S01.E11: Cease Forcing Enemy

[Netfoot]

So, BLID tells Jane that she is the mastermind behind the tattoo clues, and that he will explain it all to her over a period of time.  Then, she will know... exactly what she knew to start with, before they (somehow) induced her amnesia?  Isn't that kind of pointless?  I mean, if she needs to know this stuff, and she already knew it, why blank her memory?  it's just stupid.

 

The same kind of stupid, as her knowing all these vital facts about crimes to be committed way in the future (a future which gets even more distant with every passing episode), encoding them into cryptic designs and tattooing them on her body, so the FBI could find them and read them.  Couldn't she just have sent them a FAX?  In plain language, so there would be no chance of them missing anything significant?  That's stupid.

 

The same sort of stupid as asking viewers to believe that they (Jane, BLID, etc) have the ability to gather and collate all this data on top secret plans being made by large organizations and single criminals alike.  What, they have access to Samaritan from PoI?  If this is a sci-fi show, it's stupid to get to episode #11 and still not even a hint of a reveal about the sci-fi-ness of the show.  So, if that's the explanation you know it's going to be lame and stupid, and anything else is going to be even more stupid.

 

No, there is too much stupid going on here.  And not enough entertainment value to counter it.  Jane ain't that hot -- in looks or acting -- to make up for it.  The writers have turned Damien Scott into Scowly McScruff, who isn't in the least bit entertaining, and while Patterson is cool, she's portraying a full-time nerd, with very little opportunity for vamping and positively no ass-kicking at all.

 

And the stupidest of all, is me.  For watching this shit.  I'm out.

[TV Anonymous]

Yep.  What if Patterson was a serial killer?  Would it still be OK to keep her on?  If not, why not?

 

But that is the premise of the show, is it not? Who is Jane Doe? For all the FBI knows, she could be a serial killer, serial rapist or whatever. Yet they willingly involve her in sensitive and dangerous missions and cases. Granted that she has been cooperating, so far. But who is to say that she does not have a long game - which is apparently the case?

[Trini]

I guess I forgot how ridiculous this all was over the break because... This shooowwww.

 

Many of the other ridiculous stuff has already been pointed out, but I'm just going to focus on the two that annoyed me the most:

1) Internal Affairs Guy: Patterson did something totally illegal and dangerous, so I'm suspending her.

Mayfair: You can't. She's awesome.

Internal Affairs Guy: Okay.

 

UGH. This 'law enforcement team does whatever they want with no accountability whatsoever' is exactly the crap that made me quit The Mentalist.

Obviously, they weren't going to bench Patterson forever; but I think it would have been good to have her take a few days off for mourning/suspension, show how impaired the team is without her, and then reinstate her by next episode.

 

2) Oh, Tree Tattoo Guy (I like that name slightly more), I was with you until you started talking about only doling out bits of info according to The Plan. Well at least they confirmed Taylor Shaw? You are still a Better Love Interest, but for the love of cheese, just tell her what she wants to know. Now.

 

Clearly, this show has issues, but I'm not ready to quit it yet. I'm still interested in Jane/Taylor's backstory -- but they're testing me.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Trini

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Blindspot Loves It When A Plane Comes Together
The midseason premiere surfaces a missing aircraft, and some intel about Jane's past.

[Dandesun]

My sister loves this show and I really like it, too. It's a combination of sci-fi/action movie/mystery/thriller and we just like it because it's entertaining and they've succeeded in throwing some curveballs throughout so it's not entirely expected. As my sister was saying last night, she's actually very happy that they solve the current tattoo plot in each specific episode so she doesn't have to wait a week to see how they save the day. The mystery of Jane/Taylor Shaw is the overall arc.

 

For us, it's a fun, exciting ride that resolves itself within the constructs of an hour and then dangles the carrot for the season at large. I'm fine with that.

 

I was happy to see Jon Hodgeman, who I love... even though he's the new Designated Jerk. At least he doesn't have as punchable a face as the CIA dude because... holy crap. The second that guy showed up on screen I wanted someone to shoot him.

 

As for Better Love Interest Guy/Tree Tattoo Guy... I just call him Cesare because that's who he was on The Borgias. Happy to see him, too, because he's sexy as all get out. And, yes, he's totally a better love interest than Dour Neckbeard.

 

I'm guessing that the reason for all of the hijinks in the first place is because some sector of intelligence got the goods on various goings on but couldn't take it to the FBI because then they'd be too busy trying to interrogate/investigate whoever brought them the stuff as opposed to deciphering the clues on Taylor-Jane and realizing that there's legit stuff here.

