S03.E15: Drexel

[Tara Ariano]

The founder of an Internet start-up is killed. Red suspects a notorious killer is at work, leading the task force to a dangerous underground news source. Meanwhile, Tom faces a life-threatening situation, and Liz contemplates options for her baby.

[Danielg342]

So Tom AND the task force will be sent in to dangerous situations. They better re-up their Plot Armour, then. How many Red Shirts will we see in this one?

[ottoDbusdriver]

The founder of an Internet start-up is killed. Red suspects a notorious killer is at work, leading the task force to a dangerous underground news source. Meanwhile, Tom faces a life-threatening situation, and Liz contemplates options for her baby.

That's just what this show needs -- move vigorous contemplation from Lizzie.  Uggh.

 

As for the so-called "dangerous underground news source", is this some sort of cross-branding synergy with Vice.  Then again, it's probably 'The Onion'.  Or maybe the episode title is a typo and it's really 'Dremel', and Red is being chased by assassins by really small machining tools.

 

Is Tom's life-threatening situation just an extension of his gunshot wounds from last episode -- or is there a new life-threatening situation ?  

[ottoDbusdriver]

Big surprise -- now Lizzie wants to keep the baby.  Never saw that coming. </sarcasm>

 

This episode was so boring I nodded off briefly -- so, is Tom not going to suffer any consequences from participating in that heist ?

 

RAT Farm.  Whatever.

 

Did Reddington know all along about the painting ?  And all of this was really just a ruse to root out who commissioned it -- all because SOMEONE was trying to send him a message.  That Red is going to die.  Oh noooess !!!  But since that isn't ever going to happen, it's not really a big surprise that someone wants to kill Red.  

 

Still no sign of Lizzie's new dog.

[Primetimer]

It's an episode that makes you wonder why more performance artists aren't serial killers.

Read the story

[Free]

Is Tom's life-threatening situation just an extension of his gunshot wounds from last episode -- or is there a new life-threatening situation ?

 

More of the same, boring Tom/Liz drama.

 

This episode was so boring I nodded off briefly -- so, is Tom not going to suffer any consequences from participating in that heist ?

 

Probably not, Liz won't have as much to whine about then.

[ottoDbusdriver]

From the recap:

 

Here in the back third of the season, we're hitting a lull and could really use a jolt of their menace. These last few weeks, the cases have been pretty standard, and the show seems to be on the way to being renamed A Pregnant Lady With Friends In The FBI.

 

That pretty much sums things up.  I'm pretty sure that this Drexel character wouldn't even have qualified for the Blacklist J.V. squad, and Drexel's barely more threatening than the Kings of the Highway.

[Free]

From the recap:

 

 

 

 

That pretty much sums things up.  I'm pretty sure that this Drexel character wouldn't even have qualified for the Blacklist J.V. squad, and Drexel's barely more threatening than the Kings of the Highway.

 

The recap is definitely on point.  At least the fugitive subplot was semi interesting for what it was, now that we're got stuck in Liz/Tom/baby melodrama and the Blacklisters have gotten worse with where the series is heading.

[Brian Cronin]

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper minor point, but when they were tracking Drexel and used the fact that he was in New York to narrow down people who downloaded the NSA program, they said, "Of the thousand plus people who downloaded the NSA program, 13 were in the New York Ciy metro area." Really? 13? Out of a thousand plus? Clearly, they wanted a small number so they could narrow it down quickly for the sake of the plot, but it just rang so false. 

[forum4idiots]

horrible opening scene.  "ok, i'm an idiot who doesn't pay attention to what's around me which is why i never noticed the door not closing it, yet i meticulously examine my wine glass and for some odd reason i became a detective and noticced someone through the glass...never mind that i never noticed the door shutting, and then while on the phone and know that my house has possiby been trespassed, i don't tell the guy i'm on the phone of this possible danger or for him to call back in a few minutes to check up on me or possbly call the police....but instead, hand up and grab a knife and deal with it himself....".......mmmmkay

 

great, a rat software on steroids....let the conspiracy theory paranoia resume.

