Blindspot (TV series)

Main

• Sullivan Stapleton as Kurt Weller, an FBI special agent at the New York field office. In season 1, as head of the FBI Critical Incident Response Group, he is called into the investigation into Jane when his name is found mysteriously tattooed on Jane's body. He comes to recognize Jane as his missing childhood friend Taylor Shaw and becomes very protective, due to having never recovered from the pain and guilt he suffered from her disappearance. It is revealed in the season one finale that he has been promoted to head of the FBI's New York branch after Mayfair's disappearance, with this being the goal of Stage One of the conspiracy behind Jane's tattoos as the tattoo investigations eliminated less ethical potential candidates. In season 3, he and Jane marry.
• Jaimie Alexander as Remi "Jane Doe" Briggs (born Alice Kruger),^[8] an unidentified woman found naked and amnesiac in Times Square, who is kept in FBI protective custody as an investigation proceeds into her identity. Despite lacking conscious memories, Jane occasionally has flashbacks to her past life and retains a wide variety of combat and language skills. It is suspected she is a former Navy SEAL, whose identity is classified due to involvement in special operations. Based on a familiar scar on the back of her neck and a DNA test, Jane was believed to be Taylor Shaw, Kurt Weller's neighbor and childhood friend, who vanished 25 years ago and was presumed deceased, but the real Taylor Shaw was confirmed to be dead when Agent Weller's father confessed to her murder on his deathbed, Kurt subsequently finding Taylor's remains in an old campsite they stayed in as children; the DNA test results were altered by the conspiracy changing the records of the Taylor Shaw case. It is later revealed that Jane was born Alice Kruger in South Africa, then orphaned and trained as a child soldier by the apartheid regime. Shepherd eventually adopted her and raised her as a daughter. In season 3, she marries Weller. At the end of the season, she reverts back to her previous persona as Remi as a result of side effects from the drug that originally wiped her memories.
• Rob Brown as Edgar Reade, an FBI special agent and member of Kurt's team, who has doubts about Jane's inclusion on the team and expresses skepticism of Kurt's willingness to follow the information from Jane's tattoos so quickly. He is in love with Kurt's sister, Sarah, but broke up with her both on Kurt's request and because Reade feared for Sarah's safety after one of the group behind Jane's tattoos threatened Sarah when Reade was trying to investigate Jane's background. In season 3, he becomes the head of the New York field office after Jane and Weller leave New York and was engaged to Megan Butani, an investigative journalist. They later break up. He also has romantic feelings for Zapata.
• Audrey Esparza as Natasha "Tasha" Zapata, an FBI special agent and member of Kurt's team, previously an NYPD officer at the 96th District for five years. Secretly, she has a gambling addiction, caused by guilt from the death of her partner while with the NYPD, and is in severe debt, which she hides from her coworkers. She is also shown to have feelings for Reade. In season 3, she leaves the FBI and joins the CIA. At the end of the season, she is terminated from the CIA, and goes to work for Blake Crawford, but following Blake's death in season 4, she works for her successor Madeline Burke.
• Ashley Johnson as Patterson, an FBI special agent and head of the FBI Forensic Science Unit, responsible for studying and identifying Jane's tattoos. In season 3, she departs the FBI to work in the tech industry, but returns to help solve Jane's new tattoos. Later in the season, it is also revealed that Patterson is the daughter of Bill Nye and took her mother's last name.
• Ukweli Roach as Robert Borden (seasons 1–2; recurring season 3), an FBI psychiatrist who helps Jane in retrieving and understanding her past memories. He is later revealed to be Nigel Thornton, a former doctor and a mole for Sandstorm within the FBI. After being cornered by the FBI, he apparently kills himself to avoid capture. In season 3, however, it's revealed that he had faked his death, and was later found and recruited by the CIA as an asset. He is later sent to prison after Zapata reneges on his deal with the CIA as justice for betraying Patterson.
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Bethany Mayfair (season 1; guest season 2), assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office. Mayfair is directly in charge of Kurt and his team, for whom Mayfair acts as an ally and mentor. She was once the FBI contact for Operation Daylight, a program to use illegally obtained information and present it as coming from faked informants; it is hinted that Jane's tattoos have some connection to Daylight. After Mayfair is framed for murder due to evidence Jane was manipulated into planting, she is fatally shot by Oscar just as she discovers Jane at a safehouse used by the conspiracy.
• Archie Panjabi as Nas Kamal (season 2; guest season 3), head of Zero Division, a secret department of the NSA. She has investigated Sandstorm for years, and forms a joint NSA-FBI task force with Weller's team and Jane to try to infiltrate Sandstorm. In order to protect the team from federal investigation, she resigns, taking responsibility for all of the task force's failures. She spends time working freelance before she is able to use a tattoo case to acquire a powerful computer virus, trading it to the NSA in return for getting her job back.
• Luke Mitchell as Roman Briggs (born Ian Kruger) (seasons 2–3; recurring season 4), Jane's brother and a member of Sandstorm. Jane wiped his memory after he turned against Shepherd, and he remained in FBI custody for a while. After regaining his memories, including that of Jane erasing his memories, he turns against her and rejoins Shepherd during her attack on the FBI's New York Office. In season 3, he devises a complex scheme to get revenge on Jane that involves covering her with new, bioluminescent tattoos. At the end of the season, he is fatally shot by Blake Crawford, and dies in Jane's arms. In season 4, he appears as a hallucination as a result of Jane/Remi's ZIP poisoning.
• Michelle Hurd as Ellen "Shepherd" Briggs (season 2; guest season 3), Jane's and Roman's adoptive mother and leader of the terrorist group Sandstorm. She was a major general with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and has been manipulating Weller's life since he was a teenager.
• Ennis Esmer as Rich Dotcom (real name Gord Enver) (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3), a former computer programmer turned Internet crime lord. Eccentric and manic, Rich often embroils Weller's team in elaborate, convoluted schemes to achieve his goals. In season 3, he begins working with the FBI as part of a deal for his past crimes.

