The Blacklist season 4 episode 16 promo: Brace yourselves for Dembe Zuma
Next week, the NBC show returns from its extended hiatus with back-to-back episodes starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and the video below is a Canadian promo shared by broadcast Global. It’s intense, and it does an excellent job setting up what looks to be one of the central conflicts of the entire hour — Reddington versus Dembe Zuma. One of them is a criminal mastermind; the other one is his right-hand man, and seemingly a traitor to the cause after what we saw transpiring at the end of this past episode. It’s still a difficult pill to swallow, but that’s something that this episode will explore.
What was the ultimate endgame for Dembe in his attempt to poison Red? Superficially, it does seem as though he wanted him dead as a result of him (seemingly) killing Mr. Kaplan earlier this season. He has a clear motivation if you look at this simply from the vantage point of kill or be killed.
However, you’ve also gotta remember here that this is The Blacklist, and if the finale for the spin-off tonight was any indication, nothing is ever as it seems. Dembe could be coerced or threatened into doing this by someone else, or maybe he knew that Reddington wouldn’t actually die and he is some sort of double agent. What makes this so hard as a longtime Reddington fan is that we also love Dembe. This is like when two of your favorite sports teams are facing off in the playoffs and you want to figure out a way for them both to win even though it’s impossible. With that, our only hope is that Dembe is actually still somehow Team Red, and this is all some elaborate ruse to throw us off of the scent for a little while.
This episode may not give you all of your answers, but the fact that it’s titled “Dembe Zuma” should be all you need to know regarding whether or not this is the biggest episode of the season for the character.
Photo: NBC