S02.E18: Vanessa Cruz

[formerlyfreedom]

The task force tracks a provocative female Blacklister, a frame-up artist who targets the wealthy elite. Tom pleads for Liz's help. Red pressures Liz for the Fulcrum, claiming it's now a matter of life and death.

[Danielg342]

A game-changer? This episode will air in April...so maybe. I just hope Vanessa Cruz won't get in the way of the Tom/Red/Lizzie battle the episode is promising.

[paigow]

Aram: OMG Ressler! I just got a solid lead on an ISIS sleeper cell in Virginia.

 

Ressler: It can wait. There is an Eva Longoria lookalike killing old rich white dudes. Time for Daddy to go undercover.

[milkyaqua]

The Blacklist First Look: Is Tom Winning Liz Over — For a Second Time?

[ottoDbusdriver]

Just when it was looking good that we might see Lizzie's dog in her motel room, no such luck.  No barking, not even a whimper.

 

This whole Vanessa Cruz plot seems really convoluted and only seems to be an means to and end in order to get Lizzie and Tom back together.  I'm pretty sure that license they showed was current, so if Vanessa has been missing since 2006 that should have been the first clue that something was up.  And why wouldn't there have been a police record of a missing person who presumably committed suicide ? Or a newspaper obit of her death.  Why were Vanessa's fingerprints in AFIS in the first place ?  Wouldn't she have a record or something like that if she was in the system at some point ?

 

Who uses their actual billing address when setting up fake businesses ?  That's what P.O. boxes are for.  For being some sort of criminal mastermind, this Vanessa Cruz seems to be a pretty stupid.

 

Tom REALLLY needs to get rid of that SS tattoo on his neck.

 

So, Vanessa Cruz knows that her husband was framed so she decides to go into the framing business herself to get back at all the guys that conspired against her dead husband ?  How to you go from being a ranch hand to super-spy/Alias-like covert operator planning to frame and kill people ?  And just for kicks she decides to kill a few other 1 percenters along the way.

 

I'm still confused about what was going on with Reddington and Hobbs and the members of the cabal/whatever they are.  Were they voting to kill Red ?  I guess it's a moot point since Red was shot at the end, but come on, we all know that Red isn't going to die.

 

Wouldn't people notice that a tech billionaire mysteriously leaves the country and never comes back ?

 

This makes it 4 weeks in a row where the Blacklister was not captured -- so what's the point of this show again ?

 

I was just waiting for Lizzie to say that she was "done with him" after Red confirmed that he had hired Tom.

 

And for some reason, The Blacklist is off for 3 weeks.  

Edited April 3, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[shura]

Oh, he can swim. There's no way Tom is not a swimmer.

 

This makes it 4 weeks in a row where the Blacklister was not captured -- so what's the point of this show again ?

 

To entertain us with the good work of this FBI unit protecting our national security.

[missbonnie]

Three weeks??? This is getting ridiculous. I don't understand the obsession with the dog?

[sjohnson]

The Vanessa Cruz story is a parallel to Tom/Liz. The criminal Cruz unexpectedly falls in love with Abby Issa, whom she seduced as part of her criminal plan. Rather than fulfill the plan (which involves hurting Issa,) she goes on the lam. And of course, Liz both deflects criticism of her profiling skills and tells us explicitly that she knew Tom loved her in some strange criminal way. I admit I didn't get any hint that she'd ever realized any such thing, but I've missed most of this season. 

Edited April 3, 2015 by sjohnson

[Such A Flirt]

That was a mess. Maybe I'm just tired, but I couldn't make sense of who was trying to kill who or why. Lots of wigs, for sure.

 

Tom, or whatever your name is: dude, you can do so much better. And like hell you can't swim.

 

Does Liz/Megan have the flu or something? She's been looking and sounding like death in the last couple of episodes.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I don't understand the obsession with the dog?

 

It's not an obsession, but more of a running joke.  Liz has a dog that is living with her in the motel -- she never feeds the dog or walks the dog or plays with the dog or even mentions the dog.  In fact, the only person who has mentioned Lizzie's dog in the last 4-5 episodes was Ressler at the end of last episode.  So why did the writers even bother to give her and Tom a dog in the first place ?  But since they did, they should at least acknowledge that it exists in that small motel room, or that Lizzie even bothers to remember that she owns a dog.

