dad comes back. Imagine Mandy Patinkin.” At that point, that was sort of very, very, top of the wishlist, if it was even in the realm of possibility. I’ve always dreamed of working with Mandy.

Towards the end of the season, we reached out to Mandy, and we had an incredible conversation, which was the beginning of a collaboration. He was inspiring. We sort of approached this character and this storyline in similar ways, which was what the thesis of the show is: With hope. Mandy had this really great instinct with the character that he could come to it with a positive energy that felt like a fresh take on something we had seen before. It was very exciting to be collaborating with Mandy.

Mandy Patinkin: I was sitting right at this table, just over there in my cozy little rocking leanback chair, which I live in. Michael called, and I had him on speaker phone, and my wife Catherine sat right next to me. He started talking about it, and my wife kept looking at me with her eyebrows up. She thought this sounded good. This sounded like this would be a good thing for me to think about. We all have children. It’s always an interesting journey with the parents and children, and there are issues. Certainly this one has an exaggerated issue that, without a doubt, would take in everybody beyond imagination, literally and figuratively.

So I looked at it. Catherine and I sat down and watched the pilot. I went, “Wow, that’s really moving.” I was very moved by it. Just on a global, humanitarian note, a wish and a prayer that I always have, is [for] the struggles that human beings have all over the world with emotional issues, mental issues, the stigma attached to them, the lack of empathy and care and oftentimes inappropriate placement of individuals— misdiagnosis and so forth—into prison type atmospheres where they’re not being treated with the heart, but with the CEO or the budget or the state. [This show] bridges the connection of all of us in this world to the most vulnerable among us. For me, this is a good story to tell all over the world in the hope and wish that people have a greater, open, empathetic attitude, heart, mind, and kindness to our fellow human beings.

We don’t get to learn too much about Noah’s past because Oliver doesn’t want to hear it. But what do you think he’s been up to for the past 30 years since Oliver last saw him?
Grassi: Noah has been overseas. He’s been practicing as a doctor. He’s not been in the States. He’s been working remotely, whether it be Doctors Without Borders, or whether it be in small hospitals or facilities. He’s been working on himself and helping others during this time. We might learn some of the other things. That’s part of what the mystery is going to be in Season 2 as Wolf is learning more about where his dad has been all this time.

Patinkin: For those like myself who might have initially felt skeptical, wondering, “Well, how do you disappear and spend time in institutions and carry on a medical practice? How can that be?” Well, I was taking a walk with myself and thought, “How about all of the doctors who are addicted to drugs and alcohol and spend a lot of time in therapy, institutions, rehab, etc, and they don’t give up their practice?” It’s an epidemic among doctors in many places, the misuse of access to drugs, and so this isn’t something out of left field. When I clicked on that, I went, “Okay, this is how this can be grounded in absolute reality.”

I want to talk about the scene where Noah first meets Oliver, because, as an actor, you know all of the layers in that scene even if the audience doesn’t know it yet. How did you approach that, Mandy?
Patinkin: Underneath it all, I am praying that he’ll know who I am and he’ll say, “Dad,” and that’s how I went into it. He’ll recognize me, and he’ll hear my voice. But this prosopagnosia—face blindness—is very real. Oliver Sacks had it. It is part of our story as well. And I’ve had it happen to me in real life.

I’ll tell you a quick story. My wife and I went on a publicity tour in Australia to promote a string of concerts I was doing, and my son Gideon had gone on this fishing expedition. We had to do publicity over several days, and there was this publicity assistant, who was a bit annoying. He’s asking really absurd questions, being intrusive, and very difficult. At the end of the second day, he starts playing this song like he wants to sell it to me to sing in the concerts. It was so inappropriate. But then he started singing, “It’s me. It’s me. It’s me,” and my jaw dropped. He had blonde hair and a blonde mustache, blonde eyebrows, and blue eyes. It was my son. It was my son Gideon, and he had pulled one over on his parents. It’s a whole complicated journey but I went through this for real. He was there for two days, but we didn’t notice.