 

But then again, it's a show, not a documentary so I really don't care about digging too deep. Not yet anyway. I'm enjoying the ride.

[saber5055]

Netfoot: Best.Post.Ever. You have read my mind. But I want you to keep watching and commenting here so I feel better about me watching (because nothing else is on the other channel). It's nice to know I am not alone in thinking how STUPID this show is. A FAX indeed. Well done.

[jhlipton]

For all the FBI knows, [Jane] could be a serial killer, serial rapist or whatever. Yet they willingly involve her in sensitive and dangerous missions and cases.

 

They're all protected by Plot Armor, but they didn't have to rub our nose in it.  As Netfoot says: stupid.

[Andy]

I like the show.  I don't watch television for reality.  I see plenty of reality  the majority of my day.

[kili]

How exactly were they planning on launching those satellites? They said they stole a Pegasus (perhaps that is what initially got them on the tattoo radar because you would think they don't leave those lying around), but where was it?

 

Traditionally, Pegasus's are mounted under the plane (here is a picture), but we saw lots of images of the undercarriage of that plane and there was no Pegasus there. I didn't spot one on top either (which would be a strange place to put one, but the only other option). How exactly was this rocket supposed to be launching itself? And Pegasus's only need the plane to get to 40K feet.

 

I loved it when the guy removed the shore power from the plane and he gave the plane two slaps like movie characters do to a roof of a cab/car when they are telling it to get moving.  I also loved how it was full night when they rescued the passengers, but bright daylight when they got to the plane. Sure, they told us it was a long way to the runway, but that was a little much. Nice to know they can stay up all night, run for hours and still be daisy fresh when they get to their destination.  Meanwhile, time stands still in New York as nobody notices the morse code message until hours later just when the transponder turns on.

[Bob G]

OK, so I've been suspending my disbelief enough to kind of enjoy this series so far. Sadly, this episode broke my givadarn. Forget the secret government task force acting outside/beyond the bounds of law and the Constitution.  (And for pity's sake, how many secret government task forces can there be before they start tripping over each other?) Forget that Jane tries to shoot the guy who just killed her torturer.  Forget that Patterson breaks just about every rule about securing classified information there is and basically gets off with no more than a dirty look. Let's look at the plane thing:

You have an airliner crewed by terrorists taxiing to take off to launch a buncha mini-satellites (Which of course have the on-board location, tracking, and maneuvering ability to intercept satellites already in orbit.) to take out the GPS grid in order to advance their nefarious plans. You're carrying automatic weapons; shoot out the tires. From an incident where one of 'my' airliners experienced an inadvertent catastrophic disassembly of a main gear wheel while taxiing to the runway, I guarantee you that aircraft is not going anywhere. Oh, right, that would keep Doe and Weller from performing their subsequent heroics.

So, Doe and Weller climb up on the main landing gear in order to sneak into the plane. Maybe on the centerline gear of a wide-body aircraft, if you happen to have a mechanic's toolkit in your back pocket and if you can do it before the gear retracts and turns you into a mass of strawberry-colored goo. On the main landing gear of *this* airplane, not so much.

The badguys have to get the airplane to 60,000 feet altitude to launch the missile. Ain't happening. Service ceiling of a jet airliner is typically @ 35,000 ft. I guess with minimal fuel, cargo, and crew/passengers on board you might get it to 45 K ft. After that, there just isn't enough air density to go any higher. I suppose you could try a 'vomit comet'-like ballistic trajectory by trading airspeed for some altitude, but that's not going to get you an additional 15 K feet, not to mention that your cabin pressurization needs a certain amount of external air density to keep the crew and passengers from passing out due to anoxia.

So, despite all that, the airplane is headed to FL600 (60 K feet). Weller pulls out his pistol and states that one shot to the fuel tank and the plane will explode foiling the plot. Uh, no, it won't. Modern airliners have self-sealing fuel tanks to prevent that type of event. Works really well, too, as I found out when debris from the wheel-disintegration incident mentioned above got lodged in the airplane wing, penetrating the fuel tank.

So Patterson figures out how to shut down the engines by shutting off some equipment in the avionics bay, which (as mentioned in a prior post) you're standing around in because you're all wearing Ray Palmer (Arrow) - style miniaturization suits. And the avionics bay just happens to have a speaker and vox-activated microphone connected to a radio which happens to be tuned to the correct frequency so they can communicate with Patterson back in New York. Uh huh.

