9.5

Blindspot – Back To The Grind Review

Blindspot - Deductions

Our Rating

Episode Score9.5
18 months after parting ways under mysterious circumstances, the FBI team is brought back together by a new crisis.
9.5
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Blindspot – Back To The Grind Review

Blindspot is back, and after that crazy time jump at the end of season 2 left us with a BUNCH of questions, it’s time we got some answers. If you’re not up to speed, you can check out our “Previously on Blindspot” post. Otherwise, strap in for our recap of Blindspot – Back to the Grind, the epic season 3 premiere. Join us after that as a couple of FANdemaniacs chew over some questions about the episode!

Episode Recap

The episode kicked off with a dialogue free montage starting at Kurt (Sullivan Stapleton) and Jane (Jaimie Alexander)’s wedding, following their move to Colorado and the start of their new lives together.

Everything was rosy until a call from Keaton (Chad Donella) at the CIA told Jane to get out. The house was invaded by armed goons that Jeller fended off in style. Keaton showed up to tell Jane there was a bounty on her head and they agreed to leave in the morning to go into hiding. Jane had other ideas and left Kurt while he was sleeping to keep him safe.

Fast forward 18 months and FBI Director Hurst (Mary Stuart Masterson) shows up with the news that the rest of the team are missing, the box from the S2 finale and a clue to Jane’s whereabouts – So THAT’S how Kurt found her.

After witnessing their reunion and the new tattoos again Jane tells Kurt she was in an accident a months before. In and out of consciousness – that must have been when the new tattoos were added. They realise they are going to have to start from the beginning – Kurt checks the first tattoo they solved together and finds a new one, a quotation from Dante’s Inferno. The quotation seems to point them to the place where Kurt proposed. St Mark’s Square in Venice. Seriously? I cannot handle just how romantic Kurt Weller is!

Venice

In the air Kurt and Jane send pictures of the new tattoos back to the FBI – more importantly to RICH DOT COM (Ennis Esmer) who is now working for them. YES REALLY!

Rich says he’s going to need full nudes if they really want his help, surprised he didn’t want them from Weller too to be honest. Kurt also fills Jane in on some other changes. Like the fact Reade (Rob Brown) is now running the NYO, Patterson (Ashley Johnson) moved to Silicon Valley to develop some game app and Tasha (Audrey Esparza) is working at the CIA with Keaton!! So, just a few small things…

Kurt and Jane get a little angsty once they hit Venice, but that’s soon forgotten when they spot a clock reading VII 10 – seven ten, the same number from the Dante quotation – the date Kurt proposed. At the top of the clocktower they find a box with Jane’s bird tattoo on it which Jane opens immediately despite Kurt’s protests. Inside is a phone which only has one number programmed into it. Roman (Luke Mitchell)’s! He tells Jane the new tattoos are her penance for hurting him.

Their first job is to get the bounty off Jane – which will require her to inject herself with a drug which will slow her heart rate so Kurt can present her body and claim he killed her, thus calling off the hit. They realise Roman is in Venice and go looking for him.

There is an EPIC chase through the canals of Venice with Weller going full action hero and launching himself off a bridge onto a speedboat and then grappling with Roman.

Credit: annciabvl.tumblr.com

He ends up in the water, but manages to snag Roman’s cellphone first!

Rich and Stuart work to decode the information on Roman’s phone and find out who he sold Tasha, Reade and Patterson too, cos of COURSE it was Roman. Jane suggests that while they work, she and Weller do what Roman suggested and get the bounty lifted. Funnily enough Kurt is less than amenable to his wife injecting herself with some drug, even if Rich confirmed it does what Roman said (by way of some dodgy sexcapades). Am I the ONLY ONE here thinking that it’s all very well and good that the drug does what Roman said but how do we know that it’s really that drug in the damn syringe? Kurt wants to find another plan but Jane injects herself anyway!

Somewhere…else…

Tasha wakes up from a drugged stupor to find herself in a cell with Reade. This is awkward af since it seems they haven’t spoken since she moved to the CIA. They are bickering when Patterson is shoved into the cell too. They discuss who is holding them, which leads to Reade flinging accusations of it being the CIA at Tasha. At that point their captors appear and wheel in a large safe, still with chunks of whatever wall it was torn out of attached, and demand that they crack it. Patterson is up for it, Reade says no, Tasha says they either do it or they die. They bicker and finally Patterson shuts them down by highlighting the truth. Reade is pissed cos Tasha moved to the CIA and Tasha is pissed cos Reade ghosted her when she did.

Back in Venice

Kurt wheels a large duffel bag containing, presumably, Jane into a church full of some bad looking dudes.

