This Is Us 1x05 "The Game Plan"

In This Is Us 1x05, we learn more about how Jack and Rebecca's family came about, the Pearsons' love of the Steelers, and where Jack is in present day. Here's your recap for "The Game Plan."

Photo Credit: NBC

Jack and Rebecca are sitting in a bar where Jack's glued to the TV since a football game is on. This reminds Rebecca of her childhood, where her mom used to cater to her father as he watched football and not wanting to end up like her mom, she asks Jack to teach her about the game. Rebecca then turns into a big fan of football.

At Randall and Beth's, they've got a full house as Kevin's slept there along with Tess, Annie, and William. Kevin realizes that William is sick but that the girls don't know and asks Beth and Randall about it, and they turn the conversation to when is Kevin leaving. After complaining about how his big, fancy hotel suite is lonely, Beth and Randall tell Kevin they'll take the hotel room for the night as William and Kevin can watch the girls and they later leave for the suite.

After Kate makes Toby breakfast in bed, he tries to make plans with her for after their weight group meeting, but Kate tells him she has Sunday Night Football since the Steelers are on and watching them is something she does alone. At their weight support group, Toby has some of the members pass a note along to Kate, inviting her to come to his house for a Steelers party. Kate goes to Toby's house, where he's invited his friend Shooter, who loves sports, to watch with them. During the game, Shooter is more interested in the type of TV they're watching on and Toby pauses the game so he and Shooter can tell Kate about the time they accidentally went to an Ashlee Simpson concert, and Kate gets fed up with not being able to watch the Steelers game as she likes to and tells Toby she's not feeling well so she can leave.

Pre-kids, Jack and Rebecca are meeting Miguel and his wife, Shelly, who already have two kids, at a bar to watch the Super Bowl, where Rebecca was asked to sing before the show. (So Mandy Moore gets a chance to show her pipes on This Is Us.) After hearing about why Shelly and Miguel were late, that being that their baby projectile vomited on their older sibling, Rebecca makes Jack promise that they're never having kids -- which Jack doesn't do -- before heading to the bar. While sitting with Miguel and Shelley, Jack confronts Rebecca about her comments about not wanting kids since they've never really talked about it before and Jack does want kids. They then have it out in the bar, with Jack saying that he's changed his mind since they first got together and recently decided he wants kids but Rebecca tells him she's only 29 -- almost 30, Jack helpfully adds -- and she's not "there" yet with the whole wanting kids thing. One of the guys in the bar, who's been razzing on them for a little while, tells Jack and Rebecca to take their drama somewhere else before telling Jack to control his woman after Rebecca tells him to shut up and mind his own business. The guy and Jack then start towards each other, and even though Rebecca begs Jack to sit down, Jack punches the guy in the face, causing Rebecca to get up from their table to leave, but not before telling Jack that "yeah, they should really be having kids."

While watching the kids, Tess and Annie want Kevin to be a celebrity judge during their Barbie fashion show but Kevin is busy learning the lines of the play for rehearsal the next day as he wants to be off-book. He instead drafts Annie, Tess, and William to help him learn his lines. As they go through their lines, the girls question Kevin about what's happening in the play, which apparently is about a girl who comes back as a ghost, and they then ask about what happens when you die as they know that William takes pills because he's sick and want to know if William is going to die. After Kevin tells them that everyone is going to die, and digs himself a hole, he tells the girls that it's bedtime and sends them off. William puts the girls to sleep and comes back to the kitchen to talk with Kevin, telling him that Kevin doubts himself a lot and William really liked him on "The Manny." Kevin tells William he never should have left that show and come to New York, prompting William to tell him he's doubting himself again.

At the hotel, Randall excitedly starts to plan what he and Beth will do for the night, starting with sex of course, but Beth doesn't seem as thrilled with the suite, interjecting that she's a week and a half late and feels like crap but hasn't been able to force herself to get a pregnancy test. Randall is now the one who seems a bit lackluster. Beth and Randall head to a drugstore, where Randall asks Beth how this could've happened, before they get into it about how a baby could mess up their plans. Randall reveals he wanted Beth and Randall to retire early to Charleston in 10 years once the girls are in college. Beth shoots back that her plans were a bit more important as she was planning to finally go back to work full-time and now will have to split her time between changing diapers and having a home office to work from. Back at the hotel, Beth and Randall sit in the suite bathroom with the test, and start to come around to the idea of having another kid.

In the bar, Jack asks Miguel about when he and Shelly knew they wanted kids. After answering, Miguel asks Jack if Rebecca not wanting kids is a deal-breaker. Before Jack can answer, the Steelers score a touchdown and win the Superbowl so Miguel goes off to find Shelly, leaving Jack alone at the bar, as Rebecca sits outside on a bench listening to the bar cheering. Jack finds Rebecca outside and tells her that if he has to choose between her and having kids, she'd win every time. Rebecca tells Jack that while she's not as far career-wise as she'd hoped as she still sings at the bar, when she pictures the future, she sees them with kids. Jack reassures her that it's fine, he just wants her, and he doesn't want to change anything about their life right now either.

Toby shows up at Kate's house later to ask her about leaving, and Kate tells him about how growing up, she'd watch the Steelers with her dad every Sunday until she moved out to LA but started up again in 2006 when the Steelers played the Broncos and then they won the Superbowl and now she watches the Steelers every day with her dad. I DON'T LIKE WHERE THIS IS GOING, PEOPLE! Toby tells her that Jack sounds like a cool guy and he'd like to meet him sometime, and Kate says okay, before heading to her fireplace mantle where there's an urn. NO, NO, NO! Kate tells Toby that she knows it's kind of weird, but football is a big part of her family, and that she wouldn't be here if not for football as she was actually conceived in a bathroom during the Superbowl. Flash to Rebecca and Jack making out in a bathroom at the bar, where apparently, Kate (and Kevin) was conceived.

