The Blindspot

     Time Square is full of lights and people. An empty bag is found.  It's a big, black bag, and if you see something,  you should say something. The area is cleared and the bomb squad goes in to  investigate. When they poke a bag, a woman covered in tattoos emerges, stark naked. No, this is not Tilda Swinton's latest art project, it's NBC's The Blindspot.

     The woman, Jane Doe (played by Jaimie Alexander), has no memories at all. Her full body tattoo art includes intricate patterns of numbers, addresses and symbols. Her back reads: Kurt Weller, FBI. Agent Weller (Aussie Sullivan Stapleton)  is a top cop at the New York FBI bureau. He and his team take Jane in under their watch to see if she can jog her memory. Jane appears to be drugged in away to wipe her personality and memories out, but her basic motor skills are still there, and she can kick ass. Weller and his crew take Jane on missions, using her tattoos to prevent terrorism, end bank holdups, and generally save New York from imminent destruction. Do they ever request backup? That would be a no, and an issue I take to heart. Seriously, who died and make Weller, Zepeta, Reid, Jane and Patterson think they can single-handedly save New York City every time? But I digress...

     Jane assists Weller's unit in their daily activities, and it gets real. . Weller's computer genius, Agent Patterson (Ashley Johnson from Growing Pains) analyzes Jane's tattoos for fun, looking for more clues. The art represents hidden puzzles and clues to upcoming crimes and exposure of governmental wrongdoings. At first the team doesn't  have a clue what's going on. They know a group called Sandstorm is behind things, but they're not sure why.  Patterson's boyfriend gets murdered trying to help her out with the puzzles, and she gets in major trouble with Director Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who reminds me of  Viola Davis in HTGAM) because her boyfriend really shouldn't be looking at classified FBI files in the first place. Then Director Mayfair gets framed for murder, and she gets murdered. The body count gets a bit ridiculous, although most of the bad guys are brought in for justice. This becomes  part of the overall theme in the show: where are we drawing the line? Should the FBI go out looking for trouble? Should the CIA kidnap and torture Jane to get their own answers? Should Weller make allowances for Jane and let her run with the team?

     Weller discovers Jane was brought to him because her DNA test shows she is Taylor Shaw. Shaw was a little girl who lived on his street that was supposedly murdered when he was 10 years old. Weller is so relived to see Taylor because his father was put in jail for allegedly murdering  the 5-year old neighbor girl. It was pretty weird to think that Weller cared so much about this little kid, but I'm willing to buy into it because it seems like she was really his younger sister Sarah's (Jordana Spiro) friend. As the season progresses, Jane's memories begin coming back, and she is clearly not Taylor Shaw. Her tooth shows isotopes native to Africa and her memories about about assassin-like training. She is an ex-Marine and she came to Weller for a different reason. Is she part of Sandstorm? Of course she is! One thing is clear, Jane is bad news.