S02.E21: Karakurt

[LexiconDevilOne]

This episode was a mess.

 

I'm so sick of the subplots, enough of them already. They were fun when they weren't made to feel MOSTLY the entire storyline. I don't care who Lizzie's parents are, why they died, or anything else about the 'past'. If  it's not relevant to getting a bad guy doing bad things to innocent people, then I DO NOT want to hear anymore about it.

 

Next week is going to be extremely painful to watch...

[saber5055]

Plus, I still don't think they would have had the funeral so soon as it would have taken days just to find all the bodies (or parts of bodies) in that blown up building and complete all the autopsies before sending them off to a funeral home for a couple of days while the actual families could mourn before being sent off en masse to a fancy church for a big public funeral.  What if one of the CIA analysts killed wasn't Christian ?

 

 

Oh, Otto, are you really looking for a sensible time/space continuum in this show? And logical thinking? Shame on you!

 

But good job on those protester signs. I couldn't figure why protesters would be outside of a funeral for U.S. government employees. But then I don't understand almost all of what happens on this show.

 

Still waiting to find out why someone wants the senator dead. That specific senator.

 

Plus why did that super top secret Russian spy have to be imported to deliver the poison to Lizzie? Couldn't anyone have done that?

Edited May 8, 2015 by saber5055

[ottoDbusdriver]

Oh, Otto, are you really looking for a sensible time/space continuum in this show? And logical thinking? Shame on you!

 

I'm afraid so -- my bad.  

 

But it did look like the big ass public funeral was held the next day or two after the explosion.  No way that would happen.

 

Plus why did that super top secret Russian spy have to be imported to deliver the poison to Lizzie? Couldn't anyone have done that?

 

Or is Lizzie "special" and only she could infect the Senator ?  </snark> 

 

At least we know that Lizzie isn't Sen. Hawkins' illegitimate daughter or she would have been dead as well right after that guy hit her at Union Station.  Just saying.

Edited May 8, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[saber5055]

At least we know that Lizzie isn't Sen. Hawkins' illegitimate daughter or she would have been dead as well right after that guy hit her at Union Station.  Just saying.

 

 

Don't be so sure. She could have inherited all Russian DNA from her mom. Hey, this is The Blacklist after all, anything is possible.

[Julia]

Don't be so sure. She could have inherited all Russian DNA from her mom. Hey, this is The Blacklist after all, anything is possible.

 

Good point. Maybe the reason Karakurt wasn't infected is all that russian DNA blocking viral transmission with its itty bitty little base pair kalashnikovs. 

[jelaine]

 

Draw your own conclusions about whether or not the show continues to play by its own rules.

We don't need no stinkin' rules. - poster in The Blacklist writers room.

[buttersister]

This is exactly the plot Liz Keen, soviet spy, would come up with if she had to kill somebody.

Which would explain Lizzie the assassin and the whole show--she's at the top of Red's Blacklist and this is all his way of catching her. Because she's soooo super clever!

[BookThief]

Maybe her parents were Philip and Elizabeth Jennings--Russians posing and living as Americans--and she grew up as Paige but when her parents were killed supporting Mother Russia she took on the name of her mother and vowed to avenge her parents' deaths for her country. Seems likely. I think I have something here.

[Dowel Jones]

Thanks, Julia.  I completely forgot that the son was not publicly identified as his.  But a card would have been nice, at least.

[edhopper]

So the last scene in the finale will be a woman from the back and Lizzie saying "Mom?"

a la Alias.

Edited May 9, 2015 by edhopper

[paigow]

The whole idea of a person-specific virus like that is bullshit.

Regardless, it would come in handy if someone needed to exterminate all the bastard children of a King...

 

 

OREA = Office of Russian and European Analysis

She was probably thinking about OREO....

[ottoDbusdriver]

The whole idea of a person-specific virus like that is bullshit.

 

Regardless, it would come in handy if someone needed to exterminate all the bastard children of a King...

 

... or a Kardashian.  </snark>

[calipiano81]

Plus why did that super top secret Russian spy have to be imported to deliver the poison to Lizzie? Couldn't anyone have done that?

Karakurt was a known assassin for the Russian regime. The Cabal used him because it would make it look like the bombing was a Russian attack. They also counted on Karakurt's reputation to draw Lizzie out so they could plant the virus on her and frame her for the senator's death.

[shura]

Still waiting to find out why someone wants the senator dead. That specific senator.

