We’re here for another week, blindspotters! After the previous episode, the show returns with “Fire & Brimstone,” a fun episode that’s, once again, transitional and introduces new emotional plots. Of course, it leaves us looking forward to everything to come. Let’s discuss everything!
Here we go!
“DON’T DO IT”
As we mentioned in the previous review, in his situation, Weitz only had two options…and he picked the worst one. The deal he made with Madeline is still standing and he needs help. He can only trust Afreen, but he knows she won’t help him if she knows what he needs her for. So he lies to her and makes her believe they‘re going to help the team. In fact, he says the worst thing he can say “trust me,” and she does. Because they’re working together. Because they’re on the same side…or so she believed.
How could it be otherwise, Afreen finds out the truth and doesn’t hesitate to confront Weitz (I love this woman, really). He tries to lie to her again but she cuts him off. She deserves the truth. So Weitz tells her what is going on and she tries to make him see that he’s making a mistake. She understands why he does it but it’s just…it’s not the right decision. He’ll do horrible things for Madeline, he’ll stay alive for another day (if that can be called life) but there will be a trick. There’s always a trick. As innocent as the mission may seem, as much as it appears to be saving a life, they will trick and trap him in a way that’s complicit in those horrible things he’s trying to avoid. He’ll be their accomplice.
But Weitz doesn’t listen to her. He believes that what he does is the best. He lives to fight one more day and, on the way, he tries to avoid more deaths, as many as possible. Later, he’ll realize his mistake. Later, he’ll understand that Afreen is right.
Because just what she says is going to happen, happens. They killed that woman, that angel who just wanted to help and innocently came to talk to Weitz. Madeline and her minions have killed her … but Weitz and, thanks to him, also Afreen, have been her accomplices. Even if neither of them asked for it or wanted it. Although Weitz intended to save her life. Remember, there is always a trick. And Weitz learned that lesson with blood.
However, despite everything that has happened, he still believes that it’s best to just wait. They should be more attentive to Madeline’s manipulations and plans, they should try to ensure that what has happened doesn’t happen again but, although it disgusts him, he really thinks that the best thing is to swallow all that disgust, all that anger…and wait for the propitious moment. There is no point in playing the brave and dying in battle…it’s preferable to wait and win the war.
On the contrary, Afreen believes that they shouldn’t wait and should take a much more active role. They shouldn’t wait for the team to ask for their help, as Weitz proposes, they must try to help them in any way from the position they have. Seeing that Weitz doesn’t want to do it and just wants to do … nothing, while the team risk their lifes, he disappoints her. He disappoints her a lot and…it hurts. She thought that, despite everything, she knew Weitz. She thought he was different, someone brave, someone capable of standing up and fighting for what is fair. She believed she knew him but she doesn’t know the man in front of her now, she can’t believe she ever thought she could trust him, that he would help them. He disgusts her.
Who do you think is right in this debate? For my part, I believe that the intermediate position is correct. Weitz has a point where it’s pointless to die in battle without having fought in war, but the solution is also not to stay idle.
“YOU KNOW ME…BETTER THAN ANYONE”
Jeller has brought their share of heartbreak to this episode. In the middle of the mission they must break into the house of a man, a criminal, but a man after all. It goes wrong … and Kurt ends up killing him.
This affects Jane deeply…too deeply. So much so, that she even tells Kurt that maybe she doesn’t know who he is or who she is. No longer. Maybe…they’re too close and what they feel for each other is too strong to say with perspective if they are good people or not. If they continue being it.
I’m going to say it clearly: this doesn’t make sense. The first thing is that precisely the people who are too close to you, the people who love you, are the ones who know exactly who you are. The ones that, despite everything you do or say, see beyond that. Because they know your heart. So this analysis of Jane doesn’t make sense. The second reason none of this makes sense is that Jane has done worse. I mean, it’s not like Kurt killed someone in cold blood, they entered his house, yes, but the situation had reached a point of no return. It was that criminal’s life or Kurt’s. He had no choice but to shoot.
This isn’t the first time something like this happened and Jane has seen and done worse. I don’t understand why she’s behaving now as if she were a nun who has just left a convent (pun intended). So this has only one explanation: it’s drama for the sake of drama. They wanted to create tension in the audience with Jane’s phrase about being close to Kurt. They wanted us to ask ourselves, is a Jeller breakup coming up? But honestly, the drama must have a logical basis. What they have done here is make me roll my eyes, because nothing made much sense.
That said, analyzing only the characters and buying this drama for the sake of drama, perhaps the fact that Jane has done worse than what happened in this episode works against her. Perhaps that’s precisely the problem. What happened, what they have to do now (break into a house and kill someone), reminds her too much of her time with Shepherd. When she fought for her cause, she also thought that everything was justified, it was for a greater good and, murder after murder, her humanity disappeared. She doesn’t want that to happen to her again, she doesn’t want that to happen to Kurt. To them. She doesn’t want to be Remi again, and Jane feels…she’s too close to being Remi again, so she feels insecure.
