S01.E23: Why Await Life's End

[Trini]

Quote

SEEKING THE TRUTH IN THE SHOCKING FIRST SEASON FINALE

Weller searches for the truth within a heartbreaking and confounding assertion. Jane reaches out to a former suspect (guest star Aimee Carrero) for help with Oscar (guest star Francois Arnaud). Meanwhile, the rest of the team struggle to help a friend...

[Trini]

THIS SHOW.

Way to save all the good stuff and answers for the finale.

Seriously, what is with Weller's obsession with Taylor?

So Jane isn't Taylor after all. So no wonder they never contacted next of kin. Or showed her remembering her childhood. (Things I was really interested in.) It makes storytelling sense... but not any other kind of sense.

I'm glad we got some more answers about Shadowy Organization from Tree Tattoo/Oscar, but now he's dead! Booooo. I wanted to know more about him and Taylor before the mindwipe. I hope he can appear in flashbacks next season.

But at least were going to find out about Daylight next season... hopefully.

[Anothermi]

And find out who Shepard is...

I conflate Shepard, who's name I'm sure we've heard before, and Sawyer. There is something about the sound of them that messes with my face memory. I know who Sawyer is, but only after a pause to recollect that he's a boy not a shady man.

56 minutes ago, Trini said:

So Jane isn't Taylor after all. So no wonder they never contacted next of kin. Or showed her remembering her childhood

We did see her remembering going down a set of stairs as a little girl holding onto the had of an adult male. At least the shadowy figure looked male to me.

I realized half way through the fight scene that Jane was going to kill Oscar, so I wasn't surprised - just unhappy. He's been the main reason I watch this show.

[HunterHunted]

What evidence did Weller have that Jane knew she wasn't Taylor? The first Jane heard of this was in her fight with Oscar was just hours earlier. Most of the things she said about her recovered memories were so vague that they could have been Jane's or anyone's legitimately recovered memories. I remember camping. I remember fishing. Weller has no evidence that she lied. Weller doesn't have any cause to arrest Jane because he doesn't know of her involvement with Oscar or framing Mayfair. Weller literally just arrested Jane for not being the dead girl he's been psychosexually obsessed with for 25 years.

[dwmarch]

I actually thought last week's episode was the finale so I was pleasantly surprised to get another episode this week.

Hey everybody, look what happens when we all talk to each other about what's been going on! Shit gets solved!

Patterson once again is my gal and once again knocks it out of the park. As I have said before I wasn't a fan of Ashley Johnson in her Joss Whedon appearances but she's my favorite character on this show. I really liked that she drove home the point that Reade and Zapata's selfishness would have really hurt her if something had happened to them.

I thought it was funny how they were trying to be all secret agent like when breaking into Mayfair's apartment. Hello, you are cops, remember? Walk in like you own the place!

The bad guys wanted Weller in place because he's easier to manipulate. It's an overly Byzantine plot to get us there but I give them credit for knowing his weaknesses.

I seriously doubt that Navy SEALS would be so outraged with the government that they would form a cabal to overthrow it. For example, they take issue with Daylight, which was the idea that illegally obtained information was being fed to the cops and the cops were sanitizing it afterward. Because you know, when the Navy SEALS went after Bin Laden the first question on their minds would have been if the intel was obtained ethically.

[krimimimi]

Wow. I thought that was pretty bad. Really bad, actually. The show runners have just proven to me, quite thoroughly, that we see and want completely different things in/for this show. Just: ouch. On the up side, this may be what I need to get clear of this mess, so "thanks" I guess?

They managed to (most probably) kill two characters I liked, while cementing the thoroughly wretched Weller going forward. SS/Weller fell back into his really annoying speech pattern - I don't. understand. how the inability. to speak. normally. wasn't an. exclusion criterion. for casting him. in this role. (That's as annoying to type or read as it is to hear.) It takes me out of everything he does. SMH. I should have felt for him. Instead I just wonder what his problem is. And compounding my dislike of the actor/his acting choices in this role is his revolting character (clearly given the "hero" treatment here, no less), with a completely squicky obsession with a (dead) little girl.

@HunterHunted called it: the only thing he knows Jane to be guilty of is not being that object of his obsession. And he arrests her for it! Yuck! I'd accept "grief clouding his judgment" as justification if he'd been shown to be less prone to questionable judgment all around. (Things like having Jane accompany him on a snack food run, thereby leaving Patterson, Borden and the kid they were "protecting" very much not protected.) Basically in every episode there are examples of him both not sticking to the rules and putting others at risk with his calls, generally revolving around Jane. Sure, that gets the Secret Cabal points for spotting his Achilles' heel, but @dwmarch pointed out some of the issues of encouraging viewers to take a closer look at them at this stage in the story. (My uncle was a SEAL, as was my next door neighbor growing up. I've known a couple of others over the years, and while that sample size is clearly small, I'd have to agree that not one of them would have taken issue with acting on info from Daylight. Way too bottom-line for that.) So I'm assuming Jane is the only SEAL (or one of few) amongst them.