Kevin goes to the girls' bedroom to apologize for his earlier comments and to get them to forgive him, he tells them a secret: he paints when he gets a script for the first time. He shows them what he painted when he first got the play's script and tells them he's sorry for scaring them before by talking about ghosts and death. He goes on to explain the painting - which is actually pretty cool -- and how it's about life, and life is infinite, and everyone is in the painting before and after they die, and the colors just keep being added until they all mesh into one thing, one painting. Kevin tells the girls that even though his dad (Jack) isn't with them anymore, that he's not alive, he's still with them. As Kevin talks, we see Kate and Toby watching the game with Jack's urn. Then Randall and Beth in the hotel bathroom finally look at the pregnancy test, which says Not Pregnant, and they're happy about it. Kevin goes on to say that people in our lives, people they love will die, and we see Randall folding a sweater of William's and putting it in a box before sitting with William's hat and crying. This is seemingly in the future and not at that moment as Kevin is talking. Kevin finishes by saying that even when people die, it doesn't mean they're not still in the painting and that this sloppy and colorful painting, with no beginning or end, he thinks is us.

While Kevin closed this emotional episode with a great speech about living and dying, it doesn't change the fact that Jack is dead. So how did he die? When did he die? How long did it take for Rebecca to move on with Miguel? What happened to Shelly and how do Miguel's kids feel about him being with Rebecca? When does William die? We may have finally gotten the answer about Jack's fate in present day, but there are still many more questions to be answered.

Blindspot 2x06 "Her Spy's Mind" Recap

After ending last week's episode with Reade standing over Coach Jones' dead body, this episode picks up right where we left off. Here's your recap for Blindspot 2x06 "Her Spy's Mind."

Photo Credit: NBC

After Zepata walks in to Jones' house and sees his dead body with Reade standing next to it, she asks him what the hell happened and Reade claims he didn't do it as he was in the basement and heard a noise, only to come upstairs and find Jones. While Reade wants to call the cops, Zepata instead insists they have to leave given Reade's background with Jones and the circumstances he's now in, so they run to Zepata's car just as neighborhood watch pulls up in front of Jones' house. Before they drive away, Reade remembers he left the videotape with his name on it in the VCR but Zepata tells him it's too late to go back into the house and unfortunately, Reade didn't get a chance to watch the tape before he heard the killer upstairs. They go back to Reade's house and get rid of their clothes, and Zepata notices a knife missing from Reade's block, which Reade says broke and he never replaced. Zepata tells Reade that the way they can get the tape back in the closet is to go to Jones' house once it's officially a crime as FBI. Until then, they should just act normally and go in to work.

Back at the FBI, Patterson tells Nas, Jane, and Weller about what she learned after cracking the Black hole photo that contains emails from Douglas Winter. Before the team can take off to track down Winter in Bulgaria, Jane gets a text from Roman calling her in. At the Sandstorm compound, Jane gets a memory flash of her parents' and a coin that's all she and Roman have left of their parents. Roman explains the significance behind the coin, before moving aside a floorboard and handing Jane a puzzle box she gave to Roman before her memory wipe, and that Roman wasn't able to open. Jane's also unable to do so and before Roman leaves the room, he tells Jane that the mission tomorrow is to get the microchip that Jeffrey Kantor was supposed to get for them.

Meanwhile, Nas and Weller land in Bulgaria and quickly realize they're being followed. The man following them is CIA and named Keaton -- the new deputy director of the CIA in fact -- and is also in Bulgaria tracking down Winter. So now the FBI is competing with the CIA to get to Winter first and be the ones to bring him in. Nas and Weller get a room in the same hotel they suspect Winter's in due to the amount of security outside the hotel, right beneath the room they think Winter's in. Weller suspects the email Patterson decoded may have actually be intended for Mayfair, which would explain why the CIA want Winter as Carter must have been linked to this too.

After somewhat confirming Winter must be the man in the room, Nas and Weller go in and Winter tells them that the security outside aren't his and he's a prisoner of the Bulgarian government, and that he was framed since he never hacked the NSA or leaked any classified documents. The reason Winter ran was because he was framed for treason and needed a place that would give him amnesty. He trusted Mayfair, which is why he sent her the Black Hole file but didn't know who else he could trust since whoever framed him had to be high up in the government. One of his security guards comes in to get his food trays, so Nas and Weller hide in a closet unsuccessfully, so Weller knocks out the guard and they then climb back to their room using the balcony, where Weller tells Winter to get into a duffel bag so they can smuggle him out of the hotel and get him to the FBI safehouse nearby.

Roman and Jane show up to to the R&D lab where they have plans to steal the microchip, but the man they thought they were meeting (who had a peanut allergy) is out sick today and a woman is filling in for him, throwing a wrench in their plans to send the guy into anaphylactic shock so they could steal his access card and use it to get the microchip. Jane improvises, sending Roman out of the room to talk to the woman about sexual harassment, enabling her to knock the woman out and prevent Roman from taking more drastic measures.

As Nas and Weller get into the hotel elevator with Winter in a rolling duffel, Keaton spots them and rushes to meet the elevator in the lobby but Nas and Weller are able to get away in a taxi before he can reach them. Winter tells Nas and Weller at the safehouse about how he was framed and says he can prove it since he was recording himself on the guitar when two masked men broke into his home and told him that he could either stay in the country and be prosecuted for treason or head to a country without extradition to escape the punishment for what they were going to frame him for. Weller figures out that Winter actually had no idea who Mayfair was but Winter insists he's telling the truth about the recording. Weller confides in Nas about how Mayfair was always there for him and how he's now left with a of questions that he was hoping Winter might have some answers to and then Nas and Weller kiss. Okay, maybe Nas is the one who needs that talk about sexual harassment, Jane.

Patterson gets an alert from NYPD that Coach Jones is dead and tells Zepata and Reade, who volunteer to go check it out as the FBI had a previous investigation involving Jones, which perfectly plays into Zepata's plan to get back into Jones' house. They head to Jones' house where Zepata breaks off from Reade to head to the basement and put the tape back, but when she tries to take the tape out, it seems to be scratching and won't eject. She's finally able to get the tape out but doesn't have time to put it back in the closet before Reade and the NYPD detective in charge come downstairs, so she stuffs it in the back of her pants. Zepata then makes excuses for her and Reade to leave, giving the detective her card and instructing him to keep them posted before they go.

