BLINDSPOT Mid-Season Finale Review

By Pauline Perenack

And the mole is…[SPOILER ALERT]

Unbelievably enough, we’re already at the fall finale of Blindspot, and so far this season, we’ve been on a wild ride. Jane has escaped torture at the hands of the CIA, we’ve learned that her real name is Remi, and she is related to those who are in charge of the mysterious group, Sandstorm.

As such, she’s had to play a double agent, trying her best to fit into the world of Sandstorm, while regaining the trust of her FBI team. We’ve been introduced to new characters, and new tattoos, and all of that has led us to the ultimate question – what is Sandstorm’s Phase Two?

Let’s recap what happened in the explosive finale tonight, and what questions we’re left with until 2017.

Who Will Survive

Tonight’s episode, “Why Let Cooler Pasture Deform” is easily the best of season two, even surpassing the fan favorite Rich Dotcom episode. Its ability to weave together the storylines of the season with gripping drama made it impossible to look away. The episode begins with Roman bringing Jane to the Sandstorm compound – even allowing her to see her surroundings this time – where he tells her that in 12 hours, Phase Two will be over, and everything will change. Worried about the implications of that, Jane uses Roman’s phone to send pictures of maps and files she finds to Patterson, and calls the FBI team to inform them of the situation.

At headquarters, the team figures out that Sandstorm’s plan for Phase Two is to blow up several power generators, which would create electrical fires across the country, and plunge America back into the Dark Ages. Knowing there’s no way they could stop each bombing, Nas tells the team they must find Sandstorm’s compound, and attack from there. With the few details Jane was able to relay about her location, Patterson is able to pinpoint an isolated farm that’s registered to a deceased individual.

As the team is getting ready to head out, Weller receives a call from Ally’s boyfriend that she’s in the hospital after being in a car wreck. Not knowing the fate of his baby, Weller has to split from the team, leaving Nas in charge. Meanwhile, Jane is sitting with Roman, who drugs her before she can even begin to participate in Phase Two. When she wakes up, she discovers she’s been tied to a chair by Shepherd, and is alone with her mother and brother. Shepherd confronts Jane, and tells her she knows Jane has kept loyal to the FBI, and that she’s been keeping tabs on her through her mole – who turns out to be Dr. Borden.

Once the bomb is dropped about Borden’s true allegiances, we see how he ended up with Sandstorm. Turns out, while working with Doctors without Borders, he and his wife were the ones who saved Jane after the US government took out the rest of her Orion team. The government learned Jane was still alive, and bombed the entire village and medical facility in hopes of killing her. However, she was out with Borden working on her physical therapy, and they survived the attack. With their lives at stake, she convinces him to run, and tells him of her family back in America who were working to set things right.

Back in present time, Jane questions Shepherd as to when she knew Jane was loyal to the FBI. Turns out, Borden told Shepherd about the data transfer to Patterson, but she had her suspicions all along.

Meanwhile, Weller arrives at the hospital to find out the call about Ally was a fake-out to split him from the team, who were at the same time, making their way to the compound. Once there, they discover their comms aren’t working. Nas, however, tells the team to keep going, not realizing they’re walking into a trap that Shepherd has carefully planned out, and is now forcing Jane to watch over surveillance cameras. Watching her team, Jane realizes Weller is not amongst them, and Shepherd lets Jane know that they have something else planned for him. As Nas and crew work their way through the building, Nas realizes it’s a trap, and gets most of the team out before the building explodes. However, she and Reade are trapped deep below the surface.

As the final act against Jane, Shepherd orders Roman to kill her. He can’t however, and turns the gun on Shepherd. It’s empty, and the family starts to fight in hand to hand combat. Jane and Roman come out on top, and she forces him to run, leaving Shepherd behind.

Weller finally arrives to the compound, and begins the search for his team. He finds Zapata first, and then digs down to free both Reade and Nas, getting them both out just before the ruptured gas lines explode.

At the hospital, Reade apologizes to Zapata, and tells her what really happened with Coach Jones – that he was there with Jones, and could have saved his life, but chose not to.

Borden meanwhile, is frantically packing up his apartment since he’s fully aware of the failure of Phase Two. Patterson comes to see him after only getting his voicemail throughout the day, and sees him wearing his wedding ring, which is the exact ring Jane remembered from the Orion attack, and had drawn for Patterson to investigate. With that clue, and spotting Borden’s gun, Patterson puts everything together, and draws her own gun, hoping to arrest Borden for the FBI.

The episode then ends with two cliff hangers. First, Jane is with Roman at the safe house he requested she bring him to, and he explains this is where she was tattooed, and had her memory wiped. He explains he’ll never be able to trust her again, but she says he can change, just as she had, and injects him with the memory wiping drug. Then, the action swings back to Patterson and Borden, who are fighting with each other, and suddenly a gunshot rings out, and both their eyes widen in surprise as the final credits roll.

Hostile Work Environments

So, way back in my recap of the second episode of the season, I put my bet on Dr. Borden as the mole within the FBI. Tonight, I feel vindicated as that prediction came true. However, I was not the only one who had that same prediction. As soon as the mole was revealed, about half of the fan base on Twitter were tweeting about how they had called it. (I was one of them.)

However, even more were upset about how poor Patterson again has had her heart broken, and I do believe that will be the final outcome, as there is no way Blindspot will kill off that particular fan favorite character. Also, the storyline of Patterson having to recover from two boyfriends being killed because of her will be very interesting to watch. She had a difficult time with David’s death, and as such, Borden’s will hit her that much harder, especially because of his betrayal.

The rest of our team seems to be on very solid ground with each other after this episode, and it looks as though the remainder of season two will have them leaning on each other for support. Like Reade said, they’re a team, and they live and die for each other. So finally, after being fractured for so long, they’ve finally grown back to the solid unit they once were.

The big complaint with tonight’s episode however, was the execution of Phase Two. All season, Sandstorm was set up as the big bad, yet they weren’t able to complete their mission. I’m assuming that Shepherd will escape however, and will spend the rest of season two tracking down Jane and Roman, and trying to finish what she started, which somehow includes Weller. And speaking of Jane and Roman, where will they fit in now? Jane could go back to the FBI, but she’s shown her loyalty to her brother, even telling him she’ll never leave him. There’s no way the FBI will take him in as well, will they? And how will his mind react to being wiped? Will he ever remember things as Jane has? Or will his mind be a blank slate? This situation could have the potential for a sleeper mole as he remembers things and ends up reporting back to Shepherd. And does Weller fit into Sandstorm’s plans?

Of course Blindspot left us hanging with questions, and we will all have to wait until January 4^th for the return of our show to get some answers. See you all back here after the holidays!