S08.E16: Nicholas Obenrader

[paigow]

Airing May 7 / 21

Liz and the Task Force track new leads in their investigation of N-13 while Red takes steps to infiltrate Townsend's criminal organization.

[milkyaqua]

So Red is looking to get someone else killed by that nutjob Townsend?

[b4pjoe]

Liz and the Task Force? WTF? I guess they all hugged and made up?

[preeya]

10 hours ago, b4pjoe said:

Liz and the Task Force? WTF? I guess they all hugged and made up?

I also had the same reaction when I read the episode description.

[NeenerNeener]

Since Liz is always wrong, the little guy in the hat is probably a double agent betraying the Russians and Red is his American handler. And Lizzie is going to get him killed. They really need to shoot Liz on sight.

 

ETA: if the Russian talks Townsend will kill Lizzie? Talk, Russian guy, talk!

Edited May 8, 2021 by NeenerNeener

[edhopper]

If it is that easy to hack an FBI Agent's phone, why not hack them all? The info would be worth a king's ransom.

And the task force now just releases people they know killed at least 4 people?

Edited May 8, 2021 by edhopper

[redfish]

Jesus. The way Liz just slid into the car with Aram so casually ( and ate his breakfast!) is so galling and not really charming and trying to cute her way back into his good side. You'd think Aram would at least be upset or disappointed in her instead of letting her railroad him. Threatening violence/breaking rules is really second nature to her. Are we sure Liz is not a sociopath? And the FBI/Cooper seem quick to forgive her.

And Aram stop being in awe of her and understanding or believe people won't get hurt/shot because of her. She made you take the fall for the bomb material when she tried to kill Red.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by redfish

[tljgator]

Good lord -- Lizzie just makes this nonsensical drivel BORING. 

[Neiman]

At the risk of sounding like a horrible person, I’ve been hoping Townsend will go after Agnes.

The scene between Liz and Aram in the car was painful to watch. He used to be one of my favorite characters, but these days not so much. 

I’m still thinking Liz is N13.

[dwmarch]

Well, there were a couple of laugh lines in this one including one surprisingly enough courtesy of Liz: "Whoever said crime doesn't pay... wasn't very good at it." I was also surprised that Ressler cracked a joke with his "I bought it" line. And the FBI now self-delivers their own snark lines courtesy of Aram's "taking candy from a child" line with Agent Park clarifying that the FBI is playing the role of the child. "How do you know I didn't ask my friend?" also cracked me up. And if The Blacklist can make me laugh I will tend to ignore other aspects of the show that might otherwise bother me such as the endless wheels within wheels plots of various characters outfoxing each other at every turn.

[mxc90]

What did the murdered office ladies do to Charlie that he couldn't warn them to leave? Must have been payback for taking the best shelves in the fridge.

All of Neville's important sensitive information is on a piece of paper in a manila folder for Charlie to take home. Some crime lord.

FBI Agent Ressler arrives to get Red's latest bidding and Thom the thief (probably on the FBI's Most Wanted List) is right in front of him and like a good trained servant for Red....... just let him go.

Ressler: "You can call a prostitute an escort but she's still a hooker". He must have been told that line from the last call girl he insulted during the cash exchange portion of their "date".

Liz calls Cooper and team and acts as if they are still a team. I was hoping Park interrupted Cooper and told Liz: "I still owe you an ass whipping bitch"!

They almost cried when hearing Agnes in the background!

Cooper and the team can steal the descriptor but kidnapping Ivan is the line Cooper will not cross. The shady bastard should retire.

I am still not buying Sloppy Balboa Neville is delivering any vicious blows. Espinoza was most likely already worked over by Neville's goons before he was put in the punching bag.

Aram the great agent leaves the car door open and Liz just hops in and takes his croissant. Might as well have his balls in the paper bag too.

Aram is so pathetic. He was in awe of Liz. Then he's comparing her so called fabulous crime life to his boring 9-5 job. Liz felt so bad for him hearing his sad life, she had to tell the child grown man she will buy him expensive ice cream patisserie. At least, Aram didn't further embarrass himself by saying "Yippee".

Such a disgrace for Liz to tell Aram: Crime "DOES" pay.

