After a week wishing to know what was going to happen, Blindspot is back! “Artful Dodge” is an episode where the emotional conflict of the characters becomes more and more evident. We finally discover the secret that Tasha kept: Borden is alive and that makes the whole team, along with her friendship with Patterson, wobble and fall like dominoes. Roman, on the other hand, has also had to face his own demons and fears. The final stretch is getting better! Let’s talk about everything! Here we go!
CASE OF THE WEEK
This week has been more personal than ever for the team members. The secret of the dragonfly has finally been discovered and Tasha has confessed to the team that Borden was alive and that he was a covert operative of the CIA in terrorist organizations. No one could believe what Tasha was telling them and that she had hidden it, so she had to tell the story from the beginning.
Borden didn’t die in the explosion, but was seriously injured by his burns. A year later they found him in a hospital recovering, and Keaton and Zapata convinced him to work with the CIA. Tasha is the one in charge of Borden’s case. And he has contacted to meet her that morning.
All this is a jug of cold water for the whole team, but they must do their work, so everyone goes to the meeting, only something goes wrong and two assassins shoot at them. They manage to come out alive and arrest Borden, thinking that everything has been a trap organized by him. However, their investigation leads them to discover that those murderers were going to kill Borden.
He continues to work with them – although he asks to see Patterson, what he did torments him – to stop an imminent attack on New York that the terrorists have planned. A strange conversation with one of the terrorists leads Patterson to decipher the place of the attack. In the end, the team manages to thwart the attack, although Tasha and Jane almost jump through the air – I have loved seeing Kurt this worried, thinking that something could have happened to Jane.
Borden’s deal with the CIA is over and he is arrested by the FBI. Finally he gets what he deserves.
The subject of Borden gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think Patterson needed to close this aspect of her life by regaining the control that he snatched from her and that, in addition, this issue has brought emotional problems and clashes between characters that promise a final stretch worthy of a heart attack.
But, on the other hand, since the news came out I didn’t like anything that “revived” Borden. In general, I don’t like at all when series do the whole “this dead character is suddenly very alive” and this episode has reminded me why. Borden caused the explosion, he wasn’t close to ground zero, Borden WAS ground zero and I don’t believe at all that in those circumstances, he could get out alive. It doesn’t make sense to me. If they had left everything in a fire, I could believe it, but with the explosion caused by him included, for me, it is impossible for Borden to come out alive.
I would also like the cases of the week to vary a little, because it is usually the same scheme: a terrorist attack in New York. And after so many episodes it becomes repetitive. It is true that they are entertaining and that each one brings something new, but it wouldn’t hurt to change the scheme they propose each week.
TEAM BLINDSPOT
Patterson
Patterson’s way of dealing with everything that has happened has been admirable. She has enormous strength. She is really brave, at all times and despite the great blow that has been for her, she has tried to separate her feelings and the case. Patterson has emotionally isolated himself from the whole process and has treated Borden as an asset to the FBI.
Although for her it was not anyone, it was the person who did horrible things and took her control. He is the one who stars in her nightmares. Her feeling of helplessness has joined the pain and betrayal she feels for what Tasha has done to her.
It is a lot for Patterson but she was there, standing and, finally, she has managed to close this chapter of her life. Borden has been arrested and she has realized that what happened to him doesn’t define her. She must not remain stuck in the past, she has a bright future ahead. Patterson may never fully recover from what happened, but that shouldn’t stop her from moving forward. And she has nothing to fear, Borden is a weak man, trapped in his own demons and in a death he could never overcome. She is much stronger than him.
I admire Patterson, her strength, her heart, they have no equal. She’s a wonderful unicorn that must be protected at all costs. And I loved seeing Jane by her side, caring for her. Throughout the episode I was asking myself “is nobody going to ask Patterson how she is?” But there was Jane, at her side, supporting and comforting her.
Patterson and Tasha
The friendship between them has suffered a serious setback when Tasha has confessed what had happened with Borden and her decision to keep it a secret. The confrontation between them has been hard. Patterson feels betrayed – as is normal – Tasha is her best friend, or she was, and she can’t conceive that she was hiding something like that, that she is working with someone who hurt her so much and, above all, that she hasn’t confessed everything that was happening when she saw her suffer.
