Here’s to a new stellar Blindspot episode! And the truth is that this final stretch is very intense. The feelings are always on the surface, especially in “Let it go,” where we have lived an emotional journey with all the characters, that has ended in decisions that change everything. There is much to comment! Here we go!
CASE OF THE WEEK
Wow! What emotional tension we felt this week. A very interesting script twist, that Avery’s own godmother would betray her in that way. She is one of the few people in Avery’s past that she had left and who she trusted and she turned out to be an enemy. That has taken Avery to a point where she’s about to make a mistake, carried by the anger and pain of knowing she was betrayed and it has also taken us to a point where we can discover, at last, the true feelings of mother and daughter. It was something extremely necessary, because the two of them are going to need to be very close for everything that’s coming.
It can’t be denied that the way of showing it on the screen has been brilliant, the rhythm has been in crescendo, showing the characters with contradictory emotions until reaching the climax where they have been sincere, opening their hearts to accepting that the danger of losing each other was close.
TEAM BLINDSPOT
Patterson
We’ve met Patterson’s father! I liked a lot to see him. I think he’s more like his daughter than they both recognize and the interactions he’s had with the whole team were hilarious. Especially with Kurt, he was in super fan mode and Jane had to drag him out of the lab. It was very fun.
Although, if I have to be honest, I expected something more … deep in his appearance. We’ve found out more about Patterson’s parents and something about her name – although not her first name, I’ve gotten off the couch with indignation at it not being revealed – but little else. The only thing more profound has been what he has mentioned about the situation between Tasha and Patterson.
And he has said something that I don’t agree with. He has told Patterson that Tasha really feels what she has done – so far, well – but also that it was part of her job. Technically, it’s true. But that doesn’t excuse her and I don’t like that wants to sell what was “part of her job” as a kind of Tasha justification. She chose her job, the CIA, rather than Patterson. It was a conscious choice, not forced.
Tasha must recognize that fact, that she made a mistake when choosing. Although I did like the result of that conversation. Zapata needed to know that her friendship with Patterson has a chance to recover, that she shouldn’t give up. Throughout the episode, Tasha has felt excluded with Patterson. There was something very cold, a tension between them, in fact,Patterson even made Zapata not go to the mission.
With that situation, both ran the risk that Tasha would end up getting tired of trying something that didn’t work and losing their precious friendship forever. This time the truth is that the ball was on Patterson’s court and it was her turn to show Tasha that, although it will take a while to forgive her, she is willing to do so. I love that she did it thanks to her father.
But, despite that, I think the appearance of Patterson’s father has been a little short. It has been more to relieve a little tension that we have experienced throughout the episode, than to give depth. Maybe I expected more than that, what about you?
Tasha, Reade and Megan
The situation is really complicated between these three characters. After Tasha’s confession, everything is upside down. Reade has raised a wall between them and hasn’t told Megan about what happened. When Zapata finds out, it hurts her. She feels that her confession wasn’t important enough for Reade to confess to Megan. Zapata thinks that she wasn’t important enough for Reade and that is why she is so hurt. I think it’s just the opposite. Tasha’s confession has removed the foundations of Reade’s life so much that he is not able to choose what he wants and has doubts, only that he doesn’t recognize it…yet.
Reade is in denial, he doesn’t want to accept that maybe he isn’t so sure of marrying Megan as he thinks, he doesn’t want to let go of his safe haven, the shelter he has been using for two years – Megan – to avoid risking everything again for the person he really loves – Tasha.
It is for that reason that Reade asks Tasha to try to forget what happened – and she tears that request to pieces. He is afraid and is being a real coward in this matter. He prefers to close his eyes and let his facade of happiness go ahead before going back to risk with Tasha, fail and suffer again.
The “problem” is that Megan is not a coward like him, she’s really brave and respects herself enough not to marry a man who has deep feelings for another woman and is only “using” her as a safe haven. Because that’s what Reade is doing. And, although I have never really liked her, I applaud Megan for this decision.
After the rejection of Tasha and her “flight” to the CIA, Reade was destroyed. Eventually, he met Megan and it was the perfect way to try to forget Tasha and build a shelter around him, a shelter that protected him from reexamining his feelings for Tasha. The problem with this is that it wasn’t real but served for Reade…until Zapata confessed that she was in love with him. That confession shattered all of Reade’s plans.
He couldn’t continue with a quiet life and apparently happy – although he doesn’t accept it, that is the reason why he didn’t tell Megan. The love he feels for Tasha rose, stronger than ever. Reade can’t accept this fact because it would mean risking again and he is afraid that his heart will be destroyed. Therefore, he tries to hold on to Megan with all his strength, he clings to a burning nail trying to avoid confronting what he really feels. Because what he feels for Tasha is what is really real and that scares him because it means venturing into the abyss. An abyss that has the power to destroy him and where nothing is safe.
