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What Is a Mugwump? Dr. Oliver Wolf's Brilliant Minds Nickname Explained
Despite their strained relationship, Dr. Oliver Wolf's mother, Dr. Muriel Landon, still refers to her son by his childhood nickname.
If you managed to get out of childhood without an embarrassing nickname bestowed upon you by your family, you're one of the lucky ones. Dr. Oliver Wolf, the lead character of NBC's Brilliant Minds portrayed by Zachary Quinto, isn't one of the lucky ones. In Episode 2 of the series, we learn about an incredibly unique nickname his mother, Dr. Muriel Landon (Donna Murphy), uses: Mugwump.
Near the beginning of the episode, Dr. Landon notes her son's propensity for shunning expectations and rules. To try and waylay any future issues, she gives him an enormous, dusty manual that outlines the hospital's protocols. Dr. Wolf, embodying the kind of churlish, teenage attitude only people's parents can truly bring out in them, rolls his eyes and gets up to walk away.
It's then that his mother's tone changes. "Mugwump," she says softly, stopping Dr. Wolf in his tracks. "There aren't many hospitals left in this town that are willing to take a risk on you. I may very well be your last chance."
"Lucky me," he responds (sarcastically), still caught up in his bad mood.
She also refers to him as "Mugwump" again later in the episode, only this time his four interns are present. Of course, they are the exact wrong people to overhear the nickname, with Dr. Jacob Nash (Spence Moore II) noting that his mother calls him "her little butterbean." It's at this point that Wolf asks Landon to stop using pet names, especially in front of their colleagues.
Later on in the episode, we learn that she's been calling him Mugwump since he was a child. So, what gives? What's a Mugwump? And where did the nickname come from?
What Does "Mugwump" Mean?
According to Merriam-Webster: "Mugwump is an anglicized version of a word used by Massachusett Indians to mean 'war leader.' The word was sometimes jestingly applied in early America to someone who was the 'head guy.' The first political mugwumps were Republicans in the presidential race of 1884 who chose to support Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland rather than their own party's nominee. Their independence prompted one 1930s humorist to define a mugwump as 'a bird who sits with its mug on one side of the fence and its wump on the other.'"
Political Mugwumps
In 2017, The Guardian latched onto Boris Johnson's use of the word "mugwump" when speaking about Jeremy Corbyn, a leader of the U.K. Labour Party. At the time, Johnson was serving as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Prime Minister Theresa May and referred to opposition leader Corbyn as a "mutton-headed old mugwump," which baffled many and led to the kind of explainers you're reading here.
(Johnson would become Prime Minister the following year.)
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But looking back at the history of political Mugwumps will have us digging into the aforementioned U.S. Presidential Election of 1884, in which a group of Republican activists (the Mugwumps) supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland. The group — led by George William Curtis, E.L. Godkin, and Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (per Encyclopedia Britannica) — was founded on a platform of anti-corruption in opposition to Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine, who was accused of "financial impropriety," though no evidence was ever found.
However, it's thought that the Mugwumps' rejection of Blaine's candidacy led to Cleveland's election as the 22nd President of the United States. (Cleveland was later elected for a second term from 1893-1897, also making him the 24th President of the United States, with President Benjamin Harris serving as the 23rd.)
Perhaps Oliver's life-long propensity for ignoring the rules and forging his own path is what brought about his mom to land on this specific nickname.
Fictional Mugwumps
For those less historically and more magically inclined, "Supreme Mugwump" is also the title for the elected chairman and leader of the International Confederation of Wizards in the Harry Potter novels. It's the highest office in the Wizarding World and was famously held by series mainstay Albus Dumbledore for a canonically unknown period, with his position in the office ending in 1995.
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We're not totally sure when flashbacks to a young Dr. Wolf are occurring, and the first mention of the Supreme Mugwump was in the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which was published in 1997 ... but Dr. Muriel Landon doesn't seem the type to latch onto a small detail in a children's novel. Then again, we're still getting to know her as new episodes of Brilliant Minds roll out.
New episodes of Brilliant Minds premiere on Mondays on NBC at 10/9c and are available to stream on Peacock the next day.
All eight Harry Potter movies are also available to stream on Peacock.
