S09.E05: Benjamin T. Okara

[paigow]

Dembe's position as an FBI agent causes complications for Red as the task force handles a case involving military technology; Cooper and Park each find their personal lives increasingly complicated.

Airdate: Nov 18 / 21

[KittenPokerCheater]

I do not like Red's new bodyguard.  Not one bit.

#TeamDembe

[edhopper]

There are teams in the FBI particularly sanctioned to investigate highly classified cases. With full clearance for all information.  A Pentagon desk jockey would not be able to tell them he can't answer questions. Why was "the team" on this case?

[preeya]

No cancer, no baby, no husband. But Ressler's there to make it all better.

[Surrealist]

I'm still Team Dembe, but I also like Weecha. She's a badass.

[dwmarch]

This show is still a bit on the silly side, especially recycling side plots from 24 (a pesky detective showing up in the middle of a crisis) but this episode had something that I think was actually a first in Blacklist history: a sympathetic Blacklister who microwaved a baby. And here I thought the writers didn't like Ressler!

Red said he had eyes in the back of his head. I guess those were installed after Lizzie died?

 

[mxc90]

Blacklist # 183 seem too high for Benjamin T. Okara. He should have been #1830.
He killed all these scientists and then it was revealed there is another group making a similar device. What a waste.
He should have driven to DARPA headquarters and aim the device at the agent's office.
These so called smart scientists couldn't come up with "Magneto style" helmet to counter the effects?

The Havana syndrome......headaches, fatigue, vertigo, blurred visions, etc .That's how I feel after every episode. I think NBC is using this device on the viewers.

Red just coldly insults Dembe (the man that saved his ass numerous times) with his compliment to the ladies by saying: I can't imagine a life without either of them. #TeamDembe

Only Ressler can twist his drug habit into: Park should thank him for using her pee to find out she have/had cancer.

Last episode, Cooper was ready to walk into the police station to confess (with no memory of the events), then decides he will not confess until  he finds out if he had been drugged. The man is so confused. Cheating Charlene needs to find a new boyfriend quick.

Jovan is supposed to be a smart business man/mobster but doesn't have Weecha's weapons taken before the meeting.

Park: "I'm not deceiving you I'm holding back the flood gates". Sounds like deceiving to me.

Park tells Cooper she was late by going to the academy out of habit and not to the post office. The academy is far away in Quantico and Clueless Cooper is not alarmed by that excuse?

I feel the detective is a dead man.

Cooper just assume the detective knew his wife had an affair with Koster 8 years ago? Why is the fool admiting this?

No more Teddy and his goat!? Now we get his wet behind the ears son breaking in the business with crackers, picks,  butter, bibs and crabs.

Too bad we didn't get see if Ressler would have been able to catch Ben in a foot chase. I'd put my money on limping Ben to win that contest.
"Flava Flav" Dembe didn't even make an attempt to call 911 or the FBI for an ambulance, he immediately called Herbert. Old habits are hard to break.

Weecha must not think highly of Red now after she had to kill Jovan. Couldn't Red have had one of his Skinner henchmen do the job?
The events put Red in a foul mood he turned down the witch's "nasty brew" in the bedroom.

I'm with Peter! I wouldn't have shaken Ressler's hand either. He may still have urine on it from the test. 

Why didn't the pregnancy come up in Ressler's test?

According to Ressler: Park was spared because she was out of the direct line of fire. She was not too far from dead man and the blue van wasn't that close to them. With that logic, why didn't the man in the car going in reverse survive? 

Edited November 19, 2021 by mxc90

[Dowel Jones]

I was hoping the doctor would tell Park some off the wall story that her urine test revealed that her DNA matched a heretofore unsolved case concerning a long gone Russian spy by the name of Mascha Rostova.  Just for shits and giggles, you understand.

Good going, FBI.  Blow those sirens on the approach to the warehouse.  Because, you know, there's so much traffic there and you really want to alert the bad guy(s) that you're in the area.  Notice that the SWAT team stayed behind the shipping containers and let Aram and Co. go it alone this time.  We ain't gettin' paid enough for this one.

Will Jeffery get his own Blacklist number?  What about Weecha?

2 hours ago, mxc90 said:

These so called smart scientists couldn't come up with "Magneto style" helmet to counter the effects?

I don't wonder that they have a team working side by side with the weapons team developing some sort of an "anti-Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator", on the theory that someone else would reverse engineer it anyway.

What's in the box, Dembe? 

[Such A Flirt]

So does Ressler have cancer now? This pee stuff is so confusing.

[Surrealist]

5 hours ago, Such A Flirt said:

So does Ressler have cancer now? This pee stuff is so confusing.

Park's urine showed that she had been pregnant. That's why her PH (hormone) levels were elevated in the urine sample.

The doctor told her she doesn't have cancer, which means Ressler doesn't either.

[KittenPokerCheater]

So Park’s husband left her?  Why?  Because she was working in the field again?  That she was pregnant (maybe he didn’t want children)?

I was interested enough in Park and Dembe that I have no real memory of who the bad guy was.

[edhopper]

Those eyes in the back of his head would of helped out all the times Townsend got the better of him.

The box has either the glowy thing from Pulp Fiction or the bones of Vesco's cat.

