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more--than--anything · 5 years ago

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Episode Review: "Do you realize how many times this team has saved the world?" [S05E04]

This week, we see our team trying to make progress in the present, while also taking a painful stroll down memory lane—and that was even before the shocker at the end. How are we doing after that wild ride?

Y: Every week, I say to myself, okay, this was painful so next week has to get better. And every week I discover I am a fool. Such a big dumb fool because it only gets more painful.

L: I cannot keep eating so much chocolate. It just isn’t good for me. And the next episode looks like it’s going to require another truckload!

When we last saw our team, they had discovered Madeline was planning to set off a chemical bomb. But figuring things out in the present requires a trip into the past. How does wrangling their ghosts help our team piece this puzzle together?

L: When we last saw our team, they had discovered plans for a chemical weapon stored on a chip in the arm of a deceased Dabbur Zann member. They seemed stalled until Patterson unlocks a hidden file on the drive with a schematic that Kurt and Jane recognize as the weapon that they were supposed to steal for the Dabbur Zann in 4.07. Kurt blew it up when the terrorists tried to abscond with it, but it looks like they’ve managed to locate another one. To figure out what it is, Patterson tracks down the evidence log for the “mystery bomb,” and they discover it was logged in 2011, on Tasha’s first day at the NYO, which sends Tasha on a long and painful trip down memory lane to the day she first met and befriended Reade.

Yes, this episode had a high chocolate consumption factor. I cope by eating my feelings, don’t judge.

Tasha remembers being stuck sorting through cold case files with Reade on Jonas Fischer’s orders. Fischer is another blast from the past we loved to hate, and I’m kind of delighted to see his officious self back in the NYO. And not just because hating on him keeps us from getting too maudlin about mourning over Reade. Tasha can’t remember much about the case that caught her eye, except that a body was found in the river with traces of two poisons in his system, and only one of them was listed in the autopsy report. So she and Reade headed down to the lab to question a “random lab tech” who turns out to be an adorable baby Patterson with a Princess-Leia hairdo. She immediately hacks into the FBI systems to get the data Tasha and Reade are after. “If they wanted me to stay away from the databases, they wouldn’t make them so easy to access.” Oh, Patterson, you haven’t changed at all. Please never do!

Baby Patterson tells them that when “chemical I can’t remember” is combined with “second chemical I can’t remember” they create “one of the most devastating poison gasses on the face of the earth.” Because of course; we already know Madeline isn’t farting around here. Tasha digs harder into her memories at Weller’s urging and remembers that she and Reade interrogated a scientist whose company had something to do with those chemicals. Fischer interrupts and sends the woman on her way, and knowing what we know about Fischer, I have to wonder whose instructions he was acting on at that moment. He does mention that their interviewee “is a member of a very particular, very influential family.” Tasha recalls enough about their mystery scientist for Patterson to find a name: Kerry Coleman, who apparently vanished right around the time that Reade and Zapata questioned her. Jane recognizes her as one of the terrorists they exchanged shots with in the warehouse.

Tasha struggles to remember more (and honestly, her memory of Weller literally barking at her and Reade is hands-down my favorite moment in this episode). This time it is Jane (the team’s expert in recovering memories) who encourages her, using Earl Grey, Reade’s favorite tea, to provide a sensory trigger. Tasha powers through the painful memories and is able to remember the names of both chemicals, Chlorine12 and Phosgene517, as well as how they found the location where they were being stored, which helps Patterson figure out where Coleman and the Dabbur Zann could be storing them now. The team heads out to Decin, a town on the Czech-German border.

I love the way the camera cuts back and forth between the present and Tasha’s memories of the initial take-down, and how she envisions Reade’s tiny head nod, to tell her that she needs to go and back up her team. Pardon me, there must be something in both of my eyes. (Not to mention his, “Thank you for saving my life yesterday. I owe you one.”) Yeah, this is why we buy chocolate in the institutional-sized bags. But after all this pain and suffering, we finally get to see the Tasha that we know and love. She’s kicking butt without stopping to take names, and they take out the bad guys in a matter of moments. She’s baaaaack!

At that point, the day seems like a win. Coleman and some of her henchman escape, and presumably they still have the device, but the team secured the chemicals, and so Madeline’s plans have been thwarted at least for the moment. If the episode had ended here, there’d have been celebration all around. But Ivy Sands is nothing if not tenacious, and she and her henchmen manage to shoot Jane and take off with Kurt in their trunk, and is it time for the next episode yet? How about now? Now?

