S08.E15: The Russian Knot

[paigow]

The task force hatches a plan to steal a Soviet-era cipher machine needed to decrypt coded messages; Townsend puts Liz's loyalty to the test; Red and Dembe are called to an unexpected meeting.

Airing: Apr 30 / 21

[milkyaqua]

What are the odds that Townsend will just get rid of Liz instead?

[NeenerNeener]

Oh Ressler, you lovesick putz.

Lizzie, that message really didn't prove that Red is N-13. 

I love Glenn's mom and I'm sorry that Ann didn't survive Lizzie's attack.

[mxc90]

There was a message at the beginning: "Viewer Discretion Advised". Then Liz appeared on my screen. Thank you for the warning NBC! Very thoughtful of you.

I would have worshipped the ground Neville stood on if he had offed Liz and the fool just let her go! Why torture me so early!!!!

Must be nice for Red to admit theft to Cooper and ask him to do the same.
Next scene Cooper and the team are plotting and only Park had some sense to question why are we doing this! 

Why is Ruddiger working with Liz? Last time we saw him he was being tortured by Neville (thinking Liz set him up) and his hand or some digits were cut off. Did they all just magically grow back? 

Ressler and Park must not have seen "The Italian Job".  They just stood there like dopes over the hole in the floor (hoping the commercial break would hurry up and arrive). Then Park goes down to the next level to chase and Ressler stayed up top as if Liz was going come up for a few minutes to mingle with the guests and have drinks.

What happened to the blood thirsty, beating men to a pulp with her tiny frame Agent Park? She spent way too much time fighting Liz. The match should have been over quick and Park standing truimphant over Liz's corpse. Of course! Liz esacpes! Felt like someone from the WWE wrote that scene!

That's twice Liz should have been finished and the satisfaction were taken away each time. What have I done to be mistreated by NBC?????!

Aram thinks Liz just needs a hug. Sigh! A big bear hug is more like it and keep squeezing her for an hour.

Ressler looked so pathetic sitting next to Liz, placing the machine to cover his boner, taking dictation from Liz, and even being suckered to buying a preztel for Esi.

Later he's thanking God: Liz is alive after she embarrased him for the millionth time

Did Liz need to hire the 50+ out of work actors to wear the same hat and jacket?!! She has Ressler and some scrub FBI agents chasing her. There was no need for the subterfuge. They can't catch anyone! She should know this. I think Reseler's balls were in the stroller.

Red is taking all the blame for Anne's death!!!? Anne's daughter never knew she died? Makes sense as there's no police force to go to the crime scene and notify next of kin. Red probably left the body still in the house on the floor (and made sure to wipe away all his prints). 

All this running around just for a messge decrypter! 

I was hoping the meesage came out: "Cooper you are an asshole. Please retire!"

At the end, the table is turned and it's now Liz punking/threatening Sleepy Neville. Next time, Neville should know: it's not wise to kill all your henchmen in front of Liz if you are going to let her live. Because she can now storm your castle knowing you have no security.

Paula has some dirt on Red (thanks to Glen) and she could only nicely "shake down" Red for $172? Offering to pay back, keep quiet and doing the favor were good moves. She's lucky Dembe didn't drive her to some nice secluded place deep in the woods and leave her there!

Paula likes to put her head on the window and feel the bumps on the road. After watching this episode, I wish I was the bump on the road for Dembe to drive over!  

Edited May 1, 2021 by mxc90

[redfish]

The "reveal" didn't really prove N13 was Red. It was so vague that any idiot should realize that.  Liz was really grasping at anything to justify her insanity. It makes her look more desperate. I thought she was supposed to be smart enough to know that you need real evidence.

[preeya]

Am I watching a very poor version of Ocean's Eleven or GULLIBLE'S TRAVELS?

[paigow]

Neville had a boner dream about Liz? Or Dead!Red?

Are refills of that yellow paper available at Costco? Staples? 

Edited May 1, 2021 by paigow

[milkyaqua]

Ugh!  Why is Liz still breathing?

Ressler is an idiot not to mention Cooper and his "agent Keen" nonsense.