That is the thing when something is real, it is not safe, it is dangerous and it is potentially destructive … but it is the only way to find true happiness.
Maybe, at the beginning, Megan’s reason for leaving Reade definitely, despite loving him so much, may seem empty. But it is not at all, Megan has been able to see through Reade and has found out the real reason why he didn’t tell her anything. So, she has done the right thing. Now it’s up to Reade to decide what he wants to do: risk himself again and be able to be happy or stay as he is now, cowed in a world where he will never really be happy.
Jane and Avery
For them both the episode has not been easy either. Jane has been too nervous to not see Avery in the house and that has triggered a fight. As always, I understand both. Avery needs to feel in a house more than in a fortress and Jane wants to protect her at all costs and can’t lose her. That terrifies her. I think both are right and that Jane should remember what she was like when she had agents protecting her so she could understand Avery more.
I think Jane doesn’t handle the moment to tell Avery what they have discovered about her father too well. She doesn’t get angry, but it shows that Jane knew. In this case I agree with Kurt, although he has not specifically said anything, I think it would have been better to tell Avery everything from the first moment. No more secrets, please.
However, the situation of tension they have lived in the home of Avery’s godmother has managed to both say their deepest feelings. Both are afraid of losing each other. Avery is no longer alone and may be the teenager she really is, she has someone to lean on and Jane has managed to form a complete family with part of a past that she thought was lost.
Now that both have found each other, they can’t think of losing that, it’s a fear they have. And they have been about to experience it when they have been attacked. Avery’s concern for Jane has been so meaningful and tender … and then, she has made it clear to her mother that, even though she doesn’t tell her, she loves her and couldn’t bear to lose her. Jane has done the same at the right time.
It is the first time we hear what they both feel for each other. The two have been adapting to a new situation, but it was very strange and difficult … but little by little, almost without realizing it, they have been creating a family bond. Before, they were mother and daughter only because of DNA, now they are because they both feel that way. It is really beautiful and the way in which it has been shaped gradually until this moment has been magnificent.
By the way, I love that Kurt is always there, in that family nucleus. The family is not only composed by Avery and Jane but also by Kurt. That simply this one already says a lot because Avery not only wants Jane in her life but also to him. And, together, they form the family that the three of them have been fighting for years.
ROMAN
Roman is not doing well at all. The team has him cornered and that is making the Crawford partners press him. Everything leads him to externalizing his internal war. Why did he changes plans and help Crawford?
The first interesting thing about this is who Roman hallucinates with. He doesn’t hallucinate Jane, but Romi because, for him, Jane is a stranger, someone who has a new life and who didn’t include him in it. The one he considers his sister and knows as such is Romi. In addition, he hallucinates himself, the Roman that could have been if Shepherd had not existed.
Of course, Roman realizes that he is who he is because of Shepherd and a part of him would wish that she had not existed and that he had managed to have a totally different life, with a real family and where the lies and secrets couldn’t end with everything that matters.
In the midst of these hallucinations, Romi and the “former Roman” act as devil’s advocates and confront Roman with his own feelings. As I have been telling you, he helps Crawford because he has given him what he has always wanted: a family, someone who cares and who chooses him above all else. But he is deceptive, a monster like that doesn’t know what it is to love and he doesn’t care, as soon as Roman ceases to be useful or doesn’t comply with his orders he will not hesitate to get rid of him. That’s not love. Crawford will never be his father or behave as such, however much Roman may want it.
“Romi” is the one in charge of facing Roman with his own doubts and then he shouts something very important “he cares more for me than you.” This shows what Roman really feels about Jane/Romi. For him, she left him and didn’t care enough for him to take him with her every step of the way. She left him alone.
Roman, even if he is an adult, emotionally he is still that lost child who only wants a family that loves him. He thought Jane/Romi was that family and when she wasn’t, he focused on his anger and a plan was created to punish her, with the intention that she would feel what made him feel. But he still didn’t face his true feelings and desires. Then Blake and Crawford arrived and the lines blurred, Roman sees in them the family he so desires and suddenly feels inside that he doesn’t need Jane to include him in her life because he already has his own family.
Although Roman still doesn’t want to see the reality: they aren’t his family. Crawford is another monster like Shepherd and Blake doesn’t love Roman, if not Tom, who is the man she knows. Nothing Roman lives is real, because nothing that is built with lies can be, but he clings to it with all his strength and I’m afraid that when everything falls, it will end up destroying him.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it has been a very emotional episode which has served to show us the feelings of the characters facing the two remaining episodes of the season, something necessary for us to understand their actions and choices. At the same time, the puzzle that Roman rode to catch Crawford is fitting and little by little the team are getting closer.
They have managed to keep us hooked from the first second and the action has also been important. Thus, they have achieved a perfect mix between emotional tension and action that takes us by the hand to the final blow.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with episode 3 × 21 “Defection.” And here’s the promo for the next episode.
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 / 7c on NBC.