Blindspot promised a big episode before their mid-season finale and boy do they deliver. The ads promising a death weren’t just smoke and false hype. Someone does die. This isn’t what makes “Authentic Flirt” the best episode of Blindspot yet. No, that’s due to something even more surprising than homicide. Jane and Weller are good and interesting as a couple and not just work colleagues. I’m still not on board with a romance between Weller and Jane, but a few more episodes like “Authentic Flirt” and I could be buying a ticket to that “ship.”
Blindspot Recap: Mayfair’s Full History is Revealed >>>
Watching and Waiting Patterson is getting coffee when she sees a secret message reading “Miss U” on the coffee board. David, who is conveniently creeping on Patterson feet away, has left it there for her. David says he is madly in love with Patterson and desperate to get back together. Or, you know, he’s secretly an evil super spy, desperate to get more secrets on Jane. I’m just saying David is crazy suspicious.
In other suspicious spying on Jane behavior, Carter gives Zapata a bug, a bug that he wants her to plant in Jane’s safe house. Zapata refuses to plant it, but Carter tells her there will be consequences if she doesn’t. He tells Zapata she can’t refuse to do anything for him.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (or Weller)
The tattoo of the week takes the team to an abandoned house where two assassins are waiting. The assassins are promptly killed by the team. Once they are dead, the team figures out that they must be looking for a man in witness protection named Robert Byrne.
Weller calls in a contact from the US Marshals. It’s a sexy lady contact and Weller is able to act oddly human and friendly around her. This isn’t the weirdest thing about her visit, though. She tells the team that this case goes beyond one just man. Hundreds of names of people in witness protection have been hacked and discovered. The assassins were going to meet and buy the names from the hacker at a local gala. Since the assassins are super dead now, that’s no longer an option. Jane and Weller decide to go instead.
Once Weller and Jane make it to the gala, they are whisked away quite literally. The liaison for the man with the list greets Weller and Jane. Then he proceeds to take them away in a helicopter. The helicopter takes the two to some seaside mansion where Patterson and crew can’t find them, at least not easily. As Patterson finds a way to find Weller and Jane, the former tells Jane his plan. Weller wants to find the list and get out alive.
Romantic Complications
Before all that dangerous spy stuff, though, Weller and Jane must mingle. So Weller dances with Jane and they can get all flirty. Jane throws a wet blanket on the whole thing (thank god) by telling Weller she has been having new memories. She thinks she might have been engaged, specifically to the tree tattoo man.
David is in the library where Patterson is and he found the code book. This begs the question of what David does for a living besides stalking Patterson, but whatever. David notices a woman look at the code book and then leave the library. In a misguided attempt to win Patterson back (or be super evil), David follows her. Unbeknownst to David, though, another man is following him.
NBC Renews Blindspot for Season 2 >>>
Blindspot Goes Full Bond
Eventually, Weller and Jane meet with the man with the list. He calls himself Rich Dotcom (seriously). Rich, though, is surprisingly awesome. He’s crazier than a bag of cats and stupid evil, but he’s a lot of fun to watch in a Bond villain way. Patterson tells the rest of the team (and us) that Rich was a hacker who has made himself into some kind of technological crime lord.
Rich gives Weller and Jane the list and says that they can leave the party once their payment checks out. The only problem is that there is another buyer for the list. This means there is someone else at the party with the list on a flash drive. Weller and Jane need to find the other buyer and stop them.
All this undercover brings the best out of Weller. He’s not only really competent, but he actually smiles — and not just once. He smiles several times! Together, Jane and Weller work together to find the other buyer. The buyer’s not just a stiff in a suit. When Weller and Jane pressure him for his flash drive, he attacks. It all ends in one of the most brutal and well-choreographed fights in Blindspot‘s brief history. Weller and Jane win the fight but are caught by Rich.
With the other buyer unconscious, Weller and Jane frame him. They tell Rich that he is the spy working for the government, not them. Rich believes them and shoots the other buyer in the head, killing him. Rich then invites Weller and Jane for a drink and gets all monologue-y about seemingly irrelevant things like all good Bond villains do. Rich tries to catch the two in a lie, but Weller doesn’t fall for it. He starts punching things instead and takes Rich hostage. Weller tells Rich that they are going to escape on the helicopter together.
Rich doesn’t comply, though, because again Rich is surprisingly awesome. Rich flags the attention of two of his guards. There is a stand-off, with Weller using Rich as a human shield. Weller and Jane end the stand-off by shooting the guards. Then all kinds of hell break loose as Rich’s whole private army attacks them. Luckily, Zapata and Reade, with Patterson’s help, manage to find the two at this exact moment and come to their rescue.
So Who Dies?
Now it’s time for the big moment and cliffhanger: the death. Actually, though, it’s not just one death, but rather a double feature of murder. Carter is worried that Saul Gerraro being in custody means that Daylight will come out, so he has Saul murdered in prison. Or, at least, Carter has Saul stabbed a lot of times so a helluva lot of blood comes out, presumably killing him.
As for the other death, well, that’s our good friend David, who turns out not to (probably not) be a secret spy. David is seemingly murdered by the woman he was following. As for the guy who was following David, he was working for Mayfair. It’s this guy who calls Mayfair. Mayfair then calls Patterson and the rest of the team to tell them the sad news. Of course, it’s only sad if you think that David is really dead and not in a super secret undercover place now. Yes, I’m not that desperate for my “David is a spy” theory to be true; I’m overlooking enormous evidence to the contrary.
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.
