The Blacklist

[Mistermoonlight]

Jan 18, 2014 3:03:02 GMT -5 Jeff said:

Was this at me or at Anti?

Oops. I didn't see your 'ha' down there and thought I was quoting Anti's post.

[Deleted]

Jan 18, 2014 13:19:31 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

Jan 18, 2014 3:03:02 GMT -5 Jeff said:

Was this at me or at Anti?

Oops. I didn't see your 'ha' down there and thought I was quoting Anti's post.

No you quoting me.

[AntiArbitrator]

S01, E12 The Alchemist

NEW (First Aired: January 20, 2014)

Red notifies the team that a man known as the Alchemist has been hired to protect a mob informant and his wife; Tom and Liz face another obstacle in their relationship.

[Deleted]

I wonder what will happen?

[Mistermoonlight]

Happy happy joy joy. I am watching tonight's episode finally! I relish James Spader's character Red Reddington, and need my fix!

"My house is clean, yours is not."

Thanks Red, somehow I always suspected it would take killing a half dozen people to get mine up to muster.

[Mistermoonlight]

Came across this info on Red's background on a website that I found interesting:

"He attended the Naval Academy, graduating top of his class at the age of 24, and was being groomed for Admiral when he disappeared while coming home to visit his family for Christmas in 1990. 4 years later, he resurfaced, selling classified documents to the enemy. Over the next 20 years he built a network of contacts, including spies, thieves, hackers, and assassins. During this time, U.S. assets located in Moscow, Islamabad, and Beijing were compromised. He infiltrated the private sector, and there was no industry that was out of his reach, including technology, shipping, communications, and pharmaceuticals. Eventually he went from just selling secrets to also starting wars, toppling governments, and influencing geo-politics to suit his needs. He became known as "The Concierge of Crime" due to his ability to arrange deals between the various black market factions. He was ranked fourth on the FBI's Most Wanted List as an "arrest on sight" fugitive, shown when he surrendered to the FBI in "Pilot"."

the-blacklist.wikia.com/wiki/Raymond_Reddington

[Deleted]

Wonder why he went from a good guy to a bad guy for?

[AntiArbitrator]

1.13 The Cyprus Agency

NEW (First Aired: January 27, 2014)

Red informs Liz that an illegal adoption agency is responsible for a recent spate of abductions; Liz and Tom contemplate adoption.



Cast:
James Spader,
Megan Boone,
Diego Klattenhoff,
Harry Lennix,
Ryan Eggold,
Parminder Nagra


Guests:
Campbell Scott

[Mistermoonlight]

About to start watching tonight's episode!

I SO look forward to this every week.

[Deleted]

Wonder if Liz and Tom will re think adoption or not now?

[AntiArbitrator]

Mr. Reddington is always the most clever person in the room. Instead of forcing Liz to acknowledge Tom is not to be trusted, he kept planting seeds of doubt until finally one took root.

I thought I would be saying R.I.P. to Meera, but Red is a reasonable man and gave her a chance to prove her innocence.

Jan 12, 2014 14:47:14 GMT -5 AntiArbitrator said:

Diane Fowler is #2 on my list for the mole. She wants the liaison to fail.

I was close, but no cigar ~ Diane was the mole. She was arrogant 'til the end and she did not count on the fact that Red does not leave loose ends.

Meera is a good agent and I am glad she was not the real mole even though she was recruited by Diane.

Speaking of good agents, once again, Liz and Ressler did not work well as a team. I think if Stevie Wonder was standing that close, he could have kept the guy from getting away in the parking garage.

That was a horrific operation that the team took down. Red gave them an excellent lead and he stood aside and let the team do the work necessary to dismantle the operation. I admire the way he does not try to take over their operation.

The adoption agency case caused Liz to assess her relationship with Tom and back away from the adoption. Red wins again.

I am puzzled about Tom. If Tom's marriage with Liz is a cover, would he jeopardize it by having an affair with a random woman? We know she was planted to connect with him, but we do not know who is manipulating the alliance.

There are some interesting plots and sub-plots, and I am looking forward to the next episode.

[Deleted]

Thanks for sharing Anti.

[AntiArbitrator]

Hi Jeff I am really interested in Tom's story and it looks like we might learn something about him tonight. I hope so.