Additionally, family drama bores me to tears, and I'd take BLID/tree tattoo guy over Weller any day of the week - as a character. (Of course, the casting doesn't hurt there either.) Despite being just a thumbnail of a character, I felt sorry for him while Jane was fighting him. I wondered how that must feel to be able to remember the relationship, and have that person face you as a stranger. Props to the actor and the writers for managing that with such thin material.

In terms of things moved forward this week: 1) So Jane's not Taylor? Who cares? (Except for Weller, but the fact that he does isn't helping his character any.) People called that as soon as we were told she was Taylor, and it makes almost no difference either way. The audience never knew Taylor, only Jane (a rose by any other name...), so we aren't invested in her being Taylor. Taylor's family and her murderer are dead. So it's just more Weller stuff. Spare me. 2) Oscar's (BLID) probably toast. Also doesn't change things that much, as he wasn't exactly a well developed character (although I still would have preferred to see that happen vs. more Weller family shenanigans). I also think there was more meat to be had here having him continue as her handler, than introducing another random. 3) Mayfair has got to be well and truly dead. That isn't going to improve the show for me. 4) And I think the only other thing we achieved was exposing Reade, Zappata and Patterson to Daylight. With a suitable SPF, I expect them to be fine. No, really, how is that all that different to acting on the info in Jane's tattoos? "Plausible deniability?" Feh.

It's not helping matters any for me that atm it seems like the Cabal both really really (really) wants Daylight gone, seriously: enough to kill or incarcerate the people behind it, but yet also wants the FBI to act on intelligence it generated? So, yeah... Good to know they have principles.

This episode left me feeling like the show is an amorphous, poorly defined muddle. They don't seem to have a handle on the motives of the Cabal, which is a great way to crash and burn your story. They seem a little fuzzy in their definition of what makes a hero (respecting civil liberties, following the rules, or busting bad guys, all, any combo or none, please: just make a call). And the show runners consistently can't identify strong (working) characters (or actors) (Mayfair) or those with potential (BLID, his arms-dealing/mechanic buddy, or even Gaius Charles' Sgt. Charlie), propping poor ones (Weller) and poor SLs (Cade's SL) with the drama of their deaths.

But all of that is just imho. Ymmv, of course, and sorry if I harshed your mellow. You shouldn't enjoy your show any less because I'm bitter. There were moments I thought this show could become something I could enjoy, and I'm just miffed it didn't, and gets renewed, while many shows I like don't. *sigh*

[slf]

I have a sneaking suspicion Jane's still going to turn out to be Taylor Shaw, tho.

[Free]

36 minutes ago, slf said:

I have a sneaking suspicion Jane's still going to turn out to be Taylor Shaw, tho.

I hope not, they dragged out the back and forth Taylor Shaw stuff for at least a season.

[slf]

Yeah, but they've made so much of Jane's problems about Weller. This girl, whoever she is, was taken as a child. She was used for something bad. She was lied to, wiped of all her memories, dumped in the middle of a conspiracy where she's been shot at, abducted again, tortured, etc.. The writers don't give her any trust issues instead they have her automatically latch onto Weller and his team; the writers just ignored any realistic consequences of that kind of trauma because it wasn't convenient. Then Jane's manipulated into deceiving her friends in order to keep them alive. So of course the big shocking twist of the final episodes is: "OMG, she's not Weller's childhood bestie what a betrayal!!!" 

I'll bet anything Jane spends most of next season constantly apologizing for things and having to earn Weller's trust and friendship again, as if this woman doesn't have bigger fish to fry.

I suspect Weller will be rewarded with Jane truly being Taylor.

Edited May 24, 2016 by slf

[HunterHunted]

12 minutes ago, slf said:

Yeah, but they've made so much of Jane's problems about Weller. This girl, whoever she is, was taken as a child. She was used for something bad. She was lied to, wiped of all her memories, dumped in the middle of a conspiracy where she's been shot at, abducted again, tortured, etc.. The writers don't give her any trust issues instead they have her automatically latch onto Weller and his team; the writers just ignored any realistic consequences of that kind of trauma because it wasn't convenient. Then Jane's manipulated into deceiving her friends in order to keep them alive. So of course the big shocking twist of the final episodes is: "OMG, she's not Weller's childhood bestie what a betrayal!!!" 

I'll bet anything Jane spends most of next season constantly apologizing for things and having to earn Weller's trust and friendship again, as if this woman doesn't have bigger fish to fry.

I suspect Weller will be rewarded with Jane truly being Taylor.

I agree. Many of her actual recovered memories suggests that Jane might be Taylor who might have been abducted to be in a modified version of the Illegals Program.

[blackwing]

Despite what the episode description says, I feel like very little got solved in this episode.  We learned that there is indeed a body at the campsite, and the fact that it was buried with Taylor's favourite doll suggests that the body is Taylor.  Meaning that Jane isn't Taylor.  So who is she?  I found this to be the most frustrating aspect of this episode.  We have spent all season going back and forth over whether Jane is Taylor, and the resolution doesn't feel closed because all we learn is that Jane isn't Taylor.  But wait, she might actually be, maybe it was a fake death!  Tune in next season!

I still feel like I know hardly anything about Oscar, the Cult of the Tree Tattoo, and what their purpose was.  Other than "bring down the government".  Why would Jane agree to do that.  Who are these other mysterious people, this Shepard and this Cade person I don't remember?  I still don't know who the bearded guy was or what his role was or why Jane said the torching of the barn and killing Oscar was for him. 

