BLINDSPOT REVIEW: “Iunne Ennui”

BLINDSPOT — “Iunne Ennui” Episode 511 — Pictured: (l-r) Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Ennis Esmer as Rich Dotcom — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Brothers)

BLINDSPOT SERIES FINALE REVIEW: “IUNNE ENNUI”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

The Finale

The last two episodes of Blindspot were obviously leading us to tonight’s finale, and as such, storylines were starting to wrap up. The team escaped Madeline’s grasp thanks to some help from Boston and a very-much alive Patterson, and then caught up to Madeline, who ultimately denied their need for justice when she killed herself. Unfortunately, Ivy managed to get away, and set off a Zip bomb with Jane in the room.

One Last Mission

Tonight’s series finale episode, “Iunne Ennui” begins with a pretty cool new opening sequence before having Jane wake up on a medical table. She looks around at her team, seeing them in present time, but also remembering them from when they first met. Weller asks if she’s ok, and surprisingly, she says that she is. She remembers them, but is confused as to why, since she got Zipped. Patterson tells her she’s been working on an antidote that she gave Jane, and it must have worked. Jane asks if they got Ivy, and she’s told they didn’t, but they did get all of her bombs.

As Jane continues to recover, the rest of the team meets with interim director Arla Grigoryan, who thanks them for their hard work, and tells them that even the President wants to express the nation’s deep gratitude. When Patterson points out that Ivy is likely leaving the country, Grigoryan tells them that her top people are on it. Weller is confused until Zapata realizes they’re not getting their jobs back. Grigoryan confirms this and says that the FBI needs to start over, and the team will never work for the US government again, but they did get immunity deals, so they each have a clean slate to work with.

Rich and Patterson visit the lab to reminisce, and as Patterson says she’s going to start a non-profit to teach kids how to code, Rich invites her to search for the Newtonian device, and she’s instantly in. Their plans are quickly dashed however, as an Agent brings something to Patterson to read. It’s bad, so she gathers up Jane and Weller to brief Grigoryan. Ivy still has one bomb left, and they need to find her immediately. And since they know Ivy the best, Grigoryan agrees to give them one last case.

Rich says he’s been monitoring Ivy’s messages, and that she’s wanting to meet local bomb maker Jesse Thomas asap so that she can use him to amplify the bomb radius. Patterson is able to narrow Thomas’ location to a 2-mile radius, and Jane points out a specific location. She just knows that’s where they are, but Grigoryan stops them. Jane starts to hallucinate all the FBI directors before Grigoryan, and excuses herself with a headache.

BLINDSPOT — “Iunne Ennui” Episode 511 — Pictured: (l-r) Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Ennis Esmer as Rich Dotcom — (Photo by: Scott McDermott/NBC/Warner Brothers)

As she’s washing her face, Roman appears. As usual, he tries to convince Jane that she’s the reason that everything goes wrong. Ultimately, he tells her that her antidote isn’t working right, which is why she’s hallucinating, so she needs to move now. She has the right location for Ivy. Jane heads out, but is confused as to why she’s so sure of the location.

By this point, Weller has discovered that Jane is missing, so he and Zapata go to find her, and she’s driving to Ivy with Reade riding shotgun to give her confidence in her actions. She arrives at the Ludlow Street Cathedral, about the same time that Patterson and Rich narrow down Thomas’ location, so they alert Weller and Zapata.

Jane hallucinates a bunch of weddings as she enters, with Keaton telling her that her brain is breaking down. She finds Thomas and his crew, and enters into an epic fight with them, culminating in her tossing Thomas out a window to his death. A hallucination of Carter tells her she’s napalm, and when she denies it, Zapata and Weller catch her talking to someone, and Weller knows that the Zip is causing her to hallucinate.

