#character: hank crawford | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

more--than--anything · 6 years

Text

Thorns & Roses: Our Thoughts on Season Three

With all eyes on the imminent Season Four premiere, let's take one last look at Season Three. Blindspot survived its sophomore season and came into its third season with what TPTB called a soft reset. With a brand new set of tattoos, a shiny new villain, and airing on a new night—the often-feared Friday death slot—Blindspot promised a lighter and more fun season and sold that premise by promoting everyone’s favorite Rich Dotcom to a recurring role.

So what was our overall impression this season? How did Blindspot fare in the death slot? Did the fresh new look and feel succeed? Was it as light and humorous as they promised?

L: I don't know about the light and humorous part. I mean, should I still feel traumatized by the finale almost four months later? (At what point is it no longer socially acceptable to cry over the death of a fictional character?) But angst aside, I felt this was a pretty solid season. There were some really good plot twists, solid character developments, and interesting, action-packed cases, but there were also some plots that dragged while others felt rushed or inconsistent. If I have one complaint about this season, it would be that there seemed to be too much going on, and trying to keep up with all of the storylines left the pacing of the individual threads rather uneven. I really loved Roman's storyline this season, but if I had to rank seasons, I would have to put the first two ahead of this one, simply because of the pacing issues.

Y: I agree. It was a very solid season, strengthened by the Roman storyline as its backbone, and with the soft reboot, the characters came back with fresh and interesting new baggage that made getting to know them again all the more exciting. I’m not saying it was flawless—like you said, some plot holes, some dragging plots, and a few questionable character decisions here and there—but it was definitely fun, explosive, and nerve-wracking, and months later I still haven’t stopped using the finale as an excuse to occasionally stuff my face with chocolate. And to answer your question, I don’t think there is a statute of limitation on the whole crying-over-the-death-of-a-fictional-character situation.

Rose: Roman's expanded role as Villain/Mastermind

Y: Ever since we saw Roman walk away in the season two finale, bid Jane farewell and turn his back and limp away like the gorgeous bastard that he is, we knew things wouldn’t end well, or at least, he was going to be somewhat pissed off for a while. And pissed off he was, for over two years.

But he was patient and he was diligent and he was kind of stalker-ish? Either way, Roman came back in season three a new man. With his childhood scar magically—or surgically—gone and his entire existence focused solely on one thing, Roman was the puppet master of this season. But unlike his mother, Roman was not driven by some greater goal, not by a belief that the country needs to be fixed, not by a logic—faulty as it may have been—that theirs is a cause that is worth all the crimes and sacrifices being made. No, Roman was driven by revenge, by anger, by betrayal, by loneliness, and by heartbreak.

And that made for a far more complex and enjoyable villain this season. He was methodical, he planned his playbook play by play for years, and he knew what he wanted, yet being driven by emotions rather than logic made him even more volatile and unpredictable. Add to that the fact that he was sick and dying and, with at some point literally nothing to lose, Roman—and Luke for that matter—owned every moment of season three.

L: He really did. And even though his journey didn't end the way I'd hoped it would (I still cannot watch his final scene without crying), his arc over the past two seasons was one of the best in this show. When we first met Roman, he was functioning mostly as Shepherd's puppet, lost and adrift without his sister's influence to keep him on track. At the end of season two, we saw him align again with Shepherd and then turn away from Jane, so he entered this season as a real wildcard. Whose side would he be on? Would he try to break Shepherd out of prison? Would he go after Jane? Or would he reconcile with her and become part of Team Fed? And I'm not going to lie, as damaged and sociopathic as he might have been, I was rooting for him to turn away from the Dark Side and reconcile with Jane. But even though that didn't happen the way I wanted, his journey was still fulfilling. I liked that he didn't try to pick up where Shepherd left off, nor did he just go after Jane. Instead, he chose his own target, which was slowly revealed to us. And he did ultimately succeed in this task—he brought down Hank Crawford—and he reconciled with Jane before he died. I guess I need to find some comfort in that?

Even though Roman began this season as the villain, abducting and tattooing his sister without her consent, I feel like he was trying to work his way back to Jane in his own unique way. The new tattoos seemed intended as punishment for ZIP-ing him against his will (especially given that it was, in essence, a death sentence). And the target he selected was one who had harmed both of them, so he was trying to bring down Crawford as much for Jane as he was for himself. By using the FBI to investigate crimes and feeding them information, he was acknowledging that Jane hadn't been entirely wrong in choosing that course. But the tragedy of Roman is, of course, that things didn't work out the way he'd planned. He fell in love with a woman he wanted to make his future, but instead she ended up being the cause of his death. He faltered in his plan, torn between Blake and his goal. Crawford ended up dead, but his empire is alive and well and in the hands of the woman who cold-bloodedly killed Roman. He reconciled with his sister, but too late to fill in all the gaps between them. And he left behind a host of other mysteries—new tattoos, hidden drives, some anonymous family member on the other end of the phone?—that will ensure his legacy lives on.

Going into the next season, I am really excited to find out who was on the other end of Roman's mysterious phone calls. And I am very interested to see how Remi handles the news of his death, given how close she was to her brother. I foresee her seeking vengeance against Blake... and maybe against Tasha for her part in Roman's demise.

But I'm still going to really, really miss Luke Mitchell on this show.

Y: I think one of the most important things was seeing Roman with Blake. It’s true he didn’t get the ending we wanted for him, but I think in some ways, he was redeemed. Despite his misguided ways, he was working to bring down someone evil. I can’t blame Roman for his ways. He was broken in that sense beyond repair, but he still saw Hank and the evil he presented. His ways may not have differed much from Hank’s, but his intentions were good. He didn’t know any other way that the world works and yet, inside of him was someone who hated what had been done to him and who he was and who tried in the only ways he knew how to make the world a better place and remove the evil from it. If that’s not tragic and heartbreaking, I don’t know what is.

But back to Roman and Blake. We already knew that Roman loves Jane or Remi, in the twisted way that he did. But the weight he carried with him since season two—thanks to Dr. Sun—was that he was incapable of love. He was convinced he was too far gone, a monster who was not capable of love. And I’m not saying his relationship with Blake was healthy necessarily, but it did prove that underneath all the damage, there was still a beating heart, a human being, who wanted nothing more than to love and be loved.

I’ll never be okay with how Roman’s story ended or his entire story for that matter. I’ve never come across a more tragic character. Luke Mitchell deserves all the awards and all the recognition for pulling it off. Roman managed to terrify us and infuriate us and break our hearts. I still weep to this day thinking of the life he had to live and the fate he met. The final scene with Jane just brings it all together to deliver what is probably the most emotionally scarring scene on this show ever. And they barely spoke ten words.

Rose: Hank Crawford as this season's Big Bad

L: Last season, we got to watch the FBI go up against Shepherd. And she was a pretty damn good villain. But Crawford? He was even more chilling. Not only did he show a total lack of remorse for what he'd done to the Krugers and scores of other defenseless children, he was proud of his so-called "passion project." Even as he was dying, he was smiling, because as he told Jane, "I made something great." He was an adversary worthy of our FBI team, and I am eager to see them take apart the rest of his empire and Kira Evans and Blake (and maybe Tasha with her??) in the new season. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about Blake suddenly moving up into the Big Bad desk, so I am interested to see what they do with her, or if we ultimately get a bigger Big Bad to contend with.

Also, Hank Crawford gave us Director Hirst, who was a pretty damn good villain in her own right (kudos to Mary Stuart Masterson for her portrayal, which hit just the right note between utterly charming and downright alarming). All the action and drama with the Crawfords during the second half of the season kind of eclipsed the team's struggle to bring down Hirst during the first half, but that challenge certainly delivered its share of gut punches, as we agonized over Stuart's tragic death, Reade's questionable loyalty, and then the team's race to bring Hirst down before she destroyed their careers. The last episode in the Hirst arc was one of the best this season.

Y: What is it about this show and creating these villains who are so morally ambiguous that you cling to every scene they are in and every line of dialogue they say? I thought Shepherd last season could not be topped, but I was wrong. Crawford was just as complex, just as manipulative, just as twisted, and just as fun to watch. I love how they manage with their villains to take you down that thread where you listen to them and think that you actually agree with them, or at least that their ideology isn’t so wrong, and you find yourself being pulled into what they’re saying—until they pull a stunt like nuking the eastern seaboard or stealing children to create merciless super soldiers.

Hank Crawford and David Morse in turn were a gift to season three. And that scene in the orphanage in the finale was just mind blowing. In every sense of the word and in every aspect of it, that scene was mind blowing. That is all.

I just hope season four can continue with this trend of villains that make you question your own moral compass and provide one chilling and spine-tingling moment after another.

Rose: Team Fed 2.0—Rich is in, Tasha is out, and Reade is in charge

Y: I love this team. I love them to pieces. I absolutely loved where they got to at the end of season two—as a badass crime fighting team, as friends who support each other through everything and as a family who would sacrifice everything for each other. But season three started with that two-year time jump and as much as I would have loved to see the team back where we left them, that would have been absolutely ridiculous. And the time jump and all that happened during that time was exactly what we needed and what they needed to keep it all interesting and to challenge them to become even stronger and closer and a more tight knit unit. Or at least they were that for a while.

Tasha leaving for the CIA brought in the tension and that feeling of unintentional betrayal, Patterson leaving the FBI and going to Silicon Valley only to be dragged back in gave us that homecoming that we all were feeling, Reade becoming the boss injected new blood into the whole office and shuffled the dynamics in a most interesting way, and finally Rich Dotcom joining the team was just everything we all needed in our lives but never dared to ask for. The time jump, the distance and separation, the new roles and new alliances provided a fresh new dynamic to a group of people we already love and pushed them through new unexpected challenges of themselves and each other and their relationships and allowed for interesting arcs and journeys individually and as a team.

Of course it did not all end well. Patterson and Tasha spent a handful of episodes wallowing in angst that was at times almost too much to handle, Tasha and Reade danced around their feelings and the awkwardness hit a whole new level and Rich… well, Rich is Rich. But at the end of the day, the team were willing to give anything to have Tasha come back to the FBI after her humiliating departure from the CIA but she had other things on her mind, and where that puts us for the next season is in a very very exciting place. But despite all that, once again we reached the end of season three with this team as close and as tight knit as ever, with Rich now a welcome member of this family. And that is all I’ve ever wanted. Seriously.

L: Look, I'm gonna be honest here. The tattoos are mysterious, the explosions and the fight scenes are cool. But the reason I tune in each and every week for this show is to see these characters. I love this team. I love the way they interact, the way they all bring something unique to the table. I love the way they trust and look out for each other—both in the field and in their personal lives. They are a family, to quote Reade from the season two finale, "And families fight. Sometimes, they lose hope. But what they damn sure don't do is give up." And this team never, ever gives up on each other.

I wasn't sure about the time jump when it was first presented in the season two finale, but I love the way it gave each of these characters new depths. By the time we rejoin them, we see that Reade has settled into his role as AD of the NYO, Tasha has fully embraced life at the CIA, and Patterson has left the FBI behind for a glamorous new career in Silicon Valley... which she abandons in about two heartbeats to take charge of the NYO lab again. And that makes sense, too, because all of these characters (and Jane and Kurt) are driven by similar forces: They thrive on adrenaline. They embrace the puzzles and challenges the tattoos represent. And they are driven to protect innocent people from the bad guys who refuse to play by the rules.

I thought there would be more friction from Kurt and Jane having to report to Reade, but I think his promotion to NYO made sense (especially in light of Hirst's agenda), and I liked that both Kurt and Reade realized pretty quickly that it made more sense for Kurt to call the shots in the field (as he did even when Mayfair was in charge of the NYO) and for Reade to handle the bureaucratic, suit-wearing side (which just made Kurt impatient and cranky). The writers could have drawn this conflict out more, but I'm glad that they didn't, because it kept the focus on solving the new tattoos and bringing down Hirst.

Patterson's arc this season was a little more subtle, but she did get her own episode (in which she proved that she is so badass she can solve tattoo cases while in a coma), and overall, I found her evolution this season to be one of the more satisfying arcs. When we first see her again, we find out that she's packed up and moved to Silicon Valley and left the FBI and the NYO behind. But as we watch her struggling to cope with Stuart's loss, we realize that she hasn't resolved her issues so much as run away from them, which means that she brought them all right back to New York with her. We feel her betrayal by Tasha when she realizes that Borden is still alive, and the scene at the end, when she declines to speak to him, is one of the most powerful scenes of the season. "In my head he's become this great mythical monster. But now that he's in front of me, all I can see is a weak, broken shell of a man. No meaning has to come from this happening to me. It's just a terrible thing that happened in my past." A terrible thing she can finally leave behind, which is a huge victory for her. And I loved that this led into the bit with Jack Izenberg—it was an absolutely terrible, horrible, no good, very bad date, but it was a date, and she survived it, and we finally feel like she's ready to move on, past David and Borden, and embrace whatever her future has to offer.

I absolutely loved Rich's role this season. Yes, I was worried that it might make the show seem more frivolous and less believable, but I think the writers hit exactly the right note with his character. Yes, he's outspoken and over the top and has no filter whatsoever, but he also really cares about this team. I think my favorite Rich moments occurred in 3.08, as the team was trying to bring down Hirst. Rich knew that if he helped the team, there was a good chance that he could go back to prison forever. But even when Hirst offered him his freedom and the chance to be reunited with Boston, he still chose the team. I'm really excited that he's been promoted to a series regular this season. Is it too much to hope that we can also get him back with Boston in season four? I really need one ship that doesn't seem doomed.

Thorn: Pining Tasha and the unnecessary love triangle

Y: Sigh… where do I start with this one? I can talk about how this storyline drained one too many scenes and minutes out of a show that often rushes through things so fast that it gives you whiplash. Or I can talk about how it took one of its most interesting and most influential female characters and had her do nothing more than pine for a guy for half a season when she could have been doing a thousand different things. Or I can talk about how they took one of the best written friendships on TV and sent it into a messy, unnecessary, awkward romance arc.

But, L said I can express exactly how I feel about Love Triangles and that is what I will do. So if I may step up on this podium to let you know how I feel about Love Triangles. This whole thing would probably not have bothered me as much had they not used a love triangle to up the ante on its dramatic effect and in the process ruined the story arcs of three poor innocent souls and reduced them into… whatever they ended up being as part of participating in this trope.

Don’t get me wrong, I love tropes. I am a huge fan of tropes. Tropes are good. There is a reason they are tropes and used so often. There is absolutely nothing wrong with tropes.

Except the love triangle. Ok, maybe there are a few more that are more problematic, but by being one of the absolutely most popular, the love triangle gets the bulk of my hatred and bitterness. Why? Because it’s lazy. Because it is the easiest route to follow when you want to inject drama into a relationship. And because no one ever comes out of a love triangle looking better than they were before or even looking good for that matter. Characters become despicable and the exaggerated drama is never ever believable or useful or constructive to the narrative.

And it’s just lazy! So lazy! There are so many different ways your couple or two characters who have feelings for each other can face difficulties or obstacles or drama, there is no need to shove a third innocent character into the mix and make a mess of things. And even worse, no love triangle has ever been wrapped up narratively in a way that was satisfying for anyone.

I just really really hate love triangles, okay? So much.

I’m going to step down from this soap box now and step outside for a minute.

L: I don't hate love triangles quite as much as Y does. And there have been times that I thought this show used them quite well. Jane/Oscar, Kurt/Allie, and even Jane/Oliver were all used effectively to further Jane and Kurt's individual character journeys. Kurt and Nas last season was an example of a less-effective triangle. And then there's this one, with Tasha and Reade and Meg. Maybe it's a case of diminishing returns? Have we hit our love triangle limit on this show?

Honestly, even with the perspective of a few months, I still really don't get why it was necessary. We had the awkward kiss in season two, and it seemed like that was enough to put a lid on this plotline. But for some completely incomprehensible reason, we had to dig it back out and shove it into this season's storyline, which didn't work for me for a whole bunch of reasons. First of all, I really, really loved the deep friendship we saw between Reade and Tasha in the first two seasons. It was so refreshing to have such a deep friendship between and man and woman that wasn't a sexual relationship. Sacrificing that for another tired love triangle seems like a poor trade indeed.

As Yas said, this triangle didn't do anything good for Tasha's character. She's always been a no-nonsense, take-charge kind of character. She left the FBI for the CIA because she just wanted to get the job done, without wading through all the bureaucratic limitations. But instead of seeing her actively moving in this new direction, we have to get a seemingly-endless number of scenes of her pining hopelessly after a man she'd apparently left without a backward glance a year ago. And now that he's happy with someone else, it seems like if she truly loved him, she'd just shut up and be happy for him. (Consider for a moment the way Jane awkwardly told Kurt how awesome Allie was, or how Kurt encouraged Jane to date Oliver—in both cases, it broke their hearts, but they cared about each other so much that the other's happiness was more important than their own.) But nope, now that we've headed down this plot path, we have to achieve full awkwardness, so Tasha has to wait until Reade is engaged and then dump her feelings on him and cause his relationship to implode—which makes her look incredibly selfish at best. And then, having finally achieved the relationship she's been pining for all season, she picks up and walks away from him (for the second time in two years) for reasons that are apparently more important that her feelings—which forces us to question just how deep those feelings really were, if they are so easily abandoned.

In the same vein, this plot didn't do any favors for Reade's character either. In three seasons, we've now seen him profess love for three different women: Sarah Weller, Meg, and then Tasha. Honestly, his deep and undying love seems somewhat superficial (and that's even without comparing him to Weller's borderline-obsessive commitment to Jane, which we'll get to in a minute). I'm going to admit here that the whole Sarah Weller plot still feels like unfinished business to me. Reade was forced to break up with her by Sandstorm, not because his feelings for her were in question. He was in love with her, Sarah was in love with him—and Tasha knew he was in love with Sarah, and she showed no jealousy at all. In fact, when he told her they'd broken up, Tasha told Reade, "I think you're making a mistake with Sarah. You were really happy with her. Like, happier than I've ever seen you. If I were you, I would hold on to that."

I'm also pissed off that we never found out what happened to Meg. She was a really interesting and compelling character with a solid arc of her own who was jettisoned the second she stopped being an impediment to Tasha and Reade hooking up.

But lastly (and probably most importantly), I felt like this plot sucked up a lot of screen time in what was already a very jam-packed season. We ran through the Avery rescue/Clem revelation/Jeller reconciliation plot at lightspeed, ditto Boston's ten-minute reappearance in Rich's life, all of which were handled quite perfunctorily and would have greatly benefited from more screen time. The whole Tasha/Reade storyline could have been cut with zero impact on the rest of the season, and the time saved could have been spent flushing out other plots that were rushed through far too quickly or abruptly dropped.

Rose: Character cameos and surprise returns

Y: There’s something about this show and knowing how to write guest characters and supporting and recurring characters who you instantly fall in love with and eagerly wait for them to return. Some are quirky and hilarious, others are morally ambiguous and intriguing, some are complex and mysterious, and all are just so much fun to have around and manage in their short appearances to add so much more. So every time I find out about one of them returning, I just get so giddy with excitement. And season three did not disappoint with the returns—except that Sarah and Sawyer seem to be the only two who will never ever return but I digress.

We saw Matthew Weitz make a visit to the NYO and this time be more useful than any other time he’d shown up but still equally smarmy and sleazy and annoying to viewers and other characters alike. Even when he’s helping them, Weitz finds a way to annoy the hell out of everyone and get on their nerves.

