The Blacklist Review: 2×15 “The Major”

If there’s a sense of deja-vu watching this episode of The Blacklist, it would be because with the exception of a handful of insights and one powerful scene, we’ve seen most of this before.

The Blacklist — When Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) is called to testify before a Judge (John Finn) in his private chambers to determine if a motion will be carried to quash open court testimony about her involvement in the death of a D.C. Harbormaster, much of her efforts and his questioning proceeds to recap the first season and a half of the series. Through the Judge’s questions and Liz’s flashbacks, we see most of the major events that led up to this moment. While Liz is facing the Judge’s questions, Red (James Spader) insists that in order to save her he must find The Major, Bill McCready (Guest Star Lance Henriksen, Blacklister No. 75). The Major, trains and plants deep cover operatives from a very early age and was in fact the man who trained Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) before he was inserted into Liz’s life. Meanwhile, Tom continues his mission for The Major in Germany to get close to a new mark.

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The Task Force helps Red by abducting Deputy Minister Mahmat Krishnan (Raul Aranas), a plant by The Major, in order to force The Major out of hiding and into a confrontation with Red. As the two converse, it’s revealed that Tom was hired by Red from the beginning and only later flipped allegiance to Berlin (Peter Stormare) for a higher price. In order to save his own life, The Major gives Red information to find Tom, but it’s Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) that says what’s on everyone’s mind by insisting that Red finally come clean with Liz and tell her about everything. Meanwhile, after Liz’s mostly honest testimony—laced with only a few lies to protect herself—Deputy Director Cooper (Harry Lennix) perjured himself to protect Liz. It all may be all for naught when Detective Wilcox (Michael Kostroff) presents new evidence linking Liz to the murder of the harbormaster that may require no testimony from anyone to count her as guilty. With largely a recap throughout, much of the episode was a greatest hits of The Blacklist, but a few new insights and a final scene did keep us interested and leave us with things to discuss besides the need for the recap itself in this week’s episode of The Blacklist!

We think we’ve seen this before. Ah, that’s because we have. Did we need to see it again?

We’ll be blunt and honest. We love The Blacklist, but this episode left us scratching our heads. Granted, we got a little bit more insight into Tom, we see the determination of Detective Wilcox toward Liz and we enjoyed a wonderful scene between Red and Dembe at the end, but even those moments didn’t make up for nearly 40 minutes of asking ourselves “why” in between.

When events initially unfolded and we realized that there would be open testimony regarding the Task Force and Liz’s involvement in the Harbormaster’s death, the episode certainly set us up for much more than it turned out to be. But as Liz was brought to chambers by Judge Denner and asked numerous questions regarding the task force, things went off subject in quite a hurry.

Yes, we do realize this Judge was skeptical and that would warrant questions, but his illogical leaps and pointed language came from the insights of a writing team squeezing every ounce of recap and recycled footage as possible to retell a story we all know very well.

“Do you find it odd Reddington surrendered himself the day you started working as a profiler?” ~ Judge Denner

“I’m sorry, what does this have to do with what happened with Mr. Ames?” ~ Liz

“Well, as I understand it, the death of the harbormaster came in connection with your work on this task force.” ~ Judge Denner

“That is true, but you don’t need all these details to determine-” ~ Liz

“Tell me about the first meeting.” ~ Judge Denner

“With Ames?” ~ Liz

“With Reddington.” ~ Judge Denner

We asked the same question Liz. Repeatedly. Throughout the entire interview. We’re not opposed to the occasional flashback episode that consists largely of old footage, musical montages and clever narration, but we’ve come to expect more from The Blacklist. At one point, we even rolled our eyes and suggested aloud—to no one in particular—that Liz tell Judge Denner to simply binge the show on Netflix or iTunes so we could skip ahead to the good stuff.

Since this is The Blacklist, our conspiracy theory minds immediately jumped to the idea that the Judge was mining for information with some other purpose, but as things unfolded, that didn’t appear to be the case.

One has to wonder if Judge Denner questioned Liz for legit reasons or if he was writing a recap of the series—it certainly felt more like the latter.

