S01.E22: If Love a Rebel, Death Will Render

[Trini]

Quote

After an abandoned baby is found with a tattoo identical to one of Jane's, the team races to piece together the child's identity and save dozens of infants. A furious Jane confronts Oscar about the outcome of his secret missions.

[omgsowicked]

Well... holy crap. Mayfair's dead, Weller's dad did kill Taylor, and Jane ain't Taylor. That last bit wasn't too big a surprise but still. So who the hell is she? And so what, Weller's dad was just playing along with "Taylor" this whole time? "It was an accident." What was an accident... no, actually, I don't want to know. What a shithead.

Next week looks to be intense. Weller was so insistent that she was Taylor, and now it blows up in his face. A part of me is chuckling, not gonna lie. I have no clue where they'll go from here... hopefully, since Jane's out of the FBI, Sophia and Oscar will start sharing the details of this elaborate plan. No reason to keep her in the dark now.

[Trini]

Nope. Uh uh. They cannot really be killing off Mayfair!

So Weller's dad really killed a kid?? I rolled my eyes at the deathbed confession. I hope he was just talking crazy because he was dying.

So who actually tattooed that baby? And they really didn't need it to be only a day old -- that was ridiculous. As usual.

They also need to stop pushing Jane/Weller so hard; especially when Better Love Interest is right there!

Edited May 17, 2016 by Trini

[jhlipton]

They got rid of a two-fer on this show.  Kill the black woman AND the lesbian!

 

Seriously, no one at NBC saw the s**t-storm that's been raging in the media for the past MONTH and said "Screw it, we don't need to fix nothing!"

 

A**hole racists.

[Dowel Jones]

So, the tattoo artists went to all the trouble of giving Jane a matching tattoo for an illegal babymaking syndicate.  A phone call to any newspaper would have accomplished  the same thing.  Or is Jane a product of this experiment, and they've been operating for the last 30+ years?

You guys on the team better do as your told.  Your boss will have Level 4 clearance to the bio lab soon enough.

[rlangmit]

52 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

They got rid of a two-fer on this show.  Kill the black woman AND the lesbian!

 

Seriously, no one at NBC saw the s**t-storm that's been raging in the media for the past MONTH and said "Screw it, we don't need to fix nothing!"

 

A**hole racists.

Huh?

[Traveller519]

This episode really needed another epilogue or four to the main crime story, 

[Free]

7 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

This episode really needed another epilogue or four to the main crime story,

I assume they'll probably save it for the finale next week.

[Traveller519]

2 hours ago, Free said:

I assume they'll probably save it for the finale next week.

Sorry Free, I was being Facetious there.

Once the case of the week gets resolved we have:

• Weller gets promoted by the director, and the director fires Jane and closes her case
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Jane and Weller make out in the locker room, Weller gets phone call about his dad
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Jane looks at the rest of the team laughing with their bourbon, decides to take sad walk home
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Mayfair's investigation leads her to Navy Seal hideout
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Weller with Dad at the hospital

All the serial story-lines get jammed into the last 10-12 minutes of the show

[Artsda]

That was a lot of action, surprised that wasn't the season finale.

Mayfair was hiding a lot herself, her trying to kill Jane was stupid.

Weller looks silly asking Jane who she is. She doesn't know that's the problem, their tests are who identified her as Taylor.

[misstwpherecool]

Something didn't seem right when Mayfair was told by Reed and Zapata that they trusted her. 

What the heck is Jane's handler doing that he comes in at the last minute to save Jane and/or shoot someone two times now. Bathroom break?

Who is/was buried in the yard? Jane v Mayfair would've been an excellent story line in itself. Phew, the shipper stuff hopefully be gone for a while.

Some Orphan Black floating around here? Jane a clone/experiment?

[rubyred]

I like Marianne Jean-Baptiste, but she always seemed bored in this role. She played it already, what, a dozen years ago on Without a Trace. Ironically this ep was the  most engaged she's been throughout the show. I did think bringing in Sophia as her betrayer was pretty clever though. Because didn't Mayfair participate in Daylight very, very reluctantly, with Sophia being the main cheerleader?