Mayfair was involved in some dirty business like Daylight and Orion.  OK, but we already knew that.  

So all in all... absolutely no closure on most of this.  Ugh.

Nitpick... the zodiac symbols on the painting... there were four of them.  Representing the animals for Weller, Reade, Patterson and Zapata.  Patterson said the code was their birth years.  And then proceeded to punch in only THREE years (83-84-83).  Shouldn't the combo have had 8 digits?  There were four animals.  Why only those three?  Why not Weller's?

[slf]

@blackwing Agreed on everything. I feel like this show would really benefit from doing only ten episodes per season. After more than twenty episodes we really should know more, and have at least a clear understanding of whether or not our heroine is in fact who we think she is. I don't want this show to turn into The Blacklist where we're three seasons in and not only do we not know who the heroine is, what makes her so special, we don't even care anymore.

As for the zodiac symbols, I thought the whole thing was stupid. Did Mayfair run out and get animals stamps just to do that? I thought all the clues were dumb, frankly.

If I didn't like Jaimie Alexander, Jane, Patterson, and Zapata so much I'd be out, I swear.

Edited May 24, 2016 by slf

[Anothermi]

I'm not sure I'll be continuing to watch next season and for some reason I suspect that Mayfair will end up being Shepard (based on the figure in the lighted door that walked in on a flashback of Oscar and "Jane" in an embrace - so not much). Still, I don't really care.

[misstwpherecool]

Whew, thanks for small favors and not wiping Jane's memory again. My guess Jane is Sheppard? The Scooby gang with no gray hair did nothing but wait for it-detective and investigative work without a shot being fired even though off book. Marshal lady will be on Jane's case next season for answers. How do they turn the Mayfair murder scene into an official crime scene-or do they.

For Marcos! a purposeful clue, warning or marker for Mayfair's body? Mobile home handler accomplice guy?

[Artsda]

Why is Weller so mad? It's his dad that was a killer and what is he even arresting Jane for? She still has no idea who she is. She had a DNA test that said she was Taylor, up until 2 mins ago she thought she was Taylor.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Artsda

[slf]

8 minutes ago, Artsda said:

Why is Weller so mad? It's his dad that was a killer and what is he even arresting Jane for? She still has no idea who she is. She had a DNA test that said she was Taylor, up until 2 mins ago she thought she was Taylor.

I know, I was like "dude, you are the one who put the whole Taylor Shaw thing on the table and it was your people who confirmed it and then told Jane. This is not on her."

[krimimimi]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

Who are these other mysterious people, this Shepard and this Cade person I don't remember?  I still don't know who the bearded guy was or what his role was or why Jane said the torching of the barn and killing Oscar was for him. 

2 hours ago, misstwpherecool said:

For Marcos! a purposeful clue, warning or marker for Mayfair's body? Mobile home handler accomplice guy?

I'm not 100% sure I've still got all of this straight, but Cade was the guy who targeted Jane in that episode where she was referenced in some artwork. Making her a target was apparently to exact revenge on Oscar for shooting the bearded guy back in the beginning of the season, who I believe was named Marco. (Fuzzy on why that happened. I think it was because Marco began to question the plan, and Oscar killed him before he could blow things. Oscar actually explained that in this episode, but I had glazed over by then.) And according to Oscar, those two are/were very close. 

This episode Jane told the guy in the RV that Cade was alive and well (which she doesn't know one way or the other), and that he was after her/Oscar, and that that was the reason she snuck into his camper. (I've spewed enough negatives - time to give props for allowing the guy to spot that there was an intruder in his RV and have a system in place to deal with it.) Basically she's trying to convince the Cabal that she's still on their side. By spraying that there, she's hoping to convince them that Cade killed Oscar, and thus keep them from trying to wipe her again, as well as keep an "in" with a group of people she now seems to want to stop. 

Calling it now: she misspelled "Marcko" and they'll know it was her, or at least couldn't have been Cade. 

[rubyred]

It felt like this show was just completely rebooted. No more tattoo-instigated procedural, bring on the shadow conspiracies with Zapata, Reade and Patterson chasing down Daylight/Orion to vindicate Mayfair and Weller losing his damn mind because of his Jane obsession.

Ugh, losing Oscar is a LOSS. Bye, show.

[dargosmydaddy]

4 hours ago, blackwing said:

Nitpick... the zodiac symbols on the painting... there were four of them.  Representing the animals for Weller, Reade, Patterson and Zapata.  Patterson said the code was their birth years.  And then proceeded to punch in only THREE years (83-84-83).  Shouldn't the combo have had 8 digits?  There were four animals.  Why only those three?  Why not Weller's?

I thought we just didn't see her type in the first one. Maybe they didn't want to remind us exactly how young they're trying to pass SS off as.

Seriously, though, I'd have an easier time with Weller's obsession with Taylor if they were same-age childhood best friends. I know SS looks and is visibly older than JA, but I've been asked to believe more egregious things when it comes to characters' ages on TV. Or, you, know, they could have just cast a different actor... 

15 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

Weller literally just arrested Jane for not being the dead girl he's been psychosexually obsessed with for 25 years.