According to Cooper: "Priya Lighari has been on the FBI's radar for years and they were never close to getting her". Why am I not shocked by that statement from Cooper!!!!!!

Aram pitches the idea to Cooper to have Liz kidnap Ivan and Cooper spins it as if that's all they can work with (there are no other options). Which is OK with him if it's a "Win" in his book. 

Thank goodness for my Closed Caption, with Nigel's accent....him saying "Knickers" sounded close to a certain bad word.

What a surprise, Ressler and Park are faked out again and lost a tail. Park thought it was "Easy". You silly woman!

Why did Park leave the book on the park bench? She got fed up of reading "How to be a Good Agent".

What was the importance/major skill of #133 Nicholas Obenrader? He's careless to leave a body in plain sight for Park to see, couldn't shoot Park as she stood right in front of him, later told Park he's not talking and got Priya in to meet Neville. Did Red really need him?

But at the end, the joke was on the FBI and Red. They went through that elaborate scheme to trick Obenrader and Red freed him after he got Priya in to meet Neville. Then Priya blew her one opportunity to kill Neville. What a waste of time. 

Did Priya tell Red: she's a thief, not an assassin? She proved it by being so anxious trying to slip the poison while the 3 are standing right in front of her. Did Red and she bother devise a back up plan to get him?

Red could have saved a lot of TV time not getting Obenrader/Priya and just sent Thom (whom he met earlier) to kill Neville or tell Red where he lives (as he met with him at his house). 

Townsend's aides are telling him to not trust Liz, he heard Ressler/Liz's conversation and this fool still doesn't think clearly! Last episode, when she arrived and put a plastic bag over his head, that wasn't enough for him to know all about Liz?

What is Esi's motivation to stay with Liz?

I can't keep track of Ivan getting to and from US/Russia so many times. It's exhausting!

From the preview for next week: Red said "If Ivan talks, the first person Neville will kill is Liz". Please Ivan ....talk. I beg of you! Tell him everything!!!!!!!! 

Edited May 9, 2021 by mxc90

[milkyaqua]

Another wacky episode, woo hoo!

Once again Aram, Ressler and Cooper are useless.  What is with them all being so enamored with Liz?  Aram admires Liz for dragging Agnes around and not abandoning her?  Yes, give that woman mother of the year.

Also, why go through all these byzantine shenanigans to have a plan go so badly almost every time?

Still not buying Liz as a master criminal.  Criminal yes (along with all of the task force).

I kind of hope Priya survives.  I wish she could be successful in killing Townsend because he's not even an interesting bad guy.

That's a lot of trouble to go through to get out of a tax audit.

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

I can't believe those 2 women in the realty office when approached by "the auditor" who was holding a gun with a silencer so calmly walked into that office.  Did they not see the gun ?  He wasn't even trying to hide it.

So Ressler is taking on Lizzie's role this week as explainer to the Post Office crew who the Blacklister o' the week is.

Paris, right, sure it's Paris due to the presence of a croissant. ;)

Lizzie can do it all, and by do it all meaning she hired someone to take care of Agnes 24x7 while running a criminal organiziation really is "doing it all".

Could this episode possibly be more ridiculous ?  Between the nonsensical capture of Obenrader (why would he be at the Totten brother's cabin instead of a henchmen) to the ridiculous travel shenanigans (Aram flew back and forth to Paris, Reddington flew back and forth to England) to Lizzie playing nice with the Post Office team (since they have common goals now, who knew ?) to Reddington's fakeout with the FBI to appear that he saved Obenrader (how did Reddington get Obenrader's records exactly ?)  or Lizzie's travel shenanigans (from Norway to Paris to D.C.).

[tljgator]

Maybe I was just distracted because BORING, but why did all of Aram's mooning over Liz make his French so terrible? I mean, I know we needed to showcase Lizzie being super-badass neo-Red with her threatening a random bartender, but didn't we just have an episode (in the Lizzie-free good ol' days) that literally revolved around Aram being fluent in eleventy languages?

[edhopper]

Your accountant being killed doesn't stop an audit. Claiming you have no records doesn't  save your ass either. 

If Townsend can find anybody anywhere and get any info he needs, why does he need Liz.

[saber5055]

5 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Paris, right, sure it's Paris due to the presence of a croissant. ;)

LOL!

