Courtesy of NBC
This is it, folks: The Blacklist‘s last chance to redeem itself before we cut it from our coverage roster. Can Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) save the show?
Let’s bitch it out…
An episode completely dedicated to capturing Lizzie’s (Megan Boone) cad of an husband Tom should be compelling viewing. Unfortunately, as with everything on The Blacklist, it is not. The episode is broken into 20 minute acts and they play out as predictably as you might expect. The episode opens with a few minutes that explain literally everythng from last week, further cementing ‘The Major’s status as a placeholder episode. Judge Renner (John Finn) is still on the warpath and determined to make an example of Lizzie. The fact that it takes a full 20 minutes for Red (James Spader) and Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) to find Tom in Munich is excruciating (like seriously, who cares about the damned tattoo’d man?).
Ressler and Red’s shoot-out while securing Tom provides the only action in the episode, but it’s perfunctory, a means to an end to move the chess pieces into position so that Tom can come home around minute 40 (Side Note: I love how all of the dumb racist stuff is completely negated as a result, but in a nutshell that’s the problem with the whole two episode arc). So Tom comes home – shocker! It’s obvious that he would try to rescue her since it has been repeatedly reiterated that he actually loves her. Also: Red told us that there was no other option to save Lizzie from Renner, so this is the only clear narrative option. Why does this take 40 minutes then?!
The larger issue is, of course, that despite Tom’s confession, Lizzie is on the hook for a series of other crimes. So why is it meant to be shocking when Renner refuses to let her go? At this point it seems that there will be no reprieve for Agent Scowly Face/Bad Hair, until suddenly there’s a last minute hail mary (surprising – i thought The Blacklist would have Lizzie in jail for the remainder of the series <sarcasm>). Randomly Tom Connolly (Reed Birney) waltzes in and tells Renner that he’s overstepped – because this couldn’t have happened two hours ago or anything! Just like that, the whole stupid affair is wrapped up with a simple little political maneuver, rendering the last two episodes completely obsolete and pointless.
At this point, I would expect nothing less from The Blacklist. I’ve mocked the series since its inception, but I’ll admit that at the start I did enjoy Spader’s performance and the twisted mechanics of the spy vs spy actions involving Tom. Unfortunately this second season has proven to be a limp, moronic affair, filled to the brim with unnecessary and pointless developments that insult the audience’s intelligence and waste our time. My frustrations with the series came to a head during the two part Superbowl episodes (I II) and continued through the last two episodes. Considering the plethora of kickass television that’s readily available these days, it simply doesn’t make sense to continue watching or reviewing this pathetic series.
I’m outta here.
Best Lines:
- Mozhan Marnò’s Samar (when Ressler says Lizzie’s actions with Tom were insane): “I was going to say extremely romantic.”
- Red (after the gunfight breaks most of the SUV’s windows): “See that’s why we got the insurance.”
- Samar (reading Aram’s [Amir Arison] note in Harold’s card): “‘Get well bitch, we’ve got some partying to do?'”
Your turn: do you agree that The Blacklist continually wastes viewers’ time? Are you enjoying this second season more than me? Do you care that Tom is back? How do you feel about Harold’s (Harry Lennix) illness? Sound off below for the final time.
The Blacklist airs Thursdays at 9pm EST on NBC. Feel free to let me know if things ever improve…