When several canisters of sarin gas go missing, the FBI must shut down an international operation before thousands die. Patterson searches for the best way to grieve David’s death, but decides to celebrate his life instead. Here is a recap and review of the Blindspot episode “Any Wounded Thief.”
Recap:
Returning home, Weller finds a note from Sarah. She’ll be moving out. At the office, Weller gives Jane a present. It’s her, or Taylor’s, birthday today. Allie interrupts before Jane opens the box. A call informs Patterson of a dinner reservation that David made before he died. Patterson informs the team of an armored truck robbery with a logo that matches a tattoo. At the scene, they discover the three dead guards were carrying the antidote for sarin gas. They were transporting the chemical weapon. Now it’s missing!
Weller, Jane, and Mayfair question the General in charge of the United States’ Army Chemical Materials Agency (USACMA). All he knows is that the canisters were on the way to incineration. Reade and Zapata question Vanessa Chang, the president of the import/export company that sponsored the guards’ visas. They realize a forth guard turned on the others. After tracking him down, the FBI is forced to kill him. He has twelve missed calls from the General.
Patterson asks Borden what to do about David. She keeps getting signs from him – the reservation, the Times publishing his last puzzle. Borden advises her to indulge in the memories to get closure.
Patterson notices the amount of incinerated waste doesn’t match the amount the USACMA claims to have destroyed. Which means, someone’s stockpiling weapons. Following a lead, the FBI arrives at a field with nothing but snow. Jane flashes back to her own snowy memorial. Hiding behind a tree, adult Jane watches Weller, Papa Weller, and her mom grieve their loss. Snapping back, the FBI uncovers a manhole. Inside sits hundreds of canisters and the General with a C4 detonator. Jane tries reasons with him. Not sure it worked, she twists the detonator out of his hand. They arrest him.
Still searching for the missing sarin, the FBI raids a warehouse where they’re exposed to the gas. Jane’s antidote got busted, so Weller surrenders his and Jane shoots Vanessa to steal hers for Weller. Back in interrogation, Vanessa comes clean. She worked for South Korea until North Korea made a better offer. She doesn’t know their plan. Patterson creates a list of potential targets and cross-references them with the janitor uniforms from the warehouse. The target is the stock exchange. Weller and Reade take down one perp, while Jane jumps through a window to take down the other.
Back at the FBI, Jane thanks Weller for the present. Her mom bought that necklace after she was born because it matched her eyes. Jane asks Weller to drinks, but he has plans with Allie. Mayfair calls Reade into her office. Their conversation the other day bothers her. She tells Reade they’re wired the same. Straight shooters. The only time they stray from instincts is when they’re scared. But Reade refuses to indulge this theory.
Elsewhere, Zapata enters an underground gambling site and plops down $5000. Allie orders Weller to stop worrying about everyone and everything. Also, he better not sabotage their relationship because things are going great. Jane meets with Oscar, who orders her to become the one person Weller trusts most. It might involve breaking him and Allie up, which Jane disapproves of. He gives her a kiss, which she passionately returns. Alone at the restaurant, Patterson works on David’s crossword while envisioning that he’s with her. The end result spells out GOT ONE PATTERSON. He solved another tattoo!
Review:
Old habits die hard. As enjoyable of a wild (and slightly jumbled) thrill ride as the case in “Any Wounded Thief” was, it was rather typical of the show, so there’s not a whole lot to talk about in that respect. However, there is a whole lot to discuss on the personal front. Who’d have ever thought that a Blindspot episode could warrant so many words about the characters’ relationships. Any semblance of character progression during this episode was overshadowed by the fact that nearly every character reverted back into a version of themselves that we’re familiar with. While some of these habits have been explored more thoroughly than others, this choice at this point in the season feels more like a stalling tactic to buy time until the end of the season than an important concept to explore. That being said, I did enjoy this episode as much as the others and am curious to see where Blindspot goes from here.
It’s always tricky when you decide to introduce a third player into the already established relationship drama. In most cases, it either feels insincere in that the third person is there solely for the sake of creating more drama, or it fractures the fan base when there are two completely valid choices for the main character. From what I can tell, Blindspot is doing neither. I, personally, get annoyed at love triangles (or square in this case) because they’re a staple in pretty much every show that exists, but I’m willing to give this one a shot. Even though Weller and Jane have not been that much of an item, the introduction of Allie has created a wonderful new dynamic. Like Jane told Oscar, Allie’s good for Weller. His banter with Allie is fun and goofy and real, so it has been a joy to see a lighter side of the oft-stern and angry agent. My primary concern with this storyline is what it does to the relationship between Jane and Allie. Right now, they seem comfortable enough around one another and Jane seems pretty intent on not breaking them up, so here’s hoping it stays this way. It would be awfully petty and disappointing in a show of this sort to have two strong and capable female characters let jealousy get in the way of what could be an interesting friendship or become rivals with one another because they’re fighting for someone’s affection.
