Blindspot boss breaks down shocking premiere reveals

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the season 2 premiere of Blindspot. Read at your own risk!

Well, we finally know who Jane Doe is!

During the Blindspot premiere, Jane (Jaimie Alexander) escaped the CIA black site she’d been tortured in the last three months only to be caught and forced to work with the FBI again. Under the orders of Nas Kamal (Archie Panjabi), who works for a secret division within the NSA, Jane reunited with Sandstorm, the organization that inked her and sent her to infiltrate the FBI.

Among the many reveals in the premiere: The leader of Sandstorm, Shepherd (Michelle Hurd), is actually Jane’s adoptive mother, and Jane’s ally Roman (Luke Mitchell) is actually her brother. Their parents were anti-Apartheid activists, so the government had them killed and placed the children in a secret academy that trained kids to become operatives. Shepherd was among the soldiers who liberated them and decided to raise the duo as her own. Jane’s name was originally Alice Kruger (ahem), but she changed it to Remi to put her past behind her.

Meanwhile, the team unlocked some of the mysteries of Mayfair’s files, one of which actually included a photo of Jane on a mission for Orion. What?! Oh, and Sandstorm has a mole in the FBI! WHAT?! EW turned to executive producer Martin Gero to get the scoop on what’s next:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So many reveals about Jane, her name, her history, the organization, the fact that there’s a mole in the FBI! Has all of this been the plan from the beginning?

MARTIN GERO: Yeah, as we were nearing the end of season 1, we realized how much we could give away in the opening of season 2 and have it be really satisfying, which is great. The timeline for things happening wasn’t the plan from day 1, but it was a part from pretty early on. I’ve been saying from the beginning, and I realize people might not believe it, but we do have a plan. We’ve known what this stuff is, we’ve known obviously who Jane is, we’ve known about Sandstorm, we knew about Roman pretty early in the series, and we knew Shepherd was the leader. Long story short, we’ve been planning this from the beginning.

How much will Jane be torn between the FBI and Sandstorm going forward in season 2?

It’s hard for Jane, because she has been dying for some sort of real connection with somebody, and she thought she was developing that with Weller, but that’s all been broken apart by the events of last season. So to have somebody, a real family, a real blood relative with her, it’s a pretty powerful thing and will have an enormous amount of sway over her.

Nas calls them Sandstorm, but that’s a moniker she’s given them. Do they have a real name?

They do, but we haven’t said it yet.

Nas says she had an asset within Sandstorm, and she also claims Sandstorm had someone with the NSA, who was her friend. Will you explore exactly what happened there? Will we see flashbacks to that?

As of yet we won’t see flashbacks, but it will certainly be discussed more, absolutely.

How high up does Sandstorm’s infiltration go?

Relatively. I mean it’s not high enough that they don’t have to put Jane in the FBI. They still needed to do this.

At the end of the premiere, you reveal that there’s a mole in the FBI. Nas seems like the most obvious choice to be the mole. Sway me otherwise.

Literally it could be anyone. [Laughs.] I don’t want to sway one way or another. I think everyone is going to make their decisions. The mole knows that they’re a mole. The mole though has to be very careful about when it talks to Sandstorm because everyone is under such close scrutiny. So it’s not like the mole and Sandstorm are in constant contact. In fact, when the mole finally does reach out, it’s at a moment of crisis where Sandstorm needs to know something.

Nas hails from the NSA, which doesn’t exist. So have they checked her credentials? Can we trust her that she’s actually from the NSA?

I think you can trust that she’s from the NSA. There are characters that come through the season that certainly don’t trust that or trust her, but I think you can take her at her word that she’s from the NSA.

After sending Jane in, right off the bat Roman killed all those cops. Will the FBI start to weigh the collateral damage of having Jane be this double agent?

Yeah, certainly. The reality is that they are very aware of how dangerous Sandstorm is and how many lives a potential Sandstorm attack could affect. It’s an interesting dilemma that is talked about a lot in episode 3, so I’ll let episode 3 do the talking.

We finally learned that Orion was a special ops team that went after both good and bad guys. Jane’s photo was among those files, so was she a member of Orion?

Yeah, and I can’t wait for you to watch the beginning of the next episode. The next episode opening is one of the biggest things we’ve ever done, and it’s very exciting and really clarifies Jane’s role in Orion.

Does what we’re going to be seeing have to do with how the government screwed her over?

You just have to wait until the first five minutes of next week.

Carter knew about Orion, was he part of it?

Yeah.

Did Mayfair have any idea that she had a photo of Jane?

No, I don’t think she did. All of the stuff that was not decoded on Mayfair’s drive, Mayfair was having trouble decoding. That’s as far as Mayfair took the work.

The other file that Mayfair had was literally a black hole. What can you tease about when that will come to light?

Pretty soon. As early as episode 5. It leads to a fun adventure. Weller especially becomes very attached to this drive as his last connection with Mayfair. The contents, once they figure out what that black hole is, should feel like Mayfair knew than they even understood, so he kind of becomes obsessed with it tracking down. So it’s a very personal story for Weller.

