Blindspot recap: 'Fix My Present Havoc' 

‘s third season got off to a great start, a shift in the timeline moved the characters in new directions, giving this season a fresh look while not exactly hitting the reset button. There was great promise in Jane boasting new tattoos and the reveal that Roman had a plan for them, plus Stuart’s murder added a compelling “it’s coming from inside the house” style of mystery on top.

For the last few episodes though, the show’s been struggling. It’s certainly been fitfully entertaining, but each case-of-the-week episode felt like a missed opportunity; everything that had been set up in the premiere was put on the backburner, only explored in bits and pieces within each episode. “Fix My Present Havoc” is the episode that changes that. It’s a thrilling, complex hour that finally gives the season’s biggest stories room to play out, and the result is the best episode of the season so far.

“Fix My Present Havoc” begins with one of the most heartbreaking and violent scenes in the show’s entire run. The episode takes us back to Stuart’s final days. He’s rocking his headphones in the lab and working on solving the molecule tattoo that eventually gets him killed. We’ve long known why he was killed, but the “who” has remained a mystery. Not any more. When he decodes part of the tattoo — the names of people who have owned van Gogh’s “Self Portrait” — Stuart remembers running into Hirst with a man nicknamed “van Gogh” because of his missing ear.

So, he texts her to give her a heads up, and she shows up at his apartment to see what he’s found. But she’s not there to secure the evidence. Instead, she pulls out a knife and slits Stuart’s throat. We know it’s coming, but it’s still incredibly shocking to see Hirst be so brutally violent. But now we know that she killed Stuart, and that makes the events in this episode, with the team desperately looking for evidence without tipping off their superior, all the more exciting.

cuts from that scene to one of domestic bliss. Jane, Weller, and Allie sit around a Christmas tree while Allie and Weller’s daughter, Bethany, opens presents. It’s an early Christmas for Weller’s kid, since the visits from Colorado are so difficult to coordinate. This season has a spent a lot of time musing on the idea of parental responsibility when it comes to Jane and the daughter she only just found out about, so it’s nice to finally get another peek into Weller’s own adjustments as a father.

While the early Christmas is a nice moment of calm, it can’t last. Weller figures the team really only has the weekend to investigate Hirst; they can only strike the balance of investigating their boss and still going to work for so long. As always, another clue from Roman pops up at just the right moment, this time in the form of a gift sitting under the Christmas tree.

Inside the box are a few alphabet blocks. Patterson notes the specific letters, and since Roman’s clues always show up when the team needs a push in the right direction, she assumes they’re linked to the molecule tattoo and Stuart’s murder. Sure enough, the letters help her label the molecule itself, which is being used in a clinical trial to treat cancer patients. The trial is only taking place at one clinic, so that gives them a location. What’s strange though is that two lab workers involved in the trial have died in the last few months; one committed suicide and the other died in a car accident.

Knowing that they can’t go into the clinic and ask questions as FBI agents, Jane and Weller pose as auditors for the trial. When they question the lead physician, Dr. Palmeri, she denies knowing the girl who committed suicide despite the team being so small. When Weller and Jane leave, knowing that she’s hiding something, Palmeri calls someone named “Park” and says that somebody is on to them. But what exactly are their plans?

After getting another clue from Roman, Zapata and Reade break into the clinic’s server room and steal some data that should give them what they need. At the same time, Hirst calls Reade and schedules a weekend brunch date with him and Zapata.

Is she on to them? Does she just really like bagels and lox?