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more--than--anything · 7 years

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Episode Review: "I have a type." [S03E11]

This week brought us two cases for the price of one. They promised us a “HUGE” episode. Did they deliver?

Y: It did feel like we were watching two separate episodes and although there were some thematic parallels, the two “cases” were both worthy of having their own episode because that was how huge they both were.

L: It definitely qualified as “huge.” There was so much to love about both of these storylines, but if I’m being honest, I would have preferred them in two separate episodes, so we could spend a little bit more time on each of them. Both of these stories felt very rushed, and there were times I almost resented the time that one took away from the other. I feel like we might have hit the point where the “biggest episode ever” finally got just a little bit too big.

Our first case of the night turned into an all-expenses-paid trip to Berlin to rescue Jane’s daughter. Did everything turn out the way Jane planned?

L: When we last saw Weller and Patterson, they were digging around looking for information about Avery to help Jane find some closure, only to discover that Avery met with Roman the day before Weller encountered her in the hotel lobby. After pulling what appears to have been an all-nighter, they find that Avery also met with Max Kohler, the gangster that Weller thought he was shooting when he shot Avery. Except that Max is actually Dedrik Hoehne (but still a gangster). Patterson locates the farm where he lives and discovers an emergency call made from an adjoining property four days ago by a woman who claims to have been kidnapped, and Weller immediately identifies the caller’s voice as Avery’s. Jane walks in just as Weller announces this (though we’re denied the moment that Jane hears her daughter’s voice for the first time), and they realize that Roman must have persuaded Avery to fake her death just as he convinced them to fake Jane’s death in 3.01. Unfortunately, proof that Avery was alive four days ago isn’t proof that she’s alive right now.

Jane is determined to take charge of her daughter’s rescue. She insists on bringing in Clem Hahn, a K&R expert she worked with during her time on the run. Reade agrees to vet Clem, but insists that Kurt go to Berlin too, thus forcing Jane to grudgingly accept the help of a highly-trained, experienced FBI agent who would also lay down his life in a heartbeat to save her life or her daughter’s. (Sometimes Jane, you’re too stubborn to use good sense. This is definitely one of those times.) Jane one-ups Allie in the “thoughtful delivery of potentially upsetting news” as she dumps the news on Kurt that she and Clem had a relationship that went way beyond K&R work (in one of too many scenes in this episode that happened mostly off camera and was rushed through without enough time to process the emotional fallout), and the trio set off for Berlin.

Dedrik’s farm has been abandoned, but Clem’s contacts tell him that Dedrik’s crew uses a factory in Berlin as a front, so they head there first, after a brief debate about how best to approach the facility. Kurt takes out one thug who is about to shoot Clem, but before they can locate Avery, Dedrik and company blast a hole in the wall, shove Avery in a van, and take off. Kurt uses the dead thug’s thumbprint to unlock his phone so they can call Dedrik. Dedrik demands that they lift the AMBER Alert for Avery and provide him with a plane so that he can leave Germany, but turns the camera so that Jane can see that Avery is still alive. Clem is only able to trace the call to within a one-mile radius, but Jane notices that Avery is signaling “23” with her fingers, and they figure out that she means Tunnel 23, a series of tunnels constructed to escape from East to West Berlin during the Cold War.

The dick measuring between Kurt and Clem in these scenes was priceless, and I loved the interplay between them. Really, when you get right down to it, they’re a lot alike. Just like Boston, Jane clearly has a type, and her type is stubbly, strong, smart, reliable, and good with weapons and hand-to-hand combat. And she’s right-- they’re both great guys. (I know the fandom is out for Clem’s blood, but let’s be fair; he showed up to help out a woman who dumped him months ago and turned him down again the night before, to work a job for free. Kurt was there on the FBI dime-- and presumably Jane is getting paid as well in her capacity as a consultant, in addition to bringing home a daughter-- but Clem risked his life as much as they did and got nothing out of this gig except more rejection from a woman he clearly still has a thing for.)

Our trio hits the tunnels and splits up. Jane and Clem find Avery being held by two guards, whom they quickly dispatch, and then Jane tells Avery to hide in a closet while they make sure all of the guards are taken care of. After completing her sweep of the tunnel, Jane returns to find the closet empty, but Avery holding a gun on her. Her daughter doesn’t trust Roman anymore, but she doesn’t trust Jane either. She’s obviously been well-coached on what Jane was likely to say, and she is unmoved by Jane’s entreaties. Jane uses her powers of persuasion to appeal to Avery’s practical nature (a quality mother and daughter share, along with stubbornness and a dislike of being manipulated), pointing out that she is the only one who can get Avery out of this tunnel safely, and Avery lowers the gun. Once again, though, we have to rush away before we can register the emotional impact of this exchange on either mother or daughter.

