BLINDSPOT Review: “Galaxy of Minds”

BLINDSPOT — “Galaxy of Minds” Episode 319 — Pictured: (l-r) Christina Reyes as Avery, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC/Warner Bros)

BLINDSPOT REVIEW: “GALAXY OF MINDS” 

BY PAULINE PERENACK

The Golden Rhino

Last week on Blindspot we were held in suspense as each member of our team had to fight for their lives against the assassins sent by Roman. Fortunately, our team is fully capable of defending themselves, and came out on top, which left Roman in even more hot water than he was before.

During this whole ordeal, Jane realized that she no longer felt the need to protect Roman, which ultimately sets up what could be the fight of the season. So how did the encounter end up? Let’s recap tonight’s episode to find out.

Roman Falling

Tonight’s episode, “Galaxy of Minds” begins one year ago in a plane, as a General Baxter is typing up a document about a ‘Project Golden Rhino.’ We then switch to a lab, and learn that Project Golden Rhino is some sort of high-powered weapon that Crawford wants. The project is going to be killed however, because Baxter hasn’t seen any demonstrations of it, so can no longer justify the spend.

Avery’s adoptive father, who turns out to be very much one of Crawford’s top people, says they should show the General a demonstration. As such, in the plane, Baxter’s nose starts to bleed, the windows blow out, and the plane goes down, leaving no evidence behind.

Back in present day, Patterson is able to find the land that Crawford purchased, and turns out it’s in the middle of the Saharan Desert. Unfortunately, neither Patterson nor Reade can imagine why he would purchase that land, but a hit from the tattoo database gives them something to focus on.

The tattoo of a beetle connects with a cover of a book that’s about to be released, which threatens to expose a dark secret of the government, Project Golden Rhino. The writer, Daschelle Watkins, is a former history teacher who was denied tenure, and somehow connected to the tattoo, Reade wants him brought in for questioning.

Once in the building, Watkins tells Weller and Reade about Project Golden Rhino. He explains that Baxter was killed because he had stopped funding on a secret weapon project. When Reade and Weller continue to push him, Watkins explains that the key to everything is a Michael Ganzman, who worked with a defense contractor to build a new kind of weapon. Weller and Reade ask again what kind of weapon it is, and Watkins finally admits that he thinks it’s a mind control device.

Clearly, that seems ridiculous, but since his research into the weapon is the only thing that can possibly connect the team to Ganzman, and then ultimately to Crawford, Patterson is forced to work with Watkins and dig through his research. As they search, Patterson finds list of possible suspects who could have actually triggered the device since Ganzman was speaking at a conference at the time that Baxter’s plane went down. The list was massive, so Patterson compared it to the FBI database, and got a hit – Surjik Fells, a man who was hired by Ganzman for security. Surjik is currently in prison, so Reade orders a transfer into FBI custody.

Meanwhile however, Roman has gotten his own hit on the beetle tattoo, and makes his way from Germany to New York to ensure that Crawford can’t be incriminated in any way. As such, he intercepts Surjik, and doesn’t even care he’s being recorded on a dash cam that the team watches only an hour after the kidnapping.

During that hour, Roman begins to beat Surjik for information, but is interrupted by a call from Blake. Turns out, she flew to New York to talk to him, and is on her way to the penthouse Roman is supposed to already be in. As such, he tosses Surjik back in the car trunk and takes him to the penthouse where the torture continues (and fun fact, it’s the same penthouse from Deception that Cameron Black’s girlfriend stayed in last week). He finally gets two possible locations for Ganzman out of Surjik before killing him, and then calmly goes downstairs to talk to Blake, who is concerned they’re drifting apart. Roman then suggests they go to a bed and breakfast in Oneonta, so he can secretly check out a cabin there that Ganzman might just be hiding in.

Meanwhile, back at headquarters, Patterson tells Reade she has a helicopter team just outside of Oneonta, closing in on the cabin. As they listen in on the comms however, they begin to hear the same warbles they heard on the black box from Baxter’s plane, and sure enough, the helicopter crashes.

Since the weapon is clearly in use, Weller starts questioning executives from the defense contractor. He’s able to crack Camille Moon, who caves after the team stages a fake questioning between Avery and Jane, where Avery admits her father worked at the defense contractor with Ganzman. Seeing she could be tied to the whole mess, Moon admits that Ganzman had been calling her all day. The team then has her call Ganzman back to get his location, which turns out to be the second location Surjik told Roman – a warehouse in Woodstock.

The team heads out, and arrive at roughly the same time as Roman, who has left Blake alone in bed. Since Ganzman can’t determine who’s in the Humvee, he turns the weapon on it, forcing the team out. Still needing to get in, they jam the gas pedal with a rock, which sends the Humvee into the warehouse, destroying the weapon.

Ganzman, on the run, unfortunately runs straight into Roman, who kills him, and runs himself. Jane tracks him down, but as Roman points out, is deliberately missing her shots. As such, he’s able to get away and back to Blake, who’s waiting for him, and not happy with his disappearing act.

Back at headquarters, Jane tells Avery that while they didn’t catch Roman this time, he’s definitely scrambling, and they were able to put a huge dent in Crawford’s plan by destroying the weapon. Jane and Weller then ask Avery to move in with them, and she agrees, excited to get away from her security detail.

Zapata meanwhile, attempts once again to reconnect with Patterson, but as Patterson is about to blow her off again, the tattoo database records a hit. Then another hit, and another, and then over 6000. Roman is flooding the database with false positives, effectively covering Crawford’s and his tracks, leaving the team in the dark.

Moving In

While tonight’s episode wasn’t as good as last week’s, it still was very good. The eccentric Watkins provided the comic relief and banter with Patterson that Rich Dotcom usually does, and there was good movement with the Jane/Avery storyline. It seems like they’re beginning to build a real family relationship there.

Roman however, is clearly falling apart, and getting careless. Even he can see that things are crumbling around him, and he’s struggling to keep things together. His whole vision of Blake stabbing him once she learns his true identity was shocking (as it seemed like he had actually dropped the act of being Tom Jakeman) but since it was just his vision, it would make sense to be a foreshadowing of his demise. Blake is definitely suspecting something, and isn’t happy about it.

And then there’s Jane, who still can’t quite pull the trigger when it comes to Roman. Ultimately, that showdown is what this season is leading to, so will Jane be able to actually kill her brother? Or will she relent, and have him taken into custody? Guess we’ll have to wait until next week to see how much closer the team is to Crawford and Roman. Until then!