Blindspot – Enemy Bag of Tricks Recap/Review
It’s Hunting Season
Two hunters walk through some woods, discussing last year’s season when they are interrupted by another man who tells them to leave. The land they are on belongs to one of the hunters who is not happy about the trespasser. He’s less happy with the sudden emergence of several armed men in full sniper camo who then shoot them. YIKES!
Domestic Jeller
Kurt (Sullivan Stapleton) is busy making breakfast for Jane (Jaimie Alexander) who wanders in to the kitchen and finds a bunch of unpaid final demands on the counter (rookie mistake Weller). Kurt admits that he is pretty much broke after spending almost everything in his search for Jane. He then presents her with a plate of pancakes, bacon and eggs which she turns her nose up at. Don’t worry Kurt, if she doesn’t want it I will gladly have breakfast with you… Anyway, turns out Jane is vegan now, after her time in Kathmandhu. Kurt asks if she has any more surprises in store and, unsurprisingly, she lies and says no.
Back to the Tats
In the lab Patterson (Ashley Johnson) is pissed off with Stuart (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) because he’s diverting her systems to focus on cracking one single tattoo that’s bugging him. She just gets done telling him how that’s not how they do things when Kurt bursts in saying that one particular tattoo is bugging him and they need to solve it today. It’s the one that Roman (Luke Mitchell) put him on to, and it’s apparently very time sensitive or a LOT of people will die.
We get a flashback to the previous night, to Roman and Kurt talking outside Kurt’s home. Roman tells him that there’s an order to the new tattoos. Kurt says what if he jumps ahead and figures out Roman’s endgame to take him down, but Roman tells him that the tattoos won’t let him do that.
LXT-Y17
The Perseus tattoo is the one that Roman wants solved today, Kurt says he noticed that the tattoo of Perseus has 11 fingers, which is not true in Greek mythology. There is something that has 11 fingers though, Upstate New York (The Finger Lakes). After some impressive voodoo wizardry from Patterson they have a location to search. Perseus also wears four rings with the inscription LXT-Y17 on them.
After some fruitless searching Reade calls it off and the team are about to head home when a fireball streaks out of the sky and crashes in a corn field. IT’S SUPERMAN… wait, no, it’s a satellite with the code LXT-Y17 on it! As the team approach the gunmen from the woods attack, they hold off the team until they steal something from inside the satellite.
Bumping Heads
Back in the lab Reade (Rob Brown) gives the team assignments and asks to talk to Weller. The pair are obviously not doing well with the change in their roles, Kurt keeps giving orders when it isn’t his place to. And Reade seems to be struggling with his former teammates now being his subordinates. Reade doesn’t want it to be a problem between them but things are obviously quite tense. Luckily, as seems to be happening a lot at the moment, they are saved by a summons from Patterson.
Trouble Down Under?
Roman is in Sydney, Australia, attending a group therapy session. He says a few concerning things that get the attention of another member of the group. This other guy offers to buy Roman a coffee but Roman says he isn’t in the mood for loud noises and crowds. The guy then invites Roman back to his place for beer and a chat.
ProTecSat
Patterson has tracked down who owned the satellite and they bring in two people from ProTecSat. These two don’t think they are missing a satellite until it’s right in front of them.
When they find out the code number they both get really skittish. Kurt goes all alpha and demands that they tell them what is going on. Turns out ProTecSat is a front for the DoD and the satellite was part of a covert missile defense shield that they claim not to have. The black box which was stolen from the satellite can be used to disarm the shield. That sends Tasha (Audrey Esparza) to make a call and she finds out that North Korea are arming missiles. Patterson runs a simulation of the fallout from a nuclear attack and it is VERY bad. They decide to simultaneously track the hacker and the men who attacked them at the crash site.
K&R
Stuart has a lead on the attackers. After some hunters were reported missing, they found footage from a trail cam that showed what happened to the two men in the woods. He has a clear image of the man who first told the hunters to leave and is starting facial recognition. Jane tells him there’s no need. She knows the man as Dwyer Lee (and a couple of other aliases). Apparently they worked together a few times on kidnap and ransom operations when she was on the run.
Kurt is really not happy with this revelation, especially in light of Jane earlier saying she had no more secrets. He says he needs some time and leaves.
Roman Holiday
Roman and the guy from the therapy group talk about his past, his time in the Australian Defense Force in Helmand and the reason he was at a PTSD suppport group. His best friend from the army seemed to be fine when they got back but then he jumped off a bridge. Roman talks a little about his past too, and his strained relationship with his sister and OH MY GOD HIS SCAR IS COMPLETELY GONE! What is this sorcery?!?
Secrets and Lies
Jane finds Kurt and they talk about the latest revelation. She tells Kurt that she liked doing the K&R stuff, that she had skills and it felt good to use them. Kurt is hurt by that as it seems like he feels he doesn’t really know Jane any more. They are summoned back to the lab as Patterson has tracked down Dwyer Lee to three possible locations. Jane figures out which one he is at because apparently he used to rave about a certain burger joint that’s just around the corner. They arrest Dwyer and his associates and recover the black box from the satellite!
Love-Hate or Hate-Hate?
