‘Blindspot’ 5×09 & 5×10 Review: “I Love You”

Welcome one more week, blindspotters! After last week, show returns with a double episode, 5×09 titled “Brass Tacks” and 5×10 titled “Love You to Bits and Bytes”, although both can be summed up with three words: I love you. They have been episodes full of action, emotion, feelings on the surface…they’re those episodes that mark a before and after. Let’s discuss everything!

Here we go!

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE ALIVE”

The episode begins as the previous one ended. The entire team is separated and locked in interrogation rooms. And there, alone, they remember Patterson. Each one has a special moment with her that they treasure in their hearts. She welcomed each of them, without asking, without even knowing them, simply giving them a smile and the comfort they needed. And now…she is gone. 

Madeline and her minions find Boston and when they are about to catch him, Patterson saves him. As we said, she always has a plan B and managed to sneak away just before everything exploded. Together, she and Boston devise a plan to contact Afreen and enter the FBI to save the others.

While all this is going on, in the FBI Madeline plans to manipulate the team so that one of them ends up blaming himself/herself. In the end, Jane agrees to this on the condition that none of the others are put in a hole as they are going to do with her.  Madeline is surprised it’s her but I…I’m not surprised at all. Jane’s like that. She wants to protect them. She’s been in horrible situations, she’s even been in a CIA hole, she knows what to expect, how to act…she might even, over time, find a way to escape but the others…no.

That hole would be their end and she doesn’t intend to allow it. She doesn’t plan to allow Kurt to never see Bethany again. Rather, she wants to make sure that they can both have a relationship. Nor is she going to allow Tasha’s daughter or son to grow up without her/his mother, without knowing her. Jane wants to make sure they know each other, that they can have a future. She’s also not going to let Patterson and Rich wilt in a hole. She wants to make sure everyone has a future even if she doesn’t.  She wants to protect them even at the cost of her own life because they’re her family, the only thing she has left, the only thing she has.

It’s then, in the midst of her confession, that Patterson manages to send Jane a message to stop. And everything explodes. Patterson appears alive in front of everyone, helping them escape, and everyone’s reaction thrills me to tears.  Especially Tasha and Rich’s. Tasha thought that she had lost her best friend, her sister and seeing her there, in front of her, alive … is much more than she ever dared to dream of. She can hardly believe it.

As for Rich … he admired her, loved her and watched her die, witness something so horrible, left him speechless, without … nothing, just with a huge emptiness and knowing that she is alive. God, all that almost ended him and he doesn’t want something like that to scare him ever again, he doesn’t want to feel the same again.

Rich has another beautiful reunion. This time with Boston, the love of his life. He has risked everything for him, to save him. He loves him and he just … couldn’t leave him.  Not again. I love this couple! We have to find them a name! Would it be something like #Richbost or #Boscom? Leaving my lousy talent for looking for names apart, this couple has to have their happy ending. They deserve it. They have given it all for each other.

When Patterson and Boston kick in, all the pieces of Madeline’s brilliantly crafted plan start to fall apart and she gets nervous, speeds up, and starts making mistakes.  This reaction is because she had everything under control. She’s used to that, to controlling everything, down to the smallest detail. And what is happening now…she doesn’t control it. Everything gets out of her iron grip and threatens to knock her down so she desperately tries to regain control of something that is no longer in her hands and I have to say I love seeing her so desperate, so cornered … a point to the team!

“MY HEART IS FULL”

Now let’s talk about another elephant in the room: Weitz. God, I’m going to miss him.  But, let us start at the beginning. He had really changed his attitude. The disappointment in Afreen’s eyes and the taunts she releases from him (I love her even more) affect him because he cares about her… but neither can he ignore his survival instinct or let Afreen do it. So look for an intermediate point: that both continue helping the team but from a safe place.

Afreen disagrees. If they’re going to help the team it should be now, they don’t have time. And here she’s right. It’s now or never. They must risk or run away. She stays … and Weitz decides that too. For the team, for her, for him … for everyone. He decides to bypass his survival instinct and do the right thing, even if it’s not the smart thing to do. So he blindly trusts Afreen when she is certain that Patterson is alive and helps the team at all times.

Things go wrong when Patterson discovers that Madeline had everything orchestrated to blame Weitz for her crimes. Upon discovering it, he doesn’t give credit. He really thought Madeline wasn’t going to throw him to the lions like that, not if he showed her loyalty. But Weitz here was too naive. You should never make a deal with the devil.

The first thing Weitz thinks about is running away. His survival instinct takes over again. Although running away is the worst thing he could do … only that occurs to him. Everything he’s discovering, what could happen to him, is … too much. And he goes. Everyone thinks he ran away while he had time, myself included. But I couldn’t be more wrong.