Also, Jane’s right about something else: They can’t keep apologizing for the fact that they kill criminals or that it’s all because of Madeline. That will take them dangerously close to the abyss. Dangerously close to Remi and Shepherd. They must internalize what they’re doing, they must feel bad about it, because that’s the only way not to lose themselves along the way.
The thing is, Jane’s right and makes several fair points. So Kurt talks to her. He can’t stand that distance. She is by his side but he feels her so far…he understands what Jane feels, what is going through her mind and her heart. And he also knows that she’s right. It’s true that they’re doing horrible things. He would give…everything to be with Bethany again. To be at home with her and their daughter again. Together with his family…but he doesn’t want to do it in a world under Madeline’s yoke. That would not be life, it would be nothing.
And the reality is that they, the team, are the only ones that stand between Madeline and her goals. They’re fighting for something that surpasses them. They aren’t only fighting for their lives, but for their freedom. As Jane says, they’re fighting for their future and yes, that sometimes makes them have to do questionable things but together, with their hands joined, looking into each other’s eyes, they silently promise to avoid losing themselves in the midst of that fight…but they will not stop fighting. And that’s love.
“I’M SORRY”
Friction between Tasha and Patterson continues to increase. Far from approaching postures, they seem further away than ever. Patterson has screwed up and told Ice Cream (seriously what a ridiculous name) that Tasha’s pregnant. She hasn’t done it wilfuly, simply, without thinking, she has tried to protect Tasha again and that led Ice Cream to connect the dots. Look at Tasha’s face…she shows anger and pain.
It feels … bad that he knows. It feels bad that Patterson told him. It’s her secret, not Patterson’s, she can’t…just tell or hint at it in front of anyone. It’s herself who must decide to whom she says it and when. She chooses who and when. Nobody else.
Also, Ice Cream isn’t just anyone. He’s who promised protection, who made them think they were safe in that lost cabin…which led to Reade’s death. Precisely he shouldn’t know anything about that pregnancy, about her and Reade’s son or daughter. Tasha feels sick just thinking that this guy knows it and has congratulated her…as if nothing happened. As if he hadn’t promised them protection and had participated, albeit indirectly, in Reade’s death.
This’s clearly seen later in the episode when Tasha directly accuses Ice Cream of Reade’s death. She knows that the real culprit is Madeline. She was the one who ordered to kill them, but Tasha needs guilty someone, because she herself feels guilty for having relaxed, for feeling safe, and blames Ice Cream for feeling this way, confident, relaxed, safe.
However, Patterson also feels her share of frustration and anger. She’s only trying to protect Tasha and that baby, take care of them. But Tasha doesn’t let her. Rich shows Patterson that while her intentions are good, that over-protection is … too much. Tasha needs a friend, not a mother.
It’s thanks to him that the real reason why Patterson acts like this comes to light (have we already said that we love Rich? We LOVE him). She reluctantly accepts it. She has no choice. She resists but … she can’t cover the sun with a finger.
Patterson cannot protect her family. She couldn’t do it with her father in Helsinki, she feels guilty for making him have to run away. Guilty and powerless. She couldn’t protect him from everything around her right now, she couldn’t protect him from Madeline … Tasha and the rest of the team are her second family. She may not be able to protect her father … but she will protect Tasha and that baby. Nothing will happen to them. It’s a promise, an oath, that she makes to herself. So she needs to be counted here. She need to be a bear mom.
Rich also helps her realize she can’t do it. You cannot control everything. And Tasha doesn’t need a bear mom, she just needs a lovable, nerdy unicorn named William Patterson. She needs her. And Patterson is not guilty that her father is running away. He made his decision. He decided to protect his daughter rather than protect himself, because that is what you do when you are a father. Your children go first. Always. And you don’t regret it, not for a second.
I think Tasha heard all this through the intercom … I hope that now that she knows why Patterson behaves like this, they will be able to speak. I suffer when they’re this angry.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this episode improves on the previous one (because I found it more entertaining and fun) but it doesn’t reach the level of episode 4. Also, it’s still a transition episode and … it’s time for them to stop being so. The truth is that I didn’t expect otherwise. I knew this episode was going to be focused on the mission of helping Ice Cream so it would be a bridge, one more transition to what’s to come. I wasn’t wrong.
As for the emotional aspect, they’ve fallen quite short. In every sense. They introduced emotional plots rather than developing them. For example, we already know the reason for Patterson’s behavior but they haven’t shown a conversation between her and Tasha. The only emotional aspect that has fully developed is Jeller…and it hasn’t been their best conflict for the reasons discussed above.
So…yes, entertaining but nothing more. The good thing is that it seems that we’re already entering the matter at hand. All this mission with Ice Cream made the team advance a lot compared to Madeline and they already discovered what her plan is. That plan touches Jane closely because it’s the same thing that happened to her and that promises very good moments. I hope that, now, they begin to develop the attack against Madeline because I don’t want them to, in the last episode tell me everything in a hurry.
Five episodes left … and time’s ticking.
PS: Rich and Patterson dressed up as a priest and a nun! HOLY SHIT! I’M HERE FOR THIS!
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 5×07 “Awl In”.
Blindspot airs Thursday at 8 / 7c on NBC.