[thuganomics85]

Well, I certainly won't complain too much over seeing the always lovely Ana de la Reguera on the screen, but the case was another typical one, where I saw almost everything coming a mile away.  Of course, they gave the character a bit of a sob story, but considering that she was willing to flat-out kill her girlfriend until the last minute, and she apparently did put plenty of innocents in jail (for daring to be 1 Percenters!), I wasn't buying it.  Whatever; it was just another case of her being part of Red's big plan.

 

Knew Red's plan would fail, because if they plan on killing David Strathairn, it probably won't be until the finale or so.  Way too early for that.

 

At least Red's got The Fulcrum, but now he's lost Lizzie's trust.... again.  I swear, this keeps happening all the time.  He does something to piss her off, she gets mad and claims to be through with him, but then something will happen that will cause them to come back together.  It might take longer this time, but I'm sure it will happen.

 

Really, Tom?  Out of all the cons you pulled, this is the one you fall for?  Your life must be sadder then I thought.

Edited April 3, 2015 by thuganomics85

[missbonnie]

Oh, I see now. I guess I am too busy being frustrated with how my favorite show has been going to hell in a handbasket. I forgot she even had a dog.

[Brian Cronin]

I know it is a nit pick (and I know the show is doing it for the benefit of the dumber viewers out there), but come on, she actually labels her vials of blood "BLOOD" and her saliva samples as "SALIVA"? Because, what, she might forget what all of those vials were if she didn't see the label? "Oh man, this burger is good but I could use some more ketchup. Oh, here are a bunch of vials of ketchup on my shelf. D'oh! I knew I should have labeled these blood vials!" 

[dwmarch]

It would seem Reddington is responsible for every single bad thing that ever happened in Lizzie's life. Next week we'll find out he personally caused the zit she got right before prom.

 

Good to see Mr. Kaplan again. Red's retainers are just as entertaining as he is.

 

The FBI's super-secret high tech task force is fooled by a vengeance plot that hinges on cigarette butts dug from the trash? The FBI in this show is like the prosecutor in Idiocracy. "We got all this like... evidence and stuff."

 

Speaking of evidence, apparently Lizzie has a key to the evidence locker and can enter and exit as she pleases, without having to sign for anything. I hope there aren't any real cops watching this show.

[paigow]

I thought Mr Kaplan is called after the body hits the floor....

 

Red: Lizzie, I can explain.....

Liz: No! I don't care....

[gunshot]

Liz: Why do you never explain?????

[Danielg342]

So Red's been shot...something tells me we'll spend the next four episodes trying to figure out who shot him. We all know he won't die.

 

(and, as much as I might appreciate the show tricking us and actually going through with his death...no, just no...Red's one of the most interesting characters ever, so no way he ever dies, at least not until the end of the series. Lizzie and maybe most of the Blacklisters on the other hand...)

 

Dig seeing Mr. Kaplan at the end...provides some hope that perhaps Vanessa Cruz was captured after all.

 

The episode itself...very ho hum. Hot girl who seduces corporate executives to get back at them for a wrong in her past. Been there, done that...and Criminal Minds did it much better in 2009 ("Pleasure Is My Business"). I didn't even think Cruz was all that great as a schemer...they showed her to be very meticulous, but every lead was easy to find. I also find it hard to believe the police can be that stupid and not see patterns develop. I mean, the connection with her husband should have been the first clue something was up, right?

 

Regardless, though, I really think in the end, the show needs to drop this whole "Monster of the Week" format and just stick to the drama of the stories of Red's and Lizzie's lives. People like the shadowy organization Red is after, Tom, Deputy AG Connolly, heck, even Aram and Cooper, they're all interesting enough on their own to warrant having their own storylines and having them all intersect every now and then. Even Samar Navabi and Ressler could be thrown in there if they're given something to do, especially Ressler, who spent much of Season 1 having a backstory but now has nothing to do. Which is a shame since Diego Klattenhoff has really improved as an actor since S1.

 

I know that's a pipe dream, but, if nothing else, let's at least have the Monsters make more immediate sense to the actual plots. I know that people like The Major and the Longevity Initiative have started to meld into the general plotline of the show, but it's taken too long. The show is at its best when it's resolving things, and I think it started to do really well in that department before we got to Judge Recap. Now, it's strayed from that, and the only way it gets back to it is by having the Monsters needing some urgent attention for being involved in someone's story. By having them be "Cases of the Week" it just detracts from the more interesting stories, and this needs to change.

