BLINDSPOT — Pictured: “Blindspot” Key Art — (Photo by: NBCUniversal)
It’s a bustling Time Square in New York when a beat cop discovers a large duffel bag left alone with a tag that read “Call The FBI”. Once the area is cleared the bomb squad enters the scene to inspect the bag only to discover a naked fully tattooed woman emerging from the duffle bag. “Blindspot” is NBC’s newest series hitting the fall season with a creative premise of a young woman whose mind had been erased and her entire body tattooed with markings of everything from seemingly random numbers and map coordinates to the name of a FBI agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton). It’s a puzzle within a puzzle first trying to determine who the young woman referred to as Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) truly is and what the vastly unique markings across her body will reveal.
If you’re feeling a little Jason Bourne déjà vu that’s ok you’re not alone. The series has been promoted as the female Jason Bourne launching its lead actress Jaimie Alexander’s character into the world of special forces badass with a questionable past at best.
Jump to the dark of night in a remote location, a house surrounded by law enforcement approaching a tense hostage situation of women and children and a heavily armed stressed out gunman. Fearing the hostages will be killed in the takedown the highly skilled agents rely on heat sensors to detect where the gunman is located and blow up the floor around him causing his descent to the level below.
BLINDSPOT — “Pilot” — Pictured: Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)
Agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), the agent responsible for the successful extraction, is quickly advised of a high priority situation taking place in Time Square that needs his immediate attention. Weller is immediately taken to Jane Doe’s location in a government facility where she is being processed by doctors and agents eager to determine who she is and how she ended up in a duffle bag in Time Square. While being briefed by Director Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Weller is introduced to Dr. Borden (Ukweli Roach) evaluating Jane who proceeds to explain the complexity of her amnesia caused by a highly powerful experimental drug being tested with PTSD victims typically who have been in combat situations that when used in large quantities erases all memories causing permanent amnesia leaving procedural memory in tact.
All agents are put on the case digging into Agent Weller’s background trying to uncover any common thread to past cases he may have worked on that may link him to Jane Doe. Drugged, dazed and confused Jane is run through the ringer being photographed head to toe, finger printed and run through a myriad of tests trying to locate any information leading to her identity.
BLINDSPOT — “Pilot” — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)
Frustrated and confused, Jane Doe insists on speaking to someone in charge and is introduced to Agent Kurt Weller. She begs for answers to what is going on and how she ended up like this only to be informed that she doesn’t show up in any system or database leaving them with little to go on.
In an awkward exchange, Agent Weller drops Jane off at a government safe house not really sure what else to do with her at the moment. Weller spends the night scouring Jane’s case file examining the countless photos of tattoo after tattoo trying to make sense of any of it. Meanwhile, back at the safe house Jane is alone with her thoughts and fears staring into a mirror also examining her tattoo mared body and physically breaking down onto the floor in tears.
The next day Jane is back at the agency with Dr. Borden not sure which way is up when he encourages her to start making choices of her own to take back her life in small steps starting with trying a cup of coffee and a cup of tea to determine which she prefers. Each choice we make helps to define us and if she starts making small choices something may spark in her brain unlocking her memories.
Agent Weller and Director Mayfair are examining Jane’s tattoos when Jane approaches noticing Chinese characters located behind her ear. Jane suddenly realizes she speaks Chinese enabling her to decipher the message as a date and address located in New York.
Once the team has figured out who they’re looking for they assemble to locate the suspect, a young man named Chow, determined to figure out why his address is tattooed on Jane’s body. Determined to get some answers, Jane insists on two things. First Agent Weller is capture the suspect alive since he may hold the key to answering who the hell she is and two she’s going along for the ride. After all, she is the only one in a room full of special agents to speak Chinese…Yeah sure, why not.
Reluctantly Weller let’s her tag along but insists on keeping Jane in the car while he and the other agents storm the apartment building in search of Chow. Quickly Agent Weller and Agent Zapata (Audrey Esparza) realize Jane is the only one who can communicate with man in the apartment forcing Weller to retrieve Jane from the car requesting her assistance. Jane informs the agents the man isn’t the suspect they are looking for but is instead a student subletting who’s visa expired and is living in New York illegally.