I love that once again it took the entire team (even Reade, sniff!) to solve this case, both in the present and in the past. They needed Kurt and Jane’s memories of the device, Tasha’s memories of the original case with Reade, plus Patterson and Rich’s computing power to crack this one. None of them could have done it alone. This team is so much more than the sum of its parts. All the parts are amazing, but when you put them together, you hit superhero level.

And I loved what this one line of dialogue says: “Okay, the authorities should be here soon so let’s split up, take our own path back to the bunker.” These people are on the run from every law-enforcement agency ever right now. But they are stopping the bad guys and then calling the police to let the authorities deal with the criminals through the proper legal channels—even though they know it’s possible that they may be putting themselves at risk. All because this is just the right thing to do. They may be outlaws, but they are still the good guys at heart.

We don’t visit the FBI NYO this week, but it’s probably for the best, given that Weitz is probably still sweating bullets and trying to figure out how to give Madeline what she wants before she kills any more of his coworkers. We do see that the team got the message about Briana. It’s a little less graphic than the message they received about Sho, but the content is the same: You help the team, you end up dead. On second thought, I’m a lot more worried that we didn’t see Weitz and Afreen this week. I hope that doesn’t mean they’re riding around in the trunk of Madeline’s car.

Which makes me think about Kurt again in the trunk of Ivy’s car. What is it with these people and trunks? Also, please pass the chocolate.

Y: I love a flashback case, especially in an episode that is mostly a bottle episode, and when the flashback isn’t just expository but also is part of solving the case. Everything about the structure of the episode was great, and what was absolutely brilliant was the editing and cutting between the present and the past and the way they played the parallels—especially when Tasha was guarding the back and it kept jumping to that same moment in the past but with Reade by her side.

And I have to say that as much as I would have loved to see Mayfair, I guess Jonas Fischer was a guest character worth bringing back in this farewell season, because boy do we hate this character but also John Hodgman is just so incredibly good.

No Madeline this week isn’t something I will complain about, but not checking in with our little Resistance does have me worried. I hope that the team learning about Briana doesn’t deter them from reaching out again in the future to either Weitz or Afreen. I understand that they would be worried about them but come on—Weitz has a redemption arc to complete and Afreen is a superhero just waiting for her moment to shine!

Our team isn’t fighting the way they were the last time we saw them, but that doesn’t mean that it’s all smooth sailing now. What ripples are we seeing beneath the water this week?

Y: There’s actually something very beautiful happening with the team right now. I know that pretty much everything that is happening to them is absolutely horrible and brutal and painful, but through all of it, something amazing has been happening. And isn’t that always the case, really?

One of the things the show is doing best right now is showing how people act, react, and exist in a situation like the one that the team is in. They’re in some sort of lockdown. They’re at war. They’re going through some traumatic shit. And every single day is a battle for survival. And when you’re going through something like that with a group of people, it’s not all drama all the time. You adjust and you adapt and you find ways to survive. And the writers are doing such a good job at portraying a very believable, relatable, and realistic version of this. There’s arguing and bickering. There’s humor and teasing. There’s joking and banter. There’s emotional breakdown. There’s snapping at each other. There’s getting fed up and storming out. There’s sulking alone and seeking out places to hide. There’s keeping secrets and inside jokes and being there for one another and listening to each other’s problems and supporting each other. For example, the way they all rallied to support Tasha this episode and help her remember and be there for her was such a wholesome thing, and yet they also manage to argue over Rich’s shopping habits and Rich hit back at Patterson’s chore wheel which was in its way also very wholesome.

The team is doing all that, and it’s amazing.

But the real winner is how through all this, they’re finding a new normal, not to get used to it and stay in it, but in order to be able to stand on their feet and continue to fight. The most important thing is that they’re finding purpose.

It’s been such a short time for the team since the season started, but they’ve already been through so much and they’ve grown and evolved so much, both collectively and individually. So let’s tackle them individually now, and let’s start with the one who is currently least problematic—Rich Dotcom.

Yup, that’s one sentence I never thought I would write. Rich Dotcom is at the moment the least problematic character on Blindspot. 2020 just keeps getting weirder.

