Welcome back, Blindspotters! Once we have recovered some strength after that season finale, it’s time to take stock of season 3 of our favorite series. Blindspot started the season with a game-changer, and at the same time a reboot of the show and ended with a new beginning for all the characters, some in the light, others in the dark …
So, let’s go into the season, and examine what the show did right to close out the story-lines, what they did wrong and what we just wanted more of and we just didn’t get. We’ll also talk about our favorite episodes and speculate a bit about what’s coming and if we’ll stick along for the ride. Here we go!
Overall Impression
The season had, in general, a constant rhythm from beginning to end, in which tension, action, mysteries, feelings and secrets were the order of the day during the 22 episodes. However, nothing is perfect, and it’s true that sometimes the writers deserve to be told four things well said. But the truth is that this year we finished with a good taste in our mouths. The season closed a circle in relation to Roman that needed to be closed – even if I would have paid for it to remain open. And, talking about Roman and his plan, he turned everything around, affecting all the characters, making them move forward … or not. All have started a new path in this season and throughout the 22 episodes have shown us a satisfactory way to get there. This year’s journey is finished, now a new one begins.
What Worked
Jeller (and Avery)
Our couple has been pretty stable throughout the season – forgetting those infamous moments of Jane with another guy – and they have given us great moments, including a reconciliation, showing us that together they can overcome everything. Avery joined the couple in the midst of great uncertainty inside and outside the cameras. It was inevitable to wonder if a teenager would fit into the newly built Jeller family. But she fit perfectly, they knew how to build a mother-daughter bond between Jane and Avery and, at the same time, in the background, show their great sympathy with Kurt. Avery added to the family and never detracted from the show. The way to build this plot was delicate and bright, making us feel that family bond that has grown between the three.
Roman
I think he’s the best villain in the show and one of the best characters in it. He is a complex character, with great emotional lacks and with a very hard childhood that marked his whole life. But, in the end, he was still that child who longed for a family, looking for someone who loved him in the same unconditional way that he was capable of loving. However, to the world he showed a shell with which he clung to his anger, which was the feeling he knew best, and the one he had been taught to explode and that led him to do horrible things.
That kind of complexity is very difficult to capture on the screen, but Blindspot achieved it. And the show achieved it so well that despite everything that Roman came to do, all the damage he caused, we loved him with all our heart and we just wanted to hug him and tell him that everything would be fine. I think all the fans were Jane at that moment in 3×22 in which she does just that, embraces him in his final moments, so that he feels the love that he had always longed for.
I would have given everything to see Roman have had that opportunity to redeem himself, to have another life. But … sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Jane and Roman have always been two sides of the same coin in absolutely everything and this was no exception. Jane was the broken person who could be fixed, who could change and live and Roman was her opposite, the broken person who couldn’t be fixed and who didn’t have the opportunity to really live.
Reade
This character has taken a big jump this season, especially if we compare him with the previous one. I think he hasn’t excelled too much but he has always been there, mature, focused and helping his friends. I only had one issue with the character and it’s the attitude he took when Tasha confessed her feelings to him, he behaved like a coward. But we are all human and we are not perfect, the characters must reflect this reality. I can’t add any more to this character, although I didn’t like his relationship with Megan, I understood perfectly why and Reade did nothing wrong.
Ritch
A huge success to add this character to the team. He has always been the most comical point to the episode, something necessary for the tension of the environment to disappear. In addition, it was not only a comic relief, since they used his life experiences to get serious when the occasion deserved it and to help his friends – his friendship/alliance with Patterson has been the best of the season. Through this, we also saw how important the team is for Ritch. It was difficult to put on screen such a humorous character because there was a risk that it would be too much to subtract from the scene, but Blindspot knew how to perfectly handle his appearances and the character always added.
Balance
I think the show has achieved a wonderful balance throughout the season. All the episodes had their dose of action, laughter, feelings, secrets and tension. There has been everything and for all tastes in each episode and that is noteworthy.