Was sorry to hear about Anne.

All that running around and theft for vague messages and Lizzie thinking this proves her theory about Red...  And yes, the decoys in the park was overkill.  The FBI has proved its ineptness time after time.

Oh Aram, she needs a hug?  Really?  Bless your heart.

The less said about Townsend the better.

Gee, what are the odds that anything interesting is going to come of this whole, "mobilizing the assets" thing?

[CaptainE]

Why doesn’t Cooper just fire the insubordinate dipshit Ressler?   Leaving the room to talk to Lizzie?  Seriously?

 I can’t waste more time to on this bilge.  Time for some soothing balm of Handmaids Tale.

[Dowel Jones]

Did Ressler go back and retrieve his cell phone from the trash can?  Or did some random dude find it and run up the FBI bill on PornHub?  Or at least more of Ressler's charges on PornHub?

After hours of tedious work, the clones in the FBI lab finally decoded the message:  "Be sure to always drink your Ovaltine."

It was kind of nice to see Anna's daughter unknowingly (we think) rake Reddington over the coals, and watch his discomfort.

So, at this museum in Minsk, Belarus, Cooper and Co. swoop in and threaten the museum director.  The response should have been "Your jurisdiction is...?  No diplomatic immunity?  Okay, call Interpol.  In the meantime you are all under arrest for espionage.  You may call your embassy tomorrow."

[Brian Cronin]

I'll give Liz a bit of a mulligan here. Yes, this obviously doesn't prove that Reddington is a Russian spy, but if her mother's journals say that Reddington used the Russian knot to communicate with his Russian handler and Liz finds a communique between Reddington and someone via the Russian Knot, I don't think it is unreasonable to think that that is basically proof that her mother was telling the truth. 

It wouldn't hold up in court, but I think it would convince someone like Townsend. 

Liz's overall plot is still terrible, of course, I'm just saying that I don't think it's unreasonable to think that this break of the code did prove something.

[NeenerNeener]

Did anyone besides me think "Rochelle, Rochelle" when they heard the team was going to Minsk? Just me, then...ok. 

If I were Townsend's wife and children I would have faked my own death and gone into hiding. That mofo is psychotic. And so was Liz last week when she was hallucinating Mr. Kaplan and following all her bad advice. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend, Lizzie, and the carnage you caused last week was not justifiable. You're as big a monster as Red. I never thought I would trust Red over Liz, but here we are.

[ottoDbusdriver]

2 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

Did anyone besides me think "Rochelle, Rochelle" when they heard the team was going to Minsk? Just me, then...ok. 

Only if they were going to Minsk after stopping off in Milan first.

[paigow]

The Nazi Enigma encryption system needed Benedict Cumberbatch and a bunch of geniuses to break it. The Knot uses the first code any grade school kid learns.

[preeya]

это шоу отстой так же, как и агент Кин

Who can guess it?

Edited May 1, 2021 by preeya

[paigow]

44 minutes ago, preeya said:

это шоу отстой так же, как и агент Кин

Who can guess it?

Mobilize all hate watchers

[Dowel Jones]

5 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

Did anyone besides me think "Rochelle, Rochelle" when they heard the team was going to Minsk? Just me, then...ok.

I went with Tom Lehrer's "Lobachevsky".  "I have a friend in Minsk, who has a friend in Pinsk, whose friend in Omsk has friend in Tomsk...."

[ottoDbusdriver]

Wow !! That episode was pretty dumb, even for this show.  Park should have kicked Lizzie's ass, no question.

Wasn't Lizzie afraid of damaging the machine by dropping it through that hole in the floor ? Because that would have been the end of the episode.  

Townsend killing most of his henchman was ridiculous.  What did they do that was so heinous -- did they stuff their talentless faces with his mother's crabcakes ?

Is it weird that on a show called 'The Blacklist' the last 3 episodes have had no numbered Blacklisters ?

Still no sign or mention of Agnes, the dogs or Robert Vesco's cat.

[Dowel Jones]

That was the coded message:  "If you want your dogs back, leave $10,000 on a bench in Central Park.  Forget about the cat."