5 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Lizzie can do it all, and by do it all meaning she hired someone to take care of Agnes 24x7 while running a criminal organiziation really is "doing it all".

It's called multi-tasking and is a real skill. One more to be added to Lizzie's mad skilz set.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Totally Forgot -- still no sign or mention of the dogs or Robert Vesco's cat.

[Neiman]

I like Priya and wouldn’t mind keeping her around for a while. Maybe she could be Liz’s replacement as a female lead.

When Park and Ressler were shot, I was sort of glad thinking this could be the end for those characters. I was like, “Way to take out Park!” but then I realized it was a set up. 😔

[Dowel Jones]

10 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Paris, right, sure it's Paris due to the presence of a croissant. ;)

Aram:  Ooh, the script has me going to Paris for a location shoot!  Cool!

Director:  Actually, we found a nondescript bar on a side street in Queens, and craft services is furnishing us with a croissant.

Aram: @#$%$#@

21 hours ago, Neiman said:

I’m still thinking Liz is N13.

Ressler is B23, Aram is I32, Cooper is G6, and Park is O17.  Aha, I've got it!

 

[paigow]

N is not the 13th letter of the alphabet... so all this time the real spy is M-13 or...

[redfish]

Looking back at the way Liz just slid into the car and ate Aram's croissant and acted like nothing has happened since she tried to kill Red at the hospital, like she didn't manipulate/betray everyone or what she has done to her "friends" wasn't a big deal/owed at least an apology. Are we sure Liz is not a sociopath or a Narcissist? Because she doesn't seem to read the room that she burned a lot of bridges. She says she's regrets for hurting/betraying her friends at the taskforce but is she? At least Red doesn't delude himself to believe the taskforce are happy to see  him or trust him.

[BrownBear2012]

This show is so bad now I am seriously considering abandoning it when this season ends. Between the horrible scripts/dialogue and stupid story lines it's become unwatchable. James Spader can't even save this mess of a show. It bears zero resemblance to anything remotely related to a real FBI task force...it's laughable. Everyone on this task force is a joke...and don't even get me started on Liz. What an unlikable character she is now...and again, a completely ridiculous storyline with her. Why they brought her back is a mystery...the show was chugging along without her despite all the other problems with it...but adding her back just made it so much worse. Probably should have ended its run last season and called it a day...maybe James Spader could have kept his reputation intact if it had...now his career is going down with a rotting ship. 

[paigow]

12 minutes ago, BrownBear2012 said:

maybe James Spader could have kept his reputation intact if it had...now his career is going down with a rotting ship. 

HBO could create "Red of Easttown" for him...

[FrankOFoley]

This show has reached the point where I am at a loss for snark. Make the super marvellous amazing agent Lizzie be LMNOP 13, lock her up and leave the rest of us to watch the show without her super marvellous amazing talent to gum up the works.

[Brian Cronin]

On 5/7/2021 at 10:24 PM, mxc90 said:

What is Esi's motivation to stay with Liz?

Liz convinced her that Red would kill her for investigating Red. It made no sense, but apparently Esi believed her. 

Honestly, all in all, I didn't mind Liz AS much this episode, since she actually DID some stuff. The worst part of how this show treats Liz is that she never DOES anything and yet they act like she does. They're constantly telling us rather than showing us. Here, she was far more competent than normal and was only undone by Townsend's people being good themselves. It's a step up from her shit show of a theft mission last episode and, like, eight seasons of her actions up until now. 

[Bulldog]

I know its almost a cliche to say at this point, but the difference between the episodes with Liz and the ones without is striking.  The Liz-less episodes were better written, better acted, better paced . . . just better all around.  Since she's returned, the show has become a chore to get through. 

[rr2911]

On 5/7/2021 at 9:14 PM, Neiman said:

 

I’m still thinking Liz is N13.

Interesting! Why do you think Liz is N13?

I do not think Red is N13. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

I want Ressler to be N13

[seacliffsal]

On 5/16/2021 at 4:50 PM, KittenPokerCheater said:

I want Ressler to be N13

Brilliant!  AND, it would explain why the FBI task team is so incompetent as he would purposefully be undermining their efforts.  Suddenly, several things make more sense...