Blindspot: Cede Your Soul Recap

Synopsis: A teen hacker is conned into creating an app for tracking government vehicles. Jane and Kurt have issues with boundaries.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Poor Jane just needs a friend! After an app called Trakzer that records the GPS on all US government vehicles leads to several horrible deaths, the team (prompted by a tattoo of an owl on Jane’s leg) goes after it’s creator, teenager Ana. After interrogating her they discover that the app was commissioned by terrorists posing as the NSA, and she truly believed she was helping.

Jane takes to her immediately, offering support and comfort and treating her like a person – even inviting her to a movie. This comes on the heels of a conversation she had with her psychologist, in tandem with a conversation Weller had with Mayfair, about the two of them being unable to remain objective about each other.

Blessedly, this was not necessarily played in the archetypal ‘getting too personally involved because we’re in love’ vein, but more that the complexity, power imbalance, and unconventional nature of their dynamic was creating tension for the whole team. There is certainly an unmistakable connection, a history and a fondness between them, but it means different things to each of them. Not to mention that Jane is technically still a closely-monitored FBI asset. Especially in conjunction with Jane’s sex dream involving a man with a tattoo of an oak tree on his arm, the show does a good job of presenting how complicated it all is.

With the cat out of the bag and Ana determined to be an innocent pawn, she’s released, only to be immediately captured by the terrorists who hired her. Thanks to her mad skills and quick thinking, she’s able to leave enough digital clues behind for the team (specifically Patterson) to find her. They get their butts whooped by the FBI.

Back at the base, Jane chats with Ana, reassuring her that being under the protection of the FBI isn’t so bad. Ana asks about the stenography in the tattoo on her arm. The one covering the old Navy SEAL tattoo. This is news to Jane and they rush to Patterson. It’s discovered that the black square, thought to be hiding her old tattoo, actually contains another coded image within it, only revealed through imaging software. No one knows what it means yet, but as Weller points out, they’ll need to go back over every tattoo they’ve used on a case before. Any or all of them could have double, even triple meanings hidden inside them. It’s possible they are, literally and figuratively, all pieces of one big puzzle.

Later, Jane and Weller awkwardly agree to keep their relationship as professional as possible. There is an obvious undercurrent to the conversation that says this is impossible – she’s a childhood friend and defining moment for him, he’s one of the only people she knows in the whole world, and his name is tattooed in huge letters on her back.

Weller goes home to find his father and sister waiting for him. He’s angry, but Sarah ultimately convinces him to spill the beans about Taylor Shaw. His father is extremely emotional about it, sobbing and gripping both of them by the arm. It’s noticeably unclear exactly what he is so affected by.

Meanwhile, Jane’s security detail takes her home, and she asks if they want to go out or come in for a drink. They politely decline, and Jane goes home alone. But we see a man in the shadows watching her. When he lifts his arm to make a phone call, we see the tree from Jane’s dream on his arm.

Now that Jane and Weller are at an awkward stalemate, I’m pretty pumped for new recurring characters in the mix. Hopefully the new Tree Guy brings some good stuff with him, and I really hope that sassy, punk-rock tech-whiz Ana sticks around; She’s a great foil to cutesy, uptight Patterson.

The show needs some more lightheartedness, more demographically-appropriate characters and, like every show, more ladies (although Blindspot actually sails past the vast majority of shows on this front).