And did I imagine it (possibly? the scene wasn't very well lit and I was tired), or was Weller drinking when Jane first came in? Because I'm sure Jane/ her lawyer could have a field day with that. Except this is Blindspot, so it'll never come up again and some random guy will come magically rescue her instead.

I spent most of the episode wishing Reade, Patterson, and Zapata had their own show. A show where people smile and get along like normal human beings and are amusing. So, not Blindspot.

[AV8n]

With regards to Mayfair, I must invoke the Vampire Death Theory. Unless you see their decapitated corpse burned to a crisp, they ain't dead. Even then, writers may resurrect the because reasons.

I'm calling it now - RV guy is Mayfair's ex-husband. He's not really anti-government, just behind on some alimony payments.

Arresting Jane for the apparent federal crime of not being Taylor Shaw was a dick move, Weller. I mean yeah, she's broken a law or - to be more accurate - 496 1/2 laws, but so have you and the rest of your FBI team.

Finally, a minor point of order. Wasn't there a flashback in one episode where Jane rings the bell during SEAL training? I'm no expert on Naval Special Warfare indoctrination, but I have seen GI Jane (no relation, the one with Demi Moore) and a documentary on A&E many moons ago. Pretty sure when you ring the bell they tell you to pack your gear and go home. No backsies. So while Jane may have some SEAL training and is arguably still badass, it's probably inaccurate to describe her as a former SEAL.

[MissLucas]

Oh dear, poor Oscar had to deliver quite the exposition dump before he was finally free to roam off to this new gig! Show has a pacing problem - but that's hardly news. And what exactly was his plan once Jane's memory had been wiped again? Send her back to the FBI - this time in a card box? That makes as much sense as bringing down the US government by going after the head of a local FBI unit and replacing her with a stable and predictable guy like Weller. Who then should be controlled by an asset who is more and more inclined to go rogue on your Cabal since the mind wipe has left her without a true sense of loyalty to whatever sh**** cause you're about.

And the whole stuff in Mayfair's apartment was so contrived. The painting was moved because Mayfair wanted to send a message to her team? Maybe her cleaning lady had it moved by accident, maybe Mayfair wanted to see how it looks when you turn it 45° clockwise? And she puts clues to the code right on the back of the painting? And those clues together with the also painfully contrived cypher on the UBS key were clearly created by the same person who creates all the tattoo riddles for the show - it was the same 'handwriting'. No wonder people start to wonder whether Mayfair is Shepard.

Jane is definitely not Taylor - unless Tattoo Cabal also messed around with her teeth. Patterson clearly stated that the person the tooth belonged to had been born in Africa. I would prefer her to be not Taylor since Weller's fixation with Taylor makes whatever romance the show has planned between Jane and Weller slightly icky.

As for the bell ringing: Jane did not want to ring the bell but it was part of her performance i.e. she was undercover in whatever military training that was supposed to be - there's brief dialogue with her handler about it. Apparently ringing the bell cleared her path to Orion.

The only thing that surprised me was that Mayfair also had files on 'Orion' - and there was a third folder labeled 'M7G677'. So far I had assumed Orion and NotNorthernLights were not connected - silly me, this is Conspiracy Theory 1.01: everything is connected!

Edited May 24, 2016 by MissLucas

[dargosmydaddy]

Oh, and I forgot the most upsetting part of last night's episode-- we didn't get to see what happened to Mayfair's adorable golden retriever!

[bmoore4026]

So why did Sourpuss arrest Jane?

[dargosmydaddy]

27 minutes ago, bmoore4026 said:

 

So why did Sourpuss arrest Jane?

 

He assumed she was in on the conspiracy, and that she was just pretending to be Taylor all along. 

That would have worked better if he was privy to all the information Reade &Co. had, but instead it became more about him and his emotional angst...

[Texasmom1970]

Wow, Weller really is an ass. Does he even have an actual reason that will stand up in court for arresting her. Because getting his feelings hurt and hopes crushed ain't good enough. We'll at least not in real life, but since this is TV land. And their entire team has been doing shady shit.

I too am holding out hope Mayfair is alive. Maybe she's hiding under a dumpster like Glenn. 

I only hope Jane's is Taylor because I do not want to go through another season of who is the chick with all the tattoos. I would much rather the focus be to why they or she wiped her memory and all.

[Anothermi]

6 hours ago, krimimimi said:

Calling it now: she misspelled "Marcko" and they'll know it was her, or at least couldn't have been Cade. 

What I saw - and I went back and confirmed this - was (all in CAPs ):

FOR - MARCOS

Oscar called him Marcos - with an "s". So unless Cade is illiterate, I don't think that spray paint will give Jane away to the Tree Tat Cabal.

[jhlipton]

16 hours ago, slf said:

I have a sneaking suspicion Jane's still going to turn out to be Taylor Shaw, tho.

Weller's daddy killed the wrong little girl and Taylor got a tooth implant in Africa,

Why did Daddy kill Taylor (or whoever)?  Do we have any clue or it was just "Heck, I'm bored. Might as well kill the girl next door."

15 hours ago, slf said:

Then Jane's manipulated into deceiving her friends in order to keep them alive.

