'Blindspot' Boss on the Season 5 Premiere Death & Why Madeline's Plan Is 'Very Scary' (2024)

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for theSeason 5 premiere ofBlindspot, “I Came to Sleigh.”]

The drone strike wasn’t nearly as fatal as it could have been onBlindspot. But one of the team didn’t make it out.

While Weitz (Aaron Abrams) was able to warn the team of the incoming threat and those inside the safe house escaped to the tunnel, they were injured — and Reade (Rob Brown) ended up sacrificing himself so the others could get Zapata (Audrey Esparza) free. (And the two hadfinally gotten together.)

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And two months later, Jane (Jaimie Alexander), Kurt (Sullivan Stapleton), Patterson (Ashley Johnson), and Zapata track down Rich DotCom (Ennis Esmer) where he’s being held at a black site.

Here, executive producer Martin Gero breaks down the Season 5 premiere and teases what Reade’s death means for the season.

Let’s start with Reade’s death and that toast to him at the end. Why kill him off the way you did and when did you know this would be it for the character?

Martin Gero:[Knowing a main character would die] started a very long conversation that lasted honestly months about which character it would be. For a bunch of reasons I can’t go into because you’ll see the reasons why as we go through the season, it made sense that Reade would provide us with the most stories going forward as to how it affects the other characters, specifically Zapata. You’ll like where that story goes.

We’re already seeing how it’s affected her, especially after they were so close to having a future together. She has that speech about wanting to be done but knowing they won’t stop. How indicative is that of what we’ll see from her this season, regarding the loss of Reade and the team’s missions?

It weighs heavy on her, and she, more than anyone, becomes very worried, has the most PTSD about losing one of them, somebody else, which is very possible. She really carries that heavily over the course of this season.

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Jane and Kurt only get a couple moments alone together. How might this season’s journey, on the run, change their plans for life after?

That’s a big question about the whole season. Obviously there’s, “We need to get our life back, but then what does our life look like if we do get it back? Is there going back?” That’s a conversation they have over the entire season as they have successes and failures on their path back. This isn’t a season where suddenly in Episode 3, it’s fine, they’re not on the run anymore. They are on the run the whole season, but what remains is how much they love each other and what remains is that they will do anything for each other. Their love and respect and how protective they are of each other is really great to see.

And in general, for the most part, the team is so unified this year. The remaining members of the team really rally behind Reade’s death. It’s also the world versus them, so all they have is each other, so any sort of petty disagreements they had moving in to this season, those evaporate, and this is the most united our team has ever been.

'Blindspot' Boss on the Season 5 Premiere Death & Why Madeline's Plan Is 'Very Scary' (4)

(Barbara Nitke/Warner Brothers/NBC)

You previously said that when it comes to Weitz, “It’s about identifying what his self-interest is.” And we see that in the premiere. Will that continue? Will we see him helping the team throughout the season? Can they trust him?

You just never know. As long as it’s his best interest to help the team, he will help the team. He’s a person that wants to be a good guy, and we watch him struggle with that. He’s got a much bigger part this year. He and Afreen obviously are in a lot of the episodes. They form the mini resistance inside the FBI under Madeline’s control now, and so there’s a lot of great storytelling about how unlikely he is to be the team’s last hope inside the FBI and whether they can trust that or not. … I wouldn’t want to pin my resistance on Weitz, but who knows? Maybe he’ll surprise us.

Madeline is now the Director of Federal Law Enforcement. Is she just going to keep getting new titles?

Pretty much, and you’ll see in the next few episodes what title she’s really going after, which is very scary, so she’s got a very good plan. She’s incredibly ruthless. And she’s winning is the thing. We’ve never had a Big Bad just win so hard against the team, and so that’s not something we can bounce back from right away. She’s got all the cards. We have almost none. We have incredibly limited resources and no protection under the law. It really makes the team be resourceful in a way they never had to be.

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She’s the most corrupt person in the world at the moment, in our reality at least. It’s terrifying to watch her gain more and more power, and the more power she gets, the more corrupted she is. Her backstory, as to why she’s doing this, is totally understandable, but the means with which she’s doing it is unforgivable, and she is a formidable foe for us this season.

Rich DotCom went through quite the ordeal. How are we going to see him dealing with the psychological effects going forward?

A little bit. What’s so incredible about Rich is how resilient he is, what a survivor he is. So definitely he wavers in Episode 2, but he slowly gets his footing again going into Episodes 3 and 4 and becomes more concerned about how everyone else is doing.

In some ways, Rich and Jane are the two who are actually built for this. They’re used to being bad guys. They’re used to being on the run. They have those coping mechanisms and skills. Everybody else, this is completely foreign for them. So it’s fun to watch the dynamic of the team as they rely on Rich, for not just his hacking skills, but for some emotional support, which is such an insane arc, considering where the character started.

'Blindspot' Boss on the Season 5 Premiere Death & Why Madeline's Plan Is 'Very Scary' (6)

(Barbara Nitke/Warner Brothers/NBC)

Should we be worried about anyone else dying or being sidelined from the fight this season?

I would be worried. The storytelling we want to do this season is very bold. It’s about threading a needle because there are some people — I’ve watched shows and felt like, “Oh, they didn’t kill enough people in their last season,” and then I’ve watched shows where, “Oh, you killed too many people,” so you really need to find a balance.

I have to say there was just something so probably unintentionally funny about Weller going towards Rich DotCom holding a machete to take out the tracker and then using a taser because the rest of the episode was so heavy.

