Blindspot has returned after a week with “The Quantico Affair,” which is really an episode that moves the plot. The main storylines have advanced, making the board change. In addition, new and interesting stories have just begun. At the same time, the emotional conflicts of the characters have been close to the surface, which gives us a preview of what is to come.
Let’s talk about everything! Here we go!
CASE OF THE WEEK
On this occasion, we’ve been able to see what happens in the laboratory while the team is on a rescue mission. It’s been so cool! Normally, we see everything from the team’s perspective. We witness in situ the physical action, but we forget what is behind that. Today we have taken a look at what is behind, and we have hardly been able to breathe from the tension!
The psychological pressure that the rest of the team has to face, that concern when the lives of those who are on the field hangs by a thread is really unsettling. It puts your nerves on edge, that’s what I’ve felt. I knew that everything was going to be fine, but a part of me was full of worry.
In addition, the continuous clashes between Patterson and Rich have been really wonderful. A small and healthy competition. I laughed a lot with them, as well as with Patterson trying to balance between what had happened with Lincoln, and that he was another recruit. Who has not lived through something similar?
I really liked this new way of facing the challenge of the mission and it has been quite frenetic, really. They have kept me hooked at all times. What about you?
TEAM BLINDSPOT
Patterson (and Rich)
These two have been the undisputed protagonists of the episode. Especially our particular unicorn, AKA Patterson. Every time she jumps to the front of an episode, taking the reins, the quality goes up several degrees. The character is wonderful and she has shown it once again.
At first, we have seen her just living life and her youth, meeting a handsome guy and having fun with him. But soon we have seen that it was something more than that: she is afraid to commit herself, to trust again. That boy wanted to see her again, but Patterson rejected him completely, keeping everything on a physical plane. In fact, she is so afraid of intimacy with someone that she gives him a false name.
This isn’t really who Patterson is, deep down she is someone committed, who gives everything in a relationship. However, after what happened to David and then Borden she is protecting herself under a shield that hides her fear of opening her heart again. So much so that when she met the same boy – Lincoln – at her job the next morning the first thing she thinks about – and she was sure of it – was that he had used her for his benefit, and she was willing to talk to Weitz and end his dream just because of that suspicion.
This is just a side effect of everything that Patterson has lived with Borden. Anyone would have thought that what happened with Lincoln was a coincidence, but Patterson has taken it for granted that he had taken advantage of her, of her trust. Like Borden did. With Borden she had no chance to strike back at him, but this time, she was determined to return it to Lincoln, ending his dream.
In short, Patterson is not only afraid to open her heart, she doesn’t trust anyone to not break it. This is an emotional conflict that I am sure we’ll see develop throughout the season. Patterson’s physical wounds healed long ago, but her psychological wounds, those in her heart and in her soul, are still bleeding and they need to stop doing so, they need to close and heal.
Lincoln is a good boy, and there is a connection between them, but that’s not the only reason why Patterson should try. The fact of the matter is that Patterson should be open to trusting the people around her because she should not to let a bastard like Borden beat her. She can’t allow it. In fact, it seems that at the end of the episode is something more open to this possibility …
This is the emotional conflict to overcome for Patterson this season and everything that is going to happen with Remi will make it worse, because she has her trust and her full friendship as Jane, but when she finds out that Remi has been betraying them … well Patterson will remember Borden, and it will reaffirm that she can’t trust anyone.
In this season she must learn that this is not the case, and find a way to move towards the same Patterson we met at the beginning of the show, only with a deeper knowledge of the dark side of the human being.
On the other hand, Rich seemed willing to compete with Patterson in the lab and both have very different ways of informing the team. He gives them too little information, which gets them in trouble and here Patterson is right, the team must be informed of all the possibilities because they lives are on the line.
In addition to that, they have also discussed the secret that both have. Roman seems to have discovered something about ZIP poisoning, but it seems more myth than something tangible. Therefore, Patterson refuses to investigate, and here I agree with Rich. They are in a desperate situation and if Roman included it in one of their USBs it is worth investigating, even if they continue their scientific research on the other hand. They are against the clock and must take into account all possibilities, however improbable they may be. What’s more, I think that myth is going to be the key to finding a cure.
