New shows tend to go down the route of retelling the pilot in their second episode, and I was pretty happy with Blindspot’s second outing as it refrained from doing that too much. Instead, it swiftly moved the overarching plot along while balancing an exciting ‘tattoo of the week’ story.
There have been many comparisons made between this show and The Blacklist, and it’s easy to see why. This episode, however, showed how it is already building itself up to be a far superior show. One major criticism I’ve had of The Blacklist is its inability to answer any question without presenting ten other questions, most of which revolve around Red’s relation to Keen.
Blindspot made the big move here of getting out in front of its Red/Keen relationship, by suggesting to us that Jane is in fact Weller’s childhood friend, Taylor, who went missing 25 years prior. Now, if Blindspot can confirm or disprove it in the next few episodes, the show will benefit immeasurably. There is a certain level of enjoyment that I get out of not knowing her real identity (somewhat similarly to Lucas Hood on Banshee) and so proving that Jane is not Taylor would be fine by me. Equally, there are several different personal storylines they could explore if they do reveal her to be Taylor. Either way, it will work. What won’t is if they indicate that she isn’t Taylor, and then proceed to continue with the idea of it for the remainder of its run. It wouldn’t benefit the show or the characters at all, and it’s something they desperately need to avoid.
One question I had over the show’s concept was how it would go about introducing new cases. Unlike The Blacklist, Blindspot doesn’t have the luxury of James Spader turning up and saying “you should take a look at this person.” Instead, the show uses what was referred to as a ‘Google Alert’ to ensure that the FBI were informed any time any of the tattoos were relevant. It’s not necessarily a great method, but I was imagining something along the lines of an agent closing their eyes, pointing to a tattoo and deciding to investigate that one. At least it’s better than that.
The case itself was pretty interesting, and, more than anything else, there was a sense of urgency about it. I felt throughout the episode that, aside from Jane and Weller, any of the agents could have died at any time, which created an important tension level throughout. It’s difficult to take a threat like that too seriously if you don’t feel like the main characters could die, so I was happy in how they executed it.
Rob Brown’s Agent Reade made an interesting point about how he thought - wrongly, of course - that their visit to Gibson’s house caused him to do what he did. Weller quite rightly suggested that they moved up his timetable, but didn’t cause him to do it outright. It does raise some good questions about blindly following the tattoos and whether or not that is the right thing to do. Obviously these tattoos were given to Jane for a reason and the likelihood is that when they finally unravel the larger mysteries, there will be a lot of problems for the team. It’s certainly something worth remembering as we move forward.
Jane remembered a little more about her past and her memories suggested a less than preferable side to her as she remembers killing a nun, though it turned out that it wasn’t a nun, simply a man who had a USB on him. Blindspot toyed with us this week as to whether or not she is a bad person, and I liked that the show considered that potential. Obviously, the ending of the episode saw Jane surprised by the mystery man and I’m excited to see what they do with that next episode.
Odds and ends:
- Patterson is great fun. She added some great comic relief in this episode.
- The President from Revolution was in this. Cool.
- "We have 60 minutes to find Gibson before he kills thousands of people." "I'm on it."
What did you think of A Stray Howl? Let me know in the comments!
About the Author - Bradley Adams
17 year old based in England, currently Senior Staff at SpoilerTV. Most of his posts are news/spoiler based, though he is currently the reviewer of Person of Interest, co-host on the
SpoilerTV Podcast. Created and is in charge of the yearly Favourite Episode Competition and currently runs the Favourite Series Competition. A big TV fan, his range of shows are almost exclusively dramas, while some of his all-time favourite shows include 24, LOST, Breaking Bad and Friends. Some of his current favourites include Person of Interest, Banshee, Arrow, The Flash, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul and many more. He also runs an Arrow fans site,
ArrowFansUK, and aside from TV, is a keen cricketer. Get in touch with him via the links below or via email
bradley@spoilertv.com
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