2 minutes ago, edhopper said:

 

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by edhopper

[Dowel Jones]

1 hour ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

So Park’s husband left her?  Why?

I think because the reason she lost the baby was directly tied to her working in the field again, against his wishes.

[PBnJay]

13 hours ago, mxc90 said:

"Flava Flav" Dembe

This made me laugh so hard.

Your recaps @mxc90 are better than the show which can't keep my attention for a full hour. So thanks for those.

Park is better off without her heartless not-caring selfish husband. Plus she has her bathroom buddy Ressler so there's the "upside".

[milkyaqua]

14 hours ago, preeya said:

No cancer, no baby, no husband. But Ressler's there to make it all better.

No, no, no.  The same thing went through my head when Park and her husband were informed about the baby.  When Ressler came in after the husband, I was like, please show, don't go there.  Ugh.

13 hours ago, mxc90 said:

Why didn't the pregnancy come up in Ressler's test?

That was my question last week.  If that lab was so accurate how could they not tell the difference between pregnancy and cancer hormones or whatever?  You'd think modern science could tell the difference.

As for the case, yes, no way the government didn't have other people working on the technology not to mention a way to protect against it.  But then yes, why was this team on it?  I can't believe anyone trusts Cooper and his team enough to still let them run shotgun on a major case.

As for Cooper and Charlene, meh.  They need to hurry up and finish this storyline.  I suspect they're going to drag it out post-Olympics though and yes, now Cooper wonders if he was drugged or not?  Shouldn't that have been one of the first things to go through his mind when he woke up in his car in a garage in the morning hours?  But his first instinct after hearing from his wife is to go to the scene of an active crime investigation where he'd be spotted and possibly questioned by the cops?  He had his gun/bullets checked but at no point does he think, hmm, maybe I was drugged and should get some blood work done?  I suspect he'll get out of it but it's going to be convoluted and if Aram asks him how he is or if he can help, I'm going to throw something at the TV.

I always knew Red was ruthless and Dembe was no angel having working for the man as long as he had but that "split" still hurt a little.  I get Red demands loyalty but seems to me he's known Dembe long enough to know he wasn't going to go and take out someone on Red's say so at this point in his life.  I get it was a test but still.  Weecha was more than willing to do it.  She'd probably take Dembe out as well if she could figure out a way to do it where Red wouldn't find out about it.

All the talk about lobsters with butter and lemon made me think of something else that didn't involve torture but hey, this show.

[Surrealist]

5 hours ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

So Park’s husband left her?  Why?  Because she was working in the field again?  That she was pregnant (maybe he didn’t want children)?

I was interested enough in Park and Dembe that I have no real memory of who the bad guy was.

I thought Park's husband stormed out because she's working in the field (as a result, wound up in the hospital) and she lost the baby. Maybe he blames her working in the field for the loss? That was the vibe I was getting.

 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Surrealist

[FrankOFoley]

Am I the only one who glanced at the title and saw “Benjamin T. Okra”?

[tljgator]

4 hours ago, FrankOFoley said:

Am I the only one who glanced at the title and saw “Benjamin T. Okra”?

Nope. And I've literally read it that way every. single. time. You'd think I'd have figured it out, but nope. Brain says, "okra." Might've added something to the episode -- cut to Red, snacking on some gumbo or something. *shrugs*

[Ceindreadh]

On 11/19/2021 at 7:57 AM, Such A Flirt said:

So does Ressler have cancer now? This pee stuff is so confusing.

The doctor explained it to Park. High levels of HCG in women are indications of pregnancy. High levels in men are indications of testicular cancer.
When the levels showed up in a supposedly male sample, the obvious conclusion for the testers was that it was cancer rather than pregnancy so that’s what they told Ressler. 
 

 

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Is there any reason any of these scientists didn't know how to build a Faraday cage to camp out in -- instead of building the copper wiring/modern sculpture EMP weapon detector ?  Kind of makes me question their credentials as scientists.

Harold's problems were just filler.  Really could have done without that sub-plot since it went no where.

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

In fact, no mention of Lizzie (yay !!) or Agnes either.  Maybe Agnes pulled a Chuck Cunningham and we will never see her again. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 11/19/2021 at 4:33 PM, Surrealist said:

On 11/19/2021 at 11:28 AM, KittenPokerCheater said:

So Park’s husband left her?  Why?  Because she was working in the field again?  That she was pregnant (maybe he didn’t want children)?

I was interested enough in Park and Dembe that I have no real memory of who the bad guy was.

I thought Park's husband stormed out because she's working in the field (as a result, wound up in the hospital) and she lost the baby. Maybe he blames her working in the field for the loss? That was the vibe I was getting.

 

Yes, she completely lied to him about doing field work, and said field work resulted in the loss of a pregnancy.  Of course, women in the early stages of their pregnancies do field work all the time, and some of them even undertake tasks which could be dangerous to a pregnancy before they know they are pregnant (like Park), so his reaction with regard to the pregnancy loss is not entirely logical, but he had every right to be extremely upset about her repeated, blatant lies, and the pregnancy loss is an additional wound.

So, those of us who thought Ressler's urine test would show he was pregnant were actually correct.