Recurring

• Johnny Whitworth as Markos (season 1), a mysterious man connected to Jane's past. He was killed by an initially unknown sniper – later revealed to be Oscar – in Jane's safe house. It is later revealed that he was a member of Sandstorm but grew disenchanted with their treatment of Jane.
• Jordana Spiro as Sarah Weller (season 1), Kurt's sister. Sarah tries to heal Kurt's lingering emotional trauma from Taylor Shaw's disappearance, as well as repair the broken relationship between Kurt and their terminally ill father. She was in love with Kurt's co-worker and friend, Edgar Reade, until he breaks up with her to protect her and her son.
• Logan Schuyler Smith as Sawyer (season 1), Sarah's son and Kurt's nephew.
• Michael Gaston as Thomas "Tom" Carter (season 1), CIA deputy director, who is connected with Mayfair to the clandestine Operation Daylight. He is strongly interested in Jane due to concerns that her tattoos could reveal Daylight's existence. He was killed by Oscar while trying to interrogate Jane.^[9]
• Joe Dinicol as David Wagner (seasons 1 and 3), Patterson's boyfriend. Patterson broke up with him after being reprimanded for sharing the tattoos with David. He was killed by a Russian agent for investigating an undercover spy ring, but reappeared in Patterson's coma dream in season 3. His character was modeled after David Kwong, who works as a puzzle consultant for the show.^[10]
• Jay O. Sanders as Bill Weller (season 1), Kurt and Sarah's father, who was accused of kidnapping and killing Taylor Shaw because he lied about his alibi, resulting in the destruction of his life and marriage and the end of his relationship with his son. He is terminally ill with lung cancer. Later, he admits he was attempting suicide the night of Taylor's disappearance, finally earning Kurt's trust back. However, he confirms on his deathbed that he genuinely did kill Taylor Shaw, although his words imply that it was accidental.
• François Arnaud as Oscar (season 1), a mysterious man connected to Jane's past. Partial flashbacks have revealed Oscar is Jane's ex-boyfriend and they planned to marry, but Jane broke off the engagement.^[11] Although he appeared to be Jane's ally against some of the radical elements of Sandstorm, the terrorist organization that gave Jane her tattoos, it was later revealed that he lied to her about her past identity as Taylor Shaw, and seemingly harmless tests were actually part of a complex scheme to frame Mayfair for murder and corruption. When he attempts to inject Jane with a new dose of drugs to erase her memory again, Jane attempts to arrest him, but accidentally stabs him in the heart with a scythe as they fought in a burning barn.
• Lou Diamond Phillips as Saúl Guerrero (season 1), a notorious gang leader and Number Two on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, who is connected to Operation Daylight, serving as the 'official' source of the information Mayfair gained from the program. He was killed on Tom Carter's orders while in prison.
• Trieste Kelly Dunn as Allison Knight, a former FBI agent, now a U.S. Marshal and FBI WITSEC liaison. She is Kurt's ex-girlfriend, who attempted to restart their relationship. She and Kurt have a daughter, Bethany.
• John Hodgman as Jonas Fischer (season 1), a chief inspector in the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility who was maneuvering to replace Mayfair. He was later exposed as a Russian agent and killed by Jane while attempting to frame her as the mole in his place.
• Josh Dean as Boston Arliss Crab, an art restorer who is Rich Dotcom's partner in crime and ex-boyfriend.
• Sarita Choudhury as Sofia Varma (season 1), deputy White House political director, who was connected with Mayfair to Operation Daylight and was Mayfair's girlfriend. She was reported to have killed herself, affecting Mayfair deeply. She was later revealed to have faked her death and gone into hiding supposedly to escape unknown pursuers, although she was really part of the conspiracy behind Jane's tattoos and participated in a later plot by Oscar to frame Mayfair for murder.
