BLINDSPOT “Deductions” Review

BLINDSPOT — “Deductions” Episode 315 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: David Giesbrecht/NBC)

BLINDSPOT “DEDUCTIONS” REVIEW

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Saving Blake

Last week on Blindspot, Patterson found herself in her very own Groundhog Day loop as she fought for her life after being injured in an explosion. While trapped in the loop, she was able to work through the missing clues of the case the team was working on, which involved three marines who had been poisoned while on a top secret mission in Beijing.

Helping her out to solve the case, were people from her past she wronged, including David, Stuart, and Dr. Borden. When she came out of her medically induced coma, Patterson admitted to Zapata that she had a feeling Borden was still alive. As the episode came to an end, it turns out her hunch was correct – Borden was alive and well, and still seemingly running Sandstorm.

So will the team run into Borden? Will Roman be able to save Blake? Let’s recap tonight’s episode to find out.

CIA Secrets Run Deep

Tonight’s episode, “Deductions” starts with a flashback to a year ago. Remember Cade, who worked with Sandstorm but was granted freedom after helping out the FBI? Well, he’s shopping for diapers in some unspecified country, and having problems finding the exact ones his partner wants. When asking for help, two men approach him from behind, sedate him with a needle to his neck, put a hood over his head, and kidnap him.

Back in present day, Zapata is at Keaton’s house where they are burning evidence of a closed case in his fireplace. As they talk about the pros and cons of being undercover, Keaton receives a call that a CIA transport plane has crashed into the Hudson. Once they arrive on scene (and talk to the amazing Ron Rifkin), the black box is being pulled from the water, and Zapata notices that the plane has the name Valkyrie on it. She connects it to a tattoo of Jane’s that references “Ride of the Valkyries” and convinces Keaton she needs to go to the team about it while he deals with the black box.

Meanwhile, at Jane and Weller’s apartment, Avery is over for dinner, and it seems as though the relationship between them all is growing stronger. The mood shifts however, when they try to tell Avery about the information Nas gave them on Avery’s father. Later that night, Jane hears a noise, and when she goes to investigate, runs right into an armed Cade, who is there asking for help. Turns out, he was on the plane that crashed, and wants to trade his intel for the return of his family.

At headquarters, he lets the team know that there were three other prisoners on board, and someone crashed the plane on purpose. Patterson meanwhile, has figured out that the plane was built by a company of Crawford’s. Everyone turns on Keaton, but he says he had no idea of the connection between Crawford and the CIA. Needing Cade’s info to move forward on the case, Jane gives a new deal for him to sign. Once he completes it, they bring in his young son to him, but his son acts as though he’s never seen Cade in his life. Dejected by his son’s response to him, Cade admits he knew pretty much nothing about what happened with the plane. The only thing he knew for sure was that a woman approached him in the CIA black site in which he was being held, and offered him freedom in exchange for a job. The job was to attack a building in New York City. He agreed to the job, but took off after jumping from the plane with the others, because all he wanted was his freedom.

The team heads to the location where the other prisoners were to meet before the job, but don’t find anything. However, when looking through photos later, they notice there is an extra parachute. With this information, they determine the pilot was in on it, and since there are only so many CIA agents with the credentials to fill that role, they are able to zero in on Agent Quinn Bonita.

Turns out, Quinn’s husband also worked at the CIA, but was killed when an undercover mission went wrong, and the CIA denied all involvement. Seeking revenge, Quinn worked her way through the ranks, and put together her plan to take out those involved – including everyone at the New York undercover outpost.

As all of this is going on, Roman is unhappy that Crawford won’t pay the ransom money to get Blake back. Instead, Crawford wants to go with Jean-Paul’s plan to storm the nightclub, where Blake and Junior likely are being held. Sensing something is off, Roman asks Crawford to join the raid party. Once they arrive, they look in a room to see Blake and Junior tied up, but no one around. One of Jean-Paul’s team members remarks that it’s strange, and Roman agrees before killing them all. He rescues Blake and Junior, and makes up a story once back at Crawford’s mansion of a massive fight, and he being the only survivor.

Once Jean-Paul and Junior leave, Roman admits to Crawford he had figured it out that Crawford was the one who put together the kidnapping to get closer to Jean-Paul. Crawford is impressed with Roman, and jokingly threatens Roman’s life, since he knows Crawford’s secret, which instantly puts Roman on high alert, because with Crawford, anything is possible.

Meanwhile, Quinn has taken the CIA building, and is readying to kill everyone within, including Keaton, who happened to be there. However, the team had put together where the undercover outpost was, and arrived just in time to save everyone, and take out Quinn.

Back at headquarters, Zapata and Keaton argue as Keaton admits that Cade’s deal is a sham. However, as much as Zapata disagrees with the situation, she has a job to do, and goes to move Cade from the interrogation room. As she does, Cade figures out that something is wrong, and takes Zapata hostage, holding the sharp end of his handcuffs to her throat. The rest of the team goes into motion, and Jane takes Cade out with a single shot through a window.

The episode comes to an end with Avery breaking down in front of Jane and Weller as she learns the full truth of what her father may have done, and two comfort her. At the same, we see two men dumping the body of Avery’s father in the river.

Another Dead Body

I feel like this week’s episode was such a letdown after the amazing ride we were taken on last week. Once again, the tattoo case of the week held little interest, and the episode would have been better off without it, but I was glad to see Ron Rifkin back on my screen.

The highlights were definitely the side plots of the week – namely whatever is going on between Zapata and the CIA, and Roman. First, Zapata is starting to see more and more of the CIA’s secret projects turning up in Jane’s tattoos, which can only mean Roman knew of the CIA’s involvement with Crawford. And since Project Dragonfly came up again, it makes sense that this specific one will somehow tie a nice bow around whatever the CIA is up to with Crawford. It’ll be interesting to see why Roman is so invested in bringing this down, and how it will ultimately tie into whatever Sandstorm has been/is still up to.

Speaking of Roman, with his correct deduction of Crawford’s plan, he was able to not only further cement his relationship with Blake, but was able to fully secure his place in Crawford’s overall plan. However, it seems as though Crawford doesn’t trust Roman, and could turn on him at any time. And perhaps that time will be when Avery’s father’s body washes up on shore, which should throw a wrench into everything. Guess we’ll have to wait until next week to find out. Until then!