Everything Borden did to Patterson caused a trauma and made her feel … helpless. Suddenly, she wasn’t in control of her life, Borden took that away from her and she needed to retrieve it again by trapping him and locking him up. When she couldn’t do it, that thorn stuck there, she couldn’t have a real closure, she couldn’t regain control and that tormented her, but she thought there was nothing she could do.
Now Patterson learns that Borden is alive and that Tasha, knowing all that she felt, all that she suffered, could have offered her the chance to regain control, to overcome it, to have closure. Tasha has betrayed her, has snatched something that is intensely important to her. And the worst thing is that Zapata excuses herself in a supposed protection of Patterson.
As I commented below, I think that protecting Patterson is just an excuse. First, Patterson doesn’t need to be protected, she is a big girl and can decide for herself and the second, Tasha knew perfectly that what Patterson needed was to catch Borden, send him to jail, take control of the situation again . And she snatched it consciously.
I don’t doubt that Tasha feels guilty for what has happened but, as Patterson tells her, she chose. She chose the agency, her work, rather than her friend. No matter that Borden was a secret CIA mission, Patterson was her friend and should have chosen her above all, because that is what Patterson would have done, because that is what real friends do.
In the end, Tasha tries desperately to do as if nothing had happened but it has happened, Patterson simply can’t behave as always with her, consider Tasha her friend, someone she can trust, not anymore, at least, for now.
Our choices in difficult times are a turning point in our lives, they define us … and Tasha didn’t choose her best friend. She was more pragmatic and eliminated the possible mixed feelings, she thought … she thought like Keaton. As someone without feelings, almost without conscience.
Therefore, Patterson is not alone feeling betrayed, if not also hurt, that Tasha acted like this, as discarding their friendship and feelings with a speed and a frightening coldness. That is not Tasha, it is not the Tasha that I love. It is the Tasha that the CIA has shaped, a Tasha totally immersed in her dark side. And, as I imagined, she has been left alone, only Reade has gone to comfort her and she has pushed him away … can the team overcome this?
Reade and Tasha
Tasha has dropped the bomb! She has confessed to Reade that she is in love with him! BOOM! She has said it like that, point-blank, as if she no longer deserved to hide it when he went to comfort her and support her for everything that has happened with Patterson.
When Reade talks to her about what happened between them years ago, about Tasha’s rejection, she says something that offends him. Reade feels like it’s a mockery and it really has sounded like that. And so, Tasha has thrown out of her life the only support left to her, the only one who has gone to see her, to comfort her, who has forgiven her for what has happened.
Tasha has a complex personality, she is able to do everything for the people she loves but she is also able to throw them out of her life when she doesn’t feel good about herself and that is just what has happened now. She feels bad, guilty and lonely and words can hurt more than weapons, with them, Tasha pushes Reade away from her life.
But well, now Reade already knows, he is going to get married but this changes everything. Tasha has taken an unexpected turn and now the ball is on Reade’s court … will he risk again for Tasha or will he continue to cling to what he has with Megan for fear of making the leap?
Apart from this, I have to say that I don’t agree with what Reade says to console Tasha. She was not protecting Patterson, Zapata decided that her job and the agency were worth more than her friendship with Patterson or the well-being of her friend. She made a choice. Patterson’s protection, as I see it, is just the excuse that she repeated herself in order to live with her choices. And she has to accept that, if she is not going to be able to forgive herself and if she can’t forgive herself, Patterson and Tasha will not be able to overcome it and recover the friendship they had before.
Ritch
Ritch has had a pretty hard day. As he was hired by Hirst, they are investigating him and that decision depends on whether he stays with the team or goes back to prison.
As expected, that investigation doesn’t go well. The investigator wasn’t going to value the work of Ritch or the lives he has saved … she just wanted to find out some mistake he had made, some illegality, to have an excuse to return him to jail and that has been clear from the first minute. That’s the reason why she asked him for explanations about having protected Patterson when Hirst made him look guilty of treason, among other things.
Ritch has realized what was going on and has felt more desperate than he has ever been. As he told the researcher, the FBI has changed him. Before, his world was filled with distrust, he was lonely … but now he has found a place where he fits, where he trusts and cares for the people around and receives the same treatment. He has found a place where he is appreciated and accepted as he is. He has found a family. And he doesn’t want to lose it. He can’t lose it.
He has never had a real family but now, with the team, he does have the family he always wanted. With them he feels at home and can’t think of losing something so important in his life.