Not doing a great job at that.  Mayfair is (probably?) dead, Reede cut things off with Sarah to keep her and Sawyer safe, and Zapata's been cornered by two spy guys.

 

12 hours ago, slf said:

I thought all the clues were dumb, frankly.

I kept waiting for someone -- anyone -- to make the obvious connection to John Donne.  The number of letters was right for it to be "For Thee", but the "key" pattern wasn't quite right.  I think it would have worked better for them to have 3 tries and "For Thee" be the second attempt.  When that didn't work, then Patterson would look for missing letters.

[krimimimi]

15 hours ago, slf said:

Yeah, but they've made so much of Jane's problems about Weller. This girl, whoever she is, was taken as a child. She was used for something bad. She was lied to, wiped of all her memories, dumped in the middle of a conspiracy where she's been shot at, abducted again, tortured, etc.. The writers don't give her any trust issues instead they have her automatically latch onto Weller and his team; the writers just ignored any realistic consequences of that kind of trauma because it wasn't convenient. Then Jane's manipulated into deceiving her friends in order to keep them alive. So of course the big shocking twist of the final episodes is: "OMG, she's not Weller's childhood bestie what a betrayal!!!" 

I'll bet anything Jane spends most of next season constantly apologizing for things and having to earn Weller's trust and friendship again, as if this woman doesn't have bigger fish to fry.

I suspect Weller will be rewarded with Jane truly being Taylor.

Thank you, @slf, for nailing what really irks me about the narrative. Jane's characterization has always seemed "off" to me, and erratic (just not in the "right" way - it didn't come across as the organic " erraticness" I'd have expected given the set up) and her story is apparently actually his. huh. Of course it is. Talk about entitled. What a douscheweasel. 

 

3 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Wow, Weller really is an ass. Does he even have an actual reason that will stand up in court for arresting her. Because getting his feelings hurt and hopes crushed ain't good enough. We'll at least not in real life, but since this is TV land. 

I swear, it's like they want me to hate him.

@MissLucas, I think I snorted at the idea that Weller was more "stable" or "predictable" than Mayfair. Ta! Do not get at all why she's not a better bet, in story, beyond theoretical control/puppeteering issues in favor of Weller, that I'm still not buying at any price.

@Anothermi, thanks for taking one for the team and going back to look at that. Welp, by the laws of most obvious narrative, Marcos will then actually spell his name "Markos" or be a "Marcus," or something. It won't fool the Cabal, just end up screwing with the FBI's investigation into Mayfair's disappearance/death, much like the crime scene they apparently can't report.

[krimimimi]

34 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

Why did Daddy kill Taylor (or whoever)?  Do we have any clue or it was just "Heck, I'm bored. Might as well kill the girl next door."

He said it was an "accident," which tells us nothing. I totally asked myself that, too, but this has apparently never been Jane or Taylor's story, so we don't need to know. :-/ (If they course correct that, the autopsy will clear it up, but they couldn't have had PapaWeller too lucid, or we wouldn't have had the confusion about where she was buried. Which of course we needed.)

Honestly, I think this was always going to be a gloss over point, because the minute you start getting into specifics about how or why a child was murdered, you've lost half your audience, as they mentally dash off to think about that instead of the story the show is trying to tell instead. (The obvious solution is not to throw SLs like that about lightly, but...) That only works when the episode isn't as arc-heavy as this one was. Like if we'd been told that at the end of last week's episode instead, and had a week to digest that information. (So close...) But then we wouldn't have had the WellerKids Wacky Hijinks, Weller's man pain, or his stupid roller coaster ride of fear and hopes, then dashed. Which of course then gives us the cliffhanger (that not one person here seems moved by, um, at least the way I presume was intended) of Weller slamming the cuffs on Jane. Oh noes! 

Actually, that's something I'm curious about. I could see a story (unlikely, yet possible) in which Jane and Weller can't get past this, and she ends up having to work with (or even against) the Cabal (who no longer trust her), while Weller and team hunt her/them down, all very the Fugitive. But those stories are hard to maintain (see the Magicians, and the divisiveness that story caused among viewers), and I doubt it will come to pass. So did anyone here watch that and legitimately worry about how these two crazy kids would ever get over this and re-connect, or was that a universal dud as cliffhangers go?

(I kinda thought the real cliffhanger was how is his poor sister getting back home without the car, now that Weller stranded her...)

Edited May 25, 2016 by krimimimi

[jhlipton]

16 minutes ago, krimimimi said:

He said it was an "accident," which tells us nothing. I totally asked myself that, too, but this has apparently never been Jane or Taylor's story, so we don't need to know. :-/ (If they course correct that, the autopsy will clear it up, but they couldn't have had PapaWeller too lucid, or we wouldn't have had the confusion about where she was buried. Which of course we needed.)

Weller's Dad went out that night, right, and was an alcoholic, IIRC.  So all he needed to say was "It was an accident.. I couldn't stop in time" in place of one of the 5 billion repetitions of "Under the fort".
But as we say on the Once Upon a Time threads, TS,TW: This Show, These Writers).

