Thanks for starting the thread, HW!
I thought about hot chocolate but ended up with air-popped popcorn with a scant amount of salt and two tablespoons of real butter. It's -3 F, and I've been working at home.
What did you have, Eastcoast?

Re: tonight's show -- MUCH IMPROVED!
Granted I was tired and will need to do a re-watch because there were a couple of confusing spots, but I really liked white letters "Present Day" when they shifted that scene, and overall, I was able to follow most of it. More care went into the editing of this episode.

Dembe and Red are back on the same side and the letter issue appears to be moot. Yea!
Nice to see Marvin. He's lost a lot of weight.

This episode also cleared up a little more of what happened, making character motivation a little clearer.
I still have questions, but I don't feel the same frustration as I did last week. Ending the show with the two men reading to the girls was a nice touch.

Yes, I'm really glad that the show is moving back to Fridays. It makes a nice end to my work week.

My faith is somewhat restored, at least for the moment. They still need to get a better handle on continuity.

 

Let me be clear: I have nothing against the actress who plays Alina Park! I just greatly dislike her character, and the less I see of her, the better. I don't like her or Red's two gals.

Yeah, Hisham Tawfig (Dembe) is coming into his own.

No drug stuff this week, either. I wouldn't be sad if that just disappears.


 

I said somebody else was watching Liz and Dembe that day. If Van Dyke (aka whatshisname) had been anywhere near enough to be able to take those photos Liz and Dembe would have spotted him. No way they wouldn't. At least that has been settled! It would have been extremely out of character for both of them.

Well, now we know what happened from Dembe's POV. Red took off and left him in the lurch, and his organization was left headless. So Dembe tried to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately, Baptiste's son was killed in the crossfire, giving Dembe a mortal enemy. Who Dembe thought was dead. Is that what he said? That would explain why he wasn't expecting to have to deal with him.

Isabella served to add another point of view as to Dembe's joining the law enforcement community and how it might affect his position in their community. And it didn't come across as preachy. TV shows walk a fine line when dealing with real world events and issues and they handled it pretty well, I thought.

Nice touch about Liz not being qualified to succeed Red. And Dembe being the reluctant heir. Love any episode with Marvin Gerard! In his character's position, he is able to say a lot of things that no other characters can. And Fisher Stevens does a great job portraying him.

So Red and Dembe will have to unite against a common enemy, the real person(s) who had Liz killed. I wonder if that person has anything to do with the person who is after Cooper? I was kind of glad that those other stories were back-burnered for tonight. Tonight seemed like the first real Blacklist-type episode of the entire season. Nice to have it back!

IW I thought about popcorn, but had my hot chocolate instead. -3 degrees! Yikes! It was in the low-60's here today. No rain in sight through the end of the month. Good thing we got a lot of rain in November and December. But we are still officially in a drought.