Saturday, October 27, 2018

Blindspot 4x03 Review: "The Quantico Affair" (Work Wife) [Contributor: Jen]


"The Quantico Affair"
Original Airdate: October 26, 2018

Martin Gero must have heard my angry typing last week when I demanded a storyline for Patterson. We stay with Patterson and Rich Dotcom through a whole case and it makes for a stellar Blindspot episode.

CASE OF THE WEEK


The single best part of "The Quantico Affair" is that we see how Rich Dotcom briefs the team. It's spectacular. Long story short, the Michelangelo tattoo led to the Michelangelo bomber. Rich skips all the boring "here's how I solved it" details and sends the team out with a location. I want this every week.


The Michelangelo bomber slips from FBI grasp by triggering a self-destruct protocol that blows his house sky high. Paint cans buffered Reade, Kurt, and Remi from the blast, and they come back looking like they just played a few rounds of paintball. Hilarious.

They interrogate the bomber, but he lawyers up quickly. Rich finds a text on the bomber's broken phone which leads to his partner, Larry. Rich sends the team out again while skipping the details again. Rich Dotcom, you are my king and country, sir. Where you go, so goes my nation.

Larry was a combat engineer with a federal explosives license for demolition explosives. He purchased 1,000 pounds of explosives a year ago and Patterson quickly deduces that Larry is going to blow up the hotel where he works. Okay, maybe the details are important.

The bomb squad is waiting at the hotel, which — as Rich explains — never happens. "They are normally stuck in traffic or something. They're the worst." Oh Blindspot, I do so love when you wink and nod at us with your beloved plot contrivances — especially because you are going to use this one in about ten minutes.

Madeline Burke, a.k.a. the "Sorceress of all Evil," makes a surprise appearance at FBI headquarters. Sure, Madeline, come right in and check out the super secret tattoo murder board. She informs the FBI she is ushering in a new era of "transparency," and hands over evidence to the FBI. The evidence leads directly to, you guessed it, the Michelangelo bombers. They were operatives of Crawford's who were in hiding, awaiting instructions. Since Crawford is dead, they remained dormant. Burke activated the bombers and set off the threat, so she could swoop in and play the hero with the press and garner some good publicity.

The hotel is clear, but there is unrestricted tunnel access underneath it. Larry has loaded the explosives onto one of the subway trains. Unfortunately, the bomb squad is stuck in traffic — wink, wink — so it's up to "Jane" to stop the bomb. This is something Blindspot has done dozens of times before, so of course we know Remi will diffuse the bomb. The best part of this particular bomb threat, however, is Patterson telling Weitz off.

She says: "You're not the bad guy. You're the director. This is on you. That's the job. But you don't have to do it alone. I know I'm asking for a lot, and the casualty numbers don't tip in my favor, but you're new here and I've been doing this for years. And I am telling you Jane is gonna defuse this bomb in time."

The point of this delightful episode is to show us that while the field team gets all the glory, the real work is done behind the scenes with Patterson's and Rich's tech squad. It is a refreshing change of pace for Blindspot and showcases two of their strongest characters. MORE OF THIS PLEASE.

TEAM BLINDSPOT


Patterson has one night stand with a very cute guy. She gives a fake name and sends him on his way. No harm no foul, right? WRONG. One Night Stand happens to be a guy named Lincoln — one of the Quantico recruits shadowing Patterson and Rich for the day. HAAAAA. This is how Derek and Meredith began on Grey's Anatomy. Oh, and it gets better: Lincoln also happens to be Director Weitz's nephew.


I cackled, and I'm not even sorry about it; this is too much fun. Rich calls Lincoln "Slab of Man-Ham" and thus it shall be his name forevermore. #shippingit "Why would I say anything?" Rich asks her. "I'm very thrilled for you. It's really unprofessional. I think that's what thrills me the most, actually."