 

Hopefully, with the show coming back for a final flurry we can get more resolution- and the show at its best.

[Dowel Jones]

Fulcrum Scene:

 

Red:  "What's wrong?"

Liz:  "I just spent the last 42 hours dealing with a man who is a lifelong habitual pathological liar."

Red:  "Tom."

Liz:  "No, you idiot.  My agent.  The guy who got me into this.  I am so done with him for the next three weeks."

[Danielg342]

I don't understand how Lizzie can deduce that Tom is a liar yet believe that Red is an honest man...then again, I don't get anything Liz does so it's a wash.

[CountryCrazy]

I cannot believe Lz believes anything Tom tells her and that she kissed him too Tom is a scuzz and no matter how often the idiots in charge try selling Tom as the hero I am not buying it nor do I buy Tom loving Liz and vice versa after everything which has transpired so if the show new plans are to continually rewrite the Tom/ Liz history and I have to keep watching this crap it is time to tune out and considering The Blacklist is losing rating steam it seems I am not alone is tiring on the show ! When is the last time we got to see Ressler stand out episode or one on any of the other supporting cast ? At least last season we saw episodes on the supporting cast to hold us over and I realize the two man stars are Liz and Red and I fully expect to see them a lot but Tom is overtaking this show and I just do not find him all the interesting and never have so ...

[Julia]

It was like a light going on. Because naturally the mind which came up with a conspiracy by an evil lesbian of color to make the innocent masters of the universe (sorry, "the one percent") look like they did bad illegal things using the hypnotic power of her vagina when they were only trying to help teachers retire hired the granddaughter of Mitt Romney's top fundraiser to play a character with a pulse (what, she's an actress, she can play pulse). That one or two of them turned out to have done bad stuff really didn't redeem this.

 

Anyway, less Tizzy and more Reddington, please.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Julia

[Primetimer]

A sexy master of disguise kicks The Blacklist's wig game up a notch.

Read the story

[swtrgrl]

If this were a better show, Liz kissing Tom would have been about her playing him and not about a prelude to their forbidden love. Don't get me wrong, I'll take it either way b/c I love both sides of that and well, Tom is hot.

Also, they should go the route of faking Red's death to suss out the baddies. But that's just me.

Why 3 weeks? What the heck?!

[ottoDbusdriver]

Considering that Roger Hobbs was only introduced last episode, I really didn't pick up anything from 'the Longevity Initiative' episode that would have made me think that Hobbs was a member of the Director's cabal.  No indication whatsoever -- so when Hobbs meets Red and starts talking about the Director and the pending vote that may put Red's life on the line that seems to have come out of nowhere.

 

Also, they should go the route of faking Red's death to suss out the baddies. But that's just me.

 

Or, remember how Hobbs or Mr. Jasper or someone talked about not killing Red because there might be a revenge protocol in place once Red dies, this makes me think that Red is faking his own death to trigger such a protocol and take out the Director and his pals.  Because having a sniper ready and available at a random location where Red meets Lizzie in the street makes no sense at all.

Edited April 3, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[saber5055]

I don't understand the obsession with the dog?

 

 

"The dog" is not only an object of obsession with (some) viewers of this show, now it's starting over at Night Shift. 

 

I guess I didn't understand any of this episode, including who those people were Red was meeting. All I know is I shouted a bad word at my teevee when Red got shot.

 

Also I was extremely disappointed that the coolest scene ever, the one they kept promo'ing, Red and Dembe with guns pulled on Lizzie/Tom, only lasted one half of one second. *yawn*

 

So Red is able to get real fake government passports and no one else can? 

[EAG46]

If it wasn't for James Spader and his 20 charisma, I would be so done with the show. Seriously, for the next season? Total redo. Forget Agent Kean, forget the federal government. Just have Red, Mr. Dembe, Mr. Kaplan, maybe Mr. Aram from the FBI and his female compatriot. Have THEM zoom around the world righting wrongs and leaving hints for INTERPOL and MI-5 and whoever else. Maybe he can hook up the crew from "Leverage" and take over Tim Hutton's role. And yes, I would be okay with Mark Sheppard appearing once in a while too.

[saber5055]

And yes, I would be okay with Mark Sheppard appearing once in a while too.

 

 

A big YES vote from me on this idea.

[LexiconDevilOne]

A big YES vote from me on this idea.

One of my faves, too! I don't think I've watched him in a role yet that I didn't like.

