Blindspot, Cede Your Soul sees Weller and Jane getting perhaps a little too close and when she has a single sex dream, where the partner could be Kurt, she and her lead agent decide to move back a bit. Weller is accused of losing his objectivity and Jane’s “therapist” Dr. Borden (Ukweli Roach) suggests that the tree tattooed lover in her dream is Kurt.
In this episode, the dark web appears as a major plot point, although not as much of a presence as in Quantico (ABC), this “netherworld” of illegal Internet activity makes it seem like Hollywood has a certain amount of paranoia about the lack of control over the Internet. Regardless of this “coincidence” the dark web makes a great playground for nefarious activity which is what this storyline is all about.
A teenage girl creates a software that hacks governmental GPS tracking systems that a unscrupulous computer wiz is farming out to criminals and other assorted villains. A Saudi prince is assassinated in broad daylight and a lot of people are dying because of this software. The girl is brought in for questioning.
This week it is not the tattoo that drives the mission, but Jane does have a tattoo that matches the “tag” of the hacker. Ana Montes (Aimee Carrero) is the teen girl with no family who is duped into believing that the software she developed went to the NSA. Learning that people are being murdered because of her hack, she decides to help the FBI to catch the man who lied to her.
Cede Your Soul showcased Ashley Johnson’s Patterson and for all intents and purposes Johnson ruled this particular episode. Her interaction with Montes is flawlessly comic, the two “technocrats” one teenaged and the other in mid to late 20’s was brilliant. Patterson tells the FBI agent’s in the field the it will take a few more minutes to crack baddy Shawn Palmer’s firewalls, while she furiously types in commands. Montes speaks up, reaching for the board:
“Here, why don’t you try accessing…”
Patterson: “Don’t touch my keyboard!”
Montes: (Small voice) “Okay.”
Patterson: “You are a hacker. This computer is behind the FBI firewall…No way you’re touching this kid.”
The two characters argue about which programming language to use both convince , Python versus Perl which, Montes suggests is okay if you are writing a program in the mid 90s. The interaction between the two works well and each actor totally convince as the technocrats who know of what they speak.
The story then follows Weller and Jane as they grab an unconscious Palmer and arrest him. They take down the GPS software and Montes is allowed to go. Jane (Jaimie Alexander) offers to stay in touch with the lonely teen and when the girl returns home, Russian heroin smugglers force her to reactivate the GPS tracker system.
Cue the team coming to the kid’s rescue with the help of Patterson, whose system Montes hacks (leaving a clue that it’s her with switching the programming language from Perl to Python) and Patterson then uses the teen’s webcam to discover what is happening.
Weller and his team get there too late but Montes leaves a VIN number which tells the group where she is. Cue some intense gunplay, there is the use of an RPG by the Russians and as one tries to escape, Kurt (Sullivan Stapleton) throws a hand grenade in the back of the weapon’s filled truck and blows it, and the Russian thug driving, sky-high.
In terms of action; explosions, shootouts and the “one-shot-one-kill” brains on the windshield shot by Doe, this was an episode that delivered in spades. The sexy dream where it seems, at first, that Jane is getting too attached to Weller, turns out to be about someone else.
After the rescue of Montes, Weller and Jane work things out and she returns to her safe house. She invites the team in for a drink and as the camera pulls back from her rejection, we see a man who sports a tree tattoo on his arm. Is this the man in the dream…looks like it may well be.
While Carter, the CIA douche who wants to see Jane Doe dead, does not appear his presence is still felt as Agent Zapata pays off her bookie with the money that Carter paid her last week.
There is still the issue of Weller not accepting his dad’s innocence, which is odd to say the least, and the show ends with a tearful Mr. Weller senior sobbing when he learns that Taylor Shaw is alive and well.
The betrayal of Zapata resulted in an ironic pairing of the two women during the Montes rescue and one wonders just what will happen to them when Carter acts on the information sold to him by the agent.
Blindspot airs Mondays on NBC and despite falling viewing figures has been given the go ahead by the network for a full first season, unlike their Wesley Snipes vehicle The Player which NBC axed at nine episodes. Presumably, with the latest news that some tattoos on Jane’s body could have multiple meanings the network feels Jaimie Alexander and that body of ink has a chance for longevity that Winchester, Wakefield and Snipes cannot match.
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