Back at Reade's, Zepata tells him how she still has the tape, and Reade tells her about the private security guard that knocked on his car window when he fell asleep outside Jones' house. Zepata then hunts down the guard and tells him that the guy he saw is undercover FBI and if he were to say anything about seeing Reade, it'd blow his cover, before going on to somewhat threaten the guy's pregnant girlfriend who has overstayed her visa. The guard catches Zepata's drift and says what she wants to hear, that he didn't write down Reade's license in his notebook (even though he did), and Zepata takes the notebook and leaves.

Borden and Patterson have a mini-spat while Patterson's trying to decode the modulated voices that Winter recorded and as she tells Borden that she's under a lot of stress, Patterson accidentally calls him David -- her boyfriend from last season who ended up getting killed. Awkward. Patterson apologizes to Borden and they kiss and make up. After he leaves, Patterson sits down in a chair in Borden's office, and looks up at the ceiling, where she notices what looks like a bug -- the electrical kind.

Jane and Roman are able to break into the vault where the chip is being held but have to wait 5 minutes for the vault to be opened using their decoder technology. Jane tries to learn more about Shepherd (not her real name) and Sandstorm but Roman stonewalls her before getting angry at Jane, saying he knows she thinks he's a sociopath but if he is, it's because Jane taught him how and when she left, Shepherd finished the job. Jane apologizes for taking away his sister and tells him that if she could go back, she'd do everything very differently. The alarm then goes off, and Roman and Jane see security converging on the CTV cameras, so they're out of time but the vault still isn't unlocked. Roman tells Jane to stay by the vault, get the chip when it unlocks, and then get out of here, and that he'll deal with the people coming after them.

As Nas and Weller get dressed after their dalliance, they are alerted that the safehouse has been breached, seemingly by the CIA. After trying to get them to stand down, the CIA team start shooting. Nas and Weller quickly return fire, taking out the team except Keaton, who shoots one of the last guys standing and claims they weren't CIA. Weller and Nas go to take Winter out of the safehouse when Keaton says he'll get Winter in the end and take him to an out-of-the-way spot where he can get the full "Jane Doe" treatment. After Keaton confirms he tortured Jane, Weller starts choking him before Nas is able to convince him to stop. Weller thanks Nas for stopping him from choking Keaton and they agree NOT to leave everything that happened in Bulgaria in Bulgaria, before Weller's phone rings. It's Patterson, calling to tell Weller that she found a bug in Borden's office and it's transmitting to a server in Zero Division, and she thinks Nas has been listening to them using the bug.

Once Jane is able to get the chip, she calls Patterson so the FBI can get access to the data before Sandstorm has it. Rather than killing the guards he comes across in the hallway, Roman attempts to simply subdue them, and as the chip data is slowly copied, Jane gets a memory flash of her and Roman in the orphanage and how Roman got the scar on his face when she was unable to protect him. Jane unplugs the chip, interrupting the copying, and runs to Roman's aid. After taking out a bunch of guards, she and Roman duck through a set of doors and Jane shoots the access card reader so the guards on the other side can't get through, only to have Roman tell her that that was their only way out. Oops! Luckily, they have some C4 with them but they only have one shot to blow a hole back into the hallway, and they're a little turned around. Jane tells Roman she trusts him and blows up the wall he thinks will lead back to the hallway, which is a good call as Roman was right. They're then able to escape out the front door alongside the lab employees who are being evacuated.

Back at Sandstorm, Jane is able to open the puzzle box, which contains a gum wrapper. Jane then recalls the memory of giving Roman the gum wrapper in place of the coin which the boys who gave Roman the scar on his face took, just until she could get the coin back for them. Roman is glad to see the wrapper again, and cries a few happy tears, as he thought the wrapper was lost in the orphanage, and says Jane must have gone back for it. Jane then tells Roman that she loves him and hugs him, calling him Ian (his original name). Jane's love for her brother will no doubt cause difficulties going forward.

Zepata shows up at Reade's, telling him she took care of the guard, but that she has Jones' autopsy report, which says he asphyxiated, choking to death on his own blood. So if Reade really heard a noise and went up to check it out, he would've seen the killer asphyxiating Jones, prompting Zepata to accuse Reade of lying but Reade maintains his innocence.

Jane returns to the FBI where Nas tells Jane that Patterson informed her Jane abandoned the mission and stopped the data on the chip from being uploaded. Jane tells her this was the only way for them to get out alive and for Jane to keep her cover so they could play the long game. Nas tells her that now Sandstorm has what they need and the FBI are in the dark but Jane asserts that she can turn Roman, that she broke him and is this close to being able to get him on her side. Patterson then comes in and informs the team that Winter is telling the truth and that she was able to authenticate the recording. She then plays it for the team, and Jane identifies Roman and Shepherd's voices as those who framed Winter. After playing it again, Weller tells the team that he knows Shepherd's voice, but he's not sure from where. To be continued...

So why has Sandstorm been watching Weller? Will Jane be able to turn Roman? And what will Weller do now that he knows Nas has been listening in on them? Maybe next week's episode will bring some answers!

Badass of the Week: Jane.
Quote of the Week: After Reade thanks Zepata for helping him cover up his being at Jones' house, Zepata shrugs it off, saying "What's a little accessory after the fact between friends?"

This Is Us 1x04 "The Pool" Recap

This week's episode of This Is Us, called "The Pool," explored race and gave us some insight into how growing up with a white family affected Randall, as well as more background into Kevin and Kate and the whole Pearson family dynamics. Here's your recap for This Is Us 1x04 "The Pool."

Photo Credit: NBC

In the 80s, Jack and Rebecca take the kids to the pool. Things quickly get out of hand as Kevin clamors for Jack's attention, Jack and Rebecca realize they can't find Randall, and Kate is handed a note by her friends that says they don't want her to play with them anymore since she embarrasses them with a picture of a pig drawn on the paper. Rebecca finds Randall playing with some other black kids outside the pool under the watchful eyes of their mother. After a not-so-friendly encounter with the black mom, Rebecca and Randall start to walk away when the other mom gives them some advice about Randall's hair, as he's been itching the back of his scalp due to razor bumps. Rebecca doesn't appreciate the other woman's judgmental tone and she and Kevin go back to their pool chairs on the other side of the pool.

