Blindspot – If Beth

By starrymag | October 8, 2016

By: Jessica Wolff

 

 

While a security guard is forcibly grabbed while on the job, Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) and Roman (Luke Mitchell) talk over a serene lake, Lake Aurora. Roman tells her that the inhabitants of the area around the lake were killed by toxic chemical plant waste and the government’s refusal to help is a common occurrence in these situations. He assures her that Sandstorm’s objective is to defend America instead of destroy it, in order to help people affected by corruption. She asks him what Shepherd (Michelle Hurd) is planning, but he refuses to answer.

 

Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) apologizes to Allison Knight (Trieste Kelly Dunn) for the way he handled her announcement of being pregnant with his child and commits to being in the child’s life. Edgar Reade (Rob Brown) receives a visit from Freddy (Daniel J. Watts) who asks to crash at his apartment. Since they last talked, Freddy has been drinking and Reade is worried about him. Back at FBI headquarters, Weller and Nas Kamal (Archie Panjabi) argue over Roman’s motives. Kamal insists that the polluted lake is a type of visual propaganda to anger Jane, but Jane insists that the government corruption is an outrage.

 

Reade and Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza) talk about Freddy before Patterson (Ashley Johnson) briefs the team on her latest tattoo discovery. A honeycomb pattern in two different inks is supposed to represent a coding pattern that leads to a government worker who is notorious hacker Shadowcat. They go to arrest him and find the servers at his house have been set on fire in order to destroy the evidence. The man shoots at Weller and runs out of the house, but is tackled and subdued by Reade. Weller yells at Reade when he keeps punching the suspect. Patterson shows the team the contents saved from the servers, a series of modified video games that show plans for heists both past and future.

 

Kamal encourages Weller that Reade should sit out the mission after breaking the suspect’s jaw, but Weller insists that Reade is fine. Patterson figures out that the next heist will be at an art museum gala in New York and Weller tells them that they will be going undercover at the gala to stop the heist. Weller asks Reade what is going on, but he insists that he is fine.

 

Two days later, the team prepares for their undercover mission. Weller zips up Jane’s dress and gives her earrings that double as earpieces. The team walks into the gala and splits up. Oliver Kind (Jonathan Patrick Moore) gives a toast and announces that the charity donations will help clean lakes and rivers. Reade and Zapata follow an assumed suspect, but it turns out to be a false alarm. Jane is approached by Kind who flirts with her. She asks him about Lake Aurora and he tells her that the corruption was worse that reported. Weller gets annoyed and pulls her away from Kind, but not before he gives her his business card.

 

Patterson finds the basement in the heist plans, and goes down to investigate. As she communicates with Weller, a masked man attacks her from behind. Weller saves her just in time and runs after the suspect. However, Weller loses them and orders everyone to shut down the exits and search for her. Jane finds a body and Weller tells them to move the guests to a secure location. Patterson figures out that the suspect is on the second floor and Reade and Zapata catch up to a possible suspect and her date. Sadly, it turns out to be a false alarm. Reade is rough with the suspects and Zapata tells him to calm down.

 

The actual suspect stabs a man and Kamal finds the body soon after. Weller follows the suspect and Patterson finds a secret exit in the exhibit room in the game’s code. Jane is the closest to the other entrance and fights the suspect. She gets the upper hand, but the suspect releases a smoke bomb which disorients Jane. The suspect gets away, but Patterson uses evidence left at the scene and the connections of the victims to determine that the game code was for an assassination instead of a heist.

 

Weller orders Reade to talk to Dr. Robert Borden (Ukweli Roach) before he can go back into the field and Reade takes it as a suspension. Roman drives into the Sandstorm compound and Shepherd is angry that only half of the shipment is there. After promising to find the rest of it, Shepherd asks why he took Jane to Lake Aurora. He tells her that he was trying to motivate her and that she should tell Jane the truth. Patterson is able to identify the suspect as Elizabeth Gubara (Karen Pittman), a woman with ties to a Sudanese terrorist group as well as her next potential victim. Gubara breaks into the man’s home, but is surrounded by the team. They arrest her and ask her about her terrorist cell, but Gubara reveals that she is with the CIA.

 

Reade meets with Dr. Borden, but refuses to admit any wrongdoing or talk about what’s bothering him. After convincing from Dr. Borden, Reade admits that he’s haunted by blocked memories of his own abuse.  Weller and Jane interrogate Gubara and she tells them about her undercover CIA mission and how the agency turned against her and outed her to the terrorist cell. Her victims were agency members who had a hand in ruining her life. Kamal is unable to find a paper trail to back up her claims, but Patterson finds evidence on the victims that does support her claims. Zapata shows them evidence that Gubara’s daughter, Meridia (Gi’onna Kamille), is alive and well despite being presumed dead.

 

Presenting their findings to Gubara, she admits that she had an affair with a CIA agent, Kessler, and realizes that he is keeping Meridia away from her. She begs them to find her daughter and Patterson finds flight records that indicate that Meridia is leaving the country on a flight less than an hour away. The team arrives at the airport and Kessler shoots at them. Weller shoots him and tells Meridia to come out of the car. She responds by shooting at them through the window.

 

Weller tries to talk Meridia down and tells her that her mother is alive. Meridia doesn’t believe him and Jane puts her gun down and convinces her to take a chance and believe them. Back at FBI headquarters, Meridia reunites with her mother as Jane and Weller look on. Jane tells Weller that she’s frustrated that she is unable to trust anyone, nobody trusts her and that she feels alone as a result. She receives a message from Sandstorm and she leaves.

 

That evening, Zapata goes to visit Reade and Freddy answers the door. She sees drugs on the table and tells him to find somewhere else to deal with his issues. Freddy leaves and Zapata calls Reade. The call is ignored as Reade watches his old football coach from his car. Roman takes Jane to Shepherd, who shows her a photo of the family she lost at Lake Aurora and tells her how adopting Jane and Roman helped her deal with the loss. She assures Jane that their plans will be the end of their pain and Jane is disturbed as she hugs Shepherd. At the hospital, Zapata visits Shadowcat and offers him an off the book job. Kamal comes to Weller’s office and they share a scotch as they talk and Kamal shows him evidence that Sandstorm has been tracking him for over twenty years.