'Blindspot' Season 5 Episode 1: Is this the last of Tasha's flickering allegiance to Jane and the team?
Spoilers for 'Blindspot' Season 5 Episode 1 'I Come to Sleigh'
Minutes into the premiere of the fifth and final season of 'Blindspot', an explosion takes over the lives of 'rogue agents' Jane Doe (Jaime Alexander) and her team of five other members. Rich Dotcom (Ennis Esmer) is still being held hostage elsewhere, but while the rest of the team is hiding out in a shack in Iceland, the FBI's new director Madeline Burke orchestrates a drone attack enough to take them all out.
Jane was on patrol outside so she isn't hurt — physically — as she watches the entire house go up in flames, and her rush to the team's rescue finds us, viewers, also clutching to our heartstrings as we are very well aware one of the members of the core team is going to die.
Later in an episode, through a flashback to the unfortunate incident, the coffin is nailed: Edgar Reade (Rob Brown) is the martyr this time. And after a painful month of hurting, even though Tasha (Audrey Esparza) promises she won't run away from the path these agents have set upon, the question that really lingers is will she stop blaming Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) and the rest of them for Reade's death? Or is this water under the bridge just a momentary affair?
Right at the beginning of the episode, we see Tasha and Reade finally cave in to their insane sexual tension and decide to pursue a proper relationship. The two decide it's time they stopped running away from their feelings and have sex — much to Patterson's (Ashley Johnson) amusement.
Soon after, Patterson gets a call from Matthew Weitz about going underground — literally — but it's too late. Within seconds a bomb drops, and the entire house is reduced to smithereens. As Jane watches the explosion, the scene cuts to her in the present day and she can be seen heading to the hideout to meet the rest of the team but only Kurt, Patterson, and Tasha are present.
She is informed of Rich being held captive and tortured by the CIA, but it is only Tasha who has a clue where Rich could possibly be held.
The team also finds out Tasha has known this information for a while and kept it from them for a month now because, as she admits in her defense, it's like walking into a deathtrap. But she and the team rescue Rich, and it is only when he returns to their hideout that we learn of Reade's passing. Rich's incessant questions cut to the flashback of Jane watching their Iceland shack blast to pieces. When she rushes to check on her team, she and the rest of them under the debris find Reade atop Tasha, saving her from being crushed by the roof right over Reade's back.
They are able to help Tasha squeeze out of his hold before she suffocates, but sadly, the movement causes the debris to crush Reade instead and we all know how that ends.
Turns out, a month later, Tasha holds the team accountable for still trying to tail the tattoos even after escaping from the FBI. She accuses Kurt of following his plan and claims they could have easily gotten out without Reade having to sacrifice his life. It's obvious she holds them at fault for the death of the love of her life and accuses them of following a whimsical path that might see more loss of love and life.
While her brand of grieving has seen her shut off and recoil her civility from everyone, Rich is able to offer some solace. Despite telling Rich she doesn't want to talk about Reade, Tasha unwittingly opens up about how she wasted his last moments saying nothing of meaning or significance.
So Rich suggests she raise a toast to Reade and say all she wanted to say, and even though her toast ends in tears and hugs something tells us she might be the weakest link among them. Given Madeline's insidious motives to frame and kill them all, there's quite the chance that she might resort to getting one of the remaining five 'rogue agents' to turn on the rest.
And if she does attempt that, her best bet lies with Tasha as her wound still remains raw and bleeding, and it will be quite some time before she forgets what Kurt and Jane's instincts made her lose.
'Blindspot' airs on Thursdays at 9 pm only on NBC.
