Blindspot: Authentic Flirt

Only one episode left this fall, with 12 to follow next spring, of one of our new fall favorites, Blindspot.

Aside from a brutal opening and closing that had me wondered whether somebody in the head office decided to field test or course correct a show that WAS ALREADY WORKING, the episode was mostly the obligatory “let’s go undercover and pretend we’re a couple” episode. (See: The X-Files, NCIS, Castle, and every procedural ever for examples of this.)

Unfortunately, TPTB here missed the point of the exercise (for the fans) because although Weller and Jane are all gussied up and occasionally handsy with each other, most of it was done frustratingly out of the visible frame. This is an instance where yes, I’m actually 12 and I want to SEE their hands on each other. Sue me.

The Listener‘s Ennis Esmer drops by as a seriously batshit shifty Bitcoin brainiac who changed his name to Dotcom and gleefully funneled his half billion dollars into terrorism. This puts him in the FBI crosshairs when he threatens to release a WITSEC list. Weller and Jane pose as the buyers, and are whisked off to a cliffside house to buy the list and dodge Doctom’s advances toward both of them. (Esmer seriously should have taken no payment for this role because he’s just goosing the entire time).

Weller is also briefly reunited with his ex-girlfriend, who’s now a US Marshal, and even she can see what’s up with him and Jane. She tells Jane in an offside that Weller has walls that never come down, and is introverted, but is a very good guy. Awkward? Jane has her own awkward when she starts flashing back to a broken engagement as soon as Weller puts the fake rings on her.

David reaches out to Patterson and she shuts him down that it’s really over. Then he stupidly waits in the library to see who writes in the decoder book and decides to FOLLOW, tracking a woman all day and getting himself killed for his trouble. This was the second scenario I really didn’t want, particularly for Patterson fallout. I’ll call it now that she will go on a bender or rogue or both, or she’ll get the guy in her crosshairs and someone will talk her down before she can shoot him.

And Mayfair releases Guerrero into prison Gen Pop so the CIA can immediately have him killed (or do, they … Arrow did this last year, too …). Zapata gets her own CIA orders, too, but she ignores them, smashing a surveillance bug instead of planting it in Jane’s safe house.

And that’s where we leave everyone. Tomorrow’s episode is it until February 29th — 98 days, y’all. I’m guessing it, too, will leave us with a cliffhanger. I’ve already told y’all how I feel about those, and I think 12 weeks is way too long for mid-season break, especially for a first-year show. Just saying. There’s a teaser that Weller and Jane might finally have a moment. I will believe it when we get there.

FYI if you didn’t know, Sullivan Stapleton co-headlined five seasons of Cinemax’s Strike Back, which is available for streaming if you need a fix during the break.

Blindspot airs Monday night at 10/9c on NBC in the U.S. and 9 pm e/p on CTV in Canada. Here are a couple of sneak peeks of “Evil Handmade Instrument.”

 

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