Edited February 19, 2016 by lovebug1975

[Brian Cronin]

I agree it was a silly opening, but I think anyone would have notice furtive movement in the reflection of a glass like that. My heat pipes hiss at a weird of the night and I get alert, ya know? But yeah, not closing the door? Not telling the guy on the phone that you think someone else is in the house? Not telling the guy on the phone that you think someone else is in the house when you KNOW that you're involved in some shady business right now? Silly stuff. 

[forum4idiots]

i understand why red is against tom and liz......the real truth is, tom is too good for liz, lol.  back off bitch, lol.

[forum4idiots]

Big surprise -- now Lizzie wants to keep the baby.  Never saw that coming. </sarcasm>

 

This episode was so boring I nodded off briefly -- so, is Tom not going to suffer any consequences from participating in that heist ?

 

RAT Farm.  Whatever.

 

Did Reddington know all along about the painting ?  And all of this was really just a ruse to root out who commissioned it -- all because SOMEONE was trying to send him a message.  That Red is going to die.  Oh noooess !!!  But since that isn't ever going to happen, it's not really a big surprise that someone wants to kill Red.  

 

Still no sign of Lizzie's new dog.

if i have to guess...i think it's more like red took on the real red, who is dead to hide teh fact he is lizzie's father....which seems to tie in to next week's ep.  so i think this episode is nothing more than a prep to big reveal.  the reddington graveyard on the painting most likely represents the graveyard of lizzie's father, but instead is the real reddington, not liz's dad.  and apparently, the blacklister next week know this "buried" secret.

[Brian Cronin]

Honestly, I really can't fault the show too much for their plots at the moment. I mean, it's got to be pretty rough to do an action drama when your lead is super duper pregnant. So I can forgive them for the sort of stalling pattern they've been in lately. 

[dwmarch]

The show's focus seems to be working better for me than for the rest of the crowd but I honestly think the writing has improved in quality. Case in point in this episode was Samar's accidental outing of Lizzie's adoption. I feel like previous seasons of this show would have had a big shouty conflict full of misunderstanding. Instead we get "sorry if it wasn't the way you wanted it to be but you have nothing to be ashamed of". We also had a scene in which Lizzie gets all pissy with Red and he basically tells her off and by the end of the episode she actually kisses him by way of thanks. Before, she would forgive him because the plot demanded it. Now I feel like she forgives him because she's starting to clue in. She's got a long way to go but at the very least she understands that they are actually on the same side. Lizzie has come a long way in the emotional maturity department. Finding out that Tom hooked up with Gina Zanetakos to pull the heist barely merits a raised eyebrow from her and she doesn't really give him a hard time about it later. And we finally had a quote-worthy Lizzie line: "You need to save your strength so I can kill you." That's her line of the series as far as I am concerned and it was perfectly delivered. She condemns the robbery but condones the nesting phase Tom is going through. Since she's not an FBI agent any longer she doesn't need to officially disapprove and she knows she lives in a world where people will do literally anything to survive.

 

Another bit that I loved was that the FBI didn't come stomping in the form of two and only two agents. Cooper specifically says to get ahold of the local field office for backup and when the raid goes down we get a team of FBI ninjas backing up the main characters.

 

The plot was weird and I won't bother trying to make sense of it. It definitely seems to have come from a plot generator. NSA Remote Access Trojans (on steroids!), underground journalists who are interviewing serial killers, murder as internet art and a reference to super-poisonous fish that isn't a Chekhov's gun? Someone set that plot generator to "Random". However, the plots on this show have always had a good element of nonsense to them so this didn't bother me so much.

 

Last but not least, I must call it now. That painting is foreshadowing. Red is going to fake his own death to draw out this enemy.

[molshoop]

 

the Reddington graveyard on the painting most likely represents the graveyard of Lizzie's father, but instead is the real Reddington, not Liz's dad.  and apparently, the blacklister next week know this "buried" secret.