[Moxie Cat]

To me, the dog is indicative of the bad writing on the show as a whole. Why did Ressler have a throwaway line about the dog last week? It doesn't make any sense when we a) never see the dog, and b) Lizzie never seems take care of it. They could have easily written in a line late last year or early this year in which Lizzie mentions giving the dog to a friend when she left the house....but clearly no one was thinking. 

 

I agree: unnecessarily convoluted storyline. I didn't realize until the last 10 minutes or so that Vanessa's girlfriend who was complaining about sexual harassment was the plastic-mask guy's assistant. I actually thought that Abby Issa was one of Cruz's aliases--didn't even realize it was the girlfriend. 

 

I second whoever wants a revamped Red-and-team Blacklist. I would add in Paul Reubens too (whatever happened to him?) and actually Tom, who is far more interesting to me after the last bunch of eps (plus, I need something pretty to look at). They can run around the world doing some FBI-related tasks that also advance Red's agenda. Add in Samar, too, so she can escape from her prison of plot exposition.

Edited April 3, 2015 by Moxie Cat

[EAG46]

I think Paul Reubens's character died, but I could be mistaken. But if he's not dead, bring him along. Maybe Tom too, once he gets that damn SS tattoo cut out of his neck. And the poor neglected dog. If the Persons of Interests people can have a dog, so can the Blacklisters.

[milkyaqua]

The only question is which set of FBI agents is more inept?  The Blacklist's or The Following's.

 

I'm just glad they didn't kill off David Strathairn.

 

I'm done trying to understand Tom and Liz; Liz and Reddington.  It's just easier to accept the absurdity of it all while wishing that Megan Boone was a better actress.

Edited April 4, 2015 by milkyaqua

[morgankobi]

Wig-sense, activate!

[saber5055]

To me, the dog is indicative of the bad writing on the show as a whole. Why did Ressler have a throwaway line about the dog last week?

 

 

I agree about the bad writing. I think owning a dog is suppose to show a person is all soft and sweet and loving and kind, which is what (I'm guessing) the writers want us to feel about Lizzie. Yet she never feeds, walks or lets the dog out. There could be nice scenes with her and the dog, but no. So, the only way I view Lizzie is how the writers have written her: as a liar, egotist, big fat liar, perjurer, murderer, abuser of power, gigantic liar and just all around nasty self-centered snot. 

 

I am not bothered by the actress, but maybe if she WERE a good actor, as is Spader, then maybe I wouldn't dislike her so intensely? I'll never know. She is just SO dislikeable, even compared to Tom and Red, who at least own their despicability.

 

So how does Lizzie know for sure that "thing" she pulled out of the rabbit is The Fulcrum? Red never said what Fulcrum was or looked like. I still say that thing is the fuse for the windshield wipers on Red's plane.

 

And just where was it Tom was letting Lizzie out of his car? I would think it was at her cockroach-ridden dive motel, but it was all residential. She just gets out on some random neighborhood street and walks ... where?

[betsyboo]

 And yes, I would be okay with Mark Sheppard appearing once in a while too.

He will always be Yellow Tie to me. (tm MGiant, '24')

[bluvelvet]

Since Liz brought up the baby, I wonder if Tom/Jacob/Christoph/Billy would have gone through with the adoption knowing it was all pretend and fake.

Red isn't dead so shooting him didn't leave me in suspense. He has to live since he's the main character in the show.

I realized Vanessa was setting up Abby once she bought the gun in Abby's name. The question I have is, didn't Abby see her text history ?

Edited April 5, 2015 by bluvelvet

[Shanna]

How had mark not been on this show yet? I guess he's too busy at the cw.

I was actually happy they shot red (although faked death sounds really plausible now that I think about it. It's a good way to go on the run). I was happy because I thought they were foreshadowing toms death the whole episode and I know they aren't killing red.

[Such A Flirt]

I'm just glad they didn't kill off David Strathairn.

 

Me too! I enjoy having him on my TV screen. I've loved him for so many years - like Spader. At first I couldn't even believe he was on this show.

 

He will always be Yellow Tie to me. (tm MGiant, '24')

 

Romo Lampkin for me!

[HappyDancex2]

So we're supposed to believe that Jacob(grrr Lost)/Tom was knocked off kilter of his robotic training because of wiggy's magic vagina? Didn't Bourne Identity do this first? The only good thing is that we all know what happened at the start of Bourne 2.....