The Blacklist season 5 episode 17 review: A battle of leverage; Aram’s ring

On the last episode of The Blacklist we saw Reddington make a promise to Liz that he was breaking as he made it: That he wouldn’t let the bag of secrets get in the way of Garvey getting away. He made that promise to Liz as we watched Garvey walked out the door and while the bag of bones may be something that Liz would never forgive Reddington for, this may also up there on that list if she ever finds out.

So where are we going moving into “Anna-Gracia Duerte” on Wednesday night? The episode began with a murder, and also another question to go along with that as to how much Reddington knew about this. The FBI went on a search for the killer, and they went through a string of suspects. First, it was Garvey himself. Then, the attention turned more towards a white supremacist.

Yet, when the third possibility arose, it sent off a light bulb in Liz’s mind. Reddington may have known about the kill the whole time. The moment that Liz knew about Reddington’s apparent betrayal she confronted him on it; at that moment, Reddington made it pretty darn clear that he allow Garvey to die or go on trial until he gets his duffel bag back.

We’ll come back to this shortly — for now, let’s take on the primary case of the week.

The Blacklister of the week

The FBI was after this week someone who was responsible for murdering men involved in child marriages. The title character was the woman responsible, a young woman who was raped and forced into marriage well before she could have ever wanted to.

This case become especially important to Samar, who took it upon herself to try to find a personal connection to Anna-Gracia, if for no other reason than to convince her that there was another way. She didn’t have to go around killing without remorse. She wanted to ultimately convince her that there was another way for her story to be told. This worked, and she got Anna-Gracia to stand down before causing any greater harm.

Ultimately, Anna-Gracia touched back to the Garvey story in that she was the one who killed the person in the midst of the Garvey case. That brings us back to Reddington…

The showdown — and answers

Basically, the tension between Liz and Reddington over Garvey is rising. For now, Liz is still struggling to put the pieces together when it comes to just how responsible Reddington is for everything going so awry. Anna-Gracia threw away something that was valuable and Reddington was seeking: A ledger. That led to him digging through some garbage.

The episode concluded with a phone call between Reddington and Garvey, one in which James Spader’s character strongly hinted to him that there was more at play than he realized. Red had the ledger (he found it!), and with that, he has more leverage.

Aram’s ring plan

Tonight, Aram found himself in a tricky spot. He wanted to give Samar a ring that held great value to him; yet, he also was not trying to propose. This poses a pretty significant conundrum in that he has to find a way to do it without it meaning something more. After a conversation with Liz he decided to give the ring to her — following her reaction, though, it was clear that she never even thought it was an engagement ring. Clearly, that is not on her mind.

CarterMatt Verdict

Overall, The Blacklist season 5 episode 17 proved to be one of the most intriguing episodes of the show, both in terms of the subject matter that we saw explored and also some interesting, personal stuff with Aram.

What did you think about The Blacklist season 5, episode 17? Leave us your thoughts in the comment box below. If you missed our most recent interview with Amir Arison you can check that out here.

(Photo: NBC)