BLINDSPOT Recap: “I Came to Sleigh”

BLINDSPOT — “I Came to Sleigh” Episode 501 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/Warner Brothers/NBC)

Blindspot Recap “I Came to Sleigh” 

By Pauline Perenack

The Beginning of the End

Well, Blindspotters? This is it. After a very long hiatus, we’ve made it to the final season. Tonight’s episode comes with mixed reactions. While I’m a little sad to see it here, at the same time, I’m so excited it is, so we all can finally see the aftermath of last season’s finale.

And in case you can’t remember what happened in the finale? The team flew to Iceland in hopes of stopping Madeline. However, while the team was desperately trying to get everything back on track, Madeline was working hard to sully their names. In addition, she was able to effectively take over the FBI by dropping Nash into the role of Director of National Intelligence. With all of her pieces in place, she had Nash order an attack on the team, resulting in their safe house blowing up – with everyone minus Jane, inside.

One Member Down

Tonight’s episode, “I Came To Sleigh” starts off with a mix of what we previously saw in last season’s finale, and some new scenes. We see Jane head out for the first watch, while Reade and Zapata find a quiet space to discuss their mutual attraction and get down to business.

Back at headquarters, Rich is taken away by Nash to “The Boat,” Madeline is focused on launching the drone attack on our team, and Afreen slips Weitz information on where the team is currently located. Weitz leaves the drone strike discussion, and rushes to call someone on the team to warn them of the imminent strike, which Jane sees from her watch outside.

We then jump to two months later. A mystery person walks through Times Square, and sets off a virus to the screens, which begin to show a version of Jane’s blackbird tattoo. At headquarters, Madeline is angry about this latest development, and assumes it’s a message from the team. Weitz tries to make her believe it’s someone sending a message to the team, but Madeline assumes it’s the team since they escaped. Weitz mutters under his breath that “not everyone” escaped – our first clue that we’re about to find out some devastating news.

As Weitz and Madeline talk, we learn that she has increased her civilian role at the FBI to Director of Federal Law Enforcement, which essentially means she’s in charge of the FBI since she has Weitz blackmailed.

The story then shifts to Jane hiding in a cargo truck. She receives a text message with coordinates, and she’s off to Prague. Once at an underground bunker, she is reunited with the team – minus Reade. While it’s not explicitly said at this moment, it’s clear that Reade did not make it out of the safe house. Patterson says she rounded up the team because it was an emergency, and shows them the video of the screens in Times Square. After quickly solving the tattoo clue, Patterson opens a website containing a memo in a foreign language. Jane is easily able to read it, and determines that Rich is being held at a Black Site and is being transferred tonight to North Korea. Zapata lets the team know she knows what site Rich is at, The Boat, and Patterson gets to work on getting more information.

BLINDSPOT — “I Came to Sleigh” Episode 501 — Pictured: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Madeline Burke — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/Warner Brothers/NBC)

Weller and Jane take the time to reconnect before Patterson finds another lead, but don’t get very far before being interrupted. Patterson tells the team that their old foe Shohid Akhtar has information about The Boat, and sends Jane and Weller off to meet with him in Berlin. Once there, Akhtar says he’ll help them because he hates the CIA even more than he hates Rich Dotcom, and gives them blueprints to the ship in exchange for a promise they’ll kill a specific Agent who killed his brother, and who is currently torturing Rich. Jane agrees, but then has to stay behind when Akhtar says he wants her there to guarantee Weller will go through with the deal.

Weller meets back with the team, and they put together a solid plan to break out Rich. The plan of course falls apart, but they’re still able to get in, get Rich, and get out, but not before Weller disables a tracker in Rich by using a taser, and ultimately chopping off the Agent’s hand to bring to Akhtar.

At headquarters, Weitz and Afreen are doing everything they can to keep Madeline off the trail of the team, but Madeline quickly grows weary of the lack of progress, and brings in her own “team.” Turns out, the team is a group of mercenaries, and she forces Weitz to sign off on their hiring.

Back at the bunker, Rich is happy to see Jane again, and asks where Reade is. It’s here where it’s finally confirmed that Reade is dead. We flash back to the night of the explosion, and see Patterson get the call from Weitz to get underground. They do, but they’re badly hurt. Weller has broken ribs, and Reade is holding debris on his back, with Zapata crushed below him. Patterson and Weller help Zapata wriggle free, but the shift causes the debris to fall and crush Reade to death.

In present time, Zapata tells the team that Reade didn’t have to die. She blames Weller for not walking away, and instead wanting to clear their names. But she knows they’ll keep going, and is afraid of what else will be lost. Rich goes in to check on her, and she tells him that she didn’t say to Reade what she wanted to say, so Rich encourages her to say it now.

We then see her and the team toasting Reade, and Zapata says what she wanted to say. With that, it seems the team is able to move forward, with Rich and Patterson setting up a command center, and Weller giving the team to Jane because “working off-grid isn’t him.”

Meanwhile, Madeline and her head mercenary look in on a man tied to a chair. The mercenary says she’ll find the team, but wants what Madeline promised her. Madeline points at the man, and says that this was the prototype, as we watch the room the man is in fill with gas, and the man instantly die.

RIP Reade

Of course, I have to start with the loss of Reade. I saw this one coming a mile away, and honestly, I see Zapata meeting a similar fate by season’s end. She hasn’t wanted to be a part of the team for awhile now, and I’m betting Reade’s death has put her over the edge. Something will happen to her, because her storyline has been tragic since season one.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty solid premiere. The story moved quickly so we could see the resolution of last season’s finale, and got the team back together right away. Thankfully, we’re not going to have to waste half of the season waiting for Weller and Jane to reunite.

Patterson and Rich were amazing as always, and I was happy to see the light-hearted one-liners prevalent throughout the episode, with pretty much everyone getting in on the action.

I’m a little confused as to how Madeline has managed to gain so much power at the FBI though. In two months, she went from being a prisoner to running the joint. That part feels a little far-fetched, but I guess necessary to make her a threat.

The introduction of someone sending the team tattoo messages is intriguing. I’m actually really looking forward as to who it could be. Until next week!