Courtesy of Jeff Neumann/NBC
Luke MItchell and Michelle Hurd will join previously announced recurring player Archie Panjabi for the NBC sophomore drama.
The next puzzle for Blindspot’s Jane Doe to solve? How to get out of the mess she found herself in at the end of season one.
The freshman season of NBC’s hit procedural ended with the tattoo-covered Jane being placed under arrest by a furious Weller, who thinks she’s been lying to him for claiming she was his childhood friend Taylor Shaw. (Who’s definitely dead, by the way.) Meanwhile, Mayfair is dead, too, putting Weller in charge. And don’t forget: There’s still a nameless anti-government conspiracy lurking out there, led by the mysterious Shepherd. Who is Jane, really? And what the heck is going on here?
Fortunately, a few new cast additions should help sort things out: Luke Mitchell (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Michelle Hurd (Daredevil) will join the season two cast as series regulars and members of that shadowy conspiracy. (Mitchell plays Roman, but Hurd’s character is unnamed; maybe she’s Shepherd?) And the Blindspot cast and showrunner Martin Gero graciously stopped by San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday to drop a few breadcrumbs for us to follow.
A sizzle reel screened for fans (watch, below) gave us a nice, long look at season two, including: Jane being brutally tortured and then interrogated by The Good Wife’s Archie Panjabi, who’s also joining the cast as a no-nonsense NSA operative; plenty of Jane kicking butt, including a tough fight with Weller (!); and Jane tearily telling Weller, “When we bring them down, I want out.” (Sorry, Jane; not if fans want a season three.)
Gero previewed the new cast additions, saying that Panjabi’s character “helps the team heal some of the wounds from last season.” And he did lay the groundwork for where the NBC drama picks up in season two: “It’s three months later. Everyone’s had a rough go.” He confirmed that Jane has been held in a CIA black site for those three months, and “they’ve been less than delicate with her.”
Gero also promises lots of plot resolution in the season premiere, airing Sept. 14: “The first episode back, you find out what Jane’s real name is, what her background is … it’s a very satisfying episode for our fans.” Plus, he vows, we will meet the conspiracy leader Shepherd at some point this season.
But don’t worry: There are still plenty of mysteries left to unravel. Like, what really happened to Mayfair, according to co-star Ashley Johnson (Patterson): “We don’t 100 percent know what happened with Mayfair. We’ll discover that as time goes on.” Speaking of Patterson: We still don’t know her first name! Gero is still tight-lipped on that front: “It’s a mystery show. I think there are things that should be mysterious about it at all times. She’s like our Kramer, I guess.”
Sullivan Stapleton (Weller) concedes that things are looking bleak for his character right now. “We’re picking up in a very happy place,” he jokes, before adding, “It’s quite a heavy way to start the second season. But it’s great to play as an actor.” And Jaimie Alexander (Jane) says Jane is still coping with the guilt of misleading Weller and inadvertently betraying the team: “That kind of guilt doesn’t go away easy.”
One great way to work out your guilty feelings: beating the crap out of the person you're feeling guilty about, apparently. That scene of Jane and Weller duking it out was a big hit with the Comic-Con crowd, and Alexander was happy to spoil the outcome. “I won,” she proudly declared, while sitting right next to Stapleton. He could only shrug: “That wasn’t even on the show. That was in between takes.”
Bookmark THR.com/ComicCon to keep up with all the highlights.