Rich has really stepped up this year. He has become the backbone of the team—its heart and soul—and this is not by accident. Ever since he’s joined the team, Rich has steadily been on a path of redemption. He had found a home—a family—and being part of this family has helped him right his wrongs. He knows just how important this family is and just how irreplaceable it is. He knows where he would be without it and cannot fathom the idea of not being with them. His experience in the black site has really helped him put things in perspective, focus on what really matters, and he has decided to be the glue that holds this family together no matter what.

He has become the main go-to guy for everyone on the team—from seeking emotional support, to asking for advice, to getting information online or grabbing something from the shop. He’s come a long way from who we first met, to how the team saw him when he first joined, to now becoming the guy they share their secrets with and trust with… everything and anything. He’s—shockingly—become a voice of reason and at some points he might be carrying a little too much on his shoulders, but I think I trust Rich to be able to handle it. I really do. Especially since he’s still got his snark and his humor and unmatched talent to make everything lewd and inappropriate. What Rich did for Tasha this week—all of it, from picking up what she needed from the store, to being there for her, to listening to her when she needed someone to listen, and to just letting her rest her tired head on her shoulder—was immeasurable. They may have seemed like small insignificant things, but they literally kept Tasha going and kept the team from breaking.

And similarly being there for Jane when she needed him—doing what she needed him to do and also providing sound advice—even if Jane ignored that advice.

So that’s the purpose that Rich has found—keeping the team together—even if it means he has to take up a role he’s never been comfortable with or accustomed to before, then so be it. Because no one is going to break up Rich Dotcom’s family. Not on his watch.

L: I love this new role for Rich, being everyone’s go-to guy. I think he’s still a little bit surprised to be taken so seriously by everyone, but he’s more than earned it. I love that the team sends him out for snacks (at least I hope it was snacks; if the canned meat indicates it was supposed to be “groceries,” then clearly Bill Nye was right to be so concerned about Patterson’s eating habits while on the run), that Tasha asks him to get her a pregnancy test, and that Jane asks him to find info on Bethany. There is no question that they all trust Rich to keep their secrets and not share them with the rest of the group.

And in a lot of ways, this is more significant than trusting him with a gun. They are all trapped together there in the bunker. They have little in the illusion of privacy, judging by the fact that they all seem to be sharing the same single bunk room. The only thing that they have that isn’t on display for the rest of the team are their secrets. Tasha could easily have volunteered to take the snack run for Rich and picked up her own pregnancy test without anyone knowing. Jane could have taken her request to Patterson instead. But they both trusted Rich.

And I don’t think that’s a coincidence. They all have their own agendas, but right now, Rich is the only one who is 100% Team Bunker. Patterson is worrying about her father, Weller is worrying about Bethany, Jane is worrying about Kurt, and Tasha is mourning Reade and dealing with her new complication. But Rich is the only one who is fully there, in the present, completely focused on the team as a whole. He’s become the heart of this team, keeping it all together right now and worrying about the rest of them. And yeah, it’s a good look on him. He’s never really had this before; we know from the comments he’s made that he’s not that close to his own family, and his relationship with Boston has certainly been filled with ups and downs. But there doesn’t seem to have been anyone who was just there for Rich before, someone he could count on the way he can depend on this team. And he is determined to look after them in return.

And frankly, if that doesn’t warm your heart, you might want to go your ticker checked.

Y: Next on the unproblematic scale is Patterson.

Patterson had a rough start to the season, especially after the Finland op that brought her and her dad together and then they had to part ways again and it sent him into hiding somewhere in Europe. It is perfectly understandable that that op had shaken Patterson up. And if you add to that all the things pertaining to their situation and that she is completely out of her comfort zone, away from all the things she is used to and more importantly used to have under her control, then you cannot blame Patterson for not being okay there for a while. You know, we talk about Kurt being a control freak—which he is—but in many ways Patterson isn’t that different. Just another one of the many things that those two have in common in my books. Looking back, Patterson had always been like that. And as a woman of science and someone who typically is the most capable and smartest in the room, it makes sense that she feels like she needs to be in charge and needs things to be how she wants them. Remember how she was in her lab? Things needed to be the way she had them and no other way worked.