Michelle Hurd is Shepherd, and Jane’s mother. She doesn’t seem to trust Jane. What’s their dynamic really like?

It’s an interesting thing because obviously they loved and trusted the old Jane, but are rightfully worried about the new Jane. They all knew when they wiped her memory that she might not commit back the same way to Sandstorm. It’s a strange relationship at the beginning, but I think Jane and Roman take strides to assuage her doubts. Because for Roman there is no doubt; this is his sister, she’s back, he loves her, he’s going to do everything he can to make sure she comes back into the fold. But for Shepherd, Shepherd is a little more complicated. We see her as almost a cult leader —she’s very charming and incredibly smart, but certainly doesn’t trust easy.

Does Shepherd truly care for Jane and Roman? Or has she been using them for her own gain?

Well, the names Roman and Remi come from Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of Rome, who were abandoned as children, found on the River Tiber, and brought back to life, essentially, by a she-wolf. That’s very accurate for Shepherd: She’s a she-wolf. She’s a mother, but she’s also a wolf, and those are two very equal parts in her.

Shepherd swears to make Cade pay for killing Oscar. How will Shepherd feel if she finds out Jane has turned on them?

If Shepherd puts that together, then Jane is dead. The next few episodes especially, she really puts Jane through her paces to make sure she’s who she says she is.

Will we find our where Cade really is?

Cade remains a part of the story, yes.

Shepherd says Jane won’t have to live this double life much longer. How close are they to bringing their plan to fruition?

They’re pretty close. We feel like the storyline of Phase 2 is going to wrap up quicker than people think.

Was that a giant missile that Shepherd and Roman were standing over?

Oh, yes. A very, very big missile.

Tell us more about Jane and Roman’s relationship now that we know they’re siblings. Is he the older or younger brother?

He’s the younger brother. Jane and Luke have such an amazing chemistry together, and they actually move and talk and have the same kind of weird mannerisms. It’s really strange. When Jaimie first started working with him, she couldn’t believe how much he felt like family in a weird way. They’ve had a terrible childhood. In many ways this season, Jane is trying to save Roman. Jane slowly realizes that this memory wipe has actually been a good thing for her that she’s been able to chip away all this horrible baggage and this truly awful life. But Roman hasn’t had that chance. We get to see, through Roman, what Jane was like before this memory wipe, and it’s terrifying. She loves him and wants to help him. Then, conversely, he can’t help but share Shepherd’s worry that she’s not the old girl — he wants to convince her that he wants to bring her back into the fold, so the two of them are trying to save each other all season, and it’s really beautiful.

Is he blinded by his love of her? Will that come back to haunt him?

Jane is Roman’s blindspot, and Roman is Jane’s blindspot this season.

Roman gives Jane a coin; will you get more into what this coin is? Should we be worried they might be bugging her?

It’s not a bug, although that would have been clever. It’s a kind of totem that they’ve had since they were kids, and it will be explained. But there’s no mystery on it; it’s a pretty big emotional thing for them.

Can you talk about Jane’s dynamic with the team moving forward when it comes to trust? For Zapata especially, it seems like getting to shoot Jane released some of that anger.

Yeah, the next episode is an interesting one. It’s uncomfortable, because they’re not the same team. It starts with them in a very off place and evolves them in an uneasy truce, because they’re still really mad at her, and she is not exactly overjoyed to be working for the government that just tortured her for three months. They delicately find their way back. The most important scene for us, as far as the series goes, is one of the last scenes of the season premiere, where you see how badly Kurt wanted her to be Taylor and how badly she wanted to be Taylor. It’s the pain that they can both share for just a moment. That’s something they can hold onto as they move through the season. Don’t worry, Jeller fans, they’re going to be OK, those two.

Jane and Weller got into a huge fight in the premiere; have you been waiting to do that this whole time?

Yeah, I mean it’s kind of like one of those “Who would win: Batman or Superman?” type of things. They’re such major forces and powers. Originally we were going to maybe do it at the end of last season, and have that be the end of the season, but it felt like it was just too crazy and chaotic. Also it’s hard when you have your leads beat each other up, you want some room to make sure you are OK at the end of the season. We’ve been talking about that for awhile and those two did such a great job with it; they really did almost all of it together and that’s an exhausting thing to do. They were phenomenal.

You didn’t get to see much of Borden in the premiere. What’s going on with him this season?

Borden has got a ton to do this season. Unfortunately for time, one of his scenes was cut, which is a drag, because he’s just one of my favorite performers to watch. He’s just so great and natural and very good-looking. Some of those sparks that you were feeling between Patterson and Borden last year will maybe take hold with some kindling.

Lastly, can you tease anything about the episode titles this year?

They are anagrams this year, and it’s a fun puzzle, because it’s like a word game for these first nine episodes. There’s no “this will take you to a website that has this cool thing.” The first 10 episodes last year were a little poem. This is also that, but the writers have done something really, really fun. It’s not earth-shattering. It’s more of a fun word game; it doesn’t lead to anything bigger.

Blindspot airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. Find out how EW revealed Jane Doe’s name here.