I am worried we're going to lose Better Love Interest because the actor has been cast in a pilot for next season. Sounds batshit, but who knows?

I thought that the not-Taylor reveal was a belated course-correction because the writers didn't know how to explain Taylor's disappearance so they threw their hands up and went for a "shocker." Never mind that it makes Weller seem even more unhinged and unhealthily focused on Jane. So much for just "knowing" that Jane was Taylor, huh Weller?

[blackwing]

I'll be sad if Mayfair is really dead.  I like Marianne Jean-Baptiste and I thought she was good in this role, but then again, I think she is great in anything.

I am really tired of Tree Tattoo Guy and all of the secrets.  If Jane had insisted that he tell her the truth, say, like TEN EPISODES AGO, then maybe this wouldn't have happened.  She told him last episode that she was done with the secrets, and yet, here we are, with still the same secrets.  It's not mysterious or interesting anymore.  It's downright irritating.

So Jane isn't Taylor after all.  I guess they remembered that Jane has an African tooth and are trying to tie that back in to the story.

And I think I must be the only one who dislikes Dylan Baker.  I dislike everything about him... his Skeletor appearance, the gaunt face, the voice, the eyes that look like a victim of bad eyelift surgery, the bad hair.  He always seems to play characters with questionable morals, so I am automatically assuming there is something shady about him.

[bmoore4026]

Not CCH Pounder, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, they're all going to come after Jane now!

And Jane's probably not Kurt's sister, too!  And Kurt's daddy is dead!

And who is this William H Macy looking shithead kicking Jane out of the FBI!?

And all those poor little babies!  Oh, God, the babies!!!!!

Ooooo, this was a fucked up episode!

Edited May 17, 2016 by bmoore4026

[dargosmydaddy]

The highlight of this episode for me was Mayfair's adorable dog. I hope Weller adopts him.

53 minutes ago, blackwing said:

And I think I must be the only one who dislikes Dylan Baker.  

You're not. I feel the same. 

[MissLucas]

Well, they covered a lot of ground here. And finally provided a halfway decent answer for NotJane's amnesia. Someone with no memory cannot give away that she's not the person she's supposed to be. Still sounds a bit like overkill but so does covering someone in tattoos.

Glad I'm not the only thinking 'Blindspot is pulling an Orphan Black' when all the babies came in sight. But those parents must have been incredibly naive. Mysterious new procedure that requires you to give samples while sedated and then it takes 9 months for them to come through with a new treatment? A treatment that will require the kid to take immunosuppressants. And what happened to the babies after they were harvested? The mother said her son would need several bone marrow transplants over his lifetime. Were they keeping his donor sibling in a special orphanage or were they presenting the parents with the babies once the first treatment had been successful? And what if it failed? And what about those cases that needed a transplant only once? Maybe I'm overthinking this?

Killing Mayfair wasn't cool but what I really don't get was why they were so adamant about framing her in the first place. Considering all the weird stuff the Tattoo Cabal managed to uncover via Jane and her involvement in the FBI they had much bigger fish to fry than Mayfair. Bringing her down can't have been the endgame yet they must have known that it was extremely risky and may result in Jane getting pulled from the FBI. Which is exactly what happened. That seems extremely short-sighted for a bunch of folks who so far have been planning ahead on almost precognitive levels.

And yeah, what exactly was Weller sen. thinking when he merrily played along with NotJane?

[Trini]

Post mortem with Martin Gero.

[Saylii]

The dad has to be in on the conspiracy.  Oscar had pictures of Taylor and Kurt growing up, knew the about the scar from the tree accident to recreate it, and knew a couple of stories from her childhood (I could be mixing up what Oscar and Weller have talked about though).  There had to be someone that knew both Kurt and Taylor to make that happen.  I wouldn't be surprised if the father traded information and the willingness to play along for his guaranteed parole.  I can't see him being involved as far back as the actual killing though because that would be some true long con shit.

[slf]

8 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Killing Mayfair wasn't cool but what I really don't get was why they were so adamant about framing her in the first place. Considering all the weird stuff the Tattoo Cabal managed to uncover via Jane and her involvement in the FBI they had much bigger fish to fry than Mayfair. Bringing her down can't have been the endgame yet they must have known that it was extremely risky and may result in Jane getting pulled from the FBI. Which is exactly what happened. That seems extremely short-sighted for a bunch of folks who so far have been planning ahead on almost precognitive levels.

