Blindspot is back from hellatus! The truth is that we missed the show, and we were not disappointed. “The Big Blast From The Past Episode” is an episode where the past and the future are interwoven more than ever. The past gives us answers about what we are living with the characters in the present, about their fears and emotional conflicts and about their reasons for acting as they do. It gives us a much more complete picture than before, in the middle of a game change that prepares us for the rest of the season. Let’s talk about everything!
Here we go!
CASE OF THE WEEK
This week the case that the team had to face was intimately related to their past (and also to their present), as well as to them personally. Thanks to what we have seen, we have not only managed to maintain the tension, but it has been a total game changer, that will have many repercussions in the future. This prepares us for the final stretch.
In addition, this case has given us some answers about the personality of the characters and about their past actions and feelings. Now we have knowledge of some pieces of the puzzle that we couldn’t have guessed before this hour.
Although I have to say that when Reade said “why does this sound familiar?” I could not help thinking “it will be because the cases of the week rarely change and almost all are about a bomb threatening the city.” It would be great if they revised this aspect of the show.
As if all this were not enough, Shepherd has added another mystery. Jane’s attitude to this is worth mentioning. She doesn’t want to know anything. She has been controlled and manipulated by Shepherd since she has the use of reason, now that she is dead Jane doesn’t want her to control Jane again in any way, she wants to rest from that. Turn the page. It is totally understandable … but there is more. Jane is afraid of what she will discover. Her whole life has been full of manipulation, secrets and puzzles. Those puzzles took her to her current life and the people she loves … but they also meant pain. They also meant separation. She doesn’t want that to happen again. And she’s afraid that if she falls into Shepherd’s game, that’s exactly what happens.
However, Rich and Patterson are right. She can’t turn her back on it and hide her head waiting for it to disappear. She will never close that chapter of her life if it is not complete and, for that, she has to face Shepherd’s last secret. For that reason, Patterson continues investigating until she gets to a key she doesn’t recognize … but Jane does. What do you think that key opens? Because of Jane’s attitude, it seems very important and I think it will be truly be the key to many answers.
WEITZ
This character gives me mixed feelings. It’s as if I hate him and love him at the same time. I hate him because he disgusts me. His manipulation, his methods, his line of thought, his actions … everything disgusts me. But I love him because he is so morally gray that he is really fascinating.
The show has played with the morally gray personalities of the characters at times. Mostly Reade and Tasha. Especially she, who is the most morally gray of the protagonists. However, they have always had their personality well defined. They are good people. As with villains, they are bad people and act only for evil, power or fear.
It doesn’t mean that they are flat characters, they are not, far from it, but they do have their personality so defined that a character like Weitz is needed. He is a bad person … but it is much more complicated than that.
He loves power, is selfish, manipulative and egocentric, has a huge ego and doesn’t care what methods he has to use to win. That is what he does in the past with Stuart, recognizes his weak points, attacks them and manipulates him so that an innocent person commits a crime that he could never forget. Stuart’s guilt is overwhelming. So much that he confesses to the director (not knowing that she was even more corrupt than Weitz himself). but Weitz has no guilt. He is sure that woman was guilty and he won. He does not stop to think about the possibility of having done something wrong.
And he also manipulates in the present. It happens with Reade and with Kurt. Weitz identifies the points to attack in both. With Reade it’s what can happen to him, not only to his career but to the entire FBI, if he confesses what happened. Weitz identifies without a doubt that Reade may be willing to destroy his career but not to destroy the FBI and his team. He knows that for Reade, the FBI is a fundamental pillar in his life, his belief system, principles, just as the team is his family … Weitz knows that telling him that all that can fall if he opens his mouth is the correct way to manipulate him and keep him quiet. He’s right.
With Kurt he does something similar. He manipulates him by telling some of his secrets, secrets that would totally destroy him … but with Kurt it doesn’t work. He is willing to go to the end. He will catch Weitz, no matter what happens. And I am very proud of my baby.
However, when everything seems to be in danger and depends on him … he decides to tell the truth. He decides to do the right thing, showing that it is more complicated than just being a bad person. But … he takes the easiest option at the end. Patterson discovers the supposed identity of the terrorist and Weitz sees the heavens open. He doesn’t have to say anything anymore, he can saves himself without giving himself away. The right thing to do would be to confess … but he is not a good person, so he doesn’t do the right thing. What’s more, he decides to kill another person to save his skin. It is a controversial decision, in which he also manipulates. He convinces the team that it is the best thing, because they will be saved, and many more people will be saved. It’s something that Tasha and Reade believe in. But not Jane and Kurt. They know that this is wrong, no matter how they want to paint. It is unfair and horrible. I’m with them.
