After last week’s episode, Christmas has come to Blindspot! A little early, but it’s still worth it, because it’s wonderful to have a Christmas episode in “Fix My Present Havoc.” And more if it’s an episode like this, where the action is spectacular and, again, Blindspot leaves us open-mouthed as we discover, finally, Stuart’s killer and why he did it, while presenting us with different problematic aspects in the team that will need future development. Let’s analyze everything! Here we go!
CASE OF THE WEEK
In this opportunity, the case of the week is intimately related to the team. It’s all about who Hirst really is and her plans.
As soon as we start the episode we discover that it was she, with her own hands, who murdered Stuart, because he had discovered too much. The name of someone she was blackmailing to be her accomplice was on a list that Stuart had deciphered. Hirst kills Stuart and calls her man to prepare the scene as she wishes. He does it, while tears fall down his face. Tears of guilt and the deepest pain. But Hirst doesn’t have a heart, so she doesn’t know what that is.
The investigation – with some help from Roman and later from Allie – leads the team to step on Hirst’s heels. They discover that the tattoo points directly to a hospital where two reputed doctors “committed suicide.” Jeller goes to investigate and they discover that a doctor is hiding something: She created a vaccine for a virus that was supposed to kill thousands of people and that never happened. Something like that lost a lot of money to some powerful corporations.
Now, that doctor along with another have been experimenting with rats – Kurt’s reaction to them is the same as mine and I really laughed with him – to be able to spread the virus for which they have the antidote.
Fortunately, the Team manages to locate them and stop their plans in time, saving the city from a deadly virus.
While this is happening, the investigation on Hirst advances, all the while knowing that she suspects something. The team manages to find someone who has been her accomplice during all this time. He confesses that he only did it because she blackmailed him. His husband was sick and the only cure was the one developed by the doctor – also controlled by Hirst. Hirst threatened to leave his husband without his cure if he didn’t help her. And, despite the fact that what he was doing was destroying his soul more and more, leaving him in shreds, he did it.
The team helps this man on the condition that he testify against Hirst. He agrees if they manage to save his husband. The team apprehends the doctor and thus Hirst loses her influence over the witness. And so he agrees to testify.
Allie and the Team take him to a safe house, but Hirst finds them and kills the witness – or has him kill him, which means she has enough resources. This also makes it so the Team has nothing against her.
This has been intense! This case couldn’t have been more related to the team. We’ve finally found out who Hirst is and what she’s up to, besides putting a face on Stuart’s killer. In addition, the situation of the witness and his husband is a reflection of what is happening with Jeller. And Hirst has been trying to manipulate Tasha and Reade. That is, this case, has touched all points in the team, making them wobble, although they have still been calm, waiting … for the storm that will come in the next episode.
I love that this show creates characters so complex that you can identify, even in one aspect, with them. That’s the case of the witness. He has committed many crimes and done horrible things. But I think it’s impossible not to sympathize with him and our heart cries to know the reason why he did it and to see his tears as he prepared the scene of Stuart’s murder. At least it was impossible for me not to be moved.
Blindspot shows us a dilemma that’s present in our daily life: “what would we be able to do for the people we love?”. I think the answer of all of us would be “everything”. And this is what we see in this case in all aspects.
A case full of action and important revelations, perfect to put all the pieces in play ready for the storm that awaits us.
TEAM BLINDSPOT
Hirst
I knew it, I knew that she wasn’t trustworthy! Although to be honest, I have been surprised by Hirst. I didn’t trust her and I knew she was bad … but not so bad. She’s a psychopath and head of an organization as horrible as Shepherd’s. She’s a blackmailer and cold blooded murderer, she killed Stuart! With her own hands.
As always, Blindspot has left me with my mouth open. The way in which Hirst acts, manipulating everyone around her is chilling. She identifies “weak points,” which will do people more harm and also what they most want and blackmails them with it, making obedience obligatory to protect loved ones.
In spite of everything, I didn’t imagine that she was like that. She has worn a mask for a long time, hiding who she really was. Now the mask has fallen off. The team has cornered her in such a way that it was dangerous for her. That is why she has tried to manipulate and threaten, again, the one who she believes the weakest link – Reade – but she doesn’t know him at all if she thought that would work.
Indeed, that hasn’t worked and then Hirst is cornered, seems defeated. But nothing is what it seems and she manages to kill the witness. After doing so, she talks to Reade, to make it clear that she hadn’t been fooled, that she knew they were after her and, at the same time, send him a message: that could be your destiny and everyone’s if you follow this path. You can’t beat me.
