‘Blindspot’ 5×07 Review: “Awl In”

We’re here one more week, blindspotters! After the previous week, Blindspot returns with “Awl In“, a practically round episode that finally shows us everything this series is capable of doing when it focuses on its strengths. Finally, we feel that magic from the beginning. Let’s discuss everything!

Here we go!

“I WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN!”

As we imagined, Madeline’s plan with ZIP profoundly affects Jane. She has recurring nightmares in which Kurt doesn’t recognize her because Madeline managed to erase his memory. That’s her worst nightmare: losing him. So she wants to destroy ZIP for good. She’s not going to let Madeline erase their memorys, their stories.

She just…feels bad. ZIP takes her directly to her, to her own story, to Sherperd…if none of it had existed, if she hadn’t appeared in a bag in the middle of Times Square…nothing would be happening. Kurt’s her rock. None of that is true. Madeline and her plan would have existed in the same way. And he tells her something that will be the background to the episode: you cannot negotiate with a psychopath.

Her worst fear feels too close when ZIP accidentally touches Kurt, fortunately not his skin, but still, Jane felt immense terror seeing that her nightmares could come true, knowing that she might lose him. All that would mean, what it would be for everyone to lose their memory, is touched her too closely.

It was what she did to herself and yes, she found the love of her life and her true purpose in life but a part of her felt horrible in the face of confusion, not knowing who she was or what she had done, the fact that having no memories and no idea who she really was. That part was horrible. When, despite that, she injected Roman and lived those moments with him, it was horrible. And then the feeling of betrayal and guilt when Roman discovered it. She cannot think that everyone has to go through the same, the same suffering. She won’t let it happen. She can’t let it happen. So Kurt promises her they won’t and he just takes her hand, letting her know he’s there for her. Always.

“KURT WELLER DESTROYED MY LIFE”

Madeline played very dirty. She found Allie and taken her to the FBI. From there, she’s been pressuring her, emotionally torturing her with Bethany (I really want to kill Madeline for this) until, it seems like Allie has…broken. She shouted that Kurt destroyed her life, that, because of him, she and her daughter have to live as fugitives, hiding. She wants everything to end and if the way to get back to her daughter is to do what Madeline says…she will.

So Madeline takes her out on television to manipulate Kurt from a distance by appealing to Bethany. Only before I said it seems for something. Allie is playing Madeline’s game, but she’s actually texting. Use a secret code between Kurt and her to send it. The message is: No matter what happens, stick with the plan.

I knew Allie hadn’t betrayed him! Mind you, she’s an excellent actress. I almost believe it. Almost. But I knew she couldn’t think that about Kurt. She knows him, she knows that he is not a terrorist and she has seen Madeline torture her emotionally, she has seen how confident she is that she can do what she wants with her, because there is no other law than hers. Madeline was looking for Allie to trick and manipulate Kurt to reach him… but it was she who ended up being manipulated. It’s perfect!

Before Kurt can get Allie’s message, he’s about to surrender himself. Seeing Allie in Madeline’s hands, thinking about Bethany, believing that they can have her…that makes him react and he wants to surrender himself to Madeline in exchange for their release. But that will not happen. It will never happen. You cannot negotiate with a psychopath. Kurt was right when he said it to Jane and it also applies right now when it’s Jane who tells him. When she is his support, his anchor.

Kurt isn’t coldly thinking…Madeline would never let any of the three of them go, just as she didn’t let Allie go. She’s trying to manipulate him, make him fall for the trap…but he can’t do it. Losing him is not an option for anyone…least of all, for her.  Madeline doesn’t have Bethany.

Kurt realizes that Jane’s right. As much as he wants to go there and try to protect Allie, as much as he wants to check that Bethany is safe…he can’t. He must not. It’s in the bunker that Kurt receives Allie’s message…but he wasn’t the only receiver.

We discovered that our old frenemie Keaton is who is helping the team in the shade.  He…and another person who still remains in the shade. OH MY GOD! 

This’s a tremendous surprise! I didn’t expect him to be helping them. But what’s more, Allie is not as innocent as she appeared. She was also helping them. That’s my girl! And they have a plan to end Madeline. Is so cool! What will that plan be? Will they and the team join forces in the end? I think so.

And…who is that mysterious person who is also helping them? As much as I review in my mind characters that may be that person, I find none. The show has me totally hooked on this mystery!

The last warning Allie has made to Madeline is being fulfilled: she’s so focused on one objective, that she forgets the small details…and it’s those details that will make her fall. I can’t wait to see it!

