Blindspot shies away from terrorism this week in “Condone Untidiest Thefts.” it focuses instead on loyalty, family and Reade’s dealing with pedophile Coach Jones. The usually steady as a rock FBI agent takes a personal day to look into whether the coach sexually abused him. Tasha then also takes time off to protect her partner.
Things end badly.
The main storyline deals with the Irish mob, a change from most organized crime syndicates being either Russian or Chechnian, and an attack on a local politician who is really the head of the Irish syndicate. The assassination attempt is fake. It is done to create publicity for the candidate running for office.
Blindspot has a lot going on in this episode. Allison’s pregnancy has Kurt acting all protective and “mumsy” toward the mother of his child. Jane is still remembering snippets of her past and, rather interestingly, Shepard and Roman are not happy about it.
It seems that if Jane remembers too much about her past, she will not be supportive of Sandstorm’s game plans. There has always been a question of the veracity of the organization’s claims and this seems to vindicate the feeling that they have been lying along.
Jane may have taped a message to herself saying that she supports the goals of the group, but the “old” Jane could have been lied to as well.
In terms of “office romance” Patterson and Borden obviously had a very good date as they are brushing teeth together in Patterson’s apartment. They also, after Borden suggests it, ride to work together.
Reade, who fell asleep outside Jones’ house comes to work long enough to ask Kurt for a personal day off. He uses it confront his childhood coach and then to investigate the house.
The assassination attempt fails and the team capture the hitman. All the evidence points to Patrick O’Malley, the head of the Irish mob, as the instigator of the hit and they bring him in for questioning.
Allison knows the man, they grew up in the same neighborhood, and she talks to Patrick. Under questioning they learn that O’Malley has cancer and only months to live. He reveals that he is not real the leader of the mob.
Patrick explains he was “the face” of the mob. The target of the assassination is the real leader. Jane speaks with Patrick and she talks him into giving up the mob boss. O’Malley says he has evidence that can convict the true leader.
They all go to Patrick’s safe, it requires a retinal and fingerprint scan to open the device, and come under attack from the Irish mob. There is a prolonged shootout.
Nas, who sticks with Kurt, proves to be a real “MacGyver” (she actually constructs an explosive device although later she incorrectly labels the bomb as a molotov cocktail) when Allison gets shot. Weller almost comes unglued and Nas’ actions help Kurt get to Allie.
*Sidenote: There was slight problem with the gunfight over and above the molotov cocktail line. At one point in the shootout the gun Nas is holding has clearly run out of ammunition (the slide is back) and a split second later, with no new magazine being popped in the gun is back being loaded and firing.*
Patrick is killed defending the pregnant Allison and later Kurt admits that he handled the whole thing badly. Allison survives her gunshot wound.
Reade breaks into Jones’ house and finds a collection of video tapes with names on them. The coach has one with Reade’s name on it and the FBI agent puts the tape into a player to watch it.
Zapata, who was instrumental in cracking the code from last week, with the aid of Shadowcat, comes into the house to find Jones dead on the floor with a dazed Reade standing over the body.
Blindspot ends with two cliffhangers. The revelation that Sandstorm is lying to Jane and that Reade may, or may not, have stabbed his childhood coach to death.
This episode was a return to form for the series. More action and a higher body count than most of the episodes this season. There is even a moment where Jane disarms an Irish mobster with her bare hands.
Right now it seems apparent that Reade snapped and killed Jones. However, appearances can be deceiving on Blindspot and Edgar could have discovered the body after watching the video.
Blindspot airs Wednesdays on NBC. Tune in to see if Reade did kill his coach and find out what Sandstorm’s latest mission is.
CAST:
- Sullivan Stapleton – Kurt Weller
- Jaimie Alexander – Jane Doe
- Ashley Johnson – Patterson
- Rob Brown – Edgar Reade
- Audrey Esparza – Tasha Zapata
- Archie Panjabi – Nas Kamal
- Dylan Baker – FBI Director Pellington
- Luke Mitchell – Roman
- Unwell Roach – Dr. Robert Borden
- Michelle Hurd – Shepard
- Brian O’Neill – Coach Jones
- Trieste Kelly Dunn – Allison Knight
Guest starring Lee Tergesen as Patrick O’Malley
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