BLINDSPOT Recap “Droll Autumn, Unmutual Lord”

By Pauline Perenack

Exploding Basketballs

Last week, Blindspot returned with a bang as all of the questions we were given in the fall finale were immediately answered.

Patterson was shot by Borden, and brought to a very alive Shepherd to be tortured, but was saved by her team. Borden proved to be a capable adversary, and kept Weller alive to ensure Sandstorm’s future plans would remain intact. Nas was almost ousted by Agent Pellington, who also attempted to take Roman into custody, but both were saved by a last ditch effort by Weller.

Finally, Patterson discovered a tattoo was left off of Jane’s body that was originally planned, and the mystery was opened as to what the tattoo meant. Let’s recap this week’s episode to see what we learned.

Family Ties

Tonight’s episode, “Droll Autumn, Unmutual Lord” starts out much slower than last week’s episode, and begins with Roman trying to remember things. It then catches us up on our main characters, with Nas waiting on her contact at Sandstorm, Weller missing another doctor appointment for his baby, Zapata welcoming Reade back to work, and Patterson refusing to take any time off work to recover from being tortured.

The case of the week is revealed as we see several criminals arriving in a shipping container to a dock at the Red Hook terminal. The number of the shipping container is what ties this criminal activity to a potential case for our team, as Patterson finds a connection between two of Jane’s tattoos, which translates to that number. Once the location of the shipping container is found, Patterson goes back through the security cameras in the area, and determines that one of the criminals is Anton Stepulov, who happens to be a member of the same terrorist organization the team went up against in the first season.

After searching the container and only finding trace evidence of explosive devices, the team is able to trace a $250,000 transfer to a woman named Arlene Turner. They immediately bring her in for questioning, but she explains that the money was a life insurance payout from her brother’s death. However, after admitting she never saw her brother’s body, Weller immediately assumes the brother is being used by the terrorists as a suicide bomber.

Patterson finds the car Stepulov was using, and sends the team to intercept. Once they do, Agent Keaton, the CIA officer who tortured Jane, gets out of the car with Stepulov, and explains that Stepulov is a guest of the CIA. They’ve struck a deal that in exchange for Stepulov’s son receiving a heart transplant, Stepulov was going to give the CIA intel on possible terrorist attacks – one of which happened to be scheduled for that very evening.

Back at Headquarters, Nas brings in Dr. Karen Sun to help Roman retrieve his memories, and while Roman initially refuses to participate in the sessions, he eventually recalls another memory – of him as a young boy in the orphanage, killing another child. After pulling that memory, Dr. Sun explains to Nas and Jane that she believes Roman’s capacity for empathy and love has been destroyed, and having him recall any more memories is only going to be detrimental to him. As such, the safest place for him is in a mental hospital.

Jane meanwhile, has a heart to heart with Stepulov as they all wait on word of his son’s surgery. She agrees with Stepulov about his hatred of Keaton, and listens as Stepulov explains that the worst thing for a parent is to lose a child. Unsurprisingly, Jane is soon called out of the room, to find out Stepulov’s son died on the operating table. Knowing they’ve now lost their leverage in getting intel on the evening’s proposed attack, Weller and Keaton disagree about what to tell Stepulov, with Weller finally admitting the truth. Stepulov of course tells the team that the bombing will go as planned, and the team is forced into action.

Patterson is able to crack Stepulov’s phone, and finds an encoded text message. While she can’t decipher what it says, she is able to determine the location of phone to which it was sent. The team races over, and after splitting up, Weller sees a man loading racks of basketballs into a truck. As Weller tries to get closer, the man sets off a bomb attached to one of the racks. Turns out, the basketballs are filled with explosive gasses, and the team tries to determine what major basketball event was happening in the city that evening. As luck would have it, Keaton’s daughter, Erin, was playing in a basketball tournament, and the team realizes she’s the target – a perfect revenge for Stepulov if his son were to die.

Before the team can make it to the tournament, Keaton texts an agent he has watching Erin to get her out of the building, but they are ambushed by members of Stepulov’s team, and the agent is killed. Erin escapes, but is being chased by the criminals. Once the team arrives, Reade and Zapata find the explosive basketballs, and are able to disarm them with help from Patterson, who shuts down the cell phone towers in the area. Keaton and Weller find Erin, but it’s Jane who comes to the rescue, and takes down the terrorist. Keaton is eternally grateful, but Jane is having none of it.

With the episode winding down, Patterson and Jane discuss Roman. Patterson admits that even though she’s a true believer in science, she also believes that since Weller was able to bring out the best in Jane, Jane will be able to do the same for Roman. Reade and Zapata meanwhile, go out for a drink to put the awkwardness of last week’s kiss behind them. But as cool as Zapata tries to play the whole thing, it seems as though she definitely has feelings for her partner. At the same time, Weller is facing his own relationship woes as Allie admits she’s going to take a job in Colorado, essentially meaning he will never see his child.

The episode closes with Patterson solving the mysterious leopard tattoo. Turns out, Roman’s obsession with sugar cubes was him actually playing a game called Mancala, and the spots on the leopard tattoo contained a Mancala pattern. Patterson decoded the pattern, which leads to the Social Security number of a member of the Viper Kings biker gang, Kate Jarrett. While looking for more information on Jarrett, Patterson finds a picture of the woman, and standing next to her, Roman.

The Viper Kings

After last week’s heart pounding action, this week seemed to be a bit of a letdown, made even more pronounced by the fact that the Sandstorm arc seemed to have been almost completely forgotten. Family was definitely the theme however, running through the storylines of pretty much every character this week, which made some things stand out. First, it almost seems as though the CIA is going to eventually have a bigger role in the show – Keaton especially. Because Jane saved his daughter, it would make sense for him to try to make amends. And, he might do so by providing information on Sandstorm that as of yet, is only in the hands of the CIA.

Second, while the prospect of Zeade (Reade and Zapata) is rapidly increasing, especially after how much Zapata seemed to secretly want to be with Reade, the return of Jeller is definitely happening. Jane and Weller shared a few heart to heart conversations this week, and as I mentioned last week, having Nas taken out of the field, suddenly has Nas becoming more out of sight, out of mind for Weller. This gives Jane the green light to get closer, especially with Allie now moving to Colorado, effectively removing the awkward Weller baby storyline.

Finally, the most mysterious storyline, is that of Roman. Will he ever be redeemed like Jane was through her help? Or has he been so entrenched in violence that he’ll never be able to escape that life? With a now solid connection to one of Jane’s tattoos – specifically the one Sandstorm chose to not use – begs the question of, was Sandstorm trying to hide Roman away? Was that why Oscar was Jane’s handler?

Until next week!