[thuganomics85]

Kind of funny; and I suspect not the show's intention; that I found all the stuff with Reade, Zapata, and Patterson to be the most interesting and fun. Sure, Mayfair's apparently trail of clues was pretty convoluted, but it was at least entertaining watching them put their heads together and solve it. And I liked the bit of Patterson telling the other two that she's in this too, and they need to quit keeping things from her.  I like how the actors play off each other.  I certainly hope they get more to do next season, and aren't regulated back to being background noise again.

Jane finally finds out that she isn't Taylor.  Can't see why Oscar would lie about it, so I'm taking him at face value.  He tried to give her amnesia, but she fights him off and kills him, because dammit, Francis Arnaud's got a new show to get to, and he ain't got time for this shit!

Weller finds the real Taylor's remains and.... goes crazy.  Seriously, this was reminding me of the creepy, obsessive, controlling Weller, that I not so fondly remembered from this first half.  I just don't get it.  Taylor was a childhood friend, but he seems to be flat-out in love with her, and is still carrying that torch.  It's just so fucking weird.  Kurt's got issues.

And, yeah, the show pretty much is making everything that happened to Jane, all about Weller, which I guess I should have saw coming after the credit listing.  The promos and media may have been plastering Jaimie Alexander all over the place, but Sullivan Stapleton had to be first-billed for a reason, and I sadly think it's because this show wants to make him the driving force of the show.  Whatever.

At this rate, is Dr. Borden even going to be a regular, next season.  He had only one brief scene tonight, and missed out on several throughout the season.  It's not like this show is all that realistic.  I'm sure they could have found some way to have him join Patterson/Reade/Zapata in their adventures.

I see they did use this finale episode to do another full-body shot of Tattooed Jane, in order to full-fill the Network TV Naked Jaimie Alexander quota for the year.

Not seeing her corpse, makes me think Mayfair will somehow still be alive.

No telling where this show will go next season.  I think they just need to go ahead and do a crossover with The Blackist, because it really feels like it belongs in the same universe.  And I just want to see Red Reddington mock Weller for an entire episode.

[MissLucas]

2 hours ago, krimimimi said:

I think I snorted at the idea that Weller was more "stable" or "predictable" than Mayfair. Ta! Do not get at all why she's not a better bet, in story, beyond theoretical control/puppeteering issues in favor of Weller, that I'm still not buying at any price.

I think show logic (I'm using the term loosely) states that Mayfair due to her involvement in NotNorthernLights was the 'enemy'. And Mayfair could not be as easily manipulated by Jane - not only did she not carry around the whole Taylor fixation but she also had more brains than Weller. It was two birds with one stone.

Edited May 25, 2016 by MissLucas

[Agent Dark]

14 hours ago, Artsda said:

Why is Weller so mad? It's his dad that was a killer and what is he even arresting Jane for? She still has no idea who she is. She had a DNA test that said she was Taylor, up until 2 mins ago she thought she was Taylor.

Probably because he realised she'd been lying to him to get inside the FBI.  Jane only 'remembered' the fishing/camping trips with Weller and his dad because Oscar told her to say it, in order to get closer and ingratiate herself deeper.  But given that Weller is convinced he found the real Taylor Shaw's body then its not possible for Jane to be 'remembering' it and she must be lying about it, hence why he's arresting her.  It seems a reasonably logical course of action to me, especially given his state of mind over the whole 'oh, my dad actually is a child-murderer' thing.

[MissLucas]

Yeah, I must say the one thing that did not bother me too much about this episode was Weller arresting Jane. Considering all the weirdness going down at the bureau (i.e. Weller rightly being convinced that Mayfair was framed) and the realization that Jane must have lied to him about her 'memories' makes her look highly suspicious. Sure, it probably won't hold if a good attorney shows up but for the moment it was the logical course of action. And once he brings her in and finds out what Patterson & Co. have found it will make even more sense.

[blackwing]

6 hours ago, Agent Dark said:

Probably because he realised she'd been lying to him to get inside the FBI.  Jane only 'remembered' the fishing/camping trips with Weller and his dad because Oscar told her to say it, in order to get closer and ingratiate herself deeper.  But given that Weller is convinced he found the real Taylor Shaw's body then its not possible for Jane to be 'remembering' it and she must be lying about it, hence why he's arresting her.  It seems a reasonably logical course of action to me, especially given his state of mind over the whole 'oh, my dad actually is a child-murderer' thing.

I agree.  He arrested her because he is convinced she has been lying the entire time so she can infiltrate the FBI.  She made up all these fake memories and pretended like things were coming back to her.  And even though he doesn't know it, she did all those things that directly led to Mayfair getting detained and discredited.  I would imagine Weller suspects that somebody framed Mayfair, and given that Jane has been deceiving him for months, I can't blame him for thinking that it's her.

I think I tuned out when Jane and that hacker girl (that was apparently on the show before, even though I don't remember her at all) were discussing the lye, and how someone bought enough lye to dissolve a body.  I assume that this was what put them on the trail of the Cult of the Tree Tattoo, and how Jane found the dude in the tricked out RV.  So is it being suggested that the Cult of the Tree Tattoo took Mayfair's body and is dissolving it?

[luckyroll3]

On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 10:45 PM, Anothermi said:

I realized half way through the fight scene that Jane was going to kill Oscar, so I wasn't surprised - just unhappy. He's been the main reason I watch this show.

