Jane recalled another memory from her past, while the team investigated a crazed ex-Air Force pilot.
Warning: Full spoilers from this episode follow.
After watching Blindspot’s second episode, we now have a better idea of what the series is actually going to be. The good news is that Jane Doe’s tattoo mystery is still very much a key part of the show. We also learned a bit more about where Jane might have come from and how she’s tied to Weller. However, as expected, “A Stray Howl” also introduced a new episodic storyline, which was only amusing by virtue of its loose connection to the overarching plot (and, also, explosions).
Of course, the big takeaway from this episode was that there seems to be an order to Jane’s tattoos. “The first clue unlocks the second,” according to Ashley Johnson’s Patterson, who had significantly more to do in this week’s episode. Not only did her character provide new information about Jane, but she also brought some much-needed levity to the proceedings — because, let’s face it, Jane and Weller aren’t exactly a barrel of laughs.
We also saw more of the rest of the team this week and what they had to offer. Ramirez (Rob Brown), for example, posited the idea that Jane’s tattoos could be a trap, while Zapata (Audrey Esparza) shared an interesting scene with Jane in regards to Jane’s newest memory of her killing a person in cold blood. “Can good people do terrible things, or does that make them terrible people?” In Jane’s case, I suspect she had a good reason to kill someone, but we won’t know for sure until we find out what was on that USB stick she recovered.
Jaime Alexander, Audrey Esparza, Rob Brown and Sullivan Stapleton in Blindspot
Unfortunately, the biggest drawback to Blindspot continues to be the two main characters. While the mystery surrounding Jane is compelling, Jane herself remains dull and featureless. At this point, I care more about what has happened to her rather than what will. Weller, meanwhile, is still completely devoid of personality, despite the writers giving him some family drama this week. In fact, his most defining qualities right now are his stubbornness and talking in a gruff voice.
That said, it didn’t help that the bulk of “A Stray Howl” was spent on the unremarkable drone storyline. Granted, it did lead to some exciting action sequences, but I could not have cared less about Arthur Gibson (Robert Eli) and his plot to “teach the government a lesson,” which was ultimately pointless. At best, it vaguely echoed Jane’s past as a killer in that Gibson killed innocent people as a means of doing what he thought was right. Overall, though, it was pretty ham-fisted.
On the bright side, it looks like we’ll be making more headway on the tattoo mystery soon, especially now that Weller’s Taylor Shaw case is reopened. Plus, the cliffhanger with Jane and the man in the shadows from earlier seemed to indicate that we’ll be getting answers sooner rather than later. With any luck, the main storyline will continue to be engaging enough that wading through these procedural storylines won’t be as much of a slog.
Not surprisingly, the most interesting thing about Blindspot is still the tattoo mystery, although we did get to know some of the other characters better in this week’s episode. For example, Ashley Johnson’s character gave the proceedings some much-needed levity, while Ramirez and Zapata made good additions to the team. However, both Jane and Welliver are still boring characters — particularly the latter, whose backstory did more for Jane’s character than it did for his. And the extremely procedural drone storyline this week was only passably enjoyable.