Meanwhile, Weller turns the corner and fires his gun at a shadowy figure who turns out to be Roman on the other side of a thick sheet of bulletproof glass. (So much for turning it into a museum. How much do you think it’s going to cost to fix those bullet holes? Maybe “Tom Jakeman” can make a nice donation to the cause.) Weller tells Roman that he’s told Jane everything so Roman doesn’t have any hold over him anymore, but Roman taunts him with the results of that honesty. Weller is disgusted that Roman would manipulate his own niece like this, but Roman tells him that “unlike you and Jane, she understands what has to be done.” This statement has me wondering what else Roman has up his sleeve. As we’ve mentioned before, everything that Roman is doing seems to work on two levels: torturing Jane and bringing down Crawford. Faking Avery’s death, abducting her, and poisoning her mind against Jane is a lot of work just to upset Jane. So how does Avery figure into bringing down Crawford?

Our team arrives back in New York, where we see Kurt and Clem saying goodbye but not Jane and Clem, yet another unresolved moment. (Presumably he’s still open to her coming back to working more K&R jobs with him in the future.) Jane accompanies Avery to the hospital, where she receives a call from Roman, warning her that “getting your daughter back might feel like a victory, but that will change. Enjoy it while it lasts.” Clearly whatever he planned with Avery isn’t over yet, which leads further credence to the idea that Avery will continue to tie in to Roman’s plans in some way. (And I must admit, I really love this twist to the “secret daughter” plot line, as it makes Avery much more interesting as a character in her own right and not just a prize to be contested between Jane and Roman.)

The whole season has been building to this case, and while it was every bit as exciting as we’d hoped, I really wish it had been left to fill the hour (well, forty-two minutes) all by itself. As it is, it felt very rushed, and there was little (if any) time allowed for any emotional resonance to the events. Yes, Jane got Avery back and Clem (apparently) departed, but viewers are left trying to fill in the blanks for all the moments that were left off-screen. I wanted to see more of Jane’s reaction to the knowledge that Avery’s fake death was all part of Roman’s plan to break up her marriage. Does it change her feelings toward Kurt at all, to know that she was a victim of this plot as much as he was? Clearly Roman counted on her being so stubborn and unyielding and unable to forgive Weller. I also wanted to know if Clem knew that Jane was married before she showed up at his hotel room for a chat? Did she drop that on him as casually as she dropped their affair on Kurt? Clem certainly seemed surprised to find Kurt on the plane, but yet seemed to know that Jane wasn’t trying to keep their relationship a secret from Kurt. The earlier episode with Dwire implied that Clem might have a problem if he learned that Jane was affiliated with the feds (especially since the cases he works and his approach to them are probably not all in perfect adherence to the law). Did Clem know that Jane was working with the FBI, and that Kurt was an agent? We don’t know, because all of these reveals happened off-screen. The biggest end left hanging was Clem’s departure from Jane, which also happened off-screen. Regardless of what he may have said to Kurt, Clem clearly still had feelings for Jane, so did he leave because she sent him away? Did he think he might have a chance with her later? How did Jane take his departure? The whole Clem storyline felt so rushed-- we got a reveal last week, and now it’s apparently over, another hurdle leapt over in the sprint that this season is beginning to resemble.

The worst victim of all this rushing was that we never got to see Jane breaking the news about Clem to Kurt. All we got was a very quick “so deal with it” attitude from Jane after the fact, with almost no time for Kurt’s reaction at all. And dammit, I am not invested in this show because I want to win the race to the end of the season. I am invested in this show because I care about these characters, and that means I want to see what happens to them, not just count how many sets they can run past in each episode. A revelation of marital infidelity is a big deal and should be treated as such. Many marriages never recover from such a blow, and to have a potential death blow to the relationship that has dominated the screen time in this show for two and a half seasons delivered mostly off-screen felt hugely unsatisfying to me as a viewer. This episode was so good in so many ways, but I can’t help but think how much more fulfilling it could have been if the emotional moments had been allowed more time to breathe on screen.

