So, back to the episode discussion...
I loved the delving into the parallels between Red and Tom. It made me think of Red's assertion that "Men like Tom don’t ever change." If that wasn't a self-revelation, I don’t know what was. And the fact that Red hired him to guard and be closest to the one person in the world that truly matters to him was Big! So he was always fully aware of how good Tom was as an operative, which made him perfect for the original job, but also very tricky to work with. As evidenced by his suitcase switcheroo last night. Even fooled Red temporarily.

But, yeah, I think Tom is definitely dead. The tying on of the toe tag pretty much said that. "Thomas Keen, male, age 33, cause of death hemorrhaging due to gunshot &...” Cooper was there as his official identifier at the morgue. Who else could do it? Aside from Ressler or Aram or the other Post Office folks. Liz was in a coma and Red still can't show his face in such a public way. I imagine Cooper had to sign off on it.

Oh, Honey West, I totally agree. To further add clarification to MY comment, I'm always turned off when commenters (Reddit, I'm looking at you!) bash the acting skills of anyone on The Blacklist who isn't James Spader. I personally feel everyone involved deserves to be there due to their incredible talent. I'm looking forward to Megan being given something deeper to delve into with the Jan 3rd(?) episode. She'll have a chance, as an actress, to really shine and I believe she will.

Last edited by JackPow (11/16/2017 2:34 pm)

I can't imagine Liz being the same after being out cold for 10 months, nearly destroyed by Garvey, having her loving husband and friend destroyed and barely surviving the ordeal.

This will be Megan Boone's biggest challenge. She was easily the least experienced and youngest player in the main cast. Her acting in the first year, year and a half was relatively stiff and disaffected. That said, she learned and learned, thru osmosis with pros like Lennix, Spader, Marno, all the amazing guest stars and some obvious quality direction.

But nobody should expect a 10 or 20% change to her compass. Realistically she should have the morals of a terrorist, losing a loved one, barely surviving herself and having a 'father' who's either the great pretender or a real person.

Don't expect a 180 - if I were writing her character I'd have her carrying a simmering rage into the future, grudges galore, resistance to free counselling offered by Harold and testy associations with Ressler, Samar, Aram, Dembe & Red.

Having an ax to grind but not being able to shoot from the hip will present Boone's biggest challenge. Although the fate of the show doesn't rest on her shoulders - the quality of the balance of the story requires a sea change by her character.

NBC has released photos of the final scene with Red sitting next to Liz and she isn’t on a ventilator and she has a bruise on her cheek. I wonder if in the initial shooting they  considered making it much shorter amount of time that she was recovering and then changed it and went to a longer time jump.

In my daddygater head canon (because the fire events  have neither been proven nor disproven), Liz really did shoot her father (Red, as in the guy we see on tv each week).  She ran back to the closet, terrified at what she had done and for breaking the rules and leaving the closet.   Red, in his panic, endures through his gunshot wound and the smoke and flames to get her out of the closet.  He hands her off to Katarina and collapses, Liz sees him on the floor as she is carried out by KR, on fire and dying because he went back to save her. 

When Tom came up from the floor through his beating and stab wounds to fight the men who were prepared to kill Liz as she lay stunned on the floor, I thought of my little head canon and the parallel of another man who loves her (and is very much like Red) fighting through his agony to save her when she couldn’t save herself.  Red survived, but Tom did not.

And I’ve also had head canon about Red raising Agnes at some point, so it sounds like maybe that at least happened while she was in a coma.

Last edited by Brittany (11/16/2017 6:24 pm)

IowaWatcher wrote:

Brittany wrote:

I wonder if in the initial shooting they considered making it much shorter amount of time that she was recovering and then changed it and went to a longer time jump.

It wouldn't surprise me if that were the case. Ten months gives them a lot of time to play with. I would've argued for that vs. several weeks, if they had asked me (which no one did! LOL!)

I suppose they could have also intended a fade out/fade in - by that  I mean, showing the direct aftermath, then faded to essentially the same scene but we learn its 10 months later.  I'm glad they chose the 10 months, after such an intense and traumatic episode, its kind of like breathing space for the viewers.  Not to mention artistically I think it was more surprising to do it that way, and it gives them a ton of leeway to go in whichever direction they choose.

I'm quite excited to see where this goes.  
 

Switching gears slightly, this ep made me think of something else that perhaps puts a check in the Rederina column. Not that I am a convert to this theory - but-

Kr forbade lKate to love Liz. In a way Red did the same with Tom. Seeing the flashback with the Major made me think that

Of course with Kr I think it was to control Kate. With Tom I think Red knew that (old) Tom was no good for her as well as to control Tom

But in both cases I think it was also about controlling Liz.

Just my two cents on it. 😍

Maggie - I saw the toe tag yesterday and thought that date was very weird. If they hadn't had a going away party for Ryan Eggold with a cake and presents, I would think something was up. 

Lara #134- That's an interesting way of looking at it.  While I'm not in the Redarina camp, I can see what you mean.  I've always interpreted it to be that Red didn't want history repeating itself with Liz (the spy and the mark falling in love while the mark is in the dark), but that way is also understandable without necessarily being Redarina.  I still haven't decided if Red knew KR was assigned to him and they tried to work it out, but she proved to be unable to change (like Red said about Tom) or if he didn't learn until the end of the relationship and was salty about it for years. 

Speaking of salty, you guys are my only interactive outlet now for the fandom (other than twitter and tumblr stalking).  I left the FB group I was in because so many people were way too mad about Tom being killed and it 'ruining' the show and it was annoying.  I can understand being upset with a favorite character dying, but geez.  I promise here and now that if Red turns out to be an imposter or if any of my other theories die a painful death that I will not be that way.  I might be disappointed, but I won't lose my mind. *crosses heart*

Last edited by Brittany (11/17/2017 11:09 am)

NOTE: They could have used animation to "edit out" the later November date. Either way they could have taken a few minutes in post-production to either blur or otherwise change the date shown. But they went lazy. Unacceptable for a multi-million dollar budget show.
Also think there's a very good chance the show-runners are still trying to figure out the explanation on 'bag of bones'. They probably have a number of ideas - but because they don't have to declare their hand - they can keep kicking the can forward!