Blindspot takes a unique approach with their mid-season finale. It’s true that the story of “Evil Handmade Instrument” picks up roughly where “Authentic Flirt” left off. The first three-quarters of “Evil Handmade Instrument” is all about the fallout of David’s murder. The show takes a very procedural (albeit emotional) approach to those proceedings, though. It’s not until the last 10 minutes or so that everything goes kooky insane banana pants. The episode doesn’t end with the most shocking reveals in the world. The biggest thing we kind of already knew, but it does leave Blindspot in a very exciting place when it returns for the second half of season 1.
Blindspot Recap: Weller and Jane Impersonate Married Assassins >>>
Oops! The Russians Did It (Again)
The team, especially Patterson and Jane, throws themselves into the investigation into David’s death. They manage to find partial fingerprints on the book that was being used for codes in the library. The prints lead them to the home of a possible Russian spy, Roger. The field team goes to get Roger. Before he can be apprehended, he kills himself using poison. Though, credit goes to Weller for shooting Roger and barging into his home with a gun at his head.
The team interrogates Roger’s wife and that gives them two leads. The first is a woman they suspect might be David’s killer, Kate Williams. Like Roger, Kate was born in Russia and has been married to a wealthy American for more than a decade. Looking into the suspected killer, the team finds yet another Russian, named Olivia. She was also born in Russia and married a wealthy American. You see the pattern here? The team theorizes that they might have found a Russian sleeper cell.
The Team Totally Finds a Russian Sleeper Cell
Jane and Weller locate and capture Olivia. Reade and Kurt try to get the information out of Olivia, but she is all spy-like quiet. So Patterson comes in with a creepy, intense stare and manages to break Olivia. Apparently, a highly trained Russian spy is nothing for a seriously angry and heartbroken short blonde woman. Olivia tells them she was recruited as a teenager and her mission (and Roger and Kate’s) was to marry an influential American and report the information back using the library book.
After learning this, Patterson gets a little too angry, so Jane steps in because she knows Russian. Why she wasn’t in the interrogation to begin with or why speaking her mother tongue makes Olivia open up more is never really answered. Anyway, Olivia tells the team that all the spies were supposed to be extracted back to Russia soon but not after they eliminated a target. If they couldn’t eliminate their target, another spy would take over. In a rush, the team goes to find Olivia’s target, but he’s already been killed by someone else. Presumably, his murderer was the still-at-large David killer, Kate Williams.
Catch Me, Kate
Patterson’s tech wizardry helps them find Kate, who’s trying to take out her own target at some kind of military museum on an old battleship. Blindspot has used some interesting settings for their action set pieces, but this has to be one of the best. The team ducks and weaves between old military machinery, and Reade corners Kate.
Reade is greatly overestimating his role on Blindspot. He’s there to look confused and act skeptical about everything, not catch bad guys. Reade has Kate in his iron sights, but Kate’s husband comes up behind Reade with a gun. Is he also a Russian spy? Just evil? Just likes pointing guns at people? Who knows? Blindspot certainly never tells us. The point is that while Reade is distracted by trying to not be murdered, Kate escapes. So that means Jane gets to find and fight the Russian.
It’s a fight that Jane loses very quickly. Weller arrives to save Jane and just straight-up murder Kate. It doesn’t even look like he tries to take Kate alive, but I guess it’s okay if they don’t get more info about the super dangerous Russian spy unit because Kate hurt Jane. Then again, we all know how much of a blind spot (heh) Weller has when it comes to Jane.
12 Breakout Characters of the Fall 2015 TV Season >>>
The Big Weller and Jane Moment
Patterson comes to talk to Jane after the mission is over. She tells Jane that she thought getting David’s killer would make her feel better, but it hasn’t. Patterson still feels disappointed and empty. She just wishes she could go back in time and never break up with David. It’s all emotional and moving, mostly because Ashley Johnson and Jaimie Alexander play the scene beautifully. All of this is just very good.
What’s not so good is that all this carpe diem talk inspires Jane to do something. She goes to Weller’s apartment, meets him and sticks her tongue down his throat. She just wanted a moment that was “just them,” a ridiculous thing to say when you really think about it. These two have nearly a dozen inappropriate “alone” moments every day when they are supposed to be working.
The Even Bigger Jane Moment
Jane leaves her make-out session with Weller and is almost immediately kidnapped. This is where we get to the finale nature of this mid-season finale. Jane’s captor is revealed to be Carter (duh), who decides he is going to torture her for information. Carter wants to know who Jane is, her real identity. He wants to know where she came from and who sent her. During the torture, a memory comes to Jane. She is dressed in a uniform and she is walking past Carter, who says something about “Orion.”
When Jane mentions “Orion,” Carter is surprised and upset. Before he can do some more torturing, though, he hears the sound of gunfire. Someone has found them. It’s not Weller as you would expect. No, this is the man with the tree tattoo on his forearm from Jane’s sex dreams. Tree man kills Carter (wow!) and begins to play a video on his phone to Jane. It is a video of Jane before she had her memory wiped.
The video Jane tells current Jane that all of this was her (or their?) idea. The tattoos, the memory wipe, being sent to Weller, all of it is some master plan by past Jane. Past Jane tells Current Jane that she can trust tattoo man. His name is Oscar. Oscar is only following Jane’s orders, after all.
Blindspot returns Monday, February 29 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.