If they were willing to kill her why not just murder her earlier but make it look like an accident? There are countless ways and you'd think an organization like this one would be capable of it. And I agree, there's no way Mayfair was the big fish they were going after. That makes zero sense. At the end of the day Jane still remembers being abducted and put in a room full of other pajama-clad kids. Whatever this is goes back to when she was a child. Mayfair wouldn't have been a blip on the radar back then.

[Kelda Feegle]

9 hours ago, MissLucas said:

 

Glad I'm not the only thinking 'Blindspot is pulling an Orphan Black' when all the babies came in sight. But those parents must have been incredibly naive. Mysterious new procedure that requires you to give samples while sedated and then it takes 9 months for them to come through with a new treatment? A treatment that will require the kid to take immunosuppressants. And what happened to the babies after they were harvested? The mother said her son would need several bone marrow transplants over his lifetime. Were they keeping his donor sibling in a special orphanage or were they presenting the parents with the babies once the first treatment had been successful? And what if it failed? And what about those cases that needed a transplant only once? Maybe I'm overthinking this?

 

They will be sent to The Island ;-)

[Texasmom1970]

Damn you show you will stop killing the characters I actually give a rats butt about on this show. First David, now Mayfair, I swear if they hurt Patterson and Reade I am out!

[Saylii]

What I can't tell is what side of Project Daylight the Tattoo Cabal is supposed to be on.  Do they want Project Daylight to come back to life to stop terrorism since they used the information to tattoo Jane and get her close to the FBI?  Or do they want someone specific released from prison who was convicted on data from Project Daylight?

Then at the beginning, there were only supposed to be three people that knew about Project Daylight -- Sofia, Carter, and Mayfair.  But the TC was going to gamble on Mayfair getting arrested for murder and her being desperate enough to tell Weller about Project Daylight in sufficient detail so that they'd be okay with killing her in the end?

Why can't Sofia just go to the media anonymously and leak all the information she knows about Project Daylight herself?

[Free]

22 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

Sorry Free, I was being Facetious there.

Once the case of the week gets resolved we have:

• Weller gets promoted by the director, and the director fires Jane and closes her case
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Jane and Weller make out in the locker room, Weller gets phone call about his dad
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Jane looks at the rest of the team laughing with their bourbon, decides to take sad walk home
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Mayfair's investigation leads her to Navy Seal hideout
• <New York Establishing Shot>
• Weller with Dad at the hospital

All the serial story-lines get jammed into the last 10-12 minutes of the show

Definitely, they've been dragging this out for much of the season until the last 2-3 or so episodes where things actually progress.

[misstwpherecool]

9 hours ago, slf said:

If they were willing to kill her why not just murder her earlier but make it look like an accident? There are countless ways and you'd think an organization like this one would be capable of it. And I agree, there's no way Mayfair was the big fish they were going after. That makes zero sense. At the end of the day Jane still remembers being abducted and put in a room full of other pajama-clad kids. Whatever this is goes back to when she was a child. Mayfair wouldn't have been a blip on the radar back then.

Just a A thought. Could it be a twist ie Mayfair still alive after she made a deal with the handler to get her ex? I'm still a little unclear on how she found that exact address, floor and room. How come the handler didn't deal with Mayfair earlier or was he on a dinner break. What do people do in a lair all day-dressed to the hilt.

[Dancingjaneway]

The guy playing Kurt is a HORRIBLE actor. His interaction with the FBI guy at the end was horrendous and even laughable. Jane x Kurt=me barfing. I'm pissed Mayfair is gone. She was a great character(not to mention she could act circles around the 2 leads) and I wanted to learn more about her. Also am I the only one who kept hoping that Jane would get killed throughout this episode? 

[mandigirl]

Quote

Then at the beginning, there were only supposed to be three people that knew about Project Daylight -- Sofia, Carter, and Mayfair. 