The more distracted the Judge’s questions became, the more clear it became that instead of two characters interacting, this was the writing team talking to us. Any time that happens, it only serves to take us out of the moment and into reality—which is very much the opposite of why we enjoy the escape of television as much as we do. It appeared to be simply a recounting of all the cases, main points and key elements that summed up The Blacklist from the first episode until now. And despite the need to defend herself, Liz was much more forthcoming with her answers than we’d have thought she’d be, but that was mainly because the Judge’s questions were far more insightful than felt natural.

We did enjoy fiery Liz when she appeared to have had as much of the questioning as we did.

“Did Reddington find this Fulcrum?” ~ Judge Denner

“No.” ~ Liz

“And does he have some other ideas about how to locate it?” ~ Judge Denner

“Yes, through me.” ~ Liz

“You?” ~ Judge Denner

“That’s what I’ve come to believe is the real reason he surrendered in the first place, asked for me.” ~ Liz

“And let me guess This comes as a complete surprise to you.” ~ Judge Denner

“Absolutely.” ~ Liz

“The same way you were completely surprised when he asked for you.” ~ Judge Denner

“Yes.” ~ Liz

“And the way you found out that your husband was a spy.” ~ Judge Denner

“I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I should have known that when my husband and I were planning family that he was, in fact, a traitor who had installed surveillance cameras in my bedroom! Of course I should have been aware that the number four on the FBI’s most wanted list would turn himself in and demand to speak only to me! God, what a horrible profiler I must be to have missed the fact that I am central to the discovery of a blackmail file that will tilt the balance of power in — Let me phrase this right — The entire world! Wow! I suck!” ~ Liz

“I think we’ve gotten a little off topic.” ~ Judge Denner

We think they did too, but that’s water under the bridge now. Liz’s outburst was certainly a good performance. While the Judge’s demeanor didn’t change at all throughout, that moment was great delivery by Megan Boone. We loved seeing her express our frustration. We simply wish we didn’t have to have her do so on our behalf.

It may ultimately prove that the Judge and The Major play roles that make all the events of this episode make sense, but if there is no larger agenda for the Judge’s questioning and this is the last we see of Lance Henriksen, then we’re left feeling a bit empty and cheated by most of this episode’s central focus.

Wait…who was our Blacklister?

We’d love to regale the merits of Lance Henriksen as The Major, Bill McCready, but honestly he wasn’t on screen long enough for us to make a judgment one way or the other. Henriksen might be the most under-utilized big-name Blacklister yet. We’d love to talk about all the ins and outs of The Major’s creation of Tom Keen, but we can’t, because despite the title, this episode wasn’t really about The Major.

What we did get from The Major was a very good performance by Spader, but that’s always the case. What we saw from this episode, was that even when that’s good, it can’t carry the show if everything else is pushed to the background and doesn’t live up to the quality that The Blacklist has established for itself. While the Major didn’t give us much to cheer for, we did learn that Tom was a plant by Red from the beginning and that revelation helped shore up an episode that left us wondering on a lot of levels. As Red grilled the Major, Spader was his usual outstanding self.

“Keen’s betrayal cost me dearly in time, money, lives. Some of the people closest to me are now dead because of Tom Keen.” ~ Red

“If I gave you his location, I’d have to betray a client.” ~ McCready

“That shouldn’t be hard, Bill. You betrayed me. You sold me an asset and then allowed him to turn when Berlin offered you twice as much. You’re in debt to me. Recognize this rather fortuitous opportunity for you to begin to make things even. Where can I find Tom Keen?” ~ Red

If there’s a silver lining, it would be Director Cooper’s willingness to perjure himself to protect Liz, the insights into Toms past and the final moments with Dembe and Red. Their conversation showed empathy from Dembe that we’ve not seen and suggested that a much bigger story still is yet to be told.

