The Blacklist Review: 3×05 “Arioch Cain”

The Blacklist brought its A-game as a high-stakes tale of assassination for hire and betrayal brought a world of unwanted attention to Red and Liz.

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD IN OUR DETAILED REVIEW

The Blacklist — When Liz’s (Megan Boone) name is put on a dark web hit list her fate is determined by the masses who crowd-source an incredible sum to the assassin that can prove her death. Red (James Spader) turns to Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) for help locating the person responsible after the first assassin tries and fails, but the killer is only the first of many hoping for a huge payday. With time running out Red must get Liz out of harm’s way, but Mr. Vargas (Paul Reubens) has different plans and leads them both into a trap by Mateus Solomon (Edi Gathegi). Meanwhile, unknown to everyone, Tom (Ryan Eggold) is working his own angle of twisted justice to reach Karakurt (Michael Massee) through Asher’s (Peter Vack) unfortunate underworld connections.

Elsewhere, Ressler must testify before a Senate hearing investigating Liz’s crimes, but his honesty may put him in the crosshairs of The Director (David Strathairn) himself. Still investigating the assassination attempts against Liz, Aram (Amir Arison) and Navabi (Mozhan Marnò) both work toward finding the real culprit behind Liz’s kill order, Arioch Cain (Blacklister No. 50). When a wounded Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) turns up to rescue Liz and Red, he may be too little, too late. As all sides close in, no one could have predicted the real identity of Arioch Cain and the true reason Liz must die this week on The Blacklist!

Blessed is she who walks not in the council of the wicked.

At nearly every turn Liz or Red seemed to call on members of the Task Force at will when the needed help. The two may be fugitives, but they know the hearts and minds of the people they’ve worked with. Aram, Navabi and even Ressler are all good agents with an innate sense of right and wrong. By turning to them constantly, Liz is counting on them doing the right thing and slowly but surely, others beyond Aram are starting to believe in her.

Aram has held fast from day one that she is innocent. Navabi has been rather neutral and Ressler downright stubborn to admit something remotely close to that. But Liz’s perceived death may have shook them all and scared them into rededicating themselves to proving her innocence. If they can’t apprehend her, they can at least eliminate the need to do so.

That shift comes because Liz has behaved like a woman on a mission to clear her name and the Task Force is genuinely starting to see it. Her constant sharing of information and behavior of an innocent woman are starting to wear down Navabi’s neutrality and Ressler’s hardened resolve. They are beginning to believe in Liz and realizing that protecting her, or even exonerating her, is as important as finding her.

“So you believe she’s innocent?” ~ Hitchin

“Yes, I do. I believe that if she is given a fair trial by a jury of her peers, there aren’t 12 people in America who wouldn’t agree with me.” ~ Ressler

Ironically, Liz’s perceived guilt is exactly what set so many assassin’s on her trail. The Cabal didn’t think of it, but then again they couldn’t have asked for better. Her very public escape and manhunt have made her appear guilty. By putting a face to the killer of all the innocents at the Orea bombing, the dark web did what the Cabal hadn’t been able to do. Place a price large enough on her death that a relentless number of assassins would do just about anything to claim the reward. Given this unexpected success, their public campaign against her is likely to only intensify and that has only made Ressler, Navabi and Aram even more dedicated to finding her first.

“I’m scared, because for a minute, I thought Keen was gone. I thought that, uh-we’ve got to do a better job. We got to go out there, and we got to find her and bring her in, because every day she’s out there is the day we could lose her.” ~ Ressler

But that task just got exponentially harder. They now have a viper in the hen house. Ressler, Navabi and Aram won’t be able to so openly help Liz if they are under the constant watchful eye of Kotsiopulos (David Strathairn). Ressler is between the proverbial rock and the hard place. His head and training are telling him to do his job. His heart is telling him to help Liz. And his spidey-sense should be on constant tingle letting him know that the slightest misstep could result in her death, or worse yet, even his own.

Style points count.

We love the way this series does such a good job of blending intertwined moments, editing together connected sequences and setting up the very next scene with the last line from the one before. Great performances, writing, directing and editing all make The Blacklist something special. The irony of these moments is a huge part of the fun. As The Director finished telling the Presidential Commission that no Cabal exists, we get the dramatic reveal of Mateus Solomon tightening the noose around Red and Liz. The betrayal of Mr. Vargas was complete.

