Blindspot – Season 3 Blindspot Review: Back to the Grind (Season 3 Episode 1)

Blindspot Review: Back to the Grind (Season 3 Episode 1)

Lauren Busser Blindspot, Reviews

If I was channel surfing, and I didn’t know I was watching a third season premiere, I would have thought Blindspot Season 3 Episode 1 “Back to the Grind” was an action movie.

The third season premiere has a cinematic quality to it, as it goes global. It’s enjoyable to watch and I couldn’t pull my eyes away from it, even though a lot of the plot for this episode is actually alluded to in the Season 3 trailer.

Blindspot – Season 3
BLINDSPOT — “Back to the Grind” Episode 301 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Simone Falso/NBC/Warner Bros)

Blindspot Season 3 Episode 1 “Back to the Grind” strikes a balance between plot and character development for me that I really like, and desperately want to see more of this season.

The eighteen-month time jump at the end of Blindspot Season 2 Episode 22 “Lepers Repel” is a point I was a little hesitant about because I wondered: “How are they going to pull this off and explain these new tattoos?”

Not only do they give us a reasonable hypothesis, but the shifting character changes between the team have really drawn me in this season, putting aside my fears that these new tattoos may become a little stale.

Blindspot – Season 3
BLINDSPOT — “Back to the Grind” Episode 301 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jeremy Crutchley as Leslie Doorhaus — (Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)

We pick up finding Team Weller in very different places. Reade is in charge of the FBI task force that used to run the Jane Doe Project, Zapata joined the CIA, and Patterson now develops games in California. We also get to see a bit of Jane and Kurt’s wedding, their move to Colorado and settling into domestic life.

Related  The Mighty Nein Season 1 Review: Critical Role Successfully Strikes Again With its Second Campaign

When we see them in the present, we have to reconcile that this team may not have parted on the best of terms as Reade, Zapata, and Patterson have an icy reunion in Venezuela.

These two rapid and action-packed cases, mean that a lot of information gets thrown at the viewer really fast. It pays off in the end, largely because they don’t try to answer questions about everyone’s background all at once and use the reunion to create more tension known only to the audience.

When the episode comes to a conclusion, I find myself talking about the boat chase sequence, and the fight in the church, and Patterson’s innovative use of MREs as an explosive, but really I am more excited for what’s to come.

Blindspot – Season 3
BLINDSPOT — “Back to the Grind” Episode 301 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Ashley Johnson as Patterson, Rob Brown as Edgar Reade, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata, Mary Stuart Masterson as Director Hirst — (Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC)

Blindspot Season 3 Episode 1 “Back to the Grind” sets up an even more mouth-watering premise than the series premiere. I was intrigued when Jane came out of the bag in Times Square in Season 1, but I am invested now that I’ve watched the show for two years, and have seen this team develop interpersonal relationships.

They solve the problem from the end of Blindspot Season 2 Episode 22 “Lepers Repel” pretty quickly, and I wondered how they would fill this season, but then the plot starts to unspooling and new relationships, secrets, and even a healthy bit of distrust is intruded.

Related  7 of the Most Popular TV Shows on Netflix Right Now

In short, we now have not one, but five characters, we have come to love, and unknowns for each eighteen-month period, and I get the feeling that is going to create the tension this season.

Stray Thoughts:

  • I really cannot get over Luke Mitchell’s glasses in the boat chase scene. It’s such a tiny detail, but he looks very Brad Pitt in some movie whose name I don’t remember.
  • The scene where Jane comes out the bag in the church mirrors the pilot episode, but instead of a scared and confused Jane, this one is fierce.
  • Rich DotCom as an FBI consultant who will be with the team for ten episodes this season, yes please!
  • Mexican-Style Chicken Stew was definitely this episode’s MVP!
  • Rich DotCom throws out “Peppermint Patty” as an insult. In my review of Blindspot Season 1 Episode 16 “Any Wounded Thief” I actually said I was going to start thinking her first name is Peppermint if we don’t get a first name soon.
  • I want to judge Jane for hiding foreign currency and passports in the vent, but honestly, if I’d just been freed from a bounty on my head, I would probably be stashing things away too in the event it would happen again.
Related  The Mighty Nein Season 1 First Look Reveals Iconic Misfits in Critical Role's Second Series

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

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

Click to rate this episode!
[Total: 4 Average: 3]

Blindspot airs Fridays at 8/7c on NBC.

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

24 TV Characters Who Changed Dramatically

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.