Never have so many terrible things befallen an FBI division. For months, our dogged team has chased terrorists, kooky art thieves, sadistic military scientists, and murderous Russian spies. (This week, it’s hacker custodians.) And all the while, nearly every team member has been the target of additional attacks and investigations outside their everyday cases. At the heart of it all is Mayfair, whose very presence seems to incite sinister happenings. Carter, Guerrero, Sophia are all missing or dead. Last week, the violence zeroed in on the seemingly sweet Alexandra, who was murdered while Mayfair was out getting ice. It’s all too suspicious to be coincidental, but also too obvious to be her fault entirely.
“Of Whose Uneasy Route” opens on Attorney General Matthew Weitz waltzing through the FBI, seizing the contents of Mayfair’s office. Her team looks on wondering what might be afoot, and Weitz approaches Zapata with familiarity, addressing her by name. Remember: She’s been co-operating with him to gather information on Mayfair. Hawkish Mayfair takes notice.
Meanwhile, Kurt and Borden are having an unproductive therapy session. Weller dully lobs sports trivia to deflect any feelings. Jane and Patterson are boxing and bonding. Sarah Weller and Reade bump into each other on the FBI building’s elevator. Zapata and Mayfair are talking in a fluorescently lit hallway. And then, the building goes into lockdown, each of the couples stuck in their various, awkward scenarios. Patterson quickly realizes the FBI system is being hacked, and she and Jane shimmy through a vent into Borden’s office just as he’s getting to the nut of why Weller might feel insecure about his instincts. (I still think his instincts about his dad being involved in Taylor’s disappearance are dead-on.)
In a winding series of events that involve Jane and Weller setting a fire, burning through doors, and wiring security gates open, the duo makes it to Zapata and Mayfair, who are having a heart-to-heart about the former’s inability to trust the latter. Zapata confesses that she was looking into Mayfair on Weitz’s order, and Mayfair, feeling vulnerable, sheds a few tears as well as the admission that she got duped into some bad activity early in her career (re: Daylight). Zapata seems remorseful, but the moment ends prematurely upon Weller and Jane’s entry.
The four push forward, cornering two hacker lovebirds who posted up in the FBI’s main server room to obtain undercover agent identities. A shootout ensues and one of the assailants gets away, while the other is killed. The surviving hacker has programmed the building’s elevators to drop from the highest floor, which would send Reade and Sarah to their deaths. In what might be the most suspenseful moment of the season, Kurt and Jane save the couple before the elevator plummets through the vast shaft. Obviously, Reade and Sarah have worked up feelings by the time they’re safely rescued. Sadly, Sarah reveals that she’s moving to Portland so her son/Kurt’s nephew, Sawyer, can be closer to his father. Reade nods solemnly, and mentally updates his Tinder profile.
In the grander scheme of the episode, pairing these characters off during the lockdown is a useful device to resolve tensions and plotlines. However, the premise underlying it all — the hacker couple — is a thin and lazy way to move the plot along. Like so many of Blindspot’s ancillary characters, beyond their brief appearance as diversionary plot pushers, the hackers are as two-dimensional and hollow as the dialogue they speak. (Rich Dotcom is the exception to this rule.)
As soon as the office is back up and running, Weitz reappears to arrest Mayfair, and insists her team watch as he begins the interrogation. Slowly, he builds the narrative he’s pieced together involving Mayfair’s plan to execute Guerrero, Carter, and Alexandra (alias: Donna, a fixer under FBI investigation), all of which checks out thanks to Jane’s compliance with Oscar’s directions. Remember the pen, GPS tracker, and flash drives she placed on his orders? Each was a bread crumb of evidence that helps to place Mayfair as the mastermind behind her supposed victims’ untimely deaths.
To escape these grave allegations, it seems Mayfair will soon have to bring Daylight into sun.
Tattoos:
- No tattoos this week. Just talk of removing them.
Blind Sides:
- This week’s anagram translates to “to your new safehouse.”
- Patterson suggests Jane get her tattoos removed. I wonder if this process will be integrated into the show? Maybe there are more codes underneath the tattoos. Crazy as it sounds, I would not put this plotline past the writers.
- Patterson and Borden are not very flirty this episode. Maybe last week’s drama and death by nail gun was too much for their nascent attraction.
- I wonder if Sarah is truly going to make it to Portland. I have a feeling something will happen with Weller the Elder to keep her nearby.
- Speaking of Weller the Elder, something seems fishy about the papers Sarah and Kurt sign. What might be revealed upon his death?
- Kurt and Jane are getting flirty again. The chemistry is bubbling, at least on Jane’s part. Whiskey should help that right along.
- Thankfully, Oscar is absent this week.
