Blindspot Review: It All Ends Where it Began in “Persecute Envoys”

Butcher the Butchers

Tonight’s episode, “Persecute Envoys” begins five years in the past with Mayfair, Carter, and the Deputy White House Political Director, Sofia Varma, meeting in a parking garage. They meet with the President’s chief of staff, who tells them they must come up with creative ways to use information captured from the NSA’s illegal tapping of the public’s phones, computers, etc. Carter is completely behind the idea, with Sofia quick to agree as well. Mayfair however, hesitates, and very reluctantly allows the other two to convince her it’s a good idea.

Back to the present, Mayfair and Weller are arguing in her office as she explains to him what Operation Daylight was, and how Saul Guerrero fit into it all. Weller isn’t impressed with Mayfair’s explanation, and tells her he can’t believe her. He storms out of her office, which only serves to set up future arguments between the two this episode.

Meanwhile, the team has caught another case as two NYPD officers are killed, and it appears as though their deaths are related to a previous race-related crime, which resulted in riots in the community. The police were labeled as the “Brooklyn Butchers,” the tag of which, was found at the most recent killing. Our team finds themselves involved because one of Jane’s tattoos happens to be that of an encircled butcher knife, and the number 65 – which just so happens to be the precinct of the newly deceased cops. The FBI moves in to take over the investigation, and their involvement is of course met with hostility – the NYPD doesn’t want to give up something that affects them so closely, but with encouragement from their Captain, they turn the case over.

The first person interviewed is the partner of one of the deceased cops. At first, she is reluctant to give much information, but Zapata jumps in, and we discover she once was NYPD as well, and has also lost her partner on the job. Sensing she has a friend in the room, Officer Dunn starts to talk, and assures Weller that Officer Shultz was a good cop, but she had noticed something had been distracting him lately. As they talk, Weller notices Dunn is wearing a body cam, and Dunn explains it’s part of an experimental program at the precinct. Deciding they finally have a lead, the team obtains Shultz’s footage, where they find Shultz in an altercation with a high profile NFL player, Ricky Holt, who immediately becomes a suspect. The team finds his location and head out to talk to him.

Arriving at a party, Weller walks in to find Holt, who immediately runs. Jane manages to tackle Holt when he runs across her path, and the team takes him in. Holt explains he assumed Schultz was a dirty cop, because after Schultz had busted a loud party at Holt’s, Holt received a letter with pictures outing him as gay, and asking for blackmail money. Holt paid it, but soon found out the blackmailer wanted the money each month – not just a one-time payment – and assuming it was Schultz, Holt attacked him.

With Holt’s story, the team puts together that Jane’s tattoo represents the body cameras used by the precinct and the corruption happening within the it, rather than pointing out the killings as originally thought. Patterson discovers that everyone within the precinct has access to the bodycam footage, so it could be anyone who was extorting people with it. Needing to find something the team can use, Patterson digs into Schultz’ emails, and finds an unsent email which details his concerns that someone within the precinct was accessing the camera footage. With this lead, the team traces the extortion money, and links it to two other officers in the precinct, Costello and Johnson, and finds one of them had purchased a burner phone, which the team traces to the home of Schultz’s widow.

Worried for her safety, Weller and Jane rush to the house to warn her about the two officers, but Costello and Johnson are already there, and when Weller and Jane arrive, they enter into a full-on gunfight. Jane pulls Schultz’s widow to safety outside, and shoots Costello. Weller however, is trapped inside with Johnson, who throws a flash grenade, rendering Weller deaf, but Weller manages to kill Johnson.

As paramedics arrive, Jane tells Weller how worried she was about him, and after unsuccessfully trying all episode to get Weller to tell her about what is going on between him and Mayfair, and that whatever it is, he should give Mayfair a chance, he relents to her, telling her she never stops, so he’ll do it.

With news of Costello and Johnson’s confirmed corruption and apprehension, Mayfair drives the captain of the precinct to the hospital, so he can talk to Costello, who is still alive. On the drive, Mayfair discovers the captain is part of the corruption as well, when he slips about a detail about Ricky Holt. Realizing his slip up, he pulls a gun on Mayfair, who drives her car into a row of parked cars, knocking them both unconscious.

Ironically, even after all of their arguing throughout this episode, Weller goes to see Mayfair at the hospital, and they once again discuss her involvement in Operation Daylight. Mayfair admits Operation Daylight didn’t go as planned, and she was still trying to make up for what she did.

During her flashbacks throughout the episode, we learned Mayfair and Sofia began a romantic relationship as they worked on Operation Daylight, and confided in each other. Sofia began to regret her involvement more and more, to the point she asked Mayfair to run away with her. Mayfair refused, not wanting the people she put away to be able to walk away free, and tried to convince Sofia to continue. However, it became too much, and Sofia walked away by killing herself.

The episode begins to draw to a conclusion with our team each drinking in their own way. Mayfair drinks as she reminisces about Sofia, Weller drinks with his father in what we see as the first mending of their relationship, and Jane, Zapata, and Patterson drink as they start becoming friends, trying to find Jane’s favorite drink, and then promising to find her new clothes the next day.

However, the episode ends with Zapata walking away from her friends, and being confronted by Carter, who tells her he isn’t done with her – it wasn’t enough she gave him the file on Jane, she took his money, so she was now his until he was done with her.

NEXT: Blindspot Cont’d | None of you Have Ever let me Down