Blindspot Review: Swift Hardhearted Stone (Season 1 Episode 20)
After a good run of interesting episodes and character development, Blindspot gives us an hour with a semi-recycled plot that lacks development.
“Swift Hardhearted Stone” presents us with a case-of-the-week featuring a little girl with a form of autism who drew one of Jane’s tattoos. The drawing that tips off Dr. Borden happens to be the crest of a well-known and dangerous crime family.
Didn’t Patterson run the tattoos against every database she could think of? Wouldn’t there be a database for crests of known crime families? And wouldn’t that be one of the first things the FBI checked? I feel like they definitely should have flagged this during Jane’s arrival. There is no hidden meaning in this tattoo. There’s nothing to decode. It’s a family crest. Plain and simple.
We would have bought this story-line a year or so down the road if the rise of the family was the result of a power vacuum, but then we meet Agent Franklin, who has been tracking the family for seven years. So, the FBI missed a family crest in Jane’s tattoos and the agent in charge failed at tracking the members of the family he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on?
Tell us we’re not the only one with red flags raised here.
And yet no one at the FBI sees it coming. It’s not until Maia shows Team Weller a drawing of a man’s hand with a ring that they put it together. Maia only draws things she’s seen before. Maia has not seen Franklin at the FBI so clearly she saw him at an earlier time.
We’re not surprised by that ending. Does no one remember the other time a guy that was supposed to be on the good side of law enforcement turned out to be working for the Russians? You might be able to pull the wool over our eyes once, but not twice, Blindspot.
This episode has such potential. The story of the little girl drawing Jane’s tattoos could have led to so many things. It could have given context to the flashback Jane had of a room full of little girls several episodes ago. In the end, all we get is another clichéd story that leads to a firefight in a house that resembles a hastily put together homage to Skyfall.
Except in this scenario, Patterson is Bond. She gets to show off her marksmanship, set traps, and generally be a kickass character. Dr. Borden does pretty well himself, using a nail gun to take down one of the intruders. The gas soaked rope down the chimney as a final salvo is a nice touch too.
But those are the best five minutes of the episode and it’s far too rushed. We are eager to see some progress on Jane’s character. Who is Jane becoming since taking ZIP? What is Orion? This has been slowly leaking out since the show returned, but has receded into the background, playing second chair to threats about any agent looking into Tom Carter’s murder.
Can everyone stop making empty threats and actually make a move? This is way too much jockeying for a show that is coming to the end of its first season in three weeks.
Stray Thoughts:
- How sad is it that we knew they were going to kill one of the gay characters the minute that Mayfair responded to the text. Not only did Mayfair finally take a chance on herself, but it has to end that way! Really? Did no one pay attention to the outrage regarding Lexa’s death on The 100? We didn’t even really get to know Alexandra, which makes it that much more of a slap in the face.
- We. Do. Not. Trust. Oscar! And our distrust has been well documented. He has been nothing but sketchy since the beginning and now he is asking Jane to copy files. How do we know that he really has Jane’s best interest at heart? She even said herself she doesn’t know if she can trust him. More so, how do we know Jane isn’t enabling a plan she was really against. These are the questions we want answered!
- Could there be something brewing between Patterson and Borden? We got a bit of a shippy vibe with their scenes in the cottage. Oregon Trail references. Joking about One Direction. There may be a love connection in the near future.
- Thank goodness Zapata and Reade finally started talking to each other! Now maybe they can figure out who is behind the blackmail.
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.