The Sandstorm survivors all came back and managed to cause mayhem and chaos even while handcuffed and locked up in interrogation. I mean, for the most part. Borden came back from the dead to break up one of the most precious friendships on the show—Tasha and Patty—and begin the downward spiral for our favorite CIA operative. Shepherd’s return was absolutely incredible as she managed to get into Kurt and Jane’s heads and under their skin. She also proved that being held in a black site is absolutely no reason to not have flawless hair, skin, and make up. Cade was probably the least problematic on his return, but he did manage to break our hearts with his tragic story, and his return helped us see clearly where Keaton and the CIA stand when it comes to former Sandstorm operatives, which I think is something that will be of significance next season.

And speaking of Keaton, he had a few more appearances this season, too. And I know he’s not everyone’s favorite, but for me, Keaton is one of the most intriguing and enjoyable characters on this screen. He presents a certain dichotomy within the FBI universe, and it’s always a challenge to know where to put him and how to react to him because essentially, he’s one of the good guys, but he’s not one of our good guys. I love that Keaton exists in this universe and he will always be there to challenge us as viewers and the characters as well.

And speaking of good guys who sway in the grey, how awesome was Nas’s return? I think that episode alone redeemed the mess they made of her character in season two and justified her existence. What we saw in episode 3.13 is the Nas I wanted to see all throughout season two, and I’m glad she had her chance to come back and make things right.

It was also nice seeing David and Pellington make a comeback in the Patterson-centric episode where she finally managed to find closure for their deaths. Pellington had less to do but watching David help Patterson crack the case and solve puzzles gave me all kinds of feels. But it was cathartic, as much for me as it was for Patterson, I think.

Her dead ex-boyfriend was not the only surprise appearance involving Patterson. We finally got to meet someone from her family and excuse me, but I cannot say this without all-caps but BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY IS PATTERSON’S FATHER AND KURT WELLER IS A BILL NYE FANBOY!

If you put a gun to my head and make me choose my favorite thing about this season, it won’t be Roman’s storyline, and it won’t be that Jane and Kurt are married, or that Bethany is a grumpy toddler who takes after her father—no, it would be that Bill Nye guest starred, made a Star Wars dad joke, and had to watch Kurt Weller fanboy around him. What can I say? It’s the truth.

L: BILL NYE IS PATTERSON'S FATHER. I'm pretty sure the novelty of that one will never wear off. Is it too soon to start begging for him to come back in season four??

I do love the way Blindspot brings back characters. I mean, Rich Dotcom started out as a guest star who has now graduated to season regular. Yes, he's a special case, but I love how we never really say goodbye—even deceased characters come back in dreams and explosion-induced comas. (Which gives me hope that we haven't seen the last of Luke Mitchell on Blindspot.) I can't help but wonder who will show up in Remi's flashbacks next season, besides Roman—Markos? Oscar? Parker? Nigel Thornton? The mysterious Hobbes? Speaking of Hobbes, will we find out what he's been up to since he last encountered Jane? I think we can count on Shepherd showing up again, but I'd love to see Hirst again too.

I loved Cade's encore, and while I am a teensy bit annoyed that we had to learn he was still alive via the deleted scenes on the DVDs, it does give me hope that we will encounter him again and maybe see him be reunited with his husband and child.

I'm sure Keaton will continue to be a controversial figure in this fandom. He tortured Jane, but he helped her escape from the assassins who were after her. He seemingly turned on Tasha, but he's been a solid ally for Team Fed. I look forward to continuing to debate his position along the spectrum from villain to hero in season four.

I will always miss Sarah and Sawyer (and be forever bitter that they apparently skipped Kurt's wedding), but at least we did get to see Allie (and her superlative snark) and Bethany this season, in a far-too-brief visit. I want to see more of them next season; there is no such thing as too much Allie, and I'd love to see what Remi thinks about the mini-munchkin she's been helping to raise.

Rose: The introduction and evolution of Avery

L: I know that Avery was a bit of a lightning rod for viewers this season, but I absolutely loved her introduction. Jane has been able to distance herself from her past (from Shepherd and her childhood) fairly easily, and even though Roman gave her a family tie, he essentially disappeared from her life as soon as he regained his memories. Avery is the first person who was part of Jane's past—a rather significant person, as her loss apparently changed the whole course of Remi's life by leading her to enlist in the military where she was recruited by Orion and ultimately returned to Shepherd's side in order to take Orion down—who also becomes a fully-cognizant fixture in Jane's present.

Y: I admit that I did not know how to react to Avery’s introduction at first and I wasn’t sure I would enjoy the storyline when it first came to light that Jane had a daughter. But I cannot deny that it did not take long for me to jump on board that development primarily because of what it meant to Jane and what it brought into her story. Like you said, everything from her past had been dark and unattractive, and Jane had spent her whole time as Jane trying to distance herself from it. On more than one occasion even, Jane vocalized that very notion, saying that she just wants to focus on the present, that she’s done with her past, etc… but Avery brought in something neither Jane nor the viewers expected, and it turned things upside down for our heroine.

L: I loved that Avery shows up angry and resentful. And although at first I was hoping for more of a secret agenda from her (this show loves to give us mysterious introductions for characters who turn out to be more ordinary than we hope—cough, Nas, cough), I was very satisfied with the arc that Avery's character goes through this season. It's easy to see how a young woman who has lost her parents and is alone in the world could fall prey to Roman's machinations, and I liked that it took her a while to warm up to Jane. It also helped Jane's character a lot this season, giving us a chance to see her vulnerable side that was in rather short supply this season.

Y: What you’re saying is someone in that writers’ room has a teenager in their life and drew a lot of that experience? But yes, I agree. They could have easily had Avery and Jane just run into each other's arms, but I like the approach they took better. They were both in new and uncharted territory, and the time and effort it took both of them to adjust and warm up to each other, and the journey they went through separately and together was very satisfying.

L: I also liked how Avery's introduction was used to give depth to Kurt's character. Meeting his missing wife's adult daughter was a total sucker punch for him, but he immediately recognized that she really was Jane's daughter. And then quickly set out to tell her how great her mother was, which made Avery teaming up with Roman to frame him for her murder even more tragic. But we never see any anger or hostility from Kurt toward Avery for that. And there is no denying that the scenes in which Kurt deals with Avery's supposed death at his hands packed some of the most powerful emotional punches of this season. Sullivan Stapleton does pain and anguish like no one's business, and you'd have to have a heart of stone not to react to his confession to Jane.

I really want to see more of Avery next season. How does Remi respond to having her fully-grown daughter reappear in her life? Does Avery pick up on the differences between Jane and Remi? But I have a bad feeling that Avery is going to go down the same path as Bethany and Sarah Weller—family members who disappear the second they are no longer vital to the main plot.

Y: Yes, Avery has the potential to play quite the pivotal role in season four. She can definitely be used as a device to mess up all of Remi’s plans and shake things up emotionally and psychologically for her. But very much like you, I have that same feeling that she’ll be shipped off somewhere off screen and we’ll find out about it by accident from someone like Brianna or Afreen in the background of a deleted scene.

Thorn: Clem and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it triangle

Y: If you thought my feelings about a love triangle involving a couple I do not ship are over the top dramatic then I think you can imagine how I feel about it when it involves my OTP. You’ve been warned. So with my hatred of all things love triangles established, you can imagine how I feel about any love triangle that involves Jane or Kurt. If we put Kurt’s relationship with Allie aside—because that one did make sense in my books even though I didn’t like it—I have a raging hatred for every other love triangle involving these two.

But the Clem thing? Oh the Clem thing has its own special place on my hate list. I never thought anything could replace the Kurt/Nas fiasco. That thing did no one any favors and ruined the potential that Nas had, but the Jane/Clem shit storm? Oh boy. The problem is that I understand why Jane would sleep with Clem. I don’t justify it or forgive her or condone her actions, but if I put everything except plain logic aside, I can find a way to understand the act itself. What I can never wrap my mind around is what the point of writing that storyline was if they were never going to do it any justice in how they resolved it, and if it was not going to play any role in threatening or affecting Jane and Kurt’s present relationship, and if it is going to have zero impact on the characters, and if it’s just going to go poof at the end of the same episode it was introduced in!

I. Just. Do. Not. Understand. What. The. Purpose. Is. From. A. Narrative. Point. Of. View.

Did it move the plot forward? No.

Did we learn anything new about anything that is important? No.

Did the characters learn anything from the experience? No.

Did it prompt any character breakthroughs? No.

Did it have any emotional impact? Did it have any narrative impact? Did it introduce a new conflict? Did it resolve any conflict? Did serve as a test for the characters? Did it do anything useful whatsoever?

No. No. And No.

So, not only did we have to suffer through one of the most irritating tropes that could ever be used, it was not even useful narratively in any way, shape or form.

The only thing it did do was make me look at Jane during these episodes and not like her at all, and worst of all, not even recognize the Jane I love.

I am just so angry.

I’m gonna step away from my computer now and go look at pictures of puppies. And I’m going to let L take over from here. Hopefully her contribution is more useful than my angry rant.

L: This plot point was definitely one of the hot-button issues this season. There were people who hated the Clem storyline so much that they quit watching (or at least threatened to quit watching) the show because of it. I don't think the idea of Jane having slept with Clem was so far-fetched, but the way that it was presented was clumsy at best.

Part of the problem is that the idea of "Jane as an action hero" seems to have eclipsed "Jane as a fully-realized character." What sucked me into this show in the pilot was not Jane kicking butt. It was the way that Jane went from being so lost and vulnerable to kicking butt and then back again; the contrast between these two extremes is what made her character so compelling. This season, it felt like writers have become so enamored of Jane as a superhero that they skimped on the side of Jane as a whole person, with all the self-doubts and weaknesses that made her so human, that made us care about her (and by extension this show) so very much. And again, some of this is due to the overall unevenness of the pacing this season—it feels like we're spending more time on explosions and elaborately choreographed fight scenes (or, ahem, unnecessary love triangles), and less time on character development. And Jane's character bore the brunt of these cuts.

The lack of vulnerability in her character is most apparent in the whole Clem plot. The writers are careful to show us how devoted Kurt was while Jane was on the run—he took a leave of absence from the FBI, sold the house in Colorado, used up all of his life savings to search for Jane. And of course, our hearts melt for him. What a man! Look how much he loves Jane! But we're given no information about Jane during that time, except that she "found her purpose" working K&R jobs. Hardly sounds like she was pining away for Kurt, does it?

And then we find out that she slept with Clem, while Kurt was giving up everything to scour the world for her. And frankly, in that light, she looks pretty selfish and uncaring. The writing in the Clem scenes didn't do her any favors at all. I think we were supposed to feel like Jane had given up on ever being able to return home to Kurt, that she'd given up hope that he would still be waiting for her even if she were able to return. (And to be fair, in seasons one and two, Kurt's method of dealing with not being with Jane was to immediately hook up with Allie or Nas, so honestly, I wouldn't blame Jane for thinking that after eighteen months without her, he'd gone back to his usual coping strategies, hopefully with more reliable birth control.) But none of Jane's vulnerability comes through in the Clem scenes. What we're given instead is Jane being all badass, as usual, working K&R jobs and sleeping with Clem. When she tells Kurt, the actual reveal is given off-screen, and all we see is her being completely unrepentant (and frankly, rather callous) about it. We see zero regret or self-recrimination from Jane, either immediately after sleeping with Clem or when telling Kurt about it. No vulnerability, and as a result, zero sympathy from the viewers.

And it is frustrating as a viewer because when she's given the chance, Jaimie Alexander does vulnerable incredibly well. And she's the main character, the reason we've been watching this show for three years. We want to love her, to understand her, to root for her. But we're just not given that opportunity.

Even when Jane and Kurt reconcile later, the subject of Clem is never mentioned again. It feels like it was thrown in by the writers so that they could say, "Oh, Kurt lied to Jane? See, she lied to him, too. Even-Steven. All good, move on." Except that we know that two wrongs never make a right. You can't "cancel out" infidelity. Instead of having no issues to work through, they now have two major issues to make their reconciliation exponentially harder. Only we never see them working through anything at all. But I'll save that rant for the Jeller section.

Thorny Rose: The very uneven Jeller relationship arc

L: So all of this ranting about love triangles and dropped plots brings us to the Jeller relationship arc. I wanted to love their arc this season so much. I was so excited about the prospect of the two of them finding their way back to each other after such a long separation (probably nearly as long as they had known each other, if the events of the first two seasons each take place over a series of months, with Jane's hiatus with the CIA in between). And it started off so promisingly, with the two of them basically flinging themselves back into each other's arms and into their relationship and pretending that nothing had changed. Starting them off this way made it pretty clear that they were going to run into problems as soon as they inevitably discovered the things that the other one was hiding. And those problems would have been plenty, but as we talked about above, we aren't given equal perspectives for both Jane and Kurt.

We're shown how desperately grateful Kurt is to have Jane back. He is loving and understanding when Jane informs him that she "found purpose" working the K&R jobs. He barely bats an eye when she shows him her cache of passports and money. He hardly reacts when she tells him about Clem—and that's really part of the problem. He basically accepts whatever she tells him and loves her anyway, without question, without hesitation. As much as I loved his devotion, I also wanted to see him react. Knowing that Jane had lost faith in him, in them, during their separation had to hurt. Knowing that she'd slept with another man—and we never see her really explaining the nature of that relationship to him, that it was more of a one-night stand than a six-month love affair, so from his perspective it must have seemed like she found purpose and a new life partner with Clem—must have torn him up inside. But we never see him reacting in any way to this knowledge. All we see is him trying desperately to atone for Avery with Jane.

On the flip side, we see Jane being rather matter-of-fact about her return to New York and to Kurt. We don't really get any sense that she suffered during their separation as we are shown that Kurt did. Or that she was trying to come home to him as desperately as he was trying to find her. Or that she gave up and resigned herself to what little purpose she could find in lieu of happiness. We're left to guess what was going through her mind. What we do see is her walking away from Kurt when he confesses the truth about Avery and being unable to forgive him. We see her being as happy to see Clem as she was to see Kurt in Nepal, and see her dump her affair with Clem on Kurt rather callously, with zero remorse. All of which seems to create a very uneven balance of power in this relationship. Jane's seeming indifference makes Kurt seem almost obsessively devoted. And in the face of his devotion, Jane seems far less so.

And then we get to the big reconciliation scene, which was so powerful and emotional (and one of the best scenes between them this season) and made it clear that these two were taking their first, tentative steps toward each other, but that they still had a long way to go to rebuild the trust and the foundation between them. Again, such a promising start! Finally, a little vulnerability from Jane! And then... the writers immediately drop this thread. We see absolutely nothing between the two of them after that, episode after episode. We're given one throw-away comment from Kurt to Nas about the two of them "getting there" toward being happy together again. But scenes (or even brief moments) between Kurt and Jane that actually show them working toward that? Not. A. Single. One.

What makes this so incredibly frustrating to me as a viewer is that we know these writers are more than capable of giving us exactly this. This type of slow, gradual arc is what made season two so powerful: the tiny, careful steps Kurt and Jane made toward each other, as they rebuilt their trust and acknowledged their feelings. The moments where we see them admitting that they trust the other, moments when they can't hide how much they care, packed a wallop. Not even necessarily full scenes, just those tiny moments in the quiet lull between more action-packed scenes. But this season, we didn't get to see any of this. At all. Even more inexplicably, we didn't even get to see the more expected signs of affection. After Jane walks out on Kurt, she shoves him out of the way just as the hotel freezer explodes. She immediately rolls over and puts her hand on his chest, checking to make sure the husband she just left is unharmed. But several episodes after their supposed reconciliation (when all of their problems have apparently magically fixed themselves off-screen), their romantic date is interrupted by assassins, and Jane is told point-blank by Roman that Kurt is dead, along with the rest of her team. And when he shows up she flings herself into his arms in abject relief, right? Just kidding. She... looks in his direction.

And that kind of sums up my dissatisfaction with Jeller this season. The writers want this to be the main ship. They want us to respond and cheer and cry for them. But then they skip so many moments when we would have done exactly that. So I keep coming back to... Why? Do they still believe the ridiculous rumor that married couples are boring and that viewers don't want to see them? Was there just too much plot going on that there was no room for these kind of character moments? Or is Jane as the action hero just so cool that we're not supposed to care what makes her tick anymore?

And that's probably my biggest fear for season four. Remi has already been shown as being more hard-hearted and action-driven than Jane. So I am afraid there will be little to no chance that we'll see any of the vulnerability that we've been sorely missing in Jane. I don't want to lose the aspects of her character that made me root for her—and they aren't her abilities to fire weapons and take out combatants. I really miss Jane's heart, and the way she wore it on her sleeve in the first two seasons.

So if there's one thing that I'm hoping for in season four, it's that we will get to see the tiny steps that Kurt and Jane-as-Remi make to find their way back to each other. Because even though Remi has forgotten all about being Jane, I do believe that somewhere inside of her is the woman who loves Kurt and will find her way back to the feelings she has for him. I hope. Because I still really adore both of these characters, and I love watching the two of them on screen, whether they are defusing a bomb or debating the merits of vegan entrees or backing each other up in a gun fight. This show is at its very best when it doesn't shy away from showing these two are navigating their lives—the good, the bad, and the ugly—together.

Y: Can I just sit here, nod my head passionately and say over and over that I agree with every word of this? Because I do. I agree with everything L said up there. My love for Jeller has not wavered or become any less, and I have moments from this season that easily fall into my top ten moments of all time, but with that said, the frustration is still there. And my frustrations are not at the storylines but at the two things L has highlighted—the lack of balance in their relationship and at how rushed some aspects of it were and how the writers seemed to forget what had made Jeller so special in the first two seasons and the complete lack of those moments that have always made this relationship the heart and soul of this show.

And it takes us back to what we brought up in the beginning. With so much focus on the action and on the cases, we lost so much of the character, we lost all these vulnerable, real human moments—with Jane and Kurt and with the other characters. And I am not talking about fifteen minute soap-opera-ish scenes of characters monologue-ing their feelings, that was never what Blindspot was about. On the contrary, it’s always been about these small moments, in subtle lines of dialogues or touches or looks. Season two was the perfect example of how to do this, of how to take a broken and fractured relationship and rebuild it slowly and meticulously and carefully. And that’s where our frustration lies. We have experienced firsthand what these writers can do when it comes to these two characters and to this relationship and yet when they had the chance to do it in season three, they did not.

And yeah… I’m not going to add anymore to what L said because I just… what she said. I just co-sign what she said up there.

I think one way of putting it simply is that one major beef with this season, when it comes to Jeller and many other storylines, is the lack of emotional resonance. So many things happened that were just that, just things happening, without any emotional reaction or resonance or consequences.

But for the record, I still flail uncontrollably every time I see their wedding bands because I’m a sucker who just loves them so much and still cannot believe those idiots are married. I can’t help it. They own me.

Rosebuds: Those cliffhangers and the things we're excited to see blossom in the new season

Y: Every show out there likes to end its season with a cliffhanger. It’s normal. But a cliffhanger—a single cliffhanger—apparently was not enough for Blindspot this season. No, we had to go out with three mind-blowing, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat bombshells before the months-long hiatus. That’s just the way we like it.

I think the cliffhangers set up season four quite nicely—and by nicely I mean it has the potential to destroy us emotionally from the very first episode. One thing we probably know for sure is that they won’t kill off Stubbles. At least not yet. So, of the three major cliffhangers they left us with, this one I’m least concerned about.

