Paul Sarkis/NBC
Showrunner Martin Gero breaks down that winter-finale twist
[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Blindspot's midseason finale.]
After hinting at Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) and her mysterious past all season long, NBC freshman series Blindspot finally unlocked a major clue about her motives in the last few minutes of Monday's winter finale, "Evil Handmade Instrument."
The episode tracked Jane, Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) and the rest of the team as they hunted David's (Joe Dinicol) killers: a ring of Russian spies who led double lives. It all led to Jane finally seizing the moment and giving in to her feelings for Weller, when she showed up at his doorstep for a kiss.
That's when things went haywire, as Jane was kidnapped by CIA head Carter (Michael Gaston), who tortured and threatened her until she was saved by the mysterious man from her dreams. In a prerecorded video to herself, Jane and the audience learned it was Jane's idea to wipe her own memory and infiltrate the FBI, and the man who had saved her was Oliver (Francois Arnaud), someone to be trusted.
To find out where the show goes from here when it returns in February, and how long Jane can keep this secret going, THR caught up with showrunner Martin Gero.
How will this video reveal affect Jane when the show returns?
It changes everything for her. That was part of the initial pitch [for the show] way back in the day and it was a moment we all knew was coming. I was excited and nervous about it, because it changes the show in a really fundamental way. But, as we're shooting episode 13 and we're just starting to break episode 17, it really deepens the show in a way that is incredibly exciting. As fascinating a character as Jane Doe was, it's hard to write characters on a show like this that don't really have secrets. The tension that she has obviously she doesn't tell the team first thing in the next episode. So it brings a whole new dynamic to the show that is really invigorating and fun.
Before he died, Carter mentioned Orion. Is that the new focus in the back half or is it on Jane's identity?
Jane's new thing is now that she has a direct line to somebody that knows who she became since she was kidnapped. That's her main goal, as well as Orion and everything. It's hard to talk about without giving stuff away. Daylight is kind of exposed and was part of the reason the tattoos were on her, but not all of the reason. We're a little passed it. It hasn't been exposed to the public yet, which the people who put this on her body would clearly like. But it's less of a concern. It all goes from here.
Did you always have this Russian spy parallel in mind for this episode?
That was always the fun of this one. There are some lines upon rewatching, where Jane is kind of amazed that someone would give up their life and go underground. Of course she's not even aware that she did the exact same thing.
Now that Jane and Oscar (Arnaud) have come face-to-face, will he play a more prominent role? Could there be a love triangle?
Oh yeah, he plays a huge role in the back half. They have a plan, and Oscar has the playbook. Jane doesn't, she doesn't remember. So he plays a huge part of the next part of the season. And yeah, it becomes a bit of a complicated love triangle for Jane, because she remembers being engaged to Oscar but still has incredibly strong feelings for Weller, so it's her old life encroaching on her new one. There's just a lot of great stuff in there.
How will that kiss affect Weller and things for him?
That's something they've both been thinking about since they almost kissed in episode five. It's just boiled over with Patterson (Ashley Johnson) losing David, they could see it shouldn't wait. There was no good time to kiss Weller, she should just do it. But now it will get complicated with her finding out that she did this to herself and what that could mean and why she's there and what's the plan. It gives her pause.
Elsewhere in the episode Zapata (Audrey Esparza) resigned. Is she gone for good or does Carter's death change that, too?
She's resigning because of what Carter has over her, and hopefully she finds out about Carter's death before she hands that letter in....
What about Patterson, will David's loss continue to affect her now that his case is solved?
It's something that has deeply affected her. Like anybody, she deals with it in myriad ways. What happened to David is going to reverberate in her for a good chunk of the season.
Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is the last remaining Daylight operative standing. Will she be looking over her shoulder?
Yeah, she's definitely got a lot of interesting stuff coming up. Carter goes missing, so as much as she didn't like him he was an ally. So she's definitely deeply concerned by his disappearance.
Have you already thought ahead to the finale?
Oh yes. We know exactly what episode 23 is. We know what 20, 21, 22 and 23 are. And have since, basically, the second or third day of writing the show. It's really good. There are so many twists that the major arguments we've been having is how to spread them out or how many we can have in an episode. Whether we should have it all in the last two, or spread it all out over the last few. So it's just about timing more than what happens.
Blindspot returns Monday, Feb. 29, at 10 p.m. on NBC.
What did you think of the winter finale? Sound off in the comments below.
Twitter: @amber_dowling
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