Recap: Blindspot Season 1, Episode 15 — In a Rose Tattoo

BLINDSPOT -- "Older Cutthroat Canyon" Episode 115 -- Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe -- (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)

Lately, there’s been a lot of suspicion about Blindspot‘s Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander) and her motives. Who is she? Where did she come from? How does she know all of those crazy kill moves?

Well, the team is about to get a little more curious — and with good reason. In “Older Cutthroat Canyon” (which translates to “To Contact Your Handler”), it looks like someone is out to kill our favorite FBI team using one of Jane’s tattoos to set the trap. Is someone going to die? Does Reade (Rob Brown) magically show up after being knocked out last week? Let’s stop speculating and get to this week’s recap!

BLINDSPOT recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14

BLINDSPOT -- "Older Cutthroat Canyon" Episode 115 -- Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Rob Brown as Edgar Reed, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata -- (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)
BLINDSPOT — “Older Cutthroat Canyon” Episode 115 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Rob Brown as Edgar Reed, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata — (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)

Instead of kicking off this episode with everyone’s morning ritual, we find Jane meeting Oscar (Francois Arnaud) in the middle of the night. He wants her to install a tracker inside an FBI vehicle. He says it’s so “they” can track Jane, but she knows better. He then tries to smooth things over with her, like she could forget him saying that Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) could get killed if she didn’t keep playing nice. Of course, Jane’s not having any of it!

On another side of town, Reade is waking up behind the wheel of his car. He has a lump on his head, but he’s alive. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. A masked gunman with a creepy tech-enhanced voice puts a gun to his head and tells Reade to stop seeking answers about Tom Carter’s disappearance. Are these people with Jane? Part of Orion? Either way, I am getting the feeling like Sarah (Jordana Spiro) won’t be in season 2.

After that little meeting, Reade goes to see Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and makes up a big, old lie. He basically says he’s got nothing. She didn’t seem to appreciate the wake-up call, either.

Next, we see a mystery figure in an art studio. According to Patterson (Ashley Johnson), the person was dressed as a pig. I thought he looked more “Big Bad Wolf” or maybe even like a reject from the You’re Next wardrobe room. Either way, the person on the video is a thief, who went to great lengths to steal a painting from a Banksy-esque artist named ZOMO. It’s a picture of burning rose, exactly like the one that’s on Jane Doe’s body.

The FBI team shows up at the studio to check things out, but ZOMO is a bit of a mysterious character. Even his assistant Christine has never met him. “This guy makes J.D. Salinger look like an extrovert,” she says.

BLINDSPOT -- "Older Cutthroat Canyon" Episode 115 -- Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe -- (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)
BLINDSPOT — “Older Cutthroat Canyon” Episode 115 — Pictured: (l-r) Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)

As the crew goes in for a closer look, Jane goes out to the car — to plant the tracker, of course. She worries about Weller, so she needs to do whatever Oscar says. That worry seems pretty valid, though. After all, two seconds later, Weller finds a bomb hidden inside a sculpture. The thing explodes, Weller goes down, and he starts bleeding from the neck!

After the opening credits and a lengthy commercial break, Weller is rushed to the hospital. Sarah tells Reade that he lost a lot of blood, but he’s going to be okay. That’s good, because we can’t kill off Weller yet. (I don’t think he would allow that!)

The rest of the crew claims that the bomber not only wanted the FBI’s attention, but was specifically targeting them. The question is whether ZOMO is the main suspect or not. Of course, they have to figure out what the guy looks like before they can even begin to find him.

Patterson checks out ZOMO’s “self-portrait” of a building and finds an apartment complex. Within seconds, the crew is at the location, but with Reade and Jane undercover, along with a bomb-sniffing dog. They don’t find a bomb, but instead find ZOMO tied to a chair, bleeding to death. As the crew walks in, Jane is shot in the chest. Luckily, she has a bulletproof vest on. The shooter (Tom Lipinski) encounters Reade, but is disguised as FBI and walks out.

Just as the shooter exits, Jane is running up to the building. His face causes Jane to have a major flashback, but he doesn’t seem all that psyched about the reunion. He starts firing shots at her, with two guns. The ruckus brings Reade out of the building, with Zapata (Audrey Esparza) right behind him. She exclaims that the target isn’t really the FBI, but Jane Doe. On that note, both the shooter and Jane disappear.

