OMG! (which I dislike but it totally describes tonight's show for me)

Yeah, I'm not on board with the whole pregnant man idea, but as a story, they made it work. Unlike past shows, they did do a fairly good job of pulling some of the loose ends together, like Dr. Hannah Hayes was holding her rapist in the basement. I was really annoyed at first, though, trying to figure out who he was and how he fit in.

So Fakarina has gone after Ilya. I'm sure that won't end well.

Yeah, I'm also really tired and will do a partial re-watch. There was something really off about that Russian crew tonight. I'm sure I'll get it on the re-watch.

Eastcoast, tonight's goodie: one-half piece of carrot cake from HyVee. They had large individual slices for sale in the bakery, and I split it with my friend. This was all unplanned. She happened to be there and wanted something sweet for tonight, too, but nothing large.
 

Red is a Happy Camper.

A Pregnant Pause.

Ilya, we hardly knew ya!

RedIsMyCoPilot wrote:

Red is a Happy Camper.

I love this!

I sort of liked the Blacklist case this week, but the Red and Katarina parts of the episode made no sense.  I told my husband it was like teenage stoners are writing the show now. I was expecting so much more from a Cerone episode.

So Red had Katarina's phone number all along, and he could have contacted her any time?  Did he get the number from Franky?  You would think if he had Fakerina's phone number, he could have traced her whereabouts and forced that face to face meeting he wanted..

If Morosov wanted the money from the Townsend Directive, why didn't he take or kill "Katarina, instead of her info guy?  Wouldn't Morosov think this is the real Katarina? Does he think Fakerina is just another operative trying to track down the real Katarina Rostova? 

It appears The Stranger/Frank Bloom is Ilya. But since I can't tell what's happening on this show anymore, I don't know if that's a reveal or not.

I needed this show to start making sense with tonight's episode.  I'm going to hang in there until the midseason finale on Dec. 13.  But if it's still this ridiculously confusing then, I'm sorry to say I'm dropping the show. 
 

Eastcoast, that's a really interesting idea.  Ilya took Red's identity and some other KGB operative stepped in to become Ilya. Maybe they're all fakes.  I doubt it, but sometimesthe ideas that come up on this board are  better than what we get on the show!

Tuxie, Red used Patrick's phone to call "Katarina". The kid had the number. And that's why she picked up and said what she said, she thought it was Patrick calling her. He was close enough to her that 1) he had her number and 2) she answered his call, even in the middle of a murder and attempted snatch -  she didn't just let it ring through.  You would think though that Red saved the number once he got it.  He can't hand it to the post office team to trace for him because he's not telling them who kidnapped him or anything about "katarina" so he certainly wouldn't want them to trace her.  As for giving up if things don't pick up by the Season finale, I said that many times over the years, and I'm still watching.  It's like an addiction at this point.

Tonight had a lot of parallels.  Hannah and Katarina taking definitive actions/positions after being controlled by men to insure that they/women in general would not  be controlled by men. If Red is Katarina, she also took drastic action to make sure men didn't control her anymore, so possible parallel there.  (and how ironic if "katarina" is telling a woman (real Katarina/now Red) that  she doesn't want to be controlled by men anymore.)   And even more so because Redarina also bended gender rules, so ties in to the blacklister story as well.  Note that the men had to keep up medication to stay alive as uterine transplant recipients.  So another possible parallel.  Then we saw an 'adopted' son whose adoptive mother took him on as a responsibilty because she felt guilty about being the instrument of his parents' death.  So that's a possible parallel as well, if you're not in the Redarina camp.  And a  3-4 year old girl in the company of "Katarina" seeing a man lying on the floor, dead.  There's a parallel there too.

I don't think anyone on this board is surprised that the Stranger is Ilya. We knew that at the end of last season.  And look at Liz blabbing what she thinks is Red's secret to a newbie.  Is it any wonder he doesn't tell her anything?  While the blacklister may not appear to have anything to do with mythology, if Red is Katarina, they are setting up a background for transgenderism, men who have women bodies, etc.  Push the envelope early, test the waters, making sure the audience is primed for the big reveal.

(edited for typos when I saw it posted)

Last edited by KathyN (11/15/2019 10:30 pm)

Well, we now know that it's an inherited trait to place your kids in an unsafe environment - Poor Agnes!
 

Tuxie, I don't know why they didn't take her instead either? Maybe they were looking for a redhead?

I admit I am getting tired of he is this person, he is that person... I use to love this show.  They really need to wrap it up this season. 

I think you nailed it when you said you expected so much more. I think when they hype up the show we expect so much and get disappointed. 

KathyN,  yes, a lot of parallels.  At this point who knows. 

I have suspected that Red and Ilya were connected and KR may not have known.  The reason I have had for this thought is the way Ilya looked when he was behind the camera taking KR's pic for her passport.  It is a deceptive look he has. I do not know how that would work,  unless he himself were a triple agent of some kind. 
There is more we need to see.

I did see that we have a KR episode comming up that might answer some of these holes. Or make more holes...

I'm wondering if Agnes sees a picture of the 'sleeping man'  and tells her mom she saw him sleeping on the bathroom floor?  Maybe a work file or the news? 

I did get a good laugh when Red told her to flap her old wings!

Eastcoast wrote:

I'm wondering if Agnes sees a picture of the 'sleeping man' and tells her mom she saw him sleeping on the bathroom floor? Maybe a work file or the news?

Maybe during the police investigation of the dead man in the park bathroom, video surveillance comes up showing Maddy and Agnes, which somehow comes to Liz's attention.  Not sure how, maybe Aram picks it up in some daily intel report he reads.  Which leads Liz to ask Agnes what happened at the park.  Speaking of Aram, now that "Katarina" took Ilya, Red might asking the task force to help him find Frank Bloom. That should trigger Aram's memory and maybe that's when we'll see him give Red the info he got at the wedding.

Tonight's episode highlighted a sharp contrast between "Katarina"'s maternal instincts and Red's.   Red has proven over and over again that he would give his life to protect Liz.  Young Katarina gave up her life to protect Masha.  This "Katarina" left Agnes alone in the park while going to do something incredibly dangerous in the bathroom (she may have never emerged alive) and abandoned her adopted son to be killed by Red. This woman, whoever she is, has zero maternal instinct.

And tonight we got the second episode in a row where Red had nothing to gain by giving the team the name of the Blacklister. Really all he told them was that it wasn't the mob who abducted the governor. Maybe he was doing them a favor by getting the law enforcement attention off of them (?).

KathyN wrote:

Maybe during the police investigation of the dead man in the park bathroom, video surveillance comes up showing Maddy and Agnes, which somehow comes to Liz's attention.  Not sure how, maybe Aram picks it up in some daily intel report he reads.  Which leads Liz to ask Agnes what happened at the park.  Speaking of Aram, now that "Katarina" took Ilya, Red might asking the task force to help him find Frank Bloom. That should trigger Aram's memory and maybe that's when we'll see him give Red the info he got at the wedding.

Excellent deduction. If this is what happens, it's consistent with the type of plot/writing we love about The Blacklist.

Camping trailer: Mr. Kaplan went about the country in one of these. It really is hilarious. I loved it when we saw Red in the driver's seat wearing a captain's hat.

Dembe doing needlepoint. See I think Red is Katarina, so they're going to switch up gender roles (they have from the beginning). And they are playing up men being feminine and women being masculine. Katarina in the bathroom breaking a thug's neck and Dembe in the camper doing fine needle point.

Talk about campy.

Baa daa boomp