BLINDSPOT “The Quantico Affair” Review

BLINDSPOT — “The Quantico Affair” Episode 403 — Pictured: (l-r) Ron Brown as Edgar Reade, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Bros)

“THE QUANTICO AFFAIR” REVIEW

BY PAULINE PERENACK

A Look Behind the Scenes

Last week on Blindspot, Rich Dotcom’s ex-boyfriend Boston joined the team to help take down a Russian con man, who was posing as an underground NSA division head. Jane/Remi was able to get intel from the mystery man that could lead to Shepherd, while Zapata found herself much deeper with HCI than she expected when she was forced to clean up after Madeline kills Crawford’s lawyer.

Quantico Recruits with the Assist

Tonight’s episode, “The Quantico Affair” begins in London with Zapata, who is not too happy with the situation she’s found herself in with Madeline. Zapata’s run/thought train is interrupted by Madeline calling her with an “opportunity.” However, the episode doesn’t stick with that too long, and shifts back to the conclusion of last week’s action, with Remi/Jane holding a needle full of poison, as her hallucination of Roman tells her to kill Weller.

However, instead of killing Weller, Remi/Jane says the poison is for her when things get too bad with her disease. Weller gets emotional about how much he needs Jane, while Remi/Jane (and us viewers) can only roll her eyes at Weller’s emotion.

Patterson meanwhile, is in the middle of a serious make out session with a guy named Lincoln, to the point of waking up the next morning beside him. As Lincoln gets ready to leave, he asks Patterson for her number, but she declines, saying it was fun, but this was it.

Her one night stand turned super fun morning makes her late for work, during which the rest of the team learns of the death of Crawford’s lawyer from Weitz. Worse yet, Zapata has been identified as the killer. Reade refuses to believe it, but Weitz drops the tidbit of knowledge that the CIA had been blackmailing Zapata due to her gambling debts, and she was giving classified information about Jane to Tom Carter. This new information about their friend has the team questioning who she really is, while Weitz reminds them that Zapata is now the key to unlocking HCI.

They can’t take too long to process the information as the latest tattoo case is calling. Rich briefs the team quickly and efficiently, skipping the typical Patterson explanation, and gives the team an address to a location downtown where a domestic terrorist is hiding. Patterson finally makes it in as the team is heading out, and is upset she missed the briefing, especially since the terrorist is a serial bomber. Rich reminds her that if she wanted to do the briefing, she should have shown up on time.

Patterson doesn’t have time to dwell on Rich’s comment, as she and Rich are due to brief new recruits from Quantico in a few minutes. She even refuses to talk to Rich about a “book of secrets” which if found, could hold the cure for Jane’s disease. Patterson and Rich introduce themselves to the recruits – one of whom is Lincoln, which completely throws Patterson. And to make things even worse, it turns out that Lincoln is Weitz’s nephew. But, she can’t dwell on the latest piece of information, as Madeline Burke walks into headquarters, offering HCI files as a peace offering.

Soon after Madeline’s appearance, Weller, Jane, and Reade return from tracking down the bomber, and are covered with paint and feathers, courtesy of a bomb they got caught up in. Regardless, they were able to make the arrest, and got the bomber’s phone. Rich works with the recruits to pull the data from it, and discovers that there’s another bomber on the loose by the name of Larry Mills. Mills has a 1000 pounds of explosives and the team heads out to find him at the hotel where he works.

For the second time this episode, as a viewer, we don’t head out with the team. Rather, we stay with Rich and Patterson at headquarters. In fact, throughout the hour, which is clearly a bottle episode, instead of going out in the field, we stay at headquarters seeing what Rich and Patterson typically get up to. This time, they once again talk about the Book of Secrets. Patterson is against it, but it’s something Rich has been searching for for years.

The tip to crack the tattoo case open comes from the HCI files, which lead the team to Mills and his target, which is a competing tech company to HCI. With help from the recruits, Rich and Patterson are able to figure out that Mills is planning to use the subway lines to bomb the tech building. Lincoln is able to track down the right train that holds the bomb, and Jane and Reade jump on board as Patterson shuts it down. However, the emergency brake is overridden, trapping them on the train.

The recruits and Patterson determine that the bomb is on the roof of the train, and Jane goes up to see it. After sending pictures of it back to Rich, Patterson says the only way to diffuse it is to reprogram it which requires typing in a bunch of code. Jane is able to do it just in time, and with the help of Patterson who stands up for herself against Weitz, everyone is saved.

The team returns to a rousing applause, and even Remi seems affected by it. They all head into the conference room where Madeline is on TV at a press conference, saying she believes her coming forward with HCI files is what helped the FBI stop the threat. Predictably enough, Madeline set up the whole thing, and Zapata isn’t happy about being kept in the dark.

As the day winds down, Lincoln waits for Patterson to tell her he’s been assigned to the LA office, but she invites him over for one last good time. And since she’s in a good mood, she agrees to help Rich find his book of secrets, but only if it stays between the two of them.

Back at Casa Jeller, Jane is still hallucinating, and fakes annoyance at Weller who tossed her poison. She says she needs some air, but in reality, meets up with someone, with whom she makes a deal that will be delivered later. Unbeknownst to her, Weller is there watching the whole scene and calls it in, telling someone that they “need to talk about Jane.”

Book of Secrets

My prayers were answered, and we were given an episode that focused on the amazing chemistry between Patterson and Rich Dotcom. Ashley Johnson and Ennis Esmer were given a lot to play with, and they delivered in spades. And the fact that those two both manage to sneak in easter eggs in episodes (anyone catch Patterson’s Critical Role mug?) makes you just want to watch more. The episode moved really quickly, and they easily kept the flow going, delivering their lines at a speed that rivals Lauren Graham in Gilmore Girls. I said it before that they would be the ones who would solve whatever it is going on with Jane, and this episode seems to confirm that suspicion with Rich’s ‘Book of Secrets’. I’m really looking forward to see what happens with that.

Mercifully, I think the episodes of Weller tearing up over Jane might finally be coming to an end. Weller’a character has really deteriorated this season, but hopefully now that he’s on to the fact that there’s something going on with Jane, he might slowly start becoming the tough FBI agent we all know and love again.

Finally, the whole Madeline/Zapata storyline is progressing slowly, but so far, that’s ok. We really need to get the Remi/Jane thing figured out so then we can focus on only one baddie rather than two. Until next week!