Randall has told his girls about William being their grandfather and is learning more about William's life, like he protested during the Civil Rights Movement. When William goes to take his morning walk around the neighborhood, he's stopped by a cop and Randall has to swoop in to vouch for him, apologizing to the cop for the confusion as it's a predominantly white neighborhood, much to William's chagrin. Randall decides he needs to take William shopping so he may fit in better and look more respectable but feels William is judging him for that morning's events as he thinks William would've taken a stand.

While Toby and Kate are out to breakfast, they bump into Toby's ex-wife Josie, who is skinny and beautiful to Kate's surprise, which causes her to questions why Toby is with her. Kevin goes to his first audition in New York for a play, reading opposite Tony -nominee Olivia which really doesn't go well. He calls Kate on his way out for support but she's busy spying on Toby's ex, and then Kevin bumps into Olivia on the street and they go for a drink. She advises him to go back to LA and take an acting class if he's really serious about theater, only to receive a text moments later informing her Kevin got the part.

Kate goes into the boutique Josie runs and she mistakes Kate for being someone interested in the open job there. Kate goes along with it, spitting out lots of information about Josie that she's gleaned from stalking her online. Kate later shows up to Toby's and tells him that she got a job -- at his ex's store. They get into a fight as Toby's getting tired of going through the same cycle with Kate, where she puts herself down about being fat, he makes a comment to make her feel good, and they go through it again, and yet Kate feels validated when Josie gives her a compliment. Toby tells Kate that Josie was terrible to him, that she cheated on him, lied to him, and then took half of his life's savings, and after she left him, he gained 95 pounds in a year and was suicidal, especially when drinking, which shames Kate a bit as their relationship has been more about her problems. Kate tells him she wasn't going to keep the job anyway and they make up.

Meanwhile, back at the pool, Kevin feels ignored and swims into deeper water where he can't stand and almost drowns, without Rebecca and Jack even noticing as they're busy with Randall and Kate. After Kevin accuses them of not paying attention to him, Jack promises he'll be there for Kevin. Rebecca sees Randall continuing to scratch at his neck, swallows her pride, and approaches the black woman from earlier, asking her for the name of a barber before questioning if Randall can play with the woman's kids after school some time. Jack sees Kate covering up with a towel at the pool since she didn't bring a T-shirt and he gives her his, along with a story behind it, calling it a magical T-shirt that allows her to control how her enemies see her. Kate puts on the shirt, decides she wants to be a princess, and seems to lose the sadness the other little girls caused with their note. Jack for the win!

After Tess's play at the school where played Snow White, Randall talks to William at home about growing up with white parents in a white neighborhood and tells William he won't apologize for his actions earlier that morning or for how he was raised or how he's raising his daughters. William adamantly tells him he has nothing to apologize for before apologizing to Randall and telling him that while William may have done everything wrong by Randall, Randall is doing everything right, and then calls Randall son. Okay, pass the tissues please.

After leaving a message for Kate telling her he got the part, Kevin shows up at Randall's. As Randall goes to open the door, we see a picture on the mantle of Jack and Rebecca with Kevin, Kate, and Randall as kids, along with the black mom from the pool. Randall introduces Kevin to William, who he calls his biological father, before Kevin heads to Annie and Tess's room. After Kevin has left the room with the girls, William asks if that was The Manny, saying he loves that show, and goes after them to get an autograph.

This Is Us continues to impress and each episode keeps getting better -- but four episodes into its freshman season and viewers are still left wondering: where is present-day Jack?! Maybe we'll learn more in the fifth episode on Tuesday!

Blindspot 2x05 "Condone Untidiest Thefts" Recap

Blindspot's fifth episode of the second season opens on a man loading a gun inside a big handheld camera, and the episode only picks up steam from there. Here's your recap for "Condone Untidiest Thefts."

Photo Credit: NBC

After that opening scene, we see Jane cutting her own hair so it's back to the choppy bob we saw her in last season -- and she's clearly still with Sandstorm since Shepherd walks in right as she finishes, telling her she could've helped Jane cut her hair. While Jane does her hair, she has a flash of memory of a female doctor wearing an intricate ring, which she thinks is from after she survived the attack in Afghanistan. Shepherd tells her that the doctor found her outside the town she was stationed in and that Jane wouldn't have have lived without her help - but that she's now dead. According to Shepherd, Jane only survived that strike because she was up in the mountains doing rehab, and that it was weeks until Jane managed to make her way back to the States, hiding away on a cargo ship. Jane tells Shepherd she doesn't remember any of that part, but Shepherd seems to dismiss that -- so is Shepherd telling the truth? Or is she hiding something about the aftermath of the Orion attack?

Last week's episode ended with us learning that Sandstorm has been watching Weller for decades, and Nas and Weller are going through documents, trying to figure out what Weller has that Sandstorm wants, as he's clearly some cog in their machine. While going through boxes, Weller finds a phone that Nas says her people at the NSA couldn't crack since the encryption isn't like anything they've seen before. Zepata walks in and tells Nas and Weller that she thinks she's figured out how to un-code the black hole photo that was on Mayfair's USB; this was the job we saw her mention to Shdwcat in "If Beth." Nas says no, but Zepata already sort of went ahead with her plan, simply showing Shdwcat the black hole photo, which led to the phrase "laminar flow." Nas explains laminar flow as when you pour your milk into coffee, it creates millions of spiraling streams -- but if you could rewind and un-swirl the milk, you could see what it looked like pre-coffee.

Meanwhile, Reade is woken up by a cop rapping on his car window -- he fell asleep outside Coach Jones's house while in his car the night before. Borden and Patterson brush their teeth together, so that romance is officially happening, and they're going to ride in to work together! If Borden turns out to be the FBI's mole, I'm protesting -- Borderson is just too cute. Weller goes with Allie to her doctor's appointment, and tries to get Allie to take a step back from her job as a US Marshal since the job's very physical and dangerous but Allie shuts down the conversation since she doesn't want to take a desk job.

Reade shows up to the FBI and tells Weller that Borden cleared him for work but he's decided to take a personal day. Yeah, that doesn't seem like a good idea, Reade. The team are in the lab where Patterson is explaining how a part of one of the first tattoos she cracked are numbers that match the server address for Snapitz, a photo app that deletes the pictures after five seconds. The rest of the numbers on the tattoo match up to five specific accounts, all of whom are associated with one of the biggest crime syndicates in the tri-state area: the O'Malley's. They've been using the app to communicate, and Patterson and her team cracked the chessboard photos they recently posted, which really contains the hidden message, "Adams Park, Wednesday noon." A political rally for immigration reform is taking place there -- and it's almost noon so the team races over.

