BLINDSPOT Recap: “Frequently Recurring Struggle For Existence”

BLINDSPOT — “Frequently Recurring Struggle For Existence” Episode 415 — Pictured: Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC/Warner Brothers)

BLINDSPOT RECAP: “FREQUENTLY RECURRING STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Strands of Sandstorm

Last week on Blindspot we got to take a peek into the past as the team worked to solve a serial bombing case that connected to one they had dealt with a couple of years prior. They managed to solve the case, but it dug up some dirt on Weitz, who then proceeded to blackmail Weller, ensuring that Weller would never expose Weitz’s misdeeds, and in turn, Weitz would never talk about Jane and her past. Additionally, Zapata was welcomed back to the team, and Patterson was able to solve Shepherd’s final puzzle.

Painful Memories

Tonight’s episode, “Frequently Recurring Struggle for Existence” begins with an armored truck being robbed. The thieves only take one box however, which featured a serial number that matched the one on their instructions.

Meanwhile, at headquarters, Rich is showing the team a board game he’s created called Tattoo Squad. It’s a multilevel game which features each member of the team as a character, and they work together to solve tattoo cases. Rich even made molds of each of them, but didn’t do great with Patterson’s because he’s still mad she didn’t invite him to one of her game nights. However, they can’t spend too much time on the game because Patterson receives an alert that calls her, Jane, and Weller away.

Turns out, the FBI has cleared out the Sandstorm hideout that Shepherd’s key opened, and Patterson asks if Jane will be ok going through everything. Jane is worried that Shepherd will somehow play a trick on her even from beyond the grave, but Weller convinces her that isn’t true. However, when she sees the items in the room, Jane is overwhelmed with memories of what she did as Remi, and has to leave.

Patterson is then alerted that a tattoo has hit. One of Jane’s tattoos contains a serial number, which matches the stolen goods from the armored truck. The truck is owned by a company named SilverMark, who the FBI has been keeping tabs on, so they know the company won’t be of any help with what was stolen. As such, Rich and Patterson dive back into the tattoo, and are eventually able to find puzzle pieces in the tattoo which they match with numbers on the periodic table. This helps them to determine that the stolen case from the armored truck contained plutonium.

With this discovery, the team brings in a weapons specialist named Dave Kirkpatrick. With his help, Rich and Patterson figure the robbery was likely an inside job, and narrow in on an employee of SilverMark who just so happens to be Greta Smalls, an arms dealer Dave has been looking for. Assuming Greta is going to sell the plutonium, Rich gets them into a corner of the dark web where the deal is about to go down, but Greta isn’t selling – she’s buying, and she’s buying a device that will enable her to weaponize the plutonium.

Meanwhile, Keaton has woken up from his coma, and when Reade and Zapata go to visit him, he says he’s more than willing to vouch for Zapata. And better yet, he has a USB device in his apartment that will prove her innocence as it contains detailed records of what he asked her to do. Zapata retrieves it, and tells Reade that she needs to work hard to clear their names so that lives won’t be destroyed.

With the sale of a dangerous device imminent, the team needs a plan, and Rich details one out, using his game board to demonstrate. Essentially, Patterson would pose as Greta to buy the device, Dave would deactivate it, and then switch it out with the decoy that Jane and Weller have as they meet with the real Greta. Everything goes to plan, even though Dave takes longer than everyone would like to deactivate the device, and the switch is made. However, since Dave had to deactivate the tracking on the device as well, the team is left with no way to track where Greta is hiding the plutonium. Fortunately however, Greta is working with a man from Remi’s past, Cameron Gibbs, who idolized Remi, crediting her for helping him become who he is today, so he readily agrees to have Jane tag along on the rest of his mission when she asks.

Weller stays with Greta, and as Cameron and Jane walk down the hotel hallway, he pushes her into a closet, and locks her in, telling her that the plan was to kill whoever sold the device, but he could never kill her. Jane warns Weller about Greta, and after she gets out of the closet, she and an FBI team help Weller take down Greta. They then question Greta about Cameron’s intent with the bomb, but she doesn’t really know anything.

Rich is able to find a military convention that’s happening later, and they assume that’s what Cameron will target since he hates the military due to them dishonorably discharging him. Jane and Weller race to intercept, and Jane finds Cameron in a service tunnel, where he’s already built a bomb with the plutonium. While in a standoff, she pleads with him to not blow the bomb, and admits it was her who ruined his life, and not the army. Enraged, Cameron tells Jane he wants her to see everyone die, and just before he presses the trigger, Weller shoots him in the back.

As the episode comes to a close, Jane breaks down to Weller that she can’t keep fighting her past, Zapata and Reade visit Keaton again, where Zapata tells him she will work to clear both their names, and Rich and Patterson play Rich’s game, which Patterson admits is pretty impressive. As they play, they get a notice that they finally have access to the security footage of the Sandstorm warehouse. Immediately, they find a video of someone entering the warehouse, and the timestamp has the footage being captured right before the FBI raided the place, leaving Rich and Patterson wondering who it could be, and what the connection to Sandstorm is.

Bring on Tattoo Squad!

This episode was slightly better than last week’s, but still hasn’t hit the high bar set by other episodes this season. For some reason the writers felt the need to give comedic one-liners to someone other than Patterson or Rich, and chose the character of Dave to be that person. However, he came off as more annoying than anything, and the only reason why it semi worked was because of the brilliant-as-always Ashley Johnson who was paired with him for most of the mission.

Zapata’s storyline was almost non-existent this week, which is frustrating since she’s finally back on the team, yet once again, not having anything to do with the case they’re working on.

While Madeline is apparently still in hiding with any new developments on the HCI storyline, it seems as though Sandstorm is back since someone out there knew about the hideout. Additionally, these memories of Remi that Jane is now forced to deal with could potentially set up a scenario where Jane asks to get zip poisoning again so she can have those memories once again erased. She’s having a tough time coming to terms with what she once did, and there’s going to have to be some sort of resolution to this.

Finally though, when do you think NBC will start selling Rich’s board game? I’d buy one, and would definitely always play as Rich. Well, maybe Patterson too.

Until next week!