In a stellar sequence that captured some of the most visceral and dramatic moments of the episode, Mateus toyed with Red and threatened Liz all while playfully speculating on the relationship between the two. Both sets of theorists had their moments as Mateus called out the parentage and lover theories one after another. But Mateus is at his scariest when he’s unpredictable and his cold, twisted play with the knife over Liz was enough to make our skin crawl. Edi Gathegi is eating this role up and having a ball. You can just tell.

“To do what I do well, I need my enemies to fear me. Every life that I take sends a message. What happens next [ Switchblade clicks ] will be international news. I’m gonna execute a terrorist and a crime lord. Style points count.” ~ Solomon

You’re damned right they do Solomon, and Dembe wins this round hands down. After a distraction, Dembe proved his loyalty once again with fearless, ambidextrous badass. Two guns, no cover and not a missed shot later, Mateus was gone with Red and Liz safe. Red made his opinion of betrayal clear by finishing Mr. Vargas with a single shot, but we’re not sure we wouldn’t have emptied the clip.

As this entire sequence played out with the Presidential testimony, Mateus’s smug taunting, Aram’s brilliant interrogation, Tom’s coercion of Asher and Dembe’s heroic entrance, all we could think was that Mateus was right. Style points count. This show never ceases to amaze us with how effortlessly it weaves such complex plot, action and cerebral elements in rapid succession. What they do with these types of sequences isn’t easy. If it were, all shows would put on this kind of bravado. It takes incredible work, precision and planning to make sequences like this feel effortless and leave us dying for more of it. Bravo to everyone who made this work so flawlessly. Style points do indeed count.

Actions speak louder than words.

“Especially the ones we take out of loyalty or our sense of duty or love or out of hope for a second chance. That’s all I want for you, Liz-a second chance. I’ll do anything to make sure that you get it. I hope you’re okay. If you get this, I’ll be here.” ~ Tom

Through all the efforts by everyone to thwart the system and bring justice, one thing has gotten lost—all the innocents that have suffered as a result of the Cabal’s relentless protection of itself and endless pursuit of Liz and Red. There is a river of blood running under the Cabal’s feet and the intensifying current may ultimately be what pulls them under and drowns them.

Innocent bystanders are also the key difference between Tom’s approach and everyone else’s work to keep Liz safe and clear her name. Love and any type of emotional attachment is new to Tom. He’s never cared which innocents get caught in his web of lies to reach a goal and while loving Liz is growth, he still seems to have no regard for anyone else. Despite their flaws, both Asher and Gwen (Conor Leslie) have now become pawns.

Tom is playing a dangerous game with little regard for their lives, but Liz is in a different place. The assassination order by a dead victim’s family has motivated her to not just focus her own freedom, but to also seek justice for those who have died senseless deaths just to implicate her. Would she approve of Tom’s reckless approach? Likely not. She has enough guilt weighing on her already. And because of it, she’s raised her standards to include justice for everyone that’s suffered from the Cabal’s callous disregard for life.

“Blair, I’m gonna get the people that killed your mother.” ~ Liz

Up until now, Liz has been believed by all to be a heartless terrorist. A woman without any regard for human life and with no moral compass. Her close association with Red hasn’t helped that perception. As an audience, we all believe this isn’t who she is, but the media and public within this world believes it. That may be changing.

Something new emerged from the wild events of this episode. Arioch Cain was a complete ruse. And a young girl’s desire to find justice for her mother’s death sparked something in Liz. She no longer sees herself as the only victim. There are many others. She may very well have convinced one family that she is not the cold-blooded killer she has been portrayed to be.

By vowing to fight to seek justice for them, she may be changing her public perception one person at a time. The tide is slowly starting to turn and perception may play a bigger role in Liz’s actions moving forward. After all, she can’t convince others she is innocent and gain a second chance, if her behavior is that of a hardened criminal.

Which makes us wonder, just how she’ll see Tom when all is said and done. As Chris Isaak’s “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” signed us off of the episode, we couldn’t help but think that Tom is slipping down a dangerous slope. That body in the trunk is the first of many bad, bad things he may have to do to get to Karakurt. And while no one will likely mourn the bad guy in the trunk, who else will get hurt in the process?

FINAL VERDICT: When this show is clicking, few can match its wit, intelligence and incredible sense of style. The Blacklist had us cheering, cringing and wanting the next episode now.

