[The Blacklist] #301 - The Troll Farmer

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Raymond Reddington is back and the episode doesn’t even hesitate to continue the storyline from the last season finale, as poor Elizabeth Keen is stamped as a traitor. Naturally the episode still introduces us to a new person listed in the Blacklist. The odds are stacked up against them as their former partners are forced to hunt them down. Allies become enemies, the Blacklist expands as Red tries to tell Kean that there is more history to her Russian spy heritage than one could assume.

Warning, here is your classic spoiler warning. If you have not yet seen the episode, then be careful, as the following review will contain spoilers of the episode. You have been warned.

The episode directly starts with what happened last season with Red and Keen on the run from their former allies. With former Director Cooper being detained from the fact that he helped Keen escape and it lead to the assassination of the man, who orchestrated the entire façade that turned Keen into a traitor in the eyes of the FBI. It was great that his storyline was continued and didn’t go under as the episode even closes off with him revealing the fact that his entire cancer was a lie spoon fed to him. It was nice that he still remained the anchor of the entire team,as Ressler was forced into a position that he had to hunt down the one person he had actually started to trust and believe in.

My only complaint would be the fact that Ressler truly turned into the stereotypical “I have to preserve the law” as he hunts them down, but it was a nice touch to show that his personal vendetta is eating him alive, as he even makes some rather rash decisions putting his own teammates at risk. Still, it will be interesting to see if his believe will change over the course of the season, as it could potentially be an interesting development as he battles his believe in the system or that towards Elizabeth Keen.

Reddington is fantastic as usual, but James Spader is always an amazing prescence. It was nice to see that he is in fact a kind man, who is just in a world of criminal activity. The way he handles one person, who accidently finds them at a apartement they broke into was a nice touch, and shows us that even in such chaotic moments he still can keep a cool head. The only thing that I found interesting is that even the great Reddington makes mistakes by trusting some people. Even if it was meant to move the plot forward, I did think it was a bit sad to see him put trust into someone and immediately getting screwed over, as for some reason Keen scared her more than the guy who put a gun to her head just a moment earlier.

Also, making Dembe a main character this season was a fantastic choice, as he has some great prescence on his own and we even get an interesting look into his life. The introducing of a new member of the Cabal, who has a fantastic atmosphere surrounding him and the way he playes Dembe was quite an interesting development. I am quite interested to see where this storyline is heading and to a degree even more how it will connect to the other plotline.

In summary, a great episode that even ended with an interesting display of Red showing more humanity than ever before, but that cements his relationship even more towards Keen. I am quite curious to see how this relationship will develop with their current positions and with Red being the only one to truly flee, It will be interesting to see how Red can influence the events from the outside, and how exactly will this affect the way the Blacklist is being treated. Maybe he will make deals to reveal more people from the Blacklist so that Keen will not be harmed.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!

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