Blood Shot - Sights unseen
Season 1 episode 16: The CBI gets another bomb threat, but this time it’s for real. There’s also a message sent to Jane’s phone: “Are you smart enough to find it?”
It’s the start of another workday for government workers around town and Jane pulls up to the CBI building in his trusty Citroen, waving to Tommy the security guard at the front gate. They exchange pleasantries as they usually do and Jane swipes his security badge to pull into the building parking lot. The weather is good and it’s just a regular day with a medium sized lineup at the busy coffee cart located at the entrance to the building. He sees Van Pelt chatting and smiling with a handsome lawyer-type man and he smiles as he recognizes the body language between the two.
After preparing his own morning cup of tea, Jane enters the bullpen to see Cho and Rigsby pouring over files and papers, grunting their opinion of their current duties. At Van Pelts chipper greeting everyone ants to know why she’s so cheerful so Jane explains her satisfied demeanour points to someone engaging her romantic interest. Rigsby is not impressed, but Jane shares that the man who kissed Van Pelt at the coffee cart this morning wasn’t under duress.
As usual, there will be no spoilers shared in this post so it can enjoyed by fans and new viewers alike. This is on purpose so I hope you approve. At the least it’s hoped to act as a reminder to rewatch the show, or to encourage others to check it out for the first time.
Context
Jane’s cellphone beeps and he checks the incoming text. His eyes widen and he shouts for Lisbon. The text message says “There’s a very large bomb nearby. Are you smart enough to find it?” As is procedure the building is evacuated and the bomb squad starts its routine. In the meantime, Jane strides to the parking lot, mumbling about a large bomb with Lisbon on his heel.
While Jane is shocked to feel something in his eyes from the blast, he becomes really concerned when he realizes that he can’t see.
Recap
Lisbon accompanies Jane to the hospital where he is confined to bed with his eyes bandaged. Never a good patient, he asks the doctor for an explanation for his blindness and gets a response that his sight should return in 48-72 hours. Jane is not a happy camper. In the meantime, Cho informs both Lisbon and Jane that the victim in the stolen van is a James Medina, a stock broker whom Cho suggests might have been on a suicide mission though Jane disputes that by explaining he looked into the man’s eyes and saw that this wasn’t a man who wanted to be where he was. Medina was truly a victim. Jane also reminds them of the message “U R NEXT” that was written on Medina’s forehead - clearly a message meant for someone else to see.
Cho & Rigsby drive to the Medina residence to ask if Medina has any known enemies or disgruntled clients who might be holding a grudge. Mrs. Medina (played by Tamlyn Tomita) remembers one former subordinate who was especially threatening, possibly worth checking out. As Lisbon and Rigsby pick up a Terrence Andrews (Rick Worthy) from his current place of employment for questioning, they begin the interview as a blind Jane is escorted into the room, asking questions and listening closely to Andrews’ rage about Medina.
Ultimately, Jane asks Lisbon to take him to meet Mrs. Medina as he tries to understand if he is connected to Medina in some way. Without his sight he is forced to rely on his other senses and becomes shaken when a piece of jewelry, an expensive watch, reminds him of a previous client from his fake psychic days.
Back at the office, the rest of the team listen to Jane’s recollection of a long ago psychic reading he did for a woman. He explained that the watch he’d been using had the same engraving as the one Medina had, but he couldn’t remember the woman’s name he’d given the reading to. The watch connection between Jane and Medina was that the watches had both been presented by Medina’s firm Lynch-Holstead. Van Pelt suggested the woman must have been extremely hurt by Jane if she was still holding a grudge, right before her attention changed when she received a text from her new mystery man - something not lost on Rigsby. A short time later Rigsby asks Jane to do him a favour and find out more about mystery man, which Jane does in short order by calling out to Van Pelt and asking her point blank who the man was she was kissing that at the coffee cart. Rigsby is mortified. An offended Van Pelt tells them the man’s name is Dan Hollenbeck (Gene Farber), a lawyer who doesn’t work in the building, and upset as she is at her colleague’s nosiness she leaves them in the break room. Jane apologizes to Van Pelt a short time later and asks if he might meet her new boyfriend. It turns out the boyfriend would also like to meet Van Pelt’s team members.
The action heats up amongst the team, whilst Jane remains confined to his couch at the CBI, waiting (im)patiently for his sight to return.
This is one of my favourite episodes from the first season. All members of the team are involved in trying to figure out what’s going on, and Jane displays his cantankerous side when his main source of gathering information, his sight, is taken away from him. Without being able to “read people” as he usually does, he’ll have to rely on his other senses as well as his team to help him make it through, while at the back of his mind he worries about perhaps not getting his sight back. Big on the idea of revenge, this episode shows the highs, lows and consequences of seemingly unrelated actions and the impact they have on the lives, psyche and futures of unsuspecting people. There are several humorous scenes in amongst the gloom of the overall episode theme.
They Said
In this episode there were these choice words:
Rigsby to Jane: “Honestly, I’d like to kick your ass.” Jane replies “I’ll take you.”
Minelli: “Someone tried to kill Jane remember? We can protect him better here.” Jane replies: “Thank you Virgil.” Minelli responds “OK, but this is a favour. If you die in this department I’m responsible. I do all the paperwork. In fact, if he dies for whatever reason, move him to a public area would you? I’d be grateful.”
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