What Didn’t Work
Tasha
It hurts a lot to have to place Tasha in this section. I adore her. But this is the truth: it’s a character that hasn’t worked. She has made some incomprehensible decisions, even putting her friends in the background, she has turned towards the darkness, so much so that I don’t recognize her. Because Tasha, the Tasha we knew wasn’t like that. I am not against a change in the way of acting of a character, but something like that must be explained well. Tasha has made a change too sudden for no apparent reason. I hope that in season 4 this character will be what she once was.
Rapata
If including Tasha in this list hurts, imagine what it costs me to include Rapata. I ship this couple so much, I want to see them together, I want them to marry and have babies, but looking at it coldly, in this season they haven’t done well with them. We can understand the reason for Megan’s existence in Reade’s life and even his actions after Tasha’s love confession but we can really only speculate about it because they have never made Reade’s character clearly explain his feelings and I think it was something necessary for the construction of this couple, since they had to start from the beginning after that temporary jump.
Regarding that, with Tasha they did a better job since we saw her pain to see Reade with Megan, her hesitation to confess that she loved him … but, either way, the back and forth didn’t help Tasha either. First, she didn’t want to be with Reade because he was with Megan, then she confesses what she feels for him and wants to be with him, later when Reade finally decides, she rejects him, then she looks for him and ends up rejecting him again.
Between Tasha and Reade there are too many turns for a couple that is being built and that should have passed that phase of “will they/won’t they.” I think that this way of developing the couple to keep the viewer hooked has only hurt it. Do you think the same?
Borden’s resurrection
This is one of the biggest mistakes of the season. A resurrection of a character is very difficult to achieve, because it must be convincing and make sense in light of the plot. Blindspot didn’t get either of the two things about Borden. It wasn’t credible that he survived that explosion and it didn’t make more sense in the plot than for the team to find out and move away from Tasha. After this, Borden didn’t appear again, disappeared by magic, because he had no other function than that. When that same purpose could have been achieved with another plot that made more sense and was more credible than this.
Cases of the week
The cases of the week are a good method to develop the main plot of the season at a time while other plots are developed and the interest of the spectator is maintained. However, something has failed in this season with respect to it. All the cases had a similar base that was a bomb/attack in New York. For some episodes is fine but that over 22 episodes that becomes tiresome. In the next season the base of the case presented to us each week should vary much more.
Jane
Jane was only included on this list for one reason: her affair with another man. They were few episodes but it was one of the worst moments of the season. During these episodes it was impossible to like Jane and, honestly, I came to feel that she didn’t deserve someone like Kurt. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what Jane did, I don’t know what the writers were thinking when they wrote that.
What We Wanted to See More Of
Patterson (and her father)
I always want more from Patterson! She is a character that I adore and I would like to be explored more. Also, her father’s visit was too short … I would like him to return. I also don’t forget that we still don’t know Patterson’s name!
Jeller
We always fall in love, but this couple deserves more scenes. In the final part of the season they were somewhat forgotten … I missed them and I want more of my OTP, especially now that Romi enters the equation and there are many things to tell and develop. Do you also want to see more Jeller?
Blake
After the turn of this character in the season finale – which surprised me and didn’t please me at all – I think they should give continuity to such a risky bet. The alliance between Blake and Tasha promises to give great moments and, furthermore, for someone like Blake to have killed Roman in cold blood is sure to weigh on her conscience, and I think we should see how she faces what she has done and her own change. Will she end up regretting what she has done?
Romi
Romi “revived” in the season finale! And that opens up many possibilities for the new season. I want to see how Romi is carrying out her plan, manipulating them all to take down the team, and I also want to see her doubts and decisions when her feelings and memories as Jane assault her. In short, I want to see that Jane-Romi duality that promises so many good moments in season 4.
What We Wanted to See Less Of
Borden
In fact, I don’t want to see Borden anymore, I want to forget that he was once revived. In my opinion, this character has already fulfilled his role, reliving it was a mistake and I prefer to forget that they committed it and that they don’t try to put us back in the ring with a character who has nothing else to give.
Favorite Episodes
“Back to the Grind” (Episode 3×01) – JELLER WEDDING! I think that is enough reason for this episode to be on the list but, if that were not enough, there are more reasons. In this episode we also saw the reunion between our favorite couple, we saw them work and kick ass together and, in addition, a solid base for the season was sustained.