So Jane and Kurt are in the cockpit trying to start the engines. By direction, they set the engine control switch to IGN (for IGNition, *not* ING)/START. Okay, now you have sparky sparks. Next steps – Start the Auxiliary Power Unit to get bleed air to start spinning the compressor/turbine up to a sufficient speed, add fuel? Guess not.

So they're in an airplane with the runway "right underneath them" because of their takeoff attitude. Well, assuming they took control of the bird at, say, FL300, they'll have an unpowered glide distance of at least 50-60 miles. They could probably fly back to the mainland, but if they have to return to the island the ASAT mission has been aborted. They have no need to put the plane on the deck right this instant. Better to take some time to get a feel for the controls and maybe set up a more reasonable approach than arrowing straight for the ground.

So they've got the plane on the ground; time to bring it to a halt. Jane engages the thrust reversers; but wait, the engines aren't running so this will have little effect other than  a slight increase in drag. *Way* better to stand on the brake pedals (yes, airplanes have brake pedals) or, if necessary, engage the emergency braking system.
So they're back on the ground. Last we saw, their compatriots had been recaptured by the terrorists. Now what? I'm sure the terrorists will greet the foiling of their plot with equanimity. Oh, a little handwavium later we're all back in New York and everything's peachy.

Please! Granted you have *some* artistic license to advance your story, but don't treat your audience like complete idiots. That level of contempt for your viewers will lose you share.

[krimimimi]

Thanks, Bob G, I enjoyed that. Watching it as a lay person, it was more like: I bet that doesn't work for every possible reason. Apparently that was more true than I thought.

It wouldn't be quite as bad (because with things like that, at least the majority of folks don't actually know for sure), if they didn't over do things so much that it's not just the whiff of bull - things positively reek of it. It's not like anyone is forcing them to make *any* of the number of choices that lead to such bags of stupid. This wasn't some long term, poorly plotted arc where a bevy of writers have inadvertently written each other into a corner. They managed to do this *deliberately* in the course of an *episode*. Unfortunately, they insist on treating many things they touch with that level of disdain for logic.

I think Jane's response to BLID put me in the right frame of mind for the episode though. ("Well that made no sense...") Fortunately that was right at the start. I'm sure I was supposed to see it as a truth so unbearable to Jane that she literally was trying to shoot the messenger, but they waste too much time on action and not enough on developing the characters, so I don't see their motives nearly as clearly as their stupidity. I don't think that's the way to get viewers on side.

I still am not sure (given how I feel about this show) how I managed to quit Quantico, but kept watching this. (I think Quantico developed a dynamic that seemed too soapy to me on top of the stupid and the characters annoying me.) This show at least wasn't as soapy. The Jane / Weller kiss last ep and the rather contorted set up that Jane had to choose(!) between meeting Agent Neckbeard and BLID haven't got me hopeful though. It's like the writers keep taking the things that don't bug me, and tweak them until they do.

[Trini]

... I still am not sure (given how I feel about this show) how I managed to quit Quantico, but kept watching this. (I think Quantico developed a dynamic that seemed too soapy to me on top of the stupid and the characters annoying me.) This show at least wasn't as soapy. The Jane / Weller kiss last ep and the rather contorted set up that Jane had to choose(!) between meeting Agent Neckbeard and BLID haven't got me hopeful though. It's like the writers keep taking the things that don't bug me, and tweak them until they do.

 

I also quit Quantico; for me, this show still has characters I actually like and want to root for. They've made a least some progress on the central mystery, and there's isn't an annoying flashback storytelling structure.

[krimimimi]

I had forgotten about the flashbacks. *shudder* Yeah.

I'm not sure about the characters here, though.

I really like MJB/Mayfair and Mayfair is frequently appealing, but I think they have me looking too closely to see if she's shady (between her ex, her dealings with CIA villain Carter, the Lou Diamond Phillip's character, and project daylight) to be able to really just relax and enjoy her. I think that's more of a "my problem" kind of thing though, because I'm worried about someone yanking the rug out from under me. While it was good that she got Patterson back out there to save the team, the whole ends justify whatever behavior thing just leads to more side eying. (That's the reason I quit Hawaii 5-0.)

Patterson continues to be likable, but it's a shame they made the person with legitimate concerns about her such a (almost literal) mustache twirler. (What was that thing?) It's the same treatment they gave poor Reade in the first half of the season any time he voiced sensible concerns over Jane. That just gets me more annoyed with Patterson/Jane, so it doesn't work for me as a device.

