BLINDSPOT Review: “I Love You to Bits and Bytes”

BLINDSPOT — “Love You to Bits and Bytes” Episode 510 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata, Heather Burns as Kathy Gustafson, Ennis Esmer as Rich Dotcom, Ashley Johnson as Patterson — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/Warner Brothers/NBC)

BLINDSPOT REVIEW: “I LOVE YOU TO BITS AND BYTES”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

The Penultimate

The second episode this evening, “Love you to Bits and Bytes” starts with Weller hugging Bethany. He tells her that he’ll be home soon, and then leaves her to rejoin the team. A new interim director of the FBI is on her way, but in the meantime, the team wants to go after Ivy. Rich isn’t as convinced as the rest of the team that this is the best idea, and instead begs them to take the fake passports and money Boston has secured for them, since he doesn’t think there’s any way this will turn out ok. No one on the team is willing to let Ivy go, and Weller addresses the agents who helped them. He tells them that the team isn’t there to take over, and will turn themselves in once Ivy has been taken down, but are there to help the agents if they’ll let them. The agents agree, and everyone gets to work.

Rich meanwhile, is dealing with a very upset Boston, who can’t believe that Rich isn’t dropping everything to come with him. Boston tells him this is goodbye, and Rich is clearly troubled.

Patterson has figured out the message giving up the location of Madeline came from Shirley, and Zapata informs them that Shirley is dead. As such, their only clue is the metadata left over in Madeline’s files, which lead them to realize that Madeline had a hacker put everything together, including the frame job of Weitz, and the puzzle Patterson couldn’t solve, and that hacker could only be Kathy. Ivy has also figured this out, and wants Kathy to hack into Madeline’s dark cloud server.

In the field, Weller, Jane, and Zapata discuss if they’ll be reinstated, and Weller isn’t so sure. They arrive at Kathy’s apartment, just as Kathy turns herself into the FBI. Rich and Patterson argue about why she’s there, and decide to go into the interrogation room hot. They do, but Kathy throws them off by saying that she doesn’t want to work for Ivy, and instead wants to work for the FBI. She points out that Ivy doesn’t know where the Zip is, so she could get them into the server first, find the Zip, and stop the attack.

Everyone thinks it’s a bad idea to let Kathy help, but Patterson convinces them that it’s the only way. Unfortunately, they don’t have the power to give Kathy any kind of deal, so Patterson convinces Kathy to trust them – they’ll do their best to give her a deal once they have a deal. Kathy agrees, and starts using the computers in Patterson’s lab to hack into Madeline’s files, and as she makes her way into the back door she created, Rich points out that it looks hacked. Someone else has gotten there first.

That someone else is Boston, who has a gun pointed at his head thanks to Ivy. Patterson notices Boston’s signatures in the code, and follows his footprints so they can find his location to save him. They do, but Ivy notices the unauthorized server access warning. Boston tries to play it off, but Ivy knows better, and cuts off one of his fingers. At the same time, Patterson gains access to Boston’s webcam, and knowing he’s in trouble, she takes Rich and Kathy with her in the field so that she can use her SUV, Weller’s SUV, and Boston’s webcam to triangulate his position.

Terrified of losing another finger, Boston quits stalling, and gets Ivy into all of Madeline’s files. The team get there soon after Ivy exits, and find Boston tied up and standing on a pressure bomb. He tells the team that Ivy is buying herself time to get to the Zip bombs. However, he was able to bury the location of the bombs for the team to find in his hack, so with address in hand, Weller, Zapata and Jane head off to get Ivy, while Patterson, Rich and Kathy stay to save Boston.

Kathy finds specs for the bomb on the dark web, and tells Boston how to access the trigger panel. Once he does however, a countdown trigger starts up. Kathy is confident she can disarm it, but Boston is too nervous to do it himself, so she offers to trade places with him. Loaded up with counterweights, she gets on the bomb and Boston gets off, and then tells the team that she lied – there’s no way to stop the bomb. But she wanted to go out on top. Patterson, Rich, and Boston run to take cover, but then nothing happens. Confused, they get up, and Patterson realizes too late that Kathy had played them. Sure enough, the bomb was a fake, and Kathy was gone.

Kathy calls them to apologize, but says that she knew she wouldn’t get a deal, and thinks the team overall is a little delusional to believe they’ll get their own deal. Boston agrees, and asks to be dropped off.

At that moment, the new interim director, Aria Grigoryan arrives at headquarters, looking for the team, and orders they stand down immediately. The team agrees they need to see this out, and ignore the order. They make it to the building where Ivy is hiding with the bombs, and Ivy sends her team out to take them down. Weller is able to fight off Ivy’s men as Jane takes on Ivy. Jane has to reload her gun, and when she looks back, Ivy is gone, so she enters the room to follow Ivy. However, she finds a locked door, and looks back to see one of the Zip bombs is going off, and she’s trapped in a room with it. Weller goes to get her, but can’t get in, and Jane mouths that she loves him before she disappears in a cloud of Zip.

The Most Unusual Team

Well, this episode ended with another of our team possibly being lost. This time however, it’s Jane, and I have to say, I’m not nearly upset as I was with Patterson. Why? Because this is classic full-circle storytelling. I hate that type of storytelling (please feel free to talk to me about the Gilmore Girls movie) but at least I understand it. She started this whole story not knowing who she was, and it looks like she may end it the same way.

Overall though, I loved this episode. While Kathy has never been a favorite character of mine, her inclusion in this storyline was hysterical. Everything from her confusing Patterson and Rich, to her bickering with Rich and Boston, to her ultimately getting away, was amazing. The whole episode moved quickly, and it felt like how I would assume this situation would actually feel – chaotic and frustrating, with nothing going as it should. We’ll have to wait two weeks for the series finale to see what happens to Jane, and if they catch Ivy. Until then!