BLINDSPOT Review: The Band is Back Together in “One Begets Technique”

A Witty Double Cross

We begin tonight’s episode catching up with fan favorite bad guy, Rich Dotcom (guest star Ennis Esmer) who is happily cheating his way through a poker game with a group of inmates, while telling them how smart he is. Unfortunately, one of the inmates finds one of Rich’s hidden cards, and Rich subsequently finds himself on the wrong end of a beat down.

Next, we catch up with various team members in the aftermath of last week’s episode. Weller’s father is in the hospital and not doing well, Mayfair takes the infamous traffic photo to an old friend to see if it can be enhanced, and Jane flips through the photos Oscar gave her, remembering his instructions to build memories. When she hears the door to the locker room open, she hides the photos, and goes over to see Weller. He’s upset about his father, and the two have a moment that is interrupted by Allie.

Turns out, Allie’s been assigned to Rich, who wants to roll on a terrorist heavyweight, Shohid Ahktar, in order to get into a lower security prison. He will only talk to Weller and Jane however, and in a complete reversal from the heaviness of last week’s episode, the laughs come right away, with Esmer’s rapid-fire dialogue evoking memories of  Gilmore Girls– style writing as he talks to Jane and Weller. He tells them he can exchange the paintings from an unsolved heist, to get to Ahktar. Weller and Jane begrudgingly agree, and Rich happily announces that the band is back together.

To make everything official, Allie has Rich sign some legal paperwork, during which he tells the team he actually doesn’t have the artwork, but knows where to get it. He sends the team to Randall Turner’s house, which is heavily secured. Rich knows how to get through all of it, including the required palm scan, and walks the team through the plan. In order to beat the palm scan however, Rich requests a trip to his storage locker to find what he needs. Allie refuses, and instead brings all of the contents of the locker to headquarters. Jane voices concern that Rich was able to smuggle something in to the FBI, but Allie reassures them all that everything was scanned and demagnetized.

Weller grows even more uneasy about the situation, saying how unpredictable Rich is, and begins to argue with Allie, who is determined to solve the case. Mayfair stops the argument, and orders the case to continue.

With everything in place, the team of Allie, Rich, Weller, and Jane, heads to Turner’s house, and make their way to his art room. However, at the door, they find a retina scanner – not the palm scanner. To get around it, Rich suggests shutting off the power, which would give them a 30 minute window to grab the paintings before Turner makes it home. Patterson kills the power, and the team goes to work, being extra careful to not trigger any of the wires attached to the paintings, which would create a shotgun blast.

Turner makes it home before the team is done, and Allie and Jane work to fight him off. Allie goes down, and just as Jane is about to lose the fight, Weller tells her to move, triggering a shotgun blast that kills Turner, and accidentally destroys the last painting.

Needing a way to fix the painting before their meeting with Ahktar, Mayfair cuts a deal with Rich to use one of his contacts. His contact, Boston, comes in and immediately rubs Patterson the wrong way, and makes it known he and Rich were once an item. As Boston and Patterson get to work on scanning the paintings in order to work on the damaged one, Rich finds a way to communicate with Ahktar.

Ahktar just so happens to be having a Gatsby party, and Jane agrees to go as Rich’s date, as she can blend in better than Allie or Weller. As Rich and Jane arrive, they quickly realize that no one else is dressed up. Oops? However, they manage to make contact with Ahktar who asks to see the paintings, and declares them to be fake.

Meanwhile, the team sees a team of ISI agents riding in the elevator to the party, and go to intercept. A gunfight erupts, and Ahktar gets away. Rich and Jane take chase, but find themselves ambushed by Ahktar, who shoots Rich. With no other bullets left, Ahktar pulls a knife on Jane, but she’s able to disarm him. Turning back to Rich, she sees him out on the ledge of the building, threatening to jump because he doesn’t want to go back to jail.

Back at the party, Reade realizes everyone shooting is on the same side, and manages to stop the fight. The team race to find Jane trying to talk Rich off the ledge, but he jumps before anyone can stop him. However, a parachute opens, and Weller points out that as suspected, Rich double-crossed them all. Rich lands next to a car, and Boston is inside waiting for him with the paintings.

During the debrief, Allie admits they scanned Rich’s items for bombs – not parachutes, and Weller points out Rich liked to gamble, and he gambled correctly to get ahead in this situation. As they leave the meeting room, Weller asks Allie to meet up with him later, but she refuses, saying that he has something going on with Jane, and she wants no part of it. So instead, Jane accompanies Weller to see his father in the hospital, and remembers Oscar’s request to build her own memories. As such, she tells Weller’s father she remembers him, and the time they went fishing together. This story also fuels some hope within Weller that Jane is actually starting to remember her past.

Mayfair checks in on her photo enhancement, but her friend wasn’t able to get anything. Frustrated, she leaves and calls Alexandra to make plans for when she is next in town. Satisfied with the big step she took, Mayfair is distracted, and is surprised by someone jumping in her car. She turns to see who it is, and it’s her ex-girlfriend, Sofia, who supposedly died a long time ago.

NEXT: Until We Meet Again, Rich