Jaimie Alexander, Sullivan Stapleton, Luke Mitchell and creator Martin Gero talk to ET about Friday’s biggest moments.
Warning: Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched the season three premiere of Blindspot.
Secrets have always been the name of the game on Blindspot. This time, it’s personal for the entire team.
On Friday’s action-packed season three premiere, Jane (Jaimie Alexander) and Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) reunited after nearly two years apart -- with a brief moment of wedded bliss in Colorado nestled in between. But in the time they’ve been away from each other, they’re each harboring their own life-altering secrets -- and they’re not the only ones with something big to hide!
With Jane’s brother, Roman (Luke Mitchell), at the team’s formidable new foe -- he is, after all, the one responsible for her new layer of bioluminescent tattoos -- Jane and Weller set off to rescue Patterson (Ashley Johnson), Zapata (Audrey Esparza) and Reade (Rob Brown). The three now work in Silicon Valley, in the CIA and as head of the FBI’s New York office, respectively. It’s only a matter of time before the team comes back together, with the welcomed new addition of Rich Dotcom (Ennis Esmer), and their mission becomes abundantly clear: Take. Down. Roman. But at what cost? And what is Roman’s ultimate endgame? Are they all the same people they were two years ago? (Spoiler: Nope!)
“It feels familiar, but it’s different,” creator Martin Gero tells ET of the new season, which features international locales like Venice, Italy; Morocco; and Australia. “Each of them have some pretty big secrets that they’ve been keeping. What’s fun this year is the tattoos: Roman wants to show Jane that she chose wrong, that she should’ve been with Roman and that this team isn’t who she thinks they are.”
“The first two seasons, the tattoos were close to Jane. This year, they are incredibly personal to the entire team and dredges up secrets and emotions that they don’t want to deal with,” he adds. “[Roman]’s an agent of chaos and he wants to take this band of merry friends and destroy them. Thankfully, their bond gets tighter and tighter as the season goes on.”
ET sat down with the Blindspot creator and cast at the season three premiere event in New York City earlier this week to break down the biggest revelations from Friday’s episode, including that final Weller-sized twist and what this means for the season moving forward.
The Berlin Bombshell: It took 18 months, but Weller seemed to finally have his personal and professional life back in order at the end of the premiere -- until Roman threatened to ruin it all with one word: Berlin. “It’s a very personal secret that Weller is shocked Roman knows about,” Gero teases. “It’s something so big that he’s willing to play Roman’s game because he’s so afraid of Jane finding out. You’ll know most of it by the end of December. It’s the main crux of the first half of the season.”
Stapleton, for his part, admitted he didn’t see the Berlin reveal coming at all: “That twist that comes in at the end, what’s going to happen? You don’t know. It’s such a great turn.”
Mitchell echoed Gero’s sentiment, calling it an “extremely significant” development. “It changes the playing field. It’s not just a singular secret. It’s two- or three-layered secret that is big enough for Weller, who is a stubborn man, to be like, ‘Alright, I’ll do whatever you want.’”
Of Weller’s forced alignment with Roman, Mitchell noted it’s been “fun to flip it on its head because it’s a complete opposite from where Weller was in control and Roman was either his enemy or his prisoner. To be in control of a powerful man makes Roman even more powerful, and it feels really good.”
Jane’s Secret Life: What has Jane been doing for 18 months since she left Weller? Though it isn’t explored in the premiere, Jane is seen stashing wads of cash and passports behind a vent in her and Weller’s New York apartment. Turns out, Jane’s been taking part in some under-the-table activities to stay afloat: kidnap-and-ransom missions. But “that’s [only] part of the story,” Alexander says. “She tries to take her natural skill-sets and abilities and use it for good. She goes and rescues people who are kidnapped and then she saves them.”
Patterson and Rich Dotcom’s Connection: Why have Patterson and Rich Dotcom secretly been in contact in the two years the team was apart? “Patterson doesn’t want anyone to know about it, and they’ve put on a bit of a charade to further clarify that she hates Rich,” Gero hints, before addressing speculation that they could be hiding a romance: “They’re not romantic. Well, that’s for the audience to decide. What they’re referencing isn’t a romance, I’ll say that.”
Teases Johnson: “You do find out pretty early on in the season what the relationship is between Rich and Patterson. Relationship is a very broad term, because they have seen each other in the past two years, and you definitely find out why.”
The Dragonfly Tattoo: The significance of the dragonfly tattoo on Jane’s body that’s somehow connected to Zapata is “a huge story,” Gero says. The unfolding of the new mystery won’t take place for “at least two-thirds of the way into the season,” he reveals, but subtle clues will be doled out “as to what it’s pointing to” before then. “Remember that dragonfly tattoo, it’s going to come back up again and it’ll be explosive.”
Esparza further teased “the secret complicates all of the relationships in Tasha’s life and puts her in a position that’s challenging and difficult and complicated,” adding that the audience will be “blown away as to what it reveals.”
Roman's Mysterious Endgame: For now, Roman is satisfied with making life a living hell for Jane, Weller and their colleagues, but as Mitchell hints, Roman’s ultimate goal “will become clear as the season progresses.” “It’s not important immediately,” the Aussie actor says. “I’ve got to do some really cool things as Roman this season. It’s a very different Roman; it’s like Roman 3.0. It was a bit daunting coming back and trying to this new Roman on for size because it’s so different. Once I got the first episode under my belt, I was like, ‘Okay, I see where we’re going.’” That includes a new love interest who will come into the fray in the first batch of episodes -- and may change the game again.
The #Jeller Outlook: At the end of the premiere, Weller made a promise that he was going to do this relationship “right” this time. But with Roman looming large, that seems like a tall order. “They’re going to be a pretty functional [couple]. They’re going to go through their ups and downs, but they’re going to go through them as husband and wife,” Gero assures. “It was important for us, after two years of ‘will they, won’t they,’ that they’re together now.”
That’s not to say that they won’t hit roadblocks. “They’ll have their trials and tribulations, but they will begin and end the season together,” he promises. Could viewers see a Jeller baby, after Weller brings up the idea to Jane pre-separation? “I don’t think this season,” Gero says.
At one point, Jane confesses to Weller that she felt she lost a piece of herself during their time together. So what is Jane seeking? “Individuality,” Alexander explains, noting that Jane changed significantly in her time away. “She creates her own identity [in the 18 months apart from Weller]. She has to come back to Weller and say, ‘I don’t know if you’ll love me still.’ And he’s saying, ‘Hey, I would love to get to know you again.’ That’s such a beautiful thing."
Blindspot airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.