Blindspot – Senile Lines

By starrymag | April 10, 2017

By: Jessica Wolff

 

In a foster home, Amber (Satchel Eden Bell) fights with Eli Bello (Tyler Dean Flores) while other children look on.  Their foster mother, Carol (Kellie Overbey) pulls Amber away as she attacks him.  Carol then tells Eli to stay away from Amber.  Carol calls for advice, but hears a scream from the balcony.  She runs out to find Amber dead on the pavement and Eli watching from the window.  Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) asks Roman (Luke Mitchell) if he is ready for work.  He reminds her that he doesn’t have a job at the FBI but two guards watching his every move.  Jane reminds him that being freed from his cell is a small step and that he has to earn his freedom to live a normal life.

 

The rest of the team throws their identical warrants on Kurt Weller’s (Sullivan Stapleton) and Patterson (Ashley Johnson) questions why they are being accused of aiding Sandstorm.  Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza) and Weller tell her that they’re being used as a scapegoat.  Nas Kamal (Archie Panjabi) warns them that the team could be disbanded.  Patterson reminds them that Matthew Weitz (Aaron Abrams) is leading the investigation, and Kamal offers to ask the Department Of Justice to delay the case.  Weller tells them to focus on trying to track the bank account to find Sandstorm’s money, assuring them they have nothing to hide.  Patterson gets a hit on another tattoo, and Weller tells them that they will proceed as normal.  Zapata asks Weller if he’s heard from Edgar Reade (Rob Brown), but Weller says he hasn’t.

 

Reade wakes up in a hospital bed and ignores the call from Zapata.  His hospital roommate, Travis (Garret Dillahunt) comments on the number of calls.  He introduces himself, looking forward to having somebody to talk to.  Reade refuses to give him his name.  Patterson tells the team that Jane’s hourglass tattoo leads to an inactive charity that has ties to Amber’s death.  Their investigation is cut short after Weitz arrives to begin his deposition.  Zapata tells him that they have a case, but Weitz demands to speak to everyone on the team by the end of the day, including Jane.  Weller tells him not to impede their investigation, and Weitz tells him that he will interview Patterson first.

 

The team arrives at the foster home and an NYPD Officer (William Oliver Watkins) takes them in the house and find that the kids and foster mother are nowhere to be found.  Weller and Jane speculate where they are and question whether they are being hunted as well.  As they watch Patterson be interviewed, Kamal comments on how calm she is.  Zapata shows them footage of Eli robbing a convenience store.  They have no other leads on the kids or the charity foundation, and Weller tells them that they need to find Eli.  In the investigation, Weitz questions that Patterson’s relationship with Borden clouded her judgment.  Patterson argues that she was able to discover the truth because of her relationship with Borden.  Undeterred, Weitz questions her about the unsuccessful raid of Sandstorm’s compound and the stolen microchip.  Patterson argues that they were able to recover some data from the microchip before it was compromised, and Weitz reminds her that Jane prevented them from getting more data.

 

Elsewhere, Jane tells Weller that he wants to bring Roman on the mission.  Weller reminds her that he is not an FBI agent, but she points out that she isn’t either and that Roman still feels trapped.  She brings up his experience in the orphanage, and Kamal agrees that Roman might help them.  After some convincing, Weller agrees to let him in on the mission.  Reade refuses to give his information to the hospital.  Travis asks him how long he has had PTSD, but he denies having PTSD while admitting that he’s FBI.

 

Roman is confused about being brought onto a non-Sandstorm related case.  Jane tells him that this is a good opportunity.  Patterson tells the team about her interrogation with Weitz, but Weller insists that they continue to answer his questions truthfully.  Zapata shows them that they found the account related to the charity with an address of a house that burned down and a photo of Eli’s music teacher.  Patterson wants to expedite Amber’s autopsy, and Zapata tells them that she is next to be questioned by Weitz.  Jane suggests they take Roman, and Weller agrees with the condition that his handlers come along and that he will be kept on a tight leash.

 

Weitz questions Zapata about Reade’s disappearance, but she says that Reade is taking some time off.  He questions her about the night of the raid and she tells him that Kamal was giving orders that night.  When Weitz reminds her that Kamal is not FBI, she reminds him about the FBI’s partnership with the NSA.  Weitz is suspicious that Weller was absent during the raid, and Zapata tells him about the call luring him to the hospital.  He asks her what makes Weller so special to Sandstorm.  Weller, Jane, and Roman arrive at the music teacher’s house and hear music from the back.  They see Eli holding a small pitch pipe and Roman has a flashback to the coin he held onto in the orphanage.  Eli insists that he is innocent and that a mysterious ‘they’ killed Amber instead.  Patterson asks for the autopsy but the examiner tells her that her family came to pick her up with transfer papers.  Patterson runs outside to find two men loading Amber’s body into a truck.  She pulls out her gun, but is unable to stop the truck from pulling away.

 

Kamal asks Roman if Eli reminds him of anyone.  Roman tells her that though they are both orphans, Eli never killed anyone.  She asks him how he can be sure, and he recounts his memory of the first person he ever killed.  He tells her that he was affected by the action, but Eli doesn’t have the same reaction.  Weller asks Eli to tell him anything he knows about the location of his foster siblings.  Eli is scared to talk, because he is unsure whether the FBI is part of the group that took them away.  Jane encourages Eli to help them find who did, but he says that he can’t help him.

