The Blacklist 1.10 “Anslo Garrick Part Two”

My apologies for this extremely late posting. Bronchitis managed to get the better of me. Regardless, onwards. Since they left the Blacklist on an intense cliffhanger, like some of you I’m sure, I was avidly looking forward to seeing the conclusion.

The last episode left off with Anslo Garrick (the episode’s villain) holding a gun to Dembe’s head and threatening to pull the trigger if Raymond Reddington could not or would not give him the code to the large metal bulletproof box that he and Donald Ressler had been staving off capture in. Interrupted by the capture and appearance of Elizabeth Keen, Garrick swaps Dembe for Keen as his hostage and Red manages to make Ressler tell him the code to the metal box.

Garrick then takes Reddington and Keen as hostages while he and his remaining men flee the building. Keen escapes the vehicle and after a failed attempt to follow Garrick returns to the FBI building. After the FBI team is decommissioned, Keen is determined to find Reddington and goes after him alone. After contacting associates of Reddington Keen discovers … wait for it … the creepy men behind the cameras in her house!

Well, she doesn’t actually find out who they are, but she does discover their location and the fact that they’ve been watching her. Additionally Reddington is passed from Garrick’s possession to another man by the name of Fitch. A brief and threatening discussion occurs between Fitch and Reddington before Reddington supposedly kills Garrick and then takes off.

There are a few things about this show that I particularly enjoyed. The first is that they finally address the men watching Keen’s house. Sure, they don’t give us much information on them, or any information on them really, but they have been discovered. We’ve been waiting most of the season for this. I’m excited to see where the writers take this storyline.

Second, we discover that Reddington actually answers to someone. He isn’t the omnipotent character that everyone believes him to be. In the brief discussion between Fitch (the man Garrick was hired by to kidnap Reddington) and Red it becomes abundantly clear that Reddington’s past is a very detailed one, one in which he has to follow guidelines he himself has not set. Even Red has limits.

The discussion between the two also brings new questions to the forefront.  In the discussion, Fitch says to Reddington: “We know what you have Red, and we know what will happen to it if you turn up dead. So we do nothing. We let you live. And in exchange we trust that our secret remains secret.” What does Red have? What is their secret? Further down the rabbit hole we go into the life and times of Raymond Reddington.

There are also a few things that confused me. When Tom Keen calls Lizzie during the hostage situation and Garrick answers, Tom asks “Who the hell is this?” Garrick responds with “I’m the guy who’s going to put a bullet in your wife’s head. Hi!” Keen then yells “Tom call the FBI!” But there is no scenes showing him call the FBI or anyone for that matter who might be able to help. Also, what’s more concerning is that when Keen goes home Tom is still there. Why didn’t he go to the FBI building, or even a police station or someplace where there might be people who could do something, anything, to save his wife and her colleagues?

If your suspicions and mine weren’t enough, at the end of the episode after Reddington disappears, he calls Keen and warns her about her husband, again.  The phone call also yields some new interesting information, albeit possibly false. Keen finally asks Reddington if he is her father. After an exceptionally long pause Reddington says “No.”

The question really is whether or not you believe him.  The fact that he’s now on the run and being watched more closely than ever may have factored into his answer. Also whether he is or isn’t her father, it is abundantly clear that he cares deeply for Keen and doesn’t want her to become collateral damage in an attempt to get to him.  Personally, I don’t buy it.