There was one other person-- the person who brought it to them to begin with. He worked at the White House then, so probably he's the President or something by now. I'm assuming that person is going to come out to play at some point. It's ironic (read: super obnoxious) that Sophia believed that Mayfair needed to be brought to justice. She was the only one who didn't run for the hills and try to protect herself, but instead stuck around to fix things.

On 5/17/2016 at 1:04 PM, rubyred said:

I am worried we're going to lose Better Love Interest because the actor has been cast in a pilot for next season. Sounds batshit, but who knows?

Noooo! He's a huge reason I watch this show! I like his interactions with Jane and humanizes the tattoo cabal. 

[kili]

Quote

I thought that the not-Taylor reveal was a belated course-correction because the writers didn't know how to explain Taylor's disappearance so they threw their hands up and went for a "shocker."

They foreshadowed her not being Taylor when they knocked out her tooth in one of the earlier episodes and the isotopes proved that she had not been born/grown up where Taylor would have been (Jane was born in Africa).The name of that episode was "Bone May Rot" which is an anagram for "Or Maybe Not"  (which was after the one with "Taylor Shaw" in the title). Plus, the fact they gave her the photos so she could "pretend to be Taylor" instead of "to help her remember being Taylor" was pretty sketchy.

[MissLucas]

Yeah, as ludicrous as this show is the reveal that Taylor is not NotTaylor has been set up from early on. It's ludicrous but in a well planned manner - sort of.

Here's what Gero had to say about the recent controversy
 

Quote

Did you ever consider changing that trajectory, following the recent discussions around the trope of killing gay characters off shows like The 100 or The Walking Dead?

By the time The 100 and everything had come out, we were too far down the road to make an adjustment, basically. That’s brought to life something that is definitely a problem, and I think our industry needs to be better. We need to be better, and I’m glad that conversation is happening right now. But for us this felt too engrained in the DNA of the show to call an audible at that point. It was too late.

Full interview (very mild spoilers for season 2)

Edited May 19, 2016 by MissLucas

[blackwing]

On 5/17/2016 at 0:49 AM, jhlipton said:

They got rid of a two-fer on this show.  Kill the black woman AND the lesbian!

 

Seriously, no one at NBC saw the s**t-storm that's been raging in the media for the past MONTH and said "Screw it, we don't need to fix nothing!"

 

A**hole racists.

I'm confused about this comment.  I get that Mayfair is/was a black lesbian, but I don't think either her race or orientation had any determination on why the character was killed.  Others have died on this show before.  Carter was an old white man.  Was there any outrage when he died?  Because too many white males seem to die on TV.  Or what about David?  David looked part-Asian to me, and I don't recall any outrage over the fact that they killed a (possibly) part-Asian.

[jhlipton]

11 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I'm confused about this comment.

It's more the timing than anything. There are not many black women in lead roles, and Sleepy Hollow killed off one one of them (then the writers blamed the suits and the suits blamed the actress).  The suits at NBC had to be aware of the firestorm raging not only through fandom, but across the sites of mainstream critics.  Mayfair's death is not as likely to be as derided as the other deaths committed lately, but as part of the pattern, it looks bad. 

Apologists (I'm, not saying you're one) like to look at each show in a vacuum, as if there are no other shows on TV.  But there are -- and NBC has become part of the problem.

[yourmomiseasy]

On 5/17/2016 at 3:18 PM, MissLucas said:

Glad I'm not the only thinking 'Blindspot is pulling an Orphan Black' when all the babies came in sight. But those parents must have been incredibly naive. Mysterious new procedure that requires you to give samples while sedated and then it takes 9 months for them to come through with a new treatment? A treatment that will require the kid to take immunosuppressants. And what happened to the babies after they were harvested? The mother said her son would need several bone marrow transplants over his lifetime. Were they keeping his donor sibling in a special orphanage or were they presenting the parents with the babies once the first treatment had been successful? And what if it failed? And what about those cases that needed a transplant only once? Maybe I'm overthinking this?

