‘The Blacklist’ season 1 finale review: Who died, and what did Tom Keen whisper to Liz?

“The Blacklist” has been on a crazy ride this season, and you could only hope that there would be some answers to some of the long-simmering questions. Why did Raymond Reddington target Liz Keen, and just who is Berlin?

First of all, we must answer the question as to who died in the finale: Meera. We saw this one coming a mile away. This character joined the show after the pilot, and was always somewhat on the outside of the bureau. Her death is significant, but not something that will alter the show in any big way. There can just be another character brought on in her place.

Meanwhile, Reddington did at least start to explain a little of the story about how Liz came to be with her adopted father, and explained that he killed him just so he wouldn’t share the secret about who her father really is … and also to put him out of his misery.

The biggest shocker that came after all of this is that we lost another important character in Tom Keen, who said just before he died that Liz’s father was still very much out there. Reddington disagreed, and the unfortunate thing for him is that he now has to deal with Berlin, as well. It turns out that this man is also still out there, and the show has to take care of the biggest bad of all when the show comes back. Heck, we still need more definitive proof about who they are.

The frustrating part of this episode is that save for what happened to Tom, there really wasn’t all that much movement in the story. We’re left instead with a characters who are confused, but at least an understanding between Liz and Red that they do seemingly have to work together still to piece together some answers. Liz frustrates us in her continued efforts to work with Red, but at the same time we understand it. She wants answers, and he can give them to her. At least the journey is so completely crazy that we don’t quite care. A fantastic ending to a fantastic season of TV. Grade: A-.

In our excitement, we did not even mention the pretty-obvious reveal that Reddington is most likely in fact Liz’s father. Shocker? Okay, not really. We actually don’t care that much if this turns out to be true, mostly because it was handled in a pretty non-corny, non-predictable way. The only reason we’re qualifying this is because Reddington could theoretically have gotten those burn marks anywhere.

What did you think about the finale for “The Blacklist”? Sound off in the comments below.

Photo: NBC