I feel like they've really missed a trick with the shrink here. I'm always happy to see Dr. Borden, but I can't tell you the first thing about him. (Okay: English.) And if he and Jane don't have a relationship where Jane is going to actually talk to him, then he's not providing me with too much added insight into her character. Although I guess her silence coupled with flashbacks is supposed to reflect her stoicism while reminding me of stuff. The problem is, I saw it happen (just last ep) and don't need reminding nearly as much as I need to *understand* her better. She hardly knows herself, so she's hard to get to know. Dark Matter had similar problems with characters with amnesia. I'm not entirely sure how to solve it, but I don't think this is it.

And Reade and Zapata are hardly characters at all. Which is sad. I think I might have liked Reade the best (well, second to Patterson), if I knew who he was beyond the only person with a lick of sense or propriety, oh, and suits. That's not much by way of character development. And they've neglected Zapata even more.

And reading that, I didn't even feel the need to comment on either of the leads. Ouch. Here's hoping BLID/Oscar ends up being more enjoyable.

[AAEBoiler]

It was nice to see them cover my profession but I had to laugh out loud when they said that the terrorists got hold of a Pegasus rocket to launch the microsats. It's not like you can cut the chain on some fence and grab one off the lot. Plus, the Pegasus is almost as long as that whole airplane and is carried underneath the plane. I know, I should know better than to expect reality on a tv show but this took me way out of the land of believability.

[krimimimi]

It was nice to see them cover my profession...

Terrorist?!? *blinkblinkblink*

(microscopic satellite engineer? hostage?? internal affairs mustache twirler!)

[edra]

With François Arnaud now on the show and actually having chemistry with Jane, it makes it hard to "ship" her with the FBI guy, and whatever that kiss before the break was - that was so forced and out of left field, and clearly an hail Mary attempt, to secure a second season order.

[AAEBoiler]

Terrorist?!? *blinkblinkblink*

(microscopic satellite engineer? hostage?? internal affairs mustache twirler!)

 

That would be aerospace engineer (i.e. rocket scientist).

 

[John Potts]

I keep hoping for a show where Internal Affairs (or whatever regulatory agency/inspectorate is involved) is NOT depicted as the devil incarnate for the horrible fact of DOING THEIR JOB. Particularly when the thing they're picking them up on is that "Our heroes" cavalierly break the rules all the time and so somehow that makes them evil. I accept that nobody likes people looking over their shoulders, but most people accept that they're just doing their job. Then again, I don't live in a TV show (I don't think so, anyway!).

 

As for the CotW, the only thing that surprised me was that when our heroes broke out of their cell with one other guy to lead them, I was amazed he actually survived the episode - I was so sure he'd die I was provisionally calling him Redshirt McDeadington. Even scientist Lady survived! Of course, Stubbly didn't even consider her feelings when he was preparing to blow up the plane because... well, I guess she isn't in the credits. She didn't even turn out to be a traitor which (like thuganoms85) I was totally expecting.

 

Of course, I was wondering why they didn't consider some plane sabotage short of shooting the fuel tank (I'll take Bob G's word that it wouldn't work) - if the plane needs to hit 50000 feet (or whatever, again I'll defer to other's judgement that that would be completely impossible for that ) then I would imagine just about any damage to the plane would stop it from reaching it's target altitude - try shooting out a few windows before blowing the fuel tank. Or dropping the undercarriage (again, don't know if that should be possible, but given what they WERE able to achieve, it wouldn't be unreasonable) - I would think ANYTHING that compromised the aerodynamics would be sufficient.

 

Dowel Jones  The lat/long given was actually real/accurate, but there's no island out there.  So sez Google Earth, anyway

 

So the bad guys are so powerful they have deleted it from Google Earth!?

 

Bob G And for pity's sake, how many secret government task forces can there be before they start tripping over each other?)

 

They go on EvilConspiracy.Net to co-ordinate!

Edited March 16, 2016 by John Potts

[Beatriceblake]

 

I mean, if she needs to know this stuff, and she already knew it, why blank her memory?

They blanked her memory so she could pass FBI lie detector tests and get on the team to fight corruption from the inside.

 

Myself, I find the show goofy but enjoyable like Prison Break. I enjoy some silly TV action adventure stuff and sadly USA don't seem to have come up with anything to replace Burn Notice and White Collar.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Beatriceblake

[Trini]

I think PB was slightly better than this, because the leads and season-long arcs here aren't quite as compelling. But yeah, silly action stuff is one of the reasons I'm still sticking with this show.