Not wanting Jane in the way while they search Chow’s room, Agent Weller exiles Jane to the hallway to wait for them to finish. The young man points them to Chow’s bolted bedroom door where Weller discovers the ingredients for a bomb they are now positive he is intent on using. Breaking into the suspects laptop the agents discover a confessional video explaining Chow’s plans for wreaking havoc and causing as much damage as he can.
Along with the Chinese student, Jane waits impatiently in the hallway where the two hear a woman screaming from the floor below. The young man explains it’s the building super roughing up his wife and that he isn’t a good man. Not wanting to stand by while someone is being victimized, Jane makes her way down to the lower floor to investigate the situation only to in fact discover the super beating up his wife. She tries to step in and diffuse the situation which only infuriates the man more. A second man enters the apartment and they both decide to teach Jane to mind her own business. Unlucky for the two men, Jane miraculously knows how to kick some serious ass. A fight ensues back and forth between the three of them out into the hallway where Jane proceeds to throw blow after blow nearly killing both men only to be stopped by Agent Weller who is flabbergasted by what he just witnessed. Clearly she has more extensive training than what they provide at the local YMCA’s self defense class.
Back at the agency Director Mayfair and Patterson (Ashley Johnson) discover a hidden tattoo from Jane’s photos that lead them to believe she was at one time a special ops Navy Seal which would explain her recently discovered abilities of beating the hell out of the two guys back at suspects apartment building. The agents figure out the location of the suspect leading them to a failed attempt at apprehending him from the subway where he plants a hastily built bomb on the back of one of the cars and detaching it from the rest of the train to allow for an escape. After narrowly escaping the explosion in the subway tunnel, Agent Weller and Jane are forced to regroup following a lead to the Statue of Liberty.
Once they’ve successfully evacuated all of Liberty Island, Agent Weller and a bullet proof vest clad Jane enter the Statue of Liberty searching for the suspect. Jane begs Weller to take him alive in the hopes of that he will have some information leading to her past. Immediately Weller spots a security guard to fires a shot missing Weller but hitting Jane in the arm.
Weller chases after Chow up the tower inside Lady Liberty. When they reach the landing a fight ensues between Weller and Chow. After tossing each other around the room for a few minutes, Jane emurges grabbing Wellers gun from the floor and fires a warning shot breaking up the fight. But Chow has a knife to Wellers throat and is threatening to kill Weller if Jane doesn’t drop the gun. Naturally Weller pleads with Jane not to drop the gun and that assures her with a wink and a nod that she can make the shot taking out Chow in turn saving Weller’s life.
Surprising absolutely no one, Jane goes from freaked out amnesiac to trained agent successfully shooting Chow without killing him saving Weller’s life. Jane drops to the floor in a haze of confusion triggering a memory of her running a shooting course through the snow in woods successfully shooting target after target. In the memory, Jane is approached by a bearded man scolding her about missing a few shots and insisting she run the course again.
BLINDSPOT — “Pilot” — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata, Rob Brown as Edgar Reed — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)
In a conference room back at headquarters, Weller meets with Director Mayfair to debrief her about what took place and the fact that he believes Jane, based on her recovered memory, must be special forces trained. The team breaks for the day leaving Director Mayfair. She opens a case file with her name and pages of blacked out classified information concerning an investigation into her own life with a set of matching numbers from a tattoo on Janes body referenced in her file. Clearly Jane’s not the only one with secrets and a questionable past.
Chow is taken to the hospital. He’s in a bed as a man in a doctor’s scrubs and mask approaches though he’s not a doctor. In fact he’s the same bearded man from Jane’s memory. Chow knows the man and is terrified. He tries to assure the mystery man that everything they agreed to went according to plan. The man agrees that Chow nearly completed his mission. Chow was supposed to die in order to save the life of his sister, his life for hers so the mystery man kills him.
Back to the black and white memories in Jane’s head where the bearded man has her hook up to and I.V. explaining the ramifications of using the memory erasing drug. Jane agrees to taking it assuring him she has no other choice.
That’s it folks! Check back next week to continue to unlock the puzzle of Jane Doe on an all new episode of “Blindspot” on NBC.