For us, it’s so important for Blindspot to be fun. That was always our goal, especially these last few seasons. Yes, there will be moments of pain and death and hurt, but it’s so important that the show be fun and entertaining, and so finding those little moments between the two of them are so hilarious. They really worked on that moment to really fine-tune it, and I thought they really just killed it. And there’s a lot more of that to come. And especially, now, we’re all looking for just some really great escapist television, and that’s what Blindspot is.

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'Blindspot' Boss on the Season 5 Premiere Death & Why Madeline's Plan Is 'Very Scary' (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Madeline in Blindspot? ›

After FBI big baddie Madeline Burke (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) poisoned herself in episode 9 in front of Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza), the Blindspot gang were left with another dangler: Ivy (Julee Cerda), Madeline's henchwoman, who left a canister of the zip bomb somewhere in New York City.

What happened in season 5 of Blindspot? ›

When Jane Doe is found naked in Times Square with her memory erased and her body covered in fresh tattoos, Agent Kurt Weller and his FBI team are instantly drawn to the case. Together, they discover each tattoo is a clue, making Jane's body a maze of mysteries that must be solved to uncover her true identity.

Who is helping the team in Blindspot season 5? ›

During season 5, Keaton allies with Alison Knight and Boston Arliss Crab to help the team prove their innocence, but he is forced to betray them after Madeline threatens his family.

Who died in Blindspot? ›

Deceased
CharacterLast Seen Alive
Thomas CarterEvil Handmade Instrument
Bethany MayfairIf Love a Rebel, Death Will Render
Bill WellerIf Love a Rebel, Death Will Render
OscarWhy Await Life's End
1 more row

Why is Zapata helping Blake? ›

So, Zapata signed up for the extremely dangerous mission of making it look like she burned all her bridges at the CIA and FBI, leading her to Blake Crawford in an attempt to get close to whoever was next in line at HCI.

What happened to Jane's daughter in Blindspot? ›

Though Jane (Jaimie Alexander) was initially in denial that Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) had killed her daughter, he explained that Avery (Kristina Reyes) had secretly tagged along with Weller on a mission in Berlin to get more info on Jane's whereabouts, but it was a trap and Weller accidentally shot her thinking she ...

Why did Blindspot end so abruptly? ›

What's incredible about doing this volume of television is we've said it all. That's why the show is ending because we felt creativity that it was time to end, that we had done what we wanted to do. I'm just so thankful to the fans that we got to sew it up.

Why is Reade not in season 5 of Blindspot? ›

The action picks up a few months after the drone attack, but flashbacks revealed that Agent Edgar Reade (Rob Brown) died to ensure Tasha Zapata (Audrey Esparza) survived the explosion. "A lot of reasoning went into why it be needed to be Reade," Blindspot creator Martin Gero explains.

Does Patterson get married in Blindspot? ›

+ During the Blindspot series finale last week, Natalie and Valerie Anne got what they wanted, for just a second. Patterson and Zapata got married (in one of Jane's hallucinations). + Audrey Esparza's behind the scenes pic is even better.

Who is the real shepherd in Blindspot? ›

Wednesday's episode of Blindspot aimed to answer that but raised a number of new questions. Shepherd was revealed to be Ellen Briggs, a high ranking military general who took a real interest in Weller's education. She not only encouraged Weller to stay in his cadet program, but she secretly funded his tuition.

Who is the other mole in Blindspot? ›

During the midseason finale, Jane (Jaimie Alexander) helped the FBI locate Sandstorm's compound. But Shepherd (Michelle Hurd) uncovered her deception, revealing that they knew she was with the FBI because of their own mole: Borden (Ukweli Roach).

Why did Jane Doe tattoo herself? ›

Events. Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe in Season 1. From Jaimie's Instagram. It was Remi's idea to tattoo her body and erase her memory with ZIP in order to make herself, and Kurt Weller, believe she was his childhood friend Taylor Shaw, who disappeared when she was 5 years old.

Is Jane dead at the end of Blindspot? ›

However, the final shot is of Jane at the head of the dinner table, celebrating with Kurt, Tasha (and her newborn baby), Rich and Patterson. “Jane are you OK?” asks Kurt. “Yeah, I'm good,” she responds in the final shot.

Who gets pregnant in blindspot? ›

We learn that Zapata is pregnant with Reade's baby. Rich tells Zapata that if she needs some comfort, he's there for her—awkwardly (and perhaps accidentally) using an acronym that references a very bad word and a very intimate action.

What does the end of blindspot mean? ›

Even though Jane and Weller successfully defused a ZIP bomb that Ivy Sands had planted in New York — which would have wiped countless memories across the city — it was revealed in the final scene that Jane ultimately succumbed to the ZIP poisoning she'd encountered at the end of Episode 10.

What happened to Naz in Blindspot? ›

Instead of dying, Nas committed career suicide, suddenly taking the heat in Weitz's Sandstorm investigation after no significant conversation between her, Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), or anyone else on the team.

What happens to Roman in Blindspot? ›

— but Roman didn't get his happy ending, after all. He met up with Blake later that afternoon, and even though he wanted to finally spill all of his secrets to her, he never got that chance. Blake shot her boyfriend, revealing that she knew his real name was Roman and that he had committed some real atrocities.

Who is the second mole in the FBI Blindspot? ›

“Blindspot” Season 2 recently revealed that Dr. Borden (Ukweli Roach) is a mole working for the mysterious organization Sandstorm.

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