Talking about Madeline’s plans and details. The boss of her mercenaries is hiding from her that Kurt gave them some clues during his kidnapping. Why? Will she betray her in the end? Loyalty doesn’t seem to be a quality of either, but at the end of the episode it seems that they have found something interesting…

“AND WHAT ABOUT YOUR FATHER?”

Tasha had some problems. She found herself trapped and literally deadlocked by the enemy…but she found an unexpected ally. Madeline’s son is totally innocent of his mother’s machinations, in fact she’s using him. He is…a good, noble man, who just wants to help others…seriously, my reaction to this boy is…

In the end, Tasha had no choice but to trust him and tell him the whole truth about her mother. He didn’t want to believe her but somewhere in his heart…he knew Tasha was telling the truth. So he didn’t want to give her away. But he couldn’t believe her either. She was talking about her mother. The person who held his hand as he became a man, who loved him and cared for him…he has to prove it for himself.

So that does…but Madeline hasn’t gotten to where she is being trusting and stupid.  He hasn’t taken into account one thing: you cannot negotiate with a psychopath. As soon as her son talks about his father, she understands that there’s something strange so, as soon as she hears that call he makes to Tasha, saying that he is going to spy on her and help end her, she knows that she has to make a drastic decision.  And that she does, with real pain…she erases his memory.

Madeline really hurts to do that. We have never seen her so hurt and vulnerable, so…fragile. She feels real betrayal when hearing her son say that he is going to betray her. To her. Although I think she didn’t know her son if she thought that he would play along. She feels in her soul having to erase his memory, having to erase who he is…but she does it equally because, for her, her goal is above everything and everyone. As she herself says, to win it’s necessary to make sacrifices…her son is hers.

She will never forgive the team that turned her child against her. Although the reality is that she did it by using him in such a horrible and twisted way, and then choose her plan before her own son. It’s all her fault. A man as good as he doesn’t deserve a mother as terrible as her. Now, he is in her hands but…will the team manage to find him and make him remember? In Jane, ZIP made her have visions of her past memories, will that happen to him? What’s more, that substance caused Roman to die, will it do the same to him? Has Madeline sentenced her own son to death? Many questions that I can’t wait to answer.

Tasha, meanwhile, feels guilty about what happened and is being too hard on herself. For her, she has completely failed the mission and what happened to Madeline’s son…has been worse. His mother was using him and now she intends to do the same. But it isn’t like that. As Rich and Patterson tell her, she isn’t using him.  He made his own decisions. Plus, she gave him that ability to decide about what’s going on, she gave him the opportunity to be on the right side of the story, much more than his own mother did. Also, it was Madeline herself who involved him in all of that by putting him on the plane and using him to get ZIP.

Although Tasha knows that they’re right, she cannot remove that feeling that she’s putting someone innocent and good at risk by involving him in something so murky…I can only imagine what she will feel like to find out what has happened. Many emotional challenges await Tasha.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this episode is all we wanted to see. Finally, the show shows all that it’s capable of offering. Now I felt that the team was threatening Madeline, I felt that they were approaching her…to beat her. In this episode, they have not only managed to damage part of Madeline’s plan, but also her heart. Until now, the team was a nuisance to her plans, an obstacle, that’s why she wanted to end them, not for anything strictly personal (except, perhaps, with Tasha), but everything has changed.

Suddenly, everything has become even more personal for Madeline. Maybe the rage and pain over it will make her careless, make a mistake, and that’s the team’s real chance to finish her off. Perhaps the decision she has made with her child is that mistake. There’re many possibilities that open up after this episode.

Until now, it seemed that the team was hitting blinds. With missions here and there that didn’t lead to anything concrete and rather seemed a method to spend time but not now. This episode doesn’t feel like that. In this episode the real game begun…it’s the beginning of the end.

Everything we had been asking them for a few weeks ago has been fulfilled here.  The episode’s very complete. It had action, emotion, feeling, intrigue and surprises.  It’s undeniable that they focused a little more on the action and the surprise than on the emotional aspect but it was what was playing at the moment. I get it, it was time to give the plot a big boost, even if it melted the emotional aspect. However, the episode hasn’t been without emotion and, in a way, more heartbreaking than what they showed us in the previous episodes because it has been more crude, more real…more cruel.

I loved this episode. So yes, Blindspot. This show can work magic when all its strengths are mixed together perfectly. This episode’s good proof of it.

It shows that we started the final stretch. We just started climbing a mountain that will take us to that end in episode 11. Four episodes left…and this can only improve.  #Blindspot4Ever

PS: Jane with blonde hair? Definitely yes! Kurt with long hair? HELL NO!

Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back next week with 5×08 “Ghost Train”.

Blindspot airs Thursday at 8 / 7c on NBC.