So will all this action prove to be game changing? Have we seen the last of the task force checking off names on Red’s list? Almost certainly not, if past patterns are to be believed. We even got a Dembe plot! For a series that’s been stuck in neutral much of the time, just biding its time until a very special episode, any forward momentum feels like a shot in the arm. That’s provided the engine for several episodes since-including this one, as David Straithairn works damage control-but the greatest benefit is that the show followed through on all those vague, dread-filled conversations in the dark. One possible difference is that at the end of last season Red finally got his hands on the Fulcrum, the show’s biggest MacGuffin and something that it sometimes felt like we’d never hear the end of and never actually see. I’m hopeful that this plays out for longer than just the next episode, since there seem to be lots of possibilities on the for Liz as an outsider.

The end of the episode where she climbs the fence of the Russian embassy was a terrific moment of the character and action all coming together for a genuinely exiting finish (although would it have killed her driver to drop her off at the address?). At this point I don’t know that it’s possible to reveal anything that could live up to all the hype over her, but any new information is far better than more talk hinting at her place in the world. And in the middle is Lizzie, who’s the key to everything and the most important person in the world ever because shut up she just is. On the other there’s the FBI’s top covert operation: a drab, humorless exposition machine.

On the one side there’s James Spader, having a ball as Reddington, meeting up with eclectic guest stars to play out wonderfully ludicrous plots. The Blacklist has often been a show that can’t get out of its own way. The scenes where the two of them work as a team to evade capture are some of the strongest here, with Liz cleverly finding an improvised safe house based on who would be driving a Porsche. That’s the whole episode: hide and seek until someone can reach base.Īnd that’s plenty for an action show, as last season’s revelation that Liz’s mother was a Russian spy along the return of her memory has her in the rare position of being aggressive rather than whining about Red. Technically, “The Troll Farmer” is the season 3 premiere but rather than take its time and reintroduce the players the hour kicks off right where last year’s finale left off, with the FBI scrambling to find a desperate Red and Liz.

The blacklist season 3 complete