The Blacklist Refugees » Episode 5.10 - The Informant

Big Badd Bazzer · 1/16/2018 1:14 am

Megan was on Seth Myers NBC late nite tonite. Wore a very flowery dress, completely different than her Black Liz gear. Unlike previous appearances she wasn't as clenched or tight - in fact very open, very loose and super forthright about the METOO movement! Worth watching if you can find a stream of it!

Eastcoast · 1/16/2018 2:35 am

BBB, I saw it and agree with you! She really was more relaxed. It was great!

Eastcoast · 1/16/2018 3:08 am

Deadskie13, post 141,
Good to hear from you! I noticed that with the eyes!
She is not playing games!!

Eastcoast · 1/16/2018 3:17 am

As far as people on fire.... super bad dudes, deserved to die, but it's really hard for me to see or think about. I found it hard to think Red could do that when he knows what it's like.
3 people torched in 2 episodes. And I think there is another one coming up in episode 12.

Last edited by Eastcoast (1/16/2018 11:19 am)

Tuxie400 · 1/16/2018 9:34 am

Eastcoast - I also was surprised Red would set Prescott on fire since he had been burned so badly himself. He really did seem like the devil there. But we did see him fire up that guy in Season 1 when he was on his Luli revenge quest.

Tuxie400 · 1/16/2018 10:40 am

After watching the episode a second time, I was really impressed with the level of acting in all the Ressler scenes. Diego really hit it out of the park this time. And his lines were probably were probably my favorites of the show:

Ressler: There's nothing sweet about a cop who breaks the rules.
Samar: Says the man who never jaywalks.
Aram: Or had a hair out of place or even a wrinkle his his suit. Agent Ressler, you know you'd make an amazing criminal. If you were a crooked cop, no one would even know.
Ressler: I would.

Ressler to Red: You said that once you cross over, there are things in the darkness that can keep your heart from ever feeling the light again. I didn't go home. But I never crossed over. I never thanked you for that. ... (Now) I'm in the darkness, and doing the right thing is the only way I'd ever feel the light again."

Ressler is a character who has been drawn into the darkness a few times, but he always comes back to the light. Even though Red implored Cooper to help rein Liz in, I think Ressler will be the one who will help her the most.

Eastcoast · 1/16/2018 11:28 am

Tuxie, I thought he threatened him with it but shot him because he could wait. He said, "The suspense is killing me."

Tuxie400 · 1/16/2018 12:30 pm

Eastcoast - I just remembered Red doused him with some flammable and put a cigar in his mouth. But I think you're right - he ended up shooting him instead. In any case, I hope Red and Liz won't burn alive any others.

Eastcoast · 1/16/2018 1:49 pm

Tuxie, I think it is in the Good Samaritan.

I don't want to see anyone else on fire either. I do want to see about the house fire.
Somewhere a while back they had pics and comments of the filming of episode 12 and it said there was a stunt person on fire and it showed a bunch of houses close together so it could not be the 2 episodes we just saw.

Off to RL for a while!

Tuxie400 · 1/16/2018 2:18 pm

Eastcoast - I think the upcoming episode that has someone on fire is called The Arsonist.

lara1 · 1/16/2018 3:17 pm

Someone I believe mentioned Liz's eyes when she was choking that guy in the car. I noticed that also, in fact I'm always interested in how they focus on eyes - Kirk's, Red's, Liz's, Tom's, Katarina's....anyway in that scene, the way it was filmed, aside from making Liz look a little bit demented - shades of Kaplan - I thought her eyes Looked like KR's. Another thing with the series is that they often light faces so that a band of light falls diagonally over the eyes, kind of like a more subtle version of "young Red" when he first meets Kaplan in the shadows.

Last edited by lara1 (1/16/2018 3:19 pm)

Tuxie400 · 1/16/2018 6:17 pm

lara1 - In addition to Liz's eyes, what did you think of the last scene, which was shot with red and blue lights and made Liz's hair red? When I saw the red hair, I thought immediately of Katarina and guy she killed in her kitchen.

lara1 · 1/16/2018 6:36 pm

Tuxie400 - Yep, I immediately saw the red and green light that bathed that scene, and the very red light on Liz's hair. Making it look very "red". LOL. Katerina, or Red, or both....
.Personally I think she is exhibiting more Katerina like behavior, of what we know of KR.

