As the first episode of Blindspot begins, Hannah hangs out with a friend after a night out. After getting out of the taxi, Hannah Quinn (Beth Alsbury) says goodbye to Amber. As Hannah goes home, she hears a woman crying from an alleyway. She rolls over and finds Zoe Mason (Haylie Jones) asking for help. Zoe tells her to get out of there. A man in a mask comes out from behind the dumpster and demands Hannah’s bag and phone. Zoe tries to get him to stop because she knows Hannah, but he doesn’t stop. Hannah notices scars on the man’s wrist before she bites him and flees.
After knocking Zoe down, the man goes after Hannah who begins screaming for help. Hannah watches as Zoe jumps on the man and pulls his mask off. The man ends up punching her before grabbing the baseball bat and bashing her. Hannah finds a place to hide and struggles to close the door behind her. She can’t close the door so she tries to hide from her attacker. The police arrive before the man can attack her. Tony Warden (Ross Kemp) gets into his vehicle and learns about the incident at Birchlands play park. Once he arrives, Hannah comes over to say she saw it happen. After the intro, Hannah watches CCTV camera feeds on multiple monitors.
Hannah and Simon Wardle (Lewis Conway) monitor a possible emergency. In reality, Hannah is just interested in watching the guy she describes as hot. She pleads with Simon to read his lips. Simon tells her that he said he is finished with his girlfriend before joking with her. Then, she is shocked to see the man in the mask again. Hannah freaks out and tells Simon that she has to go. She meets Amber (Crystal Clarke) where there is a memorial for the slain girl. Hannah wants to blame herself, but Amber insists it wasn’t her fault. Amber knew her mom would turn the memorial into a canvassing opportunity. They complain about Tony showing up when the investigation has been a joke from start to finish.
Hannah looked him up and found local news stories from when he was down in South London. They called him Detective Inspector. He was a high-flyer until the Met demoted him. She couldn’t find out why. Tony insists they’re doing everything they can. Louisa tells Geri that she didn’t have to be so mean to him. Then, Louisa (Michelle Bonnard) addresses the crowd and says she can’t imagine what Zoe’s parents, Richard and Natalie, have been through. As the leader of the council, she had made sure a decent security system is running across the entire Hawthorn Estate. Hannah continues seeing the masked man and thinking about the past. When Tony gets back to his car, he finds a retirement card waiting for him.
It urges him to retire and calls him lazy. Hannah complains about a dog named Wolf and tells Dolly (Sue Vincent) to get it. Hannah argues that she doesn’t have to bring the dog to clean her flat. She knows Dolly is noisy so she asks what she knows about Tony Warden. There was someone else there that night that might’ve seen what happened, but Tony never followed up on it. Hannah wants to know if he is bent. When asked why he left the Met, Dolly says a little bird told her that he’s been put out to pasture. No one else wanted him around. Hannah runs into Louisa who wants to know how Amber is doing. As far as Hannah knows, Amber hasn’t touched the stuff. When Hannah gets to work, she sees the hot guy hanging around.
Simon admits he has been hanging around all day. Later that night, Hannah sees the masked man walking with someone else. She calls it into the police and says he has taken her towards the Birchland flats. He goes to the same place where he attacked her last year. Hannah explains that the alleyway is a dead end and it is a blind spot. She sees the man running from the alley without the woman. The cops arrive and begin checking the alleyway, but they don’t find anything. Hannah gets upset. Hannah rushes to the scene just as Tony arrives. She tells him what she saw before they check the alleyway. Hannah is adamant that the woman’s body must be in one of the bins. While the cops search through the bins, Hannah tells Tony to check the CCTV and see that she is telling the truth.
Tony says they have to go because there is a suspect on the loose with a knife. Hannah complains that they’re useless for not checking the last bin. She tries to use her phone to see what is inside. Once she is alone, she calls Amber to tell her about the man coming back. Amber is away so she can’t help tonight. Dolly interrupts Hannah’s breakfast in the morning. Hannah rushes out when she hears the workers removing the bins. She can’t make it in time to stop them. Hannah goes to the video room and watches the video from last night. Simon comes in to start his shift, but Hannah says she can stay. She notices the woman’s shirt and the picture she took from inside the bin.
Tony receives another envelope, but it has money in it this time. Hannah interrupts to tell him she has CCTV evidence. Tony doesn’t want to deal with her because she has real crimes to worry about. He tells Colin not to let her in again. Hannah takes the information to Louisa to tell her about the latest murder. Louisa convinces Hannah to call Amber. She’ll see if she can find out why Tony hasn’t followed up on this. When Hannah meets Amber, she says she just had stuff on her mind and that’s why she hasn’t been in touch. Hannah admits she needed someone to hurt and Amber was available. She swears she saw the man again although everyone is treating her like she lost her mind.
Amber believes her. Tony calls Amy to say he got a letter from the solicitor yesterday. He asks why she is doing this when he gave her the house and his pension has gone through the floor since he got demoted. Tony believes they can sort this out without talking through solicitors. Hannah visits Dolly because she wants to pick her brains. She asks if she has heard anything about the missing woman, but Hannah is the only one she has heard talking about a missing woman. Once Hannah leaves, Dolly calls Louisa to talk about Ruby. Geri eavesdrops on the conversation. Dolly tells Louisa about Hannah coming in and asking about a missing woman. Louisa promises to handle it and tells Dolly not to call her again.
When Hannah goes home, she is confronted by the man in the mask. She throws a bottle at him and tries to flee. Hannah uses the elevator to escape and tries to prevent the man from getting to her. She begins screaming for help when the man tries to get the door open. Hannah threatens to use a makeshift torch on the man.
Blindspot Review
The opening episode of Blindspot on Channel 5 was neither spectacular nor terrible. It was a little boring in places and some of the performances weren’t perfect, but the episode was watchable. The story isn’t particularly realistic although it could get more interesting in the next few episodes.
There were some scenes that were very unrealistic and even slightly annoying. For instance, the cops refusing to check the trash bins was silly. The series will probably be one or even two episodes too long since it already seems longwinded in places. Truthfully, Blindspot isn’t any worse than many of the shows Channel 5 has released lately and there isn’t much else coming out right now.
It might be a good time killer until something else is available, but it probably isn’t going to be memorable. The opening episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Blindspot can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