Rich and Patterson are the perfect work wife/husband team. And yes, Rich is the work wife. They spend the rest of the hour bantering while saving New York City (again) and bickering about the "Book of Secrets." I am Team Rich on this one. It's called the Book of Secrets. Of course they have to find it!

Patterson eventually agrees. She and Rich decide they are ride or die on this particular project. They tell no one just so they don't get Jane's hopes up. Patterson and Rich's "ride or die" promise extends so much further though. It's clear they are becoming each other's go-to person, and watching this friendship develop has been one of Blindspot's highlights.

Weitz tells the team that Tasha Zapata is alive and she's wanted for the murder of Kira Evans. I told you her death was going to lead to big trouble! Reade does his best to defend Zapata, but Weitz unloads all of Tasha's secrets. A lot of this was news to Team Blindspot and they were sufficiently shocked. To be fair, Zapata hasn't kept any more secrets than the rest of the team has, but it's not a great pattern. She's just better at keeping secrets than the others.

"Makes you wonder what else we didn't know about her," Remi says.

Ah, yes, Jane a.k.a. Remi a.k.a. double-secret-agent-who-told-so-many-lies-over-the-years-I-can't-keep-them-straight-anymore should cool it with the condemnation, but she's evil so what can I expect?

Zapata didn't know Burke triggered the bombers, so it really makes me wonder who is controlling whom here? So far I am not impressed with Zapata's handle on the situation. She is in way over her head.

KURT AND JANE


We pick up immediately after the end of last week's episode. Remi is hiding the lethal syringe she's planning to kill Kurt with behind her back. Roman — the crazy voice in Remi's head — says: "He knows. This is it. Kill him" I know Blindspot is trying to increase the dramatic tension when Roman says stuff like this, but it does the direct opposite.

Remi comes up with another good lie (she is really good at this) and tells Kurt the syringe is her "final solution" for when things get bad. Kurt gets all emotional and begs "Jane" to reconsider — which she won't because she's evil and needs her husband-killing syringe. Kurt goes into protective husband overdrive and throws the syringe out. Remi is really mad, but can't she just make more syringes? I don't get it.

What's really a bummer is Kurt is turning out stellar Jeller moments week after week, but we can't really enjoy them because it's not really Jane on the receiving end. The man was crying and telling Jane that she is his life. This is torture, writers! Make it stop!

Remi leaves to meet with another contact, but Kurt follows her. He takes pictures of the person she meets with and then calls Patterson. Of course, I am leaping immediately to the conclusion that he knows (which would be fantastic if Kurt does know, because this cat and mouse game will get old. But we're only in episode three, so I don't want to get too excited. It's possible Kurt thinks this is all part of Jane's deterioration and still doesn't realize she's Remi).

It would be fantastic though if Weller has the jump on Remi. She's been overly-confident in her manipulation of Kurt, and even though she's doing a great job impersonating Jane it's still an impersonation. Kurt is going to figure it out eventually. It would be super fun if Kurt could turn flip this cat and mouse game in his favor for a few episodes.

Isn't it interesting though that when Roman is urging Remi to kill Kurt in the kitchen, she is unable to do it? Even the evil side of Jane Doe is in love with Kurt Weller.

Stray Thoughts:
  • Zapata has a very interesting running stride. Sorry I was in cross country. That stuff interests me
  • I'm gonna need someone on Team Blindspot to pick up on Remi's side eye.. Y'all are FBI agents for goodness sake.
  • I don't actually know what Patterson's name is, but I feel confident it is not Lisa.
  • "Thundercats, ho!" OMG was that an ad lib?
  • How does Weitz maintain employment? This may be the greatest of all Blindspot's mysteries.
  • Patterson, girl, Jane is never that cranky with you when she's diffusing bombs. SOMEBODY NOTICE PERSONALITY CHANGES, PLEASE!
  • Rich's Woody the Woodpecker laugh to describe Roman was hilariously on point.
  • Lincoln: "I did a lot of math in my head." Patterson: "Oh, well, that's where math is done." Oh yes, this is the man for our Patterson.

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