Y: I really don’t have much to add to this except that Jane’s attitude aside, I really really loved those three working together and would totally watch a spin-off of them running around the world saving innocent people and bickering over how to do things. I loved the chemistry between Kurt and Clem-- and it does not hurt how pretty they both are-- and how quickly all three picked up a rhythm in the field and worked well off each other.

Our second case of the day involved video games, an old flame, terrorists, explosives, and public nudity. That just screams Rich to us, doesn’t it?

Y: Look here, Blindspot, I did not sign up to having Rich Dotcom make me cry, okay? Rich is supposed to make me laugh and giggle and occasionally cringe, but he is not supposed to make me cry, dammit!

L: Our second case comes to us courtesy of a glitch in Patterson’s Wizardville app. (It seems like a grave omission on Roman’s part that there hasn’t been a tattoo yet specifically pointing to the backdoor in the app. Maybe he’s saving that one for later?) Snarky Tasha has her finger on the pulse of the problem: “Clearly, she’s spending too much time saving the world and not enough time fixing the bugs in this game.” Got that, Patterson? But the problem is more serious than users losing a few completed quests. The glitch is in the part the of the program that gives the app admin access to the subscribers’ phones (now some 80 million of them), and Patterson (with Rich’s help) quickly figures out that it’s tied to a series of YouTube videos in which people do crazy things like streaking naked through New York City, setting fire to a grocery store while wearing a pink rabbit costume, and robbing a bank while wearing only a diaper, all of them then apparently pleading with someone to leave them alone. The people in question are all Wizardville subscribers, and all of their accounts show evidence of an external breach; in other words, someone is using the Wizardville app to discover subscribers’ secrets and use them for blackmail.

Patterson shuts the app down, but the hacker turns it back on and locks her out of it. And then Rich takes a look at the code and recognizes a marker that Boston used to use as a signature in his hacking code. Patterson admits that she hired Boston to help write the app, so he either knew about the backdoor or added his own, but Rich argues that while Boston might not always be on the right side of the law, he would never do something to intentionally harm someone. The FBI needs to track Boston down, but before they can, he shows up at the NYO. He explains that using the app to hack people’s phones was his boyfriend’s idea. Initially it was just a bit of voyeurism, but then he realized that Sanjay was hacking the app on his own. Now he is planning some deal and won’t tell Boston what it is, but Boston is convinced it’s not good. The team figures out that the latest hacking victim is a defense contractor with access to all sorts of heavy artillery. They bring him in for questioning, and after our team threatens him with an IRS audit, he confesses that he gave white phosphorus bombs to Sanjay. The team deduces that he has arranged to sell them to this week’s representative of the Dabbur Zann, our all-purpose terrorist organization, who plans to use the bombs on New York, which will gain them absolutely no points for originality in the FBI’s book.

Boston volunteers to go in with a wire so they can catch the sale going down. He does a delightfully terrible job acting “normal,” then figures out how to signal to the FBI after Sanjay scans for bugs and blocks his cell service. Team Fed swoops in to nab the bad guys, leaving Sanjay and Boston miraculously unscathed, and Rich rushes in to make sure Boston is okay. The FBI agrees not to charge Boston in return for his help, but he is placed under house arrest. And then Rich delivers what appears to be an utterly honest and heartfelt declaration of love, to which Boston responds, “I have been wanting to hear that for so long. But you should have said it two years ago.” Ow, my heart hurts. And this was supposed to be the lighter side of this episode??

Can I just say how much I loved this case? As always, Rich’s dialogue is hysterical, and paired with Boston, it’s even more outrageous. I was so thrilled to see Boston come back. We’ve been getting hints all season that Rich was still hung up on Boston, but this is Rich, so it’s hard to tell how serious he was. And the answer is: Really serious. The last scene between them was heartbreaking (and really did absolutely nothing to make me feel better about the angst taking place on the other stage in this episode. Dammit Rich, you had one job on this show!). There were some interesting parallels between Boston’s blackmail cases and the hacktivism activities that Patterson and Rich engaged in as the Three Blind Mice (it really shouldn’t be a surprise that Patterson gets along so well with Rich and Boston), and the case, as so many on Blindspot do, serves to illustrate how rather arbitrary the line between good and bad can be. (So Patterson... is Wizardville back online yet? With or without your little backdoor activated?)

