When an elusive assassin targets Rich DotCom, he turns to the FBI for protection. Meanwhile, Zapata continues to cover up Reade’s involvement in Jones’ case, despite Reade insisting that she back off. Here is a recap, followed by a review of the Blindspot episode “Resolves Eleven Myths.”
RECAP:
In a dreamy, blissful state, Jane cooks dinner for Weller and Roman until she’s drawn into the hallway where Remi starts a brawl. “This doesn’t belong to you,” Remi asserts, startling Jane awake. At the FBI, the team blames Jane for their lack of info on Sandstorm’s phase two, but Jane believes turning Roman is the answer. Upon receiving a text from Oliver Kind, Jane receives advice from Patterson on “friend meetings.” All the computers in SIOC suddenly shut down as good ole Rich DotCom broadcasts from Weller’s apartment.
The ADA and the Detective from Jones’ crime scene show up with a list of victims and ask Reade to identify a suspect. Reade refuses to pin the crime on the victim. The NYPD calls Zapata about the murder weapon. Zapata informs Reade she’ll take care of the knife, but Reade says he’s innocent. He accuses her of gambling on his life, and she promises to back off. It’s a lie. Zapata steals the knife, which belongs to Reade’s friend, Freddy.
Weller brings a handcuffed Rich back to SIOC, where Rich thinks he’s safest from the Acadian, a mythical assassin who’s a catch-all for unsolved high-profile deaths. After his boyfriend, Boston, died in his arms, Rich had nowhere else to turn. They place Rich in holding, but he’s a sitting duck there and crawls his way out to prevent becoming Dead DotCom. Sure enough, the Acadian is in the building. While securing Nas’ office, Jane attempts to convince her that Roman’s not all bad. Shepherd’s influence just makes him seem that way. Nas has been in this situation and her team wound up dead. She’ll consider giving Roman the same deal she gave Jane, but ultimately declines. The Acadian sends a chemical bomb-filled water dispenser down the elevator. If it explodes, toxins will leak through the vents and kill everyone, so they must diffuse it. Patterson neutralizes the acid, but cuts the wrong wire and the bomb explodes.
The Acadian throws down with Reade and Zapata, then takes Zapata hostage. He injects her with a neurotoxin and proposes a trade: Rich for the antidote. The FBI leaves Rich alone to loop the video feed, allowing Jane and Weller to attack the Acadian when he arrives. Jane channels her inner Remi, and Weller kills the Acadian before he can provide the antidote. Gasping for breath in Reade’s arms, Zapata taps “left,” and Nas gives her the left vial. Zapata’s okay. The FBI transfers Rich to a transport team led by Boston. Not long after, the FBI arrests the both of them. After realizing Boston’s death story was how Dobby died in Harry Potter, Patterson hatched a plan.
Jane’s food truck date with Oliver barely gets off the ground. When he asks her the “basic questions,” she remembers this doesn’t belong to her and bolts. Roman receives a 911 from their FBI mole. The message at their dead drop reads, “Jane’s loyalty lies with the FBI.”
REVIEW:
“Resolves Eleven Myths” was equal parts amusing and terrifying as the team encountered their most vibrant recurring antagonist and a super skilled, super sneaky assassin. While this episode barely made a stride in any of the season’s overarching storylines, it addressed the newly emerging issues with the team’s dynamic and left more issues unresolved than it started with. Overall, “Resolves Eleven Myths” was an enjoyable filler episode that highlighted so much of what makes Blindspot a success.
It didn’t take long to realize that Jane and Weller’s domestic bliss was all a dream, but what I did not see coming was the scene I never knew I always wanted – an amazing fight between Jane and Remi. More so than it being an impressive accomplishment on the part of the production, it started off the episode in a thematically relevant way. It presented Jane’s optimistic position on the idea that people can indeed change, which Weller later refuted and caused Jane to have the most annoyed facial expression I think I’ve ever seen. It’s such a simple disagreement between in stance between Jane and Weller, but what it means for their trust issues and fractured relationship is much larger. To see Jane take Remy’s words about this “not belonging to her” to heart by the end of this episode and walking out on her date with Oliver Kind was devastating. Side note: who was in charge of framing the second half of this date and why was it done so unconventionally?
The conflict between Jane’s belief and Weller’s believe about peoples’ ability to change (along with Jane’s own conflict with a past version of herself) sets up the potential for an incredibly interesting internal struggle for Jane. I hope we get the chance to see her struggle more with actions and decisions she doesn’t remember or only remembers out of context because it will only further her present day character development and continue to round out the kind of person she chooses to be. It reminds me of one of my favorite episodes – “A Stray Howl,” episode two of season one when Jane recalls shooting an unarmed nun in a church and then stealing her flash drive.
Going back a little earlier in the episode, Jane’s lack of dating game made a second appearance and it was as amusing as the first time around, especially when Patterson, miss awkward and bad luck in love, played the role of relationship expert. What I appreciated most about this scene was that it harkened back to last season’s friendship and camaraderie between these two characters. We haven’t really seen Patterson address her feelings about Jane’s betrayal, and while it would have been interesting to see Patterson react like Zapata did (minus the shooting Jane part), it’s also nice to see a character easily move past Jane’s mistake.
Not only is Rich DotCom an amusing villain to pop up on Blindspot every now and again because his vivacious and quippy personality so distinctly contrasts everyone at the FBI, but he also provides a valuable outside perspective to keep the team on their toes. As the Captain Jack Sparrow of Blindspot, Rich appears equally as smart as he does idiotic and does little without an ulterior motive and nothing altruistically. Even though his attempts at diagnosing the team’s chemistry problems seemed light-hearted enough, they weren’t wrong. Whether it’s Nas’ fault or Jane’s own fault for aiding Oscar’s missions, the relationship between Weller and Jane has noticeably suffered. The once confidants are practically strangers and these two need to fix what’s keeping them apart or Blindspot runs the risk of losing a piece of its own identity. Investigating Sandstorm’s decade-old interest in Weller might just be the thing these two need to rebuild their trust and working relationship.
Sandstorm’s FBI mole made his or her first move (well, first obvious move that we’ve seen so far), which provides us with a hint more information on who could be the mysterious double agent. It seems like more evidence is pointing to Nas. She didn’t want Roman turned by Jane and brought into the FBI, which would almost surely stop Sandstorm’s plan. She bugged Borden’s office (a subject Weller drops as quickly as he brings it up) so she would know exactly what Jane was thinking, which would help her know where Jane’s loyalties lie. It’s suspicious that with the NSA’s new surveillance program, Omaha, Nas is unable or unwilling to find any enlightening evidence against Sandstorm. Taking another potential traitor into consideration, Patterson had easy access to the microchip’s data dump and would know how to fool Sandstorm into thinking it was worse than it was. Zapata has also exhibited sufficient computer skills, but she seemed too busy gambling with Reade’s life to have the time to be a mole.
ODDS AND ENDS:
– This title’s anagram is “serve only themselves.”
– A mention of Stranger Things in an episode with “Eleven” in the title… coincidence? I think not.
– Jane: I believe people can change and that there is good in everyone.