But after a bumpy and emotional start, Patterson has found her rhythm. She’s found her focus and her purpose and her head is back in the game. Unfortunately, she no longer has the best technical facilities that FBI money can buy and is forced to use normal people computers and that is just the absolute worst. But this is Patterson. Patterson is capable of things that normal people cannot even imagine and that above average people can only imagine. Nothing is going to get in the way of her doing her thing.

One of the most exciting parts of the team being cooped up in this bunker is that we’re inevitably getting scenes between everyone and getting interactions between everyone and that has allowed these relationships to develop and for intimate moments to happen between everyone. It’s allowing this team to grow and heal and develop a new dynamic that they would have never had otherwise. Naturally, Patterson and Rich are getting to spend so much time together and that dynamic which we have adored for two seasons is just getting better and better every day. But there was also another little moment with Kurt this episode that fits perfectly into this bunker living situation and highlights how this team is really living a familiar and relatable family situation. Patterson tells Kurt what happened with Tasha—out of concern for their friend—and then he offers to check in on Tasha. And then later, when she picks up that there is something happening with Tasha, she tries to coax the truth out of Rich but again, in a perfect little moment, he manages to find a diplomatic answer. There’s something notable here about Patterson and Tasha’s relationship. These two have never really recovered from the Borden working for the CIA situation. They’ve come a long long way since then, but I don’t think they ever got back to where they were before. Of course, it did not help that Tasha spent most of season undercover with Madeline, so those two never got the chance to properly reconcile. I hope that in what is left of season 5 we get to see them go back to where they once were.

And finally, there’s no way I’m going to go through the Patterson section and not bring up rookie Patterson back in 2011. There is only one word for what we saw on screen. Perfection. Pure and utter perfection. Everything from the quirkiness, to the sass, to the neediness, to the hair and the glasses. Absolutely perfect.

L: Rookie Patterson is adorable. I loved how the flashbacks showed us the seedlings that grew into the team we know and love. Even as a “noob,” Patterson couldn’t resist the lure of hacking into a system that was supposed to be keeping her out. She’s a control freak who follows the rules, yes, but we see here that she’s always been a bit of a hacktivist who is willing to bend the rules for a good cause.

And yeah, I think that someone who alphabetizes her board game collection by the name of the game designer is probably not someone who would ever be comfortable with a life on the run, so the fact that she’s coping this well is probably due in great part to the fact that she simply keeps working, while the rest of the team around her sleeps, goes on junk food runs, or agonizes over personal conflicts. If she stopped working, she’d have to deal with this new reality, but the team needs her to keep working and finding them leads to chase down, so she is just going to keep on going.

Even if that means having to deal with “normal-people computers.” Patterson, we feel ya, especially those of us who are trapped at home with “normal-people internet access.” Really, she’s dealing with it quite admirably.

But yes, I totally agree with you about Patterson and Tasha’s friendship. Patterson seems like the more logical choice for Tasha to have confided in, and the fact that she didn’t shows that there is still some distance between them (despite both being members of the “love of my life got killed trying to help me” club). Which brings us to Tasha.

Y: Ah, Tasha—she who has the most problems right now. And not that we blame her. Ever since she took that undercover op for the CIA, things haven’t been going great with Tasha. Honestly, just with what she went through in season 4, I am in awe of how she still manages to wake up in the morning. And you add to that everything that has happened since? Tasha Zapata deserves a statue in her honor.

There’s a part of her that is missing—and those flashbacks showed us just how important that part is. Not only as the man she loves but as someone who has been her partner from her first day on the job. Her other half when it comes to being an agent. And the is why the flashbacks in this episode were so important. Sure it helped them solve the case. But their true purpose was to bring Tasha back to us—the Tasha we know and love and desperately need right now.