 

18 hours ago, rubyred said:

Ugh, losing Oscar is a LOSS. Bye, show.

I was about to quit this show when Francois Arnaud popped up, so essentially it was Oscar and Mayfair (black female lead with an interesting storyline) keeping this alive for me.  But if they are both gone next season, then I'm out.

On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 7:26 AM, HunterHunted said:

I agree. Many of her actual recovered memories suggests that Jane might be Taylor who might have been abducted to be in a modified version of the Illegals Program.

What is the Illegals Programs?

I find it funny that Zapata is demanding everyone share absolutely all their side hustles with her, yet, I don't remember her telling any of them that she's being blackmailed to do secretive things too. 

[HunterHunted]

The Illegals Program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program?wprov=sfla1

[MissLucas]

29 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

I find it funny that Zapata is demanding everyone share absolutely all their side hustles with her, yet, I don't remember her telling any of them that she's being blackmailed to do secretive things too. 

IIRC Zapata came clear to Reade about her gambling problems and the blackmailing it caused. I guess after Patterson's little hissy fit she was being told too.

[luckyroll3]

40 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

The Illegals Program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program?wprov=sfla1

Oh shit!  So like The Americans, the show on FX.

[saber5055]

No one has mentioned that a hi-tech person who carries around MIND-ERASING DRUGS! doesn't have a camping lantern or flashlight and instead has to use a railroad lantern filled with kerosene. You know, those luminating devices that haven't been used since the Cartwright boys on the 1800s Ponderosa. I live in the country where power goes out on a regular basis and I have a few of those newfangled inventions: camping LED lanterns and flashlights. And everyone loves to drive around in the pickup truck with a can of spray paint rolling around clanking non-stop in the bed. NOT. I remember going fishing and camping when I was a kid so I guess that makes me Taylor Shaw. Weller brings back a toy he dug up and not a bone that can be identified? Cabal is right, Weller is stupid. Weller arrests Jane for not being his creepy lust object. Right. That'll holdup in court. I really don't have a clue why Jane had to have her memory erased to begin with, but then I guess who cares. Mayfair FINALLY gets pro-active and kick-ass, so of course she's dead. Jane saw her under the tarp in the barn she burned down, so there will be two crispy remains found there. I do admire Weller, who is a white-collar worker, being able to dig gigantic holes down to some four feet deep and not have to wear gloves, and he never popped a blister. What a man!

[jhlipton]

23 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

No one has mentioned that a hi-tech person who carries around MIND-ERASING DRUGS! doesn't have a camping lantern or flashlight and instead has to use a railroad lantern filled with kerosene. You know, those luminating devices that haven't been used since the Cartwright boys on the 1800s Ponderosa. I live in the country where power goes out on a regular basis and I have a few of those newfangled inventions: camping LED lanterns and flashlights.

That's what I said too: You have an old wooden barn filled with highly flammable stuff, so of course you use a kerosene lantern!  SMH!

[Amerilla]

This episode really reminded me why I hate "Shadowy Conspiracy" shows. At this point, I'm only here for Jane and Patterson.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was confused by the arrest at the end. Having reflected more than it's probably worth: drunk, angry people are not the best decision-makers. In the context of the scene, it doesn't have to make sense. Kurt is someone who feels safe within rules and laws (which is not surprising given an alcoholic, apparently child-murdering parent), so his default in a moment of emotional chaos would be to fall back on rules and laws. In a way, it underscores a difference between the crowd Jane was with pre-mindwipe, where "turn around and get down on your knees" might end with a gunshot, not handcuffs and Miranda warnings. Kudos to JA for that scene - she did a great job of playing Jane as scared and broken and shaking with confusion/emotion/adrenaline, which was itself a nice callback to her first scene crawling out of the duffel bag in the premier.

14 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

And, yeah, the show pretty much is making everything that happened to Jane, all about Weller, which I guess I should have saw coming after the credit listing.  The promos and media may have been plastering Jaimie Alexander all over the place, but Sullivan Stapleton had to be first-billed for a reason, and I sadly think it's because this show wants to make him the driving force of the show.  Whatever.

I think a big part of the problem goes to the Shadowy Conspiracy aspect. Jane has no backstory, no history, and for this season at least, they're using her lack of history as a series of breadcrumbs. She's a cypher. Without some idea of who she really is and how this all came about - not little dribs and drabs, but actual backstory - she can't be the driving force of the story. All she can be is a mystery to be solved, and that's just not going to work long-term. Again, kudos to Jaimie for imbuing Jane with a personality with absolutely nothing to go on.

5 hours ago, saber5055 said:

No one has mentioned that a hi-tech person who carries around MIND-ERASING DRUGS! doesn't have a camping lantern or flashlight and instead has to use a railroad lantern filled with kerosene. You know, those luminating devices that haven't been used since the Cartwright boys on the 1800s Ponderosa.

Oscar always looked to me more hipster than badass renegade. I figured the old-timey lantern was part of the hipster aesthetic. 