Happy birthday, Jane! Too bad zero of your team members and friends decided to celebrate it with you… with the exception of Oscar, who I’m not sure classifies as a team member or a friend at this point. The relationship between Jane and Oscar is muddled, at best, and now it’s about to get even more so. I hadn’t thought about things from Oscar’s perspective before, but it’s heartbreaking how he is projecting his memories of Jane onto a different version of her. What he calls a sacrifice may be better classified as a consequence because the Jane he knows and loves doesn’t exist anymore and may never come back, even though he sees the same physical form in front of him every day. It reminds me of Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall from Legends of Tomorrow in that we have an opportunity to see the beginnings of a relationship that we know has worked out once before.
On to more relationship drama. The moment in which Patterson envisioned that David was sitting across from her at the restaurant was perhaps the sweetest moment that this show has pulled off. Instead of losing herself in the wallowing or going down a dark path, which would both be understandable yet overdone decisions for a television character, Patterson (and the creative team behind her) has chosen to put a more positive spin on the situation by celebrating how a loved one’s life influenced her. One of the many things I enjoy about Blindspot is that sometimes they take the more obvious route, and sometimes they take a risk, and when they make that less obvious decision, it’s pretty amazing. It looks like Patterson and David are back to chasing puzzles that they shouldn’t be chasing alone, which may not be the smartest decision given the promo for tonight’s episode, but it’ll surely be an exhilarating adventure.
And even more relationship drama. It’s no wonder that Reade is never in a great mood if Weller treats him like this all of the time. First, Weller’s mad that Reade and Sarah were dating and told Reade to break it off. Reade breaks it off, and now Weller is mad that they’re not dating because Sarah isn’t happy. As irritating as it is to see the main character act this irrationally and wishy-washy, I’m still pleased that Reade’s personal storyline is the one that involves the romance rather than sticking that type of story on the supporting female character like television usually does. I love how invested Zapata is in the Reade-Sarah relationship because it means that, for the foreseeable future at least, there won’t be an awkward attempt to pair Reade and Zapata up, and I love the idea of keeping this relationship forever platonic.
Speaking of Zapata, the reemergence of her gambling problem and forced allegiance to Weitz picks up on a storyline that was cut before it had a chance to take off. When Carter kidnapped Jane, the writers found themselves in a situation that did not have many ways out. While killing Carter solved the immediate problem, it shortchanged Zapata’s storyline, and now Weitz is a way to correct that. Carter’s death so early in the series came too easy for Zapata, so now I can only imagine that attorney Weitz will make her life so much harder.
Odds and Ends:
– This title’s anagram is “find what you need.”
– If you haven’t done last week’s New York Times’ crossword puzzle, check it out!
– Allie agreed with Weller that she wouldn’t want her sister to date one of “them” either. Whether this was a hypothetical or a real sister, I couldn’t help but want to start a movement to get Bridget Regan cast as said sister. Can someone please make this happen?
– I’m pretty sure that someone in the writers’ room has caught their pizza on fire by reheating it and the box in the oven.
– That (almost) heart-to-heart driving scene between Zapata and Reade made me realize how much I miss Weller and Jane driving scenes.
– Jane jumping through that falling glass… AWESOME!
– I love that the restaurant Patterson visits was named Bacchus, like the Roman god of wine and party madness.
– As much as that brisk walk through Times Square was a fun reminder of how this series started, I wish director Tricia Brock had positioned the team in more of a “hero walk” formation. #squadgoals
– Have we received a mention of Jane’s father? If not, that’s becoming suspiciously absent and I can only assume that he had something to do with Taylor’s disappearance.
– Jane: Hey, you okay?
Weller: Fine. A bit sore from where you stabbed me.
Jane: Sorry. Next time I’ll just let your internal organs melt.
– Reade: You ever wonder why all of us are single? We chose this job for a reason. That’s who we are. We’re not meant to go home to happy wives and husbands with kids.
