In an episode that measures up to the first, a rogue drone pilot kidnaps a young girl and threatens the lives of New York residents and everyone at the FBI. Here is a recap and review of the Blindspot episode “A Stray Howl.”
Recap:
“Everything just feels so out of control.” In an SUV, Jane’s hit with a hail of bullets. “I don’t remember who I am.” She ducks for cover. “The life I had is gone. Shattered into a million tiny pieces.” Glass rains around her. We flashback to ten hours ago.
Weller’s sister, Sarah, and her son are visiting. Today’s uncomfortable breakfast conversation is Taylor’s memorial that Weller refuses to attend. More on this later. Trying to trigger memories, Weller supervises Jane’s firearm extravaganza. She’s beyond proficient and remembers something – shooting a praying nun in a church. Not thrilled with herself, she keeps mum.
Patterson’s database to crack the case of the super dense and complex tattoos has a match! The clue from last week unscrambles a Vigenere cipher that reads “Major Arthur Gibson,” an air force pilot who went from Afghanistan to Nevada to Brooklyn. The FBI drops by, but he shuts the door in their face and blows up his house, leaving behind only a safe. Speaking with a Colonel, the FBI learns that Gibson was discharged because of PTSD instigated by causing civilian casualties. Patterson finds otherwise. His security clearance rose above top secret. What’s in Nevada? A drone program. But not in New York … that they know of.
Confiding in Mayfair, Weller’s sure that Jane Doe is Taylor Shaw, a girl his dad was accused of kidnapping and murdering twenty-five years ago. Weller’s last memory of Taylor involved the same scar Jane has. Mayfair orders Taylor’s files; they’ll run DNA.
To gain access to a drone, Gibson takes a man’s daughter hostage. His first target: the Colonel. Weller and Mayfair meet with a General. He can’t recover control of the drone, and Gibson has two missiles left. In the safe, Patterson finds a computer storing a list of five explosive “accidents” that killed foreign nationals – three caused by Gibson, two by Ivon Musgrave. Left behind in the hallway, Jane spots Ivon coming their way. He bolts, so she tackles him into another apartment, wrestles him, and subdues him with a cord until Weller arrests him. On their way outside, they realize that Ivon’s the next target. He turned Gibson in for wanting to blow the whistle on the drone program. They bolt back in just as the missile lands. They’re fine. Mostly. Reade’s arm houses a glass shard, which Jane tends to with her newfound skill of field medicine.
One missile left, but no leads on the target until Weller learns the drone pilots operate from the same building as the FBI. Gibson will take out all the pilots at shift change. One hour to go. Patterson narrows his location to two constructions sites. Along the way, Jane confesses that she remembered something unforgiveable. Weller gives her a pep talk, saying that her first instinct is to help. She’s a good person.
Weller storms the site, while Jane keeps a lookout on the ground. Gibson escapes during a firefight with Weller and fires on Jane, before hopping in his car. About this time, Reade and Zapata realize they’re at the wrong site. Jane follows Gibson, sending his car spinning and flipping her own. Another piece of Jane’s memory: she steals a flash drive from the dead nun. Weller arrests Gibson and saves the girl.
Weller informs his sister of his theory that Jane is Taylor. Sarah begs Weller to visit their dad since he’s dying of lung cancer. Not finding any appetizing takeout in her fridge, Jane decides to shower instead, only she’s stopped when the Ruggedly Handsome Man sneaks up on her.
Review:
“A Stray Howl” recycled a significant portion of the tension and the excitement that worked so well in the pilot while flipping the tables on the content in focus. On the surface, the episode doesn’t feel all that fresh, all that different from last week’s episode, but just like Jane’s tattoos, taking a deeper look helps to understand the whole story. Overall, “A Stray Howl” told a more cohesive story with its developing cast of characters, took a more in-depth look at character motivations, and continued to provide answers and fill the void with more questions.
As important as the first episode of a new series is, the second episode is equally (or arguably more) important. It can’t move too fast, and it can’t move too slow. Not only must it sustain the momentum created by the pilot, but it also must be easily accessible to viewers who heard how awesome it was last week and decided to jump in for week two. Instead of assuming lack of creativity on the writer’s part, a strategy emerges behind the amount of beats repeated from episode one (including Jane being left in the hallway and beating someone up. “How do we know if we can trust her?” “We have x number of hours to stop this guy who the government has wronged before hundreds die in his attack!”) The fact that the title, “A Stray Howl,” speaks to Gibson’s rogue cry for attention and also is an anagram for “Taylor Shaw” proves that Martin Gero might put a little too much thought into his work. In addition, Blindspot, at its core, is a procedural series – one with character driven moments – but a procedural nonetheless. All episodes should feel this similar while retaining their own identity.
