Blindspot recap: Season 4, Episode 9

We've been waiting a long time for Jane and Remi to finally have their showdown. The season is only nine episodes old, but it feels like we've been stuck with Jane's "secret" for a long time. It was a narrative that's been wearing thin these last few weeks, holding back the season from its true potential. Now though, we're finally here, at the moment of reckoning. After weeks of Remi hiding herself, Weller finally found out about the personality that came back from the dead. When the fall finale aired, Jane and Weller were on a literal collision course, running at each other in an abandoned warehouse, the reliable site of so many of Blindspot's fights.

As 'Check Your Ed' begins, Weller and Jane are throwing down in said warehouse. Weller is still trying to talk Jane out of Remi, trying to coax her back into existence, but Remi has fully taken over. So, he has no choice but to stick her with a needle, which knocks her out, and then bring her into the FBI. While Reade and Weitz arrest Zapata in Mexico, a special doctor is brought in to see Jane. Patterson, Rich, and this doctor think they're ready to try the experimental procedure they found on Roman's data caches, and Weller gives them the go-ahead. This is it. Either Jane finally comes back, or she dies in the process.

What follows is a fun, inventive, thrilling episode that takes us inside the battle over Jane's mind. Look, there's nothing all that compelling about a medical procedure doing its thing and healing Jane, so Blindspot has to find a way to make that exciting. Rather than simply cut to other story lines and just let the medical drama unfold on the periphery, the show decides to visualize Jane's struggle. The majority of the episode takes place inside Jane's head, as she tries to get herself back to normal and rid her brain of Remi once and for all.

That kind of playful storytelling means the show can get weird and ridiculous, making this one of the best hours of the season. The trip inside Jane's head begins when we see her back inside that black duffel bag in Times Square. She escapes once again, and is brought into the FBI for questioning, her season 1 arc starting all over again. Things are different this time though. Weller's older, and in the interrogation room the two try to figure out what's going on. When Jane touches him she suddenly remembers who he is and what they mean to each other. She sees their relationship, their love. Still, she doesn't know what's happening. What does all of this mean? Then, when she wanders out of the interrogation room, she sees what she's up against. Remi, sitting menacingly in a red-tinted room, is in full control, and Jane must work through a variety of puzzles to get to her.

In order to complete those puzzles, Jane needs help from her friends. Her memories slowly come back as she calls on Patterson, Reade, Zapata, and Rich for help. In one of the episode's funnier moments, Dream Zapata shows up and everyone says hi to her…except Dream Reade, who immediately says "I love you." Anyway, once the team is figuratively back together, they can get down to solving puzzles. An elaborate set of clues leads Jane to a box, the one Weller and her have to open together, which reveals a key once it's opened. That lets Jane out of the room, but the team can't come with her. It's just her and Weller now, wandering through dark hallways and getting on a shady-looking elevator. That's all part of Remi's plan though. She slams the doors shut before Weller can get in, and that leaves him and Jane isolated from each other.

Jane runs into a lot of weird, creepy, horror movie-type stuff in her head. There's a persistent image of a little girl standing in a dark hallway. Then there's some grotesque monster-looking thing that ends up being Roman, all twisted and looking like a zombie. When she's finally reunited with Weller, he offers up some advice. "Keeping you scared is how Remi keeps control." She has to learn how to avoid running and start being proactive about fighting Remi. "Become the hunter, not he hunted," says Weller.

So, she lures Roman into a room where they sit down to play a game, one from their childhood. It ends up being a cathartic moment, Jane reckoning with the looming, complicated figure of her brother. She apologizes for not doing more for him, and he accepts. That bit of forgiveness is exactly what Jane needs. It's one more part of her past that she's dealt with, which allows her to get closer to dealing with Remi. That leads to her confronting another figure that's haunted her forever: Shepherd. After taking the creepy elevator all the way to the basement, Jane is held captive by Shepherd and forced to endure the memories of all the pain she's caused. It's a moment meant to break her, but Jane turns it around, allowing herself to see the joy she's had as Jane instead.

In essence, the episode is all about how Jane needs to confront both the good and bad in her life in order to get back to "normal." When she's forced into a situation where she has to save Weller over and over again, she realizes she has to fix all of this on her own. No one else can get rid of Remi. This is Jane's mission, and that means more reckoning with her past. She finds the creepy little girl, who in the new positive light turns out to be Alice Kruger, a.k.a. the original form of Jane, the little girl she was before her life took many tragic turns. Alice is the key to opening the door that gets to Remi, and the two warring parts of Jane's brain finally confront each other.

In a neat little twist, Jane realizes this whole fight is futile. When Shepherd shows up to help Remi, Jane comes to an understanding: Remi is part of her, and she has to reconcile with that rather than remove it. Shepherd, the one who shaped and traumatized her, is the true enemy. Jane forms a bond with Remi, convincing her that Shepherd is the true enemy, and that getting rid of her influence is the only way forward. "I'm here to make peace with you," she says, and with that they take down Shepherd (the dream version, of course), and Jane wakes up, fully back to being herself. It's a wonderful moment, seeing Jane reunited with her FBI family. "I'm only Jane because of you," she says. "What, shut up, you're crying," says a teary Rich.

It's a beautiful reunion, and one that Rich thinks means the team will have "no more drama." Just as he says that, in walks Zapata, hands cuffed behind her back as Reade leads her to an interrogation room. Of course, the drama is never over. Not only are Zapata's motivations still very unclear, there's still Shepherd, the one figure from Jane's past that she's failed to deal with…until the end of the episode. Shepherd, who everyone thinks has fled, comes back to Jane and Weller's apartment, attacking Weller as he walks in. In this moment, it looks like she's going to kill him and get away. But Jane, finally healed, storms into the apartment and shoots her adopted mother dead. It's a moment that's been years in the making, and one that means Jane can finally move on to the next phase of her life, leaving her past behind.

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