And I know I keep saying this, but I really do wish this had been a separate episode. As much as I love Rich, for the first time ever I found there were moments that I was kind of annoyed by his banter-- not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but because I felt like I was “missing out” on what was happening in Berlin because of it. Rich’s episodes are frequently nice breaks of comic relief in an otherwise serious show, and had this been a stand-alone episode, it would have been a breath of fresh air in the midst of the heartbreaking angst we’ve been dealing with lately. (And it also would have served to space out some of the “big reveals” we’ve been getting in such rapid succession.) But in the middle of such an overwhelmingly serious episode, sometimes the shift in tone from serious to comedic was just too jarring. As with the Berlin case, I really wanted to see more of this one. We start off with such an attention-getting image of a guy streaking down the streets of New York. I can’t be the only one who wanted to see the team questioning this guy about who made him do that and why. But there was no time for that, so we just get a rushed explanation from Boston later on. (“The naked guy on YouTube who went viral? He was stealing from a kid’s cancer charity to go on Alaskan cruises, so we made him pay. It was basically a public service.” Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.) These are the kind of moments that this show does so well, so it’s a shame to miss out on them.

Team Fed takes a bit of a backseat this week to all the other drama, with one small exception. What’s disturbing the still waters at the NYO?

L: As usual, the dynamic between Rich and the team is pure gold, starting with, “Hey, All-Beef Patty.” I love how uncomfortable Patterson still is when she has to ask Rich for help, despite the fact that they’ve been working together for weeks, possibly months, by now. (Or maybe it was just the unusually heavy eye makeup she put on for work this morning that was so uncomfortable? Hard to tell.) The interplay between Rich (the man with no filter) and the team (who are forced to serve as human filters) never fails to make me laugh as they struggle and fail (repeatedly) to contain him. The scenes between Rich and Boston were really quite touching, and I’ll admit that I really didn’t expect that. This additional facet to Rich’s character makes him even more endearing. (And now I am totally rooting for Boston to come back so Rich can get another chance with him.)

In addition to everything else going on in this episode, we also had to allow time for Pining Tasha. We see her and Reade watching a basketball game at his place while Meg is away. (Side note: Reade stocks Weller’s favorite “amazing Pennsylvania beer” but doesn’t even invite him over to introduce his live-in girlfriend? Ouch, that’s cold.) The next day, Tasha tells Patterson that she thinks she should tell Reade how she feels, which is every bit as bad of an idea as it sounds. But when she casually suggests that they get together after work so she can dump her unrequited feelings on him, Reade pulls out an engagement ring that he bought for Meg. Yes, Reade, please, put a ring on it and put us all out of our misery. So, um, no, this storyline isn’t growing on me. The opposite actually... I am liking less and less the changes we are seeing in Tasha’s character. She’s always been a very practical, straight-shooting, snarky and sassy kind of character, and frankly, that’s what I loved about her. This self-absorbed, middle-school, almost whiny version of her feels like a pale imitation of the kick-ass-and-take-names Zapata we know and love. Patterson asks her if she made out with Reade, and Tasha insists, “I would never,” which seems a little disingenuous to me. Coming on to Reade physically is wrong, but dumping her feelings on him and expecting him to respond is totally okay? In an episode that already had far too much going on, taking time away from the established emotional conflicts that we’re already invested in to make room for one that feels so contrived didn’t do this storyline any favors.

Y: It’s no secret we’re not a fan of that development, is it? So instead, I will focus on how much I love the team and the dynamics between them especially when Rich is around. Patterson and Rich’s relationship is this season’s best gifts. Every time these two are on screen together, it is bound to be one of the best scenes. And then there is the dynamic between all of them. Reade’s reaction to finding out Patterson had the back door in her app makes me laugh every time I watch it. There is something so parent/child-esque about how he says, “We’ll talk about this later.” There were so many small moments that had me smiling at the screen, including Rich walking in and asking if they’re talking about him. I don’t know why but these small moments fill my heart.

Another thing that lights up my soul with joy is the Kurt/Patterson relationship and this episode did not disappoint. It may have been two small scenes but they were absolutely perfect. But as much as I loved them, their sibling-like dynamic makes me miss Sarah even more. But that’s a whole different topic altogether.

Roman took a break from romancing Blake to pay a little visit to his brother-in-law. How did that reunion go?

Y: I come from a very huge family and while I love them all, the whole “family reunion with bullet proof glass” does sound rather inviting. But seriously, that scene was absolutely fantastic. Of all the reunions in the episode, including Rich/Boston and Jane/Avery, I think the Roman and Kurt reunion was the best. Luke Mitchell and Sullivan Stapleton have always had incredible scenes together, whether it was when Kurt was trying to help the caged Roman in season two, or both the face-to-face and the over-the-phone scenes from this season. And this scene in underground tunnel, separated by the glass, was a perfect throwback to the scene in season two when Kurt and Roman bonded over beer, tragic childhoods, and having shitty parents.