[preeya]

2 hours ago, preeya said:

это шоу отстой так же, как и агент Кин

Who can guess it?

translation:   "this show sucks just as much as Agent Keen"

[saber5055]

3 hours ago, preeya said:

это шоу отстой так же, как и агент Кин

Who can guess it?

How about "Abandon all hope ye who watch this show."

[milkyaqua]

Yeah, I couldn't even my roll my eyes at the Minsk thing.  As soon as they said they'd have to retrieve something from a museum in Minsk, I went, really show?  Because, Russia and we're going to make them look as dumb as the US folks?  But yes, that happened.

[edhopper]

Townsend, the weak, adlebrained psychotic can overcome anyone because reasons. He can even get his own men to kill his other men. But he can't stop Liz and her two sidekicks from storming in and throwing a plastic bag on his head.

And Liz, since you continue to team up with this serial killer, all those deaths, including the cops and Anne, are on your hands. Is outing Red really worth the costs in lives? You have become a worse villain than he ever was. All to avenge your terrible Mother?

And when did FBI profiler Liz accumulate the skills of a master criminal?

[LucidDreamer]

So Liz basically caused Anne's death.  No redemption for Liz, then, in my mind. (Not that she hadn't already done horrible things, but that was the last straw).

Everyone on this show is a criminal of some type or another. Red doesn't even seem like the worst of them anymore . At least he's honest about it, while the task force and Liz pretend they still have some moral high ground to stand on. 

There was so much stupid in this episode, if it was water you could fill the tank for the shark it's been jumping for the last few years.

[Brian Cronin]

Ann having to go into hiding makes a lot more sense. It's better than Liz basically killing her.

[Dowel Jones]

46 minutes ago, LucidDreamer said:

No redemption for Liz, then, in my mind.

I see what you did there.

[paigow]

6 hours ago, preeya said:

это шоу отстой так же, как и агент Кин

Who can guess it?

Season 9?? WTF!!???

[NeenerNeener]

1 hour ago, Brian Cronin said:

Ann having to go into hiding makes a lot more sense. It's better than Liz basically killing her.

I hope so, but you never know with this show. I'm still waiting & hoping for the real Mr. Kaplan and Lizzie's mom to come back.

[saber5055]

3 hours ago, edhopper said:

And when did FBI profiler Liz accumulate the skills of a master criminal?

It's obviously hereditary, Master Criminal Genes inherited from her mom, Red Reddington.

I know Anne might disagree, but since she's no longer here the writers no longer have to consider her viewpoint.

[edhopper]

On 5/1/2021 at 10:07 AM, preeya said:

это шоу отстой так же, как и агент Кин

Who can guess it?

For those to lazy to use Google translate...

"this show sucks just like Agent Keen"

😉

[Neiman]

The fight scene between Park and Liz was ridiculous. Aside from the obvious that there’s no way Lizzie could have walked away from that after the first punch was thrown, Park got hit in the head with a pool of blood not too different from the scene with Ann, yet Park is visibly fine a little while later with no injury, no need for time off, and not even a need for an ice pack.

Lizzie’s hair extensions are also kind of funny. Put a plastic bag over her head, almost suffocate her, and she will emerge like she’s in a shampoo commercial.

[DaphneCat]

So, we're to believe the FBI doesn't have the technology to duplicate a machine used over 50 years ago and must use the ACTUAL clunky machine?  OK, sure - they've convinced me there wouldn't be some easy to use computer program that just allows you to input data as if you were using an old machine.  Yup, I'm buying that.  (A really quick Google search told me otherwise, but OK.)

And Liz, a criminal MASTERMIND we've been told, gets access to the machine, inputs her message and seems baffled that she only got a string of numbers?  She needed Ressler to tell her what they meant (after the FBI, of course, needed Red to tell them that)?  She couldn't figure out that maybe there was a second step involved?  And the "code" required absolutely no effort to solve - it was something we all learned in grade school?  Boy, what a bunch of Cracker Jack minds we got going on there.  

