‘The Blacklist’ season 4, episode 2 reaction: Show boss on Red’s latest ‘kill’

“The Blacklist” presented one of the more brutal moments of the entire series to date on Thursday night’s new episode, as we saw Raymond Reddington effectively tell Mr. Kaplan to “look at the flowers” a la Carol on “The Walking Dead” before putting a bullet in her. All logic would suggest that she is gone — but this is not necessarily a show based on logic. Our video flickered a little at the end of this past episode, and at first we didn’t even see her clutching the ground. Also, the preview for the next episode suggests that she could be alive.

We cannot really get into the whether-or-not in terms of if Mr. Kaplan lives right now, mostly because we’d be speculating without substantial information. What we can tell you is some further insight into why Red may have made this move in the first place. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Jon Bokenkamp detailed the decision-making that got this character in such a place where this sort of thing could happen:

“Red values loyalty above all else, and Mr. Kaplan betrayed him in the most impossible way. Remember, Reddington killed Newton Phillips in season 1 by suffocating him with a plastic bag from a funeral urn. He shot an old woman (Diane Fowler) after she betrayed him. Hell, he shot Pee Wee Herman! The man is ruthless. In Red’s mind, Mr. Kaplan had to go.”

Bokenkamp didn’t necessarily confirm 100% that Mr. Kaplan is gone, so next week could be about Melisandre coming in and resurrecting her … or something of the equivalent. We hope that whatever it is makes some sense, given that if you continually give your characters almost-dead fake-out moments, it’s going to be hard to take it seriously when there is a character in this position moving forward.

(Photo: NBC.)