The Tasha/Blake cliffhanger is insanely exciting because we have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on there. There are people who are already condemning Tasha, convinced that she’s officially joined the Dark Side. I’m on the other team, the one that’s picked up a few crumbs in season three to make me believe that maybe, just maybe, all of this is a deep cover op for the CIA and she’s not actually on Blake’s side. But all in all, what this gives me is hope for a juicy storyline for Tasha where for once she’s not the sidekick but at center stage.

And finally, there is Remi’s return. True story—I went shopping this morning to buy my premiere chocolate stash. I bought chocolate. I bought a whole lot of chocolate.

L: This is sound planning. I have chocolate and backup chocolate. I should pick up some backup to the backup, too, shouldn't I? Just in case.

Remi's story is going to open up a whole new angle to Jane's story, and I am beyond excited about it. As we talked about above, it's been relatively easy for Jane to divorce her present from the life she lived as Remi. And while that might be the easier approach, we've always known that eventually there would be some sort of reckoning—at some point she was going to have to come face to face with what she'd done as Remi and reconcile both of her halves into one whole person. Now, I totally admit that this isn't how I thought it would happen, but it's kind of even more interesting this way, watching Remi have to reconcile herself with Jane, instead of the other way around. And I can't wait to see who we end up with at the end—not Remi or Jane, but someone new, someone totally herself, who owns her past, present, and future. And who is still no doubt a force to be reckoned with!

Tasha is long overdue for a meaty storyline of her own. She's been kind of a secondary character in Reade's two storylines—Coach Jones and his relationship with Meg—but I am excited to finally see her in a spotlight of her own. I can't wait to see how her partnership with Blake plays out. Is she still working with the CIA? Has she jumped ship to yet another agency? Turned to the Dark Side and decided to become a crime lord? I love Tasha, and I really want to see her have some adventures of her own. And while I know that her relationship with Reade is supposed to be the big cliffhanger here, I am worrying far more about her repairing her already-damaged friendship with Patterson, because the fracture between the two of them broke my heart more than any romantic conflict this season.

I might be most excited about finally discovering the identity of the person on the other end of Roman's mysterious phone calls, the person he wished he could have "just been a family" with. Is this the person who appears to be a third Kruger child we glimpsed in the flashbacks to Jane's childhood? If meeting Roman rocked Jane's world, I think meeting this new sibling—possibly someone Remi didn't know had survived—could rock the foundations of Remi's existence. And given that she's a wildcard to begin with, the fourth season of Blindspot promises to take this wild ride to higher heights than ever before!

That's all from us! What are you excited to see this season? Have you stocked up on enough chocolate? Is that actually possible? Come talk to our ask box!

We'll see you back here in a week when we kick off our Season Four review series!

—Laura & Yas

37 notes · View notes

80s4life · 3 years

Text

Character/Movie List

Below is movies and TV shows I like personally and are lsited as a reference. If you don't see something you're interested in, it is not that I don't like it, it is because I most likely forgot it because I love so many movies/shows tbh. Just ask, and I'll answer! And, from the Rules and Regulations page, what I had meant by "mostly" is that I can dabble outside of the acting world and into actors/actresses themselves and/or singers, popstars, etc.

{Another side-note, I am not so much into shows, but mostly movies! Although, there are some exceptions that I love beyond belief!}

MOVIES

Back to the Future Series:

Biff Tannen

Griff Tannen (Maybe, he wasn't the best of the Tannen's imo)

Buford Tannen

Marty McFly

George McFly

Doc Brown

Lorraine Baines

Match

Titanic:

Rose DeWitt Bukater

Jack Dawson

Caledon Hockley

Brock Lovett

Rabrizio De Rossi

Thomas "Tommy" Ryan

Karate Kid Series {1/2/3}:

John Kreese

Mr. Miyagi

Johnny Lawrence

Daniel LaRusso

Tommy

Dutch

Bobby Brown (not so much; don't know him too well)

Ali Mills

Lucille LaRusso

Chozen

Kumiko

Terry Silver (duh lmao)

Mike Barnes (also duh)

Jessica Andrews

Stand By Me:

Vern Tessio

Billy Tessio

Gordie LaChance

Chris Chambers

Eyeball Chambers

Ace Merrill

Teddy Duchamp

Goonies:

Brand

Mikey

Chunk

Mouth

Data

Andy

Stef

Jake Fratelli (he was kinda hot ngl)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off:

Ferris Bueller

Jeanie Bueller

Cameron Frye

Sloane Peterson

License to Drive:

Les Anderson

Dean

Mercedes Lane

Charles

Toy Soldiers:

Billy Tepper

Joey Trotta

Snuffy Bradberry

Ricardo Montoya

Hank Giles

Derek/Yogurt

Scream Movie Series {1/2}:

Billy Loomis

Stu Macher

Dwight "Dewey" Riley

Ghostface

Randy Meeks

Tatum Riley

Sidney Prescott

Gale Weathers

Cotton Weary

Derek Feldman

Mickey

Predator:

Dutch

Blain

Yautja

Escape Plan:

Emil Rottmayer/ "Victor Maheim"

Ray Breslin/ "Anthony Portos"

The Expendables:

Barney Ross

Lee Christmas

Toll Road

Tool

Gunnar Jensen

Bao Thao/ "Yin Yang"

Hale Caesar

Trench

Church

Divergent Movie Series {1/2/3}:

Divergent-

Beatrice "Tris" Prior

Caleb Prior

Peter

Tobias "Four" Eaton

Christina "Chris"

Eric Coulter

Will

Insurgent-

Marcus Eaton

Allegiant-

Matthew

Terminator Series:

T-100/"Uncle Bob"/Terminator

T-1000 "Austin"

John Connor

Sarah Connor

Grace

Dani Ramos

Dazed and Confused:

David Wooderson

Fred O'Bannion

Randall "Pink" Floyd

Ron Slater

Don Dawson

Mitch Kramer

Benny O'Donnell

Rocky Series:

Rocky Balboa

Apollo Creed

Captain Ivan Drago

Zombieland {1/2}:

Tallahassee

Columbus

Berkeley

Witchita

Little Rock

Madison

Lethal Weapon Movie Series {1/2/3/4}:

Martin Riggs

Roger Myrtaugh

Rianne Murtaugh

Leo Getz

Goodfellas:

Henry Hill

Jimmy Conway

Tommy DeVito

Karen Hill

Marvel:

Avengers Heroes-

Iron Man/Tony Stark

Thor

Ant-Man/Scott Lang

Hulk/Bruce Banner

Captain America/Steve Rogers

Hawkeye/ Clint Barton

Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff

Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff

Black Panther/T'Challa

Vision/Victor Shade

Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Mantis

Spider-Man/Peter Parker

Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange

Avengers Anti-Heroes/Antagonists:

Yondu Udonta

Loki Laufeyson

Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes

Whiplash

Thanos

Mysterio

Kaecilius

Ronan

Hela

Ultron

Wolverine/Deadpool:

Wolverine/Logan Howlett

Sabretooth/Victor Creed

Bolt/Chris Bradley

Gambit/Remy LeBeau

Cyclops/Scott Summers

(Younger!)Professor X

Deadpool/Wade Wilson

Cable/Nathan Summers

Colossus/Piotr "Peter" Nikolayevich Rasputin

Dopinger

Weasel

Negasonic Teenage Warhead/Ellie Phimister

DC Universe:

Superman/Clark Kent (Henry Cavill)

Batman/Bruce Wayne (Affleck, Bale versions)

Aquaman/Arthur Curry

Wonder Woman/Diana Prince

Harley Quinn

Joker (Leto, Ledger, Phoenix versions)

Deadshot

Captain Boomerang

Enchantress

Rick Flagg

Bane (Tom Hardy)

TV Shows

Stranger Things:

Mike Wheeler

Nancy Wheeler

Will Byers

Joyce Byers

Johnathan Byers

Maxine "Max" Hargrove

Billy Hargrove

Dustin Henderson

Lucas Sinclair

Robin Buckley

Jim Hopper

Steve Harrington

Sex Education:

Erric Effiong

Aimee Gibbs

Adam Groff

Ola Nyman

Rahim

Otis Milburn

Maeve Wiley

Hannibal (Show):

Hannibal Lector

Will Graham

Dr. Alana Bloom

Jack Crawford

Abigail Hobbs

Orange Is the New Black (OITNB):

Piper Chapman

Nicky Nichols

Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren

Galina "Red" Reznikov

Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson

Dayanara "Daya" Diaz

Gloria Mendoza

Lorna Morello

Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett

Alex Vause

Joel Luschek

Big Boo

Maritza Ramos

Poussey Washington

Yoga Jones

Gina Murphy

Brook Soso

Sophia Burst

George "Pornstache" Mendez

Larry Bloom

Polly Harper

Stella Carlin

The Boys:

Billy Butcher

Starlight/Annie January

Hughie Campbell

Homelander

Kimiko Miyashiro

Queen Maeve/Maggie Shaw

Mother's Milk "M.M."

The Deep/Kevin Moskowitz

Frenchie

Stormfront

Becca Butcher

The Walking Dead (TWD):

Daryl Dixon

Merle Dixon

Rick Grimes

Carl Grimes

Lori Grimes

Maggie Greene

Beth Greene

Glenn Rhee

Negan Smith

Michonne Hawthorne

Carol Peletier

Shane Walsh

Paul "Jesus" Monroe

Eugene Porter

Sgt. Abraham Ford

Outer Banks (OBX):

Sarah Cameron

Rafe Cameron

Ward Cameron

John B

Topper

Pope

Kiara

Shameless:

Frank Gallagher

Fiona Gallagher

Lip Gallagher

Ian Gallagher

Debbie Gallagher

Carl Gallagher

Kevin Ball

Veronica Fisher

Mickey Milkovich

Mandy Milkovich

Svetlana

Jimmy "Steve" Lishman

Karen Jackson

Cobra Kai

Miguel Diaz

Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz

Robby Keene

Demetri

Carmen Diaz

John Kreese (baby version & old version)

Terry Silver (baby version & old version)

Tory Nichols

Samantha "Sam" LaRusso

...AND MANY MORE!

If there is something or someone you like not on this list, feel free to ask or direct message me! For movies like the DC Universe and Marvel, if there is multiple actors of that character and you want a certain one, please make sure that you add that detail!

Rules & Regulations

Masterlist

48 notes · View notes

thealogie · 3 years

Text

remember when I was like “hank and gomey should have had one sad hand job just like stan and Philip should have had on the americans” well I forgot that before breaking bad decided it was prestige tv they made these post season 2 mini episodes and in one of them we find out that the night before the Marie/Hank wedding Hank got a blowjob from a joan crawford drag queen....like ok...no one asked for THIS but clearly you understand your characters on some level...

#breaking bad #pre evil Walt just being like....oh hmmmm what was the name of the bar again?? incheresting

19 notes · View notes

more--than--anything · 6 years

Text

Episode Review: "You Made It Home. And I'm Right Here With You." [S03E22]

Remember that time we reviewed an entire episode using only gifs? Can we review this time using only emojis? I have three or four in mind that I just want to plaster all over this review and then go back to my comfy fetal position and cry until September.

Y: I thought I was ready. I pretended I was ready. I said I was ready. I told myself I was ready. I told other people I was ready.

I was not ready.

L: Was it truly possible to be ready for this? I mean, it's been weeks since the episode aired, and I am still not ready. For any of it. Although I might finally understand the purpose of hiatus!? (Aside from losing the weight we've put on as a result of our massive chocolate consumption.)

Roman challenged Jane to one last game, winner take all. How did this last round of sibling rivalry go down?

L: When we last saw our fearless protagonists, they had just received a final video puzzle from Roman, in which he quotes The Count of Monte Cristo. Kind of. Patterson realizes that Roman took a little poetic license and added three words to the quote, "what three words," which quickly devolves into a funny little "who's on first" routine which utterly failed to distract me from the angst looming ahead. "What3words" is website that has mapped the whole word down into three-meter squares identified using three different words. (Yes, this is a real website. For kicks, I looked up the room where I write these reviews. Two of the three words were "windows" and "worries," which sum up my feelings toward Microsoft with rather frightening accuracy.) Patterson and Rich (whom I just going to call the Wonder Twins from now on because there is no better nickname) examine the two tattoos referenced in the quote, the hyena and the wolf, and discover numbers that indicate that the three words they need are from the 1884 edition of The Count of Monte Cristo, which is not easy to come by.

The team is still trying to arrest Crawford, so they stop an armored car heading to the airport from a building owned by HCI Global, only to discover that they've nabbed Blake instead of Hank. Kira Evans, Crawford's lawyer, shows up to represent Blake. (I'm thinking Crawford must have sent her on ahead to make up for siccing the FBI on Blake, because normally our team isn't exactly the fastest at letting their suspects phone their lawyers during questioning.) Weller doesn't want to give Evans any information about the evidence they have against Crawford, so he and Jane use "Tom" as bait instead. Evans tries to cut them off, but Blake shows the first real spunk we've seen from her and demands not only a deal for Tom but also assurance that her father will be brought in alive and given the chance to clear his name. In return, she tells the team that Crawford fled the country aboard a friend's jet.

The team traces the jet to South Africa, which is coincidentally also the location identified (in a very timely fashion) by the three words Roman referenced in the book, and Jane, Weller, and Reade set out after Crawford and Roman. The three words lead them to a house that Jane recognizes as her childhood home. In an upstairs bedroom, she finds a gun hidden in the floor under a bed. "Old habits die hard, and they all start somewhere," she comments, in a callback to Roman hiding the treasure box beneath the floorboards at the Sandstorm compound in season two. In the barrel of the gun is a picture of her family-- her parents, Alice, and Eon at the right edge of the frame, at a scenic location by a large tree overlooking the ocean. (And yes, "Eon" is the spelling in the closed captioning of this episode and in 2.06. The credits list "Young Roman," and the only other official reference we can find is a tweet from the writers' room that also mentions "Eon," so despite the fact that we've been spelling it "Ian" since season two, apparently "Eon" is the correct spelling.)

At the base of the handle of the gun is an engraving, "Xander 21718." Jane immediately tells them that Xander is place, but the team is stuck until Patterson figures out that the location might be referenced in Shepherd's military records. The number 21718 points to a file-- highly redacted; what else happened there that the government doesn't want anyone to know about?-- that gives the location of the op where Shepherd first encountered the Kruger kids, an abandoned military base not far from the Kruger family estate.

Jane, Kurt, Reade, and their South African State Security Agency Liaison head to Xander. Patterson sees Crawford's phone come back online and tells the team that he is in the building and that he has contacted the Director-General of the SSA, but the warning comes too late and the Liaison shoots Kurt. He sends Jane after Roman and Crawford, but by the time she finds Crawford upstairs, Roman is already gone. Crawford observes that this is a homecoming for Jane, as did the Liaison who shot Kurt. (And I am thinking that since her family reunions involve explosives, I suppose gunfire is appropriate for homecomings? Other people's family traditions can be hard to understand.) Crawford raises the gun that Roman left him, and Jane shoots him, not once but four times, only to discover that Crawford's gun wasn't loaded. She sees Roman getting away but is unable to stop him.

Blake's phone comes back online, and Rich realizes she's in South Africa. He sends the coordinates to Jane, who finds Roman, dying of a gunshot wound. He gives her a memory stick and the two say their goodbyes. And honestly, even though I know I'm going to have to talk about this scene eventually... Everything hurts and I am going to go eat chocolate instead of thinking about it. Okay? Okay.

The drive contains Roman's tattoo cache. Or at least, part of it. Along with medical intel that outlines the progression of an illness caused by ZIP, including such side effects as hallucinations, massive memory lapses, memory relapses, and brain aneurysms-- which explain both Roman's erratic behavior and Jane's mysterious collapse. There are also clues to other drives, hidden around the world, so we should get some fun international treasure-hunting next season. You know, to lighten up the sheer terror and heartbreaking angst.

So in the end, our team brings down Crawford and sees an end to Roman's plans. Though as we are reminded at the end of episode, Crawford's company and fortune are still in play, now in Blake's hands... with assistance from both Tasha and Kira Evans. (And if that isn't a power trio you ought to be terrified of, I don't know what is.) So with that, Roman's loss, Kurt's grave condition, and Jane's apparently terminal diagnosis, I don't know that this really feels like much of a win for our team. But it is a satisfying resolution to the season, to finally understand why Roman singled Crawford out and led Jane and the FBI to him.

I want to take a minute to talk about Hank Crawford, who was both chillingly written and brilliantly portrayed by David Morse. We talked at the end of season two that season three was going to have to produce a bigger, badder big bad than Shepherd, which was no small task, but on this point, I think the writers certainly delivered. His plans were worrisome indeed, but it was his attitude toward Roman and Jane at the end that chilled me to the bone. Not only did he show a complete lack of remorse at the atrocities done to children like the Krugers, he was proud of his so-called "passion project." When Roman questions him, he doesn't attempt to deny his connection to the orphanage. No, he's proud of his role. "You are the greatest thing I have ever made," he tells Roman, and then as he is dying, he says to Jane, "I made something great." To take such delight in ruining the lives of innocent children so thoroughly that even as they die, decades later, they say, "I never got out of that hole"... well, that degree of monster is hard to imagine, let alone top. (So let's just take a minute to be very, very frightened about whoever turns up to be the ultimate big bad of season four, shall we?)

I'm also still wondering if there was more to the Sandstorm-Crawford partnership than we know. It can't be purely a coincidence that Shepherd "rescued" the Kruger children from Crawford's orphanage, and then he turned around to bankroll her plans for Sandstorm. Were they working together all along? Was Phase Two part of his plan? Destabilize the American government just as he institutes a new world order? And if they worked that closely together... wouldn't he have known about Roman and Remi and Remi's identity at the FBI? Did he know who they were all along? Or are these questions that will remain unanswered?

I guess we're just going to have to watch season four. Is it too soon to start stocking up on chocolate?

Y: Do we really have to watch season four? I mean, you’d think with all the pain and suffering we’ve endured over three seasons, we would have learned our lesson to stay away from this horrible show…

Who am I kidding? This show is everything and I don’t know about you, but my season four countdown is already ticking! What a rush this finale was, and while they left so many things hanging, they did so in order to set up the next season and managed to wrap up this one so nicely especially with the Crawford storyline.

Roman sends his sister and her team on one last treasure hunt only to set up what looks like a season-long one with all his hidden drives. But most importantly, we finally have our answer as to why Hank Crawford. And after months and months of us speculating, we finally know the truth and like you said, it’s terrifying. Kudos to the writers and to David Morse for giving us another terrifying “villain” for season three. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: This show knows how to write villains who are complex and layered, who genuinely believe in the righteousness of their actions, and who make you question your own beliefs and moral compass.

It’s easy to write a character who is pure evil, with evil intentions and evil ways and an evil endgame. It is much harder to write one who is questionably not evil, who has theoretically good intentions, who views the world in almost the same way that you do, but who has that one thing that breaks the parallel between you and them.

And like L said, this has us terrified for season four’s villain… or villains.

And to just add to your thoughts there, I too would love to know more about the connections and relationship-- personal or professional-- between Crawford and Shepherd. I never really took Shepherd’s version of events at face value. Her narrative of rescuing these poor broken children and trying to give them a normal life never sat well with me. The theory of her and Crawford going way back and her “rescuing” Alice and Eon being part of his-- or their-- plan all along is more interesting. And if we tie all Hank’s master plan with Shepherd and her Phase Two… yeah, this sounds far more interesting in my books.

And if we think how pissed off Roman got when he found out the truth, then something interesting and terrifying could be upon us if and when Remi finds out the same truth; that essentially her entire life had been a lie and has been manipulated by the same people she thought she was fighting.

Oh, and for the record, what3words for my room includes “elevator” and “dream” and if this does not scream Patterson and naked Roman then I don’t know what else it could mean.

