Finally, we’re back!
This episode, we get a little more information about how Shepard fits into Weller’s history.
We start out with a flashback of Weller at the academy, sneaking out to check on his sister (who as we know now was living with a child killer). Weller is defiant, and the head of the academy seems poised to kick him out. In swoops an Armed Forces colleague to tell the guy that she thinks Weller has loads of potential. The kicker?
It’s Shepard. Who we now find out is Ellen Briggs. Who used to be the Deputy Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Hmm, and now she’s a threat?
While Weller, Jane and Nas go to dig up info at the academy, we also find out that Reade has been sleeping with his buddy’s old girlfriend. Later, we find out that she still snorts coke? Oh, Reade. No no no. She also wants him to try letting loose, and wants him to snort some too. Not good, Reade. Not good.
Blindspot recap: Shepard Hunting
But back to the Shepard hunt…at the academy, they find out not just Shepard’s real name, but an old connection of hers: Sean Clark. They also find out that when Weller’s Dad couldn’t pay the academy tuition, a mysterious ‘scholarship’ he received was actually Shepard paying Weller’s way. Yikes.
They find Clark at a care home, and his brains are scrambled. It’s like some weird sort of aphasia, where he understands people, but can only reply in baseball metaphors. At first, the team doesn’t quite get it, but Weller figures it out. They find out that he was supposed to have gotten a promotion to D.C., but Clark held him back in New York at Shepard’s behest. She has apparently been doing a bit of string-pulling on Weller’s career.
Amidst all the revealed clues about the Shepard-Weller connection, there is–of course–a tattoo related case. Patterson finds some chatter over unspecified channels that relates to a tattoo of a Genesis passage that doesn’t exist, and that leads them to a group of farmers planning to blow stuff up.
We discover, however, that Patterson has been a bit compromised in her zeal. Since her time spent involuntarily with Sandstorm, she is more motivated than ever to catch them. She’s dipped into NSA illegal wiretaps to find information. There’s a showdown later in the episode between her and Weller when he sniffs out that something is off with her, and Weller insists that she use only legal means in her search. Patterson is pretty visibly ticked off. She’s also burning the candle at both ends. Later in the episode, she rants about how much work she has to do with not being able to use the NSA wiretaps, and when Zapata asks her if she’s eaten, she say she’s only eaten a Go-Gurt (Patterson, what are you, 12?) and proceeds to pass out and hit the floor. Damn.
What they discover with the tattoo case is that their prime suspect is walking into the FBI office right then.
Come to find out, he’s actually an FBI informant. A scummy agent in the building is running an off the books entrapment plan to get these radical farmers to do something about all their anti-government sentiment now while they can be caught and managed, rather than later when no one will know what they’re up to.
Weller is…less than pleased.
He takes over the situation, but things go awry. The informant is inept, and his comrades in arms figure out pretty quickly that something is wrong. During the sting the FBI sets up, the informant is shot and the angriest farmer gets away to try and blow up the Bureau of Land Management building, who she blames for most of the group’s problems.
After he fires the rogue agent, Weller and the gang go to the building to stop the angriest little farmer–only they find no bomb in the building. Instead, she’s driving a AMFO filled truck right at it.
Weller, do something!
Our quick thinking Weller stands in the truck’s way like Gandalf blocking the Balrog, and takes a You-Shall-Not-Pass shot at the truck’s front tire. Naturally, it stops the truck, and Weller talks the would be bomber into giving up the detonator.
Weller goes back to Clark once he figures out the whole baseball metaphor thing, and while they’re talking, it sounds like Clark is trying to tell Weller that he’s Sandstorm, not FBI.
Wait, what?
He then drops something about the Truman Protocol, and they go up to Clark’s room to talk more privately…where Weller is hit on the head and kidnapped by Shepard.
We see Jane is on a date with water conservation guy from the museum episode, and they’re playing skee-ball. She’s making an effort toward normalcy and happiness.
Throughout the episode, there’s also talks with Roman, who wants more info on Shepard. He is pretty shaken and disturbed when he realizes he only has warm feelings for Shepard, and if she’s such a monster–what is he? Looks like the tin soldier is growing himself a heart.
Zapata is looking regretful that she let that moment with Reade get away. That’s on you, Zapata.
When Weller regains consciousness, he discovers he’s been captured by Shepard. She does a lot of talking about how she watched him grow up, and when she says something about being a ‘family’, it sounds a bit incestuous. Eew.
She kills Clark right in front of him, and says that basically, Weller will be helping Sandstorm whether he wants to or not. She makes it sound inevitable, like he’s already too late to do anything about it. What exactly has she set up?
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JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.