Tasha ask Patterson if she’s noticed anything about Reade and the fact that he isn’t talking to anyone apart from to boss them about. Patterson says it’s like her and Stuart, they hate each other at work but they are still friends. Tasha points out that Stuart doesn’t hate Patterson at all and she realises maybe she needs to put some work into that relationship. In the lab Marcy from DoD is trying to run a diagnostic on the black box but the system is lagging. Stuart has gone back to using the system to try and crack the molecule tattoo. Patterson goes ballistic at him when he says he thought the threat was over. He might be super smart but he doesn’t have a lot of common sense this one does he?
Reade gives out assignments, asking Tasha to go organise an escort for Marci (guest star Amy Rutberg) once she is done. Tasha shoots back with a sassy line about if she’s not tired from that maybe she can track down some more CIA leads. Reade doesn’t even pick up on the sarcasm, just says it’s a good idea. Oh Reade, starting to think maybe leadership isn’t for you sweetie!
Reade interrogates Dwyer and gets nothing but sass. Kurt and Jane are watching and Kurt is less than impressed with Jane’s choice of workmates. She says it wasn’t up to her who got chosen for a job, and asks Kurt if he hasn’t ever worked with bad people to do good things. Kurt realises he is doing exactly that right now by working with Roman on this particular case.
Reade talks to Director Hirst (Mary Stuart Masterson) and she gives him a pep talk. He realises that he’s been handling his team all wrong since they got back together. Three cheers for Director Hirst!
Jane manages to taunt some information out of Dwyer, and they work out that there’s a leak somewhere in the investigation. They think it’s Nikhil (guest star Sathya Sridharan) but he was in hospital, which only leaves Marci. She shoots the two man escort detail and escapes with the black box!
Scar away
Back in Sydney Roman and his new friend seem to be bonding. Anyone else starting to feel distinctly uneasy about this? Roman doesn’t do friendships and easy chatter, there’s got to be an ulterior motive right? Right. The guy is loaded, left millions by his friend who committed suicide. Roman is there to steal his identity, the bonding was all a ruse to get the information he needed from the man before he killed him. That’s why the scar is gone, his soon-to-be new identity doesn’t have one.
Planets align
Back in New York the team eventually track Marci to the River Point museum. It’s close to where she escaped her escort, she is on the board and it has a computer in the planetarium capable of handling the data needed for the hack to shut down the satellite network! On the way there Kurt and Jane talk. He knows that Roman is the reason they met Dwyer and Jane’s K&R work came to light. Roman is trying to hurt the team, to split them up and he isn’t going to let that happen!
Inside the planetarium they find Marci’s body and are ambushed by the North Koreans (and I’m having Strike Back flashbacks again). They are pinned down by gunfire while the hackers begin shutting down the network. Patterson tells them they don’t have long and luckily Reade and Tasha arrive. With their distraction Jane and Kurt are able to intercept and stop the hack before the final satellites go offline, stopping the attack! Phew!
Final moments
The team assemble in the lab and Reade thanks them all for their efforts. Tasha says she’ll drink to that and Reade says drinking in the lab is now banned. Assistant Director Edgar Reade all this power has gone straight to your head young man!
In Sydney Roman practices his Australian accent and honestly, those few minutes are probably the best thing in the episode. Luke Mitchell is an Australian actor playing a South African-born American character PRETENDING to be an Australian. Wrap your brain around that for a second and then tell me that this guy isn’t meant for some BIG things in the future!
Kurt tries to cook a vegan meal for Jane and burns it. He’s trying to make an effort because of all the things he has missed in the last 18 months. She suggests they go out for dinner somewhere nice and when Kurt tells her they can’t really afford it she reveals the stash of cash in the air vent. Guess K&R was good for something after all!
Tasha shows up at Reade’s apartment with beers and wants to talk. She hears a voice inside the apartment and thinks Reade is on a date… turns out it’s READE’S LIVE IN GIRLFRIEND who promptly invites Tasha to join them for dinner. Nope, that’s not gonna be awkward at all!
Patterson calls Stuart to apologise for her behaviour as she walks up to the door of his apartment. She notices it is ajar and pushes her way inside. The apartment is trashed and she finds Stuart inside. Dead. WOAH!
Roundtable questions
So like we did with the season premiere, we sat down with our two resident Blindspot FANdemaniacs, Clare and Mo, and pitched them some questions about the episode. Check them out below and let us know your reaction to the episode!
FN – Dwyer gets arrested because his love for a particular burger joint led Jane right to him. If you were in hiding, what one thing you can’t do without would be your downfall?
M – Tea would be my downfall so I would get caught at the store.
C – Oh man, I do love a good burger, but I don’t love one chain enough to make Dwyer’s mistake. I’d probably say music. Keep an eye on my iTunes account and you’d probably find me!
FN – Reade is the current head of the New York Office. Do you think that will last or will the pressure get to him and maybe send him back to some old, bad habits?
M – I think Reade will resort to old habits under the pressure but keep the job.
C – I think the pressure is going to get to him. Life seems a little too rosy to last right now. He’s got the job, the girlfriend, things seem like they are getting back on track with the team. I know this show. Something is going to give before long!
FN – Roman has something on Weller in Berlin that made him follow his tattoo clue he wanted sorting. If you had a secret what country would you want it to be in?
M – Italy.
C – That’s way too easy – New Zealand.
FN – Roman has shown us a knack for accents – can you do any?
M – Yorkshire (a region of the UK).
C – I used to be pretty good at an Irish accent, and people tell me that when I’m tired I get a bit Scottish (I lived there for 14 years). Uh, never really tried any others, I get embarrassed too easily!