It’s rare that an episode is so jammed with interesting, fun and thrilling moments that we’re itching to hit play again right after its over, but that’s pretty much how we felt after watching this episode of The Blacklist. Red and Liz on the run are just too much fun not to watch twice. Their take no prisoners of the morally corrupt approach has us giddy now that Liz is free of all her legal shackles. Yes, being framed for a lot of bad things comes with that, but everyone is working to get rid of all frames, including perhaps the one murder she actually did commit. Sorry Tommy Connolly (Reed Birney).

We’ll admit that we felt quite a bit like we’d been through a blender after this one. As if it weren’t bad enough that a world of assassins was reigning down on Liz’s head, Mr. Vargas had to go and throw a Solomon sized monkey wrench into the works. If there’s been a creepier character on this show than the one Edi Gathegi has created, we’d like to see it. Yes, there are multitudes of candidates, but there’s something deeply disturbing about his lack of conscience in any situation. The glee with which he sported triumph and wielded his knife was enough to make one’s skin crawl. Edi, that’s a compliment from us. You’ve freaked us out and that’s why we love this show.

We don’t recall an episode with more “YES!” moments than this one in a while either. A big shout of thanks goes to Writer Dawn DeNoon for spinning such a fun hour to watch. She gave us lines and moments to remember at just about every turn. None bigger than for Dembe. He is simply—the man. Walking in, unafraid and dropping baddies like flies had us jumping off the couch. Shooting Mr. Vargas got a fist-pump. Red finishing the deal got a double. We hate to say it Paul Reubens but Mr. V had that coming. As if those moments weren’t enough, we got intelligent humor from Aram, Mr. Kaplan (Susan Blommaert) and others that made this a rich tapestry of laughs and gasps. We know this show isn’t ever written totally by one individual, but there were the fingerprints of something unique on this episode that felt like The Blacklist, only better. Kudos DeNoon.

RELATED | The Blacklist 3×04 “The Djinn” Review

And who got to orchestrate this stellar script and pull it all together? That would be Director Alex Zakrzewski, veteran television director with credits spanning the last 15 years and dozens of series. It’s rather obvious that the man knows his way around a television hour as he coordinated one of the most complex episodes of The Blacklist we’ve seen in a while. This one was so full of good moments and lines that shifted scenes and actors so quickly that we’re going to be watching this one again, perhaps more than once, just to let all the goodness soak in properly.

What is most exciting is that this episode didn’t close many plot lines, but rather opened up numerous avenues of things to come. We loved the camaraderie of the Task Force as they all worked to help Liz stay alive. Yes, they want her caught, but it’s because they all care. Even hard-nosed Ressler had a feeling or two, though we won’t be giving him any hugs for it.

This Task Force is committed to finding her, but for her own safety and to help clear her name. Only now they have to do it hand-in-hand with The Director who will be using every angle to find both Red and Liz using any information he can squeeze out of the FBI and CIA cooperation. All that and we get a monumentally determined Tom that Cooper may at some point regret letting loose to save Liz. And if that weren’t enough already, we know Red and Liz will be on to the next Blacklister to clear her name. Is it Thursday yet? Because we’re hooked on The Blacklist!

Questions, Comments, Concerns and My Reaction on Twitter…

• Mr. Kaplan sighting!!
• I’d trust him on the deep espionage thing Harold. He knows how this works. 😉
• You won’t live this one down Ressler. lol Got the drop on ya..
• I couldn’t get past the part where I believe in a power greater than myself. lol #ThingsRedSays
• Remember that part about NOT giving your opinions Ressler? That will come back to bite you.
• Man points an elephant gun at your head, you talk. That simple. lol
• Uh, yeah. Not making that jump Liz.
• Whoops. Butterfingers. -.O
• Crowd funded assassination. That’s a new one. o.O
• Damn Liz!! Double Damn Red!!!
• I wish we knew how this turned out!! Oh wait—you already know @JonBokenkamp.
• Mr Solomon just sent #Lizzington shippers through the roof. #Girlfriend
• Way to interrogate Aram!!
• Holy hell. That was freakin AWSOME!!!
• Worse than I thought. I’m gonna need the shop vac. 🙂
• Never hug me like that again. Highly Awkward. lol 🙂
• If style points count, I think Dembe wins HANDS DOWN.