The team had to put on their best game faces in this rush to take down not one but two adversaries. How did they fare? And where do they find themselves at the end, looking towards the new season? Please tell me they’re all happy and vacationing somewhere sunny and beachy and just having a well-earned break from it all…

Y: Hate to break it to you, but… opposite opposite.

Let’s start with the least problematic of these kids, shall we? One last time this season, we have the formidable tag team of Patterson and Rich running things from the lab and once again they prove that nothing can stand in their way. I know I’ve said this before, but this has easily become my favorite partnership, combining their skills, talents and personalities to give us a duo that is unstoppable and a true joy and pleasure to watch.

I think I said this last week-- I’m not exactly sure because I’ve been talking about it endlessly for some time-- but I would like to take a moment to appreciate the nuanced and subtle development of Rich’s character. I think it started with the midseason finale when we first saw it, but this man has completely cemented his place as a member of this team. His loyalty to them cannot be questioned anymore and he cares for each and every member of this team like they care for one another. And I would like to think that they consider him one of them as well and care for him just as much.

He will always be the prankster and the joker of the group, that won’t change, but watching his face as they broke the news to Kurt about Jane’s condition and then watching him as Jane walked into Kurt’s hospital room just proves how much he cares for them, worries about them, and is protective of them.

And I just love Rich Dotcom, okay? I love him and I love his beautifully written character arc and excellent character growth. I cannot help it.

L: You're not alone. I was really worried about Rich as a season regular, because he could so easily slip from character into caricature. As he was introduced, he had no respect for anything or anyone, and his episodes always felt like fun breaks from the "real" show... and I didn't want to lose the real show. But the writers have done a phenomenal job of keeping the aspects of Rich that made him fun while layering in the same depth that the other characters on this show have. I, too, was struck by his last two scenes, in Patterson's lab and at the hospital. There are no funny quips or inappropriate outbursts from Rich, just the same deep concern for Jane and for Kurt that we see from Patterson and Reade. And his presence in the hospital scene (and in the earlier party at the Wellers) indicates that not only has his character arc led him to feel like a full member of the team, but that the rest of the team regards him as such.

And you've got to respect an arc that takes a character from a dark-web kingpin executing people with zero remorse to an FBI employee creating color-coded and collated dossiers. I mean, that's quite a transition in less than three seasons.

So now I'm just gonna say it. With Tasha gone from the NYO, I want to see Rich there in every episode next season. Being his usual inappropriate, filterless self, while also being the fully-contributing member of the team that he is.

Y: And then there’s Patterson, of course. I know this is a review of the finale and not a recap of the whole season, but seriously, let’s just take a moment to appreciate the journey our Patty went on this year, the trials and tribulations and the obstacles she had to overcome, the lessons she had to learn, and the pain she had to endure to once again reign as queen. Queen of the Lab and the Universe and Everything in Between.

Also, Jeller’s Greatest Interruptor. But we love her too much to let that tarnish anything about her.

L: Yes, Patterson had a wild ride this season, but explosions aside, I think this season was a positive arc for her. She was able to resolve her feelings not only about David and Borden, but also about her place at the NYO. Just think for a minute about the Patterson we saw at the end of last season, who was burned and out and already half out the door. She was done. And this season started off by abducting her from her new life she'd built and then put her through the wringer again, so no one could really blame her if she wanted out. But she doesn't. She is there at the end, completely committed to the cause. To finding the missing drives, to solving tattoos, to finding a cure for Jane's condition, to being there for Kurt and for Jane at Kurt's bedside. She is no longer trying to run away. With the amount of money Wizardville is raking in, work is probably optional for Patterson at this point, so it's not the less-than-impressive government salary she's making that's going to keep her here. Video games might have been fun (with a bit of hacktivism) on the side, but this team is and will always be more than just a job, they are her family. (Though I am not going to complain if her dad comes back again next season. Pretty please?)

Y: But along with Reade, who we’ll get to in a minute, they are going to have quite a lot to deal with next season-- from losing Tasha and her apparent betrayal again, to Kurt being sidelined, and of course Remi infiltrating their ranks but still being a Jane whose brain is malfunctioning and is dying. But I’d like to think that Patterson, Rich, and Reade, having gone through what they’ve gone through this year and how close they’ve become and what a well-oiled machine and team they’ve developed into will help them overcome anything that is thrown at them. I really really hope so. Because the alternative is not good. Not good at all.

Now let’s look at our Assistant Director Edgar Reade, another character who’s shown such tremendous growth and just makes me want to sit back and applaud at how much he has learned and grown and the resilience he’s had in overcoming a horrible season two. And I guess we’re working our way up from “didn’t have a horrible day” to “WTF just happened?” because Reade sits right there in middle.

Professionally, although he did join Jane and Weller in Cape Town, the events in South Africa for him may have been less life changing than the other two, but he’s going to be the one to deal with the consequences and the mess back home. I think season four may present the real test to his role as AD because he’s got one agent hanging between life and death and one who is going to be secretly infiltrating while posing as their sick and dying best friend. Once Remi is made, the decision of what to do with her is probably going to fall to Reade and I honestly cannot predict what he will do. Reade is very by the book, but he’s also a really good and loyal friend.

And speaking of friends, he’s also going to have to deal with the Tasha switching sides situation, and not just on a professional level. Those two started the day all smiles and flirtations waking up in Reade’s bed. Only a few hours later, Tasha dropped the “maybe it’s not the right time" line on him, pretending they both agree-- to which Reade was clear that he does not-- and just walked out on him. Poor Reade, he probably has whiplash from the world’s fastest relationship/break up ever.

L: We've already talked a lot about how Reade has grown into his role as AD this season. I do think you're right about him having to make some really tough calls next season, both about Jane and about Tasha. To some degree, Reade's personal life was being steered by the women in his life this season. (Actually, his professional life was also being steered by women like Hirst and Millicent Van Der Waal. Remember when we thought having to be Kurt's boss was going to be the hardest part of his job? Hahahaha.) But considering the influences in Reade's personal life, Meghan was clearly a force of nature (and I am rather disappointed that we never found out how her story ended) and Tasha's ill-timed confession certainly rocked the foundation of Reade's world. But even at the end, he still seemed reactionary-- Meghan broke off their relationship, Tasha instigated their tryst at the end and then cut off their fledgling relationship before it could really get started. Next season, I am looking forward to Reade taking control of his personal life just as he has the NYO-- which is definitely going to mean making some tough calls there as well.

Starting with when he figures out exactly where Tasha went after she left his office. But we'll get to Tasha in a minute.

I found it interesting that when Kira Evans tries to stop Crawford from following Tom to South Africa, she tells him, "As your friend--" To which he angrily retorts, "I don't need your friendship." But Hank ends up dead by the end of the episode. And meanwhile, our little team has survived three seasons, Crawford, Shepherd, Sandstorm, and countless terrorists with explosives. So the moral of the story here seems to be that friendship is something that you need, and that if you have good friends that you trust, you can get through just about anything.

I'm going to hold on to that thought through the hiatus and as we dive into season four. Our team may be a mess right now, but ultimately, they will survive because their bonds are stronger than whatever the bad guys (or worse, the writers' room) throw at them.

I hope.

Now let's talk about our Femme Fatales, Blake Crawford and Tasha Zapata. Both of them took some surprising turns in this episode. Did you see any of this coming?!

L: Did I expect this? Quite honestly, no. We certainly had plenty of clues that things were not as they seemed (thank you, Patterson, for the timely reminder about the weirdness with Tash's comms during the gala), and we had some strong suspicions that things would not turn out as neatly as hoped, but this specific turn? Wow.

Let's tackle Blake first, because I feel like she's the easier of the two to get a handle on. I think it was clear up through the scene in the interrogation room that she was still pretty in the dark about what was going on. She was upset about the allegations about her father, and she was worried because Tom wasn't answering her calls. She stepped up, as the only Crawford left in the ring, to do what she thought was best for the company, its employees and shareholders, and the charities it supports.

But then something happened. Something named Tasha. And when we next see Blake, she's in South Africa, looking for someone named Roman so she can put a bullet in his gut. And even though I'm still not over Roman's death, it was still a tremendous reveal, as we finally get to see the whole person we'd only caught glimpses of all season. First there was the way she tested him by using his real name. And then the way she shot him, so similar to the way Roman had envisioned her stabbing him. For all of his flaws, Roman really did love and her and know her better than anyone, maybe even herself. He knew she was her father's daughter and had this capacity inside of her. (And I wonder if maybe that's why his feigned feelings her became real, because he realized the same kind of darkness he struggled with was inside of her too?) Just as with her father and Vic, Blake didn't ask for explanations or offer any second chances. "Tom" betrayed her, and so he had to die.

I think the writers did a good job with adding depth to Blake's character as the season went on, evolving her slowly from poor-little-rich-girl to power player. Her arc in this episode sort of encapsulates her arc over the whole season: She goes from being unaware of what's going on around her, to being confused and angry at her father, to slowly taking charge (and overriding Kira while being questioned by the FBI), to finally shooting Roman and jetting off with new Super Villain Tasha.

And now that she's really come into her own, I think the Blake we see in the future will become only more formidable. She might not have started out as a hardened opponent of the FBI, but she's unlikely to be very cooperative in the future. "I need assurance that my father will be brought in alive and that he'll have the chance to clear his name," she demanded of the FBI. And frankly, they didn't deliver. An FBI asset put four bullets in Blake's father before he had any chance to defend himself legally. So now she's got an axe to grind against our team-- the same team her father ordered a hit on just a few weeks earlier. Even without Tasha's influence, there wasn't much chance of her playing nice with law enforcement next season. But as it is... I feel like we watched a sleeping dragon wake up.

Especially now that she's apprenticed to Sith Master Tasha.

Y: I DID NOT SEE ANY OF THIS COMING!! I think this may have been the one plot twist that shocked me the most in the finale. I know that is strange to say with everything else that happened, but seeing young innocent sweet Blake take her first steps towards joining the Sith Order was not expected.

I think Blake as a villain has so much potential and is very very interesting because for once we might see a villain on the show who is driven purely by rage and betrayal and anger. If we look back, all the others have had very solid ideological mindsets and their evilness was not in anything more than their misguided way. Okay, they also maybe killed a lot of people along the way.

Roman in season three may have been driven by anger and heartbreak, but even in his case there was a greater good he was trying to serve. Blake… Blake is a wildcard and dangerous in that.

And it doesn’t help that by her side she has someone who at this point has absolutely nothing to lose...

L: Oh, Tasha. What the hell are you up to?

Let's look at this episode sequentially. We see Tasha waking up in Reade's apartment, pretty contented with the previous evening's activities. She's got her little "happy Tasha" smile going on, so I think it's safe to say that she's being pretty genuine in this scene-- happy about things with Reade but still worried about her career. But by the time she gets to his office later, something has changed. She pushes Reade away, telling him, that it's "the wrong time"-- which apparently it wasn't last night? She's been mooning over him all season and now that she finally has what she wants, she's changed her mind? (The sex can't have been that bad, could it?)

So, no, I don't believe that Tasha just spontaneously decided to turn to the dark side. As she tells Reade, "They've backed me into a corner." This statement makes it seem a lot more likely that the scenario we considered last week is true. By demolishing her professional reputation so effectively, the CIA could pretty much ask Tasha to do anything, dangling the promise of having her career restored as incentive. And having her publicly fired gives her a solid cover story to take to Blake (without the same risk of exposure that Roman had)-- she wants to get revenge on the CIA for the way they treated her. The tears in her eyes as she walks out of the NYO seem to indicate that she's being forced into something and isn't exactly racing to embrace the Super Villain life.

But even if she's not there by her own choice... She still intentionally blew Roman's cover and essentially ordered his execution. "You should've let me do it," she tells Blake. She's committed to this plan of action, which might save her career... at the cost of her friends and the man she loves.

Oh, Tasha, you never do anything the easy way, do you??

Y: I guess Tasha was just full of surprises for all of us this week.

Dammit. I hate when I’m right about something I don’t want to be right about! Natasha Zapata what on earth are you doing?! I know you’ve had a rough time lately and have felt so alone and so desperate and so disillusioned by this world, but no! You cannot do this to us! Ever since episode 3.17, we’ve been speculating that Tasha is up to something. She’s been off and when the firing from the CIA came along, we said that it just didn’t feel right. And now, all it took was one small scene with Blake at the end of the episode to blow everything up in our faces and open up season four in ways we have never seen before.

I don’t think that Tasha has turned evil. I think her working with Blake is part of a deep undercover operation for the CIA, and they’ve been hinting a lot towards that with Tasha in the second half of the season. And honestly, she is due a meaty storyline but this is just going to hit us with all the unexpected twists and turns. And while I don’t think she’s evil now, I do believe that working undercover with Blake and being a part of this world is going to test Tasha’s beliefs and Tasha’s character in so many ways. And she will probably be tempted in more ways than she even expects. She has always been the most morally ambiguous of the team, and this next stage in her journey will determine where Tasha really stands.

I’m just worried how the team-- her friends and family-- will take this especially when she’s fresh off another betrayal.

This show and these kids are exhausting. Can we instead watch the Wonder Twins Happy Hour instead?

L: Sounds good to me!

A final thought here... We have Tasha, who knows the FBI team better than anyone out there. We have Blake, who has power and nearly unlimited resources. And we've got Kira Evans, who helped architect all of Crawford's plans. Shakespeare's three witches were creepy, but these three? I guess I won't be sleeping during season four. At all.

Roman… oh my sweet beautiful Roman…

Y: Traditionally, where I come from we mourn for three days, then hold a vigil after a week, then another after forty days, then another after one year… I’m going to break all traditions here and mourn every single day for the rest of days if that is okay with you.

No but seriously, how are we expected to say anything here except sob uncontrollably and stuff our faces in chocolate? Are people really expecting us to use words and string them along to make sentences that make sense and are coherent and useful? Rude.

Okay, let’s just rip the band-aid right off. Roman died. Our worst nightmare and greatest fear. Roman died in his sister’s arms back home in Cape Town, the place that holds the only few happy memories he ever knew and also the place where his tragic story began. But he died loved and forgiven by his sister, he died admitting his darkest fears, and he died redeeming himself. It was beautiful and heartbreaking and I cannot even think about it without bawling my eyes out. And there are not even enough awards in the universe to bestow upon Luke Mitchell for not only his performance in that one scene, but for every single second he was on our screens as Roman. Both the actor and the character are gifts and treasures and will never be forgotten and will always be a beloved favorite.

::Deep breath. Wipes face. Eats Chocolate::

Now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about why Roman went to South Africa and finally finding out why he has spent two years dedicating his life to bringing down Hank Crawford specifically. We’ve been speculating all season as to why Roman has been targeting Hank Crawford, why him of all the evil men out there. And we’ve talked about how it has to be something more personal than anything else. And as Roman led everyone back to Cape Town, it all became very very painfully clear.

Hank Crawford is the man responsible for the orphanage-- the one young Eon and Alice were taken to as children after their parents were so brutally murdered, were they were tortured physically and emotionally and psychologically and trained to be ruthless and merciless killers. And it turns it, that had been Crawford’s pet project-- his dream-- that aligns quite well with his current world vision.

I don’t know about you, but this whole thing, the orphanage and Crawford and his messed up world peace manifesto, creep me the hell out, and if Jane hadn’t killed him, I would very much like to do it myself.

Roman takes Crawford back to the orphanage, ties him to a chair and forces him to come face to face with this seventh pit of hell that he’d created and face to face with one of its products. But instead of being horrified of what he’d done, Crawford is actually proud. He looks at Roman as a success, and I just want to curl up and cry and hide from the world.

In their final standoff, Roman and Crawford-- and Luke Mitchell and David Morse-- give us what has been one of the season’s most impressive strengths in the chemistry and the dynamics between these two. As tragic and painful as it was to watch their scenes, with Roman being so vulnerable and so exposed, it was still a pleasure and an honor to watch these two share the screen one final time. And as much as the narrative needed these two characters to die, it is such a huge loss to see them go because they elevated season three in their performances and their relationship every single time they were in a scene together.

Up until the last minute, Roman still had a few tricks up his sleeve, too. He leaves us with another mysterious phone call and a cryptic message and a parting gift for his sister.

Roman’s story, I believe, will always be one of the most tragic that we will witness on this show. My heart breaks for him and everything that he had to go through-- his life was one long and endless tragedy, full of pain and suffering and loss. He may have been a villain in some ways, but he was more a victim than anything else and he died broken and if you’ll excuse me, there’s a chocolate factory waiting for me to go live in it.

L: Honestly, there isn't enough chocolate in the world to cope with this. What was that news about the world running out of chocolate in the future? This episode alone moved that date up by at least two years. Maybe three.

The worst part of it was, we knew it was coming, and we still couldn't do anything to stop it. As soon as Roman was revealed as the architect of the new batch of tattoos, his days were numbered. This is a show about solving tattoo puzzles, and there would be nothing to solve if the guy with all the answers was standing in your corner. As much as we hoped that Roman would get his memory wiped again-- for good-- and turn away from the dark side, it was not to be.

And I am still beyond heartbroken, because I wholeheartedly agree with you: Luke Mitchell owned every scene he was in. I mean, when we first met Roman, he killed six cops. Six good guys, innocently doing their jobs, taken out by a member of the organization that our team of good guys were trying to stop. We should have hated him on sight, but then he hugged Jane and gave her back their parents' coin and told Shepherd, "My sister's still in there... I'm positive." He rooted for Jane, and so we rooted for him. Even this season, when he tattooed Jane, kidnapped and sold the team into slavery, held his niece hostage, and then ordered hits on the whole team... we still wanted him to find a happy ending. That's kind of impressive, when you think about it. (I mean, we all might need our heads examined, but you still have to respect the writing and acting that made that evoked that kind of response!)

And we weren't alone. Even Jane said, "Sometimes it felt like it felt like he was one of us, too." He may have been a bad guy, but he felt like a good guy. He helped the team in season two. And even in season three, when he positioned himself as their adversary, he still wanted to stop the corruption he spelled out in the tattoos, essentially functioning as an advance team for them. Throughout this season, it felt like he was trying to work his way back into Jane's good graces, to show her that he was one of the good guys (and that the team that she trusted weren't as honest or as innocent as she might have thought). In the end, all that Roman really wanted was his family back.

And that is, I think, why no matter how many people he killed or evil plots he launched, he didn't really feel like a villain. He was, at his core, a victim. One who sought revenge, yes, but who came from a place of incredibly deep hurt. His story was summed up by his sad, hopeless line, "I never got out of that hole." Crawford and his associates threw him in there when he was just a child, and he spent the rest of his life trying unsuccessfully to escape. The one solace that he had was his sister, and he lost her when he left her in Times Square. From the moment we met Roman, all he wanted was to get Remi back. He thought that by the time Phase Two was over, he'd get her back. And when that failed, he spent two years designing a plan to bring her home, not just to South Africa, but back to him, so she would remember who she was and what they mean to each other. And to compound the tragedy of his death, Remi finally remembers who she is, but it's too late for him.

I keep going back to Crawford's line, "Sometimes our missions turn us into monsters." The theme of monsters is one that this show has explored before. Bill Weller. Coach Jones. Shepherd. Crawford was a monster whose mission was to make monsters. And both of our siblings have worried about that streak inside of them, the killer instincts that were forced on them and honed until violence was all they knew. "I killed people. That's who I was. A monster," Roman tells Weller in 2.17, to which Weller replies, "Maybe old Roman wasn't a monster. Maybe he was just being controlled by one." Roman wasn't a monster in his heart. If he had been, he would have been able to walk away from his sister. He would have killed Crawford and walked away from Blake. But he couldn't. Because inside, he was still the little boy who couldn't get out of the hole, the little boy who needed love.

