BLINDSPOT Season 3 Finale Review: “In Memory”

BLINDSPOT — “In Memory” Episode 322 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Bros.)

BLINDSPOT REVIEW: “IN MEMORY” 

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Ok Blindspotters, we’ve officially made it to the end of season three.

Last week’s episode brought Shepherd back into Jane’s life, seemingly for the last time as Jane is fully ready to move on from her past. However, her past still keeps showing up in the form of Roman, who did his best to gun Jane down as she rushed to save two foreign diplomats Roman needed to get rid of to help Crawford’s pipeline. But the episode primarily was a set up for the ultimate battle between Roman and Jane, so where does tonight’s finale leave us? Let’s recap to find out.

Shocking Betrayals

Tonight’s episode, “In Memory” begins with Roman on the phone. He says, “it was all leading to this,” but we’re left hanging there as the episode flashes back a few hours. We catch up with Reade and Zapata the morning after they get together, and there’s a break in the tattoo cases, but Reade can’t discuss it with Zapata since technically, she’s no longer on the team.

At headquarters, Rich and Patterson brief the team, letting them know that Roman was quoting The Count of Monte Cristo in his video. This leads them to a website that has a map of the world divided into 3×3 squares. When three words are entered, a corresponding part of the map appears, so they believe that Roman is pointing them to a specific location, but they’re not sure where as of yet.

Roman meanwhile, is dealing with Crawford who is not too happy he screwed up his mission. Crawford traces the call, locating where Roman is hiding, and heads out, despite Blake’s protests. The FBI team mobilizes to stop him after Patterson and Rich are alerted to Crawford’s actions, but as they move in, they find Blake in the car, not Crawford. Jane meanwhile, passes out after a debilitating headache, but when she wakes up as Weller comes to find her, she lies about what happened, saying her comms gave out.

At headquarters, Rich and Patterson tell the team that they were able to correspond some hidden numbers found on Jane to pages and word numbers in The Count of Monte Cristo, but they need a rare first edition of the original French book for everything to work. Fortunately, Rich is there to save the day, and finds a copy on the Dark Web. Additionally, Zapata signs her exit papers, and tells Reade that she’s off to find out what will happen at the CIA. But before she goes, she lets him know that they can’t be together, because it’s just the wrong time. Weller and Jane meanwhile, interrogate Blake, and dangle a deal for Roman in front of her to find out where Crawford is – which is Cape Town, South Africa.

With the book now in hand, the team discovers that the words needed are “Thousand Life King” which also points to Cape Town, South Africa, so the team heads off to find both Roman and Crawford, where Roman has already found, and tranqued Crawford. Once in Cape Town, the team finds the location the map was pointing them to, and it was the house where Roman and Jane grew up before their parents were murdered and they were sent to the orphanage.

BLINDSPOT — “In Memory” Episode 322 — Pictured: Ashley Johnson as Patterson — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Bros.)

Speaking of the orphanage, Crawford wakes up there, tied to a chair, and Roman has dropped the Tom act. Why? Turns out, it was Crawford who built the orphanage where Roman and Jane grew up, creating it as a test site for raising soldiers who weren’t loyal to any one specific country, but that lead to torture and abuse. And Roman wants Crawford to pay. Not one to be taken easily, Crawford tries to appeal to Roman by mentioning Blake, but the two are interrupted when the FBI shows up. Roman is able to escape with help from Crawford, who ends up taking three bullets to the chest, courtesy of Jane.

With the team busy with Crawford, Roman meets up with Blake, who has also made her way to South Africa. He intends to tell her everything, but can’t get the words out. As he continues to stumble, he suddenly realizes she called him Roman, right before she shoots him in the stomach, just like in his dreams. She lets him know that someone she trusts told her about him, and since he destroyed her family, she leaves him to die.

Before he does however, Jane finds him, and sits with him as his life drains away. She points out that it’s a beautiful place to die, giving him some sense of peace at the end.

Back in New York, Jane is upset about losing Roman, and Weller is in a lot of pain himself from being shot in South Africa. Patterson interrupts the two to let them know the thumb drive Roman gave Jane before he died was locked. Fortunately, Jane knew the password, and they find that the drive contains a lot of tattoo information, including clues and answers.

However, somewhere else in the world a plot is burning to once again thwart the team. Blake is flying on a private plane, thanking someone for giving the information about Roman. The camera pans to the person, and it’s our very own Zapata who seems to be very evil, and fully prepared to take a not-too-sure Blake along for the ride of “taking the power back.”

BLINDSPOT — “In Memory” Episode 322 — Pictured: (l-r) Rob Brown as Edgar Reade, Ennis Esmer as Rich Dot Com — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Bros.)

At the same time, Jane passes out again, and ends up in the hospital. Patterson calls Weller to come in to headquarters, where she and Rich explain that Jane is being poisoned by the drugs used to wipe her memory. Roman had been suffering from the same thing, and on the thumb drive, had been trying to find a cure since the poisoning could lead to memory lapses and other not great things.

Jane wakes up in the hospital (on today’s actual date! 5/18/18), and seems confused. After looking at her FBI badge, she makes a phone call, referring to herself as Remi. She explains that she’s still undercover with the FBI, but she’s missing a lot of time. Once off the phone, she’s told that Weller was in between surgeries after some complications that arose from the gunshot wound, but she doesn’t seem to really know who Weller is.

Once in Weller’s room, she hugs Patterson and sits next to Weller, but doesn’t seem to recognize him. She plays it cool however, and we flash back to Remi with Shepherd, plotting for Remi to infiltrate the FBI and take them down from within. Since it appears that the poison in her body has wiped all memories from the past few years, Jane is now once again Remi, and is fully intent on taking down the FBI.

Where do we go from here?

True to typical Blindspot season finales, this episode was non-stop from beginning to end, so overall, this episode was fantastic and deserves another watch to catch things that are missed during the shocking twists presented.

So let’s talk about those shocking twists. First, obviously, Jane now as Remi. So, this definitely sets up for a lot of interesting storylines. Such as, will she be able to get Shepherd out of jail by using some sort of excuse that she’s needed for a case? How long before people will find her out? Is she going to try to resurrect Sandstorm? How will she deal with Avery? Etc. But, on the other hand, seriously Blindspot writers? Jane and Weller will be torn apart again? Enough already. Can you not find a way to make the show interesting with them happily together? You’re able to do a string of several episodes that way, so why not a full season? This is getting tiresome.

The other biggest shock is clearly Zapata. Again, really? I’m assuming she turned after the FBI kicked her out the first time, and somehow she hooked up with Roman. It would make sense that she’s the one on the other end of the call that Roman makes, telling the person he held up his end of the bargain, so the money is all hers. So why did she double cross Roman, and bring Blake in on everything? And if she had always been working with Roman, why was she on Roman’s hit list from Crawford? Wouldn’t have Roman somehow made sure that Zapata was left off the list? Or was this incident the catalyst for Zapata to turn on him by connecting with Blake? At least this whole storyline means that we’ll get to see more of Tori Anderson, who wasn’t given a great character storyline this season, but absolutely made the best of it. She worked well with Luke Mitchell, and it’s too bad the two won’t be together next season, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what Tori can do with Audrey Esparza.

I was also happy to see that some humor was injected into this episode. All of these actors have worked together long enough that the chemistry is there, and they can really play off of each other well. The humor really works in this show, and hopefully continues to be there next season.

But speaking of next season, we have awhile to wait until we’re there, so in the meantime, start building those theories of what’s going to happen! Thanks so much for reading this season. Can’t wait to catch up with you all in the fall. Until then!