The flashbacks in this episode were such a powerful tool. They weren’t just a great tool to bring Reade back and give us a sneak peek into the past. But they were so powerful because Tasha was really living in those two timelines—emotionally and mentally. I personally love a good flashback episode. But this was so much more. Like I said above, it helped us solve the case, helped bring Tasha back to us and was a great window to her emotional and mental state. But more than that, this felt more like an origin story than just any other flashback. From the first day we met them, we knew Tasha and Reade were the best partnership at the NYO and getting to see how this partnership came to be was fantastic. Looking back at them now, nine years on… they really were such an incredible pairing and a formidable partnership. There was always something special in their dynamic and the way they worked off of each other. The banter, the trust, the way they challenged each other, and the friendship and love that grew between them has always been one of our favorite things on the show and seeing how most of it was there from day one just makes it all so… bittersweet.. Even from day one, their individual strengths shined through, and it was clear just how well they completed each other in the office and in the field. They had each other’s backs from the beginning. She’s relentless in her pursuit, and he’s more logical and structured, but together they could do anything. They shared a powerful bond and understanding—both professionally and on a personal level. I loved seeing how even on the first day, she helps him keep his job, which is something we saw her do repeatedly over the years. And at the same time, we see how he guides her fire, and she constantly challenges and pushes him, and he drives her to do better.

It was really great seeing Reade again and the episode provided a reminder that he was so good at what he did. And the best part was that he was part of this case and helped them solve it even if he wasn’t there—through the flashbacks and by his memory helping Tasha through the day.

That little nod in the end—when Tasha almost froze again—was all she needed to be reminded of who she is, what she is capable of, why she started doing this in the first place, and why she is doing it now. And she’s back in the game and no one is gonna stop her—which is great because the team are really going to need her at the top of her game next episode.

Going back to where it all started helped her remember who she is and what she is capable of and why she does what she does. She found her strength and her drive. Knowing that Reade will always be with her and always be a part of her, and that his memory and their history will always be something she carries with her, will make her stronger and motivate her. Tasha has found her purpose and she’s all in. The pain and heartache are not gone, but they are not crippling her anymore either. Like she tells Jane and Kurt when they as if she’s okay—“No, but I will be”—Tasha knows the road to healing is a long one, but at least she owns it now and has had some sort of closure, at least the kind that provides focus and purpose. And hope. Hope is a powerful thing.

Oh, and Tasha is pregnant by the way. This storyline will give us so much to work with when it comes to Tasha’s character and her arc, and I’ll let L go into that more, but I will just say that just the fact that it gave us that beautiful moment between Rich and Tasha is enough for me.

L: All of this!

That little moment after Tasha tells Rich that she’s pregnant when she puts her head on his shoulder? That got my heart almost as much as the Reade scenes this week. Tasha is so tough and dangerous that it says so much when she’s willing to admit weakness, even for just a brief moment.

And I agree that her grieving was a necessary stop on the road to healing. She’s been kind of drifting since the premiere, stuck between the past she can’t let go of and the present she can’t make herself participate in. The universe (ahem, aka the writers) seems pretty cruel to have thrown this particular case at her at the exact moment she figures out she’s pregnant. That’s almost too much for anyone to bear, even someone as tough as Tasha.

I’m sure there are opinions on both sides about Tasha’s pregnancy. Yes, I know it might feel as though it came from out of left field. (Although it shouldn’t be terribly surprising, since I’m pretty sure Ice Cream’s rustic fishing shack didn’t have a condom dispenser in the bathroom.) And it’s been three months, so yes, she could have figured this out a little sooner. But I’m going to say that she was able to write off all the indicators as the stress of her situation, if she was even paying attention to them at all in her haze of grief. (And also, this is Blindspot, where baby math is apparently non-Euclidean.)

But I have to say, in this situation, I’m in favor of this plot twist. Tasha is, as we have noted before, a wildcard. Over the seasons, we’ve seen her go from gambling with her life’s savings to gambling with her actual life. Reade was the one person who kept her grounded, and losing him would likely have sent her spiraling off into greater and greater risks, especially if she could justify them as necessary for protecting her remaining family. On that trajectory, I could totally see Tasha sacrificing herself at some point later in the season. But a baby changes everything for her. Protecting Reade’s child, and thus, herself, is a game-changer for Tasha, giving her just as much responsibility for keeping herself alive as the rest of the team.

I loved how each member of the team reaches out to her this week, one by one, taking turns, giving her pep talks, helping her focus on her emotions or a particular sense to help jog her memory. Yes, they have to do this to track the case. But they all know how incredibly painful this is for her, so they are also all reaching out to her to help her not only remember but also wade through the painful feelings that trying to remember is digging up. And I think that goes back to what Yas said above: Even in all of this turmoil, the relationships within this team are strengthening. They only have each other, and they are all determined to make sure that they don’t lose anyone else, in any way.