[tljgator]

So, now I'm supposed to forget that last week Liz was hallucinating Mr. Kaplan and wondering if other folks could see her, too? Maybe consider having your writers , you know, talk to each other, show. I guess Anne is dead and we've got light-hearted hijinx music trilling over a museum caper? Maybe consider having your writers , you know, talk to each other, show. At least all the writers seen to know that Ressler is worthless.

Normal people, small city, old lady humor! She eats at Perkins! She makes casseroles with canned soup! So much for giving any kind of credit to the writers. On a good show, she'd be as shady as her son and faking the "aw shucks" schtick -- guess we'll see.

Really, though, if Liz wants Raymond dead because he killed the random lady who used to take care of her kid before the new random lady who takes care of her kid her "mom," then why on earth does't she just shoot him in the head? Seriously, the death toll is well past eleventy now, along with other assorted horrible shit, and she's searching for obsolete decoding machines (fyi -- my first question when I saw the keys on the machine was 'why is it only in English,' but it took the super spies all that time to sort out)? At least when Liz was gone, the nonsense was entertaining. Now, it's just...nonsense. Why is she yelling about "proof"?  I don't think she knows what that word really means.

Should've stuck to my original plan not to bother watching, lol.

[redfish]

Quote

Why is she yelling about "proof"?  I don't think she knows what that word really means.

She wants justification. She needs her "proof" to make all the stupidity and the piles of dead body like Anne (killed by Liz's single minded indifference to people around her) in her war with Red. Because if she can't produce the "proof" to her suspicions, she'll have to see herself as a deranged killer and no better than Red. She's still under the delusion she's still a good/moral person.

 

 

[tljgator]

17 minutes ago, redfish said:

She wants justification. She needs her "proof" to make all the stupidity and the piles of dead body like Anne (killed by Liz's single minded indifference to people around her) in her war with Red. Because if she can't produce the "proof" to her suspicions, she'll have to see herself as a deranged killer and no better than Red. She's still under the delusion she's still a good/moral person

Well, yes -- I was being silly and facetious, as I tend to be with this type of show -- but it proves the point that what she's calling "proof" (if those, are in fact, her thoughts on the matter of proof) really ISN'T proof of any of the things she was yelling about.

[paigow]

(Comic Con 2020 Blacklist panel  Zoom Call)

Idiot Fan: I love how you wrote Liz to be so smart. How did you do it?

Bokenkamp: I start with Wonder Woman. Then take away reason and accountability.

Edited May 6, 2021 by paigow

[Sake614]

8 hours ago, Neiman said:

Park got hit in the head with a pool of blood

That was her ponytail. I had to watch it twice because I also thought she cracked her head open.

[dwmarch]

I know a Blacklist episode is not a favorite of mine when I can't even come up with any good snark for it. This is one of them.

Maybe I missed this because I was only half watching but the idea was that one of these special machines is in a museum, right? So how is anyone communicating with anyone? They are somehow using the museum piece to do man in the middle attacks? Why go through all the effort and then use such a terrible code for hiding the messages? And good luck if you want to spell out something complicated.

They've also somehow managed to suggest that this thing is basically a reusable one-time pad which is ridiculous on its face. If they had used actual one-time pads there would be no chance of interception because there wouldn't be other decryption keys floating around out there! It looks to me like the writers looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad and only followed one part at the very bottom: "One-time pads were employed by Soviet espionage agencies for covert communications with agents and agent controllers. Analysis has shown that these pads were generated by typists using actual typewriters." Someone with an unusually specific fetish for typewriters was all "oh shit yeah, here we go!" and they forgot to read the rest of the article.

[Bulldog]

So, the super secret code that the FBI (the FBI!) couldn't crack was A=1, B=2, etc.  I think I had a secret decoder ring when I was about 6 that used the same encryption.  

[LucidDreamer]

On 5/5/2021 at 11:56 PM, Bulldog said:

So, the super secret code that the FBI (the FBI!) couldn't crack was A=1, B=2, etc.  I think I had a secret decoder ring when I was about 6 that used the same encryption.  

Yeah, and it said -- "Drink your Ovaltine"