Blindspot Review: Awl In (Season 5 Episode 7)
Just when you think Madeline Burke can’t stoop any lower, she does. Blindspot Season 5 Episode 7, “Awl In,” examines the revelation of Madeline’s plan, specifically from Jane’s perspective.
Opening with Jane’s dream about Kurt not remembering her and realizing he’s been ZIPed is a heartbreaking note to start on. It’s playing right into the dream from Blindspot Season 5 Episode 3, “Existential Ennui,” which told her that she was the reason that everyone was in danger.
Hearing Jane talk about herself like that is a symptom of the isolation the team is experiencing. Jane is with the only people she loves and they are being hunted by a psychopath. Yet, she also knows what ZIP can do, and doesn’t want that for anyone else.
Her dream almost becomes a reality on the mission, and it’s an all too real scene. When the valve fails and Jane realizes there is a possibility that Kurt will forget her if they aren’t careful is one of the tensest moments of the episode. There’s so much anxiety at that moment, and Jaimie Alexander plays it well.
Through all of Jane’s doubt, she has a lingering through that if she turns herself in that Madeline will stop.
That’s absolutely wrong. As we know, Madeline’s motivation stems back to J. Edgar Hoover and the way he supposedly sabotaged her father. Turning herself in isn’t going to stop Madeline from creating a population of mindless drones, because that’s exactly what she wants and needs.
It’s no mistake that Madeline is aligned with Ivy Sands, even though Madeline and Ivy’s brief exchange during this episode seems to suggest that the ZIP is for Ivy, I have no doubt that Madeline is the real mastermind.
“Awl In” shows just how far Madeline is willing to go to get what she wants too, going as far as ZIPing her own son.
Madeline has been allowed to move through this season pretty much unchecked with a lot of power at her disposal, and she keeps gaining more.
Hearing that she’s now shortlisted for the Vice Presidency is terrifying. We already know she killed her husband, we saw her poison the board of HCI Global, and we know those stockpiles of ZIP are out there. (Albeit one is ineffective. Good job Jane!)
If Madeline assumes the Vice Presidency she’s going to be just one step away from the Oval, and she’s not someone who should be in charge.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s performance on this episode is stunning. We see her go from self-assured with Ivy to warm with her son, and later heartbroken as she realizes he no longer believes in her. The moment when she injects him is heartbreakingly beautiful, and the moment he asks her who she is is even more crushing.
Her final order to put her son somewhere nice and that she doesn’t want to know where brings some empathy and humanity to one of Blindspot‘s most formidable villains.
Blindspot also manages to bake in a final reveal in the form of who is sending the team messages. Keaton’s return is a welcome one. The revelation that he’s likely been working with Allie and maybe some other contacts of Kurt’s is even more perfect and suggests that Weitz’s resistance on the inside isn’t the only one at play.
It makes sense now that he would have been able to give them Rich’s location on Blindspot Season 5 Episode 1, “I Came to Sleigh,” and with his intel and experience, he is sure to be invaluable during the endgame.
Given that the teaser for next week showed Madeline breaching the Team’s hideout, it seems like they’re going to need all the help they can get.
Stray Thoughts:
- Rich’s guy to get into Libya is named Dan, and this is somehow the most hysterical part of the entire episode. There’s also not enough of Rich on this episode, which is okay, but I miss how he cracks wise and plays a sentimental brother sometimes.
- Zapata’s regret that she couldn’t denature her shipment of ZIP is heartbreaking as well. It’s the first real failure that they’ve had in hiding.
- I was fully expecting Allie to try to message Kurt in some way, I had no idea it would be in her hand signal. Much better, and more esoteric, than morse code.
- Regarding Zapata’s attempt at recruiting Greg, she had a chance and she took it. She wasn’t wrong to try, but she also recruited an untrained civilian and game him enough to make him enter a viper’s nest. The fact that Gregory has been ZIPed isn’t entirely on her, but she did play a part in it.
- The fact that Ivy has just given away the fact that she’s not sharing intel with Madeline has put a target on her back. I would watch out, Ivy! The second Madeline realizes you’re no longer loyal you might get an injection of ZIP too.
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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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.