‘The Blacklist’ season 4, episode 10 review: Dembe’s confession; Liz’s new case; Red ‘cleans’ up

“The Blacklist” is a show often about sea changes; yet, during Thursday night’s new episode “The Forecaster,” the biggest sea change was one that reverted the show somewhat back to the show that it once was. Liz Keen is now back with the FBI Task Force, and to go along with, she even had a Blacklister to take on. Yet, as you will see, this was not someone who was a traditional killer by any means.

“The Forecaster” – What we learned about this character was that they liked to foreshadow many of their actions in advance. It began when they used a diorama in order to “predict” the death of a judge in a swimming pool. Then, we saw a powerful businessman nearly run over by a motorcycle. After these two acts, the easy assumption to make here was that someone was making these predictions as a game of sorts so that they could experience the thrill of the chase. Not so much. Instead, it turned out that a little girl named Maggie was the origin of many of them. She issued the warnings, and her mother was trying her best to get the warnings out there to people who could help. She saw Liz at the store and heard about her on the news, so it felt like she was the right person in this situation to lend a helping hand.

It feels almost that this case was perfect for a pilot on Syfy. Yet, at the same time it felt clear that there was something fare less supernatural going on here, and a lot of it had to do with her ability to hear a specific frequency. There was someone who just so happened to be able to hear much of what was said over said frequency, which had a very specific motive when it comes to the stock market and a considerable amount of money.

Due to some hard-nose investigations (hey, they are the FBI), eventually the team was able to figure out many of the players that were behind this. It almost felt like “Billions” on crack, minus the part where a little girl seemed to on the surface predict the future.

The tale of Red – Given that Raymond is a man who can never leave well enough alone, he made it his latest effort to try to get in to the cobalt-mining business … or at least this was his claim. This episode was all about him in the deal-making business, or an elaborate game to ensure that he once again got what he wanted, a.k.a. a bullet in someone else’s head. The fun thing about a Red story is that you never quite know precisely what you are going to get from it, and there are often many twists and turns along the way. He settled a score with Dembe’s help, and there was a sort of moral argument to his actions — he wanted to help children exploited by the mines. Think of him as a bald Dexter Morgan with more outgoing charisma. Is Dexter really someone you want to be compared to?

After settling said score, Red managed to recruit some of his cleanup crew (who are actually dirty employees of the Metro PD), which we suppose he could use down the line. Other than that, we went a long way in this installment in order to see him add some new members to his staff. This whole story was somewhat inhuman for Red, and that is something that started to make Dembe worry. He didn’t have to do any of this to get his measure of revenge, and we’ll get to that more at the end of the review.

The downside to this particular Red story is that his relationship with Liz is in part what makes the show great, and they spent a considerable amount of time apart with her on the and him making his face. (Good news: He did finish the puzzle by the end.)

Photo: NBC

Most random part of the episode – Aram and the rabbit.

Happiest part of the episode – Liz actually getting something closer to a home, though she’s not actually keen (pun intended) to invite Red over.

Cliffhanger – After seeing Red with his new cleaners, Dembe went to Liz and told her that Red killed Mr. Kaplan over her betrayal, and he was starting to lose faith. This big moment helped to offset our concerns with the middle portion of the episode — after all, it gave us something to look forward to. Grade: B.

Next week – We have a story called “The Harem,” and it was be a very different sort of case. (Photo: NBC.)