In addition, we discover that Hirst is not the only dirty one in the FBI, how far does her influence go? The team will have it very difficult to find out and get to capture her. They have the enemy at home and, what’s next now that the masks have fallen and everyone knows it? There is very little left till we find out!
Reade and Zapata
The investigation against Hirst has made these characters come together more. They have returned to the jokes, to full trust …they are themselves again! Zapata even asks Reade once more about the matter with the agent of the state department. She knows he’s hiding something, that there’s still something he doesn’t tell her. Reade asks her again for confidence and patience, when the time comes he will tell her, but now she needs to trust him fully. Tasha does it without hesitation.
However, Hirst has other plans. She knows that the team goes after her clue, that she has them breathing in her neck, so she decides, as always, to try to manipulate Reade with Tasha. She movies the strings so that Zapata is out of the team – nobody touches my baby, bitch! – because “she doesn’t trust her” and urges Reade to do the same. She compares Tasha to his drug addiction – again, it reminds him of that dark episode in his life – and that it causes a dangerous dependence on him. Hirst tells him that she “is his weak point”.
Well, who can not be trusted is Hirst and, of course, what Reade feels for Zapata doesn’t compare with his drug addiction. Reade loves her, that simple and of course that is “his weak point” because that is part of love. The beloved person becomes that “weak point” by which they can damage you irremediably but also becomes your strength, your point of support.
In addition, there is a veiled threat in Hirst’s words, not only to Reade himself, but also to Zapata, making it clear to Reade that if he doesn’t follow her game, it will destroy him completely.
Before these words, Hirst touches a nerve when she mentions the actions of both and says that maybe there are some unresolved feelings among them that they refuse to acknowledge. And I can’t believe that I agree with a psychopath like her. But I do, of course there are feelings between them, feelings they have tried to avoid.
Moreover, their reaction to these words is a example of it. The two get serious, close their lips in a thin line and deny it. It’s a defensive posture.
Once the witness confesses that Hirst only wanted Reade in the director’s position because he was easy to manipulate, Reade reacts to this. It’s too hard to hear something like that, to hear that the person you thought valued you for your work and own merits actually thinks of you as being weak enough to handle. Reade thought that he had won that position on his own merits and now discovers that Hirst simply sees him as the weakest link.
It’s a pretty hard drink for Reade. Although he tries not to react to it, Tasha knows him and realizes that he feels hurt and betrayed. Once the case is over, Tasha can talk to him and it’s then and only then that Reade lets out everything he feels. The anger, the frustration, the betrayal and even the shame that he feels. Everyone, but especially him, has been in the hands of a monster like Hirst.
Zapata reassures him that she has been caught, that there is no danger. No one is under her influence and manipulation anymore. And they hug … Tasha surrenders in that embrace and Reade too, only that he has a strange look. Reade still has a secret he shares with Hirst and not with the rest. A secret that she can use against him. The matter with the agent of the state department. So nothing is over yet.
As if all this weren’t enough, Tasha and Reade almost kiss! It has been but a moment, they were hidden, but that spark they feel both was more present than ever. It was electrifying, both of them were able to feel it, the tension was in the air and it was palpable … and they almost did something about it. They almost get carried away and did what their bodies and hearts were crying out to them.
Almost … but they didn’t. However, they shouldn’t be too far from doing so. It seems that the relationship between Megan and Reade is not going too well and those feelings between him and Tasha are still there, more alive than ever. It’s a matter of time before everything explodes … I’m looking forward to it!
JELLER
This couple is killing me! There is a sad tone in their happy scenes, like a shadow stalking them. And that shadow has a name: BERLIN. Kurt is lying to Jane and that makes him feel guilty. There is a vulnerability in Kurt that we have rarely seen.
In the first scene between both Jane is playing with Bethany and Allie is there. She has brought the little girl to celebrate an early Christmas with Jeller. And I die of love! But there’s something wrong with Kurt and Allie realizes it and talks to him alone.
She knows him and knows something is happening. Kurt doesn’t stop looking at Jane with Bethany and thinking about what he is hiding her. He feels guilty about that secret. And I’ve also noticed that he tries not to look away from Jane, as if he’s memorizing her, so he can remember her and that moment … when Jane is not there. Allie tells him precisely this, that Jane is not going to leave, but Kurt knows that after she knows the truth, that possibility is very real.
