BLINDSPOT
NBC
Returns: Sept. 14 at 10pm
Where We Left Off: Weller’s livid, Jane’s cuffed, Mayfair’s dead and no one trusts anyone.
Blindspotters, have you caught your breath after those whiz-bang episodes that lead up to the show’s Season 1 finale? Prepare to lose it all over again when the NBC ratings hit returns in a new Wednesday night time slot.
“The show picks up three months after the season finale,” says series creator Martin Gero. “They’re all in a dark space, as you can imagine. They’ve all been through hell. The first episode is really about how they can reconcile what happened last year and whether they can continue to work with Jane and bring down the group that did this to all of them and did this to Jane, even though Jane originally was a spearhead of this organization.”
Weller and company get some help in that department — even though more trouble awaits. “We’re introducing some new characters, some new bad guys. There’s a new team dynamic that obviously there has to be, since Jane was arrested at the end of last season.” Leading the charge: The Good Wife standout Archie Punjabi as Nas Kamal.
“We originally called the character Archie, because we were like, ’Well, we’re never going to get her, so we might as well call her Archie,” Gero jokes. “She works for the NSA and she’s going to play a major role in helping the team reconcile their very mixed emotions towards Jane and each other after the events of last season. What’s really fun about the opening of the season is everyone knows everything. There’s no secrets anymore. … Right away in the first episode, you’re going to learn Jane’s real name, you’re going to learn who she is, where she’s really from. All of that stuff, you get right away. Then we grow from there.”
Asked what the devastated Weller might have done in that three-month time jump, Stapleton jokes, “I think after the death of his father and then finding out Jane isn’t who she says she is, he went on holiday. Kurt went to London, then Monaco, and then he went to Australia. No, it’s been a hard few months for Kurt. To find out about his father, that hurt him — and also the fact that Kurt’s an FBI agent and he was living with a guy who had murdered a child. There’s a lot spinning in the works for that — for his beliefs.”
Alexander was equally surprised by Jane’s fate. “I guess I assumed where it would go from there is Jane goes to jail. I was like, ‘Cool! Can I shave my head?’” she grins. “They were like, ‘No.’ “
Here’s what really goes down — and it’s still plenty hair-raising.
“There’s a time cut and what has happened to Jane in that time cut is extremely devastating and was some of the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to film, emotionally and physically,” Alexander explains. “Everybody that’s watching it will find it very hard to watch. It’s very violent. It’s very rough. Where we go from there is she has a breaking point and she’s like, ‘No more.’ She starts to take charge and it’s been a really cool arc, because in the beginning, she’s just looking to everybody else like, ‘Help me, I don’t know who I am,’ and now she’s like, ‘You know what? I’m going to help myself. I’m going to figure this out.’”
As for Jane’s tattoos, Gero says the inkings “still play an important role in the show and in the engine of how the show works. For instance, there are no real tattoo clues in the first episode — but then the second episode, we’re right back into it in a very organic way. It allows the show to be different but not feel totally changed.”
Good news for Blindspotters who live to solve the puzzle of the tatts. Some of which throw Alexander for a loop.
“I’ve had an 8 year-old girl come up and have face paint,” she exclaims. “She said, ‘Look, I’m like Jane.’ I thought, ‘You watch Blindspot? Where is your mom? We’re going to have a chat!’”
All kidding aside, Alexander says she recognizes the show’s wide-ranging appeal.
“I think it’s just that we have so much for everybody,” she smiles. “It’s a heightened concept, but it’s real relationships, real heartache, real devastation. It’s got action, which keeps people who like the physical of stuff interested — but all the action makes sense. We don’t just blow up stuff or hurt somebody for fun; it’s always poignant in the storyline. It’s smart. It’s a mystery. It’s a puzzle. And people like to figure things out because they feel accomplished — as we all do. We don’t spoon-feed the audience. We like you to keep thinking and then we like to throw a monkey wrench in what you thought.”
Sullivan admits he hopes that last part doesn’t include domestic bliss for Jane Weller — despite his costar’s appeal.
“I mean, if they ended up in a relationship, what is it going to be, a romantic comedy?” he shrugs. “I get the comedy bit. Who knows? That could be a really good twist. Kurt could be sleeping with all of the agents. You never know.”
Blindspot Season 2 premieres Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 10/9CT.
ok.. I liked the idea of the series and still like, to be honest. But the cliche idea that is being developed of a team that is broken then reunited and because of this they get stronger, smarter and powerful than their oponents (some are.. Nsa, CIA, even the FBI with the inside jobs, the international community and so on) is already boring and pretty much used. Not a hater here, just wanted to have the series going deeper in different aspects than those already shown in THe Blacklist and in a lot of TV movies. Wishing for surprises that would make my comment to be cokpletely wrong.