 

           I think it means that Lizzie will want to kill Reddington when she finds out her mother is still alive and he

           lied to her about it.

[Gregg247]

That painting reminded me of the ones they used to feature on "Night Gallery" -- very creepy and weird.

 

Oh, if only it was a painting of Red standing over a tombstone that said "Keen".

[saber5055]

I mean, it's got to be pretty rough to do an action drama when your lead is super duper pregnant.

That's nowhere near an excuse for how cr*ppy this episode was. The REAL leads are Red, Dembe, Tom (stuck with tubes for the moment), Ressler, Aram and that DMV guy. Most of us prefer to forget Lizzie Keen is even on this show.

 

I didn't understand one iota of last night's show so, lucky for you guys, I don't have much of anything to add. Everything was so Red could see the painting at the end? The one he sent back? Please.

 

Except: 

We also had a scene in which Lizzie gets all pissy with Red and he basically tells her off and by the end of the episode she actually kisses him by way of thanks. Before, she would forgive him because the plot demanded it. Now I feel like she forgives him because she's starting to clue in. She's got a long way to go but at the very least she understands that they are actually on the same side.

But next week we see Lizzie ONCE AGAIN telling Red he sucks and she hates him. Geeze Louise. Redundancy rules on this show. I strongly disliked this episode, for oh, so many reasons.

Edited February 19, 2016 by saber5055

[alias1]

Oh my.  That was an excrutiatingly boring episode.  Baby drama is not what I tuned into this show to see.  Not to mention the ping pong repetition of Lizzie saying, Oh Red I hate you, Look what you did to Tom.  Oh, Red, Thank You.  You saved Tom.  It looks like she's going to do it again next week.  Honestly even Spader didn't save this episode.  I think I may not be watching this idiocy much longer. 

 

I like the idea someone had where she should have been kidnapped at the beginning of this season, and we see her for one minute every week trying to get out of some dank, dark lair.  And when her pregnancy is over she can be rescued and we can go back to getting Real Blacklisters.

 

Edited to add: Oh gosh, Saber, we posted almost the same thing at the same time. 

Edited February 19, 2016 by SierraMist

[Free]

That's nowhere near an excuse for how cr*ppy this episode was. The REAL leads are Red, Dembe, Tom (stuck with tubes for the moment), Ressler, Aram and that DMV guy. Most of us prefer to forget Lizzie Keen is even on this show.

 

I didn't understand one iota of last night's show so, lucky for you guys, I don't have much of anything to add. Everything was so Red could see the painting at the end? The one he sent back? Please.

 

Except: 

But next week we see Lizzie ONCE AGAIN telling Red he sucks and she hates him. Geeze Louise. Redundancy rules on this show. I strongly disliked this episode, for oh, so many reasons.

 

Kind of makes you wish he didn't save her the last arc considering she even got that far because of him.

[CaptainE]

I still can't get past the manufactured love crapfest. I remember season 1 or two, when Tom was waiting in his hideout and tried to KILL Lizzie. Now we see a flashback, and all of his lies are suddenly genuine.

I'll try to find the eppy , but as I remember, he would have killed her without a second thought. Almost did.

[Happytobehere]

The aBlacklist is the kind of show that would benefit from either a shorter season to make the storyline tighter, or multiple story arcs within the longer season. It gives NBC their desired episodes and give the writers focal point breaks.

[Chaos Theory]

I still can't get past the manufactured love crapfest. I remember season 1 or two, when Tom was waiting in his hideout and tried to KILL Lizzie. Now we see a flashback, and all of his lies are suddenly genuine.

I'll try to find the eppy , but as I remember, he would have killed her without a second thought. Almost did.

I think that is what makes the relationship interesting. What was the truth and what was a lie? And yes they have tried to kill each other at least once but again that is why I find them interesting.

[Free]

I still can't get past the manufactured love crapfest. I remember season 1 or two, when Tom was waiting in his hideout and tried to KILL Lizzie. Now we see a flashback, and all of his lies are suddenly genuine.