At the park, the team splits up -- and we see the man with the gun-camera is there, and he shoots at the New York Senator and other politicians who are on the small stage. The shooter hits a few people while the team are scrambling to figure out who he is. Jane and Weller manage to chase him down and catch him, and the team return to the FBI, where Allie's been called in by Zepata to help with the case. The shooter is a known associate of the O'Malley crime family -- and Allie grew up with a bunch of the O'Malleys so Zepata thought she might be useful. It turns out the Senator who was speaking at the rally, Quinn Donahue, is cousins with Patrick O'Malley, the head of the Irish mob -- and Donahue is tough on crime and actually put away much of his own family. Patrick's little brother recently died in prison, and the O'Malleys clearly blame Donahue, hence the hit. The gun inside the camera matches one belonging to Patrick so the FBI leave to bring him in.

Reade follows Jones and confronts him, getting physical while asking Jones if he was one of the kids Jones abused. Jones doesn't answer, and before Reade walks away, he threatens Jones.

Jane decides to be proactive in finding out more about the female doctor so she goes to Patterson with a sketch of the heavy ring, telling her about her memory, and asking if Patterson can track the ring because identifying the woman feels important. Patterson assures Jane she'll see what she can do.

Once Patrick's arrested and brought in, he tells Jane and Weller that he'll only talk to Allie. When Allie walks in, Patrick tells her that he's suffering from cancer and the doctor says he has six months -- so he's now stepped back from crime. Patrick insists he didn't shoot Donahue (because obviously he wouldn't be stupid enough to use his own gun) since even though they may have had their differences, family is family. This clearly makes an impact on Jane, who's listening with Nas and Zepata on the other side of the glass. Patrick points the FBI to Donahue, since he's going to run for Governor and with the assassination attempt, he's now front-page news and somewhat of a hero as he pushed down others on the stage. Donahue being behind the hit also explains why none of the shots were lethal. Weller then questions how Donahue would've been able to get the mob to carry out the hit, and Patrick tells them that Donahue IS the mob -- because Donahue's the head of it and always has been, while Patrick was simply the face of the mob and Donahue's number two.  

While Allie and Weller argue outside the interrogation room, Jane heads in to try to appeal to Patrick, as they both struggle with loyalty to their families. But Patrick's family have left him to take the fall for the hit, knowing he's got cancer and will spend the rest of his life in prison since he won't make bail, meaning he won't get to be with his wife and daughter as he dies. Jane manages to get through to Patrick, and Patrick admits he has tapes -- hard evidence -- with everything the FBI will need to take down Donahue. Patrick agrees to hand over the tapes for a plea deal and lifetime witness protection for his wife and daughter. Good job, Jane!

Zepata gets a call from the NYPD about Reade harassing Jones that morning and leaves a message on Reade's phone telling him to call her. Zepata then tells Weller that she has something personal to take care of, so she's out the rest of the day.

Patrick's tapes are being held at his lawyer's office but they're in a safe that will only open with a retinal and fingerprint scan -- which means a field trip. Once the team arrives at the lawyer's office on the 57th floor, they see on the monitors that a bunch of masked gunmen have entered the lobby, obviously there for Patrick. Weller tries to direct Jane, Patrick, and Allie on where to go but Allie's insistent they get the tapes, so Weller implores Jane to keep them safe. Once Allie, Jane, Patrick, and his lawyer get to where the safe is, Patrick tries to scan his retina and fingerprint, but the scanner won't recognize his fingerprint since a side effect of a chemo drug is a skin condition that obscures your fingerprints. Uh-oh. Jane asks Patterson for help in going around the fingerprint scanner, and Jane's able to manually manipulate the tumblers into opening, grabbing the briefcase with the tapes inside. 

Nas and Weller take out some gunmen who show up at the 57th floor but other gunmen bypass the floor and are now loose elsewhere in the building. Weller and Nas exchange gunfire with more of the men, and Allie, Jane, Patrick, and lawyer face off with more as they try to get back to Weller and Nas. Allie and Jane take out some of the gunmen and Jane instructs Allie to uncuff Patrick if she trusts him since they'll need all the help they can get. Jane and co. manage to make it into the staircase but they're then ambushed by gunmen from below and behind them so a gunfight ensues, during which Allie is shot in the upper thigh. As Patrick tries to open a door out of the staircase and asks the lawyer for her keycard, the lawyer admits that she tipped off Donahue. Jane cuffs the lawyer to the staircase, takes her keycard and she continues on with Patrick aiding Allie through the door, with Jane shooting the keycard reader to hopefully hold off the gunmen who are coming up the stairs. 

After Jane tells Weller that Allie's been shot, Allie tells Jane that she's pregnant and it's Kurt's. While Jane searches a closet locker for supplies to help Allie, Weller tries to figure out how to get to Allie, but Patterson tells him that the safer way will be longer as he'll have to double back and going the more dangerous way using the stairs may be shorter but there are lots more gunmen there; of course, Weller decides he'll take the more dangerous route. Jane tries to stop Allie's bleeding and keep her awake until paramedics can arrive, and Nas stops Weller from charging ahead, instead making a Molotov cocktail which they throw at the gunmen and Weller shoots to make it go off since they don't have a match or lighter. Nas and Weller are then able to run to the stairs. Meanwhile, the gunmen have gotten through the doors to where Allie, Jane, and Patrick are, so Patrick takes the briefcase and runs -- but he leaves the bag full of evidence tapes behind, clearly trying to act as a distraction. Patrick confronts the gunmen with the briefcase and is able to shoot one of them before getting shot himself. Jane is carrying Allie across her shoulders, trying to get to safety, when the door in front of them opens and Nas and Weller come through -- and just in time as there are two gunmen behind Jane that Weller shoots and kills. 

