Blindspot Review: Regard a Mere Mad Rager (Season 2 Episode 19)

Finally, it looks like Team Weller is ahead of Sandstorm, at least a little. Blindspot Season 2 Episode 19 “Regard a Mere Mad Ranger” gets off on the right foot and keeps a brisk pace throughout.

This episode strikes a good balance between building character and relationships, and the action we’ve come to expect in each episode. There are lots of Jeller moments, but there are two real standout performances for me in this episode: Michelle Hurd as Shepherd and guest star Jewel Staite as “lady hacker” Kiva.

Michelle Hurd has been a great addition to the cast as Shepherd ever since her introduction as Jane and Roman’s mother in the Blindspot Season 2 Episode 1 “In Night So Ransomed Rogue,” but this episode really puts the pressure on her character and we get to see what Shepherd does when things don’t go as planned.

This is the first time we see the team really get ahead of Sandstorm with the chance to freeze the one bank account Shepherd needs to buy her radioactive waste. This doesn’t end well for Shepherd and an epic chase ensues.

Michelle Hurd kills it in this episode. She gets to show off all the different sides of Shepherd. She gets an action-packed chase scene and some more subtle moments while she’s locked up in Thai jail. That final smirk on the boat as she sails away with her bounty of nuclear waste is so sly.

Of course, Team Weller isn’t in Thailand, they are still in New York, chasing some Hackers, who are on a quest for some classified documents.

This late in the season, I would question why the team was still working tattoos and not focusing entirely on tracing Sandstorm’s whereabouts, but one of the documents is “The Truman Protocol.” The Truman Protocol was first mentioned in Blindspot Season 2 Episode 13 “Name Not One Man,” so it’s worth connecting the dots and trying to get the file off the black market.

I’m disappointed because after the team goes through all that effort, they open a redacted file, save the signatures of every president since Truman. So, we have no idea what the Truman protocol is, but there is still the likelihood that some relevant information is on the drive.

Although obtaining the Truman protocol may have been a bust, the plot to win the drive brings us another scene-stealer in Jewel Staite as Kiva, a lady hacker who wants out of the business.

From the second Kiva enters the room she gives off a ballsy, feminist, psychopathic energy that has all the cheekiness of Rich Dotcom with Remi’s lethal trigger finger. For example, shortly after entering the party she shoots the team dressed in white, and shows the remaining teams to their final challenge.

Part polygraph and part escape room; the final challenge sequence is not unlike The Hunger Games, but with rainbow-colored teams of two racing for a prize in the boiler room. It was a cool action sequence and I appreciated how this story was presented as a game, with puzzles they needed to solve, the little bit with the button that would release gas into the other teams room was a great way to raise the stakes as well.

But I really wish that this sequence had included a little more of Kiva. While I am sure that the bit we get was just the right balance, I would also welcome her return. She’s such a dynamic character that I think it would be a waste to watch her slip into the either.

After all, she is a hacker leaving the business, that doesn’t mean she won’t start a new project. In fact, it would be perfect if Kiva and Rich Dotcom worked together on something, that is, if Rich ever gets out of prison. Can you imagine the utter chaos they would cause?

This episode also leans very heavily on Kurt and Jane’s relationship, and how it is evolving.

I really am pulling for Jeller. I was hopeful throughout Season 1, but after Kurt arrested her after finding out she was not Taylor Shaw, I thought that they needed to rebuild their trust. The polygraph in this episode shows just how far their relationship has come since the start of the season.

While I do not discount that somewhere in Remi’s training is the ability to pass a polygraph, I think the high stakes of this investigation forced the truth to come out, and although they had to bend the details none of it was really a lie.

But I still have to ask, is Kurt really over the fact that she’s not Taylor Shaw? I am not sure, but time will tell.

Overall, it seems like Blindspot is setting up Jane and Kurt romance, or at least hints of one, and I am perfectly fine with that, although I realize it will probably be foiled.

Stray Thoughts:

• It’s nice to see Reade getting back on his feet. I was really worried about him for several episodes there, but they’re laying the groundwork for an interesting recovery storyline, and I am really excited to see where that goes.
• Tasha’s arrest is not something I saw coming, although I guess we should have expected it after she tampered with evidence earlier this season.
• The final scene, where Shepherd declares that Weller must die has me hooked for the final two episodes. It’s a great cliffhanger, but let’s be real, would they really kill of Kurt Weller at the end of Season 2? Sure stranger things have happened on television, but I can’t see the show continuing without Jane and Kurt together.

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

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Blindspot airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC.

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