Blindspot Review: In the Comet of Us (Season 1 Episode 19)
Let’s be honest. Some topics are really hard to cover. Blindspot‘s “In the Comet of Us” is one of those episodes where the subject matter is disturbing but you find yourself riveted.
This hour aired with a warning about the subject matter, and rightfully so. Topics such as school shootings, molestation, and corruption, are, after all, present. Moreso, unlike other Blindspot episodes where we move from location to location really quickly, the whole hour is spent inside the location of a school shooting.
This week’s tattoo comes in the form of a series of scores for a football team at a nearby university that was recently investigated for scholarship fraud. The team is sent in to talk to the coach and a shooter opens fire.
Some things we can buy the grand puppeteers of this conspiracy would know about because the clues are broad enough, but scores for a sports team? How can someone accurately predict that? We’re starting to think that somewhere on a black site or in Area 51, someone developed a time machine. Or perhaps there are deep roots back to MKULTRA. That would potentially explain everything.
The inexplicable appearance of the scores in the tattoo is quickly forgotten as the shooting starts and the team splits up to try to apprehend the shooter. The hour is spent in four different perspectives: Zapata, Jane, Weller, and Reade. The tension as we reexamine the plot is palpable.
We’ve talked before about how tight the storytelling is on Blindspot. A typical episode quickly moves from point A to B to C. “In the Comet of Us” doesn’t do that. It leaves us in one scenario and one place for an entire hour. It’s a nice refresher from the fast-paced and quick changing locations, but the setting is still large enough to include all the action we expect from the show.
That doesn’t mean that the audience doesn’t have to pay attention. The episode is full of details that help the viewer understand the different points and perspectives as they unfold.
Martin Gero mentioned in a tweet that this episode was inspired in part by Rashomon. Rashomon is a Japanese film from the 1950s that is known for a plot device that involves the various characters providing alternate, self-serving, and contradictory versions of the same event. Knowing the source material; it’s easy to see the influence here, but the effect is much different.
Inspirations for this episode: Elephant and Rashomon check them out! #Blindspot
— Martin Gero (@martingero) April 26, 2016
This episode handles the device really well, but it doesn’t give us contradicting versions, just perspectives. It makes sense because the team needs to split up to search a large building in this crisis situation and no one person would see all of the dangers presented.
The kaleidoscopic view of this crisis is handled perfectly as each team member encounters obstacles, but it keeps a tight tension with each chapter. At times, the episode gets so tense that we expect a character to bite the big one at the end, and then we all breathe a collective sigh of relief when they all come out of this alive.
Sadly, we can’t say the same for Reade’s respect for a friend and former coach as it turns out the scholarship fraud is really hush money to keep the boys Coach Jones molested quiet.
While a part of us thought that this was a little played out, we have no doubt Reade is going to make justice his personal mission. Plus, we might still be shaking a little.
Stray Thoughts
- We loved Zapata and Patterson’s exchange about Dungeons and Dragons in the very beginning. It was some nice humor before we got into the main action.
- Sophia, Mayfair’s former girlfriend who was believed to be dead, comes back. And we don’t trust her. She needs money so that she can disappear again and shows up just expecting that Bethany will hand it over after she reveals she faked her own death? Yea, we’d be a little ticked off too.
- Weller’s stunt, scaling a brick building, was pretty badass—we’re not gonna lie.
- Oscar got Jane into tea? Apparently, it doesn’t all “taste like grass trimmings.” Anyone else think she’s still a coffee girl at heart?
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.
Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.