 

Weller asks Patterson for any new leads, but she doesn’t have any.  She shows them the fraudulent documents the men used to retrieve Amber’s body and picture of the wrecked van on the side of the highway.  Roman asks about the pitch pipe and tells Patterson to give it back to Eli, and Jane argues that it might help establish trust.  Kamal tells Jane that Weitz wants to speak to her next.  Weitz asks Jane if she’s ever been in a relationship with Weller and insinuates that Jane is only allowed in the field because of Weller.  Jane denies ever being in a relationship with him.  He questions Jane about her zipping of Roman, and Jane defends her decision that there was no other way to bring him in.  After establishing that she and Weller are on the same page about the incident, Weitz continues to question whether her loyalties lies with her brother or the FBI.

 

Reade declines a call from Zapata, and Travis asks if his wife is calling.  He tells him that he doesn’t have a wife, and asks Travis what’s wrong with him.  He tells him he has cancer and is still suffering from his time in Iraq before asking what he’s trying to avoid.  Weller gives Eli his pitch pipe back, and assures that he wants to help find his foster family.  Eli admits that Amber killed herself because of Carol.  He tells them that Carol gives them pills every day that affected their mental states and that a Dr. S (Ron Menzel) visited them.  He admits that he went to his music teacher because he trusted him and pulls out a pill hidden inside the pitch pipe.

 

After giving the pill to Zapata to have it tested, Weller is called in by Weitz.  He asks him about his relationship with Jane, which he tells him is strictly professional.  Weitz then asks him about his relationship with Sheppard (Michelle Hurd) and calls her a benefactor.  Weller denies knowing about her previous connection to him, but Weitz insists that she is still his benefactor as she led him live during the raid.  He tells Weller that the evidence of him working for Sandstorm keeps piling up.  He accuses Weitz of making up accusations, but Weitz believes he has enough evidence to bring the case in front of Congress.

 

Patterson tells the team that the pill has not been released on the market and has compounds she has never seen before.  She suggests that the pill amplifies suicidal thoughts, and Jane suggests that Carol is getting paid to test the drug on her foster kids.  Amber is wheeled into a lab and Dr. S tells Carol that they need to kill the rest of the kids.  Carol is horrified, and suggests that there has to be another way.  The doctor says no, and Carol gets on board after being assured that it would be painless.

 

Travis tries to get out of bed to get the remote, but he falls and Reade catches him.  He is upset that he can’t perform a basic task, and advises Reade to take back control of his life.  Reade starts to tell Travis about his experience with the coach.  Kamal tells Weller that they are working on closing the Sandstorm accounts, but he is worried about the compelling argument Weitz can make to Congress with the evidence.  Patterson traces the pill capsule to Dr. S, and Weller wants to set up a sting to catch him.  Eli refuses to act as bait, but Weller convinces him to help them.  Reade talks about his trauma and Travis talks about his war trauma.  He advises Reade to watch the tape so that he can work on moving on.

 

Patterson plays a voice message from Dr. S and traces it to a warehouse.  On the mission, Weller reminds Roman that he is unarmed.  Weller gives orders and they enter the warehouse.  As Carol argues with Dr. S, Weller barges in and announces himself.  A shootout occurs and Weller shoots at Carol to stop her from picking up a stray weapon.  She gives them the location of the kids, and they rush over to hear the screams of the kids.  Weller chases after someone and Roman and Jane stay to rescue the kids.  Jane works on shutting down the machine while Roman frees the kids.  Jane gets into a scuffle with a man while Roman runs with the kids to safety.  Weller, Jane, and Zapata take out the suspects, and Weller asks where Roman is.  Roman returns with the kids, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

 

Later, Roman checks in on the kids and Weller tells them that they’re going to be okay.  Jane tells Roman he did great, and Zapata tells them that Eli isn’t in his room.  Eli goes to Carol and yells at her for hurt them, pointing a pair of scissors at her neck.  Carol insists that she didn’t want to hurt them, and Weller tells Eli that she will be punished in custody.  Eli doesn’t think that’s good enough, and admits that he wants Amber back.  Weller reasons with him, and convinces him to put down the scissors.

 

Weller calls the team in and tells Zapata that she is now in charge of the Sandstorm operation.  He wants to take the fall to protect the team, but Jane tells him that there’s no team without him.  He refuses to listen to their arguments.  Kamal goes to Weitz and takes responsibility for everything to protect the team.  However, Weitz sees through this tactic.  Kamal argues her case and tells him that she will dig up everything on him if he continues to target the team.  Weller goes to talk to Weitz, who tells him that Kamal has taken the blame.  Weller argues that it’s not her call to make, but Kamal tells him that he needs to keep hunting Sandstorm.

 

Reade says goodbye to Travis, as he prepares to leave the hospital.  Reade leaves him his number before he leaves and Travis advises Reade not to face his demons alone.  The team drinks together as a farewell to Kamal.  She shows them that the Sandstorm accounts have been closed, and Weller thanks her for the going away present.  Kamal admits that she’s going to miss the team and says goodbye.

 

Zapata visits Reade and they hug.  He pulls out the tape and tells Zapata that he needs to do this to move on.  Zapata takes his hand and he plays the tape.  Meanwhile, Sheppard goes to Bangkok to get explosives she needs for Phase Two.