Review: THE BLACKLIST Mid-Season Finale Reflections

This is not a recap of THE BLACKLIST's "Kings of the Highway," which we've all seen (or have read several recaps, or both) by now, but a series of meditations on it, and on what the producers and writers now need to achieve. As the news is now out that the show has been renewed for Season Four, there's a lot to do during the second half of Season 3, picking back up in January.

We're down an agent. Samar is gone, thanks to the worst one night stand in history. Nothing like getting fired by your boss right after you've slept with him. Even if Cooper comes back as the director of the team, without Liz as an agent, we need another agent. And by all writing and TV standards, this must be a woman. Liz isn't in the clear yet, so it won't be her. Will Samar come back, or are we being brought a new agent? If it is a new agent, will she be clean or Cabal? And will Samar, if she's not back as an agent, go quietly and never be seen again, or will she sign on to Team Reddington?

More importantly, if she goes and is never seen again, will Aram die of a broken heart? Ressler has saddened the single most valuable asset the team has. The single most valuable asset, besides Mr. Kapan, that Red has. The King of All Technology is sad. How will this play out for him? Fans care.

Did I say "Mr. Kaplan"? I said "Mr. Kaplan." Speaking of fan favorites, we saw her only once this fall season. We must see more of her in the upcoming season, or we will be bereft of all joy. Also speaking of the omnipotent Mr. Kaplan, the Cabal's cleaning squad is not as capable as she -of course, who is? If it's a match of cleaners, the Cabal will clearly lose badly to Team Red. Here's a thought: an episode of Aram and Mr. Kaplan, the show's two biggest fan favorites, working together. In this episode, nothing will go wrong for longer than thirty seconds. Hold it -this might be the final episode of the entire Cabal thing, because putting these two (and Kaplan's ability to get mercenary teams together in five minutes) together for an hour episode would clear out all questions, all mysteries. Aram would figure out everything, and Kate Kaplan would Make It Happen. Could television handle this much kickass?

Dead: Justice Queen Wright. Not by Professor Plum in the library with the candlesticks, but by Security Queen Hitchin (speaking of kickass, Christine Lahti has rocked this part), with a gun, at her house, because Wright wanted to know about Mad Killer Solomon. This was when we discovered that the Cabal CLEANERS do not live up to Mr. Kaplan's standards. Will this trip up Hitchin? Will we see more of Hitchin with The Director of Evilness? How closely will she begin to monitor Ressler and the gang? Or will she fade out against Team Red? We saw what Red did to Diane. Will we be privileged to see him go postal on Christine Lahti?

The new theme: is it "exonerate Lizzie" or "keep her alive"? Where will we focus? If there will be efforts to keep her alive, as there must be, will Solomon be part of them? Poor fool. He's on Not-Tom's trail. Not-Tom has already killed Solomon's goons. Surely he can kill Solomon. And Karakurt is with Not-Tom and would probably like to remain alive. Karakurt is a match for Solomon. So we have Not-Tom and Karakurt versus Solomon. Plus Red and Dembe. Will Solomon remain alive until the season finale or not?

No news: Megan Boone is pregnant. Will this be written into the story line? If so, is it Tom's? Will the writers set up a night with Liz and Tom? Serious question: Now that they finally allowed Liz to be kickass again in this episode, how can this series survive if Liz is either pregnant or is raising a child? Would we be subjected to Liz being pregnant in FBI custody (and unless Liz and Tom did it already, how would Liz get pregnant)? Would we now see Red in full-on, super-deadly protector-of-pregnant-women mode? Okay, I'd pay to see that one and so would you, watching Red go Rambo on anyone looking cross-eyed at a pregnant Liz while never getting one blood spot on his amazingly tailored double-breasted waistcoat.

But Liz with a child is not the same thing as Olivia Benson on LAW AND ORDER: SVU with a child. Nor is it the same thing as the junior mascot of CRIMINAL MINDS and his mom. Benson's in charge now and doesn't spend her life in danger, and little Henry has a dad. If Liz is going to super-agent with Red, she can't be raising a baby herself. Can you see Not-Tom settling down with Liz and making things other than pancakes for breakfast every day while changing diapers and asking Liz if she'll be home that week? No, you can't. Unless the format of the series is to change radically, Liz cannot be a happy, secure mom. If the format of the show changes that radically, kiss the Red-Lizzie dynamic goodbye. What will Megan Boone's pregnancy do to the show in these days when pregnant actresses routinely have babies written into scripts?

And, uh, are we prepared to make Liz's tale of woe go to crisis mode by having her lose a baby? Show writers, think twice before you adjust any part of the series to accommodate pregnancy. This is not an ordinary show, and Liz Keen is not an ordinary part. Lose her as an action figure, and the show itself may be lost. It was hard enough watching her doing nothing most of this fall season.

Charlene Cooper. Was having an affair. With the next-door neighbor. Until Harold became sick and she felt guilty. Of course, Harold Cooper wasn't really sick. Will she now feel un-guilty after we eventually fix up the Karakurt matter? And NBC, you gave us a terminally ill African-American FBI wife in HANNIBAL and a believed-terminally-ill African-American FBI agent in THE BLACKLIST for a while; can you slow down on your terminally ill African-American FBI trope? While I was writing this, I confused Jack's wife on HANNIBAL with Charlene Cooper for all of five seconds; they're starting to run together. Stop the madness.

Donald Ressler, your principles are becoming irritating. Your back story about your dad and the crooked cop does not make you more relatable. It makes you more obsessive, and you're bad enough with that already. Except your vaunted ethics don't prevent you from sleeping with another agent under your command. Oh God, writers, do not write pregnant Liz with Ressler as the father. That defines jumping the shark. Trust me on this. You've already dallied with Ressler being soft around the edges over Liz, which is why Samar was such a shocker. Don't make it worse.

What do we want? Harold Cooper back as the team director. When do we want it? Now. We also want an Aram episode and a Mr. Kaplan episode. Are these too much to ask?

With Wright dead, Samar gone at least from the team, Liz under arrest, and the world turned upside down, what, besides a new female agent, will be done to structure the Post Office team? Might the amazing Christine Lahti get a Cabal mole planted in there?

And now, a serious reflection. Red has exposed the Cabal. The Cabal and the government have fought back. Ressler believes now, but who else besides Cooper and Not-Tom do? Will exonerating Liz actually bring down the Cabal, or will we only take down Peter, The Director of All Evil? In short, can the Cabal plot actually run past the end of this season and go into Season Four? If all is exposed in exonerating Liz, as we thought it was last season before Liz got targeted, what happens to the show's direction? What's the new boogeyman? If the Cabal isn't brought down, is there any possible way to keep this whole thing fresh? Hark back to THE X-FILES, which alternated the alien conspiracy arc neatly with Monster of the Week episodes so well that it ran for nine seasons, even with its star missing from the series. How can the writers juggle well enough to keep this fresh long-term?

A parting thought: We've had no real new information on Liz's back story or on Red's this season to date. Isn't it time? And Liz profiled Red early in Season One; isn't it time she actually did a re-evaluation on him?

Talk amongst yourselves, or comment below or tweet us @MarakayBWW!

Photo Credit: NBC Universal

To post a comment, you must register and login.