It has been hilarious to see these two compete to see which way was best and continually colliding with their different ways of thinking. Besides seeing Rich at the end as a fanboy with Patterson and Lincoln? I loved it! He was me!
PS: listening to Rich say “let’s go! (¡vámonos!)” in Spanish he has given me life.
Weitz
It has been hard for me to include Weitz in this section, because I think he still doesn’t deserve to be here. But hey, I guess we have to accept that he is now part of the team. Patterson makes our feelings very clear, by the way, I applaud her, it was wonderful the way she called him out. She’s a QUEEN!
The first thing that Weitz has to be understand is that he must trust his team and protect them at all costs. You can’t follow the protocol in a way that leaves them helpless. He must be willing to gamble for them, even though his own ass is at risk. That should not matter to him. Team members must go before his own protection.
The team, even with its problems and secrets, is a family and the family protects itself above all else. As queen Patterson tells him, it is true that neither is too happy to have him on board as their boss, but he is there and they will have his back, so the least that Weitz can do is the same.
The protocol? Fuck protocol! Your team is asking for a vote of confidence, there is no time, and they can solve it. He must trust them. Thankfully, in the end he does, but this is only the beginning. He must learn step by step and then, he will really be part of the team.
Another thing that I didn’t like anything about this character is what he has done with the recruits. When he asked Patterson for an opinion, she told him that Lincoln was good, but he was not the only one. There was another girl equally as good as he was. In fact, Lincoln so far had not done anything significant (afterwards, yes) and the girl did. But Weitz has shown his favoritism at all times and when Patterson gives her opinion the only thing that he says is “Lincoln is good, yes, thank you, that’s what I wanted to hear”.
But why the hell does he not give her a second thought? Why do not he evaluates the behavior of both objectively? For him it is Lincoln, period. The girl deserves to have the same opportunities as him, and Weitz doesn’t even consider her.
Remi
Remi doesn’t seem so sure of herself in this episode. I’m enjoying the plot a bit more when they mix it with feelings. She has not been able to kill Kurt and, in fact, there have been some moments in which Jane has allowed herself to be seen – we’ll get to that later. And Roman (it’s still a wonderful pleasure to see him), as Remi’s conscience, is already telling her what she does not accept herself: her feelings are getting confused.
Right now Remi struggles to remain in control and not get lost in favor of Jane. She fights with all her strength and clings with everything she has to her anger and hatred. But it is getting lost. It has softened. Kurt and his love are taking their toll on her. He loves her with everything, and that’s a kind of love that Remi has never known.
The only thing she has known in a couple is a love with conditions. Shepherd and Sandstorm were the priority for both. She has never known a love like Kurt feels for her, without restrictions, in which the only priority for him is her and her well-being. A healthy relationship where one supports the other.
But not only is Kurt making Remi fail, but also the whole team. That family atmosphere is something that she has not lived either. Shepherd was someone who trained them for war, but not a mother. Remi can’t remember a real family except Roman and even with him things were not normal or healthy, due to the influence of Shepherd.
Remi’s face when she entered the FBI building and everyone was applauding and smiling, I think said it all. She has felt overwhelmed, grateful, surprised … and wanted more of that. At that moment she has longed for a life in which that was the routine, in which she had someone who cared about her well-being and was not willing to sacrifice her for anything. She has longed for Jane’s life. That feeling of familiarity, of home … something that she has never really had. Remi is beginning to see why everything changed when she entered the FBI, she is changing.
But Remi is nothing if not a fighter, so she is not going to let herself be beaten like that, so she goes back to her old attitude from time to time and has those looks of rage, especially when she is explaining the new boss of the Crawford empire, something parallel to what she is doing … and nobody notices. But those looks do not have the strength and hatred of before. Remi is fighting a battle … and she’s losing.
