Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Blindspot 4x07 Review: "Case: Sun, Moon and the Truth" (Game On) [Contributor: Jen]


"Case: Sun, Moon and the Truth"
Original Airdate: November 30, 2018

The powder keg that is Kurt and Jane finally exploded in "Case: Sun, Moon and the Truth." The secrets are out. Kurt knows. Remi's ruse is over, but now is finally when things start to get interesting.

KURT AND JANE


I am focusing only on Kurt and Jane because this is a massive Jeller episode. We pick up immediately from where we left off with Kurt confronting "Jane" with all her lies. Amazingly, she still tries to keep her cover going. Remi tells Kurt the woman who shot at him is the Sandstorm operative they've been searching for and she's been running her own operation.

Kurt replies, "I don't know what's worse: the fact that you are still lying to me, or you still think I'll ever believe you."


Kurt Weller is officially no longer Remi's patsy. It's refreshing to see Kurt on defense because he's been played for a fool so long. Unfortunately, Remi is not above low blows to keep her cover going by saying: "Finding out your dad was a killer made it impossible for you to trust anyone. Even your own wife."


I thought this was particularly nasty of Remi and really hit Kurt where it hurts, which is the point of course. We know it's all lies. Kurt is right about her, so it makes me want to scream that she uses his child murdering, pedophile, vile excuse of a father against him.

But this is what Remi has done for months. She's used everything she knows about Kurt Weller against him — particularly his trust and love for Jane. We have witnessed firsthand how Remi's plan was supposed to go: destroy the FBI from within by making Kurt Weller fall in love with her by pretending to be someone she's not.

My only hang-up in this grand scheme is why use the zip? Why not just do what Remi has been doing for months — pretend to be someone Kurt would fall in love with? Maybe there was an explanation in seasons one and two that I've forgotten, but the zip was quite the gamble. It erased everything that made Remi... well, Remi.

What's good about "Case: Sun, Moon and the Truth" is that this is something Kurt and Remi dive into quite extensively. In the middle of their showdown they are interrupted by a neighbor who needs to use their phone. Immediately, we should be nervous because Kurt and Jane don't have normal neighbors. Come on: it's Kurt and Jane.

Of course, they are ambushed and taken hostage by someone named Eve. The $500,000 Remi stole was Eve's money and she wants it back. Remi dodges and weaves, but Eve has her on surveillance camera stealing the money. Rookie move, Remi! This blows the lid off all her lies with Kurt. He remember a person using zip can revert back to their former self in the event of a major trauma... like the one Jane had a few months ago!


REALLY, WRITERS? Kurt knew this all along? He never considered for a second that's what could be going on with all of Jane's strange behavior? I hate when Blindspot throws in convenient plot contrivances to connect their storylines. This just makes Kurt look like even more of an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. My annoyance is tempered by the fact KURT KNOWS. We can finally move on from the main male protagonist being a complete dummy.


Eve forces Kurt and Remi to steal something she wants from the FBI evidence storage unit. She straps bombs to them so they cooperate. However, they are able to go into the storage unit alone when Kurt tips Eve off to the surveillance cameras he installed inside the storage unit when he was Assistant Director of the FBI. I love when Kurt throws his old titles around. It's hot.

This gives Kurt and Remi the chance to block the signal on their bomb vests. They use duct tape. Yeah, you read that right. Remi at least has the common sense to be insanely nervous about this plan, but Kurt is confident because he knows how ops with Jane go. The stuff they come up with always works. 

The two need to work on each other's signals because they cannot reach their own. This puts Remi in uncomfortably close proximity to Kurt Weller. He chooses this moment to ask her why she didn't kill him with the poison in the syringe. Remi doesn't answer, but you can cut the sexual tension with a knife. Jaimie Alexander and Sullivan Stapleton have chemistry that doesn't quit.  One of Blindspot's great strengths is finding new and interesting ways to capitalize on it without the relationship going stale.

They get the six pieces of duck tape on in the nick of time and Eve sets off the bombs.


