BLINDSPOT Recap “The Big Reveal”

BLINDSPOT — “The Big Reveal” Episode 410 — Pictured: Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata — (Photo by: NBC/Warner Brothers)

BLINDSPOT RECAP “THE BIG REVEAL”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Finding a Cure

Last week’s Blindspot finally saw an end to the Jane/Remi storyline. In a trippy, “in her head” episode, Jane was able to come to terms that Remi was a part of her, and together they defeated Shepherd’s hold on them, which freed Jane to be Jane. However, the real Shepherd was still free and out to kill Weller, but fortunately Jane came home at the right time, shooting Shepherd, and saving Weller. Zapata however, found herself in handcuffs, and the interrogation is on.

Zapata Undercover

This week’s episode, “The Big Reveal” starts out with a flashback to two years ago at Kearns Pharmaceuticals, and gives a little more information about where Zip came from. The doctor on the project, Dr. Roga, storms into her boss’ office demanding answers when she finds out that even though she had the project shut down, some of the Zip had been sold. Her boss assures her that all parties involved were found and charged, but when Dr. Roga leaves, he makes a phone call to have Roga and her assistant killed.

In present day at headquarters, Jane is suffering from headaches, and feels awful about everything she did as Remi. Once the team is gathered together, she apologizes, but the team brushes the apology off because they feel she didn’t need to do so. Patterson and Rich inform everyone that the procedure to get Jane back was a success, but the Zip was still poisoning her. Jane remembers Shepherd talking about someone named Kallisto, who Roman was trying to find, and gives the information to Patterson. With that information, Patterson and Rich are able to find a link to Dr. Roga, who as we know, died two years ago. It seems to be a dead end, but the team decides to talk to her son Clay, who is a biology professor.

With Clay in a conference room, Weller loses his cool once he discovers Clay received a large inheritance, even though his mother was struggling with bills. He assumes Clay had something to do with his mother’s death, and Jane has to pull him aside to stop him from getting too aggressive. Weller can’t handle the thought of losing Jane once again, so Jane has to help keep him focused.

Rich and Patterson meanwhile are digging into the inheritance and discover that the trust fund was set up the day after Dr. Roga died. Since that can’t happen, the two keep digging and look into the bank that held the trust. They’re able to find surveillance footage of Dr. Roga walking into the bank on the day the fund was set up, meaning she faked her own death and might still be alive. After looking at Clay’s phone records, they find he’s been unknowingly called by his mother each Sunday at the same time they used to go to a diner together. They never talked, but it was how she checked up on him. The team is able to trace the calls to a house in the woods where Dr. Roga has been living. Unfortunately, Clay is so excited to learn his mother is alive, he calls his fiancée to tell her the good news, which tips off Kearns, who has been tapping Clay’s phone the past two years to try to find Dr. Roga.

Meanwhile, as the team goes off in search of Dr. Roga, Reade talks to Zapata. Or tries to anyway. She refuses, but eventually asks for Keaton, which Reade takes to mean she’s still working for the CIA. Unfortunately however, Keaton is still in the coma after being shot. Reade takes Zapata to see Keaton and explains to her that Keaton can’t save her – only the FBI can.

With this new knowledge, Zapata finally relents and explains she’s been working undercover for the CIA, but so deep that only Keaton knows she’s on the mission to take down HCI. Keaton knew that HCI would live on without Crawford, and so Zapata made it look like she burned all bridges with the CIA and FBI to get close to Blake. However, everything went wrong when Madeline took everyone out, and at that time, Zapata wanted to bring in the FBI, but Keaton refused. Additionally, Claudia actually was MI-6 and when the two figured out they were on the same side, Claudia faked being killed so that Zapata could get closer to Madeline. Zapata explains that the whole mission will fail if she doesn’t meet up with Del Toro in Toronto in the morning, so she needs to go. Reade is hesitant, but eventually lets her go on the meet as his asset, but not before telling her that they will never again be friends — or anything else.

By this time, the team has found Dr. Roga, who has a whole lab set up thanks to Roman. Even better, she’s been able to find a cure for Zip thanks to something called Stanton cells. However, men from Kearns show up at that moment to kill Dr. Roga, and while she makes it out alive, her whole operation is burned to the ground, along with the rare Stanton cells. The team is dejected, but Dr. Roga lets them know that Roman was looking for more Stanton cells, so there are some out there to find.

As the episode wraps up, Zapata makes her way to Toronto to meet up with Del Toro, but is intercepted by two men who throw her in a trunk of a car, telling her that the CIA wants to talk to her.

Can we trust the CIA?

Finally, finally, finally we found out what was going on with Zapata. So, as I believed from the beginning, Zapata was undercover with the intent to take down HCI through manipulating Blake, but the whole thing went south when Madeline took over, and by then, Zapata was in too deep to get out. I did not see coming however that Claudia was actually MI-6 and the two were working together, or that it was Keaton who was the one who sent Zapata undercover. In hindsight, it of course makes sense since Keaton is out of commission, but still interesting. And even more interesting, why is the CIA so desperate to get to Zapata?

However, other than Zapata’s storyline, there really wasn’t much to this episode. It was interesting to see Patricia Richardson on my screen again, but the character wasn’t all that compelling. Honestly, with the knowledge that these mysterious Stanton cells are the key to the Zip cure, I feel like Patterson and Rich can figure it out.

As per usual, Rich seemed to be the heart of the episode, as he had a great conversation with Jane about how surrounding herself with good people makes good things happen, and ultimately giving her the confidence boost she needed to get out in the field. He’s a good guy, and like he said, being around the team has definitely reformed him, but thankfully hasn’t dampened his humor.

But now the hunt is on for Roman’s stash of Stanton cells so that Jane can be cured, and we’ll have to wait until Feb. 1 to see what the team does next. Until then!