He’s getting anxious because the broker who can lift the bounty is late, and time is running out to give Jane the antidote. He’s about to leave and take the body with him when the broker finally shows. They confirm Jane’s identity and death, and the bounty is lifted. Kurt offers to help with getting the body to the boat, obviously how he planned to get Jane the antidote and then they’d get free, but the broker has other plans. He wants to cremate Jane’s body there and then. Kurt isn’t having that and fights his way to Jane and gives her the antidote. Cue Jane emerging from the duffel bag in a WAY more badass fashion than last time.

Credit: nikitassoul.tumblr.com

The couple fight their way out and head home.

It’s rescue time

Patterson has cracked the safe, and inside is a computer which Tasha recognises as belonging to the CIA. Their captors want them to hack it, which is why they bought the best computer expert in the FBI. Tasha and Reade – they are persuasion. If Patterson DOESN’T hack the computer, the others will be killed.

Meanwhile, Rich and Stuart have figured out where they are being held. The Venezuelan government has them. Adorably naive Stuart wants to call the president so they don’t start an international incident. Keaton offers to hook Jeller up and get them to the compound where they are being held.

Credit: nikitassoul.tumblr.com

After some crazy hijinks involving Mexican Chicken Stew and a tank (please show, stop with giving me Sullivan Stapleton Strike Back feels already – the speedboat shenanigans was enough) the team are reunited and head home. They decide to form a joint task force between the FBI and the CIA to investigate the new tattoos.

SECRETS

The episode ends with a fairly rapid fire sequence of characters giving us hints at what happened in the last two years. SOMETHING happened between Patterson and Rich Dot Com. Jane stashes a bunch of passports and cash behind a vent after Kurt goes to get take out. Tasha and Keaton know something about one of the tattoos that they don’t want anyone else to know. Oh yeah, and Roman turns up on Kurt’s doorstep and demands help with a particular tattoo or he’ll tell Jane what happened in Berlin… WHAT HAPPENED IN BERLIN?!?!

FANdemaniac chat

We sat down with Mo and Clare and had a chat about the epic season premiere – Back To The Grind. Be warned, Mo is a devoted Roman fangirl, even after his return to the dark side. Clare a die-hard Jeller shipper (and basically worships the ground Kurt Weller walks on). They’d both like to be Patterson and think Rich Dot Com is the best thing to happen to the show in a VERY long time. So… that being said – let’s get started.

FN: So what were your favourite moments in the premiere?

C – Seriously? There are too many. Kurt going all heart eyes over Jane at the wedding. Domestic Jeller about killed me in that opening sequence. Loved seeing the team so happy for a change, and Daddy Kurt was perfection. But also Kurt and Jane kicking ass together in their home and Venice was pretty damn cool. Also love the increase in lighter moments. Rich Dot Com brings the funny!

M –  Reade, Patterson and Zapata thinking they were done for and the tank blowing up the bad guys and then seeing Jane’s head pop out of the tank to help escape.

Which secret are you most interested to find out about?

C – WHAT HAPPENED IN BERLIN? I’m intrigued by them all, but Roman has something on Kurt and that is going to be HUGE!

M – the secret I really wanna know about is Berlin! What the hell happened to make Weller do as Roman asked?

What are your predictions for the rest of the season?

C – I think we are going to get drip fed some of the answers to all these secrets, but I think it’s going to hurt the newly reunited team because they are ALL keeping things from each other. I’m also probably going to die multiple times because Kurt Weller seems to have spent 18 months becoming the softest, most romantic little bunny.

M – Roman is going to make Shepherd look like a child compared to what he has planned. The team will have a roller coaster of a ride with all these secrets ahead and as always I predict much fun and action in the fights and cases that lie ahead. And I’ll probably die several times because of Roman’s voice!

Finally – what would you give the episode out of ten?

C – 11!

M – 11!

We’d love to hear your answers too FANdemaniacs, so let us know in the comments. Check back soon for a preview of episode 2 – Enemy Bag of Tricks – and be sure to join us Monday night at 10pm UK time when we will be live tweeting the episode!

(all still images were found on the Blindspot official twitter.)

About author(s)

Clare Hemsworth

Hey, I'm Clare, aka Ciara or C. My current fandoms are RWBY and The Last Kingdom along with a bunch of other stuff I tend to let build up and then binge! I'm a keen, albeit amateur, cosplayer and love attending cons in various cosplays. I'm also the resident comic book girl around these parts, especially small press comics, so if you've got an indie book you want reviewed, I'm your gal! When I'm not doing the fangirl thing I am a keen long-distance hiker, having completed Te Araroa in New Zealand and The Pacific Crest Trail on the West Coast of the US.

HowlingMadMo

Howlingmadmo is British born and raised loved of TV and film, is big into Marvel and her Science fiction shows, was first brought into the fold by The X-Files and slowly built up a love for them all. Has been a convention goer for years and has loved making her own costumes, especially the weird ones like The one ring, a DHD and even a Stargate have been on the making table, is currently addicted to Daniel Gillies, The Originals and Saving Hope and can be seen hunting these out all over the internet. Your welcome to follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.