‘The Blacklist’ season 2, episode 8 review: Did Reddington kill Berlin; did Tom Keen escape?

Tonight, “The Blacklist” put on an episode entitled “The Decemberist” that was like no other … at least in that it was the fall finale, a chance for redemption after some disappointing episodes. Also, you had Alan Alda showing off a dark side. Who doesn’t love that?

Alan Fitch, as it turned out, was the man at the center of the episode, and also the one responsible for turning Reddington and Berlin against one another in the first place. Ultimately, this led to plots for revenge, a bloodbath, and revelations about who were the real killers, and who were the ones pretending.

In the end, we had yet another huge reminder in here that Reddington is a bad, bad dude, and Liz Keen just cannot get there. She couldn’t kill Tom no matter how much she wanted to, and despite any intentions, she ended up watching him slip right through her fingers.

Meanwhile, Red opted to basically kill both Fitch and Berlin, which leaves no significant threats to him among the upper-tier criminals, at least for now. These were big moments, especially the cold, still way in which he took out the latter.

Still, none of this compares really to the shocker at the end: Tom has been working with Red the whole time, at least to an extent. We’re blown away by this, though we’re not sure whether or not it is a great thing. At some point, we’ll have to track the entire history of these characters, and look back at every little thing that Tom did. For now, we’ll at least give them credit for surprising us, and delivering an episode that far surpassed anything of the past few weeks. Grade: B+.

What did you think about “The Decemberist”? Let us know your thoughts now with a comment. (Photo via NBC.)