Fortunately, a doctor check-up tells Jane that Patterson’s antidote works fine, but just not enough was administered, so as Weller goes to help the team, Jane gets treated. As the antidote works its way through her system, Jane continues to hallucinate, this time Borden, who tells her that she heard Ivy’s plan, which is why Ivy Zipped her, and the only way to remember was to listen to her hallucinations. Jane rips out her IV at this point, and the doctor tells her that not getting the antidote now was a death sentence, but Jane decides that saving New York was more important.

She heads towards the elevator, and Nas steps out. Jane assumes she’s hallucinating again, but Patterson greets Nas and thanks her for bringing NSA files on Thomas. As they determine that Thomas has retrofitted the bomb to fit into a trash can, Jane follows another hallucination – this time a rabbit – to Shepherd and others, who finally show her where the bomb is – in Times Square.

BLINDSPOT — “Iunne Ennui” Episode 511 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller — (Photo by: Scott McDermott/NBC/Warner Brothers)

The team races to Times Square, but since the bomb could be anywhere, they fan out. Jane starts hallucinating again, seeing people from the past five years, who all point her towards a specific trash can. She looks inside, and sees the bomb. Weller races over, and Patterson and Rich are on comms to help disable the bomb – but they disagree on what wire to cut. As they argue, Jane stumbles, and says she needs the antidote quickly. Finally, an agreement on the wire to cut is reached, and the bomb is disabled.

With the case complete, the team returns to headquarters to a thundering applause. Ivy is in custody, Jane is free of Zip, and every loose end the team had was tied up. As such, the team toasts each other, “to family,” as well as to their fallen comrades – Reade and Mayfair.

Weller finds Jane sitting in the same interrogation room he first talked to her in, and the two decide to go make their life what they want it to be. With that, the team all leave headquarters, boxes in hand, to start the next chapter in their lives.

The episode begins to close with the team celebrating in a chalet. It’s clearly about a year later, as Zapata has her child. Turns out, Weller and Jane are fostering a bunch of kids, Rich and Patterson are indeed searching for the Newtonian device, and Zapata is a private investigator. Weller and Jane look over the whole crew, and Weller comments that it’s a miracle they’re all there. He muses that if they had cut the wrong wire, this dinner never would have happened, and the world would be very different. At his words, Jane flashes back to them cutting the wire on the bomb, but her collapsing, and dying shortly after, while being zipped into a bag in Times Square, leaving her where she was first found. Back in the chalet, Weller asks if she’s ok, and she cautiously agrees.

BLINDSPOT — “Iunne Ennui” Episode 511 — Pictured: (l-r) Ennis Esmer as Rich Dotcom, Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Josh Dean as Boston Arliss Crab — (Photo by: Scott McDermott/NBC/Warner Brothers)

Back to Where We Started

Well, here we are. Five years later, and 100 hours of Blindspot goodness, we’ve made it to the end. Wow.

I really liked the new opening sequence that called back to the pilot, as it really helped to tie everything together. Overall, the episode was pretty good. It was nice to see so many people from the past five seasons, and thank goodness, the team was able to wrap up their final case – even if Ivy was shockingly easy to capture all of a sudden. We were also gifted with one last epic fight scene, and this time it was pretty much one solid shot, which made me think of Netflix’s Daredevil fight scenes. Unfortunately, it was very easy to tell it wasn’t Jaimie Alexander doing the scene, but it was still cool.

However, we need to talk about that ending. I am really not a fan of ambiguous endings, because to me, that means the writers/creators had no idea how to actually end the show, so they just threw something out there so they could say, “It’s up to the fans!” It’s such a copout, and not appreciated by most people. Sure, this allows people to believe whatever they want, but if you have this much time to close a show, just close it already.

I do appreciate Rich’s comment that he and Patterson looking for the Newtonian could be a weekly adventure series, because, I would fully support that, and hopefully that was a subtle way for creator Martin Gero to set up a spinoff.

But alas, that’s the end of our team. It was a fun ride, and I’m so happy to have spent my past five years with them. And on a personal note, it’s been so much fun recapping these episodes with you all. Thanks so much for reading, and I can’t wait to hear what you all thought of the finale!