In the hospital, Allie reassures Weller that she and the baby are fine, but Weller is getting his way since Allie's on desk duty because of the gunshot wound. Back at the FBI, Weller thanks Jane for what she did, and Jane congratulates Weller on going to be a father, but as Jane walks away, it's clear that she's shaken and not all that happy about the news. Patterson catches her in the hall with an update about the ring, which is a trinket sold widely in Kabul, though the one Jane drew has a slight difference in the tribal design; but beyond that, Patterson wasn't able to find any more information and get an exact match to the ring Jane drew. After all the disheartening news -- Weller and Allie expecting a baby, Patterson failing to find out any real info about the woman -- Jane reaches into her pocket for the business card that Oliver Kind gave her at the fundraising gala the team attended last episode and then leaves a rambling message for Oliver asking him to drinks. 

Shepherd tells Roman that Jane is remembering things more frequently and that Jane asked about her rescue in Afghanistan. Roman asks what Jane remembered and Shepherd tells Roman what she told Jane, which Roman confirms for us is a lie, and that if Jane finds that out, she won't trust them anymore and their plan will be doomed. Roman proposes Jane come with him on the mission tomorrow so Jane will be invested, which Shepherd begrudgingly agrees to. 

Patterson tells Nas and Weller that she's decoded the black hole image on Mayfair's USB drive, which, when un-swirled, is really a bunch of email communications. Patterson tells them that she knows where Douglas Winter is, the man who exposed the NSA and forced Carter to shut down Orion -- which means Mayfair knew where Winter was the whole time and they were working together. 

Reade is back at Jones's house, and he's breaking in through the backdoor. He gets into the house and starts going through Jones's stuff, before finding a hidden door in the wood paneling of the wall, behind which there's shelves with lots of videotapes -- and there are stickers on the tapes with names and years written on them. Reade finds his name on a tape labeled "Reade, Edgar 1996" and puts the tape into the video player of Jones's nearby TV, but struggles with hitting the "play" button. Shortly after, Zepata is able to track Reade to Jones's house and enters using the door Reade broke in through and left open. Inside, she finds Jones dead on the floor in a pool of blood and Reade standing seemingly in shock over Jones's prone body. To be continued...

So did Reade kill Jones? What's the Sandstorm mission Roman referred to? Next Wednesday can't get here soon enough!

Badass of the week: Nas.

Quote of the week: Inside the interrogation, Patrick is skirting answers when Weller's questioning him and accuses Weller of being a rookie, to which Weller replies that he's the Assistant Director of the NY Office of the FBI, though that doesn't seem to impress O'Malley. Allie then interjects, trying to give O'Malley some context for Weller.

Allie: "Patrick, this is Kurt -- my Kurt." Patrick: "Oh -- I knew there was a reason I didn't like him." Zepata (behind the one-way glass window): "This might be my favorite interrogation ever."

This Is Us 1x03 "Kyle" Recap

After being off for a week, This Is Us returned with its third episode, called "Kyle," and we quickly learn who Kyle is and get some insight into William, among other things. Here's your recap for This Is Us 1x03 "Kyle."

Photo Credit: NBC

In the 70s, William is riding the bus every day and writing poetry when he see a cute girl. They start riding the bus together, as they become a couple, and he reads her poetry by his favorite poet and also writes poetry about her but his handwriting is getting worse as they are both taking drugs. After they ride the bus on drugs a few times, we see William alone on the bus again, looking strung out, and holding a baby -- Randall. We then see baby Randall alongside new siblings Kate and Kevin with parents Jack and Rebecca in the hospital before they're taken home -- and it turns out Randall is actually named "Kyle" so he, Kate, and Kevin all have "K" names. Cute, huh? While Jack seems to be fine and excited to take home the babies, Rebecca seems less than enthusiastic and more overwhelmed.

Flash to the present where Rebecca and Miguel (called grandma and grandpa at the end of the last episode) have dropped by unannounced to Randall and Beth's house. Randall asks to speak to Rebecca privately so he can tell her about William, and after learning the few details Randall knows about him, Rebecca wants to meet him.

Toby wakes up on the couch at Kate's and hears her singing as she just got out of the shower. He goes to stand in the doorway of the bathroom and startles Kate when she opens the door, and she punches him in the face. They then have a healthy breakfast together where Toby compliments Kate on her singing and implores her to sing for him. In the midst of this, Kevin walks in and starts talking about their move to New York City and how he wants to do drama, tasking Kate with assistant-y duties to help him.

Back to the hospital where Jack and Rebecca are leaving with their baby crew in tow. Jack goes to get their car, leaving Rebecca holding Randall/Kyle and two nurses holding Kevin and Kate. While at the curb waiting in a wheelchair, Rebecca sees William standing across the street looking at her and Randall/Kyle and tries to talk to him but he walks away and gets on the bus just before Jack pulls up.

Rebecca walks in to Annie's room, where William's been staying and introduces herself to William, shaking his hand, before asking Randall to let her and William have a moment to chat. Once Randall leaves, William tells Rebecca that she looks well -- seeming to imply that they've met before. Interesting...

In 1979, Jack and Rebecca have their hands full with the three babies now that they're home, and Rebecca seems to be having the most trouble with Kyle, who she feels isn't the same as Kevin and Kate and who won't nurse from her. Rebecca tries to tell Jack about seeing William while leaving the hospital but Jack cuts in, thinking she was worried about bringing Kyle home and tries to reassure her.

Beth and Randall wonder what William and Rebecca are talking about privately. William tells Rebecca that Randall found him and brought him to his home, but Rebecca interjects that William is the one who stayed, and that they had a deal. William assures Rebecca that he won't tell Randall -- and Rebecca tells him that Randall finding out that he could've known William will break him. Seems like the deal Rebecca and William made was that William wouldn't be in Randall's life, which William tells her was the right decision for everyone. Rebecca then tells William that he'd better be worth it because Randall will put William before his job, marriage, and kids, since that's the kind of person he is.

Rebecca and Miguel then get ready to leave to go into the city, and when Randall goes to get William from Annie's room to take him to his doctor's appointment, William's gone. Randall jumps in his car and finds William a ways down the street with a duffel bag, where the argue about William just taking off without a goodbye and trying to blow off his appointment, and William gets into Randall's car.