Also, apparently the entire bunker is now stealing clothes from Weller’s closet. In 5.01, it was Rich borrowing one of his signature denim shirts, this week it’s Tasha. Maybe on his next supply run, Rich can pick up some more clothes?

Our power couple hits a bit of a rough patch this week. And just like Rich, we hate it when Mom and Dad fight. How do they get through this, both separately and together?

Y: We haven’t seen Jeller angst like this in quite a while. But before we get to the angst, let’s just take a quick look at what went on with Jane and Kurt separately during the episode. Finding the chemicals, of course, was the top priority this week but in them being so, it meant that everyone on the team was focused on helping Tasha get through the tough emotions and remember. And both Jane and Kurt played a big part in that and were amazing at it.

The weight of leadership and the way she was thrust into the role is really not a thing that Jane is taking lightly. She knows how important her role is and the responsibility she now carries. She is trying her best and doing a good job at it. I just love how she helped with Tasha pulling straight from her own experience, and she was so gentle, patient and understanding.

Another Jane moment I absolutely loved was her going to Rich and trusting him with the favor she needed. I loved it because on the one hand, it showed just how important Rich has become to all of them but also because it’s another sign of Jane being such a great leader. A great leader knows the strengths of those around her, acknowledges what they’re good at and delegates and trusts them. And Jane is doing all of that. Also, I love how in so many small things you can see how she’s picking up on things that Kurt used to do when he was in charge and sort of learning from him.

And speaking of Kurt and his leadership skills, he didn’t just sit back during all this either. At the end of the day, this is Kurt Weller. And the minute Patterson tells him that Tasha is going through something, he jumps up to help. Kurt might not be your go-to guy when it comes to having a heart-to-heart or sharing feelings. But he does so well with Tasha. I loved the moment they shared—both aware and sympathetic to each other’s pain and heartache. These two have so much in common when it comes to building walls and closing up, so seeing them like that is a beautiful reminder of how close these people are and how much they genuinely love each other.

L: Jane and Kurt are both driven individuals. When they are working a case, neither one will rest until they’ve seen it through to the conclusion. And the stakes have never been this high with any other case, so it’s no surprise that they both keep trucking despite what’s going on between them personally. Which is good, because this week they’re hit with a doozy.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Jeller at odds. But every marriage hits its rough patches, and in this one—as is often the case in real life—it’s not really anyone’s fault.

Let’s start with Kurt. Look, I can’t imagine missing one of my kids’ birthdays, so this is another one of those moments that really hurts to watch. And knowing that Bethany is too young to understand where Kurt is and why he’s not with her makes it even worse. When Jane tries to reassure him by telling him that Allie is keeping her safe, Kurt asks, “She gonna explain where I am? Or why I’m a fugitive now?”

And that’s the thing about having kids... They make us want to be better people than we were before. And they make us want to make the world a better place for them. Kurt wants to be a hero to Bethany, and he wants to save the world for her. But in order to be a hero and save the world, he has to let her down, both by his absence and by the possibility that he could fail—he could never clear his name, or he could die in the effort, and all that she would never know of him is that he died a wanted fugitive. That’s a really hard pill to swallow on top of all the hugs and giggles and sticky kisses that he’s missing out on, all the life milestones as she learns to read and ride a bike and toss a frisbee without him. No parent could cope well with that.

So Jane isn’t at all wrong to want to do something for him to try to comfort him in the face of all that hurt. We have such a sweet scene where she frames Bethany’s artwork for him. And she’s not wrong to want to give him something more to go on, so her reaching out to Rich makes sense. And honestly, so does waiting to be sure that the information checks out. Why get Kurt all upset if it turns out to be a false alarm? Really, her only questionable call is holding off from telling Kurt once Rich confirms that the child in the hospital is in fact Bethany.

Which brings us to Kurt. As much as we love the big lug, he can be a little bullheaded about the people he loves. If someone he cares about is in danger, he’s the first out the door to rescue them. It’s his blindspot, if you will. And we don’t have Reade around anymore to talk him down when he’s on a tear like that. So knowing what we know about Kurt? Honestly, if I were Jane, I’d have waited to tell him too. At least until after this op was done, so at the very least he wouldn’t be distracted out in the field and get himself killed. But maybe even afterwards, because I could totally see Kurt donning some horrible disguise and stalking out of the bunker to the airport, yelling at Patterson to get him a good fake id and a plane ticket home, and I’m not even sure that Rich blocking the door and brandishing his hammer would be enough to stop him this time.