[Sasha]

Agree that Weller's obsession with Taylor is beyond creepy and bizarre. I don't remember specific ages but wasn't Weller a few years older? Maybe he was like 10 or 11 and she was 7 or 8? No 10 year old boy has a 7 year old girl as his best friend. He already had a little sister. All these camping and fishing trips where was the sister? Weller appears to have had an unhealthy attachment to Taylor even when they were children. I suspect Weller killed Taylor and his father covered it up. He blocked the memory but that's why he is still so damn obsessed. He's not really going to arrest her but tie her up in his secret sex torture dungeon. Even then it would be dull as dirt with the stellar writing and acting of this crew. Season 2 no thank you. 

Thank god they killed off Francois Arnaud! He was they only reason I stuck with this feast of suck. Unfortunately he is still stuck on NBC. His new show sounds interesting but probably PG on network tv. Arnaud was made for an R rating or at least HBO. If you enjoyed him on Blindspot try watching him in Les Grandes Chaleurs (Heat Wave) a French Canadian film. It's a quirky little love story about an older woman with a much younger man and really hot. He's definitely a worthy obsession. 

[slf]

20 minutes ago, Sasha said:

Agree that Weller's obsession with Taylor is beyond creepy and bizarre. I don't remember specific ages but wasn't Weller a few years older? Maybe he was like 10 or 11 and she was 7 or 8? No 10 year old boy has a 7 year old girl as his best friend. He already had a little sister. All these camping and fishing trips where was the sister?

Their backstory is: she was 5 and he was 10. She was raised by a single mother so she was always over at the Weller house. Sarah wasn't often with them having adventures because she was into dolls and Jane was a (I hate this term) "tomboy".

Why a ten year old boy was so close to a five year old that her disappearance left him damaged for the next twenty years is beyond me.

[MissLucas]

On paper someone not being able to leave the drama of losing a close childhood friend behind sounds actually quite compelling - but the trouble is that someone with such a massive trauma could hardly make it through the ranks of the FBI. Or rather if he can, there must be something unhealthy going on with his psyche. And so Weller's obsession with Jane comes across as creepy instead of touching.

If Weller had tried to make it to the FBI, crashed hard during the process just to end as the classical disillusioned private eye who's suddenly faced with the origin of all his trouble things might look differently. But that version of Weller would not serve Tattoo Cabal's nefarious plans. And so we get Weller the 'functional' FBI team leader who at the same time turns into a complete nut case when it comes to Taylor Shaw (I guess regardless of any psych evaluations in RL he would never have been allowed getting near her case in the first place).

Characterization and plausibility both have to bend to the conspiracy plot - it's the curse of this show.

[HunterHunted]

I think I might be Taylor Shaw. I have memories of camping and fishing in Pennsylvania. Oh wait, I'm a black chick. Can't be Taylor. I wish they would have established the shared memories as something more specific and unique because I bet you'd have hard time finding a random adult who didn't have memories of camping in the backyard or playing in a fort as a kid.

For example when my coworker went to college, her parents who didn't want to be empty nesters adopted a chimpanzee and raised him in the middle of Tennessee 50 years ago. That's a unique memory. And how much funnier would this show have been if Weller had asked Jane if she remembered going to Bible study with the Webster's chimpanzee.

[KaveDweller]

10 hours ago, blackwing said:

I agree.  He arrested her because he is convinced she has been lying the entire time so she can infiltrate the FBI.  She made up all these fake memories and pretended like things were coming back to her.  And even though he doesn't know it, she did all those things that directly led to Mayfair getting detained and discredited.  I would imagine Weller suspects that somebody framed Mayfair, and given that Jane has been deceiving him for months, I can't blame him for thinking that it's her.

Did she make up that many memories though? I only remember her saying she thought she remembered fishing and asked if it was with him. It's not unreasonable that she went fishing as a child, had a real memory of that, and started blending it with stuff Weller told her. It seems like a bit of a leap to say she's been lying the whole time when he was pushing stories about Taylor on her for months. And he was the one who first brought it up.

I mean, Jane did lie and unintentionally framed Mayfair, so she does actually deserve to be arrested. But Weller doesn't know that. 

I would like to know how Weller's dad actually killed Taylor. Was he driving drunk and hit her with a car? Was he abusing her? I'm not sure how one "accidentally" kills a 5-year-old unless they were doing something else inappropriate. Did he really try and kill himself (perhaps because of killing her)?

[jhlipton]

3 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I would like to know how Weller's dad actually killed Taylor. Was he driving drunk and hit her with a car?

That's my theory.
Think how obsessed Weller is, it would a great twist for him to have killed Taylor (shoved her and she hit her head on a rock).  Did Dad say specifically that he killed her or just that it was an accident and he buried her under the fort.  But that's something we would never see on this show.

[MissLucas]

Jane said she remembered going fishing on a bridge over a stream and that this memory came to her when she met Weller sen. That's not very specific yet it's still odd that Weller sen. who she does not know would trigger a memory. Weller jun. finally remembered Patterson's words about the isotope test - something he (and Patterson and everybody else) just happily ignored so far. As I said that in combination with the realization that they have a mole at the bureau is enough for him to get suspicious of Jane. It's clear that she was set up to pretend being Taylor Shaw - whether willingly or unwillingly is another matter. But the arrest makes sense to me.

[saber5055]

There is a girl here who has been featured on the local news sports reports several times over the last months. Her name is Taylor Shaw. I feel sorry for her.