Blindspot takes time in this episode, “Persecute Envoys,” to explore two of its most emotionally distant characters. Weller and Mayfair are at center stage. While the spotlight benefits one of the pair, the other is left out in the cold. A large chunk of Mayfair’s past is revealed, including her connection to the mysterious Daylight, as well as an explanation on what Daylight actually is and means. All of it results in Mayfair becoming one of the more interesting and tragic characters on Blindspot.
Weller, though, stays Weller. If you have been reading any of my Blindspot recaps, you know that this the farthest thing from a compliment or a good thing.
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What is Daylight?
An unconvincing wig and a sepia tone tell us that this episode is beginning with a flashback, specifically Mayfair’s flashback. Mayfair meets with Carter and a previously-unseen character named Sofia. These three are Daylight and this is the story of how Daylight is formed. Daylight was/is a way the information agencies of the USA launder illegal eavesdropped information from their spying technologies. Mayfair uses Sal Guerrero as the official front for Daylight. She indirectly feeds him the information and uses it to put many criminals behind bars.
Mayfair resists Daylight for a long time but is eventually convinced that it helped more people than it hurts. Carter also accepts it as well because he is a big ol’ tool. Sofia isn’t so guilt-free. Sofia, who also happens to be Mayfair’s lover, eventually takes her own life because of her shame about being involved in Daylight.
Weller doesn’t get this whole story, only we do. He just knows that Mayfair lied to him and was involved in illegal activity. Maybe this is why he is not too happy about it. I mean, we assume Weller is really angry. In actuality, he just gets a little grumblier than usual. He does also yell at Mayfair, which is a new emotion, but still angry Weller is basically the same as regular Weller. He’s boring as all hell.
Mayfair on the Ground
The mission of the week has nothing to do with Mayfair or Daylight. Instead, the team must investigate a pair of cop murders in New York. Officers Schultz and Garrigan have been accused of police brutality and discrimination for shooting a young black man. (Don’t worry, this is really just a red herring. Blindspot has no interest talking about real issues. I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing.)
Anyway, Mayfair accompanies the field team to the precinct to be the face of the investigation. It is only now that I realize that Mayfair is at least two feet shorter than everyone else on the cast. That’s not the only surprise in Mayfair’s ever-growing arsenal. She’s surprisingly cordial and a calming influence with the angry police. (They aren’t too happy with the FBI taking over the case of the fellow officers’ murderer.) With Mayfair’s help, the team gets information they need, as well as video footage from the killed officers’ uniform cameras of their last moments.
While looking over the footage, the team discovers that one of the murdered cops, Schultz, had a run-in with an injured football player and current partier Ricky Holt. Holt runs when the team finds him, but Jane tackles him. Jane needed to do something. She is still the main character of Blindspot, even if she hasn’t done anything in this episode so far.
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Corruption (Again)
When Reade and Weller interrogate Holt, they discover that the football star was being blackmailed. Holt believed his blackmailer was Schultz. According to this new theory, Schultz (and Garrigan) were using the cameras on their uniforms to film people and extort them later with the footage. Jane realizes, in some very clumsy exposition, that the tattoo on her body wasn’t warning them of the murders but rather the corruption.
The team thinks that Schultz’s partner, Dunn, might have been involved. They want to interview her, but she ends up killed as well. The more they look into it, though, they realize that Schultz, Garrigan and Dunn can’t have been the actual officers doing the blackmailing. Someone was using the feeds, but the officers themselves were blameless. They were being killed because they discovered the corruption.
After even more digging, the team finds the real crooked cops, a pair of cops whose names are irrelevant. All you need to know is they are stupid evil. They go to Schultz’s wife to kill her off, but Weller and Jane arrive to rescue her. Technically, Jane saves her and Weller stupidly endangers himself yet again. Though, to his credit, Weller actually manages to save himself this time by killing the really evil cop.
FBI Fraternization
Jane takes this opportunity of Weller’s near-death experience to convince him to talk to Mayfair. Mayfair is having a near-death experience of her own, though. She tells the police captain of the corruption in his ranks. Quickly, though, Mayfair realizes that he is on it too. They are driving in the car when the captain tries to kill Mayfair. She stops him by crashing the car. You know the drill from here; because of their mutual almost-deaths, Weller and Mayfair make up. At least they make up as much as two emotionally closed-off FBI robots can. Weller does tell Mayfair that eventually her secret will get out.
More importantly, though, the girls on the team, sans Mayfair, go out for drinks. I mention this because it should’ve been the entire episode, but it also gives us our cliffhanger. As Zapata leaves Jane and the very drunk Patterson to go home, she is found by Carter. He tells her that their “partnership” is far from over. He wants constant updates on Jane, starting now. If Carter doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll have Zapata fired.
Blindspot airs Mondays at 10pm on NBC.
(Image courtesy of NBC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