“You need to tell her, Raymond.” ~ Dembe

“Tell her what?” ~ Red

“About Tom. You should have told her some time ago.” ~ Dembe

“I don’t know how do that, Dembe.” ~ Red

“Yes, you do. You tell her the truth by telling her everything.” ~ Dembe

“I don’t think I can do that.” ~ Red

“Maybe you should stop thinking about it and do it.” ~ Dembe

We have to admit, this final moment between Dembe and Red, given all their history and loyalty to each other was a beautiful exchange. Few people could make that suggestion to Red and it carry weight. Dembe may in fact be the only one. Despite the rest of the episode not entertaining us as much as it should, this moment was an emotional and impactful exchange between two long-time and trusted allies. Time will tell if Red heeds the advice, but we certainly want to see it if he does.

FINAL VERDICT: After a fantastic run in the last few episodes, this one felt very much like a re-run—something we didn’t think we’d see. Flashbacks and recaps are fine, but we’d prefer those remain on the Blu-Ray or DVD releases and not mid-season.

The Blacklist has been one of the most riveting dramas on television for the year and a half it’s aired for a reason. We are presented weekly with complex, well-crafted Blacklister that is brought to life by a dynamic guest star. That Blacklister’s story often mirrors events in the lives of the cast within the Task Force that track them down and inventive plot twists keep us engaged at almost every turn.

Subtle moments of ambiguity and emotion keep us locked in and guessing about the larger themes of the show every week. The writing has been exemplary, occasionally brushing the coat-tails of greatness and that has amazed us. All that said, when The Blacklist doesn’t live up to the standard it has set for itself, we notice.

This episode seemed to have two purposes. One, to show us just how much trouble Liz has gotten everyone into with the death of a D.C. Harbormaster at the hands of Tom. And two, to conveniently retell, via flashbacks, all the events that have led us up to this point. While the first certainly moved the season arc forward, the second seemed to have very little to tell us except to poke fun at the absurdity of the entire story in a nutshell and serve as a literary device to catch up new viewers at the expense of boring a very loyal audience that has already been-there, done-that.

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Writers Jon Bokenkamp, John Eisendrath and Lukas Reiter have had their hands on more episodes than anyone else. As Executive Producers, Bokenkamp and Eisendrath both have final say on almost every episode we see. The involvement by key players makes it disappointing that this episode felt so much like the filler it was. We didn’t have any qualms with Director Michael Watkins. Overall, the episode felt as polished as any. What let us down was the recapping of the entire series in a way that felt very forced and unnatural.

If only 41 people know of the Task Force and what it really does, we’d now have to up that number to 43 to include a Judge and a Stenographer (Lorrie Odom). That may have ramifications later, but for now we’re left wondering why such a vital task force didn’t have the support of higher authority that would have prevented this interrogation and the flashback style recap in the first place.

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Those answers may come in due time. Despite the head-scratching of this episode, it doesn’t define The Blacklist overall. We’ve now been tipped that Tom is much more important to Red than we first guessed and Director Cooper has put himself in the line of fire for Liz. How those things play out and where this series goes next are still ingrained deep within our curiosity so we’ll be watching next week to see where things go next for The Blacklist.

Questions, Comments, Concerns and My Reaction on Twitter…

• Hmmm. I don’t like the way that little inter-office meeting went for Liz.
• I will see Agent Keen in chambers in 5 minutes. Oh shit.
• Boy. Red drives a hard bargain. And doesn’t seem to take no for an answer Harold.
• Oh the things [felonies] we do for Red.
• Okay. This chambers hearing is getting really weird. Who is this dude??
• Lets have a little chat. There are “too many” chats going on right now. This is NOT good.
• So far, this episode of #TheBlacklist is the most curious and odd yet. WTH is going on here??
• It’s like kindergarten. Do you have rug time? #ThingsRedSays
• How did that go? It was heated. WTF is this line of questioning??
• I really kinda hoped to never see Milton Bobbit minus his nose again. But .. sigh ..
• Took a bullet. Oops.
• Dude. Just watch all the eps on Netflix or iTunes. Binge and we can be done with this. Cause this is weird.
• I think we got a little off topic. Ya think?
• Well. for all the flashback stuff, we finally got some real meat to this episode. Tom. Red. Berlin. The Major. Interesting.
• This shit is getting sticky in a hurry Harold.
• I don’t know how to do that Dembe. Maybe you should stop thinking about it and just do it. Wow Dembe. o.O