BLINDSPOT “Warning Shot” Review

BLINDSPOT — “Warning Shot” Episode 313 — Pictured: Luke Mitchell as Roman — (Photo by: Barbara Nitke/NBC)

BLINDSPOT “WARNING SHOT” REVIEW

BY PAULINE PERENACK

Welcome Back, Nas

Welcome back Blindspotters! It’s been a while since our favorite team graced our screen, and last we saw them, there were so many things happening at once. First, Avery was finally brought in and questioned, and it was discovered that Hank Crawford had a part in her father’s death, so she was out looking for him. While initially reluctant, she decided to have faith in Jane to find Crawford, and ended up being stuck in an FBI safe house.

Meanwhile, a captive Hirst warned Zapata about Crawford. At the same time, Roman found himself close to being exposed to Crawford, but his cunning planning enabled him to throw the blame on Vic, who ended up at the wrong end of Crawford’s knife. With Roman fully ensconced in Crawford’s trust, he was given a new assignment – kill every single member of our favorite FBI team.

So does he start his new assignment right away? Let’s recap to find out.

The Dark Party

Tonight’s episode, “Warning Shot” begins with a typical Blindspot opening sequence. An NSA agent, Betty, ignores a birthday celebration happening in the other room as she focuses on her mission. Using pieces of various bobbleheads sitting on her desk, she’s able to fashion together a keycard, which she then uses to enter a secure room. Once out, she slides something into the bottom of her shoe, takes a pill out of her pocket, bites into it, starts to convulse, and drops to the floor. Paramedics carry her out, and we shift over to our team.

Zapata is at Reade’s apartment grilling Meg about why she’s turning down a month long gig for a story. Meg finally admits she’s undocumented, so can’t leave the country. This declaration ultimately results in a short storyline that reveals Reade had asked his contact at the State Department to help with Meg’s immigration status, but his contact came up short.

Jane meanwhile, is up early working on a sketch of Avery. She’s upset that Avery wants nothing to do with her, and Weller tries to console her. They’re interrupted however by a knock at the door. It’s Nas, who says she needs their help in something that is related to one of Jane’s tattoos.

At headquarters, Nas reveals she has discovered it was Hank Crawford who was the initial funder of Sandstorm. Guess we now know why Roman is so interested in Crawford. Also though, Nas admits she’s been freelancing for Keaton at the CIA. When everyone looks to Zapata, she denies knowing anything about it. Finally, Nas briefs the team on an NSA office being breached, and Negral, a very dangerous computer virus was stolen. And the keycard of Negral? It has an image on it that just so happens to be a tattoo on Jane.

Patterson and Rich Dotcom leap into action, and quickly learn that Negral is trending. When they dig deeper, they find a video of a cargo ship, which blows up as they watch. Rich notices a calling card in the video, and they zero in on well-known hacker, Pop Up Kid. Patterson is then able to connect Pop Up Kid to Betty, but finds out that Betty isn’t the hacker’s real name, but rather, it’s Delilah.

After more research, the two are able to find an auction for the Negral device, but learn it has already been sold to a company called Tropic Song, LLC, which had just been cyberhacked, and a lot of money stolen from them. Patterson tracks the hacker to a 16 year old kid, who is a middleman for a bunch of Iranian terrorists wanting the device. Realizing he isn’t as protected as he thought he was, the kid tells the team he has a burner phone that Delilah was going to call him on to complete the sale.

Zapata meanwhile catches up with Nas and thanks her for not blowing her cover about knowing about Nas working for the CIA. Nas brushes off the thanks, and instead asks if Patterson had discovered Project Dragonfly yet (remember Zapata’s worry about the Dragonfly tattoo at the beginning of the season?). Zapata says she hasn’t, and Nas reminds her that when they do find out, they won’t like Zapata very much.

The team has managed to get the burner phone, and when it rings, Rich answers as himself, and Delilah of course knows who he is. He sets up a meeting to purchase the device at a Dark Web party he’s been trying to get into all episode, but is constantly denied by Reade.

Once at the party, the team manages to find Delilah, but they’re also found by Sho Akhtar, a criminal from their past, who instantly recognizes them. He’s there to steal the Negral. The team manages to find the location of the device, but Sho beats them to it, and makes his escape. Jane takes chase and a fight ensues, and for once, she loses her man, and Sho escapes entirely on an ATV. Luckily though, Jane took the device from his pocket, and all is well.

Back at headquarters, Nas says goodbye to the team, but not before stealing the Negral herself to buy her way back into the NSA. Jane heads out to meet Avery for coffee, and Reade finally takes the plunge and asks Meg to marry him. Weller is relaxing at home when his phone rings, and it’s Nas. She tells him that she’s discovered that Avery’s father did a lot of work with Crawford, and it wasn’t all above board. When Weller sees the information Nas sends along, it seems as though they’ll all be even more intertwined with Crawford than ever before.

Additionally, we learn that Roman and Blake are in Brazil to take part in a card game with a person Blake’s family has known for a while. Roman goes as her body guard, and is called out for being in love with her. Blake purposely tanks the card game, only to be invited to some sort of after party. As they all head to the party, they’re ambushed by masked men, and Blake is kidnapped as Roman tries to fight them off.

Shifting Allegiances

Tonight’s episode didn’t seem to have the “wow” factor that usually comes from episodes that air immediately after a long break. However, any episode with Rich Dotcom is always better because of his presence. Thankfully, he’s allowed to be himself, and as usual, gets the best lines of the night.

The best part of this episode was Nas. I never liked her character when she was a series regular, but as a guest star tonight, she was fantastic. Suddenly there’s more intrigue to Zapata’s storyline (which we really need already) and she was able to tie up some loose ends of other storylines – ie that Crawford funded Sandstorm, which explains why Roman has targeted him. Additionally, it seems as though she’s playing the team – just as Zapata is – which makes you wonder what exactly the CIA wants with Jane’s tattoos.

Speaking of Roman, it would have been nice to have more of his storyline in tonight’s episode. I know that a lot of people aren’t loving his storyline, but I’ve been enjoying it, and seeing him lose his focus as he spends more time with Blake. Now that she’s been kidnapped, it’ll be interesting to see how he’s able to balance getting her back, with trying to stay in Crawford’s good graces, which at this point, could only happen by carrying out his mission to kill Jane, Weller, and co. Is this the point where everything falls off the rails? Guess we’ll have to wait until next week to find out. Until then!