Kurt may have gotten the upper hand in this encounter, but that made this elaborate game of chess just that more compelling, triggering Roman to call Jane and taunt her about Avery to make up for losing that move earlier with Kurt. What is happening between these three this season just might be the most exciting power play and storyline this season and a great parallel to what we had last season.

The head-to-head battles last season pitted Jane against Shepherd and Kurt against Shepherd, and this year we are seeing the same conflicts with Jane against Roman and Kurt against Roman. I especially loved Roman’s line to Kurt about them fighting for the same endgame, paralleling what Shepherd had told Kurt last season. Roman really looks like he takes after mommy dearest-- although seeing him so affected by Kurt’s words remains a comforting thought that maybe not all hope is lost for our favorite villain.

One last parallel we are seeing this year with season two is what Kurt pointed out-- the family tradition of emotional manipulation. Shepherd last year poisoned Roman against Jane, and then Jane poisoned Roman against Shepherd, and this year it’s Roman’s turn to poison Avery against Jane. And I guess coming up will be Jane poisoning Avery against Roman.

Can we please get some therapy over here? Stat!

L: The scene between Roman and Kurt was one of my favorites in this episode. Their scenes are always powerful, agreed, and this one was no exception. And the setting was absolutely perfect. As Roman said, “They built this room after the Berlin Wall went up so that enemies could talk face to face without threat of death.” And given that Weller promised Roman that he would kill him if they were ever in the same room again, this was clearly a smart move on Roman’s part. They both got to land their shots: Kurt telling Roman that he lost his hold over Kurt because Jane knows everything. And Roman clearly picks up on what Kurt doesn’t say, that Jane can’t forgive him, and wastes no time in rubbing that in.

But it’s Kurt who gets the last laugh. “Avery was your last chance. You manipulated her, you used her, and you lied to her. You did the same thing that Shepherd has done to you for your whole life.” And just as we talked about last week, we see Roman start to lose some of his cool. And we continue to wonder if Kurt and Jane are able to bring some pressure to Roman, will he be able to hold it together in order to carry out his plans?

It’s interesting to note that if season two was Jane and Shepherd battling over Roman, season three seems to be setting up Jane and Roman battling over Avery. Shepherd sent Jane to the FBI as a Trojan horse, and ultimately lost that gamble. Now Roman has sent Avery to Jane in what appears to be the same capacity. Will he have more success? Avery might be Jane’s last family member, but she’s Roman’s last family connection, too. Jane has turned against him, so if he loses Avery in this process, he will be utterly alone in the world. And no matter how much he claims that doesn’t matter, he is far too bitter about his sister’s loss for that to be true.

I think it’s clear that the ultimate showdown that is brewing this season isn’t Jane versus Roman, but Kurt versus Roman. Jane and Roman had their showdown at the end of last season, and Jane couldn’t pull the trigger. Roman had Jane under his control for long enough to tattoo her entire body again; if he’d wanted her dead, she would be. But Kurt? Roman has already robbed him of the thing that mattered most to Kurt, his marriage. And a man with nothing left to lose is dangerous indeed. If I were Roman, I would definitely be watching my back. Because Kurt Weller is gunning for him. And he’s not a man who gives up easily.

And then there’s Jane. Nothing in her life is ever easy... although sometimes the problems are of her own making. Is her reunion with her daughter all that she hoped it would be?

L: I kind of want to just repost everything I wrote about Jane last week and add, “Ditto.” She still feels so cold and unsympathetic, and we’re still left trying to guess what’s going on in her head. What really drew me in about Blindspot from the first episode was watching how Jane could go from being so kickass to so terribly vulnerable in the blink of an eye. And since Weller confessed the truth about Berlin to her, we have seen none of that vulnerability from her. She’s been angry, and now with the Clem reveal, downright hypocritical. And as much as I love Jane, I’m having a hard time trying to find the character I love in there to root for.

To be clear: I am not upset about the Clem storyline (though I may be the only one!). It makes sense to me that Jane would have given up on returning to Kurt at some point. She’s a survivor, and the only reason she’s been able to overcome having her memory wiped, being tortured by the CIA, losing her brother, and spending eighteen months on the run is because she is able to adapt and make the best of things, no matter how horrible the situation. She survived the team’s betrayal and her time at the CIA by planning to escape and go after Sandstorm herself. And she survived a life on the run, enduring endless threats on her life, not by hiding away but by finding work that gave her purpose and a partner to watch her back.

