The Blacklist season 5: Is Ryan Eggold leaving?
Ultimately, it’s understandable to wonder what is going on. After all, the end of the premiere episode featured Eggold’s character of Tom Keen bloodied and looking very much like he’ll be joining many other characters from this show buried six feet under. Tom is a man Reddington’s wanted dead, one way or another, for a rather long time (and to be fair, Tom is not a fan of Reddington either and probably wouldn’t mind seeing him buried in a deep hole somewhere). Now that we know the (apparent) truth about Liz Keen’s paternity, it makes sense why he didn’t go through with killing Tom before. If she was ever going to trust Reddington, him killing Tom would be blowing that relationship up.
However, there is such a thing such as a point of no return, and Tom Keen is the one person who could sever the relationship between James Spader and Megan Boone’s characters for good. The identity of the bones located in the suitcase could be enough to alter the entire course of the series. Tom unveiling the truth to Liz would easily be enough to motivate Reddington to kill him once and for all.
In getting back to the question at the heart of the article, it’s certainly possible that Tom’s fate could lead to Ryan Eggold departing the show. He has been a part of it from the beginning — he even led his own spin-off — so removing him from the equation in a dramatic way would be a really interesting way to shake things up. However, CarterMatt wants to note that NBC has not confirmed that he is departing and you cannot take what happened at the end of the premiere as validation that he is. This is The Blacklist. Liz Keen managed to fake her own death and Mr. Kaplan survived getting shot in a way that would have killed anyone else. Within the world of this show almost anything is possible and you need to remember that when you see cliffhangers like the one we had with Tom.
Should you take the Tom Keen flash-forward seriously? Absolutely, but you should not view it as absolute. Signs point towards you learning the answer one way or another at some point before The Blacklist gets too far into its run this season. This does not appear to be a tease that creator Jon Bokenkamp and the writers are going to drag out.
Do you think that Ryan Eggold could be leaving this season?
Let us know some more of your own thoughts and personal theories on that subject now in the comments!
(Photo: NBC.)