‘Brilliant Minds’ Boss Reveals What Would’ve Happened in Season 3 (Exclusive)

The end of the Brilliant Minds finale is just a beginning. The NBC medical drama, canceled after two seasons, goes out on a cliffhanger. TV Insider spoke with showrunner Michael Grassi about what would’ve happened next. Warning: Spoilers for the Brilliant Minds series finale ahead!

After treating Josh’s (Teddy Sears) father Duke (Ed Begley Jr.), who has Alzheimer’s, Oliver (Zachary Quinto) finds his ex-boyfriend waiting on his porch. After the grand gesture Oliver made by helping Duke, the doctors both say “I love you” and get back together, and the series ends with them on vacation with Oliver’s bestie Carol (Tamberla Perry). However, when the three head down for breakfast, they find the rest of the hotel guests unconscious and immediately get to work treating them.

Below, Michael Grassi shares what would’ve happened next in a third season and if he thinks the series can be saved. (Plus, read his breakdown of the series finale here.)

Now that Oliver and Josh are back together, what would’ve happened next? What does their future look like?

Michael Grassi: In my mind, if we were continuing to tell their story, I think we’d continue to show them in the workplace together and what that looks like and all the fun of them tackling cases together. And at the same time, what does it look like for Josh and Wolf navigating a relationship? What does it look like when they move in together? What does it look like if they’re maybe planning a wedding? What does it look like if they’re finally, maybe Josh is going to get something that he really wants such as a kid? What do those conversations look like?

I think in Season 3, it would’ve been navigating a lot of the realities of what it is to be in a relationship with Wolf. At the same time, we had a plan for Wolf to have a new fun secret in Season 3 with the Hudson Riders to continue some tension there. Not that he’s having any romance on the side, but he would’ve been potentially a secret doctor for the biker gang, which would’ve been very, very fun.

Pief Weyman/NBC

Carol and Thorne (John Clarence Stewart) both caught up in that investigation into their patient who apparently had his wife’s body in the trunk. Would that have become a major thing in Season 3?

Well, first of all, I love Jake Epstein, who came to play that guest role. He is such a talented actor, and I worked with him previously on Degrassi. I love Jake, and he came in to do this guest role, and the idea is that that would’ve been a serialized story going into Season 3 for sure.

My heart broke for Ericka (Ashleigh LaThrop). The look from Joan — she’s definitely her mom, right? She was just not ready for that confrontation and to talk about it?

Correct.

So, what would that journey have looked like for Ericka then?

It would’ve been deciding whether or not to continue to pursue that. And we had plans for her to come back and sort of see what a relationship could be between them. We definitely had a plan to continue telling that story in Season 3.

You talked about the trio solving medical mysteries at the end, continuing to see that. So would the Season 3 premiere have just picked up exactly where you left off with everyone in the hotel lobby and them figuring it out for the entire episode, or would that kind of just have been like, “Oh, by the way, this is what we did on our vacation”?

No, we would’ve totally picked up and had sort of a fun, remote vacation episode, like a worst-nightmare vacation where they have to figure out what’s wrong with all of these poor people at the hotel that are in grave medical danger, and maybe a few of the interns might’ve shown up to help support. Maybe they would’ve brought some patients back to Bronx General. We had a bit of an event, a two-parter plan for that.

What was the plan for Muriel going forward? Because she seemed relaxed when she was out of the hospital.

I love Donna Murphy. I’m a huge Donna Murphy fan, and I love Muriel and her relationship with Wolf. And even with Carol. Whenever she’s with any of our characters, I love … One of my favorite themes is Muriel and Charlie [Brian Altemus]. I even love Muriel when she’s getting Wolf out of Hudson Oaks. She’s just the best. And the plan would be to just have more Muriel wherever we can get her and to find a new role for her at the hospital that wouldn’t be chief because that’s Josh’s job, but something else where she could be a little bit more in the mix.

And I feel like then we would’ve gone more like Muriel and Josh stuff, which would’ve been good to see with Oliver and Josh back together.

Oh yeah. The mother-in-law dynamic would’ve been a blast for sure, for sure.

Because just thinking about her catching them on the elevator.

Yeah, that was the best.

So, what else would’ve happened in Season 3 and going forward?

I mean, Meredith, I gave you a lot.

Which dynamics were you interested in exploring more going forward? Any fun pairings that you wish you had been able to do more of?

Honestly, I love this cast so much. They’re incredible, and you pair them with each other, and they always find exciting stuff. I was excited to continue developing the characters and keep peeling back the layers of the onion and keep finding sort of challenging, fun medical mystery situations to put them in and seeing Wolf be Wolf is sort of the best part of the show and all of the big swings he takes, all the big medical swings and all the weird stuff he does to help patients, I think that was all the stuff that I was excited to continue doing.

And of course the thing I was most excited to do was continue to develop Wolf and Josh’s relationship because I love them together. I’ve talked about this with you so many times, but their chemistry is just off the charts.

And I would’ve loved to see more Carol and more Thorne. And I was hoping to unpack some of more of Carol’s personal life and get into her family more and other things, as well as all the interns who I adore. So, all of it is the answer really and just continuing the adventures of our amazing characters.

What are the chances that we see more Brilliant Minds at any point? Do you think it could be saved or revisited in the future?

I don’t know. Currently, we are canceled, but do I believe in miracles? I don’t know. Maybe? Hopefully. But I have no idea. Maybe, I don’t know, help me. Let’s get it picked up somewhere else. Let’s campaign.

I would love to see more. Did you ever have an eventual series finale in mind?

Yeah, there’s a specific case that I always had in mind, an Oliver Sacks case that I always wanted to do as the series finale, but I don’t really want to get into that, but definitely had a long-term plan for the show.

But at the same time, we did 33 episodes of a medical drama with a gay male lead about neurology and mental health on NBC. And Meredith, I see that as such a gift, and I will always see that as a gift. And I’m so grateful to Warner Bros. and to NBC and everyone who works on the show for making this possible. What we did is rare. We took a lot of risks; we took creative risks, we had weird cases, we get into patients’ brains, we experience what they’re experiencing. And I always go back to the fact that we were honoring Oliver Sacks every step of the way and the way he approached medicine.

I think what we did is so special, and we got to do it for 33 episodes, and I’m just so grateful for the time that we got to do it. And if by some miracle someone calls and they’re like, “Michael, everybody, we want more,” I would jump at that opportunity because I love this cast and these characters with all my heart.

Brilliant Minds, Streaming Now, Peacock