Things got complicated for Roman after he spontaneously shifted his loyalty from helping the FBI bring down Crawford to siding with the criminal mastermind and putting hits on Jane’s FBI teammates. With the FBI team surviving the assassination attempts, Roman decides to head to the States and handle the situation himself.
I spoke to Luke Mitchell find out what’s next for Roman, especially since his initial plans have been thrown out the window and Jane is out to get him. Would Roman kill his sister? And, is Roman redeemable?
Read on for edited excerpts of our conversation about Blindspot, “Galaxy of Minds.”
CARLA DAY: Would Roman kill Jane?
LUKE MITCHELL: If he really wanted to kill his sister, he would have just done it. She was the only one he had captured. With everyone else, it was the assassin’s job was simply to kill each team member. Whereas with Jane, they got to her. They had her captured. He could have had her killed if he wanted to, but he then– I think subconsciously he gave her an out. He wanted to have more face-to-face time with her. He wanted to see what else she had to say and subconsciously give her a chance to escape and that’s exactly what she did.
Usually Roman’s plans work out, but now it’s not working. None of the FBI agents were taken out and he’s headed to New York City to take care of it himself. What’s returning to the states mean for him?
It’s still going to be playing at the forefront of his mind because the FBI are relentless and they’re going to be a thorn in Crawford’s side and essentially he’s failed. He’s hasn’t quite proven himself to Crawford. It’s going to be an ever-present threat. However, he’s very luckily finds an ally in Kira, Crawford’s lawyer, so they divert the attention of the FBI thing and onto the grand plan, which is actually more important at this point in time.
What is the relationship like between Roman and Kira? She doesn’t seem to trust him and pokes at his weaknesses. Or will they be tight?
They’re going to have a very interesting relationship. I think she’s testing him. She doesn’t fully trust him, but I think she’s putting him through his paces. I think Roman has done enough of worth for Crawford Enterprises that she recognizes that he has many skills that they can use. It’s really one of those things where when they do start working together, you’re going to be questioning exactly when she’s gonna find out why he keeps slipping up. It’s going to be a little bit of heated exchanges, which is gonna make for a very interesting side dynamic.
At the end of the last episode, Roman gets a bigger glimpse into Crawford’s plan and what’s going on with the land. Will that make him doubt his decision to side with Crawford and leave helping the FBI behind?
He’s relieved to have the spotlight taken off him and the FBI team and for it to be placed onto this grand plan. As far as feeling for the grand plan and Crawford, it’s going to remain a little doubtful, a little shady. He doesn’t really know where he’s at. He’s really trying to reconcile a whole bunch of feelings. It’s not gonna be, “Oh, good. We’re all on the same side now and we can move forward and achieve this plan.” Roman doesn’t know where he allegiances lie and he’s desperately trying to work that out as quickly as possible because he’s not safe.
A lot of fans like Roman and would like to find a road to redemption for him. With everything that’s happened, do you think there’s any possibility of that?
I have to believe– How do you fully redeem someone? I think he has redeemable qualities, but he’s an extremely flawed character. As an actor, when you’re playing a character like this, you can’t play him like a bad guy, he is a good guy in his own story. He’s making decisions based on conflicted feelings and extreme past hurts. I guess the answer is I like to think that he’s redeemable, but he has has done a lot of very bad stuff. He’s a very flawed character, but I love him.
At the end of the last episode, Jane said she’d kill Roman when they meet again. What do you put the odds on Roman making it through the season? Jane versus Roman, who wins?
[Laughs] I suppose it depends on the circumstances. They are both equally skilled. Historically, Jane was touted as the stronger, better one. It would certainly would make for a very interesting showdown. They had the showdown at the end of Season 2, which Jane won, but Roman had just gotten out of the car crash. It would be very interesting to put two healthy siblings into the ring and ding the bell. Of course, I’m slightly bias and I’d like to think that Roman could win, but I think Jane is a formidable foe that someone doesn’t want to have as an enemy. I’d certainly like to see the showdown, but more than that I’d like to see them reconcile.
Would it be more of a physical fight or an emotional one?
The season has been an emotional fight between the two of them with Roman having the upper hand, having all these secrets, and using them to manipulate her and the team, and expose things. I think that’s really interesting. I don’t think Roman wants a physical fight with his sister. I think deep down he knows, at least psychologically, he’s been told his entire life that she’s better than him. On a base level, he doesn’t want to physically hurt his sister. That will be difficult for some people to believe, but you look at the actions of this episode for example, while the assassins go after and actually try and kill the rest of the team, they capture Jane and don’t kill her.
