BLINDSPOT RECAP: “Ghost Train”

BLINDSPOT — “Ghost Train” Episode 508 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller — (Photo by: Warner Brothers/NBC)

BLINDSPOT RECAP: “GHOST TRAIN”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Another Week, Another Loss

Last week on Blindspot, the team got closer to Madeline as they found, and shut down her main source of Zip. Even better, they managed to get a tracker on one of her backup supply shipments so they could track where it was going.

Unfortunately, Madeline was able to find Allie, and force her to do a press conference to plead for the team to turn themselves in. While it seems as though Allie knows what she’s doing, she’s still under Madeline’s control. She did however, get a signal out to not only the team, but Keaton, who is the one sending the team the tattoo messages.

A Crippling Defeat

Tonight’s episode, “Ghost Train,” starts with Madeline walking out of a room as a man is getting beaten. She flashes back to all of the people she’s killed over the years, and appears to feel guilty, but when Ivy breaks through her thoughts and says that this beating is a waste of time, Madeline disagrees.

In the bunker, Weller is still looking at the video of Allie’s press conference, and her code movement confuses him, because he’s not sure what mission she would be talking about. Patterson calls Weller and Jane over, and tells them that the Zip they’re tracking is on the move again. Rich then alerts the team he also has information – a bunch of newspaper ads in papers throughout the country contain one of Jane’s tattoos, so they know it must be a message.

At headquarters, Afreen is starting to move things around in the lab to her liking, and Weitz comes in to ask for help. Since Ivy and Madeline are both out of the office, he wants to use FBI technology to hack into Shirley’s computer to see who else they’re blackmailing.

Weller and Zapata talk about Allie’s code, and Weller thinks that she’s working with someone. Zapata agrees that the timing works out, so it’s a possibility. Rich and Patterson tell them that they’ve hacked into a Russian satellite and can see the Zip on a boat headed for America. Patterson also says she’s decoded part of the tattoo which leads to an FTP site, but she can’t get in as of yet. She can however, figure out where the messages are coming from, and it’s in Malta. The only person they know in Malta? Keaton. So, Zapata offers to go. To keep in contact with the team, Patterson gives her a covert virtua pet which is actually a communications device.

With Zapata on her way, Patterson still can’t figure out the FTP puzzle, but Rich tells them that a friend of his has an untraceable cargo plane going to the East Coast. Weller and Jane decide to go, so Patterson gives them the same virtua pets. Jane realizes that the team is kind of like Patterson’s own virtua pets – she pushes buttons to keep them alive.

Just as Zapata arrives in Malta, Madeline receives a call from an ally at Interpol who sends her a surveillance photo of Zapata. At Keaton’s, Zapata learns that Allie set up the whole task force, and brought in Boston as well. Keaton asks her how she’s doing after Reade, and the question makes her pause. She keeps talking though, and tells him about the movement of the Zip, which he zeros in on, asking her to talk more about the tracker. That again makes her pause, and she notices his laptop camera is on, and knows he’s working for Madeline. Keaton gets his gun out faster, and tells her that they had been helping, but Madeline found him and took his family – and he was the man being beaten. Zapata pleads for him to work with her, but Madeline comes in the front door. Keaton turns to fire at Madeline, but misses, and Madeline’s bodyguards take him out.

At about that time, while still frustrated with the puzzle, Patterson suddenly comes to the horrible realization that the puzzle is a trap. She quickly starts unplugging everything, telling Rich she led Madeline right to them. They start packing everything up that they can, and Rich tells her he’s rigged everything to blow up as soon as they’re clear. At that moment, they get a ping that the elevator has stalled – meaning Weller and Jane are still in the bunker, so Patterson sends them an alert that they’ve been burned.

As Rich and Patterson work on getting out a backdoor, Patterson starts spiraling, saying it’s all her fault. Rich tells her that he’s always been in awe of her genius, and knows they’ll take down Madeline because Patterson is the smartest person in the room. They get through the backdoor, but people are coming that way, so they double back. They enter another room where Patterson says there’s a tunnel to the surface. Unfortunately, when they press the trigger for Rich’s bombs, nothing happens, and they figure Ivy is blocking their signal. That means that they need to re-engineer the explosive to be set to a timer instead.

Meanwhile, the elevator starts moving, and the door opens to three cops. Weller and Jane can’t do anything, because they won’t kill cops, and know it’s a trap, but there’s nothing they can do. They exit the elevator, and Ivy handcuffs them and takes them to an armored car.

In Malta, Madeline tells Zapata that she knows about the bunker, and also knows about everyone who has been helping them, and wants to know if there are others. She ties Zapata to a chair, and Zapata starts asking if destroying her family was worth it to Madeline. Madeline sends her bodyguards out, and when she gets close enough, Zapata flips her chair to escape, and almost manages to choke Madeline, but is stopped by Madeline’s bodyguards.

Back at the bunker, Rich gives Patterson a little extra time with the detonator by building the latte machine into a small bomb that takes out two men. He races back to Patterson, and they head out. They’re quickly met by two more of Ivy’s men. Rich is pistol whipped and held against a wall, and Patterson runs back into the server room to hide from the gunfire. She watches as the timer counts down to zero, and runs to the door as it closes in front of her. As Rich watches, the bomb goes off with her in the room.

Sitting in the truck, Jane and Weller discuss what’s going to happen. Weller feels confident that if Zapata, Rich, and Patterson are out there, they’ll be just fine. But then the doors open, and Rich is tossed in. They frantically ask where Patterson is, and the realization hits that they’ll never see her again.

In New York, Afreen and Weitz find files of all the people Madeline has been blackmailing, and Afreen corrupts the files, rendering them useless. Weitz takes the opportunity to run, but as he’s on his way out, the elevator doors open to reveal the team. Madeline steps out and congratulates him on the arrest of the century. She then goes into a press conference to announce the capture of the team, as each member is brought into an interrogation room.

Remembering Patterson

Wow. I have so many thoughts after this episode, and I have to be honest, it’s hard to write them down. I don’t think it’s any question that my favorite character from day one has been Patterson. Sure, Rich has wormed his way into my heart, but mainly, it was because of his interactions with Patterson. Without a doubt, she’s the heart of the team – of the show – and I’m not sure how this can end without her. I want to believe that she somehow made it out of that server room, but I just don’t see how. I want to say, well, the whole team is in custody, and there’s no way they’re going to end the series with the team in custody, right? So that has to mean that someone gets them out, right? And if Patterson survived, she could be that someone, right? Maybe she gets Boston and Allie to help now that Madeline isn’t keeping an eye on them? But then logically, how would she have gotten out? This one hurts, guys. It really hurts.

Next week, we get two episodes, which are the final two before the series finale, so hopefully we see a ray of hope for our team. Until then!