Remi clings to Kurt for dear life and it's a rare moment when her true feelings rise above her mission. Kurt gently cradles her head in his hand, softly reassuring Remi the way he would Jane, but adding a smug, "And we're not dead." It's his way of sticking it to Remi for her lack of confidence in him, but also subtly acknowledges the way she held onto him. Kurt felt Remi's defenses come down in his arms and they both know it.

Now Kurt is going to use it to his advantage. As they search for the case Eve wants, Kurt and Remi embark on a philosophical discussion of sorts. He's picked up on Remi's rage and how much of it is directed at him. Boy, you ain't kidding, big fella. Kurt would like to know why Remi hates him so much and her answer is very simple: "Everything fell apart because of  you."

She means the Sandstorm operation — the plan to simultaneously end the U..S government and install a new one. Instead of leading Sandstorm to victory, Jane was the primary force leading to its failure and destruction... including the incarceration of her mother and eventual death of her brother.

Kurt is not buying it. Sure, it's a good list of reasons to hate him, but none of them are the real reason. We've watched Remi use everything she knows about Kurt against him all season long. Now it's Kurt's turn to use what he knows about Jane and Remi.

Kurt says: "I was supposed to fall in love with Jane. That was your plan. Things fell apart because Jane fell in love with me. You hate me because I remind you what a failure you are."

This is the "you fell in love with me too, na-na-na-boo-boo" speech. As burns go, it's a solid one. This also answers why Mama Sandstorm used the zip on Remi. If Remi was still Remi — if she retained all her memories — then there was a chance the mission would fail. 

We can only pretend to be someone else for so long. The fear was Kurt Weller would eventually figure it out. He would see through the ruse and the mission would fall apart. Sandstorm's success hinged entirely on Kurt not only believing in who Jane was, but also falling in love with her. There could be no room for error, which meant Remi had to be erased. She had to become someone new. Someone Kurt would fall in love with. It had to be real.

Mama Sandstorm was right to be concerned. She was right to use the zip, because Kurt has seen through the ruse. Remi pretending to be someone else — pretending to be Jane — wasn't enough to fool Kurt. The piece nobody counted on, particularly Remi, was this new person falling in love with Kurt. Remi believed even without her memories she would somehow retain herself. She believed all the training would stay in her mind and body. She was right about one of those. Remi stayed in Jane's body. She recalled all her physical training, but mentally she became someone else. The memories erased who Remi was and allowed for someone else to be born.

What's fascinating about the Jane/Remi character is we are always examining how much of Jane is in Remi and vice versus. Stripping Remi of her memories, her training, and all the garbage Mama Sandstorm poured into her traumatized mind allowed someone new to take hold. The person Remi could have been. The person she's truly meant to be — Jane. 

Remi wants to know why Kurt loves Jane so much. Kurt not only answers her question but explains the central internal battle of our heroine: "She's the strongest person I've ever met and, considering everything that she's been through, she's still compassionate and kind."

Remi is right. The zip made her a blank slate, but Jane wasn't someone Kurt molded. What drove Jane, from minute one, was an intense compassion. In the beginning of the series she was acting off instinct. She had no other means of making decisions because she had no memory to rely on. What is natural and instinctual inside of Jane is kindness, love and selflessness. 

This is why Kurt Weller fell in love with her. I think for both Jane and Kurt it was love at first sight. 


The moment Jane touched Kurt's face, she was reaching for someone to hold onto. She was looking for a place to start and she found it in Kurt. And Kurt found a place to start in Jane. 


We can argue he fell in love with Jane, at first, because Kurt believed she was Taylor Shaw.  Of course, this was always Remi and Sandstorm's plan. However, one reason Kurt believed Jane was Taylor was because he saw all the same goodness. Her goodness isn't erased because Jane wasn't Taylor, nor does it erase why Kurt fell in love with her.

So now that Remi is back, where did those qualities go? If Jane was acting off instinct in the beginning, then goodness is what is innate in Remi... until it was destroyed by her mother. Kurt says: "Jane has exactly what you don't. That's the choice to be whoever she wants to be. You're the one that's been shaped into a weapon. You are exactly who your mother made you to be."

This sums up the entire conundrum that is Remi and why the zip was such a gift. It gave Remi a choice for the first time in her life to be someone else. She chose Jane. The reason Remi hates Kurt Weller so much is because he reminds her of who she can be. Kurt's love and his faith in Jane is a constant mirror reflecting the best parts of Remi in the face of the worst.