Despite all this, I still would have liked Jane to have returned or begun to return in another way and before … with memories of her time with Kurt. But they may yet do that, so I’m still waiting to decide whether or not I like the way they’ve done this.
RAPATA
These two make me suffer every week. I still think that Tasha is on a very covert mission from the CIA, but the truth is that she runs the risk of getting lost in both secret and dark. She needs some light … I’m sure that the memory of Reade and what they both feel for each other is her light in this moment, but I don’t know if it will be enough. I think they both need to see each other, talk honestly and have each other’s backs.
Because the possible mission of Tasha has put her under the magnifying glass of the team. They know that she is involved in the murder of Crawford’s lawyer, and that she has joined the new boss of the entire corrupt conglomerate. Reade refuses to believe such a thing about her. He trusts Zapata, despite the fact that nothing indicates he can do it. Reade is taking a big leap of faith for her, because he also totally rules out that Tasha is acting under a CIA mission. In fact, he is only more than relieved that she is alive … for a moment his world had collapsed, but knowing that she’s fine, then the world rights itself. The rest doesn’t matter. He is perfect!
That’s when Weitz reveals that Tasha has always had his dark side, from the beginning, revealing something that the team didn’t know. But nobody cares anymore what she did then and Reade’s face is … you see he’s willing to jump on Weitz and break his face for having questioned Tasha like that.
The truth is that she has always had a more gray morality than the others, something that made her perfect for the CIA and makes her perfect now for this covert mission. But that’s why she needs to speak with Reade, so that she remembers why she fights and he can continue taking that leap of faith. Because if he can not keep doing it … that will destroy Tasha and push her to the edge.
JELLER
Something very interesting has happened between the two. Jane has started to come back! Remi has been unable to kill Kurt, although she knew that killing at him in cold blood was what she should do. She could not kill him. So she comes up with an excuse. For Kurt to know that “Jane” was preparing the poison has been like a nightmare. He has begged with his voice torn and contained tears to give him the syringe, that “please” said in a whisper with eyes shining, tears not spilled, has touched my heart. Really, Kurt is tearing apart little by little, knowing that he can lose “Jane”.
That’s when “Jane” has embraced him and, for a second, she has enjoyed his contact by closing her eyes, taking comfort in his presence … then Remi has returned. But in that second, Remi has been Jane.
Kurt is terrified of losing “Jane.” I loved that tone of concern in the mission, which then gives way to a bright smile of relief. But something is not going well and he has noticed.
At the end of the episode, Kurt talks to her, and once again he makes clear to her what he loves and what it means to him – and I melted. Jane reappears on stage when Remi touches him, hugs him, leans on him, loves him … but soon Remi is back when Kurt confesses that he threw the poison. Remi tries to control herself, but Kurt already suspects her so he follows her to a meeting with a very suspicious woman.
What did Remi buy? I think it is material to be able to re-manufacture the poison or maybe another poison. But the important thing is that Kurt knows that “Jane” is not herself and now, he’s on the scent. By the way, who has Kurt called? I think of Allie or Reade.
All this will bring many mixed and confused feelings. Remi is not going to be able to avoid the reality that her feelings for Kurt betray her and he will have to hunt the love of his life again, he will have to distrust her and treat her like an enemy. But he will not be able to prevent what he feels for her from getting in the middle of all that. Many twists are about to come! Everything that we suffer will be worth it, but in the meantime, hold on tight, blindspotters!
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this episode has clearly shown us the emotional conflicts of the characters that must be developed throughout the season. We have also seen how certain plots have advanced in a very interesting and dangerous direction, and new ones have opened up.
A very complete episode on all fronts, perfectly balancing action, tension, humor, mystery and emotion. A priori it was an episode that was supposed to be somewhat slower, maybe a “bridge episode,” but it hasn’t been like that, but the opposite. It has not been a transition episode, but a key for all the characters and what awaits us.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with the 4×04 “Sous – Vide“.
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 / 7c on NBC.