Blindspot Review: Erase Weary Youth (Season 1 Episode 13)

Put Dashboard Confessional on at high volume, because darling, Blindspot has vindicated us!

“Erase Weary Youth” is a witch hunt episode where we see the return of Fischer, who starts hunting for a mole in the FBI.

Drawing on the Russian spies that were apprehended in the first half of the season, this episode begins with the final arraignment for the spy who killed David. Before the arraignment can take place, there is a meeting in the judge’s chambers where the spy says she has a name and will only give it up when she has a deal.

Talking to her lawyer in the bathroom, the spy lets her guard down and then the lawyer kills her; the lawyer, in turn, gets shot by a court officer.

When this happens, bells go off, and that is just the teaser!

One of the things Blindspot is really good at: it’s telling a story that keeps us hooked, whether we like where the story is going or not. The fast-paced rapid-fire sequence that shows the team undergoing polygraph tests is both entertaining and effective. Through creative splicing, they are able to deliver a lot of information without wasting time.

In the end, Fischer has three suspects: Mayfair, Jane, and Zapata. Jane is the most likely suspect but also the most problematic.

Giving Jane a polygraph is a ridiculous idea.

In the pilot, it was essential to determine if her amnesia was real, but here it is a moot point. Jane doesn’t know who she is or was before she was injected with ZIP except for what people tell her and this is a point that everyone seems to be missing; including Fischer. When he sets up Jane’s polygraph he says to her:

FISCHER: This time, I expect your answers will be a little more illuminating than ‘I don’t know.’

Fischer spends most the episode targeting Jane. Sure he spreads out his questions, he makes it look like a real investigation, but many of his conversations fall in the direction of Jane.

Still, Jane’s polygraph is damning. Fischer talks about how her polygraph was almost a straight line and states that he’s seen psychopaths with more spikes.

Once again, we need to remember Jane can’t tell when she’s lying. When you ask her “Are you a Russian Spy?” she’s not thinking about hiding a falsehood. She truly has no idea if she is lying. She can say “Yes” or “No,” and it could register the same response.

The same can be said of what should be a control question. Asking her something you know to be true: “Is your name Taylor Shaw?” isn’t going to give you an accurate reading because who says she is Taylor Shaw? She knows she is Taylor Shaw from a DNA test and guy she hardly knows. Nothing more.

But apparently, Fischer doesn’t need just the polygraph to convict Jane. He has a case worked out. Taylor was abducted when she was five, smuggled into Russia, trained by the Russians, taught to lie, and smuggled back. This sequence is edited beautifully with the little bits we’ve seen of Jane’s past woven in. It all looks so convincing but at the same time too perfect; especially when a Russian mobster identifies Jane as the inside man.

Once again, Jane is the likely suspect. Remember, she doesn’t have the basis on which to defend herself. When the people in charge go after Jane like this, I start asking questions about where ZIP came from. ZIP didn’t just materialize out of thin air. Someone had to produce it. Yet, everyone in charge seems to act like a deer-in-the-headlights when it comes to the question mark that is Jane’s life. Carter did it in the midseason finale, and now so is Fischer.

Let’s couple that with the fact that Jane hasn’t been with the FBI long enough to be a real asset. Why would the Russians go through this elaborate plan, tattoo her body, then send her to the FBI only to pull her out just as easily and in a way that doesn’t guarantee her safety? Plus, her tattoos have helped bring down Russian operations. Not enable them.

It doesn’t make any sense.

Thankfully, Kurt realizes it and starts coming to Jane’s defense. Kurt comes up with his own theory putting Fischer in the spotlight as the mole. Suddenly his preference for Turkish coffee makes a lot more sense. For a bit of background: Turkish coffee is an unfiltered coffee popular in the Middle East and Russia.

When Fischer’s preference for the hot libation was introduced in “Cease Forcing Enemy” it was easy to dismiss as an allusion to where the team was on their mission, in Turkey. In this episode, he asked for Turkish coffee and then expressed displeasure when they didn’t have anything else. In fact, he called it one of this office’s many failings. It wasn’t proof positive but it was a pretty big clue.

Once we find out that he’s the mole, a chase ensues and it ends with Jane shooting Fischer. It’s a pretty nice parallel from “Scientists Hollow Fortune” — when Jane was angry at Kurt for killing Charlie. Jane expects retribution but Kurt tells her to go home.

The one thing that’s unsettling about this plot is the fact that the mole is Fisher. While the story unfurls well, I got the feeling that I had seen this before. Then I remembered: Martin Gero, Blindspot’s Executive Producer, also worked on Stargate: Atlantis. In Season 2, Stargate: Atlantis had a similar witch hunt episode, where the team had to race to keep a bomb from exploding. In the end, they discovered that Colonel Caldwell was inhabited with the alien symbiote.

Now, the last part, the part that I was really excited for, involves an angry Jane yelling at Oscar. After almost being charged as a traitor, Jane is understandably shaken and upset. Jane says:

I don’t know anything about you, except for what you tell me. And what you tell me I can’t trust.

Then Jane insists that she’s done, but somehow I don’t think it will be that easy. Oscar tries to tell Jane about a time-sensitive tattoo that he needs to be brought to the FBI’s attention, but she refuses. I can’t imagine that this is going to end well.

Stray Thoughts:

• I really want to know who is spying on Zapata. She seems like a good person, but I am guessing her actions are going to be dictated by who is on the other end of the phone.
• Kurt shouting that he believes Jane! Such a white knight. Such faith in her. Now I really need that flashback of her at five to be fleshed out a little. Maybe a flashback of little Kurt and Taylor.
• Patterson showing Jane the tablet with the message saying: “Everything Will Be Okay” is so sweet.
• There is some debate as to if Jane killed Fischer in self-defense or on purpose. I have to say self-defense, but then again she is a person who was just accused of being a traitor. So I think anger is a rational response at this point.
• The question I am asking this week is: do you think Jane will slip her detail again after seeing how much trouble it caused.
• Reade picks the worst time to tell Kurt that he’s seeing Sarah.

What did you think of this episode of Blindspot? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Blindspot airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.

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