The Blacklist season 8 episode 4: Is Tom Keen still alive?

For the sake of this article on The Blacklist season 8 episode 4, let’s get crazy — incredibly crazy, even. Could Tom Keen actually be alive, or somehow involved in what’s going on?

For some more news on The Blacklist in video form, check out our discussion all about tonight’s new episode below! Once you do that, subscribe to Matt & Jess on YouTube.

We’ll be the first to admit that we haven’t had a lot of thoughts about Tom in quite some time, largely because the show has given almost zero reason for those to come out of our head. Yet, something was a little unusual about the episode tonight. Ryan Eggold’s late character was referenced a lot — think in terms of the flashbacks or Liz making sure that Agnes heard some stories about him. There was more Tom in this episode than in the past season combined.

So why did the producers of The Blacklist throw so much of Tom at us? There are a lot of different things worth thinking about. It may just be as means of showing the difference between season 1 Liz and where she is today; or, it’s possible that it could be a story connected to Tom somehow. Where will Liz and Agnes go on their travels now? That is something to think about.

What we do know is that at the time Tom was killed off, there was no speculation about whether or not he could still be alive. Here is what Eggold had to say on the subject to Entertainment Weekly:

To reiterate what [executive producers Jon Bokenkamp and John Eisendrath] have said, he’s unequivocally dead. There’s certainly no funny business there. But there’s a great show here and these guys have a ton of great stories to tell that they certainly don’t need me for, but it would be fun. We’ve talked about the possibility of a flashback. It would be fun primarily in the sense that learning truths from the past inevitably colors the present and your current perspective, so I think there’s certainly information that we could learn and things we could see that we didn’t know about, or moments that were shared that could have significance in the present. I don’t think it would be a lot, but something would be interesting.

Ryan is busy with another show in New Amsterdam, which would limit his availability. While we don’t think that Tom is alive (especially after hearing this), it’s not going to keep us from commenting on how strange all of the references were.

Do you think there is a chance that Tom is still alive on The Blacklist?

Be sure to let us know in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)