The Blacklist season 5 episode 6 review: A Liz – Tom surprise; Reddington, Cooper team up
Cooper is on a private mission and has left Ressler in charge – he’s looking for someone named Isiah Hill and in turn, looking to get a little bit of revenge for what happened to his father at the hands of a man named Zeke Wilson. This has to be one of our favorite stories in some time just because it put Harry Lennix’s character in a position where he had to play in the gray area when it comes to his morals. It was also one of the most timely storylines of the entire series as Cooper spoke of racial injustice and some of the pain he has felt witnessing some of it over the years.
Reddington and Cooper went on their version of a joyride as Cooper got closer and closer to tracking Zeke down, but when they finally found the suspect’s location Cooper was forced to go in without him. Dembe was his backup, which was probably a good thing given that things got a little intense in there. He found Zeke and did what he could to bring him in — including using a little bit of force.
After getting Wilson in handcuffs the next order of business was trying to make sure that Cooper would get the testimony that he needed. Based on his conversation at the end of the episode, that seems to be a success. What Cooper and Reddington realized here is that they can work together, even if the two share vast ideological differences as to how to do their jobs.
As for the rest of the FBI…
Ressler and Aram stayed back at headquarters as the team out in the field looked to stop a prospective murder-for-hire business dead in its tracks. That is not the easiest thing to do when you don’t have a lot of clues. Nonetheless, what was interesting about this storyline was seeing a different character pairing to resolve the situation. Take, for example, getting to see Liz and Samar working together in order to ensure that they figured out who was at the center of the case — a man with such short-term memory that he doesn’t remember anything that he does. That proves useful in killings since he doesn’t have any recollection of what he does.
A mother named Eleanor Dawson captured him for revenge and executed that right in front of Liz before she could stop her. It was painful, and a good reminder to Liz that life is short. This led to her making a big decision later on.
Wedding bells are ringing
Tom’s storyline was a little on the back-burner for most of the episode as he continued to press on his search of resolving the suitcase mystery. Nothing was working out for him quite the way that he wanted it to and to go along with that, some of the warnings fired at him from Reddington weren’t enough to stop him from pressing forward.
Tom is in a spot of tremendous distress, but he put on a good face when Liz, (in the aftermath of the case tonight) made a huge decision: Wanting to get married. It was a short, and it was somewhat random ceremony, but we suppose that after so many wedding fake-outs this was the right time to just have a ceremony without a lot of fanfare.
CarterMatt’s overall thoughts
This episode proved to be very entertaining and to go along with that, featured one of the best performances from Lennix in the history of the show. The wedding of Liz and Tom is probably the most important part of the episode, and it was somewhat of a letdown. We know that the show didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but couldn’t more than a few seconds been spared for this moment?
If you missed our exclusive interview with Blacklist showrunner Jon Bokenkamp you can check out what he had to say about season 5 at the link here.
What did you think of tonight’s episode of The Blacklist season 5 and do you like where the season is going so far? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts.
(Photo: NBC)