Blindspot Review: Hot Burning Flames (Season 3 Episode 9)
Things aren’t looking great for Jane and Kurt. The secret that Kurt’s been keeping has come out, and the confession about what happened in Berlin colors a lot of Blindspot Season 3 Episode 9 “Hot Burning Flames.”
This episode brings in some much-needed conflict between Jane and Kurt that feels like a welcome hurdle. While I would like to see Jane and Kurt end up together, Blindspot didn’t seem to be proving that it could defy The Moonlighting Curse.
Part of what made Blindspot Season 1 so enjoyable was the mystery surrounding who Jane was, and how she was related to Kurt. That tension went away at the end ofBlindspot Season 2 when they got together.
Although it’s not a happily ever after, there isn’t space for that kind of character development, and the character development that has taken place was done off-screen.
The reveal of what happened to Jane’s daughter introduces that conflict and leaves Kurt and Jane’s relationship in disarray.
Blindspot Season 3 premiered, and the band reassembled quickly after the eighteen-month time jump. While it was great to see the team in one place, it felt like a way too simple solution for something that seemed like a bigger problem.
While most of the episodes have been enjoyable to watch so far, they haven’t built on an overall mythology like in previous seasons. With the time jump, I thought the writers would play around more and tease out details of the team’s time away.
They have, and they’re still doing it — oh Zapata, what was that? — but there really hasn’t been a central conflict as far as the now married Jane and Kurt are concerned. Off camera, things between them have changed, but we haven’t really gotten to explore that as an audience and it’s changed the tone of the show.
There is still action, but there isn’t the same push and pull between our two central characters. As a result, the season has felt rudderless and open-ended.
Now we have a new conflict, and it’s setting us up for a bumpy ride.
We now know what happened in Berlin, and it’s heartbreaking. Avery’s death is devastating on several levels, but the conversation that Kurt and Avery have over dinner also feels like a punch to the gut.
Seeing these scenes in tandem with Jane, mourning the loss of the daughter she never knew, is equally saddening. As Kurt relays the conversation, Jane feels cheated out of getting to know her daughter.
It’s yet another way that Jane’s situation has stolen a piece of her.
Jane’s reaction to hearing Kurt talk about what he said to Avery is a little unsettling. When you consider that he didn’t even know Jane had a daughter until that moment, the yarn he’s spinning isn’t entirely true, especially when you consider that Jane didn’t even know all the facts behind why she gave her daughter up when these events take place.
While this is dramatic and emotional, especially when Jane takes off her wedding ring and picks up her bag to walk out the door, it gives me hope for some more compelling storylines.
Blindspot excels when things are going awry, and the answers aren’t certain.
This season has felt too smooth and it needs some turbulence to pick up momentum because as much as I enjoy Luke Mitchell as Roman, watching his long con play out a little bit week to week is getting a little tedious.
But now that Roman’s long con seems to be connected to Hirst, and Avery, it looks like we’re in for an eventful second half of the season, especially with the last-second plot twist where Avery is alive and trying to escape from someone.
What did you think of this episode of Blindspot? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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Blindspot airs Fridays at 8/7c on NBC.
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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.