Later, what is happening in the case is a reflection of what is happening between them. In the case, the key witness against Hirst was hiding the whole truth from his husband to protect him. That’s what Kurt is doing. He hides from Jane what happened in Berlin – of which we haven’t yet seen anything – with the intention of protecting her.
He tells Allie that what the witness has done is not so bad. He more than anyone understands and justifies it. And here Allie says something important and valuable: saying that is typical of him. Kurt always wants to protect those he loves at all costs, without measuring the consequences. But when you lie to your loved ones to protect them, you’re distancing them from you and you aren’t trusting them.
It’s just what happens, Kurt has good intentions to protect Jane but she doesn’t need to be protected, she only needs the truth and to be able to trust her husband fully. When trying to protect her, Kurt is only distancing her and hurting her, just what he didn’t want. Protecting your loved ones without measure is part of Kurt, who he is, but he has to realize that protection doesn’t mean carte blanche to lie.
I noticed that when the witness was arguing with his husband and trying to forgive him or, at least, to continue in the trial that provided the cure, Kurt didn’t stop looking askance at Jane. He was watching her reaction, seeing what she thought of the situation, whether she understood the witness … or was on his husband’s side. Kurt was looking at Jane’s expression for a clue to her possible reaction to the truth. A clue that she could forgive him and understand him. Kurt is looking for hope.
And he needs that hope like he needs to breathe. He can’t lose Jane, it’s unthinkable for him. It’s so painful and heartbreaking … he just can’t even think about it. But deep down, he knows that losing her is very likely and that is why he hopes that she will understand it, that she will forgive him and let him continue in her life. Kurt hopes that she’ll continue to love him in spite of everything. He’s just waiting … for the best to happen.
What the witness tells Kurt is true. Lying to your loved ones entails a very large and heavy load on your back. You feel guilty every second. And you only have the uncertainty of thinking when they will find out everything and hope for the best when they do it. During the whole time that lie lasts you’re torturing yourself. It’s consuming you little by little. That’s just what Kurt feels, guilt, fear that Jane will find out everything and panic about losing her.
And Jane … is so confused, on the one hand she wants to know that her daughter is fine and not to interfere, but on the other hand she wants to have a life with her, to be a family. But she choose what she thinks is best for her daughter – as every parent would do – and asks Clem to look for her and only check that she’s okay. And I have to say that I don’t understand why she chooses him, instead of Patterson. She would have find out and she done it willingly, because she’s her friend. I think Jane should have asked Patterson.
In this episode we have been able to glimpse Kurt’s point of view and the reasons why he does what he does. Just so we can leave this story prepared to face the mid season, where Berlin will surely explode with all its consequences. But rest assured, family! “Nothing worthwhile is easy” and this will not be easy, but whatever happens, Jeller will find their way back to the other.
ROMAN
This time Roman hasn’t appeared physically but he’s always there, in the shadows, watching. He has been sending them clues so that the team could go unraveling the spider web that Hirst had built. He even waited for the right moment to do so, he waited until they found out for themselves that Hirst was dirty.
He told Jane that he was going to show her who she was working with, who she chose before him and, of course, he is doing it. Those tracks came in the form of gifts for little Bethany in the middle of a macabre game.
However, I still think that Roman hasn’t been able to do all this alone. I would need many means and people in charge for that, in short, many resources that Roman didn’t have. For all that, as I told you in the premiere review, I think Roman has a partner that we don’t know yet, someone with his own agenda that provides the resources he needs. What do you think?.
In case that partner exists, who would it be? Maybe someone in Blake’s family, his father, but this doesn’t make much sense because Roman is after Blake now, unless something has happened that we don’t know yet. Do you have any theory that you want to share? In any case, we don’t have much left to know. Next week is the mid season finale and they’re sure to develop this storyline more. I can’t wait!.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it has been an episode with a rather frenetic pace that has revealed secrets that had been hidden for some time. But, at the same time, it has left us with a feeling that all this is just the tip of the iceberg, there’s still much more to explore.
In addition, the team has been presented with certain conflicts that leave them ready for the mid season finale and what will happen. They’ll surely explode and I think we aren’t ready for it. Nothing will prepare us for it. So we just have to keep the anxiety for another week and prepare a bottle of wine and ice cream, a lot of ice cream, for what awaits us.
In short, it has been the ideal episode to answer some questions while the pieces of the game were moving in the right direction, leaving them ready.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with the mid season finale 3×08 “City Folk Under Wraps.” And here’s the promo for the next episode.
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 / 7c on NBC.