But all that said, I also understand how betrayed he feels, knowing that Jane could keep something like this from him. Trust is another one of his hot-button issues, and Jane knows that she’s breaking his trust by keeping this news from him. And as Rich so accurately puts it: “When has keeping things from each other ever backfired for this group, right?” Ouch. The truth hurts. Part of the issue here is the timeline... with all the flashbacks, it’s hard to get a good sense of how much time has elapsed. Has it been a couple of hours since Rich located Bethany or has Jane been sitting on this intel for days? If it’s the latter, Kurt’s response is more understandable.

So as with a lot of marital discord... they’re both wrong and they’re both right. But honestly? This marriage is pretty stable, for all that their lives are in upheaval right now. By the end of the episode, they’ve both cooled off enough to appreciate the other’s position. They know each other, and they trust each other. Kurt knows that Jane wouldn’t have kept something like that from him forever, and maybe he’s willing to admit that she was right to be worried that he’d try to get to Bethany and end up in jail instead. And Jane knows that Kurt values her and her safety, too, so there’s also a good possibility that he would have realized that trying to rush back to the US would put Jane and the team in danger and hurt their chances of clearing their names and bringing Madeline down.

Y: After a couple of episodes of these two switching roles and raking turns supporting each other, this week saw Kurt and Jane getting into their worst fight in a really long time. I’m going to have to take sides here and say that even though I understand what Kurt must have been feeling and I empathize completely with him and my heart shatters for him—and I will get to him in a minute—I also completely understand Jane’s point of view and her reasoning and her logic. But at the end of the day, in a situation like this… reason and logic maybe take a back seat.

Except for that one thing she did wrong, Jane did everything right.

Jane was incredible here. She framed Bethany’s drawing. She went to Rich to get information on Allie and Bethany. Jane is suffering so much, but she is putting her own pain aside to help everyone else heal. She just wants to make things better for her husband on this very hard day. How could you blame her for that? She’s bending backwards to accommodate everyone but still keeps finding herself having to apologize. Even her decision to not tell him is from love. Her only intention was to protect him because like she said he would have lost his head and put himself in unbelievable danger and put Bethany in even more danger. And this is what these two always do. They protect each other. Yes, keeping secrets has always been the one thing to come back and destroy them and you’d think they learned but under the circumstances… I really get Jane here.

But at the same time… I also get Kurt…

Kurt Weller just cannot seem to be able to catch a break this year and it breaks my heart watching have to deal with all his worst nightmares at the same time—being a fugitive, being hunted, working outside the law, clashing with his Jane, being separated from his daughter, not knowing anything about her, being unable to get in touch, and on top of that, learning she’s been hospitalized and not being able to do anything about it. Not being able to protect those he cares about has always been Kurt’s trigger, so you can just imagine what this does to him—and it’s not just anyone. It’s his daughter. And it’s happening on her birthday—the first that he has missed.

Just take my heart and stomp at it, why don’t you?

These two haven’t had a fight this bad in quite some time. And the angst experienced last season was a whole different kind. So it was really hard to watch them like this, to watch them go through this and yet despite it all that bond between them was still as strong as ever. Kurt—as heartbroken as he was from being away and heartbroken that Bee is sick and Jane kept it from him—out in the field still looks to Jane as his partner. When he “called their formation” when they arrived at the warehouse, putting Jane with him, it reminded me of that episode in season two when Jane had told him about Emma and it sent Kurt into a similar spiral. Back then, when it came to being in the field, he told Jane that she was still the only one he trusted out there. And that will never change.

But it all just hurts so much! So so much!

And at this point of the episode—knowing what we know of the next episode—I really thought that the writers were going to leave it at that and have them go their separate ways on bad terms.

I was expecting that angst but not at all ready for it. But luckily for us, Jane had other ideas. God bless your heart, Jane Doe. And bless you for this amazing growth you’ve experienced that has taught you that the best thing to do after a fight is make up and clear the air because nothing is worth risking something happening between you two. They’ve gone through so much and Jane knows that at the end of the day the most important thing is what she has with Kurt, and she will do anything to fix it before separating.

