In 'If Beth' we get a largely stand alone episode, albeit one of the more weaker ones in recent memory. However, we also got to see Jane have a brief, but kickass sword fight in a museum, so all can be forgiven.
The story of the week was meant to draw parallels to Jane's current predicament. The team find themselves helping out an ex-CIA agent framed and wrongfully marked as a terrorist. This is the flip side of Jane, who's previous life was as part of a terrorism organization before finding herself working for a government organization in the FBI. Essentially, both of them were, as Weller put bluntly, two persons who were lied to from everyone they loved.
Though the standalone case was weak, the sequence where the team was at the museum looking for the suspect made for some entertaining TV. This was all capped off by Jane's encounter with Gubara. That was a pretty awesome action scene. How often do we see a sword and spear fight on a non-fantasy show? Blindspot continues to outdo itself in the category of most adrenaline pumping action on television.
The episode also saw more development for Reade's investigation into Coach Jones. The agent has been arguably the MVP of Blindspot with both the levity and drama that he brings to the show, and he has more than deserved his own story. In 'If Beth' we see the effects that the trauma, that of which he still can't quite remember, has on his psyche. Seeing him go bonkers was pretty darn intense and Rob Brown has done a fantastic job conveying the range of bottled up emotions that his character has been going through.
We can't have Reade, however, without Zapata. Seeing her sticking up for her dear friend by kicking Freddie out of his apartment was very adorable. The deep friendship between the two agents has consistently been one of the strong points of this young series and here we really see how far she is willing to stick her neck out for her best friend.
Zapata asking Shadowcat for assistance is also an intriguing development. As evident in episodes past, the agent clearly has a knack for doing things out of line, and it'll be interesting to see how far she goes working with this criminal for whatever her motive is.
'If Beth' also saw some interesting developments with Sandstorm. I like how they are humanizing Shepherd with her story of Lake Aurora and the tragedy it caused for her and her family. Michelle Hurd did a great job in conveying the anger and grief her character had felt in losing her family to the toxic in the lake. Even though Shepherd is a terrorist who has committed some nasty, unforgiving crimes, it is still hard not to feel the least bit of sympathy for her upon hearing this story.
I thought the above sequence would close off this week's episode and was expecting closing credits soon after Jane and Shepherd hugged, but ultimately it was the bombshell that Sandstorm has been watching Weller for twenty years which ended 'If Beth.' Talk about an interesting development to close off the week.
Overall, 'If Beth' featured a weak stand alone story that was just passable due to its relevance and parallels to Jane's predicament. The fight scene between Gubara and Jane was crazy awesome, seeing Jane kick ass never gets tiresome. 'If Beth' also developed our two main storylines along nicely with some intriguing twists to bring us into next episode.
7.5/10