Ritch knows that in spite of everything, if he needs the team they will be there for him – and vice versa – and he is absolutely right. We can see that when, in the end, when it seemed that everything was lost, the entire team presented their resignation to the researcher and evidence of everything that Ritch has helped, of all the lives he has saved and improved. All for one and one for all.
However, the researcher doesn’t give up and although she accepts that Ritch stays in the team, she threatens Reade with the notion that he will be the next one investigated. I swear, the FBI investigates its own people more than it does its work, do not they have a case to investigate or an attack to stop? Leave my babies alone!
I can’t talk about Ritch and not comment on his scenes with Patterson. I love seeing that sincere friendship between them. Ritch knows Patterson well and knows what she needs. She had to get everything inside. When we feel so much anger and pain inside we really want to hit someone … or something. And, sometimes, the best solution is precisely to do it.
Ritch gets Patterson to get some of the tension and rage inside, but also makes her have fun, let her get out of control, stop second-guessing herself, thinking about her situation with Borden and Tasha. Ritch gets her to be herself, to have control again.
That is a sign of why Ritch told the researcher that he cared about people. He can’t see seeing someone from the team, from his family, suffering and if they need him, he is there for them. Always.
ROMAN
Roman and Hank continue to take care of business together, in fact, Roman sends a hint to the team about Hank’s next move. And he trusts Roman fully, even calls him “son”.
But, in the middle of the plans for the gala, Roman feels bad and faints. Hank takes him to the hospital and they don’t seem to find anything … and I’m left with the question of whether something really happened to him or was he pretending but … why would he pretend? To tell you the truth, if he’s not pretending, it makes me nervous, what happened to Roman? I don’t want anything bad to happen to him!
Setting aside the worry for a moment and crossing my fingers so that my baby is well, I’m very interested in the conversation that Hank and Roman had. I think Hank really appreciates him – everything a psychopath like him can appreciate – and has given him good advice. I can’t believe what I’m saying but I really agree on something with that monster: Roman must let go of the anger he feels.
As I have mentioned to you on other occasions, Roman clings to that rage like a lifesaver, is the only thing he knows and the only thing he feels that can keep him on his feet, that can keep him going. But he is wrong. Clinging to rage is never healthy, it is destructive, in the long run, rage only causes you to destroy everything around you and yourself in the process – as happened to Hank.
Roman needs to overcome that anger, let it go and face the feelings behind it, those feelings that make him so afraid because he doesn’t know them or know how to handle them. He has to take charge of his life and stop being carried away by the anger he feels against Jane, against Sherperd, against the team and against himself.
I loved this conversation because not only did it give us a glimpse into Roman’s head, what he feels and what he needs to do, but it is also the first time we have heard him talk about Sherperd.
We had always seen Jane’s point of view but now, we also see what Roman felt and lived. He was just a child in search of love and approval of his mother, like any child, but Sherperd didn’t give love, didn’t know the feel, the only way to get to her was loyalty. So Roman set out to be the most loyal and always return to her in spite of what might happen in the hope that Sherperd wouldn’t abandon him, that she would stay by his side … but she abandoned him anyway, despite all.
That broke him and he feels anger towards her, just as he feels towards Jane also for what, in his opinion, was an abandonment of his part. But that rage is only consuming Roman little by little inside, leaving him empty, with nothing or nobody. Therefore, Roman must be brave, let go of that anger and face what he feels. Roman must start over, leaving behind everything bad in his past, just like Jane did.
Those tears of Roman at the end of the conversation with Hank are really revealing. He knows that Hank is right and that is the first real advice someone gives him and it is the first time that he has dropped his barriers a bit. The Crawford family is making Roman rethink many things. First, he falls in love with Blake and with her begins to lower that barrier, to let her in. And now, Hank gives him a good advice, a council that nobody has ever given. He has known what he kept in his heart.
Roman is changing … he is beginning to realize that he needs to make changes in his life and he is beginning to open his heart to them.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it has been a really good episode, where the characters are beginning to move emotionally and in which a great secret that has fractured the team has been revealed.
The action, but above all the emotional burden have been present, we have suffered with our favorite characters seeing how such a united team was fractured due to some secrets and questionable decisions.
In addition, Roman has ended with much to think about and we have been worried about his health.
I’m looking forward to know what we have prepared for this final stretch! For the moment, it all looks like it’s going to be full of adventures, action and emotions.
PD: I need more Jeller!
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with episode 3 × 17 “Mum’s The Word.” And here’s the promo for the next episode.
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 / 7c on NBC.