BLINDSPOT Review: “Head Games”

BLINDSPOT — “Head Games” Episode 505 — Pictured in this screen grab: (l-r) Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Ennis Esmer as Rich Dotcom — (Photo by: Warner Brothers/NBC)

BLINDSPOT REVIEW “HEAD GAMES”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

A Fight for Life

Last week on Blindspot, we were taken back to Zapata’s first day at the NYC FBI headquarters, as her memories of that day were the only thing the team could use to solve the current day problem. By using past experiences, the team was able to find the warehouse where Madeline was storing the chemicals for her planned chemical bombs, but unfortunately couldn’t locate the actual bombs.

And to make things even more difficult for the team, Zapata found out she’s pregnant with Reade’s baby, Weller was captured by Ivy and her team, and Jane was shot in the stomach.

Internal Musings

Tonight’s episode, “Head Games” begins with Jane stumbling back to the bunker to tell the team about Weller. She says her gunshot wound is just a graze, but when she passes out, the team realizes it’s much, much worse and she needs a hospital. Jane refuses, and tells them they’ll do the surgery in the bunker. As Patterson and Rich quickly gather the medical supplies they’ll need, they argue about the situation, with Rich no longer feeling comfortable with what’s going on.

Meanwhile, Weller meets Ivy for the first time. She shows him the video of Jane being shot, and tells him she’ll get Jane the best medical attention she can if Weller gives up the team. He of course refuses, and Ivy injects him with a drug designed to bring out his deepest fears.

The episode is a classic “bottle episode,” meaning there are no location visits or gun fights, and the episode instead focuses on the characters. As such, the episode flips back and forth between Jane and Weller as they each go through their own battle.

Jane’s battle is fighting to stay alive after being shot. While nervous, Patterson talks through what’s going to happen during the surgery and brings up doing a blood transfusion between Zapata and Jane, since they’re the same blood type. Rich tries to deflect this idea since he knows Zapata can’t have a blood transfusion (since she’s pregnant). He of course comes off awkwardly, and Patterson knows something is up. Finally, Zapata admits to being pregnant, and suddenly the team is left with no plan, until Rich runs out saying he thinks he has a “blood guy.”

BLINDSPOT — “Head Games” Episode 505 — Pictured in this screen grab: Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata — (Photo by: Warner Brothers/NBC)

With Rich gone, Patterson and Zapata are left to perform surgery on Jane as she walks them through it. Patterson admits she’s well outside her comfort zone, but is able to get the bullet out. Jane passes out due to blood loss, but Rich comes in at the last minute with blood for her.

As Jane recovers, the other three focus their attention on finding Weller. Based on the radius from the warehouse where he was taken, there are ultimately only two ways Ivy could have taken Weller. Frustrated with the focus on her newfound pregnancy, Zapata takes off to start searching herself, while Patterson and Rich start to further narrow the possibilities. They zero in on an abandoned machine factory and call Zapata to send her there.

At that machine factory, Weller is in his own personal hell with Ivy. The drugs have taken full effect and the first thing Ivy brings up is Bethany. She knows where she is, and her team is keeping an eye on her. This unnerves Weller, and as soon as Ivy leaves, Weller tries to bribe the guard at his door, but she completely ignores him.

Soon after, his first hallucination appears. It’s none other than Oscar, Jane’s Sandstorm handler. He confronts Weller about everyone Weller has killed, and questions Weller about the current quest and if it is indeed the right quest, because Oscar himself thought his cause was just, when in fact, it wasn’t. Oscar then moves on to talk about Jane, and tells Weller he should focus on Bethany, not Jane. He tells Weller to just give up the team so he can be with his daughter. At this, Weller wakes up from his hallucination and realizes he’s told Ivy that the team is in a bunker – which is something she didn’t know before.

With Ivy out of the room again, Weller once again focuses on talking to the guard, who tells him that her parents abandoned her, so Dabbur Zann was now her family. Weller starts to hallucinate again, and this time sees his father, and they talk about the disappearance of Taylor. His father admits to killing Taylor, but tells Weller that Weller is far worse – he has killed many more people. At this, Weller sees visions of the people he’s killed.

Weller once again tries talking to the guard, and this time she’s much more willing to talk. She tells him how she grew up believing her father was a monster, but as she read more about him, realized he was a hero who died trying to change things. Weller realizes that the guard is actually Bethany all grown up, and manages to shake off his hallucination to see Ivy. He tells her that he was buying time for the team to escape, and she won’t find them now.

BLINDSPOT — “Head Games” Episode 505 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Julee Cerda as Ivy — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Brothers)

Sensing she may have underestimated Weller, Ivy tries to threaten Bethany again, but Weller knows she has nothing, and is able to fight her off and knock her unconscious. He can’t kill her however (he’s just seen too many people he’s killed) and instead takes her phone and the SD card from the camera in the room. He fights his way out of the building, but the drugs in his system are still messing with his mind. So when Zapata finds him, it takes a while for her to convince Weller it’s really her.

Back at the bunker, Jane wakes up to Weller sitting next to her, and she has to convince him that he’s a good man, and didn’t do anything to endanger the team. Meanwhile, Rich and Patterson were able to find out that Bethany was checked out of the hospital and was once again in hiding. They were also able to pull a phone number from Ivy’s phone, and believe they can thwart her plan to find new chemicals.

Just as things look to be going in the right direction, the elevator to the bunker starts to run, and three guys come out of it. They say they found the team through Rich’s blood guy, and want their paintings Rich promised them, or they’ll alert every police agency in the area as to the team’s whereabouts.

Trouble Emerges

Bottle episodes are always difficult to judge, and this one was no exception. While Jane’s storyline was interesting, simply due to watching how the team was going to handle performing surgery on her, Weller’s storyline was pretty much just a lot of talk. Sure, it was cool to see Oscar return, but ultimately, all we learned was that Weller feels guilty for killing a lot of people. In the future, this could make him reluctant to pull the trigger when he needs to. He’s now thinking, rather than doing, which is never a good thing to do in their situation.

Little forward story progress happened here, but the guys looking for the paintings that Rich promised them does seem to set up for a fun episode next week. Until then!