I’m really glad I am. Weitz makes the right decision again and doesn’t run away, but instead recruits all the people loyal to the team and appears just at the right time to save them. Knowing what Madeline was capable of doing, what she was going to do to him, removed any trace of doubt he had. No matter what he does, he cannot escape this, so he decides to fight on the side where his allegiance really resides.  Without fear. Without a doubt.

Unfortunately, sometimes bravery and doing the right thing have little reward, and in the midst of a shootout, a bullet hits Weitz and then he knows it. He’s going to die.  Nobody can do anything and … they don’t regret anything. Did what he had to do.  He took a risk for everyone, to save them, he did the right thing. He suppressed his survival instinct because it was time to choose. And he chooses well. Again, we remember Dumbledore from the Harry Potter saga, our choices are the ones that show who we are. There is no more illuminating choice than this.

Weitz redeemed himself. He started out as a snake and just worrying about himself and ended up protecting everyone, giving his life for everyone. Because that’s how he dies, saving them, giving his life so they can stop Madeline. But before that, before he breathes out his last breath, he wants them to know. He wants everyone to know what they mean to him. He loves them, they are his family, the only one they have. It was not planned. He didn’t think they were going to become such important people to him, he didn’t even want it to happen. But it happened. He met them and little by little they entered his heart and filled him, taught him what friendship, brotherhood, family … life. He doesn’t regret anything. It’s then when Weitz dies.

And I start crying because I’m going to miss him. I never thought I would but I’m really going to miss this snake that got into my heart unintentionally and I can’t help but get up and yell at television how unfair it’s that a character we’ve seen grow, develop and evolve is dead. He deserved to see Madeline behind bars, he deserved to see the end.

Along with my duel, there is that of everyone on the team but especially Afreen and Rich. He knows it was Weitz who helped capture him but has forgiven him because he understands it. He understands that he didn’t have bad intentions, that he didn’t know what was going to happen and that, at that moment, he believed that there was no other option. Also, what does it matter now? He has given his life for everyone. If there was something to reproach him for, there is no longer. And that mix of forgiveness and redemption is what makes Rich’s grief somewhat different from everyone else’s.

Another duel different from the others is that of Afreen. She … she was the one who convinced him to do this. He made a decision but based on what she told him. She  knows. She knows that if it weren’t for her Weitz would have run away. Because he may have wanted to save the entire team, but she is, was … thereason. If it hadn’t been for her he wouldn’t have been there in the first place. Also, they have worked together for a while and have known each other’s weaknesses and strengths, they learned to trust each other and that brought them together in ways that neither of them understood yet. So Afreen has that feeling of pain that lingers when something important has ended abruptly before it even begins.

“IT’S JANE!”

Jeller have their own way of distressing us to death. At first, as soon as Kurt has seen Jane being taken away the only thing that hurt was getting to her, he didn’t care about the consequences. His goal was to try to protect her. Help her. He has almost gone mad to see her like this, at the mercy of those assassins. But he couldn’t do it. Rich manages to stop him on time. That plan is crazy, they’re too many and they will discover their cover. He should calm down and think things coldly … only when someone you love is in such a situation, you can’t even think. But fortunately, Kurt recovers his judgment on time.

As Rich tells him, with a plan everything is better, and they manage to get to Jane.  And he can only kiss her, just to feel her lips against his, to feel her. He thought he had lost her. For a moment, everything has been so real … he has come to believe that he would never see her again, that he could never be by her again and just seeing her again, being able to touch her, kiss her … he needed to make sure that in reality she was there. Together with him.

“FBI DESTROYED MY LIFE”

In the end, it’s Tasha who is going for Madeline. It all comes down to the two of them, as it always was, as it should be. For both it’s personal. In this confrontation it’s again highlighted how similar both are. Tasha doesn’t give up and fight to the end, Madeline didn’t expect less of her because it’s just what she would do, what she is doing. It’s at this moment that we finally know Madeline’s motivation to do all of this.  She says the FBI destroyed her family. She doesn’t explain more but that gives rise to interpretation.

What was she referring to? We know what happened to her marriage and it wasn’t the FBI who destroyed everything … we only have her childhood left. What happened? However, they don’t give us time to process this, or even think about it because Madeline, knowing she is defeated, doesn’t plan to go to jail and leaves … on her own terms. She commits suicide in front of Tasha, without her being able to do anything.

Now, the plan is orphaned … but for a short time, Madeline’s lawyer, instead of running away, intends to ally himself with Ivy but as soon as she gets what she wants, she kills him. And we will not miss him. The thing is, Ivy now has all the power and intent to carry Madeline’s plan to fruition. And I can only wonder why. I mean, Madeline had a reason, but what about her? She is a mercenary. She only followed Madeline’s plan because she paid her for it but Ivy’s end was money. Why does she now decide to follow a plan like Madeline’s? What does she earn?