 

When you are a possibly evil organization that is making test tube babies to harvest their parts, I'm sure it isn't that difficult to get rid of the babies afterward.  You could sell the babies to fund your criminal activity.  I'm sure there are buyers for even slightly used babies.  You could put them into the weird training program that we're supposed to believe that a kidnapped child Jane was in and make an army of assassins.  I bet a secret evil lab like the one growing these babies totally has experiments that need a human test subject, might as well recycle, it's good for the environment.  You could simply just kill them and incinerate the waste, which seems like the easy route.  It isn't like people are going to come looking for these illicitly created babies that no one knows about. 

[snuffles]

I know this is a borderline Sci Fi show, but it seemed weird to me the evil company left 5-6 newborn babies alone with no nurse or caregiver to feed them, change their diapers, hold them, etc.

Quote

But those parents must have been incredibly naive. Mysterious new procedure that requires you to give samples while sedated and then it takes 9 months for them to come through with a new treatment?

Extracting semen not a big deal. Extracting eggs, huge deal. Waving hand over their ability to extract eggs in one day with no prep and no pain to the woman.

I thought the death bed confession was going to be he figured out Jane wasn't Taylor by something Jane did or said and kept the information to himself. I was somewhat surprised the writers choose the route of I actually killed Taylor.

 

Quote

There was one other person-- the person who brought it to them to begin with. He worked at the White House then, so probably he's the President or something by now. I'm assuming that person is going to come out to play at some point. It's ironic (read: super obnoxious) that Sophia believed that Mayfair needed to be brought to justice. She was the only one who didn't run for the hills and try to protect herself, but instead stuck around to fix things.

The White House person who recruited Mayfair, Sofia and Carter, picked them because of their positions and smarts. Mayfair was the only one with morals and resisted joining Daylight. It took Sofia to convince/persuade Mayfair to join them. Then it seems Mayfair was the brightest of that bunch and figured out a clever way to implement Daylight. Mayfair showed her true grit and moral fiber again when the program went south. Sofia's character and actions have been the exact opposite of Mayfair, which makes her assertion Mayfair needed to be brought to justice completely delusional.

I really liked seeing Zapata and Reade bonding and joining forces. I liked Patterson, Reade and Zapata sharing a drink at the end, but it was out of character for all of them to not invite Jane or want to say goodbye to Jane.

[slf]

On 5/19/2016 at 10:12 AM, blackwing said:

I'm confused about this comment.  I get that Mayfair is/was a black lesbian, but I don't think either her race or orientation had any determination on why the character was killed.  Others have died on this show before.  Carter was an old white man.  Was there any outrage when he died?  Because too many white males seem to die on TV.  Or what about David?  David looked part-Asian to me, and I don't recall any outrage over the fact that they killed a (possibly) part-Asian.

I wouldn't agree at all that too many white males die on tv. White males are the vast majority of characters on tv, with many tv shows having majority male casts with only two or three women in the main/supporting cast; most of those characters will be white and straight (lesbians account for less than a percent of tv characters, for example). Few shows deviate from that (Blindspot's okay, Orphan Black is the opposite of most shows). A much smaller percentage of white men die on tv, meanwhile most lesbians get written off/die (many after having begun a relationship/had sex) and a large percentage of black characters die. (And most lgbt and non-white characters aren't major roles, either.) It's not actually equal at all. And I'm sure a lot of these writers would swear that orientation and race don't factor into deciding who dies, and maybe they don't do it consciously, but the thing is: for all that people like to accuse those criticizing this crap of being the ones obsessed with race, it's these totally not racist, not misogynistic writers who create only white/male majority shows. Killing off lesbians or black characters, or female characters of any race and orientation, doesn't have to be controversial but so long as characters that are female, black, and/or lesbian are so underrepresented this is going to be a problem. Just...increase the number of women, increase the number of black men and women, increase the number of gay men and women and this problem goes away. If Hollywood wants to retain it's straight white male majority then it deserves every ounce of criticisms it gets.

In the meantime, yeah, if they're going to insist on killing off characters all the time for shock value or tension then kill more white male characters. Frankly, killing Weller would've been more shocking and better for the show. How often does the male lead die? For all that showrunners (mostly white men) like to harp on about how "no one's safe, anyone could die" "anyone" is never the white male lead (meanwhile Castle dumped Stana Katic, Sleepy Hollow just dropped Nicole Beharie, etc.).

