This week’s Blindspot somehow fit with this week’s Halloween theme, after a tattoo leads them to an abandoned psychiatric hospital and some very creepy dolls. I thought the episode title, “Sous-Vide,” to be quite clever, and I was pinching myself for not have anticipated that this episode would involve a quarantine. The show continues to bring forward quality entertainment, with twists and turns that are almost unpredictable, making me excited to tune in every week.
Weller is on a roll recently when it comes to solving tattoos; I don’t remember him being this good at it in the past seasons, but it's been three episodes in a row where he is the one to crack it. When, Rich uses his key to get into Weller and Jane’s apartment, and starts cooking one of Roman’s tattoo recipes, it’s Weller’s insight on the curdled cream that breaks the case open. Following the tattoo trail, they find a collection of dolls, which they later discover to be linked to deadly illness outbreaks in various locations. When Laurel tries to identify the powder coated inside the doll, the pathogen gets airborne causing the FBI headquarters to be quarantined. The FBI is under biological attack. This broke the team done in three subgroups: Patterson, Rich, Reade and Laurel in the lab, Weller and Ally in the entrance, and Jane and some poor saps in the bullpen.
The poor DEA chemical analyst is the doll’s first victim. Colonel Beck injects her with a serum that he tells is to slow down her symptoms so they have time to figure out what they are dealing with, but really, it’s the final nail in the coffin, but the team does not know it yet. After being in contact the powder, Laurel is panicked, understandably. This brought out a side of Rich we haven’t quite seen before; he goes out of his way to make her feel better, and he’s really good at it. It’s great to see other facets of his personality.
“I’m usually the one pulling awkward uncomfortable truths out of people. I’m just not used to it going the other way.” -Rich
As Reade deduced, Rich has dealt with someone with a terminal illness before, he’s used to being in hospitals. I was on the fence about Rich when they first made him a regular on the show, I had liked him best in small increments, but I feel like they’ve really managed to dose him quite well here. I enjoy his straightforward and slightly goofy attitude. It brings a great balance to the show, especially to Patterson. I enjoy the way he pulls awkward uncomfortable truths out of the characters, though I feel like he does it less and less.
In the beginning of the episode, Rich mentions being worried about his favorite FBI power couple. While he is worried about Jane, he is mostly worried about Kurt. Later, we get to understand why that is, Rich was once the caregiver. We don’t know whom, but it was someone close to him. Like Rich, I am worried about Kurt’s character, I still do not like what the news of Jane’s illness is doing to the character, but it’s slowly improving. I loved seeing the angry Weller with the Colonel at the end. No more sappy Weller.
When Weller caught Jane sneaking out in last week’s episode, he had called in someone for help. It came to quite a surprise, for me at least, that the person he had contacted was Ally, his ex, mother of his child. Why did it take me a full season to realise why his daughter was named Bethany, I will never know. Seriously, shame on me. Weller is so far off the mark on what is happening though, believing Jane is pulling away and going to disappear to spare him seeing her die. It’s an interesting theory, one that could really play into Remi’s advantage if she really were to go off the radar. Am I the only one that is kind of rooting for her to succeed?
In the beginning Ally tries to comfort Weller, and convince him it’s all in his head. She defends Jane. Her weird behavior is associated with having had the news that she will most probably die. By the end though, she was starting to doubt that something was wrong with Jane. She noticed some small changes in her behavior that Kurt is too close to see.
“That’s not the Jane I know.” - Ally
Jane, who had received the deadly virus injection, did nothing to stop Kurt from entering the quarantined zone, and that was suspicious to Ally. She identifies the mystery woman Jane met with in the hopes to get some insight, but gets nothing. The woman works for a non-profit, and has a clean record. There is no information there. When it comes to weird behaviors, why was no one questioning the fact that Jane was not doing anything about the mass hysteria in her quarantine quarters? Maybe that’s just me, but that seemed pretty out of character too. She’s not going such a good job at hiding who she really is in my opinion. She is still duping them, but is making more and more mistakes. Ally seemed to be the only one to be seeing it for now. The others are too close to the situation, their emotions clouding their judgement.
I just have to say that Remi’s part of her brain that is hallucinating Roman is really messed up, at least four times during the episode did he tell her the way out of a messy situation was to kill that person. Psycho much? She keeps repeating that anyone working for the FBI cannot be considered a victim, especially Weller, but we can start to see that she has conflicted feelings.
Remi is really great at coming up with narratives, and she tells him that the FBI is recruiting hackers to find holes in their cyber division, and she is testing him to see if he is up for the task. He has no reason to doubt her, so he helps her. Finding a camera blind spot, near the busiest part of the bullpen and connecting the conspicuous Ethernet cable, they manage to get the file she is looking for. Please, someone confirm that this file is for Shepard’s location. I’m confused since she’s in a CIA black site why the FBI would have the information. Anyone following the game more than me here?
“It’s nature’s most misunderstood animal. The so called unicorn horn, it’s not a horn, it’s a tooth. It’s not a weapon, it’s how they talk. The biggest threat to their survival is not predators, it’s their isolation.” -Boston
By the end of the episode, Remi picks a fight with Roman, and essentially, she’s having that fight with herself. It’s quite mind boggling. I mean, it’s such a mind bend to be witness to totally different parts of her subconscious arguing. Am I right? I love seeing Remi’s internal turmoil, but hopefully he won’t be gone for good. As I mentioned before, Jane needs someone to physically bounce ideas off of, for the sake of the show, even if it’s just with herself. It’s really a neat way to have kept Luke Mitchell on the show. His presence is also crucial in order to bring that part of the story forward.
Remi is having mixed feelings about Weller even if she’s not ready to say it. She’s also feeling like a failure. So when, she asks him to get out of her head, he does. Like a Narwhal, I believe Remi's biggest threat is isolation.
Reade is feeling betrayed, and doubting everything he once knew about Tasha. When Patterson wants to discuss Zappata potentially betraying them, he is not so inclined to do so. He doesn’t want to think about it, he wants his emotions out of the picture. Rich’s opinion on the matter is that the closer he is to the situation, the better investigator Reade will be, he needs to lean into it instead of try to go with only the rational side. In the end, Reade opens up to Patterson, explaining how he’s been feeling since seeing the picture of Tasha and Blake. I really felt bad for him, but at the same time, wanted to smack him in the head for actually believing that Tasha is going rogue. Anyone else have such mixed feelings?
Tasha continues globetrotting, and after a failed assignment in Amsterdam, she is no longer Madelyn’s only right hand. She is paired with Claudia, who has no line she wouldn’t cross. Zappata is no longer in control. She is to stay put, and give details on Reade so Claudia can torture the information they need out of him but Tasha is not going to let that happen, it’s easy to see. She convinces them to break into his apartment instead of pulling out his fingernails one at the time until he talks. Damn these bitches are ruthless. When Tasha’s plan fails because of the quarantine lockdown, they’re back to torture. In the last moments of the “Sous-Vide” you can see Tasha pointing the gun at Reade, and we have to wait until next week to see how the pair will get out of this situation unharmed. She’s probably done with Crawford Industries, right?
Let me know what you thought of the episode! I love to read your thoughts.