Kate is making calls on behalf of Kevin while Toby sits nearby and it's clear Toby isn't happy with Kate playing assistant. So he hatches up a plan, laying out a red carpet outside of Kate's house and dressing up like a driver while holding a camera like a paparazzi and shouting questions at Kate as she leaves the house. Toby asks Kate to give him one day where she gets to be the star. Kevin starts to pack up his stuff but doesn't get very far into the process before pouring himself a drink and calling Kate, who he's already called multiple times, and leaves a message asking her if they can hire a company to pack up their stuff for them. Meanwhile, Kate's excited about her star-day with Toby, until she finds out he's taking her to her "first big gig" since her voice is too good to not be shared. Toby takes her to an old age home where she'll be singing in front of the residents and convinces her they're the perfect audience to sing for.

Jack's taken the babies back to their doctor for a check-up, without Rebecca, which the doctor notices and asks about. Jack then divulges to the doctor that Rebecca's not totally herself and isn't bonding with the babies, especially Kyle, and that the babies have broken his wife and he hoped the doctor would tell him how to fix her. The doctor tells Jack that he needs to give her some space to deal with the grief of losing the third baby in her own way and that she'll come around. While Jack's at the doctor's with the kids, Rebecca is sitting in a bus shelter nearby, waiting for a bus. When one pulls up, she gets on to ask the doctor about William, describing him to the driver, and the driver identifies William as "Shakespeare," before telling Rebecca to get in.

Toby introduces Kate at the old age home and Kate nervously stands in front of the seniors and starts to sing "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper. While Kate sings, we see Rebecca in 1979 riding the bus to find William and in present day, William and Randall arriving to his doctor's appointment. Rebecca gets off the bus and waits, soon spotting William getting off a different bus and starts to follow him, tailing him to his apartment.

Randall sits in the waiting room while William is examined and has blood drawn. As Kate sings, she gains confidence, until she's belting out the song as Toby looks on proudly. Toby and Kate then make out in a supply closet until Kevin calls and interrupts them. Kevin has locked himself in his closet since he called "Insane Elaine," had sex with her, then told her he was moving to New York, and she's now trashing his apartment, and demands Kate come over. Kate tells Toby she has to go, her twin needs her, blah blah blah, and Toby tells her that he really likes her but can't play second fiddle to her brother, to which Kate replies that he has to, that everyone has to, before leaving him in the closet, much to Toby's shock and disappointment.

The doctor meets with Randall and William and tells them the cancer has metastasized and that at this point, there's really nothing that can be done. Back in 1979, Rebecca knocks on William's apartment door, and he lets her in. William tells Rebecca that the baby came from love, and asks what they named the baby. Rebecca tells William they named the baby Kyle and explains that she and Jack were having triplets and decided to name them Kevin, Kate, and Kyle, but that she lost one of the babies during delivery and when his baby showed up at the hospital the same morning, it felt like destiny. As Rebecca gets ready to go, William asks if he'd be able to check on Kyle from time to time, and Rebecca tells him no, and that she has to know William won't come back for him so she can move forward -- and that's the deal, which William agrees to. On her way to the door, Rebecca admits to William that she's not bonding with the baby -- and William advises her to give him his own name. Rebecca asks what the name of his favorite poet is and William hands her the book of poetry by his favorite author, telling Rebecca maybe she'll see fit to give it to him someday. The name of the author? Dudley Randall. Rebecca thanks William and takes the book with her as she leaves.

We see that same book of poetry, among others, by Dudley Randall on a shelf alongside a picture of Randall, Kate, and Kevin as adults in Randall's home, so it seems Rebecca either gave him the book or he discovered the poet on his own, connecting him to his biological father in some way. Randall tells Beth what the doctor said about William and laments that he didn't try to find William sooner, saying the girls could've had a grandfather all this time. Does that mean Jack is dead and wasn't around to be the girls' grandfather? Where is present day Jack?! Beth reminds Randall that he doesn't know any more about William than he did when he first came to live with them a week ago, and that Randall doesn't have a whole lot of time to find out more since William's prognosis is bleak, and Randall silently sheds a few tears.

Kate lets herself into Kevin's, who's still in his closet, though Insane Elaine is gone. Kate shares with Kevin her day with Toby and Kevin is impressed and happy for her until Kate tells him that she answered Kevin's call and it interrupted her and Toby. It dawns on Kevin that Kate is always putting him first so he fires her as his personal assistant, telling her they should try going it alone for a while so they can both grow up a bit. Kate then calls Toby, who shows up at her house, and she apologizes, tells him she's not moving to New York, before holding up a condom and says she got him something. Toby accepts Kate's apology and comes into the house when her phone starts ringing but this time, Kate doesn't answer. Kevin is calling from the back of a cab since he booked himself a red-eye to New York and is leaving.

Going back to 1979, Rebecca comes home from meeting William, and Jack and the three babies have already been back from the doctor's for hours. Rebecca tells Jack how she can't stop thinking about the baby that they lost and Jack tells her he feels the same way before Rebecca says she thinks they need to give him a new name. Rebecca hands Jack the book of poetry William gave her (though she doesn't tell him the backstory of it) and Jack nods after looking at the cover.

Randall knocks on William's bedroom door and tells him that he's going to look into other bigwig oncologists and that he'd also like to tell the girls who William is, and William agrees. Rather than leaving, Randall comes into the room and closes the door and then asks William how he met his mother. William goes on to tell him how he met his biological mom on the bus, and so begins Randall learning about his biological family.

The episode ends with Rebecca picking up baby Randall, and calling him Randall, and he finally nurses from Rebecca.

Hopefully next week's episode will see Kevin and Randall together in New York, as well as provide some insight into how Rebecca and Miguel ended up together and where Jack is in the present!

Blindspot 2x04 "If Beth" Recap

In Blindspot's fourth episode of the second season, Jane struggles with who to trust, Reade makes steps towards confronting his past trauma, and the team solves another tattoo case, among other things. Here's your full recap for "If Beth."

Photo Credit: NBC

Roman takes Jane to a lake that's been polluted and tells Jane that Sandstorm and Shepherd aren't attacking this country, they're defending it, and tells her that he needs her to get angry. Jane tries asking again about what exactly Shepherd is planning but Roman doesn't give her an answer. Also, Weller tells Allie that he's in regarding the baby. Yay Daddy Kurt!