BLINDSPOT -- "Older Cutthroat Canyon" Episode 115 -- Pictured: (l-r) Rob Brown as Edgar Reed, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata -- (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)
BLINDSPOT — “Older Cutthroat Canyon” Episode 115 — Pictured: (l-r) Rob Brown as Edgar Reed, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata — (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)

From his hospital bed, Weller tells Mayfair that Jane only took off to protect the FBI. He never loses faith, does he? Apparently, he also never takes a vacation. Weller pulls the tubes out of his arm and is ready to get back to work.

Jane makes a call from a payphone on the street. This is the biggest surprise of the episode, in more ways than one. First of all, they still have functioning payphones? Second, the guy she calls answers the phone with “Joey’s Pizza,” but of course, there’s no pizza. Jane tells the guy, “I need to cancel my order.” Wait, what??

While the FBI crew is at the office reviewing the day’s events, Mayfair comes in to say that Christie has been found trying to board a plane. That seems sort of suspicious, so she’s being brought in for questioning.

Meanwhile, Jane finds Oscar in a parking garage. She pulls a gun on him and starts asking questions about the shooter. It turns out his name is Cade and he’s a rogue member of Jane’s old crew. Obviously, he has a beef with Jane, but we also find out that Cade is the one who killed the bearded man.

At the FBI, Weller and Reade start grilling Christine. She says that ZOMO got an anonymous message that unless “he” painted a burning rose picture for his upcoming show, someone would expose “his” identity. Yes, I put those quotes there for a reason. ZOMO is actually Christine and the dead guy was her boyfriend. The two were basically pawns, but the whole story brings Weller to the conclusion that the suspect either had access to Jane’s FBI file or Jane herself. He comes up with all of this, even as he’s bleeding from the neck. Mayfair tells him to go back to the hospital, but he’s in full-on Weller mode.

BLINDSPOT -- "Older Cutthroat Canyon" Episode 115 -- Pictured: Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe -- (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)
BLINDSPOT — “Older Cutthroat Canyon” Episode 115 — Pictured: Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe — (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)

Oscar brings Jane to a different garage. A guy named Danny walks in and Jane has another flashback. She knows him. He’s smiling and seems happy to see the both of them. He goes to hug Jane, but she pulls back. “Oh right,” he says. Oscar asks for supplies. Danny gives them phones and a really cool car. As Danny opens the garage door to let them drive away, shots are fired. Our new friend is hit! Jane fires back and hits Cade in the shoulder. Right before Danny dies, he tells Jane that it’s okay. “I owed you one,” he says.

With sirens getting closer, Oscar and Jane jump into the car. As the two are driving, Oscar gets a page. It says: “911.” It turns out there was another body. Oscar says they need to pull her out of the FBI. He says that if Jane dies, the mission fails. He also says that he can’t lose her. Of course, she only seems to care about the FBI team. Oscar then says that if she cares about them, she needs to pull away from them.

As Cade is sewing up his injury inside some old ship, the FBI crew shows up and a gunfight breaks out. However, it doesn’t take long for Cade to trap Zapata, Reade, and Weller inside an area in the ship. Oscar informs Jane of the situation and she wants to save her friends. He says they aren’t her friends — and calls her Taylor!

Just as Weller is MacGyver-ing up an escape solution, Jane shows up. Unfortunately, so does Cade, with a gun. She asks Cade not to kill her in front of the team. He’s cool with that, since he actually wants to kill her in front of Oscar. Naturally, Jane can’t be held for too long. She take off, with Cade in pursuit. This gives Weller the chance to finish rigging up a bomb, which blows the door open and sets the team free.

Meanwhile, Jane is elsewhere on the boat, beating Cade with her fists — and sometime a piece of wood. Oscar appears and shoots Cade in the stomach. He then hears Weller call out, so Oscar tackles Cade and the two fall into the water. When Weller, Reade, and Zapata show up, Jane tells them that she shot Cade in the stomach.

BLINDSPOT -- "Older Cutthroat Canyon" Episode 115 -- Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata -- (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)
BLINDSPOT — “Older Cutthroat Canyon” Episode 115 — Pictured: (l-r) Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, Audrey Esparza as Tasha Zapata — (Photo by: Giovanni Rufino/NBC)

Back at the FBI, Weller scolds Jane for her reckless behavior. She also has a lot of answers about how she found the team and put Cade down. Mayfair says if she does anything like that again, she’s done. Weller is even more upset, although he says he would have done the exact same thing.