I don’t see her winning anything … so I don’t understand why Ivy is so hell-bent on bringing the plan to fruition. It’s a specific plan, like a revenge, it’s not a plan from which economic revenue will be obtained … Ivy has no reason to follow it. At least in principle. The only explanation that I would see is that it has become something personal for her because, in some way, the team has “beaten” her and wants to take revenge on them … doing what she has done in the end, letting ZIP make them forget who they are. But, if that’s the case, they must explain it well and, even so, the reason would be grasped with tweezers.

What I do hope is that the phrase about Madeline’s past is not just left there, but that it develops and we find out the history of this villain. She deserves it and so does the audience. Although I have to say that for all this, I think it would have been better if they had left Madeline alive until the end.

“I HAVE GIVEN EVERYTHING FOR YOU AND EVEN SO YOU DON’T COME WITH ME”

After Madeline’s suicide, Ivy is still out there with the bombs and the team’s priority is to catch her … only not the entire team. Rich offers them a way out. A new life, different from the one they had. He has already planned to go with Boston and they’re ready to give everyone new identities and new lives. Considering the situation they are in, it seems the best. But is not. Everyone knows that that would mean running away and hiding, again, and the point of all this was to prove their innocence, catch Madeline and stop hiding. If they leave now … they give up their whole lives and everything will be solved. They stay to fight. Here Rich, as happened to Weitz, has to choose … and he chooses correctly what I’m proud of, although, to tell the truth, I can’t blame him for distrusting the FBI, they have done nothing to earn his trust.

After this decision, Rich has to call Boston to tell him and … none of that works out.  Boston doesn’t understand. He has given up everything for him, he has put his life and freedom in danger to save him and now that he’s finally free, that they‘re free … he decides to stay, he doesn’t choose him, he chooses them. Rich tries to explain himself but Boston doesn’t want to hear anything else. Rich has not chosen him and that … destroys him, so he decides to retire. He isn’t going to help him anymore, if he wants them to be together they should leave now, now or never … but Rich can’t do it so that’s a … goodbye for both of them. A goodbye that destroys them, that breaks them but that both consider necessary because as much as they love each other, both have changed and their priorities too.

I understand them both. Rich changed thanks to the team, he really likes what they do and they’re his family, he cannot leave them. Before, he would have done it because he had no one but Boston, so the concepts like loyalty, love or right only applied to the two of them, but now … he is different. He is no longer capable of just disappearing, he wants to do the right thing. And Boston … he feels Rich doesn’t love him enough to choose him, not anymore (even if that’s not true), because he doesn’t understand how Rich feels about the team.

Boston appreciates them, of course he does, but if he has to decide whether to help them or protect Rich and him, he has a clear choice. Because Rich is the reason. He saved the team, he did the right thing, but if Rich wasn’t there, he wouldn’t do that and that’s the truth. Boston has not lived the same with the team as Rich, so he doesn’t feel the same for them as Rich and can’t … understand that Rich chooses them before him. Although Rich is not really choosing them, only that they are his family too and he has to help them, he cannot choose between them because it would not be fair and it’s impossible. He loves them all in different ways. And Boston really loves this new Rich just as he loved the old one but he is … hurt to see that he is no longer the only one in his heart and that makes him act unfairly with him.

After this heartbreaking scene, there is not much time to think. Ivy kidnaps Boston to help her find the bombs while the team does the same with the creator of the entire network, the one who helped Madeline, an old friend named Kathy, a crazy old friend.  Rich doesn’t trust her at all – and neither do I – like the rest of the team but Patterson knows that time is running out and that the best they have is her, so they have no choice but to trust. And this causes both to collide in their positions.

Rich is tremendously frantic and nervous about the Boston kidnapping. He’s the love of his life, he cannot … think that something happens to him. It’s too painful. And all gets worse when he checks that Ivy has cut off a finger of Boston. It’s … like Rich’s worst nightmare is coming true. They must find him. And together, he, Patterson, and Kathy get him… only Ivy tied him up in the middle of a pressure pump.

They must do the impossible to get to him. Everything seemed finished … Boston believed so. He thought there were no other options so he tried to get everyone to leave, especially Rich. He might die, but he couldn’t allow Rich to suffer the same fate. He must live … he cannot think of a world where he doesn’t exist. Although Rich knows what he is doing and he will not leave him. He doesn’t intend to. Never more.  Whatever happens, they will be together.

But Boston has to say goodbye. If it’s the last thing they are going to say, the last time they see each other … he has to tell them he loves them. That he loves him and that he has never stopped doing it. Nothing else matters, that call wasn’t serious, he could never leave him, he could never say goodbye, they could never end. He loves him and that is the only truth in his life.