Remi wants to know why it took Kurt so long to figure out she is not Jane if the two women are so different. Kurt replies, "Parts of you inside of her that keep her alive. There's nothing of her inside of you."

This is where I disagree with Kurt. I believe this is his anger and betrayal talking. He sees Remi's fight, her will to survive, and even some of her dubious characteristics in Jane. Keep in mind Jane has a habit of lying to Kurt frequently. He can acknowledge Remi lives inside of Jane. He cannot acknowledge Jane lives inside of Remi.

He's wrong. The reason she can't kill Kurt, the reason he felt Jane in his arms as Remi held onto him so tightly, is because Jane lives inside of Remi too. Jane is the best parts of Remi. She is who Remi becomes when you strip away all the rage, violence, and abuse. The memories may be gone, but Remi cannot ignore what is instinctual in her heart. Her goodness is instinct. Her love for Kurt is instinct. Every action she takes is a means to bury those feelings deeper and deeper until they are erased.

Blindspot is continually examining the meaning and impact of memory on our identity. We are our actions. We are our choices. Remi and Jane are completely different people. It is the age old battle of good versus evil. The angel versus the devil. The light versus the dark.

Yet, we know there is grey within us all. Nobody is entirely good or bad. Our identity is not a light switch. The zip may open and close doors for Remi and Jane, but each persona still has free will.
Jane has made the wrong decisions. She has lied, betrayed, and killed. Jane is a good person, but she is not perfect.

As for Remi, there is some part stopping her from killing Kurt Weller, Edgar Reade, Patterson, and Rich Dotcom. She may argue it's tactics and it is to her advantage to allow her husband and friends to live, but we know different. It is love buried deep inside.
Remi: So you did make it out of there. 
Kurt: I think you called because some part of you still cares about me. It's why you locked me in that hallway instead of killing me. There is some part of Jane still inside of you. I'm not giving up on her. 
Remi: Well that's good to hear because as long as you believe that, you can't kill me either. But if I see you again, I won't have that problem.  
Kurt: I will find you. I will not give up on my wife. I will get her back. 
Remi: So then I guess it's game on.
Remi's phone call makes Kurt see the truth. If he wants to save his wife, then Kurt has to see the Jane in Remi just like he sees the Remi in Jane. Patterson and Rich's cure will save Jane/Remi's life, but it's going to be Kurt's love, and the love he sees in Remi, that's will save Jane's soul. Hopefully Kurt gets his wife back before she kills anybody. GAME ON.

Stray Thoughts:

  • Rich and Patterson solve another tattoo and find another of Roman's data caches. It's full of medical research so we are full speed ahead on these two finding a cure for Jane.
  • Zapata is headed to Mexico with Madeleine to convince the cartel to share their computer hacker so they can crash this plane. I am getting bored with this storyline. Zapata is not going to crash a plane so can we move onto something more interesting?
  • Weitz and Reade discover the pilot Zapata and Madeleine uses from documents they obtained from HCI Global. This feels highly stupid of Madeleine and Zapata not to conceal the name of the pilot better, but whatever. Weitz and Reade know she's headed to Mexico and they are going to follow.
  • Madeleine offered Weitz the presidency of HCI Global. I still can't figure out if he's good or bad, but I am leaning toward good.
  • I miss Kurt as the Assistant Director. Can we go back to that please?
  • Is it me or are they putting Zapata in less and less clothes every week? Of course, Audrey Esparza looks amazing, but all these low-cut and silky tops feel very negligee. Are they somehow equating sexy with evil? I don't love that message.
  • $500k is all it takes to run a terrorist organization? Seems low.
  • "Mints of the fifth floor bathroom were enough to sell me. How do they make them spicy hot and minty fresh at the same time?" Rich officially gets all the best lines now.
  • Rich hitting himself with the pickax has me rolling.
  • Do the video cameras not pick up the doors being ripped off? There's a shocking lack of video security at the FBI storage center.
  • I love Weller didn't trust Remi for a second and he blew up the case.

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