Heave Fiery Knot

Season	2
Episode	2
Air Date	September 21, 2016
Written by	Brendan Gall
Directed by	David McWhirter
Rating	1.3
Previous	In Night So Ransomed Rogue
Next	Hero Fears Imminent Rot

Heave Fiery Knot is the second episode of the second season and the 25th overall episode of Blindspot.

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• Anagram: They Invoke Fear

Short Summary

The team races to stop a corrupt DEA agent from selling stinger missiles to a drug cartel as Weller fights to keep everyone together under the expanding divisions caused by Jane's return to the FBI and the addition of Naz as a co-leader.

Full Summary

In Afghanistan in 2013, Jane, and a group of, (maybe) NAVY SEALs, are on a mission to take down a hostile target. Once they reach the ground, Jane is shown speaking in Persian to a woman while her squad goes inside of a house that explodes within seconds, leaving Jane gasping for air and searching for severe injuries. Once she manages to get on her feet again, Jane helps the woman up and runs them both toward the helicopter to escape, but the chopper explodes, leaving the woman and Jane unconscious.

Jane unconscious after the chopper exploded

In the interrogation room, Jane confesses that she only remembered that part of her life because that's what the members of Sandstorm (Roman and Shepherd) wanted her to remember when they took her to a memorial. Jane also recalls Roman informing her that the CIA formed Orion to carry out off-the-books operations and that, unlike SEAL's goal, Orion was for illegal unsanctioned operations such as assassinations, and regime change. Roman also briefs her about Douglas Winter, the man who exposed the NSA's illegal program and made the CIA shut down Orion in order to erase any trace of its existence. Despite the CIA's best efforts, Jane survived the attack that was intended to erase Orion from existence. At the FBI, Jane tells Weller and Nas that Shepherd gave her the tattoo case of the coliseum pillars on her lower abdomen.

Coliseum Tattoo

Trying to find out the truth behind the case that involved Coach Jones with sexual assault against his college football team, Edgar visits an old friend, Freddy to ask if hes able to testify against Jones.

Weller's having trouble throwing out a box with his father's last belongings and asks Dr. Borden for advice. Unwilling to accept Borden's input, he leaves the room after receiving a text from Patterson. Right as he is about to leave, he listens to Borden say that his father will continue to follow him if Weller doesn't confront the truth. 

Jane's tattoo takes the team back to a shooting case of a Mexico City narcotics officer from last year where the bullets found at the scene were of .40 caliber, the exact same bullet type drawn on the coliseum pillars. The weapons found at the scene of the shooting were sold by the DEA and Nas informs the team that the DEA is set to release more weapons through its program that same day, including stinger missiles. 

Zapata is still suspicious about Jane and lets Weller know that maybe Sandstorm is playing with them and throwing them into a trap. Without noticing that Jane is in the hall, Weller cuts Zapata off by admitting that even though he hates being in the same room as Jane after she played them, she is the only way to put an end to Sandstorm and all of the cases tattoed on her body. 

Reade asks D.A. Gail Brown why she won't bring the Mike Jones child abuse case to court. She says there is a lack of strong evidence to prove that Jones is guilty. Reade tries to refute her statement by saying that Freddy is a prime example of what Jones has done to the children he's coached, but Brown says that their current victims are just going to earn them a loss in court. 

The team follows the lead of Valentine Barker, a field agent who was implicated in the gun-waltzing program when her signatures appeared on the requisitions of several guns sold by the DEA to people with ties to the Juarez Cartel. She's using the program to cover the sale of the weapons to the cartel. 

On their way to Valentine, Reade brings up how messed up it is for the team to work with Jane again after everything that she's done. After listening to Reade's concern, Weller reminds him that Sandstorm is watching them and that they should keep doing business as usual to avoid suspicion from Sandstorm.

Nas and Jane engage in a conversation about their current reality where they're working both for the FBI and Sandstorm. Jane points out that the country is willing to break the law in order to accomplish certain things while Sandstorm tries to end the corruption behind the government by encouraging the team to follow the tattoos. Jane wonders if she, the team, and Nas are on the right side of the fight. 

After killing a group of Juarez Cartel's members and taking Valentine into custody, Nas discovers that Valentine was the target after her own boss sent the men to kill her.

Roman wants to follow Jane to make sure she's okay but his request is denied by Shepherd arguing that Jane's not a weak person and that she can take care of herself. She orders Roman to stay away from Jane and let her do her job. 

The team decides to go after Robert Kingston, Valentine's boss, to stop him from misusing the missiles. In the hall, Dr. Borden sees Patterson and gives her the videogame The Oregon Trail as a gift. He asks her out to dinner and they both agree to do it in the future. 