 

I think the idea was to assassinate someone who was either prominently pro-Russian or anti-Russian (I think they said which, but I can't remember), and I guess the Senator was it. The Russians and the Americans would then get pissed at each other for some reason, and boom, Cold War. Easy-peasy. Works for Lizzie.

 

I'm still marveling at the intricate plan the Cabal had for setting up Lizzie. So okay, the senator's mistress was a plant, but the FBI still had to find her. How did they do it? Red told them! He had to practically browbeat the reluctant Aram to google whether someone had died recently from the virus. Were Red's actions part of the plan? Is he also tired of Lizzie?

Edited May 9, 2015 by shura

[Writing Wrongs]

So the last scene in the finale will be a woman from the back and Lizzie saying "Mom?"

a la Alias.

It would only be redeemable if she was played by Lena Olin.

[edhopper]

It would only be redeemable if she was played by Lena Olin.

Or Molly Ringwald. :D

[Wynterwolf]

I do love that Harold went to Red with his Tom Connolly problem.  But please, let something happen to make Tom/Jacob mad and surly and dangerous again.  Ugh.  

[Happytobehere]

Does anyone else think that Harold Cooper is not now, nor was he ever actually sick. Tom Connolly having known him for more than twenty years would know Cooper's code of ethics and that it would take something life altering and then family destroying to get him to play ball.

Megan Boone just continues to drag down this show. I'd like to know who she's sleeping with or blackmailing to remain employed cause DAMN! She sucks.

[betsyboo]

ETA: No one has mentioned the incredibly lame protest signs outside the church

• The End is Near
• Putin is a Pansy
• War = $ for 1%
• Putin Go Home
• Putin Sucks
• Ruskie Bullies
• Stop Putinism
• Blessed are the Peacemakers

 

Were those really appropriate for the funeral of CIA analysts where no Russian representatives would be attending ?  

 

Plus, I still don't think they would have had the funeral so soon as it would have taken days just to find all the bodies (or parts of bodies) in that blown up building and complete all the autopsies before sending them off to a funeral home for a couple of days while the actual families could mourn before being sent off en masse to a fancy church for a big public funeral.  What if one of the CIA analysts killed wasn't Christian ?

I think the church service was meant to be a memorial for co-workers, not necessarily a funeral. That's why only 68 people were allowed to go inside. So the media/protesters may have found out that's where higher-ups in the intelligence community would be mourning the CIA staff. Of course, that doesn't explain why they would ever let the media take pix of what could be potentially covert staff.

 

Of course, I may be giving the writers too much credit.  :-)

[Wynterwolf]

Are y'all saying that Lizzie is really a Russian spy or that Lizzie is being set up by the cabal to appear as if she is a Russian spy? 

 

It did appear to me as though the Cabal went to ridiculously elaborate trouble to make it look like Liz is a Russian spy/assassin.  But I think the larger goal is still to put pressure on/distract Red, and using Liz as a pawn to do it.  Red also told her there would be repercussions for her actions, so I think it's also partly to swat her for daring to get in the Cabal's face.  But now with whispers of Liz's mom cropping up from other sources, it could also be about something her mom is doing as well.  

Edited May 11, 2015 by Wynterwolf

[Danielg342]

My brain is still hurting trying to figure out what exactly was going on- and what the point of all this was. That just seemed to be unnecessarily elaborate just get rid of someone who must be one of many critics of Vladimir Putin. Surely there must be an easier way to kill Senator Clifford Hawkins (why him, exactly?), frame the Russians and frame Lizzie for it. As ottoBusDriver noted, there were an awful lot of coincidences that needed to happen in order for the plot to work.

I could probably expend on a lot of the things wrong with this episode, but I think the main thing is that it's time to get rid of Lizzie. We should be focused on Red and his battle with the underworld (in this case, dealing with "The Cabal"), with the FBI in a support role. Lizzie and her backstory really clouds things.

I get that, perhaps, Lizzie's involvement was supposed to be some kind of series-long mystery, but I don't think the show has made any measurable progress in this regard. All we get are minuscule nuggets, Lizzie being stupid and Lizzie getting needlessly angry at Red for no reason/at random points. Maybe at the beginning of Season 1 this could have been acceptable, but by now I think we should have some bearing on why Lizzie is around.

Because this show seems to be about two things:

1) Red vs. the underworld (far more interesting)

2) Lizzie and her life (not interesting)

This episode seemed to be an attempt to connect Lizzie to the grander narrative, but it doesn't work, and it should have happened a year ago, at least.