“Hot Burning Flames” (Episode 3×09) – Berlin exploded together with our heads to find out! Here ended one of the great mysteries of the first part of the season and new plots were opened. It was a before and after, the game board changed completely, while Roman was getting closer and closer to his goal.
“Mum’s the Word” (Episode 3×17) – The reunion between the two siblings marks this episode. In it, Jane and Roman meet again and their words mark the choice of Roman, a choice that would lead him to his fatal fate. It’s the first time that both see each other and tell each other what they think. A raw and brutal confrontation that makes the episode deserve to be on this list.
“In memory” (Episode 3×22) – The closing of the perfect circle for the character of Roman, which has an ending that makes us cry to the seas. I wish it had been another … but, at least, he died loving another person and holding hands with his sister, his family, visualizing on the horizon the life that he could have lived and the family he could have had, dreaming for the last time once with his future truncated. I shed a lot of tears when seeing this scene but I also smiled because it was an end according to the character and because Roman was, at last, at peace. Because of this emotional situation, this episode has more than deserved to be part of this list.
Least Favorite Episodes
“Balance of Might” (Episode 3×10) – Jane and Clem! I rest my case.
“Technology Wizards” (Episode 3×11) – The same happens with episode 3×10. Jane and Clem were also protagonists here and only that nonsense makes this episode deserve a place on this list.
“Everlasting” (Episode 3×14) – I never liked “Groundhog Day” and that a whole episode of Blindspot was inspired by that movie didn’t help at all. This did it slowly and repetitively. Not even a unicorn as beautiful as Patterson or her funny scene with Roman in the elevator saved this episode from deserving, in my eyes, being on this list.
“Artful Dodge” (Episode 3×16) – This is the episode where we discovered that Borden didn’t die in the explosion along with the consequences that come with it and we see a rather implausible explanation of how this happened, so little credible that it made me want to bring my hands to my face because …facepalm.
Season Finale Impression
It was a season finale to match with an ending that flew through the air all. And that left me with a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, I can’t help but bite my nails and think about all the possibilities that Romi’s return opens up for us, but on the other hand, I have to say, I’m a little tired of always using the resource of “restart” with Jane so that what the character and Jeller had advanced was … erased.
They used it in the first season when Kurt arrested Jane and couldn’t see her. They did it again in the second season when Jane had to leave Kurt and the little girl and they had to start over when Kurt found her and now they have done it again in the third season with the “resurrection” of Remi and the “death” of Jane.
That’s my feeling about the last minutes of the episode but … and the rest? I think it was the perfect circle with Roman. The return to where it all began, including his plan against Crawford, and that he died loving someone so deeply and recognizing that Jane was always his family and he loves her as such is just … right for such a complex and emotionally damaged character . That Jane would take his hand and be by his side in those last moments, as close as the earth in which they lie saw them being: wonderful.
In addition, there were unexpected twists throughout the plot – some great and others not so much -. Of course, the episode fulfilled what was expected of a season finale.
Next Season Speculation
Thanks to TvLine and Spoiler TV we already know some details of the following season. Bearing that in mind, I think we will have in the first episodes of the season to Remi fully involved in her mission to kill the team and manipulating Kurt, but with feelings for him intense and confusing that I think she will not want to put name at the beginning. Little by little, Remi will have memories in the form of flashbacks of her life as Jane and will remember her relationships with the team, with Kurt and Avery … that will be the beginning of Jane’s return.
I think that, for a while we will have Jane and Remi fighting for control while the team starts to suspect her … but in the end Jane will win and she will have to face everything she has done as Romi, that means the loss of confidence of the team that will feel betrayed again by her and sure that the Jeller relationship will be dancing in a very thin thread. Romi will have left Jane’s life upside down and she will have to fight to not lose everything she had.
All this in the middle of a new adversary to which the tattoos will lead and that surely makes things very difficult for the team.
Agree? Disagree? What were your thoughts on Blindspot season four?
Blindspot returns on October 12 at 8 p.m on NBC.