We know that Jane is impulsive. In the field, this quality frequently saves her life and the lives of those around her. But in her personal life, it is often far more destructive (trusting Oscar in season one, injecting Roman with ZIP in season two). But in previous cases, we’ve always seen her remorse, and her acceptance of the consequences of her decisions. For example, she accepted the team’s anger and their treatment of her throughout season two, because she felt remorseful for the decisions she made which led to Mayfair’s death. Clearly, sleeping with Clem was an impulsive decision, an attempt to find some small measure of happiness in a life that had become devoid of it, but even though she apologizes to him for running out on him, she doesn’t seem willing to acknowledge to anyone that there was anything wrong with her cheating on her husband.

But the hardest thing to understand about the Jane we see now is her absolute utter lack of compassion for Kurt. Yes, she is angry. But Jane has always shown incredible compassion for everyone around her, even in the harshest circumstances. Even after Kurt turned her over to the CIA for three months of torture and then fought her and dragged her back to the FBI, she managed to have compassion for him. So at the very least, we would expect to see some acknowledgment that her confession of infidelity would hurt him. But there is nothing, just a cold announcement (that we didn’t actually see) that she refuses to let him respond to or even really absorb. “I didn’t think we could see each other ever again,” she tells Kurt in explanation. But because we have been given no idea what she went through during her time on the run, we have no idea if this is truly sincere or simply a convenient excuse that she throws at him to try to avert further discussion of the subject. (I do believe that it’s true, but I wish I had something besides gut instinct to back that up.)

I hope that we’re getting to the end of the “angry Jane” period. Clearly, she is going to have her hands full trying to build some sort of relationship with the daughter who has been so poisoned against her. I’m hoping that this struggle will bring back the multi-dimensional character we know and love.

Y: Ditto?

Just kidding. While I do agree with all of that, I’ve put a lot of thought in trying to understand why Jane is acting this way. It does seem very out of character for her-- especially the lack of compassion. And while I still do not excuse her actions or her hypocrisy, I do understand all the underlying aspects to why she might be like this.

But I still do not like it. I do not like it at all.

Last week I may have been more angry than sympathetic toward Jane, and that made me so frustrated because there was so much to sympathize with but yet her rather unexpected behavior at the time had tipped the bar towards angry. This week I have managed to find more sympathy and a clearer understanding of where Jane is now. Granted I am not saying that I excuse her behavior or justify her cheating. Also, I am not saying I like the road the writers chose to take, but given the hand we’ve been dealt I am in a much better place with our tragic heroine.

She has spent the better part of two years closing off emotionally and avoiding any real human connection and emotional connection. She’d thought she could fortify herself while on the run and focus on what she had to do. But one night with Clem and she realized what she has been missing and more importantly who she has been missing. And so she ran off to Nepal.

When Jane came back, both she and Kurt are so deliriously happy that they pretend the past two years didn’t happen. They try to go back to that moment in Colorado after Bethany had fallen asleep and before everything went wrong. It is the happiest either of them has been in so long. Jane tries to fall back into that, but the moment things start going wrong, instead of facing them head on, she closes off again because like I said, that is how she has spent the better part of two years. This time she cannot run away physically-- although she has moved out-- so she runs away emotionally. She has done it before as Jane, and she has done it as Remi. She tries to fortify herself from any real connections-- which includes rejecting Tasha’s invite-- and any real emotions, and she builds up these walls that her husband is usually so very fond of.

I think what my rambling about is trying to get to is that it is easier to be cruel and push people away than to admit to feelings and confront them and deal with them, especially when you’ve spent most of your life running away from your problems. Yeah… that’s pretty much what I think I’m trying to say.

It’s unhealthy but pretty much a normal defense mechanism, especially when the feelings are terrifying, and they include a whole range from betrayal to guilt to heartbreak. A medley of feels. No one wants to touch that. It is easier for her to focus all these on Kurt, to make him the punching bag that takes all of it. And it may not be logical, but she is not being rational now. The conflict between her head and her heart is too divisive. She has to know what she did was horrible, but she cannot make sense of what she’s feeling so pretending her thing was nothing and Kurt’s was everything makes it easier to avoid having to deal with what she’s done.

