Blindspot is back after the hiatus! And the truth is that the episode has not lived up to the hype It hurts a lot to write this, very much, but it is the truth. “The Night of the Dying Breath” is an episode where feelings are close to the surface … but nothing more. Only the last 10 minutes of the episode have been really important. The rest, it has been a waste of time, spun through some special moments. Let’s talk about everything!
Here we go!
CASE OF THE WEEK
On this occasion, the team has worked against the clock to save Jane from dying buried alive. Madeline, along with her lawyer, had the upper hand and, of course, they were looking for her to get out of all the charges. And that has divided the team, especially Kurt and Reade.
Kurt, of course, was willing to let Madeline free if it meant getting Jane back, and for Reade Madeline’s freedom was a price he couldn’t pay, a position that is reinforced when Jane herself asks him not to let her go. Kurt acts driven by the feelings … and Reade with the coldest head. Both are partly right.
Kurt is right to do anything to get Jane back, but his feelings blind him to the fact that letting Madeline go free is not the answer either, and there is no guarantee that Madeline will do her part.
Reade, on the other hand, is right to resist leaving Madeline free and trying to find Jane differently. His more professional vision doesn’t mean that he isn’t worried about Jane. He loves her, she’s his friend, his family, and he wants to find her … in fact, he feels bad, as if he is failing her. And he is divided between his personal feelings about Jane and wanting to save her at all costs and his professional and somewhat colder feelings that tell him that this is not the way.
That dilemma becomes clearer when Jane makes Reade promise not to release Madeline. She knows that Madeline will not reveal where she is even if they free her, and her possible death doesn’t mean anything.
But, although Reade has his part of reason, the truth is that, contrary to what he may think, he is not doing everything to make Madeline speak. He has Tasha there, and she knows her better than anyone … but he’s not letting her act.
In the end, Reade realizes that a mid-point is ideal and if Madeline plays with them, why not play them with her? And, in the end, they get what they want: they find Jane and Madeline is still arrested in a movement that even she didn’t see coming.
JELLER
This episode has been gold for Jeller! The desperate way in which Kurt has been looking for Jane, without rest, without losing hope and without surrendering … but going mad with despair, coming to face his best friend, even shouting at him. Doing what it took to get to Jane, and save her.
And Jane … she has never stopped having hope but, above all, she has never stopped looking for a way to tell Kurt how much she loves him. Statement that he has returned to her each and every time. It’s as if Jane wants her last words to go to Kurt, to tell him how much she loves him. Jane wanted the last thing that came out of her lips to be “I love you” and also wanted the last thing she heard, in her ears, in her head and in her heart, to be Kurt’s “I love you.”
Those two words summarize everything. It doesn’t take more. They have gone through so much … but they love each other and that has always been the most important thing. The only important thing. That love has led them to where they are now. And everything they’ve been through, those bad and good times … everything, it’s been worth it. The two just want the other to know. And both get it, Kurt manages to reach her and save her from the clutches of death, and Jane manages to look him in the eyes again and transmit all the love she feels for him. It’s heart-breakingly beautiful.
TASHA
What we discussed last week about the similarities and differences between Tasha and Madeline has been reflected in this episode. Zapata was the best asset of the team. She knew Madeline… and she was not going to be delicate. She was going to press the right point, the weak point to make her fall. Like Madeline. Madeline knew that by kidnapping a member of the team, and more specifically Jane, as the wife of one of them, she was going to win the game. She attacked the weak point, leading them to despair.
Tasha, meanwhile, also attacks Madeline’s weak spot: her family, leading her to a desperate choice. But the difference, as we said last week, is that Tasha does it for a good reason: to get Jane back. But Madeline only does it for the pleasure of seeing the team suffer and win the game, only to achieve her own ends.
Those similarities have not escaped Madeline. Finally we see a sincere conversation between them at the end of the episode. Madeline always suspected that Tasha’s loyalties were not with her, but she also appreciated that latent darkness, Tasha’s ability to go further than morally correct, and hoped to use that darkness for her own purposes. She hoped that Tasha could be on her side. What Madeline didn’t take into account were Tasha’s reasons for using the darkness inherent in her: to save the people she loves. Such a person, someone who is a good person, would never agree with what Madeline does. And Madeline was too arrogant to realize it.
Despite that, despite not getting Tasha to take her side, she was not disappointed. What Tasha did for her was something really dark, and Madeline feels that Tasha became something darker, that took her a little closer to her limit … that changed her and that is more than enough for her. Is Madeline right, or does Tasha remain the same?
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it has been a filler episode. As I mentioned, only the last 10 minutes of the episode have been really important. It doesn’t mean that the episode has not been entertaining or has not had wonderful moments, , but we are not here to waste time, even with special moments of our OTP, AKA Jeller.
This season has been clearly irregular in rhythm. The first part, 4A, has gone as slow as a turtle, practically without advancing. This second part, 4B, has stumbled. We have one or two episodes that advance the plot as they should have and three or four filler ones.
We like Jeller, we like tension, games … hell, we even like the anguish, but we don’t like that, at the end of the season, they put all that together and give us a filler episode. We don’t like that when the episode ends we feel like we have lost 30 minutes of our time. And we don’t like to see it in the middle of a season, when the rhythm of the show has failed miserably. It’s as if they had lost their way in that direction.
Some episodes, those that really advance the plot and recover the rhythm that the show had accustomed us in the last three seasons, give us hope that they have put the batteries on, but then we see these episodes and all those hopes are broken in a thousand pieces. And that pisses me off like you can’t imagine.
After watching the episode, I had to wait a bit to calm down and start the review with a cold mind, as it is not good to make the criticism in hot blood because, in my opinion, perspective is lost. That’s why I tried to highlight – and I hope I succeeded – the good parts of this episode throughout the review (Jeller, Tasha, her connection with Madeline, the team’s conflict with Jane’s situation) but also highlight the bad part, which is that feeling of wasting time and that, for me, on this occasion, the good parts have not overcome that bad feeling that they have been dragging the spectators since the beginning of this season.
It’s true that I’m hard, but I’m also sincere. Every week I translate into words – or I try it – what the episode and the show makes me feel. This week is not different, just that the feeling … is not good.
LOOSE THOUGHTS
- That glance of doubt from Tasha before Madeline asks her if the FBI will believe her has not gone unnoticed for me. It’s not the first time that she sees herself alone in the face of danger. But she is not alone, she has her team by her side.
- Wonderful conversation between Kurt and Reade, each has understood the position of the other in the conflict. Only with a “are we okay?” “We’re fine” and everything has been forgotten. BROTP!
- Significant look from Reade to Tasha while saying “if we lose each other, Madeline wins.” That’s just what she’s fought for … and Reade is not going to let her win. There is hope for Rapata!
- The “innocent and idiotic” lawyer turns out to be one of the worst guys. I suspected it from the second one when I saw him playing dumb.
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 4×18 “Ohana“. And here’s the promo for the next episode.
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 / 7c on NBC.
