Fangirl Friday: Blindspot TV Show

My favorite new show this year is Blindspot, which premiered on September 21, 2015, and focuses on a mysterious tattooed woman (Jaimie Alexander) who has lost her memory. The FBI discovers that each tattoo contains a clue to a crime they will have to solve. It’s a fast-paced drama with lots of action and intrigue. With every passing day Jane unveils a new skill or a hidden talent without understanding its origin. Who is Jane Doe – is she an asset or an enemy? Who erased her memory? And who is behind the cryptic tattoos?

Once Jane proves herself an asset to the FBI, she is allowed to join the team as they work to decipher the tattoo clues and circumvent numerous evil plots. The team is headed by Bethany Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who has some skeletons in her closet. The lead agent is Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), who’s name is tattooed on Jane’s back. Edgar Reade (Rob Brown), a by-the-book agent, is initially quite suspicious of Jane. Because of a gambling problem, Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparze) is blackmailed into providing information on Jane.  Patterson (Ashley Johnson), the computer genius, is one of my favorite characters. I would say she’s the heart and soul of the team. 

Although Jane’s memory does not return, we are shown brief glimpses of her past, as she experiences flashbacks. A mysterious man, billed as “Ruggedly Handsome Man” on IMDb, lurks in the shadows and seems to know Jane’s true identity. He confronts her and tells her not to trust “them.” Sadly, he meets an early end, but will hopefully reappear in more flashbacks, once more of Jane’s memory returns. She has much more interesting flashbacks about getting it on with a guy who has a tree tattoo on his arm.  At this point, IMDb only has him listed as “Man with Tree Tattoo,” but we finally find out his name is Oscar, and he was engaged to Jane. I really hope the producers are planning a longer story arc for him. I’m still feeling a little bummed about Ruggedly Handsome Man.

For even more fun, the episode titles themselves are anagrams. Below are the titles, along with synopses. 

Episode 1: Woe Has Joined = Who is Jane Doe?

A woman is left naked inside a duffel bag on Times Square, completely covered in recent tattoos, among which is the name of FBI Special Agent Kurt Weller. She suffers from a drug-induced amnesia. At the FBI laboratory, they can neither identify her, nor does Kurt know her, making her a Jane Doe. They also find an older Navy SEAL tattoo that was covered up. One of her tattoos is an address in Chinese characters, leading them to the terrorist Chao. Jane and Kurt stop him, which triggers a memory of Jane running a shooting course supervised by an unknown man (note: who is ruggedly handsome). This man also appears at the hospital to kill Chao. A flashback shows how the same man has given Jane the amnesia drug at her request. A number on Jane's body matches a redacted file of Assistant Director Bethany Mayfair.

Episode 2: A Stray Howl = Taylor Shaw

Patterson has set up a computer program to constantly cross reference Jane's tattoos. It brings up the name Major Arthur Gibson, a pilot who wants to expose a secret domestic drone program. He attains control over an armed drone and kills both his former boss and another pilot who had turned him in as a whistleblower. Gibson intends to destroy the drone program by bombing the pilots' operation center. Patterson locates his signal and Weller and Jane stop him. Jane is haunted by flashbacks of killing a nun and suffers from remorse. She eventually remembers that it was really a disguised soldier from whom she took a USB key. Weller notices a scar on Jane's neck which coincides with a scar of Taylor Shaw, a childhood friend who went missing 25 years ago, and he becomes certain that Jane is Taylor. His father was accused of kidnapping and murdering Taylor which split up their family. At night, Jane is surprised by the mysterious man in her apartment.

Episode 3: Eight Slim Grins = The Missing Girl

When the unknown man in Jane's apartment warns her about the FBI, he is shot by a sniper, which makes Jane suspicious and cautious. The FBI is unable to identify his body. Patterson finds the number of the redacted FBI case file of gang leader Saúl Guerrero, which was led by Mayfair, who pretends not to remember. Casey Robek is injured while robbing a jewelry store. He has the same Navy SEALs tattoo as Jane. When he wakes up in the hospital after surgery, he signals Jane that he knows her, but then his brother Travis abducts him. Travis lets himself get killed rather than be arrested, and Casey whispers the word "Orion" to Jane before he dies. A DNA test confirms that Jane is Taylor Shaw, Weller's childhood neighbor. To Edgar's dismay, Jane becomes an official member of the team. Mayfair meets with Tom Carter, Deputy Director of the CIA, to discuss the secret operation "Daylight". Whoever tattooed Jane must have known about it, but only four people did and one is dead. Carter demands Mayfair make the situation go away.

Episode 4: Bone May Rot = Or Maybe Not

Patterson's boyfriend David solves a puzzle on a photo of one of Jane's tattoos. It leads them to a CDC lab where two fanatic scientists are planning to release a deadly virus to save the world from overpopulation, but they are stopped just in time. Patterson asks Mayfair to see the non-redacted Guerrero file, but is denied, presumably to protect agents in the field. Carter demands to interrogate Jane himself, but Mayfair refuses. Kurt tells Jane about Taylor's past. However, a test that Patterson ran on Jane's tooth shows that she was born in Africa – this contradicts the DNA which matched Taylor Shaw. Tasha's bookkeeper warns her that she has three days to pay off her gambling debts.