• Eisa Davis as Donna Hollaran/Alexandra Harrison (season 1), apparently a sales clerk who becomes romantically involved with Mayfair. She is stabbed to death in her hotel room as a warning for Mayfair to stay away from Carter's death. The investigation that follows implicates Mayfair as the killer – according to evidence Oscar manipulated Jane into planting in Mayfair's office – and reveals Alexandra as a disgraced private-investigator-turned-fixer who is under federal investigation.
• Aaron Abrams as Matthew Weitz, an ambitious assistant U.S. attorney secretly investigating FBI corruption and specifically targeting Mayfair on the grounds of misconduct, with Zapata's reluctant involvement. He later becomes a Congressman, and in season 4, is appointed to succeed Eleanor Hirst as director of the FBI.
• Jonathan Patrick Moore as Oliver Kind (season 2), a water conservation specialist who befriended Jane.^[12]
• Dylan Baker as Sam Pellington (seasons 1–3), the director of the FBI. He was killed by Shepherd during Sandstorm's attack on the FBI in season 2, but reappeared in Patterson's coma dream in season 3.
• Chad Donella as Jake Keaton (season 2–present), deputy director of the CIA, who succeeded Tom Carter after the latter's death. He tortured Jane for information after the FBI turned her over to the CIA. He occasionally crosses paths with Weller's team during covert missions. In season 3, he becomes Zapata's superior when she joins the CIA.
• Li Jun Li as Karen Sun (season 2), a psychiatrist whom Nas Kamal brought in to evaluate Roman's psyche. After Borden's exposure as a Sandstorm mole, she assumed his role as psychiatric counselor for Weller's team.
• Mary Stuart Masterson as Eleanor Hirst (seasons 2–3), director of the FBI and Pellington's successor. Though she at first formed a friendship with Jane, Weller, and the team and helped take down Sandstorm at the end of season 2, she was eventually revealed to be corrupt in season 3 after killing a fellow agent to cover up her connections to corrupt business magnate Hank Crawford, and arrested.
• Tori Anderson as Blake Crawford (seasons 3–4), a wealthy socialite, daughter of Hank Crawford, whom Roman befriends and with whom he becomes romantically involved. At the end of season 3, she fatally shoots Roman after learning his true identity, and inherits her father's company after his death. However, at the start of season 4, she is fatally poisoned by Madeline Burke, one of the company shareholders.
• Kristina Reyes as Avery (season 3), Jane's daughter, result of a teenage pregnancy, who was taken from her by Shepherd in order to keep Remi focused on Sandstorm and their mission. She later leaves for Brown University in between seasons 3 and 4.
• David Morse as Hank Crawford (season 3), a powerful businessman heading a criminal conspiracy, and Blake Crawford's father. He is killed by Jane at the end of season 3.
• Reshma Shetty as Megan Butani (season 3), an investigative journalist and Reade's ex-fiancee, until their breakup near the end of the season.
• Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Madeline Burke (season 4), a major stockholder in the Crawfords' company, who takes over the company after fatally poisoning Blake and the other executives as part of a mysterious long-term plan.

Ratings

Critical response

Blindspot has received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the series has a rating of 68%, based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Blindspot is elevated by an intriguing mystery and enough strong action to propel most viewers into a necessary suspension of disbelief."^[26] On Metacritic, the series has a score of 65 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[27]