Oh, and as to her going to Clem as a friend instead of Tasha, I get it. Tasha is her friend but she’s also Kurt’s friend-- and maybe a part of Jane feels the team would always side with Kurt for all the obvious reasons, and so she goes to the one person who does not know Kurt and would most probably side with her because he will only be hearing her side of the story which is perfectly normal, again.

So the question is, what’s next for Jane? She has to lose everything. She thinks she has Avery, but I think she has to lose her in one way or another. And more importantly she has to lose Kurt. So far this season he has been the one fighting harder and carrying them as a couple. But from the looks of it, he’s finally run out of steam and faith, and I think in this way she is going to lose him and will realize that she doesn’t want that and has to fight as well. Jane needs to be faced by a harsh reality that really forces her to change, to want to change and push her forward.

L: Yes, I agree with all of this. Since she found out about Berlin, Kurt has made all the effort to repair the breach between them. But I think that learning about Clem was too much for him. It does seem like he’s given up from what he said to Clem. So either the two of them walk away, or Jane is going to have to be the one who takes a step to bring them back together.

As I’m re-reading through all of these thoughts, I think there’s an interesting theme here. We have Jane pushing Kurt away and pretending she doesn’t need anyone. We have Roman telling Kurt that he knows he will end up alone. “I’ve seen what my life could have looked like if none of this ever happened to me. But that’s just not in the cards for me.” And we have Avery telling Jane, “I’ve survived my whole life without you. I’ve never needed you, and I’m not about to start now.” The common theme in this family is loss. Roman lost his sister to the FBI. Jane lost her brother when she chose to ZIP him to try to bring him to her side. She lost Avery when Shepherd took her away. She’s lost her trust in Kurt, lost the haven that was her marriage. Avery lost her mother as an infant, then her adoptive parents as a young adult. And no matter how much they all insist that they don’t care about the things they’ve lost, the pain from these losses is what is driving them all. Damn, this family is just a walking tragedy.

I keep thinking about Avery as this pendulum swinging between Roman and Jane. We’ve talked about fighting Crawford possibly being the one thing that could unite our estranged siblings. But I feel like Avery could be either the straw that breaks the camel’s back or the one person who could possibly draw them back together. And honestly, I cannot wait to see how all of this plays out.

Kurt’s not having a good week. And then it gets worse. How’s our grumpchkin (grumpy munchkin) doing?

Y: Oh my precious grumpchkin is not doing well at all, is he? But still, through all of this, he is still a class act in every way possible. I really love Kurt Weller, okay? I have two things to touch upon with regards to Kurt this week. First of all, I read a lot of people complaining about Kurt not being angry enough with Clem, or at least not happy that Kurt offered him his hand to shake in the end. But honestly, it just shows how much Kurt has grown and also, to me, it sort of makes sense. It is not Clem’s fault that Jane cheated on Kurt. For all we know, Clem never knew Jane was married. They spent six months working together on dangerous missions, they got along, they flirted. Can’t blame a guy for trying, right? It was not Clem who betrayed Kurt. It was Jane. And I know someone in Kurt’s position does not necessarily need to act so rationally, but he did, and I am so proud of him for being able to see things in that light.

And second, again this is a reaction to what I’ve been seeing online of how people are reacting to Kurt’s recent behavior. There is a lot of talk about Kurt not being angry enough, and that he is letting Jane get away with treating him like this. And while I agree this is slightly infuriating and does appear that his reaction is not at the level it needs to be, I actually prefer the route that is being taken. It makes more sense for Kurt to lose his shit. But it is more interesting that he is not. Instead of being angry, Kurt Weller is giving up.

Kurt Weller, the most stubborn person on this show, is giving up. Let that sink in.

Kurt’s stubbornness, his commitment and inability to let go, has been the driving force of this character, and he is now giving up. This is bigger than anything. Kurt never gave up on Taylor, for twenty-five years. He never gave up on Jane after she left Colorado for almost two years. It’s the foundation of who he is.

And now he’s giving up. This is the biggest dramatic shift in character we have seen to date.

L: Amen. This is huge. This is a seismic shift in his character. And it is something that ought to shake Jane out of her frozen anger and make her sit up and take notice.

But that said, I don’t think he’s going to achieve the same degree of frozen chill that his wife is displaying. Because there is a lot of hurt and anger lurking right beneath the surface, and I don’t see it staying hidden for long. And frankly, I don’t think it should. Lack of communication is what got them both into this mess, and honesty-- especially the brutal kind-- is necessary to get them out.