Which would explain Lizzie the assassin and the whole show--she's at the top of Red's Blacklist and this is all his way of catching her. Because she's soooo super clever!

LOL...I know you were being sarcastic, but sometimes I think the show actually is trying to make Lizzie No. 1. Which would make sense if she were at all remotely smart or clever.

The assumptions .... correction, make that huge assumptions for this entire plan are that: A) a Russian assassin blows up a top secret CIA office in order blame Russia, B) that would then trigger a public funeral that several DC bigwigs would attend, C) that Red would put Aram on the trail of other test subjects who showed up at the hospital with similar symptoms or were dead, D) that Samar would interview the mother of the dead person and the mother would reveal that to a complete stranger her son was the illegitimate child of a tryst with a now powerful politico and Samar would be able to notify Lizzie in time, and E) Lizzie would be the one to grab Sen. Hawkins (it could just as easily been Resseler) and whisk him to safety and F) make skin to skin contact with him.

Good list, but I have a few additions. I'll just re-write the list to make them easier to follow:

This episode assumes that:

A) Someone in the intelligence community would be able to gather information revealing Senator Hawkins had an illegitimate son

B) The virus, upon testing it on said son, would work on his father (who wouldn't have the exact same DNA as him)

C) The son would be on campus at that very moment allowing the "protester" the opportunity to shake his hand

D) The son would even decide to shake the protester's hand or even get close enough to come into contact with him

E) The son- being "the test run"- would go off without a hitch

F) This protester would be able to get away, without the police even so much as questioning him about how the kid suddenly died within minutes of seeing him (since I'm sure there would be a witness or two that would tell the police the son shook the protester's hand)

G) A Russian assassin blows up a top secret CIA office in order blame Russia

H) The FBI's investigation would start at the Office of Russian and European Analysis (OREA), with Lizz and Ressler sent to investigate (wouldn't Samar, being a Mossad agent, have been a better choice?)

I) Lizzie would even make it out alive (she had no primer...how would she even know a truck bomb was around the corner?)

J) Cooper would forget his instincts and dismiss Red's lead and trust Connolly, if, for no other reason that Connolly has leverage over him because of what his wife did (Cooper's already on to Connolly...I see no reason why he'd take Connolly's lead over one Red would have provided)

K) Cooper's wife, as per last week, would even decide to do what was needed for Connolly to gain leverage this week

L) The events of “G)” would then trigger a public funeral that several DC bigwigs would attend

M) Red would then put Aram on the trail of other test subjects who showed up at the hospital with similar symptoms or were dead

N) Samar would interview the mother of the dead person and the mother would reveal that to a complete stranger her son was the illegitimate child of a tryst with a now powerful politico

O) Samar would be able to notify Lizzie about that son in time

P) Lizzie would be the one to grab Sen. Hawkins (it could just as easily been Ressler) and whisk him to safety

Q) Lizzie would make skin to skin contact with him

Okay...well, I almost got through the alphabet, but that's how I'd update the "List of Assumptions"

Edited May 11, 2015 by Danielg342

[ottoDbusdriver]

Okay...well, I almost got through the alphabet, but that's how I'd update the "List of Assumptions"

 

Nicely fleshed out @Danielg342 -- that makes it even more ridiculous that that was the plan of the Cabal the WHOLE time, because the odds of all of those individual pieces lining up is really low.  

 

For example, doing a very simple analysis, if you treat all those 17 entries as simple binary elements (true or false), chance of success would be 1/(2^17) or 0.0007%, since any one of those assumptions fails and the Senator doesn't die and Lizzie isn't accused of being a Russian spy.

[Danielg342]

Nicely fleshed out @Danielg342 -- that makes it even more ridiculous that that was the plan of the Cabal the WHOLE time, because the odds of all of those individual pieces lining up is really low.  

 

For example, doing a very simple analysis, if you treat all those 17 entries as simple binary elements (true or false), chance of success would be 1/(2^17) or 0.0007%, since any one of those assumptions fails and the Senator doesn't die and Lizzie isn't accused of being a Russian spy.

 

Thanks, and good points.

 

I think if I had a chance to redo it, I'd do it this way:

 

1) The first victim would still be someone "specific", but it would come after a few "failed" test runs. Each run would involve someone scouted to ensure there would be a time where the virus carrier could meet the target in a setting that would allow for contact.

2) This victim would bring in the FBI, because someone dying because they shook someone's hands would be well above the capabilities of local police.

