We’re back! In Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman’ takes center stage as she faces the reality of her marriage while Oliver and Nichols have their first fight and the love triangle between the interns ends dramatically. Ready?
Here we go!
The Freedom to Prioritize Yourself
Carol is the absolute protagonist of Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman’ because she shines with her own light in this episode and we love it! She knows she made a mistake by continuing to treat Alison after knowing who she was and now she’s trying to fix it, helping Alison and trying to save her marriage at the same time. At this point, Carol is taking the responsibility of fixing the world on her back, just like she always did, even when Maya was little.
Carol is a person who feels like she has to give everything of herself to others, to try to solve problems or help others. The problem is if she takes care of everyone, who takes care of her? Carol has to put herself before Alison, before her marriage, before everything else, because only then can she be okay and heal her wounds, only then can she look in the mirror feeling like herself and not feeling miserable.
And we’re glad that Maya was the one who gave her that push in Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman,’ because we think that part of Carol’s forcing herself to forgive Morris was to not hurt her daughter, but she’s a big girl now and understands that her father made a mistake that her mother can’t and doesn’t have to forgive. Because yeah, relationships are complicated and if they cool off it’s usually the fault of two, but Morris made the conscious decision to cheat on Carol with Alison and break his promise. The fact that their relationship wasn’t at its best doesn’t excuse or justify it.
The mistake Morris made didn’t end Carol’s love for him — that needs more time — but it did destroy their marriage. Carol can’t forgive such a betrayal and disappointment and knows that the best thing to do is to ask for a divorce. No more trying to pretend that she and Morris can recover from this, no more making excuses and trying to understand him. And we’re so proud of her!
Plus, we’re also proud of the way Carol ended up handling this whole Alison thing on Brilliant MindsSeason 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman.’ At first, trying to fix everything wasn’t helping her — since Alison was being deliberately cruel and it was tearing her apart — or Alison, because she did everything to get Carol’s attention so she could talk to her…and Carol was giving her just that. But then, when Carol took charge and decided to prioritize herself, she was able to talk to Alison as an equal and that ended up helping her. That’s our girl!
MORE: Here’re the reviews of Brilliant Minds episode 5, episode 6, and episode 7.
Forced Conflicts in Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman’
On the other hand, Oliver and Nichols have their fair share of conflict in Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman.’ The two have different ways of thinking about a patient, while Nichols considers that the patient decides to have surgery or not despite its risks, Oliver doesn’t conceive the operation as a possibility for this patient. The point is… that it is not his decision, but the patient’s. Oliver can only inform him of the risks but he is not the one to try to convince his patient not to do it… or to do the same with Nichols so that he refuses to do it.
In addition, we feel the fight between Oliver and Nichols is quite forced, because Oliver has trusted Nichols many times in the past with his patients, so the jump that Nichols makes to the point that Oliver doesn’t consider him as his equal or respect his work doesn’t make much sense. For us, it was clear from the beginning that the real problem here was that Oliver didn’t see any other way of healing his patients than his own, it’s always been that way, but we didn’t know why.
Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman’ is in charge of giving us that answer and, best of all, Oliver is quick to go talk to Nichols about it, opening up to him, and Nichols understands his point, making our babies okay again. And we’re celebrating!
MORE: Here’re the reviews of Brilliant Minds episode 8, episode 9, and episode 10.
P***ing and Lying Contest
Honestly, Markus and Jacob can go to h*** in Brilliant Minds Season 1 Episode 11 ‘The Other Woman.’ They go through this kind of p***ing contest as if Ericka were a piece of meat they must win as a prize instead of a person who decides about her own life. Typical of men.
Jacob wants to prove that he is somehow better than Markus when in reality they are both behaving like the same garbage, and we see this throughout the competition when Markus talks about Jacob’s feelings as if he knows them firsthand and Jacob ends up betraying Markus’ trust by revealing to Ericka that Markus has a son. No comments.
The only good thing about this is that Ericka puts the dots on the i’s for both of them, just as they deserve, and ends up breaking up with Markus because of his lie. Just as we said in the previous review, this relationship was mortally wounded because Ericka deserved to know the truth so she could choose whether to move forward with Markus or not. Maybe if Markus had told her the truth from the beginning things would have been different, who knows…
PS: Ericka has to be okay! We don’t think for a second that she is going to die.
Brilliant Minds airs Tuesdays at 10 pm ET on NBC.
I loved the episode and am proud of Carol for choosing herself and her daughter over her marriage to Morris. She was right, he broke his promise to never hurt them and that just can’t be forgiven. The compassion with which Drs. Wolf, Nichols, and Pierce treat their patients is a dream to many in the real world. I’m so glad mental health is being addressed the way it is on this show.
And finally, the sweet babies are happy together once more, so I’m happy 😊. The tenderness with which Oliver and Josh treat one another is just gold. Incredibly refreshing to see a healthy relationship on TV.