So when Jane asked him, “You really want to play that card with me?” Hell yes, I think you should have played that card, Weller. I think you should have pointed out that if that’s the cross she’s going to nail you to, she’s got a spot right next door.

But the problem here is that Weller is the one who is best at putting up walls. And if he puts them up between him and Jane while she’s still so closed off? Maybe it’s a good thing this show involves so much explosives. They might come in handy for once.

Last but never least... Do we have any hope left at all for our favorite couple?

L: Well, things definitely aren’t good between them. But I don’t think all hope is lost, not by a long shot. (Heck, even Clem hopes they work things out, so clearly, everyone around them can see they aren’t done with each other yet!) These two still love each other, but love by itself isn’t enough to keep a marriage going.

As Jane says to Kurt, “You know, maybe we should just stop working so hard to protect each other, because it just seems to make things worse.” And frankly, she’s right. When they came back to New York, they both immediately pretended that nothing had changed. Neither of them talked about what they went through while they were apart. During that time, both of them came up against parts of themselves that weren’t the pretty, polished pieces they willingly shared during their brief marriage and honeymoon period. These parts were dark and ugly and raw, and frankly, they were things that made them feel ashamed. Kurt did something horrible that he felt he should have been able to prevent. Jane gave up on her marriage and acted on an impulse that she immediately regretted. And when they were finally reunited, neither of them were brave enough to show these ugly pieces to the other. They just hid it all away and pretended it wasn’t there. And that approach wasn’t honest or healthy, and left the other feeling completely blindsided when the truth came out.

And the more I think about it, the more I think that neither one of them really has any idea what the other went through during their separation. And how could they, when they were busy pretending it never happened? Jane knows that Kurt looked for her and went broke, but she could perceive that more as stubbornness and upholding a commitment on his part, rather than desperation and heartbreak. And I think Weller thinks that she was just off “finding purpose,” working K&R (and sleeping with Clem), instead of trying desperately to plug the holes in her life and her heart. They both underestimated the depth of the other’s feelings. And it’s not fair to blame either one of them for not knowing what the other was thinking or feeling during their separation, because how could they? They weren’t together, and unlike the viewers, they don’t have the luxury of the omniscient point of view.

As we’ve said, at least now everything is out in the open. At least now they’ve shown each other the ugliness they were hiding. Remember what Jane said to Weller about Mayfair in season one? “Whatever she did, she’s more than just one mistake.” Right now, all that either of them can see is the mistake. So first, they need to figure out if they can look past that. Then they need to decide if they are willing to commit to working through their problems to build a marriage with a solid foundation. No, this probably isn’t going to happen right away. But deciding not to walk away is a good first step, and since walking away from each other isn’t something that either one of them has ever been very good at, that’s what I’m holding out hope for.

Y: We’ve been quite spoiled. I know the current state of affairs is almost unbearable, but I think it’s more so because of how good we had it earlier on in the season. The premiere and the episodes that followed were like fluffy fanfiction come to canon. After seeing Jeller as a badass partnership in the field, taking down bad guys and flirting over last-minute defused bombs, and seeing them as the disgustingly adorable married couple being domestic, cooking each other dinner and calling each other cute pet names like it’s no one’s business.

It’s because we got to live through that shipper heaven that we are suffering so much now. Not that the pain isn’t real. It is very real, but we know what we had which makes this worse.

But hear me out. We have a good measuring scale to work with when it comes to these two. I always go back to what we had to go through in season two. We started with Jane in a CIA black site as a result of Kurt arresting her. And then on their first meeting, they beat the shit out of each other, and Jane pulled a gun on her future husband. And I am not going to list all the things we had to go through before those two started to learn to be civil around each other, to get back on the track to reconciliation and then friendship, to trusting each other and confiding in each other, to pulling each other up and falling in love.

And that is why I know these two will be okay, and why I will always still have hope. They are the heart and soul of this show and will always be.

That’s all from us! One more episode before the Olympic hiatus is upon us. We mean a hiatus caused by the Olympics, rather than one that will take a great feat of strength and courage to get through... you know what? Never mind. Surviving hellatus is our Olympic event!

-- Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: episode review #character: kurt weller #character: jane doe #character: roman #character: edgar reade #character: tasha zapata #character: patterson #character: avery #character: rich dotcom #character: boston arliss crab #character: clem #ship: Jane/Kurt #ship: Rich/Boston #episode: 311 - technology wizards

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