BLINDSPOT “The Tale of the Book of Secrets” Review

BLINDSPOT — “The Tale of the Book of Secrets” Episode 412 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC/Warner Brothers)

BLINDSPOT “THE TALE OF THE BOOK OF SECRETS”

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Off to Peru!

Last week on Blindspot we got to see the team through the eyes of a fictional novelist and how he depicted them in his manuscript, as they worked to solve his murder. As they worked however, Jane’s zip poisoning progressively got worse, eventually leaving her in the hospital, where she suffered a grand mal seizure.

A Puzzle Mystery to Solve

Tonight’s episode, “The Tale of the Book of Secrets” begins with Jane being wheeled back into her room, and she’s angry about still being blind. Rich and Patterson are there to tell Jane that they have one possible last lead. A hypochondriac billionaire, Ken Li, has the Stanton cells Jane so desperately needs.

Patterson and Rich go to meet with Li to see if he’ll give them his Stanton cells, but he refuses to hand over the valuable resource. Thinking on her feet, Patterson asks if Li has ever heard of the Book of Secrets. He has, and is very interested in it. Lying, she says they have the book and will exchange it for the cells. He agrees, but that now means they need to find the book.

Back at headquarters, Reade and Zapata have recruited Boston to go undercover as Del Toro for Zapata’s meeting with Madeline, with the promise of full immunity if he pulls off the mission. He readily agrees, and the three begin working on a plan.

Meanwhile, Rich briefs the team using his PowerPoint presentation about the Book of Secrets, and as he talks about three explorers who he believes were searching for the book, Patterson recognizes one of the images in the presentation. It’s an (almost) exact match to an image in one of Roman’s data caches. Patterson overlays the two images, and she and Rich are able to find a pattern, which points them to the doors of the Cusco Cathedral in Peru, and more specifically, to a particular section of the building.

Reade sends Patterson and Rich to Peru, while Weller stays with Jane. Posing as tourists, Rich and Patterson head to the cathedral, and when going to the specific part of the building, they find a carved image of snakes. Patterson sends the image to Afreen, who finds a match in a mural at a local B&B. At the B&B, Rich and Patterson manage to con their way into getting a room after pretending to be a couple on their honeymoon. The room they get turns out to be the owner’s father’s old office, and her father was none other than one of the explorers Rich had researched, Alejandro Mendoza.

Once in the room, Rich notices a weather station on the wall that has a mosaic very similar to that of the mural downstairs. Patterson inputs the numbers from the weather gauges, and comes up with a coordinate. The coordinate leads them to the Cristo Blanco statue, where they find a rock etched with 0s and 1s. This makes Patterson think of a file on Roman’s data cache she couldn’t crack. She has Afreen use the lookout point’s coordinates for a password, but there’s a secondary password on the file. Jane is able to figure it out, as the clue for the password led her to the coin she and Roman used to have as kids. Inside the file was a map, and a note to Jane from Roman telling her he hoped she could solve the map.

Rich and Patterson can’t understand the map, but realize they have access to Mendoza’s notes, which Roman never did. Rich finds a map of Machu Picchu which matches the map exactly, so, off to Machu Picchu they go. While they’re there, and after using an app designed by Patterson’s dad, they end up at a sacrificial alter. Rich digs, and they find the Book of Secrets.

Unbeknownst to them, Li has been having them followed, and has flown to Peru to take the book – without giving them the Stanton cells – and ambushes them in their room. However, Weller has gotten wind of Li’s sudden trip, after calling to talk to him, and being told Li had stepped out, which is something a hypochondriac isn’t apt to do. As such, the FBI tracks Li’s cell phone, and contacts the Peruvian police to intervene. Not wanting anything to do with a Peruvian jail, Li agrees to give up the Stanton cells in exchange for a house arrest back in the US. The stem cells are delivered to the hospital, and Jane’s surgery is a success.

The episode ends with Reade giving Rich and Patterson another mission – to track down Zapata and Boston. At the meeting with Madeline, Boston easily passed her test of him, but she knew his real identity. He and Zapata are able to maneuver around that possible roadblock, but they find themselves in a tough spot when Madeline wants to move locations for the hack, and wants to do the hack that night. This change in plans leaves the FBI with little time to figure out where Zapata and Boston are, and ultimately stop the plane crash.

Patterson and Rich: Heroes

Finally we get the test Patterson and Rich spin off episode! Ok, so that’s not actually what this was, but I wish it was. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I would 100% watch a Patterson and Rich spin off. Those two are the best part of this show, and any episode that is devoted to them, is an episode I’m devoted to. The two solving puzzles while racing against the clock in foreign lands is endlessly entertaining, and I enjoyed this whole thing. Their banter is amazing, and the way they’re able to quickly and efficiently figure things out is second to none.

I also highly enjoyed Boston out in the field with Zapata. I feel like these two are Rich and Patterson part two, and we definitely need more of them.

Jane and Weller were essentially the third string story in the episode, but it didn’t matter. The episode didn’t miss them, and the few scenes they did have continued the wonderful chemistry they had last week. I like this couple, and can root for this couple, and for the love of God, Blindspot writers, please don’t rip them apart AGAIN. It’s been every season, and they just need to be together already.

I leave on one question though, how was the hospital able to make the cure for Jane? Didn’t only Dr. Roga have it?

Regardless, Jane is back, she’s saved, and now we can move on to helping Zapata, and taking down HCI. Until next week!