The Scientist – Episode 2 begins in Noah Sawyer’s (Jacobi Jupe) hospital room where Eli Adler (Billy Crystal) dreams that Noah stabs him in the neck with a pen. Denise (Rosie Perez) is there to greet him with coffee when he startles awake but with Noah still asleep, he declines the offer for a brief conversation with Doctor Desai (Michael Maliakel). As he learns about the circumstances in which Noah was brought into the ER, Gail (Sakina Jaffrey) shows up.

Gail is immediately drawn to Eli’s bandaged hand, but he’s in such rage over the Dutch and farmhouse discovery that he apparently hears nothing she says. Eli’s excitement only grows once Noah wakes up and says he wants to go home. Eli is already making plans for tests and scans when Gail reminds him that the incident at school has complicated matters. Her mention of the blood causes Eli to remember his earlier vision of Lynn (Judith Light) in the bathtub and he nearly faints.

Other than an abnormally high blood pressure, which Eli blames on low blood sugar, a nurse examines and gives Eli the all-clear. As soon as she steps out of the room to get him some orange juice, he’s back to planning scans and checking Noah’s genetic history. Gail will once again remind him that things have become more complicated but it is the lack of Noah’s family history that bothers him the most. He doesn’t get too long to dwell on this because a page comes over the intercom for him.

By the time Eli and Gail make it to the lobby, Barbara (Maria Dizzia), Barbara is beside herself. Although he eventually convinces her that he is okay and attempts to make plans for another meeting with Sophie (Rebecca Runae), she leaves in a foul mood due to his interest in getting back to Noah.

After tasking his assistant, Cleo (Ava Lalezaradeh), with getting more on Noah, Eli and Denise meet with an MRI Tech (Christopher Harral) tech to arrange a scan. It doesn’t take long before this goes wrong and Noah freaks out. Despite having to end the scan early, the doctors collected enough data to determine that Noah doesn’t have any brain abnormalities. The only odd thing appears to be a strange birthmark on his chest.

Eli returns home later that afternoon with a new outlook cleans the house, cooks the dog a big dinner, and even manages to open the door to the downstairs bathroom. Later that evening, he receives a surprise visit from Sue Ann (Miriam Shor). Their encounter suggests that Sue Ann is a bit of a pushy realtor, who along with Brenda wants him to sell the house now that Lynn has passed. While practically rushing her out the door, he tells her that he will leave the whole deal in her and Brenda’s hands.

Sometime later, Eli questions Denise about Noah’s incident. She describes the incident as very disturbing. In addition to this, the encounter reveals that Noah has been with her for about eight months and he is her first adoption. She claims that her reasoning for becoming a foster parent was to give a child something she never got to experience. She’ll go on to describe Noah’s incident a bit more but it isn’t much longer when Eli ends up in Noah’s room alone where he goes through his sketches. Some of them are somewhat disturbing but all appear to share the farmhouse theme. Denise is unable to shine any light on what this could mean.

After his visit with Denise, Eli ends up at the hospital with Noah. Noah is now speaking with him but almost appears frightened of him. At one point, Noah even asks him if he is mad. Eli will say that he isn’t and draws Noah’s interest by asking him to play what he refers to as the ‘mad game.’ The game basically involves one player sitting down a building block and stating something that makes them mad. The other player follows until a tower is erected. As they go through the process, Noah says that mean people make him mad and when Eli asks him to expand on his statement, this is where things get interesting. Noah claims that Denise is mean because she won’t let him go home. As Noah continues, his entire persona transforms into an angry state and he begins scratching his nails against the table’s surface and says that people who hurt others also make him mad.

Noah’s persona will once again transform into a frightened boy when Eli attempts to convince him to say what makes him the maddest of all. After some sight urging, Noah looks at him and says, ‘You know what you did.’ Before the episode ends with his nose bleeding, he will also imitate Eli saying, “I can’t take much more of this.”

 

Before Review

I must commend Jacobi for his performance. For a child actor, he does an incredible job at times. The ending is the perfect example. Although I still feel Crystal and Jacobi’s onscreen chemistry is still lacking, it does appear to be growing. Either way, I can overlook that thanks to the compelling story. The story is getting more and more intriguing by the minute but I am afraid it is going to spin in the direction of Eli having done something bad to Lynn at the farmhouse and he’s repressing it.

He seems to be the only one to notice a lot of things about Noah, such as his speaking in a different language. Although he did have a recording of that particular incident that could easily be explained away. I’d give this episode a 5.4 and look forward to the next.

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