Friday, May 31, 2019

Blindspot 4x21 Review: "Masters of War 1:5 - 8" (You Lose, Team Blindspot) [Contributor: Jen]


"Masters of War 1: 5 - 8"
Original Airdate: May 31, 2019

"Masters of War 1:5 - 8" kicks off Blindspot's season four finale fun. The team is chasing their tails a bit as they struggle to figure out what Madeline has planned with Helios. However, the cliffhanger is something that has never happened in the history of Blindspot.

CASE OF THE WEEK


Patterson says: "Madeline is in jail, her goons aren't, and we still don't know Helios is." Rich replies: "Ta-da!"

Everyone caught up now? The new interdepartmental database gives the team a location on one of Madeline's goons, Barry Wallace. They head to a house in Queens where they find Barry and Keaton.

Wait. Keaton?

Team FBI wants to know what Team CIA is doing with one of Madeline's henchmen. Keaton explains he was monitoring old CIA communications protocols when he got a hit. Someone started using them again, but he couldn't decipher it. He followed the source and ended up at the house.

Barry Wallace's real name is Barry Cornyn. He was CIA before he went rogue. Team Blindspot agrees to go halvsies with Keaton on the interrogation of Cornyn, but Dominic's henchmen take him out with a rocket launcher before anyone has a chance to question him. The upside is that we get to watch a very cool car stunt in slow motion. Apparently the budget is increased for season finales.

How did Dominic know Cornyn was made? Lucas Nash, the CIA agent who trained Barry Cornyn, tipped him off. Nash is also the new Director of National Intelligence so Madeline's fox in the hen house is from very high up on the food chain.

The team tracks Dominic to Bellmore University. The CIA used it as a cover for secret ops. It's where Barry was recruited and trained, but there's no longer a CIA presence there. There is, however, a world-renowned biomedical science lab. Team Blindspot believes Helios is a biological agent Madeline plans to unleash on the world.

That is until they bring in Erin Sandler, a PhD candidate in biomedical science who was working with Dominic to create the virus. Dominic told Erin she was working for the CIA. So when Erin discovers that was a lie, she is ready to spill the beans to avoid jail time and, of course, global destruction.

The virus is not biological; it's a computer virus. Erin is also a computer science major. Talk about your high achiever. Dominic told her the CIA was going to use her virus as a case study to protect the world from the most dangerous malware. So she created the most dangerous malware ⁠— Helios. It can cripple any kind of security and then destroy entire systems.

The team tracks Dominic's phone to its last location where they find a body of an employee who works for the New York Independent Operations Control. He's part of a team which monitors the U.S. power grid. Unleashing Helios on the grid will plunge the United States into chaos.

Unfortunately Team Blindspot is too late, which has never happened in the history of this show. Kurt, Jane and company always save the day. But Patterson is unable to stop the virus and all of New York City — and the whole country (I think) — goes black. It's back to the Stone Age.

It was a cool twist that the team loses. It will make for a more interesting finale if they are the underdog and Madeline has the upper hand. That said, it's tough to get too stressed out over the power grid. Sure, if it's going to last any longer than 45 minutes maybe we'd have something to worry about. But Blindspot isn't going to keep the show on Day Zero forever.

TEAM BLINDSPOT


Why is everyone lying to Reade? Seriously I don't get it. Reade is suspicious of Kurt and Weitz's uneasy alliance and he wants to know what's going on. He even calls Eleanor Hirst to find out why Kurt came to see her.

Weitz has threatened to expose Jane's terrorist relapse if Kurt exposes Weitz for fabricating evidence and then using a drone strike to cover it up. Both Kurt and Jane are hoping Weitz will be the new Director of National Intelligence and just go away. However, that doesn't happen and now they're stuck with him.

I understand why Kurt is protecting Jane. He doesn't want his wife to go to jail. However, Kurt himself said that if Jane goes down then the whole team could be facing prison time for covering up her criminal activities as Remi. This includes Reade. So it makes zero sense as to why Kurt and Jane aren't cluing Reade in to what is going on with Weitz. Do they honestly think Reade would want to get Weitz at the expense of Jane's freedom? Or his own? Or the team? Come on.

If the writers want to break the team apart with lies, I just wish they would've come up with something better than this illogical one. Reade tells Jane that he trusts Kurt and he's worried about him, but clearly that's not the case. It takes all him all of five seconds to become distrustful of Kurt because Reade knows how this show works.

It's fair: Kurt is lying to him. This team has a long history of hiding the truth from each other. But everyone comes clean in the end and then we're on to the next lie. Lies don't have a lot of weight in this show because they are so frequent. We're supposed to be worried the team will break apart, but if they didn't break apart because of the 13,343 other lies told over the course of four seasons, why would this particular one be any different?

Reade's distrust of Kurt ends up splashing over to Zapata. He's not certain Tasha is telling him everything either. Tasha is legitimately clueless about anything going on with Weitz and Kurt. She's told Reade over and over that she has his back forever. Granted, Tasha has lied to Reade A LOT this season, but this really boils down to one thing: Reade either forgives Tasha or he doesn't. Reade either trusts Tasha or he doesn't. He needs to decide.


KURT AND JANE


What I need from these two is for them to shush it. Stop talking about how lucky you are! Have Kurt and Jane ever watched a television show? Characters do not tempt the fates with discussions about how amazing their life is. This puts a bullseye on their backs for the writers, who love nothing more than to obliterate any and all joy from their lives.

Kurt is lamenting that he won't be able to see Bethany for another three weeks. FINALLY, WE KNOW THE CUSTODY ARRANGEMENT. Was that information so difficult to share with your audience, Blindspot writers? No it wasn't.

Kurt worries that Bethany is getting old enough now to notice when he's not there and he doesn't want to miss out on her life. Jane says they can move up their timetable for the return to Colorado. But first they have to save the world from Madeline and keep Jane out of jail.

Hopefully the writers don't obliterate all their joy. Jane was evil for half the season, then she almost died. We've suffered enough.

Stray Thoughts:

  • I'm still only moderately interested in Brianna and what she stole from Kurt and Jane's safe.
  • Jane's relationship with Keaton is still very tense. I love that the writers have never forgotten that he tortured her.
  • I miss Kurt being Assistant Director.
  • The interrogation scenes with Madeline were really boring.

0 comments:

Post a Comment