3) Even though the carrier has all kinds of evidence against him, he requests a deal, and Connolly gives it to him, because he knows about Karakurt

4) Lizzie goes in and talks to him, and he sings like a canary. Reveals- a bit too easily- that Senator Hawkins is the next target. Somewhere in all this he convinces Lizzie that his virus won't affect her, lying that she can't transmit the virus herself and that only Karakurt could infect Hawkins. She believes him, shaking his hand

5) Lizzie goes to Hawkins and escorts him out of his office on what was otherwise a rudimentary day. Once inside the car, Hawkins shakes Lizzie's hand- and winds up dead

6) Red hears of this and realizes that the carrier must have specifically asked for Lizzie to interrogate him and lied about the virus- hence the virus transfer to Hawkins- and since Lizzie was the only one in proximity to Hawkins when he was killed, Lizzie gets blamed for his death.

[Wynterwolf]

As well as destabilizing relations with Russia and whatever that gets them, I think another part of what the Cabal is doing, is using this scenario to also show Red they are more powerful than he is and that he can’t stop them.  And now with Liz compromised, Red is more vulnerable than ever. 

 

But I don’t think they really left all that much to chance.

 

A-F wouldn't have been hard to accomplish.  The Cabal deals in secrets, so they probably know several illegitimate children of a multitude of people they want to have something to hold over.  Getting DNA,, probably from both men, and creating the virus to target the DNA markers they share from being directly related, again not hard if you have the money and the expertise, which they obviously do.  And the scenario at the college would have also been easy to set up since the kid likely took the same path at the same time every day, and they chose a cause they knew he'd be interested in to get him to stop. 

 

G/I probably had two goals - get rid of those specific people, probably for some reason that will become clear later and is part of their larger agenda, and to set the trap in motion for Red/Liz.  Red had already had information about Karakurt and the two people he got the information about the van from could have been a sacrificed pawn, and a plant further leading Red in the direction they wanted him to go (because they wanted Liz involved and the way to do that is to get Red involved first).  And the bomber specifically waited until Liz and Ressler were clear before he detonated the bomb.  Plus, someone higher up had made sure that the whole CIA team was there, which was unusual, and why I think the Cabal also wanted that specific team neutralized apart from the cat and mouse with Red. 

 

H would be easy since the Cabal obviously has people in place to make that happen.

 

I’m sure they wouldn’t have set this in motion until K was in place so J would be easier to make happen, and Harold only thought Connolly was telling him to let Karakurt go, which he didn’t like but there could have been valid reasons for it and Connolly is his boss, not that this was a vital part of the plan to get the virus on Liz.  BUT, that did get Harold to spill his guts to Red, which is a good thing in my book. 

 

L was a forgone conclusion after the bomb, but again the Cabal has people in place to make things like that happen the way they want it to.

 

M/N/O was Red trying to get out in front of the Cabal’s plan, but he wasn’t quick enough, and I have no doubt that Karakurt had a plan (like an anonymous tip) to get Hawkins and Liz together for P and Q, maybe after the funeral was over. 

 

And they would have had back up scenarios if their primary plans didn’t happen. 

 

A big part of this ep was Red trying to get ahead of the Cabal, but they were always – as Liz said – three steps ahead.  Red almost got in front when he thought to look for an earlier victim, but he was just a few hours too late with that idea.  If he had figured out the target was Hawkins before the funeral, or if the guy hadn’t gotten out of his car to walk, they could have shut the op down before Liz was compromised, but Red was just that fraction too late.

 

eta: That conversation Red has at the end with the old Russian dude still has me thinking, though, that Liz being a target of the Cabal could be more about her mother than about Red.  

Edited May 11, 2015 by Wynterwolf

[Danielg342]

Wynterwolf, I would agree that it's not entirely impossible for all that stuff to happen. It's just that, for the plan to happen, it relies on a lot of people and agencies behaving in a certain way (taking certain actions, sending certain people), which stretches credibility. Someone else's behaviour is beyond The Cabal's control and, as the real FBI has shown, behavioural analysis is an inexact science (despite what Criminal Minds would have you believe).

Yeah, it is true that The Cabal likely studied everyone and knows their behaviour, but they won't get it right 100% of the time, like they did here, nor will everyone be as easy to predict. Lizzie, yes, but Red? Doubtful.

What I would have liked is, at the very least, one or two of those actions would have failed forcing The Cabal to initiate its Plan B. At least it makes the behavioural part realistic and shows just how prepared they really are. If they really are a formidable foe, they need to be able to do things not even Red can account for.

