OMG, Tuxie!!! Make sure you set time aside to watch it! It was a good episode.

I agree BBB, dialogue was hard to follow.  Tuxie that must be so frustrating for you, this was a mythology heavy episode. Hopefully you'll be able to watch it tomorrow via your app or NBC's page.  Do you want us to not discuss it until you watch?  Otherwise there are going to be a lot of spoilers for you.
 

OK - Tuxie, don't read this!


Liz is so incredibly dumb. She discovers Maddy is a fake - I don't know if the file gave her original name as Katarina, I doubt it because she was using a different name before she became "Maddy", but somehow Liz makes the (wrong - if this is a fake Katarina) connection.  Was she really going to shoot her in the kitchen with Agnes in bed in the next room?  She didn't even close the door all the way. Is she trying to give Agnes the same type of memories she had as a child?  What is wrong with her? It couldn't wait until she was alone with Maddy? She couldn't tell Red or the rest of the team who all want her to be safe and would do anything to make sure she stays that way? She had to handle it on her own? She's no better than Red, but she's worse - she's petty. Yes Red is keeping secrets, he's keeping them to protect her. She's keeping hers to be vindictive.   The preview for next week is so predictable as to be laughable. Of course Maddy/fake Katrina is going to get over on her. At least it won't happen in the last minute of the show so there's that...

I give this episode a C. It's a muddled mess. The only redeeming parts are the small snippets of Belgrade we were shown, which of course didn't give any definitive answers, and can be looked at two ways so as to keep the Redarina theory alive.
 

This particular episode would have been better as a silent movie - such was the mess in continuity and dialogue!

In fairness, things I liked:

1. The Interrogator - pathologically firm but fair
2. Agent Park - consistently paranoid & annoyed
3. Brent Cullen - superb near-death acting
4. Spader - the usual brilliance

I'm just frustrated because I know that the writing can be top-notch. Part of the problem is that this show can't be scripted by just any hack. It takes someone who knows the show and knows the characters. That writing contest we had on the last board produced better stories than some of the terrible shows we've viewed.

I just want that same commitment to the show. I'm afraid the show runners are phoning it in. I hope Spader got frustrated and lit a fire under them for the next part of the series.

Last edited by IowaWatcher (12/06/2019 10:24 pm)

Tuxie400 wrote:

I can't believe it!!!  My NBC affiliate is running a Southern Living baking special instead of Blacklist. 

Write them a nasty email. Threaten to boycott sponsors. Better if you can get a bunch of people to write in.

I think the problem is they are trying so hard to keep all the theories going.  That's what is making it hard to follow.  Here was a really good episode with dialog that is a bit choppy to put it mildly.  Just sounds fake....
It is getting harder for them to come up with new word games. 

I need to do a rewatch. But my impression is that KR thinks Red died in the fire and wants to know who this one is, and what the reason was for them trying to kill her.  So much in this episode. I need to take more notes.

I keep going back and forth about who she is because of the dialog. 

I personally would not expect her to tell Berdy that it's her daughter. 
I think she is playing that part safe.

I think Spy Parents are a bit brutal. I was thinking of Susan Hargrave.  ( crazy)

😴

I think it was the Russian accents in the flashbacks that made some of the dialogue hard to follow.

Wouldn’t you know the intended victim would kill the Orion lady before Red could get his answer and allow Liz to get to KR first, who would get the drop on her, of course. At least Liz didn’t have to kill her other parent. She’s messed up enough without that on top of everything else.

Dembe is quite the artist. Nice drawing of the owl.

Dom could kill his own kid. Michael had Fredo killed. Dysfunctional families, especially if he viewed her as her handler more than her father.

I can’t help but think there may have been more than one incident in Belgrade. Where was Reddington? He didn’t make a guest appearance in Ilya's flashback. Maybe he was blocked.

Red said Ilya was "like a brother to him". It makes me wonder if he had to, would he be able to sacrifice Ilya to save Liz?

Speaking of Liz. What is she thinking? And I also don’t think Dom's sole motivation in sacrificing Katarina was to keep Masha safe.

And in the flashbacks they talk about Reddington like he’s still alive. Isn’t real RR dead by 1991? Unless they’ve already replaced him and the imposter is for all intents now RR so that’s how they refer to him? Obviously Dom’s story about Ilya having the plastic surgery to become RR is made up, or Ilya wouldn’t still be Ilya in 1991. Somebody had surgery, though. I suppose the brother idea is possible, but what would be his motivation, unless he also was seriously devoted to both Katarina and his brother. Or maybe he wasn’t exactly a willing subject. I have said before that he could have had some memory manipulation in the past., and I wouldn’t be surprised. If he and Ilya were supposed to have been brothers then casting Gabriel Mann as young Ilya makes sense, even though we thought that maybe he was the younger version of current Red, that would give them sort of a family resemblance.

Anyway, off to read the recaps and see what sense those writers made of things. And rewatch tomorrow.