The Blacklist season 5 episode 20 review: A sad Naomi Hyland reveal
We will get back to this a little bit later but for now, let’s get back now to Liz and Reddington. Reddington has himself a concussion, but also is in the midst of an epic victory dance over killing Garvey and taking that secret away from Liz Keen … at least for now. Liz is still desperate to find out their locations but with that in mind, she also believes that Reddington would break out of his concussion protocol to go see Jennifer. She was right. Reddington visited her and with that, determined that finding Naomi Hyland could be the key to finding the duffel bag. Reddington sent his people in order to get some more information on what was going on behind the scenes.
Beyond just that, Reddington also need to figure out the location of Garvey’s #2 Judson, a person who could actually assist him in ways Jennifer could not. He went to a prison and threatened a guard in order to do some of his bidding. Judson made it clear to Reddington that the duffel bag was actually all the way down in Costa Rica, and as he prepared for that, he received an impromptu phone call for Jennifer interested in having a conversation with him.
From here, we had a conversation within the two characters about their past. Reddington explained to her about the Cabal, his attempt to free them from danger, and basically his entire version of the narrative.
Here is the shocker at the end of the story — as it turns out, Naomi Hyland was dead. Jennifer took Reddington to her grave. She was gunned down in mysterious fashion and before that, she walked out of her life to ensure that she was safe.
Now, Reddington has decided to leave Jennifer alone, as well.
The case of New Haven
As for the little girl, the FBI task force hospitalized her to get to the bottom of precisely who she was — it was clear that she lived in a really strange world that was separate from much of modern society. She wasn’t vaccinated and beyond that, didn’t have any sort of understanding of the modern world. She was protected at the hospital by a ring of protection that she felt had some mystical power. As the Task Force did some more research on it, they eventually found out about the Contagion and a group of people living out in the wilderness (a community called New Haven), fearful of some ailment from the outside world that could kill them. Those who “strayed” could, in turn, lead to their death. The outsiders were referred to as the Olo.
The head of this organization was none other than Nicholas T. Moore, who just turns out to be this episode’s title character. He abducted the young woman and when Samar tried to stop it, abducted her in the process. This led the Task Force, especially Aram, in a mad scramble. Most of these characters were inspired in part by the actions within Moore’s book, which teaches them that those who are infected have to end up burning.
As the little girl found herself about to burn, the Task Force arrived in just enough time to properly save the day and save her. Yet, there was another problem here — Samar. She still wasn’t accounted for, which in turn caused Aram to do his part in order to try and rescue her. Aram clued in some of the New Haven residents to the truth about Moore. He was taken down once and for all but, unfortunately, Samar was nowhere to be found. Her location is still up in the air and now, the Task Force is willing to reach out to Reddington to find her. We saw a sense of that in the closing minutes as Samar was being hauled away by a mysterious driver.
CarterMatt Verdict
An incredible performance by James Spader, a big reveal, and all sorts of fantastic Liz / Reddington drama. What more could you want from an episode of The Blacklist?
What did you think about The Blacklist season 5 episode 20 as a whole? Be sure to share right now in the comments!
(Photo: NBC.)