Crawford is able to read this, and that's one of the things that makes that last scene between the two of them so powerful. He offers Roman a place with him in a bid for his freedom. But Roman shuts him down. "No, your love and loyalty is, and always will be, transactional, just like the woman who rescued me from this place." I think this says so much about Roman's life, why he created this plan, why he nearly abandoned it, and why he ultimately saw it through to its painful, tragic end. His parents loved him unconditionally but were brutally murdered, and he was taken away from them. He was thrown into an orphanage, where he was valued only for what he could do. If he could kill, he could live; fail, and he would die. Then he was "rescued" by Shepherd, who wasn't really that different-- she claimed to love him, but that love came at the expense of his relationship with his sister. And then finally, even Remi left him, by putting the mission above their relationship, and then by becoming Jane and abandoning even that. In Blake, he thought saw someone who could love him for who he was-- except that he was playing a role, so even if her feelings were genuine, they still weren't real. It wasn't until it was too late that Jane found him and offered the one thing he needed-- love that was unconditional. Love that forgave him for the things he'd done, rather than being dependent upon the things he was expected to do.

And so maybe, if there is any comfort to be found, it's that he died with the sister he loved, and he died hearing her tell him she loved him and forgave him for all his sins.

We love Roman, and we just can't let him go. Are we delusional with grief? Or is there hope that we might see more of him (or at least Luke Mitchell) next season?

L: An astute fan discovered that, going frame by frame, there appears to be another child in the flashback scenes of Alice and Eon in their family home and by the tree. (Also, if you play the episode backwards, it says, "Roman is dead.") And frankly, that would explain a lot. Like why there were two beds in the bedroom where Jane found the gun and the photo of her family. The Kruger family was obviously well-off, and their house is quite large. There would be little reason for children Alice and Eon's age to share a bedroom. But if there was another sibling, it would make sense that twin brothers might share a room. (Dammit Jane, why couldn't you take a few minutes to walk around and see if anything else jogged your memory?! Like maybe your actual bedroom??)

This theory could also explain who Roman was talking to on the phone and wishing he could have "just been a family" with. And since that person also seemed to have some medical knowledge of Roman's condition, it seems like the "Ghost of Christmas What If" might be a real person-- Eon's twin brother. One that apparently Remi doesn't seem to know about, if we can trust Roman's hallucinations. Perhaps she believed that he died when their parents died and Alice and Eon were abducted? Only somehow he escaped the orphanage of horrors, and Roman found him in between the time when Remi had her memory wiped and Roman began his scheme to get Crawford. Perhaps this mystery brother is a scientist searching for a cure for Jane's illness. (And if so, oh man, I really want Patterson to meet him.)

Or maybe we're just grasping at straws because we still absolutely cannot handle the idea that Roman is well and truly dead. Is self-delusion a better choice than overdosing on chocolate?

Y: I have never wished for a theory to be right more than this one. It was a very clever move from the writers to hide “young blond boy” in the flashbacks. And I honestly hope more than anything that they knew we would dig it up. This is the kind of dialogue between creators and fans that I absolutely love.

I don’t think anyone can tell us that there was not a second boy in those flashbacks. Is it a Kruger sibling? A cousin? A family friend? Whoever it is, I think that he currently leads the polls at being the person Roman was in contact with. And yes, we love Luke and want him back as his own twin and the Ghost of Christmas What If.

What is interesting is that “Remi" did not seem to recognize him in Roman’s hallucination-- assuming it was Roman’s “what if” version of himself-- but it could be safe to assume that both Roman and Remi were under the impression he had been killed with their parents and that Roman only found out about him in the past two years while researching Xander.

Either way, I’m sticking with this theory… call it a delusion if you want, and I’m stuffing my face with chocolate. Ah, the best of both worlds.

Roman wasn't the only Kruger heading back home in this episode. How did Jane deal with her homecoming?

L: Poor Jane really goes on a rollercoaster ride in the finale. She starts off with a final challenge from her brother, the brother she has officially sworn to bring down. In the previous episode, we saw her telling Weller that Remi and Roman were halves of a whole, but that as Jane she is able to let Roman go and move on with Kurt and the future they are making together. When she passes out unexpectedly, she leaps to the happy conclusion that she must be pregnant. She nervously tells Weller, who is delighted, and the two of them happily contemplate a future in which all of this is over and they can live happily ever after.

But of course, this is Blindspot, so instead of a happy ending, let's talk about what emotionally traumatizing things happen instead, shall we?

Roman leads Jane back to South Africa, where she assailed by memories of the happy portion of her childhood. (Apparently ignoring that in previous flashbacks, she and Eon appear to be much younger when they were abducted.) We see her with Eon and with their parents, living the carefree existence that was so cruelly stolen from them. She sees her childhood home, apparently left more or less untouched since her parents were killed, and a picture of her, Eon, and their parents. (But no other family pictures on the walls anywhere?) And she realizes, correctly, that this is "a reckoning" of sorts, "He's bringing me back to the beginning before he takes me to the end." Roman is reminding her of what they had, of what they meant to each other. And then he takes her to the orphanage where their childhood innocence was so cruelly stripped away, where they were turned into the monsters that Crawford and Shepherd wanted them to be. And there, she finally comes face to face with Crawford.

What was interesting to me about this scene was the fact that she doesn't really know why Crawford is there. I mean, she can probably guess that his presence there indicates he is in some way connected to the orphanage, but she doesn't know for certain. And she pumps four bullets into him before she gets any kind of explanation. This is Jane; she can fire a single fatal bullet into an enemy without blinking. Four bullets is excessive. Four bullets shows an emotional rather than tactical response (which would probably have been more like a single bullet in the arm holding the gun, allowing the FBI to arrest and question Crawford and prosecute him for his crimes). Like her brother and her daughter, Jane is impulsive and her decision making isn't the best when she's emotionally involved. And clearly, Roman primed the emotional pump by leading her through everything that preceded their arrival at the orphanage, and then giving Crawford the empty gun to hold.

Jane chases Roman from the orphanage and ultimately catches up with him on the hill where he is dying from a bullet wound. And as painful as it was to watch Roman pass away, what made it so much worse was watching Jane as she realized he was slipping away. To quote Hamilton, "Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder." For all that Jane has insisted that she didn't need Roman, that she was prepared to kill him when she encountered him again, it's clear in that moment that, while that might have been what she wanted to believe, none of that was actually true. No matter what they'd done to each other, he was still her little brother, and protecting him was still hardwired inside of her. The first thing she asks when she finds him is, "Who did this?" And I don't care whether she's Remi or Jane or Alice... she's going to be gunning for Blake Crawford next season. (Who will be gunning for Jane because Jane killed her father. This should be fun.)

Which bring us to the end of the episode. Jane passes out and wakes up as Remi? WTF??

Y: WTF indeed. I’m trying to organize my thoughts and my notes here, but it’s just all over the place. I know we need to break this down both emotionally, because very many feels, and intellectually because there is so much to dissect and discuss but it’s just all messed up.

But let me try okay? And please, feel free to steer me back on track if I veer off and go on some sobbing tangent, which I promise you will definitely happen.

Who am I?

This has been the one question that Jane has carried with her from the moment she woke in Times Square. And while she has made progress in learning and building and evolving as Jane, the question remains quite valid. For a long time she’s identified herself as not someone else. She was not Taylor Shaw. She was not Alice Kruger. She was not Remi Briggs. Jane Doe has developed and has evolved and has traveled all over the world trying to understand who she is. But the question of who is she really has never been answered. In season one, plagued by horrifying flashbacks, she wondered if she’d been a terrible person before. And in season two, having learned of her past, she put as much distance as she could between herself and that person. She completely detached from her. And after her eighteen months backpacking across the world, she came back with a clearer understanding of who she is and what her purpose is.

And she stood there and confidently said, “I am not Remi.”

Well that’s great and all, but Jane now has to prove it, doesn’t she? She’s never had to go face to face against her past self, the one who put her here. The dream in 2.07 is finally coming true.

And I am terrified.

This is Jane’s ultimate battle, her toughest one yet. She managed to overcome the easiest connection from her past in season one, Oscar. And then in season two, she had to take down what was essentially level 2 of previous life connections in Shepherd, her adoptive mother. Season three pitted her against what she thought was the strongest bond she had left of her past, the strongest emotional bond she ever shared with anyone, in Roman.

Well, she’s finally up against her toughest opponent yet. Remi. Herself.

Like I said, absolutely terrified.

L: All of this!

From the moment Jane climbed out of a bag with no memories, she's wondered who she was. And we've wondered if she would ever remember who she was. The more she insisted that her memory wipe was the best thing that ever happened to her, the more certain we were that eventually she would get her memory back (because just like true love, the course of prime time television never runs smooth), but this development is an interesting twist. (Although I do have to wonder who spoke up in the writers' room and said, "Hey, let's give the amnesiac amnesia!") Instead of just giving back her memories of her life before Jane, she's been essentially reset to the person she was before she was dropped on in Times Square.

So yes, Jane has an internal battle ahead of her. Another reckoning. Or actually, two of them. First, as Remi, reconciling what she learns about Jane and the life she's led for the past three years with the mission Remi embarked on, and second, when she regains her Jane memories (because eventually she will) and has to reconcile the two halves of herself. Because ultimately, it's not really a question of Remi versus Jane. They are the same person. In the end, Alice/Remi/Jane must discover how to live within that single skin, to make peace with all the decisions she's made in the past and choose the path she wants to follow in the future. (And also choose a name. Preferably one that ends in "Weller.")

Despite the fact that everyone has been treating them as two separate identities, Jane and Remi are simply different facets of the same person, and they aren't as dissimilar as we might think. Oscar told Jane that Remi was compassionate, loyal, patient, and stubborn. Sound familiar? Jane's compassion is directed at a personal level, to the people she cares about and the victims she encountered working with the FBI. Remi's is directed at a larger scale, looking to stop a corrupt government from harming countless anonymous citizens. As we talked about with regard to Crawford above and in previous reviews with Shepherd, the villains in this show are so scary because their goals are understandable, even relatable. Shepherd wanted to clean up the government. Crawford wanted to end wars. Noble goals, but questionable methods. In this show, there is no black or white, there's just where you personally choose to draw the line. We've watched members of our team shift where they draw that line almost every week, covering up murders, tampering with evidence, etc., but all for reasons that we understood and sympathized with. Remi draws the line in a different place than Jane does. But the motivation-- the compassion-- that drives her has always been the same.

And just like Dorothy's ruby slippers, Remi has been with Jane this whole time. Her reflexes and instincts have kept Jane alive in the field since day one, and saved her teammates' lives repeatedly. Her training kept Jane alive in the CIA black site and while she was on the run from the contract on her life. And her skills gave Jane purpose and a way to define herself when she needed a reason to keep going. Remi is there in the loyalty Jane showed to her FBI teammates, no different than the loyalty Remi showed her military unit or her Sandstorm team, and in her commitment to causes she believes in, whether it's overthrowing the government or arresting criminals. Remi always had to guard her heart closely and let very few inside, and we can see that reflected in how hard it is for Jane to open up about her feelings, to take risks that might result in her getting hurt again.

It is tempting to label Remi as "bad" and Jane as "good" but the truth is, they are both flawed. And that's a good thing, really. Perfect characters aren't interesting or believable. We relate to flawed characters, and we root for them. Jane is impulsive and though her intentions are usually good, she sometimes makes disastrous decisions. The second half of the first season could be renamed "Jane Doe and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Decisions." The first half of season two was Jane trying to atone for those decisions. And then she ZIPs Roman and lies to him about who did it, and season three is dealing with the fallout from that decision. She makes more bad decisions when she decides to leave Kurt in order to protect him (and sleeps with Clem while she's on the run). So really, Jane has very little room to judge Remi. Remi's decisions were, in some ways, much simpler: Most of them were just whatever she had to do in order to survive.

It's going to be interesting to watch both Remi and Jane wrestling with the demon that is the other. But the person who emerges on the other side of these conflicts is going to be so much stronger, so much more complete than either of these fractured souls were alone.

I can't wait to meet her!

Y: Season four is going to be extremely interesting. Remi thinks she knows everything. She did spend enough time studying this team and this world to be able to infiltrate it and tear it apart. But the world she will find herself in is not the one she planned for three years ago. The people she targeted are not the same people. Jane’s presence during this three years not only affected the mission but all the other parameters. Watching Remi navigate this world, seeing what she will do to rebuild Sandstorm or whatever she thinks is fit to do, seeing her trying to break this team down, watching her trying to impersonate Jane… it’s going to be way harder than she thinks.

That is not to mention that Rich Dotcom is there, and I have lots of faith in him to really unbalance her world.

Also, Avery. Avery has so much potential as a wildcard to change everything. I just hope she doesn’t mysteriously disappear off to college in the first two minutes of 4.01.

L: Oh, me too. Please, writers, don't write her out the way you did Bethany! From what Roman told us, losing Avery was the event that really changed the trajectory of Remi's life. It caused her to run away from Shepherd and enlist in the military, where she somehow got involved with Orion, which led to her team being killed in Afghanistan and the hospital being bombed, which apparently sent her back home to mom to plan an infiltration of the FBI and total overthrow of the American government. So whatever plans she may have had when she set out for the FBI, carrying them out might come smack up against keeping her daughter in her life. And while Remi would no doubt give up Kurt in a heartbeat, giving up the daughter she finally has back would be a hell of a lot harder for her, and would definitely push the limits of the sacrifices Remi is willing to make for her mission.

And I am hoping that, at long last, we get some answers about what Orion is and why having her memory erased was Jane's only choice. And why "rip the FBI apart"? Wasn't this team selected because Sandstorm trusted them to pursue the cases of corruption? Weller was supposed to take over once the corrupt officials were removed. Mayfair is gone, Hirst is gone (Did Shepherd know she was dirty? Although since they were both tight with Crawford, maybe she didn't consider Hirst a problem?), and Pellington is gone (who was on a pretty comfortable first-name basis with Shepherd for someone who wasn't dirty). Is there more corruption at the FBI to uncover?

So. Many. Questions.

Why isn't it September yet?

Do hospitals offer “couple's suites”? Because by the end of the episode, we left Kurt also lying on a hospital bed, finally succumbing to a field injury and barely hanging on with a grim diagnosis. But ironically, if you ask Kurt, that is not the worst thing that happened that day…

Y: Once again, I know this is a review of this one episode and not a reflection on the whole season, but I just need to say this. I talked above how season three was a great character journey for both Reade and Rich, and in the same way, season two was for Kurt. And the man we have in season three is the result of that amazing journey and it just shows in every possible way. That is not to say that he did not have a journey or a character arc in season three. He did, and it was an organic continuation of season two, but it’s just beautiful watching a character grow and learn and develop so much. Like I said, I’m a sucker for well written and developed characters.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Commence sobbing in 3… 2… 1…

Oh, that’s not what we’re doing? Dammit, this reviewing business is hard work when you just want to cry.

L: There, there. Have more chocolate. It's going to be okay. We're pretty sure that Kurt is going to survive his injury. Let's cling to that, shall we?

But I do agree with you about Kurt's arc. He started this series all walled off, and then Jane Doe showed up in his interrogation room, and the poor man spent two seasons fighting a losing battle to keep her out.

This season, his whole purpose was to bring Jane home (first from Nepal and then from their separation) and re-build their life together. And the culmination of all of this was Jane's shy confession that she thought she was pregnant. A child, the start of their family together, would cement their commitment to one another. Having lost Avery so painfully in her youth, there is simply no way that Jane would ever part from a child of her own, and therefore would never leave Weller again. Which is what makes the end of this episode so incredibly painful. In just a few moments, all of that is stripped away. He discovers that not only is Jane not pregnant, she is dying from the ZIP poisoning that brought her to him. And by the end of the episode, the fact that he is unconscious and on the brink of death seems almost merciful, because he is spared the full measure of his loss, the knowledge that even if the ZIP doesn't kill Jane, the person that he loved is already gone.

But you know what? This is Kurt Weller. This is the man who spent eighteen months circling the globe trying to find his missing wife. He's not about to turn over a new leaf now. He's going to escape from his hospital bed just as soon as he can (and judging by previous examples, long before medical professionals think he should), so he can get back to the job of finding a cure for his wife. And at some point in there, when he realizes that Jane's not exactly the woman he married? He's going to do what he does best and figure out how to bring her home, too. It's what he does. And my money will always be on him.

And where does that leave our Jeller? They start the episode thinking they might be having a baby and end the episode… not there at all. How do things look for the future of our beloved ship?

Y: Well, if they weren’t endgame then we wouldn’t have to deal with so many challenges and roadblocks and heartbreaks thrown in there way, would we? As much as we would all love a show that is an hour-long dedication to domestic, happy, flirty Jeller, we also know that this would never happen. But at least we know they’re endgame and might as well enjoy them prove time after time after time that their bond is the strongest and that their love can overcome anything and will always prevail.

And until then, just keep your chocolate stash full and accessible.

I have faith that these two will always overcome anything thrown their way. Just look at what they’ve had to deal with already. And yes, each season brings bigger and tougher challenges and I am not saying it is going to be easy. Quite the contrary, it is going to be absolutely devastating and painful but this journey and the destination are totally worth it.

L: This season certainly took us from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. Season four hasn't even started, but looks like it's on course to surpass both extremes! But I agree, if there's one thing that we can take away from this, it's how well these two scale any obstacles that insert themselves between them.

And even though the Jane who loves Weller might be temporarily inaccessible, she's not gone. She's still there, buried deep inside Remi, and no one knows her better, all her strengths and weaknesses, than Weller. I am really looking forward to seeing what Remi makes of Weller. It's a safe bet that no one in Remi's life has ever loved her as much or as selflessly as Weller loves Jane. And I think she's going to be rather shocked at how hard he is to shake, even when she's made it clear that he's not dealing with Jane any more.

I keep thinking about all the times this season that Jane insisted that all she wanted was to bring Roman down. She kept trying to distance herself from the love she had for Roman. Even when he died, she just said, "He's gone. What is there to say?" But every time she denied that connection, Weller reminded her that Roman was still her brother and it was okay for her to still love him. In some ways, he's always been the one who told her it was okay to love people, to show her feelings, that it was worth the risk of getting hurt. Jane would have walked away at the end of season two if it hadn't been for Kurt telling her that he loved her. And she might not have come back at the start of this season if he hadn't made it clear that he wanted her to come back and for the two of them to try to rebuild their marriage. But if Jane seemed like a tough nut to crack, then Remi is going to be more like a giant boulder. In some ways, it's kind of their same story, but in reverse: This time it will be Remi with all the walls and Weller who wears away at them until she finally lets him in.

And yes, there is going to be angst and heartbreak and more chocolate consumption than is remotely healthy. But I'm really looking forward to watching these two fall in love with each other all over again.

Well, that’s it for this season! Can you believe the season is over? It feels like just yesterday we were gearing up for season three! But more importantly, have you wrapped your mind about everything that happened in the finale? How do you feel? Have you stopped crying? How much chocolate weight have you gained? Do you own a time travel machine that can get us through the hiatus faster? We can’t wait to hear your thoughts and share your tears!

-- Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: episode review #character: jane doe #character: kurt weller #character: roman #character: edgar reade #character: tasha zapata #character: patterson #character: hank crawford #character: blake crawford #character: kira evans #character: rich dotcom #ship: Jane/Kurt #ship: tasha/reade

48 notes · View notes

more--than--anything · 6 years

Text

Feature: Our never-ending list of questions, Season 3 finale edition

It's that time of year, boys and girls. The season finale is upon us, and once again, Martin Gero is promising that we'll get lots of answers. So it's time for us to make our list of questions that are keeping us awake at night. Here we go:

What is wrong with Roman? Is it the result of the ZIP he received? And if so, how worried should we be about Jane?

Who is the mystery person(s) Roman has been talking to on the phone? Is there more than one?

Is there any hope that Roman and Jane can reconcile? Or at least refrain from killing each other?

Why did Roman target Crawford in the first place? Is there a connection between Crawford and Roman's (and Remi's) past beyond Shepherd?

What is the rest of Crawford's plan for world domination?

Does Crawford (or Blake) know or suspect the truth about Roman's identity?

How much does Blake know about what her father does? Is she really that ignorant of all that goes on? Or is she just that good an actress?

Is there any chance that Blake might be able to forgive Roman?

Can Avery be trusted? Is she working with Roman?

What were the circumstances and the details of the deal behind Robert Drabkin and his wife adopting Avery? What was in it for Shepherd and Crawford?

What’s up with Avery’s bird necklace? Is there any connection to Jane's neck tattoo?

Will we ever see Bethany again? Will Jeller ever discuss having children of their own?

Have we seen the last of Shepherd? Of Hirst? How about Nas? Or Borden?

What about Cade? Is he dead or just injured and recuperating in a nice CIA black site?

Who is in charge of the FBI now that Hirst is gone?

Is Reade safe from the OPR now? Will there be any fallout from his relationship with Meg?

Will we ever find out what happens to Meg after she tells her story?

What about Tasha? Is there any hope for her to salvage her career?

Why did the CIA want the cell phone? Was it just to frame Tasha? (And if so, why?) Or does the CIA also have some plan for that region?

Will Jane and Weller be allowed to be happy?

Will Jane continue to consult with the FBI when/if they bring Crawford and Roman down?

Will Jane stick to her vegan diet or was it just a phase?

Will Reade and Tasha be allowed to be happy?

Will Patterson ever find love again?

Will Patterson stay with the FBI considering she only agreed to rejoin the team for these new glowing tattoos case?

Will Rich ever reconcile with Boston?

Will Rich stay on as an FBI consultant? How long does his deal run, and will he ever be truly free?

When will Bill Nye come back???

WILL EVERYONE SURVIVE THIS SEASON FINALE???

WILL ANYONE SURVIVE THE SEASON FINALE???

And then there are those nagging questions that we've been asking since season one. Will we ever receive answers to these?

What happened to Kurt’s mom?

Why did Bill Weller kill Taylor Shaw?

Why was having her memory wiped Jane's "only choice"?

Will we ever learn what Orion is?

What happened to Sofia Varma?

Will Sarah and Sawyer ever come back?

Will we ever see Ana Montes again?

No, really, what is Patterson’s first name?

Where is Kurt’s thigh holster?

Who’s taking care of Felix?

What burning questions are keeping YOU awake at night? Come talk to our ask box! We want to know!

--Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: feature #blindspot: theories and metas #character: jane doe #character: kurt weller #character: edgar reade #character: tasha zapata #character: patterson #character: rich dotcom #character: avery #character: hank crawford #character: blake crawford #character: shepherd #character: eleanor hirst #character: nas kamal #character: robert borden #character: cade #character: megan butani #character: bill nye

41 notes · View notes

more--than--anything · 6 years

Text

Episode Review: "Hands off my computers, Mulder." [S03E19]

It looks like the Jane vs. Roman showdown has begun in full force. But this episode brought us a little more than a little sibling rivalry. What did you think of Galaxy of Minds?

Y: I really enjoyed it. It had a little of everything that I love about this show and a doomsday weapon of sorts. It set up the Jane/Roman finale showdown quite well and while most of the characters took somewhat of a back seat, I think it was important to focus on Roman as we did before moving into the last episodes.

L: I thought this was a very solid episode. Roman was terrifying, the case was intense but brought a little levity into this world that has been so super serious lately, and we even got a tiny bit of Jeller. What a lovely way to usher in the remainder of the season, which is probably going to leave me curled up in the fetal position.

I was surprised that it took us 64 episodes to get a conspiracy theory nut job case. It seems something that would be right up Blindspot’s alley. How did the quirky Dash fit into this week’s case?

L: For a show that is built on secrets and conspiracies, you’re right, it’s kind of surprising that it took us this long to get to “brain rays.” That said, maybe it’s all the years I spent watching The X-Files, but I kind of loved Dash and all the quirky aspects of this case.

Events kick off this week when the tattoo database--which has been quiet since Roman changed his allegiance to Team Crawford--chimes with an alert for a book that just became available for pre-order. The name of the book, “Golden Rhino,” corresponds to a tattoo that is half golden stag beetle, half rhinoceros beetle. I loved Reade identifying the bugs, “Why are you looking at me like that? I have other interests.” It seems a clear call back to Tasha being able to identify the constellation Aldebaran in 1.17, “I like stars, and I was very unpopular in high school.” Maybe we’re supposed to infer that this means these two are compatible, but honestly, to me it just says that everyone on this team is a wee bit geeky in their own way--which probably explains why I love them all so much.

The team hauls in the author of the book, Daschelle (“Call me Dash”) Watkins. He’s a conspiracy theorist who seems nuttier than a fruitcake at first, but as it turns out, his ideas aren’t as far out there as they seem. He tells the team that Golden Rhino is a super-secret military weapons program that was used to assassinate General Joseph Baxter. They are skeptical--especially when he insists that the weapon is a mind-control device--but his intel checks out. Michael Ganzman was the lead engineer for Varnew Industries, one of the largest defense contractors in the country, until he got fired and dropped off the grid, and Baxter was overseeing a weapons contract with Varnew.

Patterson gets tasked with the fun job of sifting through all of Dash’s madness, I mean, research. “Who doesn’t want to sift through the collected works of a madman with said madman? That sounds super fun.” (Too bad things didn’t work out with Jack. I’m sure he’d have loved discussing his Bigfoot evidence with Dash.) One piece of evidence is the black box from Baxter’s plane before it crashed. There isn’t much to the recording, just the windows shattering, no communication from the cockpit, and then a sound that Dash refers to as the “warbles.” (Not to be confused with the Nergal device or the Nargles from Harry Potter, although if there were a connection to either one of these, I have no doubt that Dash could find it.) Dash also has a long list of any out-of-towners in the area of the crash who could have acted as a triggerman on the ground. Patterson is able to cross-reference that list with her own database and comes up with one name who worked for Varnew, Surjik Fells. Unfortunately, he was abducted from police custody that morning by none other than Roman.

The team realizes that Roman is also looking for Ganzman, which tells them they are on the right path. They send a team to investigate a property connected to Ganzman in Oneata, New York, but the pilot of the helicopter reports that his nose is bleeding, and then they hear “warbles” in the background and lose contact with the team. Patterson deduces that the sound they hear comes from a hyper-focused sonic weapon. The FBI brings in the Varnew CEO, Camille Moon, but she refuses to cooperate until Jane stages a fake interview with Avery, in which Avery states that her father kept a journal that recorded each of his meetings with Camille. Afraid that she might be implicated in the deaths of the FBI agents whose helicopter crashed, Camille agrees to help the FBI. She directs them to a factory in Woodstock, where the team arrives to find Ganzman--and the weapon. They are able to destroy the weapon before they are seriously harmed (although Jane is pretty cool about the fact that her husband’s brain is hemorrhaging right in front of her), but Roman gets to Ganzman first and kills him. Jane chases him, but neither she nor Roman is able to take out the other (either because they can’t get the shot or they can’t actually take the shot; hard to tell which, at this point), and Roman gets away.

So the team failed to capture Roman, but they did destroy a powerful weapon before it fell into Crawford’s hands. I’d say that it feels like win, except that Roman apparently unleashed a torrent of hits designed to flood the tattoo database with alerts. Now our team isn’t only flying blind, without Roman’s assistance, they are going to have find real clues like needles in a whole field of haystacks. One step up and two steps back...

Y: Can I start by saying that Crawford being after a mind controlling death ray weapon is very much a comic book super villain and I absolutely love everything about it?

I love when Blindspot manages to pull off a case like this one with equal balance between the trepidation and fear of something absolutely horrible but also add some humor and lightness to it. It’s usually done through a quirky one-time guest star like Dash and gets bonus points when it lands on Patterson to babysit this guest star. And somehow it always ends up on her to do so. It’s not enough that she carries on her shoulder keeping everyone alive week after week, she also has to make room from the crazies invading her lab. All this episode needed was, like you said, some conspiracy nut like Jack to make it complete.

I love how the team--okay, mainly Patterson--succeed in sifting through the madness to make some sense of what is going on and solve this case. I may be biased because I love this team but it just goes to show just how good this team is and how they lean onto each other’s strengths to get things done to solve even the most twisted of puzzles.

I’m sorry, I forgot this is not supposed to be a love letter to the team. Excuse me.

And while they did get to take that weapon off the market, once again, Roman is there to ruin the day for them. They never get a chance to catch their breath and celebrate the small victories. And what is more frustrating I think is that neither the team and nor we as viewers know what Crawford is up to. Okay, granted we might have some more insight thanks to seeing things from Roman’s point of view occasionally, but for the team, they are still in this fight not really knowing what they are up against. And to make things worse, Roman just threw a whole load of crap onto their servers. I really don’t envy their day jobs.

And speaking of Roman, that confrontation with Jane at the warehouse was just great. I’ve loved how they’ve escalated things between these two through the season. We started with the occasional taunting phone calls--you know as all sibling phone calls are--and the tug of war between the two with Roman mainly winning the emotional tugging at first. Then came their meeting in Croatia where Jane managed to press all the right buttons to mess him up psychologically. And finally this episode brought them face to face but with guns. Just the way Shepherd taught them to resolve family disputes. It’s quite interesting that whenever these two face each other while armed, they either cannot make the shot--whether it’s Roman in 2.10 or Jane in 2.22--or they suddenly have terrible aim as was the case in this episode and in 2.21 when Roman missed Jane from a few meters.

But what matters is that all this sets up the finale and the showdown between these two quite nicely. They’ve both announced their allegiances quite clearly and proved that when the time comes they know where they stand. So the question now is, where’s my chocolate?

This team just cannot catch a break. You’d think that after having assassins come after them, they would take a few days off, but here they are, back at work and back to what they do best--not running away from danger. How is the team doing? Please tell me they’ve all kissed and made up!

Y: Well to be fair, this week was slightly less jarring than last week, especially with the emotional tolls that last week carried, mainly for Tasha. Okay, maybe babysitting Dash was as exhausting for Patterson as a date with Jack was but still, at least no one tried to blow her up. While Patterson was stuck with Dash--and again I just love when they pair her up with the crazy ones because it is a recipe for golden moments like the quote in our title--Reade had probably the easiest day of all, getting to stay in his tailored three-piece suit and play the AD all day. And I’m not saying I envy his job, but not getting dirty is a rare thing on this show and Reade won the lottery this week. Tasha was quiet for most of the episode but did get to go on a brain-melting field trip with the Wellers and play some Humvee bowling, and now I am wondering if maybe she was the one who won the lottery instead.

I loved the moment between Tasha and Patterson in the end. Yes, Patterson is still not ready to let Tasha back in, but on the one hand she is not as cold and the cracks in the walls are starting to form. And on the other hand, I am proud of Tasha for not giving up. It’s hard being in Tasha’s place and still having hope and faith in your friendship and still trying to reconnect. These two may still be a long way away from where they once were, but I know they will find their way back to each other. Because if they don’t, I am going to need more chocolate.

L: Patterson definitely drew the short straw this week, babysitting Dash. But as always, she is able to put the pieces together and figure out the way to save the day. I agree, I think that Tasha continuing to reach out to Patterson is going to help break down the walls between them, but it’s not going to be instantaneous. And to some degree, I think that Patterson sorting out her personal stuff (finally moving on from Borden and trying out a date with Jack) is going to help her to come to place of peace with Tasha’s actions. Maybe not as quickly as we’d like, but eventually.

And honestly, at this point in the season, more chocolate is never a bad idea. We still have Reade planning a wedding with his illegally-in-this-country fiancée, and all of these weird unresolved feelings between him and Tasha to deal with. While Roman is gunning for the whole team. Yup, nothing but good times ahead...

Roman’s journey and story this season has been at the heart of everything, and the Roman we’ve seen so far this year has been a man in control and a man with a single-minded approach to a clear endgame. And this episode focused heavily on the younger Kruger sibling. Where’s the puppet master at right now? Still under control?

L: I think Roman is definitely losing control. And it’s not just juggling his relationship with Blake with his duties for Crawford, although maintaining that delicate balance is certainly taxing him to the max. He knows that the situation he is in is untenable: His cover as “Tom” won’t last forever, and he really doesn’t want it to--he wants desperately to be honest with Blake and have her love him for who he is really is, but at the same time, he knows that if he tells her the truth, he will lose her forever. Maybe not as dramatically as he envisioned--although I really loved his little “what if” imagining--but even if Blake can’t bring herself to actually kill him, he knows Crawford will. It’s no coincidence that the way he imagines Blake killing him is the same way that he watched Crawford kill Vic--and is the same way that he kills Ganzman. In each case, it is a quick and easy way to dispose of someone who has no longer has any value to you. His lies are the past that he tells Blake will “always be chasing me, trying to devour me.”

And the thing is, I think Roman knows he’s doomed. He knows he’s not as strong as Jane, who was able to overcome her memory loss and carve out a new life for herself. I think he’s being quite honest when he tells Fells that yes, he is insane. He doesn’t have the same basis in reality that Jane does, and the longer he plays at being Tom, the further from reality he’s getting. Without the moral compass that guides his sister, Roman is more adrift. He’s always been casual about killing, but the way he kills Fells and then Ganzman seems especially brutal to me. Or maybe it was the way he called for a cleanup in aisle, I mean, suite 3. (I think Yas pointed out in a review earlier this season how when things get complicated, Roman resorts to what has always worked best for him: Kill anyone who stands in his way. It’s simple and for him, relatively foolproof.)

I keep wondering how much Roman really knows about Crawford’s plans. He knows that Crawford needs a lot of land and aims to become the world’s “police” to ensure peace. But there was a reason Roman wanted so desperately to stop Crawford that he went to such extreme measures, designing the new tattoos and setting up the team. Does he understand the full scope of Crawford’s plan? Is it something that he is truly okay with helping Crawford achieve? And I keep wondering about the weapon that the FBI destroyed today; does Crawford need it? How unhappy is he going to be that Roman killed the only person who could recreate it?

And when it comes down to it, I just can’t see Roman being completely okay with killing Jane. “Killing me would be like killing part of yourself” is what he says to her, and I think that’s true for both of them. They do have this long history together that even memory loss can’t entirely erase. By killing Jane, he would be killing the last piece of him that is still Roman. There is a moment when Roman sees the news report about the FBI helicopter crash and that everyone aboard perished, when it seems like he is overcome with emotion. I wondered then if he thought that Jane and the team were aboard, and if, in that moment, he was regretting the loss of his sister. I know, given his current trajectory, that it seems hard to believe that he harbors any tender feelings toward Jane, but then then again, neither one of them were able to actually kill the other during this meeting or any of their previous encounters (beginning at the NYO, when Shepherd released Roman). I think that deep inside both of them is the hope that the other will cave and say, “You were right. I’m sorry. Please take me back.” Because if that were to happen, I think both of them would. Not quickly or easily, perhaps, but they wouldn’t turn the other away. Even Roman, as murderous as he might be. Because above all else, Roman still craves love. We see that when he asks Blake to run away with him. He can’t hide his disappointment when she tells him that she can’t just leave her father and her work. He had to know that would be her answer, but he asked her anyway. He had hope.

Speaking of Blake, I love that Blake is becoming suspicious of Roman. I want so much for her to be more than just a pampered rich girl who is dissuaded from her very legitimate questioning of “Tom” by the promise of running off and keeping a secret from her father. When we got that bit where Roman envisions Blake stabbing him after he admits his true identity, I cheered out loud. Not because I want to see Roman get hurt, but because I loved seeing Blake show that she is every bit as capable of the same brutality as her father. She’s an intelligent, well-educated woman who was raised by a man who is shrewd, confident, and utterly ruthless. I have a hard time believing that she is truly as sweet and gullible as we’ve seen so far. I feel like there are hidden depths to Miss Crawford that we have yet to see.

Y: How amazing has this story been? If anything, season 3 should be remembered for how brilliantly the Roman storyline has been crafted and written and developed and of course portrayed by the incredible Luke Mitchell. It’s incredibly difficult to write a sympathetic villain and even harder to write one that you can have the audience begging not for demise or failure but for their redemption. And Roman is all these things. At least for me.

Roman’s psychological and emotional journey has led him to quite an interesting place. And not to mention that apparently the state of his physical health is apparently playing a role in the decisions he’s making. Looking back at the Roman we met in 2.01 and the Roman we met through the flashbacks and to see where he is now, I think Roman remains one of the clearest characters, one who is so complex in how simple the foundation of his character is. But the thing is, it is so painfully and tragically relatable and sympathetic and that is what makes him so compelling.

And Roman in this episode was the most complex and the most messed-up Roman we’ve seen to date. Watching him switch between crazy interrogator/torturer (anyone else think he could have a place in Keaton’s team if he chooses to join the CIA?) and sweet tortured boyfriend and super intelligent mastermind who’s been planning the tattoos and Crawford’s takedown for years and the broken angry little brother was equal parts terrifying and amazing. Jane is right. Roman is scrambling, but he has never been more dangerous because he’s still in so many ways in control but he’s also losing all control. And for a man who’s had nothing to lose really for so long, this can only be a recipe for disaster.

Now, a question. How many times can I ask “where’s my chocolate?” before you guys start rolling your eyes?

Jane’s juggling a lot this year--between trying to fix her marriage, taking on motherhood, dealing with her pesky brother, and trying to take down one of the most evil men on the planet. I think it is safe to say she’s not having any days off any time soon, but she did have a small opportunity to smile this week.

Y: I am about to say something that I absolutely hate but oh well… I kind of understand why Jeller has taken the back seat in the second half of the season, and it makes sense. But I still hate it. Maybe they overwhelmed Jane’s character with more plot lines than can fit in the episode format considering the character elements are always secondary to cases. This season, Jane is central to three main stories besides the tattoos and the cases--there’s Jane and Roman, Jane and Avery, and Jane and Kurt. The third may have taken priority in the first few episodes, but once Avery was introduced, all this shifted towards that and there was no more space for Jeller.

I am not going to argue that the Jane/Roman story shouldn’t take precedence because it should, especially that it is at the core of this year’s mythology, but I think introducing Avery made it hard to balance that with focusing also on Jane and Kurt’s relationship. The writers have been trying to make Avery and Jane’s relationship with at the center of the Jeller reconciliation, and while it has worked at times, it did shove Jeller to the side.

But anyway, with that said, let’s talk about Jane and Avery for a bit, shall we?

After rewatching this episode, I went back and watched the Avery-related moments from previous episodes especially those right after Berlin. I am not going to lie: The progress of their relationship has been very sweet, and obviously I’m biased towards Jane, so I am mostly happy for her to be able to develop this relationship. It’s true that Jane does have a family in the team, but the only thing she has from her real family is pain and suffering. In Avery she has found something more pure and more innocent. Does that mean this relationship is going to end in pain and suffering as well for Jane? It is possible, but I really hope not. Jane deserves something good in her life and if she can get that through Avery then I’m all for it.

