You know the premise of Blindspot if you have been watching anything on NBC in the past two months. The premise has been in a commercial break for almost everything on the network. A woman wakes up in Times Square in a duffel bag and she is covered in tattoos. It’s a premise that is ridiculous on paper but could be awesome in execution. Thankfully, Blindspot manages to pull off this balance (mostly). The said-tattooed woman, Jane Doe, waking up in Times Square is the opening sequence of the pilot. In context, it’s just as weird and intriguing as it was in a 30-second promo.
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Rough First Days
After Jane wakes up, she is taken to FBI Headquarters in New York. An FBI agent, Kurt Weller, is called in from Kentucky and assigned to Jane’s case. Weller is a rugged, bearded, vaguely handsome but mostly boring man. However, his name is tattooed on Jane’s Doe back. This seems to be the sole reason he is given her case. (There’s a couple of lines about him being a genius and FBI hero, but that idea never really manifests in the pilot.)
Anyway, Weller has no idea why this strange woman has his name on her back and neither does Jane. As explained through some fake science mumbo jumbo, Jane Doe was injected with something and she has no memory. She has permanent amnesia and remembers nothing from before she woke up in the bag. This could be some stupid excuse on any other show to drum up drama, but Blindspot makes it work. Well, it works solely because Jaimie Alexander acts the hell out of all this trauma.
A Pair of Leads
Weller, Director Mayfair and Doctor Patterson look over images of Jane’s tattoos. They think the tattoos are some kind of treasure map or puzzle. Patterson discovers that Jane used to have a tattoo that has been covered up with a new one. If they can uncover what is behind the new tattoo, they might have a hint of Jane’s identity.
After a day of interrogation and testing, Jane still doesn’t remember anything. She wanders in while Weller, Patterson and Mayfair are looking at her tattoos. Jane sees a picture of a tattoo behind her ear. It’s Chinese text and it turns out that Jane speaks and reads fluent Chinese. In fact, she is evidently the only one in this FBI Headquarters who can read Chinese. Jane reads the tattoo and it’s today’s date with the address of an apartment in the city.
Weller rushes off to investigate, but Jane demands to be taken along. Thank god because I’m not sure I could take an entire episode of Kurt Weller, white-bread, serious FBI agent solving crimes. With Jane’s translation skills, Weller and his associates find a secret chemical lab inside the apartment. Weller makes Jane wait outside after this discovery because his capacity to be a wet blanket on fun is unstoppable.
See Jane Smash
Back at FBI Headquarters, Patterson has figured what tattoo has been covered up on Jane’s body. She goes to Mayfair with the information. It was a tattoo of the Navy SEAL emblem. If that’s a true clue, this would make Jane the first ever (and secret) female Navy SEAL.
Jane is outside the apartment and hears the super of the building attacking his wife. Jane goes into stop this flagrant abuse and the super doesn’t take kindly to the interruption. He goes after Jane, who kicks his ass. She also proceeds to kick the collective ass out of everyone who comes to try to stop her, which is a surprisingly large amount of people. It is glorious. My sexuality is and always will be Jaimie Alexander kicking every kind of butt in every kind of way.
Weller hears the commotion. He rushes downstairs and pulls Jane off a man, stopping her from beating the piss out of him. Jane’s confused and upset. Her muscle memory must have taken over and she wasn’t 100% clear on what she was doing. Weller assures that she didn’t kill anyone and that everyone she attacked is okay. Though I would hardly call being slapped in the face by an Amazon holding a broken broom as okay.
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See Jane Run and Stop a Terrorist Plot
Upstairs in the secret lab, the other agents have found a laptop. It belongs to the owner named Chao. Chao has been building a bomb and he intends on blowing something up in the city today. Weller and the FBI track down Chao in a subway station. Even though Weller is supposed to be some kind of super-spy, he makes his presence as obvious as possible. Of course, Chao spots him.
Chao rushes into the subway train and disconnects his car from Weller’s. He also plants a C4 bomb on Weller’s subway car. Weller can’t defuse the bomb, so he rips some of the C4 off the bomb to lessen the blast. Then he throws the bomb away from himself and the car full of passengers. Fortunately, this saves the lives of all the civilians; unfortunately, it also saves the life of Weller.
Weller regroups with the rest of the team. Jane has been reading Chao’s e-mails. Using this knowledge, they discover where Chao is headed. Chao’s mother had recently been killed in a Chinese prison and the US government did nothing to help. In retaliation, Chao is going to blow up the Statue of Liberty.
At the Statue of Liberty, Weller once again orders Jane to stay out of the way. And yet again, Jane tells him that’s stupid, but he listens this time. Jane goes with Weller after Chao. In their pursuit, Chao shoots at them. A bullet grazes Jane’s arm. When Chao captures Weller, it is Jane who saves him. She manages to pull off an amazing shot. Jane shoots Chao’s arm as he is holding a knife up to Weller’s neck, saving the latter’s life. Weller is sadly spared again.
Past Revelations and Future Mysteries
Jane firing the gun triggers her first memory. She recalls being in an outdoor shooting range. While there, she is being instructed by a rugged, bearded, vaguely-attractive but mostly boring man. Apparently, this type of guy is a recurring character in Jane’s life.
This mystery man doesn’t just show up in Jane’s past, though. He might be showing up in her future. Chao is taken to the hospital to recover. Inside the hospital, the mysterious man has disguised himself as a nurse. He goes into Chao’s rooom, and Chao tells him that everything went according to plan. Beardy McSneaky tells Chao that almost everything went according to plan. Chao was meant to die. So then Beardy proceeds to kill Chao himself.
Mayfair tells Weller that Jane should work for them now. She’s useful and helping them could recover her memories. When Weller leaves the room, she opens a file on her desk. It’s mostly redacted, but there are some choice buzzwords like ‘murder’ and Mayfair’s own name, and the file number is a number tattooed on Jane.
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.