The personal developments, most notably with Jane and Weller, make “A Stray Howl” stand out from the pilot. What was brilliantly executed was the way these emotional insights into the characters were seamlessly and subtly woven through their case of the week, which explored a well-rounded man’s reasons for his actions. The insight into Gibson’s mindset and inspiration elevated the case beyond the brief mention of Chao’s motivations last week. Weller’s guilt over Taylor Shaw’s disappearance manifested in anger over setbacks to saving the young girl Gibson kidnapped. Although Weller’s sister and nephew served mostly to reveal needed information about his and her past, they also added a relatable side to Weller, hinted as his reason to join the FBI, and deepened his internal struggle. Is it too easy for Jane to be Taylor Shaw? Probably, but anything’s possible.
Putting Jane up against a man doing the wrong thing for the right reasons naturally brought out questions about what she remembered from her past. It allowed her the opportunity to seek answers from her peers without taking time away from the investigation. Is killing innocents to save future lives doing the wrong thing for the right reason? Was shooting a nun and stealing a flash drive off the body doing the wrong thing for the right reason? Are they even comparable?
What’s peculiar about the flashes from Jane’s past, and therefore fascinating about them, is their total lack of context. It starkly contrasts the cases where every past action has a solidified reason. By doing this, an interesting comment on the above questions arises. Perhaps the answer to these questions doesn’t matter as much as how one moves past them. Legally, it might be difficult, but if television in general teaches you anything, it’s that people screw up, and as I mentioned last week, there’s hope to move past it. Even though Blindspot operates in such heightened, exorbitant situations, Jane’s struggle speaks to everyone on a smaller scale.
As much as I dislike comparing Blindspot to the Blacklist because both shows are more than capable of standing on their own, Blindspot does have that larger-than-life Blacklist feel because it has to make sense of the premise. Their cases are extra dramatic, the worst situations of the worst, because you simply don’t erase a person’s entire life and tattoo their body to help the FBI stop vandals and jaywalkers. Again this week, the Ruggedly Handsome Man made an appearance at the site of conflict, maybe to check in on Jane’s well-being and trying to lure her away from the blast’s wave of destruction, or maybe to make sure that the conflict happened how he needed it to for a nefarious plan. Reade’s conviction that the FBI set Gibson’s plan in motion by paying him a visit leads me to wonder if there’s truth to the matter. How impressive would it be if the Ruggedly Handsome Man organized all of these cases, but put an embargo on them being carried out until he gives the word or until the FBI beings investigating them.
This week’s “Who did this to me?” was “He’s my only link to who did this to me.” Luckily, Jane threw aside the notion of getting answers about herself from their suspects before it became too repetitive. What’s captivating about seeing Jane interact with new people is knowing that she’s essentially a loose cannon. Her interactions either overflow with earnestly asked questions about whether they have a connection or she uncontrollably snaps into defense mode and takes them down. Her fight or flight response has no room for flight, or for thinking it over, which builds suspense for when she one day releases her fight when she shouldn’t.
“A Stray Howl” provided a tinge of personality for the resident FBI agents. It seems as if they were given generic personalities for the pilot, and once the characters were cast, they were adapted to the actors’ strengths. As the most helpful of the supporting characters, Patterson stood out the most, digging up information and cracking the case as vibrantly as a kid in a candy store. Reade, mixed along with sarcasm, demonstrated a belief in caution and skepticism that begs for a backstory. And Zapata, with barely any lines, took a stand as opinionated and resolved.
This episode once again spoiled the audience with is cinematic nature and aesthetic jubilance. While it could have done without a few of the many close up shots, it included a fair amount of shots done for the sake of art itself, namely the opening teaser. Here’s hoping the series can retain this extraordinary quality when it switches to a new director in the coming weeks.
Odds and Ends:
– I love how everyone just decided to call her Jane as if that were actually her name and she’s okay with it.
– The title card and opening theme are equal parts mysterious, ominous, and beautiful – a perfect fit for the series – and I’m a sucker for a cool display.
– Three explosions, a fistfight, a gunfight, and a car chase later, Martin Gero and Mark Pellington have established themselves as a team more potent than a TV equivalent of Michael Bay.
– As of the pilot, Jane’s tattoos were a few weeks old. According to the ending scene, her mind was erased before the tattoos were implemented. I understand why the Ruggedly Handsome Man would have kept her for a little while after she was drugged to make sure it worked properly, but why not tattoo her first?
– Mayfair: Like a Google alert for her tattoos.
Patterson: Well, it’s a little bit more sophisticated than that, but yes, it’s like a Google alert.
– Jane: Couldn’t I just kick the door down? I mean, it didn’t look that heavy.
[My life goal.]
– Jane: You don’t think good people ever do terrible things?
Zapata: I think terrible people do terrible things, and the good people stop them.
– Reade: Do we even know if she can drive?
Weller: Yes! She can drive!
[But “Can she stop driving?” should have been the question.]
