BLINDSPOT Recap “Draw O Caesar, Erase a Coward”

By Pauline Perenack

A Tattoo Solved by Rich Dotcom

Last week on Blindspot, viewers were treated with the highly anticipated return of Rich Dotcom. Once again, the character brought much-needed levity to an overall heavy season, and helped the team solve yet another tattoo case. His boyfriend, Boston, even got in on the action, joining Patterson in the field, creating another fun team to watch.

The episode also further tied Roman to the Taylor Shaw plotline, as it was revealed that he killed Taylor’s mother to ensure Jane could play the role of Taylor without being caught. Additionally, Reade seemed to be falling deeper and deeper into trouble as his drug usage increased. Can he climb his way out? Or will it only get worse? Let’s recap tonight’s episode to find out.

Roman in the Field

Tonight’s episode, “Draw O Caesar, Erase a Coward” almost completely ignores the Sandstorm plotline once again, and instead focuses on a single case of the week. The episode begins with Weller and Roman sparring. The two had the hope that the training would trigger a memory for Roman, just as it had for Jane when she first arrived, but instead seemed to do nothing. However, a different kind of lead for Sandstorm comes in as the phone left by Nas’ source starts ringing. She fortunately somehow knows the secret code, and a meeting is set up. Weller meanwhile, pulls Jane aside and tells her to be careful with her new boyfriend Oliver, because not much is known about him.

The team, minus Reade, who’s MIA and sleeping off a drug fueled night, meets to discuss the tattoo Rich Dotcom had solved for them. It’s the outline of a Continental coin, which was minted in 1776, and Rich had recognized it as the symbol used by a dark web courier named Lelantos. With this knowledge, Patterson is able to connect the tattoo to another one, which ultimately points to a prisoner named Marc Gelman, and a MediSpa.

In order to cover the most ground in the quickest time, Weller splits up the team, and decides to take Roman with him, hoping Roman’s memories will surface just as Jane’s had. The two of them go undercover to the MediSpa, while Jane and Zapata question Gelman. Unsurprisingly, Gelman says he knows nothing of what’s going on, so rather than continue with the dead end questioning, Zapata and Jane decide to check out an auction house that is connected to Lelantos.

Once at the warehouse, they speak to the owner, Marjory Ellis, who leads them to a backroom where she promises she has the Continental coins Jane asked for. Instead however, Jane and Zapata find themselves in a shootout, and Marjory is able to escape.

At the same time, Patterson further connects the tattoos, and discovers that whatever Lelantos is shipping, has ties to the Estevez Cartel. Reade shows up to work right at that moment, so she drags him along to meet up with a member of the Cartel, Pablo Gomez, to get more information. Pablo makes them as cops immediately, and runs. When Reade catches up with Pablo, he hesitates, giving Pablo time to pull a gun, and Reade is only saved by the quick shot of Patterson.

Weller and Roman meanwhile, have made it to the MediSpa, and soon learn that Lelantos is shipping people, who are being sold on the black market for their organs. Jane and Zapata send them an APB on Marjory, who just so happens to be coming in the front door of the Spa. Roman and Weller go to arrest her, but are ambushed by her men, and tased. They wake up in the back of a truck filled with the people being sold, and work together to try to get free.

Thankfully, the rest of the team is meeting at headquarters, and Jane is convinced Gelman knows more than he’s been letting on. Zapata quickly discovers Gelman was in a relationship with Marjory, and once her betrayal is pointed out, Gelman lets the team know about a group of Ukrainian buyers Marjory has worked with in the past. Racing out to the location of the sale, the team ambushes Marjory and her men, and saves Roman and Weller. Reade kills Marjory, and another case is solved.

Back at headquarters, Jane thinks twice about Oliver and has Zapata run a background check on him. Turns out, he changed his name 12 years ago, and when she asks him about it later that evening on a date, he instantly gets defensive and leaves. Nas meanwhile, has gone to the drop site to meet with her Sandstorm contact. There, she finds a USB drive, and when she gets back in her car to plug it into her computer, she’s choked out by an unseen assailant.

Who is Oliver?

One of the main difficulties with tonight’s episode was the attempt to show the points of view of each of the pairings as they worked through their respective parts of the mission. Blindspot has done something similar with this changing point of view in the past, but was much more successful in those attempts. Tonight just seemed confusing at times, and there were so many plot points to keep tabs on, it was difficult to follow when and where things were happening.

It’s also disappointing to see yet another episode that fails to push the Sandstorm storyline along. Presumably, it’s Borden who has made sure Nas is taken out, because he knew of her deep involvement with the organization. He’s also smart enough to know that Nas must have had someone on the inside of Sandstorm, and therefore needs to be removed from the equation.

Regardless of these shortfalls, tonight’s episode did have its highlights, and those came in the form of two pairings we haven’t really seen yet in Blindspot – Jane and Zapata, and Patterson and Reade. Zapata has never been a fan of Jane, yet tonight, the two had a great bonding scene as they went out in the field together, and Jane trusts Zapata enough to disclose things about her personal life. This trust in Zapata enables the discovery that there’s something off about Oliver. It seems unlikely he’s part of Sandstorm, but inevitably he’s connected to this all somehow, especially since he was so defensive about changing his name.

Then there was Reade and Patterson. Both characters have been spiraling into their own depths of despair over the past few episodes, but Patterson has seemingly found a way out of hers by talking to Dr. Sun. She initially suggests to Reade he should talk to Dr. Sun as well, but he declines. Later, Patterson confronts Reade about his drug use, which she picked up on because, as it turns out, she has an addict brother, and knows the signs. He pushes her away however, but knowing how much Patterson cares for her teammates, she will undoubtedly talk to Weller about it, which will set off a confrontation that could tear the team apart. However, we’ll have to wait until March 22 to find out. Until then!