‘Blindspot’ returns with moments of clarity Patrick Ryan
NBC drama adds shots of Jane Doe’s identity and her objective
The perks of shooting Blindspot in the dead of winter? Less time in the makeup trailer for star Jaimie Alexander.
In NBC’s top-rated newcomer, returning from its fall hiatus Monday (10 p.m. ET/PT), Alexander plays a woman covered in ornate body art containing clues to a larger criminal conspiracy — meaning, the actress will sometimes spend as many as seven hours having fake tattoos applied. But filming in a frigid Brooklyn warehouse one January night, the actress is mercifully bundled in a bulky leather jacket and hoodie.
“Today, I only have my hands done, and those take at the very most 30 minutes, maybe 15,” Alex- ander says, pulling up her sleeve.
On this night, she’s filming an episode in which her character, Jane Doe, anxiously arrives at a swank modern-art gallery. She’s working with the FBI to investigate the burglary of a painting.
Jane’s agitation is the result of a shocking revelation in November’s midseason finale, which showed that she may actually be working against FBI agent and love interest Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), who until then had been trying to help her solve the mystery of her identity and tattoos. In the final moments, a man from her past named Oscar (François Arnaud) turned up and showed her an old video in which she says: “This was all your idea. You did this to yourself.”
Creator Martin Gero explains: “She’s essentially found out that she planned this whole thing, that she is complicit in her own memory wipe and the creation of the tattoos, and might be working against the FBI, (who are) the only people she loves and trusts. It’s a major crisis of confidence and conscience for her, which is really fun to watch her struggle with.”
Monday’s episode picks up right after the fall finale as Jane and Oscar create tension in her relationship with Kurt.
“She starts to pull away from him ever so slightly — just to protect him, really — and that does a number on him,” Gero says. “It adds a wrinkle to their dynamic, certainly, as she tries to explore what Oscar will inevitably mean to her.”
Blindspot already has been renewed for a second season, and Gero calls the 10 fall episodes “a lot of setup. Now we’re stretching our wings and really allowing the show to come into its own and be the addictive, serialized character drama it always wanted to be.”