We’re back one last time! Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home’ isn’t conceived as a series finale, and it shows. It leaves some threads open, hinting at a season that will never be, but thankfully, it fully and satisfactorily wraps up the season’s major arcs, leaving us with a great feeling and realizing more than ever how much we’ll miss this show. Ready?
Here we go!
Oliver and Josh Finally Find Their Way Back to Each Other
Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home’ brings Oliver and Josh back together, and we’re celebrating! We loved that it finally happened, but we loved even more how the episode built up their reconciliation.
The episode didn’t just show Josh finally taking that leap of faith he was afraid to take. It also brought his past back into focus. We were thrilled to discover that he and Oliver have something else in common: complicated parents. In a way, both struggled to meet their parents’ expectations and never felt they truly succeeded, yet they ended up there, trying again and again.
This shared past brings them closer because if anyone understands demanding parents, it’s Oliver. And it was wonderful to see how Oliver became the rock Josh could lean on. Character growth. It’s clear this Oliver is very different from the one we met at the beginning of the show. And we’re proud!
Speaking of which, we really appreciated that Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home,’ didn’t shy away from the rougher side of Oliver and Josh’s story. Once Josh broke up with Beau because he couldn’t pretend anymore that he didn’t still love Oliver, there was nothing stopping him from going back to him…except his fear.
Oliver already broke his heart once, and Josh is afraid he’ll do it again. Maybe not today, not tomorrow, but someday. He barely recovered the first time. If it happens again… he couldn’t do it again. And it’s normal for him to feel this way, but as Carol points out, Oliver isn’t the same anymore. He’s learned not to withdraw into himself when something happens that deeply affects him. He’s learned to ask for help and to let the people he loves in.
At the same time, Oliver also has his own fears in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home.’ Beau’s words affect him deeply. He loves Josh, but above all, he wants him to be happy, to have the life he desires. He doesn’t intend to hold him back… and Oliver doesn’t know if he wants the same things. Sometimes, the greatest act of love is letting go of the person you love so they can be happy, and Oliver was willing to do that.
Only Josh isn’t willing to let him.
He didn’t plan to fall in love with Oliver. But from the moment he met him, his heart belonged to him. He’s brilliant and stubborn, and he drives him crazy… and he loves him hopelessly. He tried to fight it, he tried to forget it, but he couldn’t. So the only thing Josh’s sure of is that he wants to share the rest of his life with Oliver.
And we’re in tears over this beautiful declaration of love. And we’re so happy that this show gave our favorite couple a happy ending in its final episode. They deserved it…and so did we.
MORE: Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 19 Review: Hearts Can’t Be Controlled
Oliver and Margot Finally Face Their Shared Past
In Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home’ we finally officially meet…Margot! And the truth is, there’s a stark contrast between her and Sofia, the version of her Oliver imagined. But, without a doubt, Margot seems much more real. She’s not there to comfort Oliver or help him through a critical moment in his life.
She’s there to fulfill her father’s last wish and finally meet the man, her brother, to whom her father compared her. Margot, like Oliver, has many conflicting feelings about her father. Part of her loved him, but another part hated him. She hated him for placing impossible expectations on her and making her feel inferior to her brother, whom she didn’t know. She hated him for making her feel small and undeserving of love.
And Oliver experienced something similar. Part of him loved his father, but the other part hated him for abandoning him, for not understanding why he made him carry a burden, a guilt, that wasn’t his to bear. He hated him even more when he discovered all his lies and the real reason he abandoned him and his mother.
So when Oliver receives the news of his father’s death in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home,’ he’s fine. He grieved for his father, the father he knew, who cared for him, looked after him, and loved him, a long time ago. Discovering that the man is no longer on this plane of existence makes no real difference.
Margot, however, can’t say the same. She had been holding back all the anger and pain in order to maintain a relationship with her father. And when he was gone, she didn’t know how to let it all out. So she continued to hold it in and tried to move on. But now that she’s there, facing Oliver, in their father’s house… she can’t take it anymore.
And we love that it’s Oliver who’s there for her and supports her—in a parallel to how Sofia supported him—showing in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home’ how much he’s grown and changed.
MORE: Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 18 Review: A Turning Point
Carol and Thorne’s Breakup Changes Everything
While Oliver and Josh found their way back to each other in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home,’ Carol and Thorne did the opposite. And we never thought we’d say this because we liked them together, but we think it’s for the best. Thorne crossed the line. More than that, he crossed it so far that it wasn’t even visible anymore.
Refusal of treatment is a patient’s right. One that their doctor must respect, whatever their opinion on the matter. We understand that for Thorne it was a matter of saving a life or condemning it, and he would always choose to save it. The point here is that it’s not his decision, it’s his patient’s. And he made his wishes clear.
However, we understand that in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home,’ Thorne called Carol to make sure his patient fully understood the risks of refusing treatment. But to go behind Carol’s back and twist things to impose his will, even though the patient didn’t consent? Sorry, but that’s awful.
To be a good doctor, it’s not enough to have the necessary knowledge, you must respect your patient’s wishes—whether you agree with them or not—and try to give them what they need, or at the very least, what they ask for. But letting your ego get the better of you and imposing your will over your patient’s—and then being proud of it—doesn’t make you a good doctor, it makes you one of the worst.
So we’re glad Carol confronted him directly in Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home.’ He disappointed her. And that’s not something that can be fixed with an apology. They didn’t just have a simple argument. This whole situation made Carol see a side of Thorne that she absolutely hates, and if there’s one thing she’s sure of, it’s that she doesn’t want to share her life with a man like that. So we’re proud that Carol broke up with Thorne.
That said, we didn’t like that Brilliant Minds Season 2 Episode 20 ‘The Way Home,’ implied that Thorne realizes the mistake he made because the guy might be a bastard who murdered his wife. That’s not the point. The point is that it was his right to decide about his treatment, and Thorne took that right away from him. We would have loved to know what happened next, but this show will never get the chance to tell us.
MORE: Brilliant Minds Season 2, Episode 17 Review: Josh Chooses Oliver
Other Things We Loved About the Brilliant Minds Series Finale
- We loved seeing Muriel and Oliver. He started this series estranged from his mother and feeling a lot of resentment towards her. Now, he understands everything and admires her, recognizing how well she did. We’re in tears!
- We really liked seeing how Markus is doing, but he’s too underutilized in the episode.
- Erika doesn’t deserve this! She had the courage to risk meeting her biological mother, and she broke her heart.
- Dana and Margot. LMAO.
- We loved how Charlie integrated into the team.
- Josh buying a plant because he missed Oliver.
- Josh’s declaration of love is next level!
- Oliver and Josh are the only thing that’s right in this world!
- The chamber!
- Dementia breaks your heart so much…
- We cried when Josh’s dad told him how proud he was of him.
- Oliver helped his father-in-law! What a way to meet his in-laws.
- Silva is the best! We love a good gossip too.
- This show deserved the chance to tell all the stories that were left untold—and of which we saw a glimpse in this season—in a new season.
- It’s a shame there isn’t a Season 3. We said what we said.
Brilliant Minds Season 2 aired on Wednesdays at 8 pm ET on NBC.