Related: Everything to Know About Chicago Med Season 10

Another pivotal scene is when Noah comes to Oliver to reveal who he is for the first time. How did you go about crafting that, knowing how important it is to the entire series?
Grassi: The way we approached it was, how do we play this as real and as grounded as we possibly can? It is such a huge situation to put these two characters–and these two actors–in. I would say that day on set was one of the most extraordinary days on set I’ve ever had in my career. Seeing Mandy and Zach find the truth in that scene was what I would call a master class in performance. The entire crew was there and was just in awe. It was a really special day to see them find it and to see them find all of the layers and all the complexity of all the feelings. Mandy is incredible in the scene, and Zach is firing at his best. Everyone is really stepping up to deliver, and it feels like a really big moment.

Mandy, what was it like for you to film that?
Patinkin: Michael had explained to me the journey and the flashbacks with Noah, younger Noah and younger [Oliver]. I knew that to be successful in this rebirth of connection, we had to keep a little calm and try to have joy and really put on the table the possibility of forgiveness and kindness and joy and vulnerability. That, “I need you to be my son right now. Maybe if you can find it within yourself after you take a run and a motorcycle ride, maybe you can find the moment to go, ‘Can I have something that I never even thought was possible anymore?’” It couldn’t have been more loaded. Everyone in that room had a parent, and everyone in that room, I’m talking about the crew and the writers and the actors, everyone in that room was also children. We all had histories. You could feel it.

Oliver does choose to go to Noah at the end of this episode, at the risk of his relationship with Josh. When we see that tux hung over the chair, is that him just ghosting Josh, or does it have implications about his relationship with Bronx General as well?
Grassi: At this stage, he has just sort of ghosted Josh on this very important night. We know they’ve had some tension over Josh and his career. For Wolf, he very much needs to get his house in order before he lets somebody in. He’s spent so much of this season starting to chip away at his walls and start to let people in. He’s just learned what he thought was reality is not reality. He has a lot of question marks in his life, and he’s starting to have trouble trusting everything. That’s what we’re seeing there. But in terms of Bronx General, he did not leave at the end of the episode.

Patinkin: Might I add a little something, too? I’ve unfortunately had a lesson in my life, a profound lesson, that when you’re lied to, you are damaged forever. It doesn’t just go away. The task is similar to breaking a bone in your body. Your job then is to build new tissue, new musculature around the infrastructure of your soul to carry on. Some can do it, and some must let go. Because to lie, to not tell the truth, is a cancer, in my humble opinion, beyond any known cancer. It kills you while you’re alive.

Grassi: But that is so much of what the show is about, Mandy. It’s that adaptation and perseverance and emotional adaptation and all of that. Growing up in my family, there was a lot of secrecy surrounding mental illness, and only much later in my life did things become clear. That’s when we were finally able to start talking about things. That’s what Brilliant Minds is about. Oliver Sacks dedicated his life to telling stories about people who were struggling with things and destigmatizing mental illness. One of my favorite lines in the episode is when Muriel says [to Wolf], “Illness destroyed our family.” And Wolf looks at her and goes, “No, Mom. Secrets did.” That’s such a big, important part of what we’re talking about with this show and what our society is doing with mental health right now.

Noah’s case will obviously carry over to Season 2. Is that investigation based on one of Oliver’s real cases, or is it something that will be new for Brilliant Minds?
Grassi: Oliver Sacks’ parents were both doctors in real life. His mother was a surgeon, and his dad was a general practitioner, a very beloved GP who made house calls and was very, very loved in the community. Oliver Sacks learned a lot from his dad in how he became a doctor as well, in terms of going above and beyond. In Season 2, yes, there’s going to be a big medical mystery. What is wrong with Noah? How is Wolf going to find him more time or save him? At the same time, we are going to see Noah practice and be a doctor as well, which is inspired by the real Oliver Sacks. Like all of our cases, whether it’s directly pulled from one of Oliver Sacks’ cases or not, Wolf will sort of treat it as he does all of his cases, which is to try to step into the patient’s shoes. This is the most challenging patient yet because it is his own father. Wolf has his work cut out for him, for many reasons. 

Brilliant Minds Season 1 is now streaming on Peacock.

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