Kathy, seeing the union of all, cannot leave them like this, let them die. So she sacrifices herself so they can go free. And she just wants to tell them what meeting them has meant to her. She may be a little crazy – although that’s an understatement – but meeting them changed her, that’s why she does this. The speech was really very convincing. So much so that even I was convinced, despite all the mistrust I felt towards her, I really believed her … but it was all a trap, a hoax.  Kathy only wanted to be left alone to escape and, for the moment, she has succeeded. Rich was right, as he has emphasized … although he had believed her in the end.

“I LOVE YOU”

While all this is going on, Kurt does what he had wished he could do for so long: see his daughter Bethany. It’s only a moment but enough to hug her and feel that everything has been worth it and that she is fine. Just to feel like he’ll never have to leave her again. But only a moment is allowed … there is much to do. Ivy’s still out there with the bombs. They can’t wait for the FBI to end its bureaucratic trouble, they must act immediately.

Everyone agrees to do it. Kurt acts as the boss with no other authority present. It’s natural for him. He takes command and starts giving orders, just like a boss would … and I’m already seeing something like that for him in the future. Director of the FBI.  But let’s not advance events …

Before something like this happens, a new director joins the party – quite late, but well – and, how could it be otherwise, the problems begin. The first thing this woman does is order the team to go for those bombs, just when they already know where they are and are only one step away from ending that threat forever.

And I wonder, what the hell is that order? Wouldn’t it be more logical for the director to send reinforcements to the team instead of ordering them to stop chasing a terrorist? With all the reason in the world, the team decides to take yet another risk and disobey that stupid order. They haven’t gotten that far and have gone through so much just to give up when they’re about to hit the finish line. Kurt promised Bethany that he would see her shortly and he plans to keep that promise. He plans to remember who Bethany is.

Already in the warehouse where Ivy is manipulating the bombs, they manage to get to ZIP … but Jane is trapped while it’s released, which would mean losing her memory, her memories, her life. Kurt, as soon as he realizes what is happening, goes to Jane to save her but she stops him. He knows that Kurt would risk everything for her, including his memory, but she doesn’t plan to let him do it. She doesn’t intend to allow him to break his promise to his daughter. So she sacrifices herself for him, as she intended to do from the beginning, and blocks the door, preventing Kurt from entering.

As ZIP reaches her and gradually seeps into her system, Jane looks Kurt in the eye, wants to memorize them, memorize his face, memorize him, burn him in his heart so that, even though her mind doesn’t remember him, her heart does. And so, looking him in the eye, while Kurt can’t stop screaming desperate and torn with pain to see how everything they have built together vanishes before his eyes, she repeats to him over and over again that she loves him. She may not remember him when night falls, she may never tell him again, but she loves him. That’s why she repeats it over and over, so that Kurt never forgets it and so he knows it was worth it. Although she does not recognize him, her feelings for him will not change. It never will.

Well … what just happened? They have shocked me. The first thing I have to say is that I haven’t understood very well the execution of this scene. That is, when Jane blocks the door, couldn’t she go out and lock the door from the outside, so that ZIP wouldn’t come out? I think it would have been more sensible than just staying inside.  I think there was another way out.

The second is … OMG! Now Jane will have no memory of Kurt or their life together or the team … what will happen now? I’m convinced that she will remember. The mind is one thing but the heart another. How Jane feels about Kurt or the team hasn’t changed and they will help her remember, will help her become herself again. I’m sure.

That said, what has happened has seemed very poetic to me. At the end of the day, everything will end as it started: with Jane without memory due to ZIP and without knowing who she really is. Without having any idea of ​​her past or present. This’s the way this wonderful adventure began and it will end the same way. A perfect circle.

CONCLUSION

What a final stretch! That’s how it is done, Blindspot! The episodes have been a roller coaster of emotions. We didn’t have time to assimilate one thing when another even more surprising and discouraging arrived.

Everything has been like a blow after another straight to the heart. They have made us laugh, cry, emotional and suffer. We have said goodbye to several characters, all magnificent in their complexity and who will be impossible not to miss. I’ll miss hating Madeline with all my heart. And I’ll miss loving and loathing Weitz. Weitz … I never imagined suffering so much with his death. I’ll miss him.

This goodbye has been like a prelude to the final goodbye that we will have to give to the series shortly. And it’s so … painful. It’s just that you don’t realize it all ends until, suddenly … it does.

Few failures I see in the episodes. Of course, there’re some fringes to cover, as we have discussed, but they’re practically perfect. They have everything. Love, pain, tension (I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for a second), action, mystery, intrigue, emotion … in short and in one word: reality. The purest and crudest reality.

Only one episode left … and it will be explosive!

Agree?  Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share your opinion with us in the comments below! We’ll be back in two weeks with episode 100 and the series finale, 5×11 “Iunne Ennul”.

Blindspot airs Thursday at 8 / 7c on NBC.