I am so proud of Jane for doing this. It couldn’t have been easy, and I think this is the most emotionally vulnerable we’ve seen Jane this season yet. She’s been hurting as well. And she’s been pushing everything down and ignoring her own hurt but when Kurt is pushing her away, when Kurt is upset with her and when there is a rift between them, that is when Jane can longer ignore her pain and no longer push it down. He’s her rock. He’s her other half. And she needs him now more than ever. She cannot do any of this without him and the thought of this being possibly the last time they see each other then she cannot even bear the thought of them parting ways and still have this between them.

The apology/make up scene was just… it was so so so good. Everything about it was… so good. The dialogue was perfect. Simple. A few words spoken but so much was said. And they were both so broken and vulnerable… I just… I need so much chocolate just to get through the last few sentences of this review. Jane admitted she was wrong, but she also let Kurt know that his pain is hers, that she too is hurting, that her heart is broken too, and that everything about this whole thing is terrifying for her as well. And when she says that, Kurt does that little shake of his head and he realizes that in focusing on his pain, he’d failed to notice that his wife was falling apart as well. And just like that, he doesn’t blame her anymore, he doesn’t direct his anger at her anymore, and he realizes that she genuinely was just trying to protect him. He realizes just how much pain she is in and Jane being in pain is the absolute worst thing for Kurt.

Every time I rewatch the scene, I am overwhelmed with the feels but especially seeing the tears in Jane’s eyes, the absolute and utter desperation in her voice, and how Kurt’s voice is shaking and cracking and breaking… and then Jane does that simple gesture of gently touching his face and he tells her he loves her and I collapse.

L: But honestly... isn’t this how it should be? Marriage doesn’t mean you’re in lock step all the time. (Or if it does, my husband and I have been doing it wrong for a couple of decades now.) You’re not going to get it right all the time. You’re gonna screw up, you’re gonna fight, you’re gonna hurt each other. What matters is how you deal with that. Do you double down and refuse to consider that you might be wrong? Or do you think about your partner and how much you trust them and then consider things from their point of view? Do you get stuck on one issue, or can you focus on the bigger picture? As Jane says, “Our lives are so unpredictable right now. If we go our separate ways and something were to happen...” That is the big picture, that is what matters right now. Staying together, being united, getting through this as a team, stopping Madeline, getting back to their families... that’s what matters. And that’s what they show us that they both realize at the end of the episode.

There is one thing I need to vent about here. We’ve heard about Kurt missing Bethany and Patterson missing Bill Nye. But we haven’t heard one damn word about Avery, the daughter that Jane was trying so hard to build a relationship with back in season 3. I understood shipping her off to college in season 4; it would have seriously complicated everything that Jane was going through when she reverted to Remi. But surely Jane deserves a throw-away “I miss Avery too” line of dialogue? Yes, Jane missed a lot of years with her, and yes, she’s older than Bethany, but that doesn’t mean that she loves her daughter any less than Kurt loves his daughter. Love doesn’t accumulate by credit hour like a college degree. Jane has her full complement of Remi memories now; she remembers all the months she carried her daughter, and she remembers the pain of losing her. And she remembers all the tiny fledgling steps they took toward building a new relationship when they were reunited.

Surely Jane would worry about what Avery thinks about her now, just as much as Kurt worries about what Bethany thinks; does Avery believe that Jane is really a terrorist? They know that Madeline isn’t above using their families as leverage; wouldn’t she lose sleep worrying about Avery’s safety? Especially since Avery has no other parents or guardians to look out for her safety, the way Bethany does. She’s probably still attending classes at Brown, with no protection whatsoever. Instead of “I miss my daughter, too,” we get a generic, “Being cut off from our loved ones is hard on all of us.” Which would be fine if she was talking with Patterson or Tasha. But this is her husband, the one person who knows how much Avery means to her and how she agonized over that relationship. She can be honest with him, and the fact that she doesn’t even mention Avery in this context really bugs me.

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That’s all we’ve got on this episode. If you need us, we’ll be curled up in the fetal position, overdosing on chocolate, and stressing out over 5.05. Come visit our ask box and freak out with us!

—Laura & Yas

#blindspot #blindspot: episode review #character: jane doe #character: kurt weller #character: patterson #character: rich dotcom #character: tasha zapata #character: edgar reade #ship: Jane/Kurt #ship: tasha/reade

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