‘The Blacklist’ season 2, episode 6 review: Is Tom Keen, Reddington secrets behind Liz’s door?
blacklistThere was quite a bit of solid storytelling on Monday night’s “The Blacklist,” but be honest: Were you even able to pay attention after all the hype about Liz Keen and the mystery door?
From our vantage point, hyping up this particular secret so much allowed it to take over the episode … and probably not in a good way. It was a distraction from the rest of the Mombasa Cartel story, which revolved around the search for a different secret far away from Washington. To be fair, it probably did not help much that this story was so much about Ressler and the pills. This story is just so predictable, and we’ve seen it done many times. Heck, it was done on Diego Klattenhoff’s other show in “Homeland.” It’s hard to get excited about this.
Meanwhile, watching Reddington threaten a super-rich man for his role in this trade was thoroughly entertaining, almost as much as the mind games that he decided to start playing on “Jennifer” otherwise known as food truck worker Zoe D’Antonio. It was the whole “losing a hat” trick!
But alas, the end scene was one that we all saw coming a mile away, and it’s pretty terrible: Liz is keeping Tom Keen prisoner behind the door, which was not only painfully out-of-character for her (even with the “hardened” persona), but also completely predictable. Everyone saw this coming.
So basically, the end result of this episode was a distraction before getting to the main event, which was something that didn’t make a whole lot of sense and cheapened a good show to shock-and-awe. This is a huge corner that they’ve back themselves into, and while “The Blacklist” does do so many things well, this may be the episode where we start to lose a little faith. Grade: C-.
What did you think about tonight’s “The Blacklist,” and all of its surprises within? Let us know with a comment.
Photo: NBC
Charlee Boyett-Compo
October 31, 2014 @ 3:00 pm
I figured she had him from the moment we saw that door two episodes back. Then there was her telling the psychiatrist about ‘chaining him up’. As for it being predictable, to me that’s what made it spot-on. Her locking him up is not out of character. The woman did break his finger with a pair of pliers. Chaining him up is mild compared to that.
The subject matter of the episode wasn’t enjoyable. Most of us don’t like to think about what is being done to animals out there for the sake of greedy men. The Mombasa Cartel right from the start…with the killing of Dembe’s family…lets you know this is a vile bunch of folks and, frankly, I think they deserved to be skinned. Creepy mom and son aside, they were a necessary evil and their rich boss got exactly what we were expecting Red to give him.
I think it was an excellent episode in many ways. Ressler’s problem had been building and I believe it will push him and Liz closer together. The Tom reveal still has all those secrets of him being ‘an asset’ for us to learn. You have to set it up somehow and I think they’ve done it well although I wouldn’t have had him wearing boots while he’s chained. Barefoot would have been a better way to go but I’m not writing the show.
When you start dissecting a show you begin to lose interest in it. You begin to find fault with every detail. If that’s the case, stop watching. It isn’t real life, guys. It is fiction and fiction sometimes doesn’t necessarily make perfect, logical sense. It is designed to entertain. Stop over-thinking it.
NJC
November 1, 2014 @ 4:45 am
I couldn’t have said it better!
Luke Davies
October 28, 2014 @ 7:35 am
Very harsh criticism.
The episode was great, fantastic story telling, also got some back story on Dembe, Red’s most trusted right hand man.
The reveal about Tom was predictable but who bloody cares? Predictable isn’t ALWAYS bad you know. It’s been building for a while and it actually DOES make a lot of sense given everything Tom did to Liz last season, did the author of this blog not pay attention first season or something?
It makes sense given everything that happened in Berlin:Conclusion regarding Tom – the bombshell Red is going to drop next week is going to be even bigger. It’s either something about Lizzie or the fact that Zoe/Jennifer is in fact Berlin’s daughter.
jj1960
October 28, 2014 @ 5:36 am
Frankly, I loved this episode. The main draw was the storyline involving Dembe’s backstory, and how Red took care of the situation. The writers did screw up the whole Tom in the chamber storyline, but now that he’s back I hope the twist pays off…time will tell. For me this episode was an A-.