---

S01, E15 The Judge

NEW(First Aired: March 3, 2014)

Red believes he knows who was responsible for a prominent prosecutor's 12 year disappearance; Red investigates the woman who tempts Tom.

[AntiArbitrator]

This was a very interesting episode. Red alerted the FBI team about a person who was thought to be a myth. Prisoners who claimed to be innocent used a prison grapevine to request help from The Judge. The Judge would sentence the perpetrator to the same punishment that the innocent person received. That had been going on for years but no one had a clue to lead them to The Judge.

An interesting twist is that one of the cases involved Agent Cooper. Lizzy did some excellent investigative work to track down where The Judge was holding Cooper and other prisoners. Red used his skills of persuasion to obtain information on the case that could be used as leverage to save Agent Cooper. Good thing because Cooper was about two minutes from being electrocuted.

Red was also investigating a woman who had pretended to be dead in order to elude him. She is now following him and photographing people he is associated with. The woman turns out to be the woman who has been flirting with Tom. I was hoping we would learn Tom’s story but they left us wondering.

[Mistermoonlight]

Mar 3, 2014 23:57:10 GMT -5 AntiArbitrator said:

This was a very interesting episode. Red alerted the FBI team about a person who was thought to be a myth. Prisoners who claimed to be innocent used a prison grapevine to request help from The Judge. The Judge would sentence the perpetrator to the same punishment that the innocent person received. That had been going on for years but no one had a clue to lead them to The Judge.

An interesting twist is that one of the cases involved Agent Cooper. Lizzy did some excellent investigative work to track down where The Judge was holding Cooper and other prisoners. Red used his skills of persuasion to obtain information on the case that could be used as leverage to save Agent Cooper. Good thing because Cooper was about two minutes from being electrocuted.

Red was also investigating a woman who had pretended to be dead in order to elude him. She is now following him and photographing people he is associated with. The woman turns out to be the woman who has been flirting with Tom. I was hoping we would learn Tom’s story but they left us wondering.

All I can say is WOW. I'm gonna need some to process all of this, and will post more tomorrow.

[Deleted]

Why isn't it on next week for?

[AntiArbitrator]

Mar 4, 2014 6:31:50 GMT -5 Jeff said:

Why isn't it on next week for?

They are introducing a new series “Believe” next week. I guess they want to capitalize on The Blacklist fan base. I will watch it.

[AntiArbitrator]

Mar 4, 2014 1:33:03 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

All I can say is WOW. I'm gonna need some to process all of this, and will post more tomorrow.

Me too. I jotted down the storyline last night to help me to process it.

Every week, I look forward to James Spader making Reddington bigger than life and he never disappoints me. We have seen him take violent and deadly action and I think he is just as scary when he calmly uses verbal persuasion. At the same time, he makes me think I would love for him to be my friend or ally.

This show is remarkable in introducing us to villains who are worthy of Red’s notice. That makes it plausible for the FBI to keep Red as their “secret weapon”. I like that title. Each antagonist makes me wonder if there are truly people like that in the world. The show goes beyond just entertaining me; it makes me shiver at the chance that there is an element of reality sprinkled into the storyline.

I must talk about Tom. I can’t help liking Tom as the charming, supportive and loving husband who just wants to have a normal life with his wife. The fact that we have known all along that he was lying shows how persuasive he has been. We know he has been lying…because Red told us to not trust him.

I wondered about his motive in going to the hotel room…he did seem to want to be with the woman. He removed his wedding band…finished his drink…and slowly walked to the room…all signs that he was going to a liaison. Perhaps it was his sixth sense that caused him to back away, but he was believable when he said “I love my wife.” I got to hand it to him…he’s good.

I do not want to wait two weeks to see Tom go into action. I know he is going to be awesome!

[Mistermoonlight]

Every film I've seen James Spader in he's been mesmerizing. I think my two favorites are "Wolf" (with Jack Nicholson) and "Less than Zero" with Robert Downey Jr. But something has happened in the meanwhile. He has become something even bigger than that with "The Blacklist." He is an antihero who is also the smartest person in any room. Yet, he is not one-dimensional but complex. He has relationships with people he truly loves and who, in turn, are dedicated to him--even to paying the ultimate price. He is loved on the basis of these relationships, and he always keeps up his end, when it is deserved.