Mayfair sees Reade and tells him that Jane’s story doesn’t add up. Despite his suspicions, he worries about Sarah and her son. He tells Mayfair that he still doesn’t think she has anything to do with Carter’s disappearance.

At Weller’s apartment, Sarah is tending to her brother’s neck wound when Reade shows up to dump her.  She blames her brother, but he plays it cool like he’s a loner or something.

At the end of the episode, Jane asks Oscar about why Cade wanted Oscar to watch her die. He says that Cade is dead and she shouldn’t worry. However, two seconds later, we see Cade pull a guy out of a car by the water. The assassin lives!

This was a good episode, people. I didn’t love Reade breaking up Sarah, but there were a lot of twists and turns and people getting shot. Also, I like the addition of Tom Lipinski. His Cade is downright evil! It will be interesting to see how and when he pops up again. And didn’t the FBI look for his body or do they just believe everything Jane says? That said, the biggest stumper of the night was the phone call that Jane Doe made on the street. Who was that guy, how did she remember that number, and what was the order she had to cancel? Any ideas, Blindspotters? Give me all of your conspiracy theories in the comments section below. See you next week!

Blindspot airs Monday nights at 10/9CT on NBC.

14 Comments

  1. the rose doesnt make any sense. the artist said she only painted the rose after Cade bribed her into doing it. so why was it tattooed on Janes body if it had no meaning at the time?

  2. I got the impression the call to “Joey’s Pizza” is how she’s been getting in touch with Oscar all along, to set up their rooftop meetings. Immediately after she calls the phony pizza place, they show her meeting with Oscar. It makes sense, although if that is the case it was never explained to us (the audience), or maybe I just missed that little detail.

    • That’s a great theory! I don’t remember that coming up before. That said, there is so much in every episode, sometimes I miss things. (See the comment below. Ha!) It would certainly make sense, though. Although who was the guy that answered and what was up with cancelling the order? Hmm.

      • I think it was just an emergency contact method she got from Oscar, and it was the first time she ever used it (that’s why she seems to hesitate before making the phone call) but it wasn’t shown when she got the information, I think it was just implied.

      • They’re clearly concerned with their phone line being tapped (not the payphone, obviously, but the phone the “pizza” guy answers) so perhaps “Cancel my order” is just a code for “I need to set up a meeting” or something like that. I mean, he’s pretending to be a pizza place so she’s pretending to cancel an order, just in case anyone is listening in?

        • I absolutely agree with that, Taryn. They’re definitely worried about someone listening in… but how did Jane know the phone number and the “code” phrases? A lot of unanswered questions that I still don’t know the answer to, even after this week’s episode!

  3. The FBI DID look for Cade’s body. When Mayfair is talking to Reade, she says to him that the body wasn’t found and she thinks that Jane’s story is off. Pay more attention for fucks sake before you ask this kind of questions in an article related to this episode

  4. I think the Oscar/Cade relationship is more complicated than Oscar is letting on. I think ‘Marcos’ is a woman, maybe Cade’s girlfriend, who Oscar is responsible for the death of.
    Also, I think we’ve not been given the full story on the Oscar/Jane break-up. We’ve been led to assume that they broke up because of the ‘mission’ but what if they ended their relationship before that? (Maybe because Oscar cheated on her, with Marcos, maybe?)

    • NO! I am rooting for Jane and Oscar! Don’t say he cheated on her, he genuinely looks so in love with her! And at the end of the episode we saw how glad Jane/Taylor was on finding him alive, she cares about him too even if she isn’t ready to accept it. Weller is a nice character but he is just too deadbeat. He doesn’t bring anything to the screen!

  5. I think Oscar and Cade have a more complicated history than Oscar is letting on. I also think ‘Marcos’ is maybe a woman? Cade’s girlfriend who Oscar inadvertently got killed, perhaps?
    I’m also getting more suspicious about why Jane & Oscar’s relationship ended. They’ve led us to believe it was ‘the mission’ but what if something else happened (something Oscar is hoping Jane doesn’t remember, for example: he cheated on her with Marcos?)

    • yeah.. that was off.
      and also when she called Oscar and Danny by names, seemed oddly familiar, like she remembered much more.

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