[jhlipton]

37 minutes ago, slf said:

Just...increase the number of women, increase the number of black men and women, increase the number of gay men and women and this problem goes away. If Hollywood wants to retain it's straight white male majority then it deserves every ounce of criticisms it gets.

In the meantime, yeah, if they're going to insist on killing off characters all the time for shock value or tension then kill more white male characters. Frankly, killing Weller would've been more shocking and better for the show. How often does the male lead die?

Yes, this.  It was even worse on Sleepy Hollow, where they destroyed their own mythology to have the black woman declare that her purpose was to propel the white man.

[thuganomics85]

So, it's Mayfair who is the first one to finally put pieces together and figures out Jane is working for this mysterious cabal, only for her to get shot in the back by Oscar.  And dead, unless this just an elaborate fake-out.  Pretty predictable since they gave her big final moments with Weller, Zapata, and Reade (I guess they care less about her relationship with Patterson?), and Obviously Evil Dylan Baker making Weller the new boss was the final nail in the coffin for her.  I'm surprised it was Oscar though, because I thought it would be Sophia who shoots her, to really make it hurt.  Can't wait to see how Jane will explain this away.

Weller's dead confess that he really did kill Taylor after-all, so I guess Jane is like a prototype of those babies in this episode's case?  Maybe?  I really don't care anymore.  It would have been refreshing if the show actually just had it be the most obvious answer, but I should have known that wasn't going to happen.

Reade and Zapata finally telling each other the truth was nice.  I hope they get more to do next season.

The fight scenes were better this time around.

Seriously.  I will be completely shocked if Obviously Evil Dylan Baker isn't involved in this.  Say what you will about their methods or competence, but the success rate at solving these tattoo cases has been 100%.  No way would they just scrape the program.  At the very least, they might force them to work with an outside or someone on the Director's pocket.  I just can't buy any logical reason for him to complete shelve it, unless he wants to hurt them.

[John Potts]

Assuming everyone else in the FBI isn't evil (which is certainly possible!) what exactly is their problem with "he Jane Doe Project"? This is a team of five people (OK, let's heroically assume that there are five times as many backscene players) that tackles a major criminal project every other week! Of course there's always the possibility that it's the fact that it's revealed some of the FBI's dirty secrets that makes them so unpopular, but that's not the way it's coming across. Maybe this heroic bunch of unsung players are the ones researching what the secret conspiracy is - a task Mayfair cracked by herself while suspended and under house arrest (well, in theory)! And if "Team Jane" is that unpopular, you definitely DON'T make its Head Cheerleader the next boss!
 

Quote

 

MissLucas Yeah, as ludicrous as this show is the reveal that Taylor is not NotTaylor has been set up from early on.

 

 

Except it's completely meaningless! We've never MET Taylor (or her family), merely her weirdly obsessive former neighbour, so Jane being (or not being) Taylor is pretty much irrelevant. Though they seem to be suggesting that she is in fact a clone (or something similar) of the real Taylor (presumably hatched at some Black Ops Lab in Africa).

[jhlipton]

16 hours ago, John Potts said:

Though they seem to be suggesting that she is in fact a clone (or something similar) of the real Taylor (presumably hatched at some Black Ops Lab in Africa).

Samaritan Labs in Johannesburg?

[MissLucas]

From the very few flashbacks we had to Jane's childhood (we see that she gets abducted) I had assumed that she had been part of a black ops training program for kids (brainwashing included free of charge) - no idea by whom or for what purpose.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 5/17/2016 at 6:44 AM, Trini said:

So Weller's dad really killed a kid?? I rolled my eyes at the deathbed confession. I hope he was just talking crazy because he was dying.

I assume they'll find the body next episode.

Only question I have is if they faked all the records or if Jane is a clone. The obvious answer would be the first one, of course but this is TV. Then again, this show isn't quite as crazy with the weird science as the Blacklist, so I'm leaning towards the first one.

On 5/18/2016 at 7:42 PM, Dancingjaneway said:

The guy playing Kurt is a HORRIBLE actor.

To be fair, so is pretty much everybody on this show. I love Ashley Johnson, but if she is the best actor you have on the cast, you are in trouble.