BLINDSPOT Review: “And My Axe!”

BLINDSPOT — “And My Axe!” Episode 504 — Pictured in this screen grab: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller — (Photo by: Warner Brothers/NBC)

BLINDSPOT REVIEW: “AND MY AXE!”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

An Assist from an Old Friend

Last week Blindspot had the team chasing down the terrorist group, Dabbur Zann, and taking one of their most dangerous members hostage in doing so. As he tried to escape, Jane killed him, and inside his skin, the team found a clue to stop Madeline. At the same time, Weitz was fully on Madeline’s radar, and was forced to agree to convince Susan Shaw to step down from her position. When Brianna was executed in front of him, he quickly realized how dangerous the situation had become, and told Afreen to back down and quit helping the team.

Family Matters

Tonight’s episode, “And My Axe!” starts off with a nefarious looking man, moving swiftly through the streets while carrying a large paper bag. As the camera swoops in on him, we realize it’s actually Rich Dot Com, who is bringing the team a stash of food – none of which is really what they were looking for. As they eat what he’s brought, they discuss the RF drive they found, and Patterson shows files she found in a subfile. One of the images is of a bomb, and Weller recognizes it from an op the year before.

As the team splits up while Patterson digs deeper on the bomb, Rich catches up with Zapata and slips her a package he got for her, and tells her if she ever needs to talk, he’s there for her. Meanwhile, Jane and Weller talk, and Jane asks him how he is. Turns out, it’s Bethany’s birthday, and he’s upset about not being there. After leaving Weller, Jane goes to find Rich to ask him for a favor. She asks him to find a way to check on Allie and Bethany, and gives him a list of possible aliases to check out.

Soon after, Patterson finds an evidence log of the bomb on an old cyber-anarchist website, but all it gives them is the date it was logged into evidence. Zapata recognizes the date as her first day at the NYC FBI headquarters and mentions that her first case was seizing a weapon which was found after interrogating a woman and a shootout at a building where chemicals were found. This realization sets off the tone of the episode with much of it taking place back in 2011 so we can see Zapata’s first day through her memories.

To begin, Agent Fisher tells the new recruits to find a computer station. Zapata grabs one at the end of an aisle, and moves aside a paper cup filled with tea. As she does, someone tells her she’s in his seat, and it’s Reade. The two quickly fall into a good rapport, and when Zapata asks Fisher about capturing the open spot on Special Agent Weller’s team, she’s told that Reade has already asked the same question. Instead however, the two are assigned to “cold case mountain” which is thousands of cases piled up in the conference room. As they start the mundane job, a case stands out to Zapata, and is the one connected to current events. A dead body found in the river had two poisons in it, but only one was listed.

Deciding to dig further into the case, Reade and Zapata head to the lab where they meet a “random lab tech” who was awkward and kind of weird. Patterson stops the story at that point and points out that the “random lab tech” was totally her. Rich teases her about making good first impressions, and we get back to the memory. In it, Patterson finds the two chemicals and explains that when combined, they produce one of the most devastating gasses on earth.

In present day, the trio decide that Madeline is going to use the gas in the bombs, which isn’t good. Zapata gets frustrated with the whole exercise as she’s tired of thinking about Reade, and walks away. Patterson leaves to take a breather, and Rich finds Jane to tell her that a possible alias of Bethany’s was checked into a hospital that day, but he’s not sure why. Jane tells him to not tell Weller until more is known.

Weller checks in on Zapata, and through them talking, she remembers bringing in a scientist to talk about the chemicals, because the scientist’s company had been the one to develop them. We return to Zapata’s memories as she and Reade trip over themselves while trying to question the scientist. They don’t get very far into questioning however, before Fisher comes in to stop the whole thing. Turns out the woman comes from an influential family. However, Reade and Zapata aren’t done, and decide to follow the woman to get more information. They bring the information they find back to Fisher and Weller, who are both not happy about them going out, and banish Zapata and Reade back to the conference room.

Back in present day, Patterson identifies the scientist as Dr. Coleman, and Jane recognizes her as the woman she shot the day before. Meaning, she’s now working with Madeline. And sure enough, we then see Dr. Coleman and Ivy talking about having the gas weaponized and in all 10 capital cities by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Rich gets more info on Bethany. He’s confirmed it is her, and that she was admitted for an infection of some kind. Jane still wants to keep it under wraps, but Weller catches them talking, and she’s forced to admit what she’s found. Weller is not happy, and the two of them argue. Rich walks away to let them talk it out, and finds Zapata who seems upset. He asks her if she’s ok, and she tells him that the test he got her was positive – she’s pregnant. Patterson interrupts them, and tells them with the other clues Zapata gave her, she was able to find the warehouse where the chemicals were being stored.

As Zapata, Weller, and Jane surround the warehouse, it’s an eerily similar situation for Zapata since it was Weller who brought her and Reade along to the warehouse in 2011 where the chemicals were found. Back then, she was with Reade at the backdoor of the warehouse, and ended up saving his life when a criminal ran out with a gun. This time, she’s afraid to go in, even though she knows Jane and Weller need help, and it’s a hallucination of Reade that convinces her to go in, where she saves the day.

Although Coleman gets away, and there was no sign of the bombs, the team was able to round up most of the men and the chemicals. With authorities on the way, the team splits up to head back to the bunker on their own.

Back at the bunker, Rich and Patterson talk Zapata, but are interrupted by a news alert on Brianna. They instantly know that Madeline got her.

As the team walks on their own, Zapata remembers asking Reade out for drinks and to watch the game at a nearby bar, and he thanks her for saving his life – and that he owes her one. Jane however, runs into trouble. A guy jumps out in front of her shooting. She takes him down as she hears Weller yell. She runs to Weller, and sees him being loaded into a van. As it drives away, she falls her to her knees, clutching her stomach. She was shot.

Death Gas 2000

Overall, I enjoyed this episode much more than last week. Blindspot is at its best when it balances the humor of Rich and Patterson, with the action of the rest of the team. When an episode focuses too much on either side, it’s not as impactful and seems to lose its way.

This one however, gives us a lot to focus on. First, it was fun to see Patterson, Reade, and Zapata working together when they were ‘noobs’ and seeing how they remember each other. But then we have Zapata who is pregnant with Reade’s baby. This now explains the “fainting” feelings that Zapata was having last week, so how is this going to affect her going forward? How is she going to tell the team? Ultimately, they’re going to need to bring Madeline down fast, or else Zapata will be stuck at the bunker leaving only Weller and Jane to go out on missions. But, at this point, those two are both down for the count. Jane will survive (she has to) and Weller will be saved (he also has to) but how long will it take to save him? And what costs will the team endure to get him back? Should we assume that Zapata will somehow lose the baby in the process, and ultimately Reade for good? She has been the victim of a tragic storyline the entire series, so I’m not sure why she can expect a happy ending here. However, I guess we’ll have to wait until next week to find out. Until then!