'Blindspot' Recap: Circle of Life
Warning: This recap for the “If Love a Rebel, Death Will Render” episode of Blindspot contains character and story spoilers.
The final few minutes of the episode really did turn dark fast, don’t they? We went from Jane rescuing a nursery full of cute babies to the death of Mayfair and the revelation that Kurt’s father is the monster Kurt always thought he was — quite the gamut of emotions.
The Tattoo
A barcode on an infant’s wrist matches a barcode on Jane’s. The baby is left in a bag (just like Jane — are duffels really the most efficient means of carrying tattooed individuals?) and is a genetic match as the child Bryce Warren (Mark Junek), the son of a former presidential candidate.
Related: See the ‘Blindspot’ Cast Clown Around for Red Nose Day
The Plot
FBI Director Pellington (Dylan Baker) tells Weller that he’s looking for Mayfair’s replacement and that he’s shutting down the Jane Doe project. The team talks to the Warrens and find out it wasn’t an affair — their son has cancer and the baby is related to experimental treatments to cure his leukemia. Jane, kicked out of the FBI, surveils the baby and partially foils a kidnapping. She tracks the baby back to the company where the “experimental treatments” — actual babies being raised for harvesting — are kept. The team catches up and exposes the operation. Meanwhile, Mayfair is on the trail of Sofia and discovers Jane at her warehouse meet. Oscar shoots her before she can shoot Jane. Back at Weller’s home, just before dying, his father reveals that he killed the real Taylor Shaw and buried her “under the fort.”
Mayfair
Phase One of the Old Jane Conspiracy, according to Oscar and Sofia, was to remove Mayfair from power — though Oscar killing her doesn’t seem to be part of that plan. If she’s dead dead, is there any way that Jane will be able to work with the team again? Unless it’s proven that Mayfair was much dirtier than just using Project Daylight’s illegal intel, being involved in her death means there’s no way Kurt could even keep her out of prison, much less bring her back to work with him again.
Beyond that, there’s also the very real disappointment of seeing Marianne Jean-Baptiste leave the show. In addition to her great chemistry with the cast and her wonderful combination of gruffness and emotion, she’s also playing a black lesbian in a position of power. There are plenty of straight white dudes ordering people around on nearly every show you care to name — why are we trying to add one more? Come on, Jane! Get her to a hospital already!
From Creep to Father to Creep Again
From start to finish, the story arc involving Kurt and his father has been masterfully played. Kurt’s faith in himself is shaken when it turns out he may have been wrong about his father. They reconcile and Kurt begins to heal decades-old wounds. In his last moments, though, Bill reveals that he has always been the monster Kurt believed him to be and dies, reopening the wounds and guaranteeing that an army of Dr. Bordens won’t be able to fix Kurt’s trust issues now. Sullivan Stapleton mostly plays Kurt Weller as a one-note stoic action hero, because that’s how the scripts come down, but he does a good job of exploring the humanity of his character when he’s given the chance. Maybe with this massive blow to his sense of self, we’ll see more of that.
Blind Thoughts
Dylan Baker is one of those great character actors who can be dropped into a thankless role — like the hardass FBI director who’s always telling the hero to shut an investigation down — and still manages to be watchable. Is it the bureaucrat face with the serial killer voice? Is it the Steve Buscemi eyes? Whatever, it’s good to have him on board.
Boy, those anagram episode titles are getting really rough near the end of the season here.
Kurt is promoted to director of the New York office. That can’t last long, right?
Some great Jane-centric fight sequences this week, including one that ends with Jane stopping her own heart.
Line of the Night: “This is not a game you want to play with me.” That’s a real tough-guy line, but when said immediately after jamming your knife into a guy’s thigh? That’s a real tough-guy line.
Worst Line of the Night: When Pellington tells Jane to surrender her weapon and leave the building, she replies, “You can’t do that.” He’s the director of the FBI! Of course he can do that! It’s practically in the job description! Stop terrorists, gather intelligence, tell people who aren’t the FBI to leave the FBI!
Blindspot airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