[shura]

What I would have liked is, at the very least, one or two of those actions would have failed forcing The Cabal to initiate its Plan B. At least it makes the behavioural part realistic and shows just how prepared they really are. If they really are a formidable foe, they need to be able to do things not even Red can account for.

 

Plan B: Connolly is to walk into Cooper's taskforce HQ and go "Okay, dumbasses, do I have to do everything around here? The target is Senator Hawkins. Go!"

 

eta: That conversation Red has at the end with the old Russian dude still has me thinking, though, that Liz being a target of the Cabal could be more about her mother than about Red.

 

It does make a lot of sense. If the Cabal simply wants to get rid of Lizzie or even Red, they can have them blown up or shot by a sniper. They almost got Red like that already. But the mother is a different matter, the Cabal doesn't even know where she is. I think you are right, they must be trying to lure her out of the shadows.

[Julia]

It certainly couldn't be because losing Lizzie would slow Red down.

[Wynterwolf]

Wynterwolf, I would agree that it's not entirely impossible for all that stuff to happen. It's just that, for the plan to happen, it relies on a lot of people and agencies behaving in a certain way (taking certain actions, sending certain people), which stretches credibility. Someone else's behaviour is beyond The Cabal's control and, as the real FBI has shown, behavioural analysis is an inexact science (despite what Criminal Minds would have you believe).

Yeah, it is true that The Cabal likely studied everyone and knows their behaviour, but they won't get it right 100% of the time, like they did here, nor will everyone be as easy to predict. Lizzie, yes, but Red? Doubtful.

What I would have liked is, at the very least, one or two of those actions would have failed forcing The Cabal to initiate its Plan B. At least it makes the behavioural part realistic and shows just how prepared they really are. If they really are a formidable foe, they need to be able to do things not even Red can account for.

 

Danielg342, you and I are both long term Criminal Minds viewers (though I have now stopped, because it’s actually painful to me to see what the show has become), and I absolutely agree that the fictional BA on this show is light years different than it is on that one. 

 

For this particular plan, though, I didn’t really see where it would have taken that many people to nudge things along at key points, and I do think the Cabal has people in place, like Connolly, for that to have not been much of a problem for them.  I think that’s part of what supposed to be scary about them from Red’s perspective.  He has many, many contacts within the criminal world, but the Cabal appears to hold significant sway over the US government, and that’s a place where he doesn’t have many contacts. 

 

And you’re right, Red will not be easy for them to manipulate, but they already know he’s vulnerable regarding Liz and they know that trying to protect her will be his priority, so they can make certain assumptions about his behavior in specific circumstances because of that.  And since this is, I think, the first time that it’s really been clearly delineated as Red vs The Cabal (as opposed to the FBI against a threat Red has named for them), they went for near misses (almost got to the van before it exploded, almost got to Hawkins before he was infected), with Red being just behind them, rather than Red being genuinely able to disrupt the plan.  I think the next phase will be when Red is able to make them resort to Plan B (or C or D…).

[DarkRaichu]

Please, let all these mess be the writers' way to write Lizzie off OR change who plays her.  Either Lizzie takes Tom/Jacob's offer to go away in a boat and the cabal nukes the boat OR she takes off and returns with new face/identity thanks to Jacob's contacts.

 

Plus, dead Lizzie = out for blood Reddington, which is not a bad thing ;)  

 

I know it is only 0.000001% chance, but one can hope

[ottoDbusdriver]

Please, let all these mess be the writers' way to write Lizzie off OR change who plays her.  Either Lizzie takes Tom/Jacob's offer to go away in a boat and the cabal nukes the boat OR she takes off and returns with new face/identity thanks to Jacob's contacts.

 

May they will borrow from Doctor Who and Lizzie will regenerate with a better actress playing the part. 

 

Or better yet, just straight out replace Megan Boone with a better actress, but never mention anything about it on screen -- like they did when they swapped out Dick York for Dick Sargent on 'Bewitched'.  </snark>

Edited May 11, 2015 by ottoDbusdriver

[paigow]

 

 

Or better yet, just straight out replace Megan Boone with a better actress, but never mention anything about it on screen...

Or duelling Beckys on Roseanne....

[paigow]

I think the tattoo is going to be changed since Lizzie told Tom to change it.

[calipiano81]

Does anyone else think that Harold Cooper is not now, nor was he ever actually sick. Tom Connolly having known him for more than twenty years would know Cooper's code of ethics and that it would take something life altering and then family destroying to get him to play ball.