Red has been telling Lizzie that her husband Tom was not to be trusted. She found the stash of money, IDs, and passports in her own house, much like Lance Reddick (from "Fringe) discovered Jolene's in this episode. And his dalliance with Jolene reveals to us, that yes, indeed, Lizzie is supposed to be his 'target' (I would guess for assassination) but that he has fallen in love with her.

I have never trusted Lizzie's boss, Booker, and in this episode we see great reason not to. Even though Rifkin is shown to be guilty (and subsequently executed) we will never forget that Booker beat the confession out of him. He's not a good guy.

Plus, we're still waiting for the repercussions of Red's murder of Diane Fowler, head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.

As Red says later on in the episode "There’s a war coming… Things will get considerably worse before they get better.”

I can't wait to see it.

Extra added bonus fact: the version of the song "Jolene" that we hear in the episode that sounds like it's being sung by a man is actually the original Dolly Parton version slowed down from 45 RPM to 33 RPM.

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2014 13:47:22 GMT -5 AntiArbitrator said:

Mar 4, 2014 6:31:50 GMT -5 Jeff said:

Why isn't it on next week for?

They are introducing a new series “Believe” next week. I guess they want to capitalize on The Blacklist fan base. I will watch it.

I see what you mean, I also saw it comes back the following week.

[AntiArbitrator]

Mako Tanida

NEW

S01, E16(First Aired: March 17, 2014)

One of Red's former associates, a crime lord, becomes the next target; Tom decides to confront Jolene.

[AntiArbitrator]

I have been looking forward to this episode and tonight is the night!

I hope that is Jolene and not Lizzy that Tom is tossing around.

[Deleted]

Never saw the 3rd esp show.

[Deleted]

Never saw the 3rd esp show.

[AntiArbitrator]

Mar 17, 2014 20:11:34 GMT -5 Jeff said:

Never saw the 3rd esp show.

Maybe you should not read my post until you have seen it.

[AntiArbitrator]

This was an exciting episode that featured excerpts from the lives of Reddington, Ressler, Tom Keen and the person of interest, Mako Tanida, and the theme was revenge

Following the murder of his girlfriend, revenge was the motivation for Ressler to become judge and executioner. The irony is that the person he wanted to kill was acting on the same motivation. Tanida’s brother had been killed by agents on Ressler’s team and Tanida was determined to exact his own brand of retribution.

Reddington has a remarkable network that informs him of events that the FBI and other agencies would not know until it was much too late. Red convinced the team that Mako Tanida had escaped from prison and was taking revenge on agents who captured him. Without that information, it is likely all four members of the FBI team would have been executed.

Meanwhile, Reddington and the cowboy were keeping tabs on Jolene who had made contact with Lizzy. Tom was incensed that Jolene came to his home and I eagerly anticipated how he would handle it. When the cowboy was one moment from capturing Jolene, Tom intervened and captured the cowboy. Although Tom had been in deep cover for two years, he did not disappoint me. He had the skill to defeat both Jolene and the cowboy.

Reddington advised Ressler that revenge takes a person on a path from which he can never return, but Ressler did not care. We know that Reddington took that path and it led to him becoming a notorious criminal. Red offered Ressler a gift that might save him…Tanida’s head on a plate.

I enjoyed this episode and I am eagerly looking forward to the next one.

P.S. James Spader was scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show following the episode. I recorded it and will watch in a little while.

[Deleted]

I am getting a new DVR so I don't lose anymore shows.

[AntiArbitrator]

Jeff  I think you will be happy with a new DVR because some of the shows you and I watch are really good. The Blacklist gets more exciting as more information is revealed about Reddington, Tom, Lizzy and some of the agents like Cooper and Ressler. Some of those guys are not as squeaky clean as they appeared to be.

Hope you catch up soon.

[Deleted]

I saw this past weeks but I am lost about what going on.

[AntiArbitrator]

Important status:

Reddington murdered ADA Fowler because she was the mole but the FBI has not figured it out yet.

Reddington knows Tom Keen and Jolene knew each other, but we do not know what organization they work for. Red has tried to warn Lizzy about Tom, but she is still unaware that he is not just a school teacher.

We are waiting to see how things play out between Tom and Lizzy.

We now know that Red's family was killed on Christmas and his grief and anger led to him becoming a criminal.