But Weitz has no one in mind but himself when he makes the decision to kill another person. And there is the complexity of the character. He is not capable of sacrificing thousands of lives to save himself, but is able to do so with those he considers deserve it. It’s as if he has a hero or God complex, with the ability to decide who deserves to sacrifice his life for him and who doesn’t. A disgusting character … but interesting at the same time, as I mentioned at the beginning.
All this is going to bite Weitz in the ass. It is clear that this is not the first time he has done it, and Madeline’s ally now has him at his mercy. He is extorting him, while the former director of the FBI looks like she will betray a few wolves in sheep’s clothing. The question is, will Weitz be able to sacrifice the lives of everyone else to save himself?
JELLER
We’ve had few moments between this couple but all have been of quality. The fabric between the past and the present has also been too fine for them. Two years ago, Kurt was desperate to find Jane and thought he had managed it in Moscow. Reade doubts it, it seems crazy, but Kurt is so desperate … in fact, just by looking at him it is clear that he is undone. Haggard, with a glimmer of despair and anguish in his dull eyes. The living dead.
Everyone doubts it … but in the present, Kurt discovers that he was right. He was so close to Jane … so close but so far away … the look they share speaks for itself. They lost a lot of time being separated and they promise not to lose more.
Later, already at home and relaxed, the two have a very domestic scene, very familiar. But the most important thing is what Kurt tells Jane. He tells her all, nothing is saved. It’s something Jane notices, how open he is with her. Jane is the person who knows him the most. The good and the bad in him. And Kurt makes it clear. He knows that the trust and secrets of both have been an obstacle in the relationship. And he makes a vow, looking her in the eyes, tells her that they will never keep secrets from each other again. Never.
They have lost each other because of those secrets. He doesn’t want it to happen again. Jane agrees with him. For her, losing him, putting his and her own trust to the test has been just as difficult. Equally heartbreaking. And she doesn’t want to hide anything from him. Jane knows Kurt perfectly, but he knows her the same way. He is the one who knows her the most. And he loves her. Like Jane loves him. That is what love consists of after all, in knowing both the defects and the virtues of the other person, their past and loving everything about that person. There is no purer love than that, and it is the kind of love that Jeller shows us.
RAPATA
This couple has advanced a lot in this episode. For good. At first Reade treats Tasha as if she weren’t part of the team. He excludes her. She is there and Reade wants her to be … but he shows her the opposite. Kurt makes him see it. He can not keep Tasha so far away. Either he accepts her again or he doesn’t. But he can not half forgive her. This brings us straight to the past and we discover that both were in a similar situation.
The truth is that I owe Tasha an apology. I thought that she had decided on her own to go to the CIA, leaving Reade and their whole story behind. But the truth is that Reade had a lot to do with that decision. He was punishing her. Reade’s heart was broken by her rejection, and that caused him to punish her professionally, to exclude her and treat her unfairly. Both were at the limit. Reade was being unfair and cruel because of his pain. And Tasha was pissed and hurt by his attitude … especially hurt. Seeing how Reade behaves, how he treats her as if she were a stranger, as if he did not care is killing her. So she becomes reckless in her methods. Goes a little further.
Suddenly, the option of her going to the CIA opens up. Neither of them wants it to happen. Tasha loves him so much … not seeing him every day, not working with him or with the people who are her family is unthinkable. But neither can continue like this. She can’t take it anymore. As for Reade, he can’t see her every day and not be with her, it’s unbearable. She asks him for a reason to stay, as a last chance to fight for her … but Reade doesn’t do it, driven by his pain and fear he lets her go … and it is the worst mistake he makes in his life.
He knows it and she knows it too. In the present, they are able to talk about it. To wonder … “what would have happened if?” Would Tasha have ended up at the CIA? It looks like the answer is yes. What happened with Reade only advanced it. Her methods, what she is willing to do … fits more with the CIA than with the FBI, but maybe things would not have been the way they were. Maybe if Tasha had not felt so alone. As much as she feels now. But it is not so anymore. Reade makes the right decision and lets her in his life and the team again. Whatever happens. They will have her back. And that is a first step to recover what they had. It will never be the same, but they will be able to overcome it and learn together.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this episode has been somewhat calmer than the previous one and may go something more unnoticed … but it is important. Very important. We have experienced some emotional conflicts of the characters that have been both an advancement in the present and an understanding of their past actions. At the same time, we have discovered some secrets and a few questions have arisen. That is, the show continues to take up its essence: mystery, secrets and human emotions.
In short, this episode may seem trivial, like filler, but in reality it is the opposite. It’s a change of the status quo, a change of the game that we have seen so far. A change absolutely necessary not only in the season, but at the heights that we are (preparing for the final stretch). Of course, this episode leaves us wanting to know more.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 4×15 “Frequently Recurring Struggle For Existence” And here’s the promo for the next episode.
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 / 7c on NBC.