The Blacklist: Redemption episode 7 review: What, or who, is Whitehall?

After watching The Blacklist: Redemption on Thursday night, we felt ourselves asking one key question before anything else — why wasn’t the rest of the show like this? What we saw over the course of “Whitehall” was an installment that was many different things, but at the top of the list was an exceptional hour of storytelling that raised the stakes, and focused for the entire hour on the characters we were the most invested in — Tom, Howard, and Scottie Hargrave.

At the end of this past episode, we saw Scottie finally uncover the truth regarding her son being Christopher in disguise, and despite whatever sort of concern she pretended to have for him, that changed when Mr. Solomon started to torment him about what he knew about Whitehall. He spent much of the series wanting to know and understand his mother, but in the end, he wished that he never had given that what he uncovered were a series of horrible things, one after the next.

On the flip side, this mission did also get Tom closer to Howard. Tom had chosen to believe him, and with that, the two embarked on a mission tonight (once Tom escaped from Scottie and Mr. Solomon) in order to find Whitehall and resolve the mission once and for all.

What made this so fantastic is that you’ve spent all season getting to know the characters, so seeing people turn in terms of allegiances was incredible compelling.

What is Whitehall?

As it turns out, it’s more of a person than a thing. Whitehall was actually Richard Whitehall, a man doing all sorts of research and mathematics. Basically, he was a quantum researcher who had uncovered secrets so vast, they could upend much of mankind as we knew it. It could change matters of personal privacy and international security.

The unfortunate thing is that right after Whitehall’s rescue, what we ended up seeing is the arrival of Solomon and Nez on the scene to stop Tom and Howard. Luckily, Howard managed to use his own matters of persuasion in order to convince Nez to jump to his side. Consider this a temporary victory, since Nez helped them escape and, even without Whitehall (who was with Solomon), forging the next phase of the plan. This included Howard holding a press conference where he announced his full intention to fight back against Halcyon and get the company he built under control. “I’m coming for you” may be the finest single-line performance of Terry O’Quinn since Lost.

Overall

An excellent episode. We wish that the entire series was this serialized and focused on the Halcyon story. This story was intense, well-written, and having Megan Boone and Harry Lennix included was a nice reminder that the larger universe still existed. By far, this was the best work we’ve seen from The Blacklist: Redemption all season, and we find ourselves now eager to see where the story goes from here. Grade: A-.

What did you think about the first part of the “Whitehall” story? Share in the comments below!

Also, be sure to head over here to preview The Blacklist: Redemption finale without further delay. (Photo: NBC.)