BLINDSPOT Review: Don’t Mess With Zapata!

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall

Tonight’s episode, “Rules in Defiance” begins with a montage of sorts showing where our main characters are in the immediate aftermath of last week’s episode. Weller wakes up hungover and in Allie’s bed, Jane calls in sick to Mayfair, Reade is with Sarah, and Zapata is taking a morning run. She meets up with the man who bugged her apartment, and turns out he’s an Assistant US attorney. He was led to her through her gambling, but is now more interested in Carter and Jane, and uses his knowledge of Zapata’s past to con her into working with him.

At headquarters, Patterson briefs the team on a new tattoo which is a combination of a lion and a bull, along with some numbers, which translates to the coordinates of a location. Before giving the team the location, Patterson admits she received an email about the tattoo, which is why she started looking into it, and we all know the email came from Oscar. Mayfair isn’t happy about Patterson using the email, but Weller points out that whoever sent it knows something about Jane, so they need to follow the trail. Patterson points them to the location in Queens, and the team finds themselves in the middle of an undercover NYPD drug bust.

When Mayfair arrives to do damage control, the team questions why the tattoo sent them there if the NYPD was already on it. While talking, Weller spots a mural on a wall, which Patterson discovers is a memorial for a local girl, Paloma Diaz. The logo on the mural matches another of Jane’s tattoos, and the team realizes the mural is what the tattoos sent them to. Patterson informs the team that the girl’s boyfriend, Ronnie, was convicted of her murder, but always maintained his innocence, and is slated to be executed the next day.

Bored with being home, Jane goes into headquarters for her usual session with Dr. Borden. She discovers the team is working on a time sensitive case, and knows Oscar led them to it. Still unwilling to work, Jane talks to Borden, wanting him to tell her it’s ok to walk away from the FBI. He knows she’s hiding something, and won’t help her if she’s not open with him. Frustrated, Jane leaves.

The team meanwhile has put together that Paloma never made it to Mexico after being deported, and instead was part of a large human trafficking scheme being run by ICE agents. After learning another woman was marked to be taken today, Zapata volunteers to take her place on the deportation bus, but only with Weller’s promise that he and Reade will be with her the entire way.

Patterson outfits Zapata with a tracking device in a locket, but when the bus makes an unscheduled stop, Weller and Reade lose sight of Zapata, who is drugged, and has her locket removed, which is taken back on the bus. Weller and Reade continue following the bus, unaware Zapata is being taken elsewhere. The two finally realize Zapata is missing, and turn around. Zapata meanwhile, wakes up and finds another girl, Natalie in a basement with her. Natalie tells her the girls are forced to go to parties where the clients of a man named Tate are allowed to do whatever they want to them.

As Weller and Reade double back, Jane, who upon seeing the video of Zapata being taken, joins Patterson in examining the footage. Looking closer, she sees a keycard in the van which took Zapata, and tells Patterson the women are probably being hidden. Patterson finds an old, abandoned gated community, and sends the team there.

Zapata finds herself fighting one of Tate’s men who has come to punish Natalie for talking to Zapata, and she’s immediately made as a Fed. Knowing her team will come looking for her, Tate tells his crew they must burn all the evidence, and they set the house on fire. Smoke fills the basement where all the girls have been locked in, and Zapata sets to work on removing the bars from the window to help the girls escape. She gets the last one out, but flames overwhelm her and force her back. Weller and Reade race in to find her, and get her out of the house just as it blows up.

Back at headquarters, Weller and Zapata interrogate the woman who abducted Zapata, who admits Paloma was killed, and she helped get rid of the body. With her confession, the team is able to put Max away for a long time, and free Ronnie.

After everyone else has left, Reade checks in with Mayfair about Carter, and goes to look for traffic camera footage. He finally finds footage of someone driving Carter’s car, and as he leaves to go tell Mayfair, he’s knocked unconscious.

Jane goes to meet Oscar, and tells him she doesn’t trust him, and will not be his asset. Oscar lets her know he is on her side, but if she refuses to cooperate, the people they work with will kill Weller.

NEXT: The Ultimate Choice