'Blindspot' Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Bill Nye's return doesn't help the rogue agents
Spoilers for Season 5 Episode 2 'We Didn't Start the Fire'
With Rich Dotcom (Ennis Esmer) being back 'home' - or in their safe house bunker, one would think our beloved 'rogue' five would have some moiety of solace and peace to breathe in for at least a short while, but apparently not. With Rich trying to make the most of his time back with the people he trusts, and not the torturous maniacs of the CIA, Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) has an issue with him trying to act as if they are all 'home'.
But Kurt worrying about never seeing his daughter Bethany again is not the least of their concerns, and FBI director Madeline Burke (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) grows villainous by the second - her latest target being a science conference honorary speaker, which by the way, Matthew Weitz (Aaron Abrams) is also attending. In all of this, the agents' only hope is Patterson's (Ashley Johnson) dad - acclaimed scientist Bill Nye who reprises his real-life persona on the show once again.
But even with what looks like bleak rays of success, for the time being, the tension lingers in the form of what extents Madeline will go to, to frame our fugitives?
With the gang's need to acquire the phone hidden in the FBI's vents, they decide to ambush Matthew at the conference. Their key to crash the event is, of course, Patterson's dad, bringing into the equation another of those iconic Johnson-Nye scenes that we have so grown to adore and look forward to every season. This time, it's Patterson and Kurt attending the event where they team up with Nye, whose cameo is steady and unmissable throughout the episode.
Be it as a climate change enthusiast trying to divert the crowd's attention upon almost getting caught by Madeline's mercenaries, or hitting one of those bad guys with a fire extinguisher, arriving right in time to help Patterson diffuse a pressure-sensitive bomb - it's crisp and leaves one wanting more; the good way.
Of course, Patterson and Nye are able to diffuse the bomb in the nick of time, saving both Matthew and Madeline's target at the event, but that wasn't the team's only agenda. Back in the FBI, as Madeline mandates tracking devices on all of the employee's phones, she also spreads around spies across the office, one of them being Brianna - a somewhat friendly colleague of Afrin's.
Meanwhile, the team sends Afrin instructions on her coffee cup label, by hacking the printers at her go-to coffee place. Unfortunately, the moment she retrieves the phone, Brianna - who is being blackmailed by Madeline threatening her parents, catches Afrin in the act. But Afrin is soon able to turn Brianna's stand by expressing she is a victim of similar threats to her family - something that makes Brianna's offer to extend her own help in transmitting the phone's data to the rogue agents.
And this is where disaster happens: right at the end of the brooding tunnel, as our rogues spot the faint flicker of light, everything goes dark again. Brianna's attempt at transmitting data gets caught by Madeline's mercenaries, and they are able to weasel everything out of the plan. They ambush Matthew in the lift and expectedly take him hostage - or so implied the end of the episode. The fear of what's in store for the agents - whose connection was still active with the phone - keeps hovering.
Kurt's dreams of being reunited with his daughter, even if that means they can never be FBI agents anymore, keeps drifting farther. Meanwhile, Patterson came seconds close to losing a loved one - something that will put her in allegiance with both Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza), and also Kurt somewhat. This brings the million-dollar question into play, asking what it means for Kurt and Jane Doe's (Jaime Alexander) relationship? Will it be able to survive a loss that Tasha lost, or will they be reduced in the imminent finale, to nothing but smithereens?
'Blindspot' Season 5 airs on Thursdays at 9 pm only on NBC.
