Blindspot Review: I Came to Sleigh (Season 5 Episode 1)

After more than a year, Blindspot is finally back on our screens, and it delivers an intriguing and heartbreaking premiere that comes for the emotional jugular. 

Blindspot Season 5 Episode 1, “I Came to Sleigh,” gives us much needed answers regarding what happened in the Iceland safe house after the drone strike, and as expected, not everyone made it. 

Picking up in the final moments of Blindspot Season 4, “I Came to Sleigh” slowly teases out reveal. The one who didn’t survive is Reed.

It hurts to see him go because Reed had the most hope and faith of anyone on Team Weller. He was always trying to be good. Those traits continued through to his final moments when he saves Zapata’s life. 

Audrey Esparza and Rob Brown’s acting in that final scene between them is raw and emotional. It’s a heartbreaking goodbye that carries with it four years of will they or won’t they energy. 

There’s some symbolism is this all happening as a house caves in too. Reed and Zapata’s conversation moments before, brought with it the promise of something good in the future. With the drone strike that all came crashing down too.

Reed’s death also seems to fulfill the prophecy that began on Blindspot Season 4 Episode 11, “Careless Whisper.” On that episode, they mention that an author couldn’t see a happy ending for Zapata, and this is the ultimate unhappy ending. She’s alive but has lost the person she loves.  

Reed’s death is shocking and the grief is felt throughout the entire episode, as it should for a character that’s been a part of this show and lives for so many years. But, being on the run means that the team hasn’t been able to deal with it while on the run separately. It makes sense that it’s only when they’re together again that they’re able to lean into their grief. 

The two months they were apart was about survival, and while their reunion is joyous, they are very aware of the danger they face by being together. 

Yet, they need each other to be effective. When Jane, Kurt, Patterson, and Zapata are all in the same place that’s when they can put their heads together and rescue Rich DotCom, a perfect first mission for the team at the start of their new rogue lives.

After two years as part of the FBI taskfoce, the team is not complete with Rich DotCom, and this surprisingly empathetic character has come a long way from his dark web hacker days.

He’s always championed Kurt and Jane, but he’s also supportive to the other members of the team as well. He’s the best cheerleader they could have had, and they would have made a mistake in leaving this “mouthy Turkish pervert” to the North Koreans.

Similarly, reintroducing the audience to old enemies in a new context is another smart move. In trying to operate in the black, it makes sense that the team is going to have to come into contact with people they may have met in the past. 

They might be unsavory, and they may not agree with their contact’s moral codes: but they will need intelligence. 

Sho Oktar from Blindspot Season 3 Episode 13, “Warning Shot,” brings an interesting energy that runs counterpoint to the somber tone of the reunion. Sho’s energy and showmanship is the kind of opulence the team has gotten used to in the first four seasons while they operated on the inside. 

However, with that reintroduction also comes with it a sobering warning that we should expect the team’s moral code to be tested while they operate in the black. 

Speaking of operating in the black, watching Matthew Weitz try to figure out Madeline’s game from the inside is another interesting storyline. Weitz has always walked the line where the audience can’t be sure whose side he’s on, but he now seems securely on the side of Team Weller.

Aaron Abrams performance is something to behold. His energy is infectious, and when you put him against the Ami Sheth’s Afreen, they become an almost Mulder and Scully type duo.

They make a good team, and if the mercenaries don’t split them up–or worse–we can expect some great work from the “resistance” within during Blindspot‘s long goodbye.

There’s no question that this show is going to be hard to let go of. Even when I thought the show was meandering through its season-long arcs I’ve always been intrigued by where it was going from season to season.

Blindspot is going out on the right notes so far. Madeline has been the most compelling villain since the introduction of Shepherd on Blindspot Season 2 and she continues to incite worry and fear with everything she does.

From her position at the top, Madeline is continuing to manipulate the board, and seeing how expertly she does that, in ways such as getting Weitz to sign his name to the form to hire the mercenaries (or private contractors) is a part of what makes her such a worthy adversary. 

The final scene, when they visit a human test subject for what appears to be a new biological gas agent is another. When it’s obvious that the test is successful, the look on Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s face is chilling. I always want to have that kind of reaction to a villain on television.

I’m almost sad that this season, for sure, has to end with Madeline being taken down once and for all. There is so much riding on this season from this first hour that not taking down Madeline and clearing their names is no longer an option.

In doing so, they honor Reed and Jane will get to finally have a home as she fulfills the mission that she was always meant to from the moment she came out of that bag in Times’ Square.

While “I Came to Sleigh” starts out bleak and somber, it ends hopeful. If the pattern holds, hopefully that’s the tone this final season takes. 

Stray Thoughts:

• Kind of digging the machete as Weller’s new weapon of choice.
• Patterson’s remark about the structure of the bunker was a nice nod to the trauma of the exploded safe house. Patterson has had her share of trauma over the last four seasons, but this one was big and I can only imagine the anxiety she might be masking being underground again. 
• First Harry Potter and now The Goonies, Rich needs to think up some better stories on the fly. Maybe take a class Rich. 
• Working out theories on who sent the blackbird tattoo and I genuinely am not sure. I do feel like the silhouette looked feminine, but I could be wrong. I want to think that maybe it’s Avery, but I’m not even sure that make sense. If you have thoughts please put them in the comments below. I’d love to hear them. 

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

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Blindspot airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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