Overall - a rather scattered episode. Some of the actors - even Spader seemed to be mailing it in while the guest actors were all slightly sub-par to mediocre. 
Perhaps the cast is still suffering a hang-over over the loss of Mohan Marno from the main cast. She may not have had large roles but she seemed to be character glue. Not any more!

Dembe, Harold, Ressler & Aram all seemed to be mailing in their performances - almost like a table read for the camera.
Liz (Meghan Boone) was the only one who seemed to maintain or increase energy. Of course, for now she's the only lead female character in the main cast - although I noticed they've brought Jennifer Ferrin (McMahon) into the post office as she continues to assert more and more operational authority over Harold Cooper - while she covers for her criminal bosses.

Iowa Watcher - I'll have to look at those photos of KR on my rewatch. That would be interesting if KR was in Red's flat.  I've always felt it was really Katarina's.

BBB, I see what your saying.  I did enjoy John as Tim King. 

I think the problem I'm having is they build us up so much,  then I don't feel like I really get what they were building up to. 

As much as I look forward to the upcoming episodes, I have lost the excitement I use to have. 
If I did not write on this board, they would have lost me a long time ago.

Tuxie400 wrote:

Eastcoast wrote:

I The saddest line of the night for me was hearing the husband say if that stuff was true, then he didn't really know her at all. 
 

That was sad - especially since he called her the love of his life. 

"We never really know anyone, do we?" (Red season 1 2nd episode, paraphrased from memory)

JB and JE have said this is a story of identity. And while we know this Red is an impostor of some sort, it's not about being an impostor, it's about what we think we know and what we don't know about those who are dearest and closest to our hearts.

When I went through a painful separation with my ex fiance I discovered things about him that I did not know from when we were together and his past. I was terrified with stories of wealthy women who marry men who are perfect gentlemen, loving, kind, smart, funny, generous, etc. and then they con them out of everything their worth. But the worst part is they steal their hearts. And then there are the psychopaths like the BTK killer who was married, worked at his church, had a job. Now, clearly there were weird things about him, but did anyone really suspect him of such evil?

 

Tatiana - You are right about Virginia's storyline fitting with the identity theme of the show. It reminded me of Liz and Tom, with Tom and Virginia being the people whose lives were totally fabricated, yet still being the love of their spouses' lives.

Tatiana wrote:

Eastcoast wrote:

BBB, I see what your saying. I did enjoy John as Tim King.

I think the problem I'm having is they build us up so much, then I don't feel like I really get what they were building up to.

As much as I look forward to the upcoming episodes, I have lost the excitement I use to have.
If I did not write on this board, they would have lost me a long time ago.

As much as I steer clear of any kind of negative comments, I have to agree, without the fandom around about this year I would have stopped watching it. I think you can dilute a fantastic surprise story line only so much and then it just loses its punch.

In the meantime, my husband and I have been watching Person of Interest which we have never watched and find it very enjoyable. The good thing is that nice weather is coming and we stop watching tv or movies so much so when this Blacklist season ends, we can do our life and just pick up when it starts airing again.

I really don't think it has anything to do with actors but with story and an actor can only do so much with the story they are given.

BBB - some other folks have mentioned Megan Boone's performance last night and said she was really doing well. I was just trying to follow along with plot and I'm about to skim through a re-watch, but I think you are right, I believe she's certainly getting stronger as an actress, thankfully. You must be missing our dear Mozhan 

Of course I'm in the minority group (large minority btw) who miss Mozhan's Samar character. The fact she was there, even in the background was always re-assuring for some unknown reason. You just expect an ex-Mossad agent was gonna go crazy and hack some criminals in deliciously crazy ways - and that never came! Kinda like the Sword of Acting Damocles???

Person of Interest might be the best TV series ever concocted in television history. Thats how much I think of it. All 103 episodes, the first year without Amazing Amy Acker & Sarah Shahi, the last 2 1/2 years without Taraji P. Henson. 

The writing. The acting. The direction. The Music. The story-lines. All amazing devices to the whole. And lets not forget the indelible emotional impact THE MACHINE had on many POI fans. As if it was human? Amazing!

Trivia: I noticed a new book at Red's little apartment, this one called 'Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World' by Liaquat Ahamed.

A brief summary is as follows but I would suggest that some of the names of these real people have been used in The Blacklist. There's so many references to world politics, economies, and finances that I just found this interesting.

Summary:
In Lords of Finance, we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, the xenophobic and suspicious Émile Moreau of the Banque de France, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose façade of energy and drive masked a deeply wounded and overburdened man. After the First World War, these central bankers attempted to reconstruct the world of international finance. Despite their differences, they were united by a common fear—that the greatest threat to capitalism was inflation— and by a common vision that the solution was to turn back the clock and return the world to the gold standard.