BLINDSPOT Recap: Operation Save Patterson

By Pauline Perenack

Welcome back, Blindspotters! The winter holidays are officially behind us, New Year resolutions have been created (and probably already broken) and Blindspot is back on the air.

The fall finale left viewers with the ultimate cliffhanger – who was shot, Borden? Or Patterson? There was of course, also the cliffhanger of Jane wiping the memories of Roman, but let’s be honest – we all are more interested about the safety of Patterson.

The fall finale also confirmed that Borden was in fact that mole within the FBI, while Sandstorm’s Phase Two plan failed to launch. Shepherd was able to escape during the chaos, setting her up to be the seek-and-find mission for Weller’s team for the season.

Got it? Good. Let’s recap what happened in the winter premiere tonight.

Roman – FBI informant?

Thankfully, Nor I, Nigel, AKA Leg in Iron picks up right where we left off in the fall finale, to Borden and Patterson staring at each other after that fateful shot rang out. As Patterson slowly looks down, her shirt is quickly soaking up blood. She’s been shot in the stomach.

The action quickly jumps to Jane and Roman, who are in the getaway car, still driving from the compound explosion. Roman is slowly waking up, and since Jane wiped his memory, he doesn’t know who she is. Upon seeing her gun, he assumes he’s in danger, and attacks her before jumping out of the car to escape. Jane stops the car, and the two fight on the side of the road, where Roman is able to overtake her and drive away, leaving her stranded.

Nas and Weller are back at headquarters, trying to figure out what happened on the failed mission. Nas is feeling guilty, because she knows it’s her fault that agents are dead, but can’t figure out why Shepherd wanted to make sure Weller was kept alive. Zapata admits she still doesn’t trust Jane, but everyone has to put aside their questions as Jane is brought in, and tells the team that Borden was the mole, which means Patterson must be in trouble. The team decides Roman is their best lead – regardless of his wiped memory – so they head out to find him.

Patterson meanwhile, wakes up on a table, her bullet wound seemingly sewn up by Borden, who is scrubbing his hands clean. As she quietly tries to escape, Shepherd catches her, and proceeds to torture her for information, while Borden watches.

Zapata is finally able to connect to Roman’s cellphone, and he tells the team where he is. Shepherd however, had Roman’s phone tapped, and sends a team to get to him first. When Shepherd’s men enter the diner Roman is waiting in, he senses something is off, and a fight ensues. Weller and Jane arrive, and the three are able to prevail, but only after Roman kills a couple of the men.

When Roman is brought into headquarters, he’s tied up, and Jane doesn’t like it, and instead wants to treat him as if he’s done nothing wrong. Zapata disagrees, and decides to find her own leads. Nas and Jane talk to Roman, but when Nas catches Roman lying about recognizing a picture of Borden, they worry he’ll never be able to lead them to Patterson.

Fortunately however, Zapata is able to find an encoded text message on one of the Sandstorm’s agents’ phones. With the help of Nas, they’re able to decode an address, which leads to an auto body shop. Turns out, the shop is the provider of Sandstorm’s getaway cars, and Borden had picked one up the night before. As the team works to track down the car, Agent Pellington arrives, and tells Nas and Weller that the partnership between the FBI and Zero Division is officially disbanded, meaning Nas no longer works with the FBI. Someone needed to take the fall for the botched operation, which left agents dead, and that fall person was Nas.

With a promise to Nas he would get her back in the FBI, Weller, along with Jane, and Zapata, finds Borden’s getaway car, and they storm the compound. As they drive up, their car is sent flying by a small explosive device, giving Borden a chance to escape. Weller takes chase as Zapata and Jane go to find Patterson. While Patterson is found alive, Borden manages to fight off Weller, but leaves him alive because of his importance to Sandstorm.

Back at headquarters, Pellington is interrogating Roman, and decides to turn him over to the CIA. Weller interrupts however, and says he’ll walk away from the FBI unless Roman stays. Weller explains he needs Nas and Roman to take down Sandstorm, because with Jane, they’re the closest connections to the organization. Pellington reluctantly agrees, ultimately telling Weller everything is now his responsibility.

Weller goes to visit Patterson in the hospital, and she shows him she’s managed to find information on Borden, formally known as Dr. Nigel Thornton. After begging Weller to allow her to keep working, he reluctantly hands over a Sandstorm phone, and she quickly navigates the passcode using the book code Zapata and Nas had used earlier. Once in the phone, they find a video of a “rough draft Jane” before she got her tattoos. They both notice there’s one tattoo that isn’t currently on her body, and they’re left wondering why that specific tattoo was removed.

A New Tattoo

Tonight’s episode was another non-tattoo episode, but it didn’t matter. The action started and never let up, leaving fans at the edge of their seats for the full hour. Patterson’s torture at the hands of Shepherd was difficult to watch, and extremely well executed.

The Roman storyline could prove to be an interesting one. While it does seem to be a rehash of Jane’s story of recovering her memories, hopefully the writers will focus on his much more violent past, and how those painful memories will shape him as he tries to remember who he is. Will Jane be able to guide him in the right direction since she’s had experience in forming a new self?

The return of Pellington was intriguing, not only because of his intense desire to get rid of Nas, but also because of his quick decision to hand Roman over to the CIA, and to the same torture endured by Jane earlier this season. Is he part of the conspiracy that Sandstorm is trying to take down?

Unfortunately, it seems as though Nas will be sticking around – much to the disdain of many fans on Twitter – but you can bet she will be paired off with Patterson to start cracking the codes of Sandstorm, and being kept out of missions. With her stuck in headquarters, it might start to bring back the burgeoning feelings between Weller and Jane as they work together out in the field.

The only real let down to this episode was the story arc between Reade and Zapata. Up to this point, the two of them have had such a strong friendship, and have been there for everything for each other. However, tonight, Zapata was forced to put Reade solidly in the “friend zone” after he awkwardly kisses her. This friendship was so great, and this new development will put a dent into it that might be difficult to fix.

Overall however, the winter premiere was a great start to 2017. We’re still left with the mystery of what Weller means to Sandstorm, and now there’s the whole new question of what the leopard tattoo meant. Until next week!