Tuxie400 · 1/17/2018 12:19 pm

Earlier on this thread we mentioned the informant's name, Howard Ray Bishop, and said only one other character has had the name Ray or Raymond: Alan Ray Rifkin in The Judge episode from Season 1. It got me thinking about whether those two characters could give us any clues about our Ray, who is, after all, an informant for the FBI.

Howard Ray Bishop acted as an informant in this last episode because it gave him an alibi for downloading info on the accounts of suspected terrorists. Part of his alibi involves a lie about having an affair with a married woman. He is being blackmailed by Prescott.

Alan Ray Rifkin was an Army soldier (military man) put to death in The Judge. His case also involved an informant who was being extracted by the goverment, Rifkin’s being in league with the Taliban (enemy), and a Pentagon (government) coverup.

There are some parallels in the two episodes. Both featured female judges and coverups. In The Informant the coverup was Cooper’s refusing to accept Ressler’s confession. Both also featured confessions. Along with the sealed confessions of Ressler and Cooper, Bishop confessed to Samar that Prescott was blackmailing him, and judge confessed to what Prescott had fixed for her. In the Rifkin case, Cooper had beaten a confession out of Rifkin, even though the charges were true.

Tuxie400 · 1/17/2018 12:49 pm

After having a week to ponder and rewatch The Informant, I have to say this is one of the richest episodes of the season in terms of both acting and in central messages about good and evil. While I first complained about the convoluted and complicated Blacklister plot, I don't think the episode would have worked as well without it. I think it was needed for the tie-in with Prescott, the parallels to the first season, and perhaps the foreshadowing of what is to come for both Red and Liz.

Just as repeated scenes with cemeteries foreshadow death in this show, I think repeated scenes about confessions mean a big one is coming somewhere down the line in this season. In this episode, there were four confessions: Prescott's, the judge's, Ressler's and Cooper's. That makes me think either there will be a major Red confession/reveal about the bag of bones or Liz, after working so hard to erase her involvement in Navarro's death, will confess her crime. Or both could turn themselves in to the Task Force at the end of the season.

I can see Liz later in the season echoing what Ressler told Red: "I'm in the darkness, and doing the right thing is the only way I'll ever feel the light again."

Red's line to Ressler at the judge's apartment really grabbed me. I think it gets at the overall message of The Blacklist:

"Forgiveness doesn't mean accepting what you've done, Donald. It means understanding that the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of all of us."

Last edited by Tuxie400 (1/17/2018 12:57 pm)

lara1 · 1/17/2018 1:26 pm

Tuxie400 - very interesting insights on the episode. I had linked the two judges, both female, with long blond hair. But I hadn't got past that. And interestingly, the subject of the "fake affair" had that long blond hair.

But the confession links are fascinating. And whatever was in that envelope, a kind of confession to be released after his death, that Red burned back in Season 3.

IowaWatcher · 1/17/2018 1:42 pm

Lots of really good points on this thread!

Tuxie, I think you hit the nail on the head: you summed up in a sentence what would take me a paragraph to express right now.

Tuxie400 · 1/17/2018 2:04 pm

lara1 - Yes, those sealed confessions to be put away for safekeeping are reminiscent of the red evelope Red burned in The Caretaker.

Tuxie400 · 1/17/2018 2:29 pm

The other curious Red quote in this episode that intrigued me was this one:

"Sins should be buried like the dead. Not that they may be forgiven, but that we may remember them and find our way forward."

I wondered if this was alluding to the suitcase bones. Did that body represent a sin Red committed, rather than someone he killed? And that turn of phrase, find our way forward. That was what Red was looking for when he went to Dom's in The Artax Network.

Patter · 1/17/2018 2:32 pm

ETA:
Has anyone posed this question yet?

Could Ian Garvey be Seaduke? Did Red actually kill Seaduke and that's why there was concern over the blood sample from 30 years ago? I'm trying to recall without watching S4 season finale. Trying to piece together the Ian's naval background/ring and Red's connection (if there even is one!).

Last edited by Patter (1/17/2018 2:33 pm)