The team looks for Kingston at a storage locker and when he shows up, he shoots Valentine and runs away with the missiles. 

Back at the FBI Weller, and Nas stop discussing an unknown subject once they enter the room where the rest of the team is waiting for them. Patterson throws shade to Nas while a lot of bad blood is shown when Zapata admits to not wanting Jane with them on the field for being a distraction and a liability. Jane argues that she saved Reade's life that morning and he attacks her by saying that if it wasn't for her, Mayfair would still be alive. Weller silences the team and tells them that they have to learn how to work with both Jane and Nas if they want to stop Sandstorm. 

Jane admits to Nas that she thinks she won't be able to work as a double agent anymore, but Nas explains that if she leaves, she won't have protection from either the CIA or Sandstorm and that she doesn't have another option to take. She also points out that Tom Carter may have been the one who ran Orion while the program was still operative. When Jane leaves, Nas resumes her listening to a recorded session between Jane and Dr. Borden from Borden's POV. 

Roman is still struggling with Jane's active participation with the FBI and argues against Shepherd that he should be out there instead of her and begs her to activate their source inside of the Bureau but his request is denied. Shepherd is told that Cade has been sighted.

Jane bursts into Weller's office and, asks about why he hasn't spoken to anyone about the new evidence in Taylor Shaw's case. He admits that he exhumed Shaw's body in secret and buried her somewhere peaceful. He also adds that there's no point in telling anyone apart from his team and sister because Taylor's family and killer are all dead. Jane recognizes that she misses being Taylor Shatw and that she doesn't know who she is anymore. 

The team arrives at Hunter's Point in Brooklyn to stop the Juarez Cartel members whose target is a plane with several politicians and enforcement officials on it. Once the team takes out several of the Juarez Cartel members, it's up to Jane to prevent a missile that has already been fired from hitting its target. After faining control of the remote, Jane manages to drive the missile into the river. 

At the FBI, Nas informs the team that Valentine confided in a man named Keith Manning who was the one responsible for giving Sandstorm the information about the gun-waltzing program—making him part of Sandstorm. Patterson says that based on his position in the Department of Justice, he is also responsible for another one of Jane's tattoos: the body cam case from 1x08. (Persecute Envoys)

Nas states that the Intel from Jane's tattoos come from sources within both the private and public sector.

In the locker room, Zapata helps Jane by giving her an antibiotic ointment for her gunshot wound and also apologizes for shooting her. Meanwhile, Weller throws away the box with the rest of his father's belongings and is visited by Allison Knight who tells him that she's three months pregnant with his child. Weller questions if he is fit to be a father, but tells Allie that she's going to be a great mom.

When Jane visits the Orion memorial, Roman drugs her.

Tattoo

Location: Lower abdomen.	Meaning: Illegal use of the Gun-Waltzing program.
The spaces between pillars on the tattoo resembled .40 caliber rounds, the same bullets that were used in the shooting of a narcotics officer's wedding in Mexico City; this pointed to the Juarez Cartel and the gun-waltzing program, an operation where agents go undercover as arms dealers in order to sell the guns recovered from the Juarez Cartel crime scenes and get under arrest the buyers. The team discovered that Valentine Barker was blamed of re-selling some of the guns through waltzing.

Cast

Starring

• Sullivan Stapleton as Deputy Director Kurt Weller (22/22)
• Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe, aka Remi Briggs, aka Alice Kruger (22/22)
• Rob Brown as Special Agent Edgar Reade (22/22)
• Audrey Esparza as Special Agent Natasha 'Tasha' Zapata (22/22)
• Ashley Johnson as Patterson (22/22)
• Ukweli Roach as Robert Borden also known as Nigel Thornton (13/22)
• Luke Mitchell as Roman also known as Ian Kruger (22/22)
• Michelle Hurd as Shepherd also known as former Major General Ellen Briggs (18/22)
• Archie Panjabi as Nas Kamal (19/22)

Guest Starring

• Trieste Kelly Dunn as Allison Knight
• Karishma Ahluwalia as Valentine Barker
• Ed Moran as Robert Kingston

Major Events

• Jane's past in Orion is shown and explained.

Trivia

• The gun-waltzing program is similar to the Gun Walking scandal, in which Gun Walking or Let Guns Walk tactic used by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Arizona Field Office of the ATF between 2006 and, 2011, in project Gunrunner a project intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico by interdicting straw purchasers and gun traffickers within the United States Operation The Jacob Chambers Case began in October 2009 and eventually became known in February 2010 as "Operation Fast and Furious" after agents discovered Chambers and the other suspects under investigation belonged to a car club.

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