Meanwhile, the FBI turn to their next tattoo case, having to do with the honeycomb pattern on Jane's hand. Patterson's interpretation of the tattoo leads them to the numbers corresponding to a Homeland Security employee ID for infrastructure protection analyst Bo Kaier and the word Shdwcat. "Shdwcat" is the online handle for a hacker on the dark web who's breached highly secure infrastructure, including the Pentagon and White House.

The FBI team head to Kaier's house to find Kaier destroying his hard drives and armed. Reade ends up tackling Kaier as he tries to flee and punching him multiple times until Weller manages to stop him. The team takes the salvaged hard drives back to the FBI where Patterson was able to pull some information off Shdwcat's database. Shdwcat's been creating games that simulate heists in highly secure buildings, such at the CDC, which was robbed of many ebola vaccines the year prior, thanks to Shdwcat's game. Shdwcat's drive also shows lots of other "mods" located in different cities for heists that have yet to be pulled off.

Patterson and Zapata crack some of the mods and Nas advises Weller that Reade should sit out as he went overboard with Kaier and something's clearly up with him but Weller refuses. Patterson then cracks the latest mod Shdwcat created, which takes place in the Aebly Museum of Art in New York, but the team's unsure what will be taken in the heist, only knowing it'll take place in two days during a fundraising gala.

Two days later, the team (including Nas and Patterson) prepares to go undercover at the gala, getting dressed up to blend in. While at the fundraiser, Jane meets the man throwing it, Oliver Kind, who gives her his card after some somewhat flirty conversation, which Weller looked none too happy about. Shortly after arriving at the gala, Patterson receives more important info about the mod, which included the basement in the simulation, meaning those pulling off the heist may be after something in storage. Patterson arrives in the basement before Weller and is attacked and almost garroted by a masked person, who flees when Weller shows up. Weller gives chase, but the thief, who's a woman, races back to the gala, unmasking on the way, so she can blend back in. 

The team split up to find her and Jane finds a body, but the woman is using a scrambler on the cameras. Zapata and Reade think they've found the woman and her accomplice but the real thief just planted the scrambler on them to throw off the FBI. Nas stumbles across another body, and Weller manages to finally almost catch the woman but she escapes to another wing using a dumbwaiter. Jane's the first to arrive to the wing, and she and the woman fight, and just when it looks like Jane'll win, the woman pulls out a flash bang which temporarily stuns Jane, allowing the woman to get away, for real this time.

The team return to the FBI, where they realize that the two people killed at the gala have ties to East Africa, making them think that the woman wasn't actually there to pull off a heist, but instead to carry out a hit, and the team may have interrupted her before she could finish. Weller tells Reade to talk to Borden before going back in the field, sidelining Reade for the moment. Reade talks to Borden, telling him about Jones and the gaps in his memory, and Borden suggests these gaps are what's behind Reade's recent bouts of anger. Borden offers to help Reade try to remember, but warns that Reade may never remember the traumatic events.

Meanwhile, Roman drives up to Sandstorm's headquarters in an armored truck with lots of C4 in the back, which is only half of what they need, so Shepherd is upset that the supplier couldn't get all that they asked for. Roman also advises Shepherd to tell Jane everything so she'll have something to want to come back to and fight for since she doesn't really remember either of them or what they're fighting for.

The FBI identify the woman, Elizabeth Gubara, a Sudanese who has ties to a terror group, as well as another target, Charles Kessler, who was also at the gala, and who works for the State Department organizing relief efforts in Africa. The team catch Elizabeth as she breaks into Kessler's home, but when they ask about her terror cell, she tells them that she's CIA. Twist!

Back at the FBI, Elizabeth tells Weller and Jane that she's been deep cover for three years, with Charles being the one who set up her cover and acting as her handler. The two people Elizabeth killed were supposed to be helping but instead were corrupt, and Elizabeth was burned last year by Charles, her identity completely wiped from their systems. When Elizabeth tried to reach out for help, her husband and daughter, Meridia, were killed. After being held captive for nine months, Elizabeth went after those to blame.

While they can't confirm Elizabeth was CIA, Patterson can confirm that Charles, Bridget, and Michael (the two people killed at the gala), all were spies, and Zapata realizes Charles doesn't have a daughter, even though there was a picture at his house of him with a young black girl -- who, it turns out, is Elizabeth's daughter! She's alive! But Elizabeth's daughter is actually also Charles' daughter since the two had an affair, explaining why Charles didn't actually kill her but instead took her in after burning her mother, and gave her a new identity. The team track down Charles as he's trying to flee the country, having hired a jet to Mexico City for him and his daughter. Charles and the team exchange fire, and Weller shoots and kills him. Meridia then picks up a gun and shoots at the team, but Jane's able to talk her down, promising to take her to her mom.

Roman and Jane meet back up in a house, where Shepherd tells Jane that her family used to practically live at the polluted lake, with Shepherd's mother, father, brother all dying from sicknesses caused by the lake. Shepherd didn't escape the lake's contamination either, as she had to have her ovaries removed at 17, which was why she was so happy to have found Roman and Jane in Africa and adopted them. Shepherd tells Jane that while she thought at first Jane should only know what was needed for the mission, now she realizes it's important for Jane to know her family -- Roman and Shepherd -- so she knows where they came from and where she came from.

Zapata shows up at Reade's and chases Freddy off, who Reade said could stay with him for a bit, before calling Reade. Reade rejects the call, as he's sitting in his car in front of Coach Jones' house. Zapata then heads to Kaier's hospital room, telling him she's got an off-the-books job for Shdwcat. Also, Weller and Nas semi-bond over Scotch, before Nas tells him that their operative inside Sandstorm, before going dark, revealed that Weller is a major part of what Sandstorm is planning, having been watching Weller for over 20 years. Dun, Dun, Dun.

So how does Kurt play into Sandstorm's plans? Is Reade planning to confront Coach Jones? What's the job Zapata has for Shdwcat? And who will end up the victor in the fight for Jane's loyalty and trust -- the FBI or Shepherd and Roman, and thereby Sandstorm? We've got even more questions to add to the fast-growing list of mysteries.

Badass of the week: Jane.
Quote of the week: Nas to Weller as she enters his office: "Can I come in?" Weller: "Not if you're going to say something that's going to stop me from enjoying this Scotch."