BLINDSPOT “Coder to Killer “Recap

BLINDSPOT — “Coder to Killer” Episode 420 — Pictured: Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Brothers)

BLINDSPOT RECAP: “CODER TO KILLER” 

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Technical Difficulties

Welcome back, Blindspotters! So, our hiatus was a bit longer than we hoped, but at least we have a season five to look forward to!

Last time we saw our team, Weller and Jane were looking for Weller’s mother to find out how and why she was working with Shepherd. Weller was able to mend some fences with his mom, while Jane learned more about the woman. Meanwhile, Patterson and Rich’s ex-teammate Kathy made an appearance, and we found out that she’s engaged to Dominic. More importantly, the two seemed to be working together to unleash Helios.

A Family Affair

Friday’s episode, “Coder to Killer” begins with a man, Gavin Decker, having a phone conversation with his mother. He tells her that his Blue Annex Technologies job is a good thing, but only temporary. He hangs up with a sigh of relief for getting through the phone call, but is then choked to death by a man in a hoodie, who steals his work badge.

Meanwhile, the team, including Weller’s daughter Bethany, is having a dinner party at Weller and Jane’s house. It’s a good time until they get a call that they have to go into the office because an inmate and terrorist named Sho Akhtar wants to talk to them. At headquarters, Akhtar tells them about overhearing some of the guys in prison who are part of a terrorist group he used to work with, talking about an attack on New York.

The team begins to question Akhtar about what he knows, but he’s being evasive with his answers, so the team decides to hack into the laptop that Akhtar was arrested with. Unfortunately however, the whole office is undergoing a tech update, meaning the computers are down, and the company conducting it is Blue Annex Technologies. The man who killed Decker walks by and is noticed by Patterson, because he’s going the wrong way for the work that he’s doing. Patterson talks to the head of Blue Annex Technologies, Leonard Perkins, who assures her he has his workers under control, and that “Decker” is new.

Brianna, who is in the office to babysit the Blue Annex crew, is called by Dominic, asking her if she’s decided to join him or not. He gives her until the end of the day to decide. Reade finds her, and sends her to help Rich and Patterson, who are waiting for her computer to crack the password on Akhtar’s laptop, and not doing much of anything else. To pass the time, Rich starts a game of 20 questions that has a ton of weird questions, but they’re interrupted by Perkins rebooting Patterson’s computer without warning. Perkins meanwhile realizes his error, but is startled by “Decker”. When he turns his back on “Decker”, he’s quickly choked out, and “Decker” looks through security footage to find Akhtar.

Meanwhile, Rich is still on his 20 questions game, and Patterson pulls him aside when she realizes that the questions are those that can be found on an adoption application. Rich admits he saw her browsing history, and tells her they should totally adopt a kid together. When Reade comes in to check on their progress, they realize the computers have been down way longer than Perkins promised, so Reade and Rich go to check on him.

While Patterson and Brianna work on a math problem to solve the password, Weller goes back in to talk to Akhtar, and tricks him into telling a lie, which proves that Akhtar is playing them. When they tell the team about Akhtar being in Vegas during a certain date, Brianna points out that a file downloaded around that date corresponds to an FBI file number, which after finding it the old school way, through actual files, is determined to be an arrest record for a terrorist named Pavel Marakov, who just so happens to be the guy masquerading as Decker. Patterson recognizes him as the guy who didn’t know what he was doing, and the team knows the building is in trouble just as Pavel breaks out Akhtar.

The team tracks them down, but Akhtar covers an unconscious Reade with flammable liquid, and after pouring more of the liquid between them and the team, Pavel sets the whole thing on fire. Zapata is able to save Reade, but Pavel and Akhtar get away.

Turns out, Pavel’s family was killed in a military attack, and Pavel wants revenge on the colonel who ordered the kill. Akhtar knows where the colonel is, and tells Pavel in exchange for freedom. Figuring out the connection, Weller, Jane, and Zapata head to the colonel’s house to protect her and her family, but Pavel shows up, cuts power to the house, and takes out two agents before Weller fights him off, and Jane and Zapata take him out.

Back at headquarters, the team debriefs, and Reade sends everyone home to get some rest. He thanks Brianna for her hard work, and tells her they should chat later in the week. She calls Dominic to say she’s out, but he threatens her parents, and Brianna is stuck. Reade and Zapata talk, and Zapata wishes Reade good luck on his upcoming non-date, which he promptly cancels. Rich and Patterson talk about her adoption application again, and Rich tells Patterson he filled out the form for her. All she has to do is hit send. She initially refuses, but after getting a video call from Weller’s daughter, she relents and sends it.

The cliffhanger of the episode belongs to Brianna, who breaks into Jane and Weller’s apartment after they leave for the zoo, and steals something from their safe.

Application Anxiety

I enjoyed this episode. Overall, I felt like it was written to start winding down the series in case there wasn’t a season five. All of a sudden, various members of our team are thinking about their lives outside of the job, which is something they haven’t really done as of yet. Those storylines however, created a good episode by focusing a lot on the personal lives of our team. Every week we see them fight the bad guys, but it’s rare that we get to see what they’re thinking about outside of crises. None of us had any inkling that Patterson was thinking about adopting, but it was great to see, and even better to see how close of friends she and Rich are that he filled out the application for her, and convinced her to send it. (Did you notice in the name field, he only put “Patterson”?) Also, this whole storyline with Rich insisting they should adopt together is hysterical, and interestingly enough, Patterson was only half-hearted in her denials of this potential situation. Maybe some extra foreshadowing to add to her dad’s comments about her and Rich? Regardless, any kid who could learn from those two would be unstoppable in the computer world.

Additionally, Weller and Jane talking about the future was also good to see. It’s clear that they’re planning to step away from the FBI sooner rather than later, and are already starting to plan.

Finally, the Dominic storyline took a backseat this week, but inevitably, whatever he had Brianna steal for him will help launch Helios, and will cause the team a lot of problems during the final episodes of the season. Until next week!