Episode 5: Split the Law = The Past Will

During a dinner with Kurt's sister, Sarah, Jane cannot withstand the pressure to fill the role of Taylor Shaw. She has a memory from her childhood of being led into a basement filled with other children. A crime scene of what seems to be a hostage situation matches an address derived from one of Jane's tattoos, but it is really a CIA black site where Director Carter keeps bomb maker Dodi. Dodi is rescued by his team and builds a radiological bomb, but is stopped by the FBI. Carter shows up on site and is stopped by Mayfair from shooting Jane. He openly demands either Dodi or Jane for the CIA, so Mayfair gives up Dodi. Kurt's father, Bill, visits Sarah, but Kurt refuses to reconcile. Carter pays off Zapata's gambling debts and demands all the FBI's information about Jane in return.

Episode 6: Cede Your Soul = Cloud Our Eyes

The FBI shuts down a hacker app which can locate government vehicles. Jane has an erotic dream about someone who she thinks is Kurt, so she tries to keep her distance from him. However, the man in her dreams is not Weller and is observing her house at night. Tasha ultimately decides to pay her gambling debts by giving the money she got from Carter to her bookie. She tells him that she's out and doesn't want to bet anymore. Sarah tells Bill that Taylor is alive.

Episode 7: Sent on Tour = Trust No One

When being questioned by Weller about the file, Mayfair claims Saúl Guerrero was an informant and she was his handler but then he started to work against the FBI, which is the reason why the file is redacted. David wants to move in with Patterson and he helps her follow a clue to the Brooklyn Historical Society, but Mayfair finds out about David and reprimands Patterson for giving a civilian access to classified information. Afraid, she breaks up with David. The team follows one of Jane's tattoos to a secessionist town in Michigan where they arrest Guerrero. After fighting the town's militia with the help of clues from multiple other tattoos, they bring him in to the FBI. When Kurt notices that Mayfair has never met Guerrero before, she tells him about Operation Daylight.

Episode 8: Persecute Envoys = Suspect Everyone

Five years ago, Bethany Mayfair met with Tom Carter, Deputy White House Political Director Sofia and the White House Chief of Staff Davenport. Now, Mayfair tells Weller about all of the valuable domestic intel the NSA collected illegally and she was given orders to make the intelligence actionable. She used Saúl Guerrero to do that and they made him a front as a CI which let them put dangerous people behind bars. Kurt rails at her about all her lies and that she has the case and why it is tattooed on Jane's body. Mayfair swears she knows nothing more but her relationship with Weller maybe beyond repair. A flashback shows how Sofia, who was her lover, committed suicide. Meanwhile, two NYPD cops were found shot down on the scene at a shooting of a young black teen that resulted in riots. The unit's number matches tattoos on Jane's body. Their investigation reveals a dirty secret of the 65th precinct. Carter demands from Tasha to keep delivering more information about Jane which she is reluctant to give.

Episode 9: Authentic Flirt = Lift the Curtain

Patterson decodes another tattoo that leads to a website where criminals hide their crimes. They find a thread with a location for a drop off where a shootout with a Bulgarian assassins couple ensues in which the couple is shot down. Allison Knight, a U.S. Marshall and Weller's ex-girlfriend, explains that there was an identity theft and that the couple is to meet with an ex computer hacker named Gord Enver to retrieve a list for future assassinations. Weller and Jane decide to go undercover in order to confiscate that list and Enver but with their phones being deactivated, the team has to find out where Jane and Weller have been taken. Mayfair and Carter argue about how to deal with Guerrero, with Carter wanting to take him out and Mayfair believing he won't talk about Daylight. But Carter orders a janitor to stab Guerrero before his trial showing his distrust in Mayfair. Zapata is forced by Carter to place a bug in Jane's safehouse but decides to rip it up. Patterson meets with her ex-boyfriend who wants to get back together but she wants to stay apart due to her job. Later, he notices a lady with red hair looking through a book of codes found by them earlier and decides to keep an eye on her. After following her into an alley late at night he is found dead by a man who followed him. Mayfair sadly informs Patterson, as the team sits in silence.

Episode 10: Evil Handmade Instrument = And Unveil the Mastermind

In the aftermath of David's murder Patterson is asked to consider a L.O.A. which she declines and begs for one day of work with the team since she won't go back to her apartment. Mayfair meets with Carter telling him he's out of control and sloppy because Guerrero is back in the papers but he tells her to get rid of Jane since she's the last link to 'Daylight'. Tasha gets a "last chance" from Carter to fulfill his commands of surveillance on Jane. While Jane tries to trigger some memories the team is shown the book info with a partial print. Following the info, the team discovers a Russian spy affair where Russian agents get their targets to marry them. The team finds out that the red-haired woman's is one of them and her mission is to eliminate targets deemed unpatriotic to Russia. They find her and Weller and Jane are able to take her down in a heavy fight. Tasha signs her resignation letter. Later, Jane sneaks into Weller's place and kisses him then takes off but she is kidnapped by Carter who waterboards her wants to make her disappear. She is saved by the mysterious man with the tree tattoo who reveals a tape to Jane which leaves her stunned.

The fall finale dropped a bombshell. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but if you really want to know, it’s easy enough for you to find out. If you haven’t yet checked out Blindspot, you have plenty of time before the second half of the season begins in the new year.