Michelle’s Demise, Alex MacNicoll and Spence Moore II’s Exits, Sarah Steele’s Debut Defined

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 11 “The Boy Who Feels Everything.”]

Good Minds‘ midseason return on Monday, January 5, is a devastating one. Not solely does one character die, nevertheless it additionally appears just like the final episode for 2 of Wolf’s (Zachary Quinto) fellows.

Following the fall finale automotive crash, Van’s (Alex MacNicoll) girlfriend, Michelle (Stacey Farber), is mind lifeless, and he struggles to just accept it all through this episode — to the purpose that he and the opposite fellows take her in an ambulance to carry her to a hospital in New Jersey the place there’s a spiritual exemption for mind loss of life. However alongside the way in which, he imagines her waking up and the life they may have had collectively, together with a marriage, and that’s how he accepts that there’s nothing that may be accomplished. After, Van decides he must step away from work to be there for his or her son, after which Jacob (Spence Moore II) reveals he’s leaving for that place at a sports activities clinic in Dallas.

Then, to finish the episode, Wolf returns to his father’s residence, and to his shock, it’s not Noah (Mandy Patinkin) who walks in, however Sofia, a brand new character performed by Sarah Steele. She is aware of that he is aware of Noah and that they’d meet ultimately — and he or she calls him by title when remarking that Wolf appears identical to him.

Under, showrunner Michael Grassi explains why Michelle died, reveals if that was Alex MacNicoll and Spence Moore II’s final episode, teases Sarah Steele’s character, and extra.

Why kill off Michelle and did you ever contemplate not?

Michael Grassi: So final season and even the primary week of the room this season, we needed to inform a narrative about mind loss of life and the way complicated it’s. You may have anyone who’s in entrance of you who nonetheless has a pulse, they’re heat, they seem like the individual you like, and so they’re lifeless and accepting that’s so exhausting. And whereas it’s one thing that’s medically absolute, it doesn’t imply that it makes it simple or easy for a household or a cherished one processing this. And we talked about varied methods through which we needed to inform this story, however the factor we stored on coming again to is probably the most impactful approach to inform this story is with one in every of our very personal shedding anyone that they love. That’s the one means we will seize the emotional gravity of getting to course of one thing like this, particularly somebody that we love with Van and we’ve been invested in his relationship with Michelle and the way complicated it’s and complex is, and so they have a child and all of these actually messy issues that make this even more durable. So we needed to be grounded and inform the truthful model of this that felt direct and never draw back from a tough subject. And that’s why we selected to go this fashion with Michelle.

Pief Weyman/NBC

Talking of creating it more durable, that what might have been montage was completely heartbreaking. Why embrace that?

That to me is — I take into consideration the episode as Van as our A affected person in a bizarre means. And I feel that second actually is Van’s affected person POV. We’re beginning to course of with him. He’s beginning to think about what his life — he’s principally bargaining. He’s making an attempt to carry onto her longer and thru holding onto her this lengthy and seeing how far he’s entering into an ambulance together with his buddies and imagining that she’s coming again to life and imagining that they’re getting married, in that excessive, he’s lastly capable of settle for. In order that’s what that sequence is. Principally we’re stepping into Van’s affected person POV and understanding that how exhausting this resolution is.

I wrote down bargaining and acceptance in my notes throughout that a part of it.

I do know you probably did. I’ve little doubt. [Laughs]

Was this Spence and Alex’s final episode? As a result of the way in which it ended with them felt like exits in a means.

Properly, that is what I’ll say. I really like Spence and I really like Alex. They’ve been with the present from the very starting, and I’m large followers of theirs, and they’re nonetheless very a lot part of our world. And in that final scene, Wolf says one thing that he means, he says, “My door is all the time open.” So my hope is that this isn’t the final we’ll see of Van and Jacob on Good Minds.

However for now it’s? We’re not going to see them within the subsequent few episodes?

No, no. However they’re nonetheless part of our world. We’ll undoubtedly hear about them and hopefully hear from them. And my hope in my prayer is that we’ll see them quickly.

Sarah Steele, her introduction on the finish. I’m so intrigued by Sofia. Who’s she to Noah and to Oliver?

Initially, I can’t say that, however good query. And I additionally must say I really like Sarah Steele. I’m an enormous Sarah Steele fan, and I’m so comfortable she’s on Good Minds. She is all the time wonderful, however she’s doing a little unbelievable work on Good Minds and we’re going to — I can say one factor, OK, and I’ll say that her relationship and her reference to Noah just isn’t what we anticipate and goes to be stunning to Wolf as nicely.

In response to her character description, she’s affected by a medical thriller that Wolf struggles to crack. May it’s that Noah’s signs have been truly hers and he left as a result of she didn’t need to hold mendacity to his son?

I’m not going to reply that.

This medical thriller, is Wolf approaching it in an identical means? As a result of it’s an identical conundrum for him as the start of the season was with Noah’s.

Here’s what I’ll say: You know the way we’ve accomplished serialized sufferers. She is a brand new serialized affected person that we’re assembly on the finish of 11. And keep tuned.

Is it simply as puzzling although for Oliver, like this medical thriller as Noah’s was, whereas he’s not discovering solutions immediately? Are you able to say that?

Yeah, I feel so. And I feel that there’s an surprising kind of connection between the 2 that’s constructed is one thing that I can add.

What does Wolf consider her in that second when she walks in and with what she says to him? Who’s he considering that she is?

When he’s sitting at that desk at his dad’s desk and he hears somebody are available, I feel he’s like, my dad’s about to stroll by means of that door. So when she walks in, he’s principally in his thoughts is like, “Don’t name the police. I do know him.” He’s scared for a second and I feel he has no concept what to suppose or what to anticipate. That develops.

What are you able to say about whether or not we’ll see Mandy Patinkin once more this season?

I can neither verify nor deny.

What are you able to say concerning the subsequent time that Wolf and Amelia (Bellamy Younger) cross paths within the current?

What I’ll say to that’s the Amelia story and Wolf and Amelia involves a head and it’s coming sooner and in a extra stunning means than we anticipate sooner relatively than later.

Good Minds, Mondays, 10/9c, NBC