But definitely not all for Avery living full-time with Jane and Weller, as sweet as that was and as important as it is in terms of moving forward with this relationship. Not for anything, but the girl needs to go to college at some point, doesn’t she?

L: I agree that Jane’s relationship with Avery has been very important for Jane this season. As much as I too love Jeller, Jane is much more than just Kurt’s wife. She’s been searching for family, for connections, for her place in this world since the premiere. Marrying Kurt--and staying married, through good times and bad--is one piece of that puzzle. Building a place in the team is another. But Roman--her only flesh-and-blood relative until Avery came along--has been a much more difficult situation, and their confrontation in this episode proved that it won’t be easy or painless for her resolve. Enter Avery, someone who shares Jane’s blood and is a part of her that cannot ever be erased. As we’ve talked about before, committing to this relationship is even harder than a marriage, because there are no “divorces” from your kid.

I’ve been really loving the way this relationship has unfolded--the tiny steps that Jane has made, and the ways that she has slowly gotten past all the barriers that Avery erected between them. But I must admit that I’m still worried that things with Avery won’t end happily for Jane. I want to trust Avery, but I am afraid that she’s going to let Jane down and break her heart.

As we saw at the gala, Avery is a lot like her mother. Cool under pressure, very persuasive, and great undercover. She does a great job of selling the story of her father’s journal to Camille. And I guess that’s why she worries me so much--she’s such a good actress that I worry that she could be acting for this whole relationship she is supposedly building with Jane. What if she was still somehow working with Roman after the Wellers brought her back from Berlin? That would explain her intense interest in the case against Crawford. I can’t shake the feeling that there is more about her father or her relationship with the Crawfords than we know. And even if she wasn’t working with Roman, if she believes that Roman is now aligning himself with Crawford, what would keep her from going off half-cocked if she thought she could get to him or Crawford? We know she’s just as impulsive as her mother and uncle. Teens; it’s so hard to tell if you should give them a hug or ground them until they’re thirty.

Even though I don’t fully trust Avery, I still kind of love her. She’s just such a typical teen. First there’s the way everything is totally black and white; no gray area, no nuances. Her dad did bad things for Hank Crawford, so he’s a bad guy. All her memories are ruined, and she should just throw out all of her pictures of him. She cannot separate the father she knew from the facts she is learning about him. And then when Jane tries to empathize with her, to talk about how she resolved her feelings about her mother, Avery cuts her off. Like most teens, her pain is so much greater than anyone else’s, there is no way that Jane could ever understand.

I still don’t really understand why Avery is still in FBI custody in New York. She was a victim/witness, and I just can’t believe that the FBI would keep someone hostage in that capacity for so long. Didn’t she have a life of her own before all of this? Friends? Was she in college? Shouldn’t she maybe be allowed to return to that life at some point? Although yes, after Roman’s attacks on the team last week, it does make sense that they would want to keep her under closer supervision right now. While I’m complaining, I also don’t understand why it didn’t already occur to either Kurt or Jane to ask Avery to move in. I mean, she doesn’t know anyone else in New York, and Jane is her mother, even if she isn’t the person who raised her. Leaving her alone in a safe house for this long seems kind of mean, to be honest.

But all that said, since it doesn’t look like Jane will get any sort of reconciliation with Roman, I’m glad that she’s been able to build a family with Kurt and Avery, and I think it will be a source of strength for her when she next faces off with her brother. Which will be sooner rather than later.

Pass the chocolate.

Kurt, apparently, has been working on his one liners recently. Was it the headache named Dash or a nosebleed that caused him the most stress this week?

Y: With Jane focusing on Avery, and for some reason his family still MIA and no one asking about them, Kurt seems to be floating in the orbit of Jane trying to build a relationship with Avery. And again, I am not really complaining because it is giving us beautiful moments of Kurt being the world’s most precious husband and stepdad. But maybe I am complaining a little bit. I have to admit that I am enjoying this Kurt with the snarky one liners though--his comments to Dash about the book having too many pages and telling him to shut up over comms had me cracking up. It’s subtle but these little moments really do tell a lot about character sometimes, and I think this show does them really well with Kurt, and with everyone else for that matter.

Kurt has realized and accepted that he has to take the back seat at the moment and make room for Avery and make room for Jane’s emotional journey with Avery, and he is doing it with grace. He’s welcomed Avery into their lives, and he’s been so supportive of Jane every step of the way and honestly someone just give this boy an award of sorts. Yes, the Berlin mess was a mess but he has more than made up for it now and he deserves all of the awards!

L: I keep going back to Jane telling Kurt that she thought he’d make a wonderful dad. Because he really is. Teenagers are tough on any marriage. Step-parenting isn’t for the faint of heart. But Kurt has committed fully to his marriage to Jane, and that means that he’s taken her daughter as one of his own. We saw how much her loss in Berlin tortured him, long before Jane even knew she existed. Avery is a part of Jane, and for that reason, Kurt handed over a piece of his heart, no question asked. He is obviously thrilled when Jane asks if Avery can come to live them. And who can’t love a man like that??

And finally, Jeller. After being mostly absent for the middle of the season, it’s good to see them taking some steps forward in their relationship this week. But these two are anything but conventional in any aspect of their lives, so where are they headed now?

Y: I don’t know what it is but it’s like someone told the writers that high dosages of Jeller are dangerous so we’re only getting droplets every now and then. Dudes, we’re here for it. We’re up for it. We want all the Jeller. All the time! That is literally what we signed up for! Granted, what we did get the week is huge and not only because we got two frames of blink-and-you-miss-it of PDA but also because of what it means that Jane wants Avery to move in with them. While on the surface this seems to be about Jane and Avery’s relationship, it is also very much about Jeller’s.

Jane wanting Avery to move in with them and believing that it would be the best way to keep her safe and give her something better speaks volumes about where Jane and Kurt’s relationship is, how far they’ve come and how Jane sees it. It was just a few weeks ago that she moved out and then moved back in and even then, they still didn’t know how they would rebuild their relationship and their life together. But this step from Jane says many things. It says that the home they’ve built is a home and family and that what they have and what they can offer Avery is safety and protection and someone to watch over her and have her back because that is what they have with each other. They have moved on from wondering how this will work or whether it will work. I admit it all happened without us seeing any of it and that is frustrating, but we are seeing the fruits of the reconciliation and this rebuilding process and them arriving to this place where they are a home and a family and two people who see in each other the one person who represents these two things as well as security and safety and love.

I still don’t like that we’re getting a read-between-the-lines version of Jeller. I’m used to the in your face Jeller. I miss my Jeller!

L: I’ve been trying to figure out why the lack of Jeller bugs me so much (besides the fact that I miss them so much!). Yes, the characters are all interesting in their own rights, and the mystery is compelling and the action keeps us on the edge of our seats. So why get so wrapped up in the marital details of two of the characters? I mean it’s not like the posters for each season advertise that this show is about a gorgeous tattooed woman and the sexy FBI agent assigned to her case. Oh, wait... That’s pretty much exactly what they do. No wonder we feel like something important is missing!

But the more I dwelled on it, I realized that this is a show whose entire premise is about a woman who crawled out of a bag with no memory. From day one, this has been Jane’s journey. And frankly, Jane has been a more minor character lately. She’s there, yes, but more in service to the bigger mystery (which is Roman and Crawford this season) than to her own personal journey. If Jane’s journey has been to figure out where she belongs, then a large part of that has to be finding her home, which in her case means her home with Weller and now with Avery. And as much as I love the Avery storyline, lately it’s come at the expense of Jeller. And the more removed I feel from this important piece of Jane, the more removed I feel from the main character and the show as a whole.

That said, I did really love the scene where she asks Kurt if Avery can come live with them, for all of the reasons Yas gave so beautifully above. That’s kind of huge. In any marriage, deciding to bring children into the picture is a big decision. And that’s when they’re tiny and adorable and relatively easy to understand. Teenagers are a whole different ballgame. (There’s a reason you don’t give birth to teenagers. If you did, the human race would be in serious danger of extinction!) So I do love that Jane felt comfortable enough with where their relationship was to ask Kurt for this, and I love that he has zero hesitation about opening up their home to her daughter, because it shows his commitment to Jane is so strong that it encompasses all her personal baggage and nearly-grown kids!

Basically, what it says to me is that this relationship is strong enough to make it. And I guess that’s going to have to be enough for now.

That’s it from us for this week! We’ve got only three more episodes left in the season and we are most certainly not prepared for any of it. Are you? If you say you are, we know you are lying. How can you be?? Now, go buy yourself some chocolate because pain and angst are coming your way!

--Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: episode review #character: jane doe #character: kurt weller #character: patterson #character: edgar reade #character: tasha zapata #character: roman #character: blake crawford #episode: 319 - galaxy of minds #character: avery #character: hank crawford

31 notes · View notes

more--than--anything · 6 years

Text

Episode Review: “So that’s a strong maybe.” [S03E17]

We’re into our last hiatus of the season, and we wrapped up with quite an explosive episode--which for once did not have any explosions. How did you feel about this Blindspot reunion-to-end-all-reunions episode?

Y: Well that was the reunion to end all reunions, wasn’t it? I love that this stretch of episodes was all about either people coming back or people reuniting in highly emotional ways. And it was fitting that the siblings finally coming face to face would be the one to wrap them up. We’ve been waiting for Jane and Roman to reunite for months and it finally happened and it did not disappoint!

L: Yikes! This was definitely an episode that kept me on the edge of my seat. On the one hand, yes, we’ve been dying to see Jane and Roman come face to face. But on the other hand, this wasn’t exactly the reconciliation we’d hoped for. And I do NOT like where things are headed now, not one little bit!! Good thing we have extra time to stock up on chocolate before the next episode...

This week’s case was set up by Roman’s message in the last episode with the invitation to Blake’s gala and the promise that it will allow them to arrest Hank Crawford. How did that go down?

L: For a guy so into elaborate plans, Roman’s not so great with invitation details. The team knows there is a gala, but they have to find out where the party is and figure out how to get themselves inside. With a little digging, Patterson identifies the party planner Blake has hired, who is known for her discretion and ability to provide security for the guests. She also “wrote the holy grail of wedding planning books,” according to Meg, so Reade and Tasha awkwardly pose as an engaged couple and go undercover at a coffee shop to meet with her, while Patterson uses the public wi-fi to hack into her laptop. With the data she retrieves, Patterson is able to figure out the location of the party, as well as discovering that Roman, aka Tom Jakeman, is serving as Crawford’s head of security. (And he couldn’t even score them a legitimate invitation to the party? Sheesh, it’s almost like he’s not entirely sure he wants them there...)

In the meantime, the team (with a little help from Avery) deduces that Bruyere is also “the Serpent,” a known terrorist who disappeared when Bruyere went bankrupt four years ago. So catching Crawford making a deal with Bruyere (thus giving him the funds to resume his terrorist activities) might be enough to bring him down. (Although this seems largely circumstantial to me, not the iron-clad, hold-up-in-court kind of evidence that their weekly visitor from U.S. Attorney’s office keeps telling the team that they need. Couldn’t Crawford’s lawyers simply argue that he just wanted to buy some land and isn’t responsible for what Bruyere did with the proceeds?)

Patterson gets to work creating fake identities for our team to use while undercover at the party. But they are still stuck on how to actually get into the party, until they realize they do know someone who can get a legitimate invite. Avery is a little more enthusiastic to get in on the action than Jane would like, but she’s obviously inherited more from Jane than just hair color, as she finds them a way in and talks her way past a suspicious security guard. Hotheadedness is another quality she’s apparently inherited, as Avery defiantly leaves the van to confront Crawford despite having been told not to, and Jane defiantly follows Avery despite being told not to. (The parallels between Jane and Avery were some of my favorite parts of this episode.)

All of which leads to a fun scene in which Jane’s fake identity comes face to face with Roman’s fake identity. (I have to say, their family reunions are much more interesting than mine.) It’s a warm and fuzzy celebration of family, in which Jane threatens to arrest Roman and Avery is thrilled by the idea of him rotting in prison. But sadly, their fun plans will have to wait until after the team arrests Crawford. Roman is very cagey about why he wants them to get Crawford so badly, just that “Crawford’s ruined countless lives, killed innocent people, and he’s just getting started.” But he tells Jane (and the team) where Crawford’s deal with Bruyere is going down. The room is electronically shielded, but he controls the shield and is offering the team access... as long as they place nice, i.e., don’t try to arrest him then and there.

The team takes the deal, Jane and Tasha installing the bugs as Weller keeps watch. They escape the room with seconds to spare before Crawford and his attorney arrive. The feeds gives them access to the room... until the feed suddenly goes dead. The team jumps into action, following the tracker that Avery planted on Roman. Only the tracker leads them to Bruyere instead. They take out him and his thugs, but Roman and the Crawfords escape in a helicopter.

So it’s a mixed bag for our team this week. They nailed a major terrorist before he was able to become active again. But they didn’t get Crawford. And they lost the inside source that was helping them get to Crawford, so a case against him will be even harder to build now.

Y: I think Roman picked up his gala invitation skills from Rich. At least it only took Patterson a full day to crack his invite and not another visit to the puppy forum. Although I do miss Smudge and Pickles! Roman may be helping the team--or at least he had been until this episode--but he was never going to make it easy for them. He could have helped them get into the gala, but where’s the fun in that?

You know what he could have also done? He could have given them more intel on Bruyere and just flat out told them he’s the Serpent, but he made them work for it. This boy takes after his adoptive mother a lot more than I’d like to imagine. But I agree that the evidence would have been very circumstantial and like the US Attorney told Reade a few episodes back, there is no way they could take a man like Crawford down with something like this.

Crawford is far too connected, he has people everywhere, he’s controlling people in very high positions in the government… they are going to need way more to bring him down. They need someone on the inside and while for some time I was hoping it would be Roman, after this episode I am starting to think maybe Blake is a more likely candidate? I really want to see Blake step up--either by helping the FBI or by taking charge of her father’s evil doings, but either way I kind of want her to be more because she’s awesome and this show loves awesome women!

The team is coming off of a very tough twenty-four hours, with Tasha now sitting proudly on the throne of the most hated. How have the consequences of her CIA actions and her opening up to Reade about her feelings affected the team dynamic?

Y: I really appreciate how Reade is acting so… mature about this. After weeks of Tasha pining over him, I was worried that when she told him things would be weird and awkward in the secondhand embarrassment kind of way, but somehow they’re not. I think Reade’s acting and reacting to this very very well. I also loved his AD moment in trying to maintain a balance and a proper work environment within his team. AD Reade is growing well into his position. I am so proud of him!

L: It’s good that Reade isn’t letting things become embarrassing at work, which is certainly the mature approach. But personally... he’s trying to put things back the way they were, where Tasha is his best friend and best man and co-worker and nothing more. Which is certainly the easiest way to deal with the situation (ignore it until it goes away), even if it is completely unrealistic. You can never put the proverbial cat back in the bag (at least, not without needing stitches and a blood transfusion when you’re done), and I think it’s pretty clear at the end that this approach isn’t going to fly. Tasha is sorry that she dropped her truth bomb on him, but now that it’s out there, she can’t pretend that it isn’t. And really, Reade shouldn’t try. One way or another, he needs to face it and deal with it, even if it means making his relationship with Tasha completely about the job for a while.

Y: Yeah, we saw how the whole “pretend nothing happened and pick up where we left off” approach worked for Jane and Kurt. That almost always fails.

And at the same time, I understand Patterson. Her actions may be slightly immature--Tasha’s seventh grade comment was on point--but I cannot blame Patterson. Shutting Tasha out and giving her the cold shoulder is the only way she knows how to deal with right now. She has no choice but to work with her, so seventh grade tactics are how things are going to have to be for now. I know it’s silly, but I like how Patterson’s behavior is so… normal. Who wouldn’t have the same reaction or act the same way?

L: Really, Patterson’s approach isn’t all that different from Reade’s. Only instead of ignoring the situation, she wants to ignore Tasha completely and hope that she will go away. And frankly, Patterson is likely to have the same lack of success with this approach. As Reade points out to her, Tasha is still part of the task force, and the team can’t take down the real bad guys if they are fighting amongst themselves. And as Jane points out to Tasha, they’re family, and families can’t stay mad forever.

That said, for Patterson, Tasha’s betrayal is kind of like re-living what she went through with Borden all over again. Borden knew her every feeling, about David, about working on the tattoo cases after David died... Just as she had confided in her best friend all of her feelings about Borden and his betrayal. It’s a very intimate, very personal violation, and even though Tasha may be part of Patterson’s family, this isn’t something she’s going to be able to get past quickly or easily. And to her credit, Tasha understands that and accepts it, quickly telling Reade that he can’t blame Patterson for behaving this way.

Y: But who I really want to talk about is Tasha. Tasha… Tasha… Tasha… No one envies the place that Tasha finds herself in. In one day, she managed to sabotage the best two friendships anyone could ever ask for. And in return, she’s got Patterson shutting her out--betrayed and heartbroken--and Reade rightfully being awkward even though he’s trying so hard not to be. But honestly, it is impossible to let things go back to normal after your best friend and your best man tells you they’re in love you shortly before your wedding.

Hats off to Tasha for even coming to work the next day. I’d probably have dug a hole so deep and buried myself for the next fifty-three thousand years. But I’m no Tasha, obviously, and she’s way tougher than I could ever wish to be.

However, for me, the most interesting thing about Tasha this week was not her social life woes. No, instead, I found her behavior in this episode the shadiest we’ve seen Tasha all season. She gets that phone call from Keaton in the beginning of the episode and then proceeds to do a few suspicious things. First there was her insisting to join The Wellers on their undercover op in Dubrovnik. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful city that everyone should jump on the opportunity to visit, but still… suspicious.

And then, while on the mission, as she approaches Blake the first time, she tells Patterson and Reade she’s having trouble with her comms. They say there is nothing wrong from their end. But that is enough to lay out the fact that there could be trouble with communications--which seems appropriate with the location’s old thick stone walls and the heavy security that is there. But I have a feeling Tasha was not experiencing any communication problems, but it was just her way of setting the possibility up for what she does next. After following Blake into the toilet, Tasha expertly sets it up so that Blake sparks a conversation with her. And just then, all communications are cut off between her and the team. In this case, Patterson just chalks it up to the reasons stated above. But this show has trained me to be suspicious of everyone, and so I am.

Neither Kurt nor Jane, nor Avery for that matter, have any trouble with their comms. And Avery even had to take a stroll through the basements of this old creaky castle. If anyone was going to have trouble with them it should have been her. And it just happens that Tasha sets up this “problem” moments before she catches up with Blake and talks to her, a conversation we do not get ears or eyes on, and just after that, Blake goes straight to Roman and has this heart to heart with him.

So… what happened there? What did Keaton task Tasha to do? Why did she have to be at that Gala? So many questions. So much shadiness.

But I have to say, I did love that little heart to heart Tasha and Jane had at the party. It reminded me of their talk after Jane left Kurt and also, whenever these people have sappy family moments, I just melt and cry.

I hope Jane’s words ring true with everyone and they learn to forgive before it’s too late.

L: My first read was that Zapata opted to be in the field to avoid having to run point with Patterson (which is probably hard if the person you’re supposed to be working with isn’t speaking to you). And I attributed all of the flaky comms business to Blake of the Shady Crawfords. (Although Avery’s tracker was flaky when she wasn’t around Tasha or Blake.) But you’re right: No one is trustworthy on this show. Except maybe Bethany. Could she come back please?

