BLINDSPOT “Enemy Bag of Tricks” Review

BLINDSPOT — “Enemy Bag of Tricks” Episode 302 — Pictured: (l-r) Rob Brown as Edgar Reade, Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Jordan Johnson-Hinds as Stuart, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata — (Photo by: David Geisbrecht/NBC/Warner Bros)

BLINDSPOT “ENEMY BAG OF TRICKS” REVIEW

BY PAULINE PERENACK

A Nuclear Threat

Last week we welcomed the long awaited return of Blindspot, and we were quickly brought up to speed as to what happened during the missing two years we were left pondering at the end of Season Two. Weller and Jane had gotten married and moved to Colorado, but their perfect life was soon disrupted when a bounty was placed on Jane’s head for taking down Sandstorm. To save Weller, Jane ran, leaving Weller to spend his time and money looking for her. Meanwhile the rest of the team also moved forward with their lives. Reade took over Weller’s job, Zapata joined the CIA, Patterson moved to California to develop apps, and not to be outdone, Rich Dotcom joined the FBI.

The team reunites once Weller tracks down Jane and it’s discovered that she has new tattoos added to her body. However, everyone on the team has secrets they want kept from one another, and Roman is determined to make life hell for Weller and Jane.

So what new aspects of our team’s past will next be uncovered? Let’s recap this week’s episode to find out.

Secrets Revealed

Tonight’s episode, “Enemy Bag of Tricks” begins with a couple of hunters discussing recent big kills, when they come upon a heavily armed man who definitely doesn’t want them there. When the two refuse to leave, the man’s hidden team pop up and shoot the hunters.

The episode then quickly shifts to a very domestic Jeller scene as Weller cooks breakfast for Jane. Only problem is, Jane is apparently now a vegan, showing a small change that happened while she was gone. Weller asks if there are any other secrets she’s hiding, and while she denies it, we all know that she, as well as the rest of the team, has many.

Back at Headquarters, Patterson is having a tough time working with Stuart, who is much more confident than he used to be, but Weller breaks up the bickering with a request to solve a tattoo. Turns out, it’s one that Roman requested to be solved during their brief meeting the previous night. Roman makes sure to point out to Weller that he’s running the show with these tattoos, and will tell Weller when and which tattoo to solve. As such, the first one points the team to a location in Upstate New York.

The team heads out to search the area, and after spending a day finding nothing, Reade orders everyone to pack it in. Weller and Jane hesitate, and while they discuss whether or not this was the correct location, a falling satellite streaks across the night sky. As the team rushes to the crash location, they’re ambushed by the mercenaries from the beginning of the episode, and helplessly watch as the newcomers steal something from the satellite and get away.

As Patterson and Stuart argue over the satellite that is now sitting in their lab, Reade pulls Weller aside and asks if there’s anything to tell since it all seems way too coincidental that Weller’s tattoo hunch played off. Weller keeps his meeting with Roman away from Reade however, meaning yet another secret is being kept from the team.

Speaking of Roman, he’s spending his time in Sydney, Australia at a PTSD support group meeting. Turns out he’s been targeting a member of the group, Tom, whose friend from the military killed himself, and left millions of dollars to Tom. When Tom questions why he told Roman about the money, Roman reveals he had drugged him, and was going to kill him before taking the money.

At Headquarters, the team has brought in the company who owns the satellite that crashed. However, after some questioning, they discover the company is actually a front for the Department of Defense, and the satellite is a critical part of a missile defense shield. Even more worrying is that the mercenaries stole a black box from the satellite that can take down the entire shield, leaving the country exposed to an attack. Zapata returns from a call with Keaton at the CIA, and informs the team that North Korea is prepping a nuclear missile launch, so the mercenaries likely stole the box to sell to the North Koreans.

Stuart meanwhile, learns of the bodies of the two hunters, which were in the area of the satellite crash. Even more fortuitous is that there were cameras in the area which captured the face of one of the mercenaries. There is no need for identification however, as Jane recognizes the mercenary. Turns out, during her time away from the team, she was part of a semi-shady group who rescued kidnapped people for money, and the mercenary, a man named Dwire Lee, was one of the people she worked with. Weller is not impressed with this secret of Jane’s, but there isn’t time to dwell, because the team needs to bring Dwire in for questioning.

They quickly pinpoint his location, bring him in, and recover the black box. The DoD employees, Nakheel and Marcy set to work on the black box, and Reade takes a turn at questioning Dwire about his employers. He refuses to say anything of importance, but does point out that he was only caught because his employers didn’t show up on time, which could have only occurred if they were somehow tipped off by someone in the FBI.

After eliminating all of the obvious potential leaks, Reade focuses in on the DoD employees. Nakheel was the first focus since his access badge had been used the night before to get into the satellite network, but he had been in the hospital all night. This meant the leak was Marcy, who at that very moment was killing her two FBI escorts, and on her way to meet up with the North Koreans.

Nakheel manages to point the team to where Marcy might be, the River Point Museum. The team raids the building, and Weller and Jane find themselves in a shootout with the North Koreans after discovering Marcy’s body. With some help from Reade and Zapata, Weller and Jane take out the group, and stop the deactivation of the missile defense system.

With the mission complete, Reade apologizes to everyone for not trusting their abilities to do their job, and the team goes their separate ways for the night. Jane and Weller spend the night in, and start breaking down the secrets between them as Jane shows him the money she’s been hiding. Zapata learns one of Reade’s secrets in the form of his live-in girlfriend when she drops by for drinks.

Patterson has the biggest shock of the evening however, when she goes to Stuart’s apartment to apologize for being so hard on him, and finds his door ajar. With her gun drawn, she enters the apartment to find it trashed, and Stuart dead.

Peak Duplicity

Once again Blindspot comes out swinging. While this episode wasn’t quite as thrilling as the premiere, it held its own. The only problem was that it packed in way too much information about the case of the week while dropping a ton of hints about the members of our team — all without fully exploring those hints. So much has happened to these people since we’ve last seen them, and those are the stories we should be exploring over focusing on the tattoos. Hopefully the writers are teasing us with a huge build up for a couple of episodes that focus on where these characters have been, and what they’re hiding.

Another interesting thread during tonight’s episode, which will clearly be pulled later on, is the tattoo which fascinated Stuart. Throughout the episode, he was constantly obsessing over something that he couldn’t quite figure out, but clearly, he found something, which cost him his life. What was the tattoo? What did he discover? Was it Roman who killed him? Or is there someone else out there that doesn’t want our team solving these clues?

And speaking of Roman, what is he doing with Tom’s money? It seems like he has a much bigger plan than just seeking revenge on Weller and Jane, so it will be interesting to see what he has in mind.

Next week promises a traitor in the ranks of the FBI, and narrows it down to Jane, Zapata, or Patterson. Since it also marks the return of Rich Dotcom, I’m assuming Patterson will be the one with the target on her back, and I’m betting it has something to do with whatever her relationship was with Rich during our time away from the team. She’s much less naïve than she was, so something happened to harden her. Guess we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out. Until next week!