I've thought this could be a possibility as well...maybe the Cabal faked test results and records and Cooper was given medication to make him feel ill so that Connolly could trap him.

A panelist on the Afterbuzz Blacklist After Show Review also made this prediction.

[calipiano81]

No matter how one feels about the character of Elizabeth Keen, the show cannot get rid of her. Lizzie is extremely important to Red and the majority of his motivations (and the Blacklisters he chooses to go after) have to do with her. The Liz-Red relationship is at the core of the show and there are many fans of that relationship.

As far as Megan Boone, even though she may be the portrayer of Lizzie Keen, she is not the sole person involved with how this character comes across on screen. The writers, directors, showrunners...they all play a role and getting another actress may not necessarily get people to like the character better.

Edited May 13, 2015 by calipiano81

[calipiano81]

I do love that Harold went to Red with his Tom Connolly problem.

I loved it too and it was one of my favorite scenes of this episode. It showed Cooper's trust as well as recognition of Red's experience and abilities.

[Julia]

As far as Megan Boone, even though she may be the portrayer of Lizzie Keen, she is not the sole person involved with how this character comes across on screen. The writers, directors, showrunners...they all play a role and getting another actress may not necessarily get people to like the character better.

I would be perfectly happy watching Red avenge Liz every week. Then they can discover the child she gave up as a teenager. There are plenty of ways to get rid of Megan Boone without recasting her part.

Which is all probably moot, because the only reason I can think of for her to have the role to begin with is if her family made a huge equity investment in the production. I think the show is going to go down with her.

I loved it too and it was one of my favorite scenes of this episode. It showed Cooper's trust as well as recognition of Red's experience and abilities.

That, and that Red is a different person dealing with someone he respects.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Julia

[saber5055]

That, and that Red is a different person dealing with someone he respects.

 

 

Yeah, that, plus he was dealing with a person who listened to him instead of coming back with "I hate you," "You're a liar," "I can't believe anything you say" and "I'm through with you, get out of my life." Then: "Wait! I NEED you!" The Red/Cooper interaction was very refreshing and, dare I say, adult in nature? 

Edited May 14, 2015 by saber5055

[calipiano81]

I would be perfectly happy watching Red avenge Liz every week. Then they can discover the child she gave up as a teenager. There are plenty of ways to get rid of Megan Boone without recasting her part.

But then we would lose the actual relationship between Red and Lizzie. Lizzie has her issues, but the way Red loves and cares for her unconditionally is very appealing (and intriguing as to why) to a lot of fans who then look forward to when Lizzie reciprocates.

[saber5055]

Lizzie has her issues, but the way Red loves and cares for her unconditionally is very appealing (and intriguing as to why) to a lot of fans who then look forward to when Lizzie reciprocates.

 

 

Gross.

[Julia]

But then we would lose the actual relationship between Red and Lizzie. Lizzie has her issues, but the way Red loves and cares for her unconditionally is very appealing (and intriguing as to why) to a lot of fans who then look forward to when Lizzie reciprocates.

Do I understand this to mean that you feel "a lot of fans" ship the two of them, or do you feel that they'll have a warm parental relationship if she learns to trust?

Edited May 24, 2015 by Julia

[calipiano81]

Do I understand this to mean that you feel "a lot of fans" ship the two of them, or do you feel that they'll have a warm parental relationship if she learns to trust?

Both. Whether romantically or as father/daughter dynamic, there are a lot of fans of the Red-Lizzie relationship in the Blacklist fandom.

And yes, there is a good number of "Lizzington" shippers (who battle the Daddygators, Keenlers, and Keenx2). They are active on social media (Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Fanfiction) and interact with Megan Boone and the show's writers/producers.

Edited June 1, 2015 by calipiano81

[Julia]

Huh. Who knew. I've wondered who their social media effort was aimed at. Google and the AO3 seem to feel it's a specialized taste, but with fandom communities it's all about the enthusiasm. Maybe it's more a Tumblr thing?

YKINMK, clearly, but that's what fandoms are for.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Julia

[NYCFree]

I’m watching this on Netflix. I have a personal game of “spot the New York City” locations throughout the episodes. This one was great because Reddington’s recovery lair is in my neighborhood of Riverdale in The Bronx. The river was unmistakably the Hudson, with the Palisades of NJ across the river.

The funeral was held at Riverside Cathedral in Harlem.

Prior favorites include a “German” alleyway that had NYC fire escapes, and a scene in Prague(?) that was clearly the meatpacking district in lower Manhattan.