Honestly, I think what worried me the most about Tasha was her telling Jane, “I don’t know if I deserve to be forgiven.” Especially on the heels of Keaton telling Tasha, “The field works for people who don’t have anyone.” I feel like the distance between Tasha and Patterson, the awkwardness with Reade, and the philosophical chasm between the FBI and the CIA are all combining to push Tasha away from the team, and let’s be honest: Nothing that has transpired this season (or in this whole series) is giving me good feelings about the CIA looking out for their operatives and forming a loyal family like the team at the FBI. I’m afraid that Tasha is going to ultimately end up leaving the team (and all the broken relationships) behind and disappear into the field for the CIA, where there’s a good chance they are just going to hang her out to dry, as they have almost every other operative we’ve met.

I also loved the exchange between Jane and Tasha, because it did further illustrate that, after all the distrust that Tasha had for Jane in season two, Jane is truly part of the Tasha’s family now. I wish that connection would be enough to anchor Tasha to the team, but I am very much afraid that it won’t be.

Roman finally comes face to face with his sister and niece after spending all season as the puppet master hellbent on ruining their lives. How did that reunion go? And where does potentially handing Crawford to the FBI put Roman?

Y: What a big episode for Roman that was. I guess everything that’s been happening has been leading up to this moment--to his reuniting with Jane and the pivotal moment that had to change everything. There was no way this confrontation could happen without drastic repercussions.

Roman’s endgame so far, while not completely out there in the open for us, has at least been clear in that he wants to take down Hank Crawford. And on the side, he’s ruining his sister’s life, in a typical competitive-sibling way--adorable. He’s been cold and calculated and focused. It has seemed that at every turn, his plan is going flawlessly. He has been anticipating almost every move from every player--minus the whole Blake kidnapping and fainting spell--and has been a step or two ahead of everyone all along. His momma would be so proud at how well her little boy has planned and is executing his plan.

But this week really turned things around for everyone involved. The siblings’ reunion was a beautiful thing. It’s the first time those two have come face to face, properly--so not counting Roman knocking her out to tattoo her or their brief game of catch in Venice--in two years. And so much has happened in these two years. Not to mention that the last time they saw each other things weren’t so friendly. Roman has spent this time obsessing and plotting and planning to get revenge on Jane, whereas his sister has put him behind her and embraced her new life, as bizarre as that life has been. But the way Roman sees it, Jane has made all the wrong choices aligning herself with Kurt and their FBI family.

I’m losing my train of thought here because a part of my brain wants to take this and go with it in regard to this show and the theme of having choices and the choices we make, and the other part wants to focus on what happened in the episode.

Sorry, I’m rambling. It happens.

The Jane/Roman reunion was everything we could have ever wished for--charged, emotional, angry and game-changing. Jane has been on the receiving end of Roman’s evilness all season. Ever since she came back, she has had to suffer on every front because of him and not once did she get the upper hand. But all it took is for this one scene, for these two to come face to face for things to change. These two can bring out the best in each other but they also can bring out the worst. And after the two years they have had, it makes sense that this meeting brings out the worst.

Jane knows how to get to Roman and even though they’ve established that she still cares for him despite what he’s done, the woman does have her limits and when it got down to it, she didn’t pull any punches. I love how she knew how to get under his skin with just one word. And that triggered the snow ball effect that unraveled Roman--very simple and very subtle--but Jane telling him Remi was dead and just rubbing salt in that wound she knew is still there, and then his rendezvous with Blake a few minutes later just threw the craziest curve ball into this season.

And all we can do now is still back and worry as Roman’s loyalties are tested and his entire master plan is put under crazy revision. Exciting!

Terrifying but exciting.

L: Really terrifying. And yeah, okay, exciting. But mostly terrifying.

We’ve been seeing all season how torn Roman is about Jane. He’s still furious with her about his memory wipe and for choosing the FBI team over him. But at the same time, he’s admitted that he misses her. And when you think about it, the whole plan of serving Crawford up on a platter to the FBI kind of seemed like he was trying to gain her approval, though I am sure he would never consciously admit it. And I think that had Jane played it that way, acted grateful for his help, possibly offering him the same olive branch that she’d offered him last season, the chance to earn his freedom (and his way back into her life), Roman might have taken it. But his attempts to punish her and the team have been too effective. As you put it so well--Jane and Roman can bring out the best in each other, but they can also bring out the worst, and that’s exactly what we saw today.

We’ve talked so much about how Jane’s journey over the first two seasons was driven by her need to make connections, to find the place she belonged, to find her family--both by blood and by choice. And it shouldn’t surprise us, really, that under it all, Roman’s motivation is similar. To be fair, the best way to reconnect with your sister probably isn’t to try to take away everything else she loves so that you’re all she has left. But Roman wouldn’t have been so angry at Jane for choosing the FBI over him if his relationship with her wasn’t something that he valued very, very much. His relationship with her was the bedrock that the rest of his life had been built upon. Through the orphanage and the years with Shepherd, Remi was his constant. And losing that connection sent him into a tailspin--we saw that in the scenes that led up to Jane dosing him with ZIP, and the events that followed only made that all worse for him. And Jane, in all her anger at Roman, throws all that in his face, telling him that Remi is dead, that she chose a life away from him, that her brother is gone.

So it’s not that far-fetched to understand why Roman would be drawn to the Crawford family. They offer him a family that seems to value and care about him, but even more, Crawford has the same driven, crusading streak that Shepherd had, which is a familiar dynamic for Roman. Roman doesn’t have that drive, nor does he have the selflessness and compassion his sister has. He doesn’t want to change the world or save all the people in it. He will protect the people he cares about and the business interests that have value to him (or to the people close to him), but anyone who interferes with them is simply a threat to be neutralized. With Crawford, he has a role he understands, the loyal second, which is surely much more appealing that an uncertain future as either a fugitive or a prisoner of the FBI or CIA, which he would be once his plan to bring down Crawford reaches its conclusion.

Roman is also the most hot-headed of the family (although we’ve seen that both Jane and Avery share that trait). We saw Roman fighting with Shepherd last season, desperate to check on Jane. Blake appears to have roused his protective instincts now, and so it’s likely that his change of heart was due to his desire to protect her (and keep her with him) more than it was sudden loyalty to her father. And it’s also possible that he wanted to take a step back and figure out how to bring down Crawford without losing Blake--which would be a challenging feat indeed.

So Roman finds himself in a very precarious position now. His cover as Tom was never meant to last forever, just long enough to finish this job. How hard would it be for one of Crawford’s lackeys to do the same digging that Vic did? (Assuming that the leader of the PTSD group didn’t meet with a tragic accident, as apparently the rest of Tom’s family did. Gulp.) There are a lot people out there already who know Roman’s true identity: whoever is helping him (since he couldn’t pull off everything alone--like kidnapping the triplets and tattooing Jane, plus whoever knows about his headaches and the effects of ZIP), the remaining Sandstorm forces (some of whom who presumably also know Crawford, if he was funding the organization; it’s kind of a miracle that he hasn’t been unmasked already, really), and the FBI team. So in this light, if he’s serious about staying Tom Jakeman, his decision to eliminate the FBI team makes logical sense. In order to protect his cover, he’d have to eliminate anyone who could expose him. (Although presumably the FBI could send other agents after Crawford using the intel the team gathered, which would include Roman’s identity and involvement in the case.)

I keep going back to what Roman said to Jane in the message on the Wellers’ wedding video: “You never thought happiness was in the cards for you, and, well, you were right. You’re too broken, sis. Love just isn’t in your DNA. And, Weller, whatever you think you have with my sister, it’s built on a foundation of lies. Someday you will feel the same pain I felt when she turned her back on me.” His prediction may prove correct, it’s just the names he had wrong. Kurt and Jane have found their way through and are committed to each other. It is Roman who is now pursuing a future built on a foundation of lies. It seems a futile hope that Blake will still love him when she finds out he’s been lying to her all along, so she will be the one who turns on Roman. And having alienated Jane and Avery, it will be Roman who will end up alone. As much as we’ve wanted him to find his redemption, maybe Roman is the one for whom love isn’t in his DNA.

His decision to put into motion the hits on Jane and the team is simultaneously proof of both Roman’s heart and his lack thereof. If he didn’t have a heart, if he truly wasn’t able to connect with people (as Dr. Sun suggested last season), he wouldn’t have been moved enough by Crawford’s words, by the family that he and Blake offered, to take such a drastic step. But at the same time, his willingness to order the assassinations of his sister, her husband, and all of her friends (people who reached out to him and tried to help him when his memory was missing) indicates that he may not be redeemable at all. Oh Roman, the more we learn about you, the harder you are to understand.

And thinking about Roman and his apparently deep feelings for Blake.... I’m still on the fence about Blake. On the one hand, we have Roman insisting that she isn’t a part of Crawford’s shadier dealings. And we see her angry with her father when she learns that he knew Bruyere was a criminal and chose to do business with him anyway. But on the other hand, it’s hard to imagine that she grew up in Crawford’s world, now works for his company (as she tells Avery), and assists him with his business dealings (such as setting up the poker game with Junior, whether or not she knew she was going to be kidnapped), while remaining completely ignorant of his shadier endeavors the entire time. When she approaches Roman at the party, there seems to be a moment when she sees Tom watching the team enter the secured room on his phone. And then there is the weirdness with the comms at the party whenever Blake is around. It would be easy to write it off as Roman’s electronic net or the mansion’s walls (as Patterson does), but if we’ve learned nothing after nearly three seasons of this show, it’s that seemingly inconsequential details frequently turn out to have much greater significance in hindsight.

Jane had a rough time this week, dealing with both Avery and Roman. After a few weeks of taking the back seat, she finally had a moment to shine. How did she juggle these knotty family ties?

L: It’s probably because I have a teenager of my own, but watching Jane try to figure out how to parent “Teen Jane” is turning out to be a high point of this season for me. Jane just wants to keep Avery safe, which is a totally understandable point of view for a mother, but as we see in this episode, Avery doesn’t exactly appreciate Jane’s new-found maternal impulses. She knows she has both intel and contacts that the FBI can use. She also has typical teen impatience with the adults on the show, coupled with the sense of invincibility that drives parents insane. Sorry, Jane, you missed out on the years where hugs flow like water and jumped straight to the “this is stupid” years.

I really adored the role reversal that Kurt points out and that is illustrated so well throughout this episode: The many ways in which Avery behaves just like Jane, and how those traits make Jane just as crazy as they’ve always made Kurt. Avery disobeys orders to open a window for the team (which gives them access to the party), but convincingly talks her way out of trouble (with some coaching by her mom). She leaves the van to confront Crawford and ask pointed questions (and then Jane disobeys orders to go after Avery). Avery shoots her mouth off at Roman and is cut off by Jane... who then shoots her mouth off at Roman. Like daughter, like mother! (And kudos again to Kristina Reyes, who has really captured the spirit of a young Jane in her portrayal of Avery.) For as long as we’ve known Jane, we’ve seen her acting impulsively, going with her instincts to do what she thinks is best, regardless of what Kurt or the rest of the team thinks about it. And the thing is, Jane has pretty good instincts. They’ve gotten her out of more than a few tight situations. But she’s also made some spectacular mistakes. Avery’s choice to go along with Roman’s plan to fake her death seems to be well on par with some of Jane’s bigger failures.

But the thing about Jane is that her heart has always been in the right place. Everything that she has done has been to try to protect the people she cares about. She went along with Oscar (bringing about Mayfair’s downfall and eventual death) only because he threatened Kurt and her team, and because she thought that she could protect the team that way. And that is why she can empathize so beautifully with Tasha, because she understands how Tasha was trapped--she couldn’t stop the CIA from using Borden, she couldn’t tell Patterson and the FBI what was happening. All she could do was try to shield the team before it blew up in their faces. I really loved the conversation between Jane and Tasha, because I thought it illustrated so much of Jane’s character--her protectiveness, her empathy, and her compassion.

And so I am hoping that this great heart is another characteristic that Avery has inherited from her mother. We haven’t seen yet if this is the case. I didn’t really trust Avery when she first showed up--especially knowing that she intentionally worked with Roman and faked her death to set up Kurt. The past few episodes have shown Avery more as a victim, an impetuous teenager intent on gaining revenge on the man she blames for her father’s death. But although we’ve seen Jane opening up to Avery (“I missed out on eighteen years of your life. And the thought of anything happening to you...”), we have yet to really see Avery show any attachment to Jane. I want to believe that when the chips are down, Avery will be solidly on Jane’s side. But if came down to choosing between Jane and taking down Crawford, right now I think Avery would still choose to go after Crawford. And that will break Jane’s heart.

And speaking of broken hearts, Jane finally came face-to-face with Roman, after months of threats and hostile phone calls. I guess things went about as well as could be expected? Which is to say, they went very poorly indeed. As we talked about with Roman, if Jane had played this just a little bit differently, maybe the outcome would have been different as well. But she couldn’t, for all the reasons we just listed. Jane is protective and compassionate, and Roman has hurt people she loves. Jane has chosen to fight for what’s right, and Roman chose to side with Shepherd. And Jane is impulsive and is still hurting from losing the brother she loved so desperately... so she throws out the most cutting words she can (as we said above, she and Roman bring out the worst in each other): “Remi’s dead. I got the chance to start over, and I chose this life away from you.” It was probably the worst thing she could have said, and yet, Jane being Jane, there wasn’t really any other way she could have responded.

And it’s just going to get worse from here, once she realizes that after months of mental and emotional distress set up by Roman, the team is now physically in danger.

Pass the chocolate, please.

Y: I bet you anything Jane right now is wondering what is harder--parenting a teenager or being an older sister to a sociopath. I don’t envy her on either front. It doesn’t help that her other friends are also falling apart. Everything around her is falling apart. And yet, she manages to maintain her sanity. Also look smoking hot undercover.

As I said above, I loved Jane’s talk with Tasha. There’s just something about this family that even when one of them is falling apart, there is always someone there to help pick them up and be someone they can lean on. They’re just all supportive of each other, and they’re really like one cohesive unit, so when a part fails or breaks down and starts to crumble, the rest are there to pick it up and continue forward no matter what. And Jane’s right, they are a family. And families forgive.

I hope. God, please let this family be okay.

And my favorite part? Jane having to deal with a mini-version of herself in Avery. If anyone had any doubt this was Jane’s daughter, I think it’s safe to say we got our proof. I mean, I want to smack Avery for acting like a teenager but then I remember she is a teenager. And Jane’s daughter, no less. Jane’s exasperation at Avery’s antics in the field was hilarious because she is the exact same thing as her mother!

But of course, the highlight of it all was Jane and Roman’s reunion. As I said above, it was everything I expected and more!

Kurt wore glasses this week and looked sexy as hell. Sorry, I can’t focus on anything else… What else did Kurt do besides be sexy as hell in his Clark Kent disguise?

Y: Kurt in glasses… that will always be my undoing… Also after learning about how much Kurt loves cake in the previous episode, we now learn of his love for chocolate and reaffirm his love for meat. Ah, a man after my own heart.

And yet, here he is trying vegan burgers to make the wife happy.

I’m sorry. Were you guys expecting something intellectual and in depth in this section? I told you: Kurt wore glasses, and my brain broke.

L: He really is adorable in glasses. (Even though it sends me into hysterics that when the women go undercover, they get elaborate makeovers, completely different hair colors, new clothing, they cover up all of Jane’s tattoos, etc. And when the men go undercover, Kurt puts on a pair of glasses and calls it a day. Which is basically the same disguise that Roman is employing as Tom Jakeman. Okay, you Clark Kents, you got us. You’re invisible!)

I think my favorite Kurt moment in this episode (okay, besides his willingness to try vegan burgers) was the way he tries to play peacemaker between Jane and Avery, reminding Jane how she felt when he tried to bench her for her own safety. “She’s wired just like you,” he tells her. And I really loved that, for so many reasons: Because he knows Jane so well that he can see her personality traits in her daughter; because he loves Jane and knows how important her relationship with Avery is to her; and because he knows that, left to their own devices, these women will walk straight into the fire without a single thought to their own safety. (And because he knows that and loves them anyway, even though they are both going to give him gray hair before they bring down Crawford.)

I loved Roman’s line about Jane drinking “the Kurt Weller Kool-Aid.” As we’ve pointed out before, Kurt is kind of the moral compass of this show. All the shades of gray radiate away from Kurt. Maybe the morality scale for Blindspot should read, “On a scale of Kurt to Shepherd...”

Y: Yes, what L said. Kurt knowing Jane’s heart will always be one of the most precious things, and him loving her for everything that she is sickening. And also what L said about the Kool-Aid comment and Kurt once again being the moral compass of this show--which makes the whole Berlin thing even more painful.

Why do I remind myself of such things? Why? What is wrong with me?

But speaking of things that are painful--

Jane and Kurt, once again, spent the whole episode together. Like, literally, they were together all the time. And yet, the “Jeller” still seems to be forgotten on a shelf somewhere. I mean, it’s somewhat better than last week, but the search party is still looking…

Y: Okay, I have to admit that there is a part of my brain that can understand what is happening with Jane and Kurt. I can rationalize how they are mending and healing and getting closer. But as a fan of this show and a fan of this relationship, knowing and understanding how it is happening behind the scenes is not enough. I want to see it! And what is frustrating is that we have seen it happen before. We have seen these writers write a beautiful reconciliation and healing journey for these two. And we have seen it come to life on screen with these two incredible actors.

And knowing what they are capable of and what we are missing is the hardest part of this Jeller drought.

They are obviously getting better and getting closer but as the heart and soul of this show--as the emotional center that carries the show--having them do all this behind the scenes and not front and center is taking so much away from what this show can do, honestly.

And I am all sorts of sads about it.

L: Same.

I think what is so frustrating is that, as you said, we know these writers can do this. They’ve done it before, and beautifully, too. And it’s not even like they need to devote entire scenes to this effort. Most of last season’s reconciliation occurred in tiny steps, a few seconds here and there in the course of each tattoo case. We got some lovely long Jeller scenes at the start of this season, which were wonderful, but honestly, I would rather have had smaller moments spread over all 22 episodes, instead of a flood followed by this drought, especially in this latter half of the season, when they are trying to recover from a separation that was far more damaging to their relationship than Jane’s eighteen months on the run. The writers spent so much time showing us this couple in crisis and detailing how hard it was going to be to recover from that it feels jarring and frankly inauthentic to skip straight to, “All better now!” as it appears they are doing. If you are going to get viewers emotionally invested in a couple’s separation, of course we are going to be just as emotionally invested in their reconciliation!

I keep coming back to the same thought I had earlier this season, when we had Avery’s rescue crammed into the same episode as Boston’s return--maybe there is just too much going on in this fictional world this season. There are so many big plot lines in play right now: Roman’s scheming and his relationship with both Crawfords; Tasha’s betrayal of Patterson; Tasha’s feelings for Reade; Reade’s relationship with Meg; the weekly tattoo cases; the FBI case against Crawford... If you’re going to throw something into the mix, you need to be able to develop that idea all the way through, not chuck it and move on to the next one.

And for the love of chocolate, if you’re going to shelve a plot thread, it should not be the emotional epicenter of your show.

That’s enough rambling from us for this week. We’ve got a short break before we get thrown into the deep end of the last five episodes. Are you ready for the rollercoaster? Do you have enough chocolate? Vegan burgers? We’d love to hear your thoughts on all this madness!

— Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: episode review #character: jane doe #character: kurt weller #character: avery #character: roman #character: tasha zapata #character: patterson #character: edgar reade #character: blake crawford #character: hank crawford #episode: 317 - mum's the word

34 notes · View notes