I'll try to find the eppy , but as I remember, he would have killed her without a second thought. Almost did.

 

The soppy love melodrama with Liz really dragged his character down tbh, especially with this arc.

[dwmarch]

The aBlacklist is the kind of show that would benefit from either a shorter season to make the storyline tighter, or multiple story arcs within the longer season. It gives NBC their desired episodes and give the writers focal point breaks.

 

Well for what it's worth, Blindspot will be back on Feb 29th. I don't know if you're watching this show or not but it's basically The Blacklist with slightly better plotting.

[Danielg342]

I almost don't know what to think about this episode. It was pretty slow, dull...unmemorable. Like many other episodes, the concept worked a lot better than its execution- a serial killer who uses murder for artwork is not a bad idea, but this case was bogged down in so much convolution that it was hard to be excited about it. It should have been a straightforward point to get to "Drexel committed the murder to expose a commercial spying program" but it took the show way too long to get there.

 

I did squee at seeing Chris Chalk though. Boy, Gotham and this show sure do share actors- we've had Anthony Carrigan, David Fierro, JW Cortes and Chalk, by my estimation (

Paul Reubens is set to appear at Penguin's father later in Gotham's Season 2

). So, any chance the great Spade gets to ham it up next to some Bat-villains sometime soon?

 

(Special note for that- James Spader would have worked wonderfully as Theo Galavan...at least Spader brings an infectious energy that forces you to watch him, even when he recites lines that are pretty terrible. Not to knock James Frain, but Frain was too unassuming to make up for his character's poor writing)

 

The adoption storyline was not that great either, although I did appreciate Tom's about face. Does seem weird that Red would set up Tom to be killed only for his killers to pull the plug at the last moment...but, since the show made a big deal about it, we'll see it lead to something else down the road.

 

Which leads me to Red. I've always loved watching him, and I think he made this episode entertaining. Problem is, since the second half started he seems to be nothing more than a spectator on his own show, if he does anything substantial at all. For a show that's all about the procedural, Red's role in the investigation has never been defined, aside from assigning the cases. The show used to be a bit better with Red being an active participant throughout Season 1, but it seems to have forgotten that lately. If these Case of the Week are ever going to work, Red will need to be a bigger part of them.

[Free]

Which leads me to Red. I've always loved watching him, and I think he made this episode entertaining. Problem is, since the second half started he seems to be nothing more than a spectator on his own show, if he does anything substantial at all. For a show that's all about the procedural, Red's role in the investigation has never been defined, aside from assigning the cases. The show used to be a bit better with Red being an active participant throughout Season 1, but it seems to have forgotten that lately. If these Case of the Week are ever going to work, Red will need to be a bigger part of them.

 

Agreed, the show is just more interesting that way.

[calipiano81]

Does seem weird that Red would set up Tom to be killed only for his killers to pull the plug at the last moment...

Red had nothing to do with the diamond heist. He found out about Tom and the robbery through Nick the doctor and decided to save him for Lizzie's sake.

Edited February 20, 2016 by calipiano81

[alias1]

Red had nothing to do with the diamond heist. He found out about Tom and the robbery through Nick the doctor and decided to save him for Lizzie's sake.

I need to have my memory refreshed.  Have we ever seen Nick the doctor before?  Seemed like he was a convenient plot device all of a sudden (much like a lot of stuff on this show).

[saber5055]

Wasn't Nick the Doctor Lizzie's old boyfriend/fiancé? From before she got "married" to Tom. I believe we met him many episodes ago, last season or even season one. I vaguely remember Lizzie talking him into some private treatment for someone. Others here have much better memories than I do, so hopefully one of you can fill in the blanks. I just remember thinking Lizzie should have stuck with the good doctor.

[Danielg342]

Red had nothing to do with the diamond heist. He found out about Tom and the robbery through Nick the doctor and decided to save him for Lizzie's sake.

 

Point about the diamond heist, though I think my point still stands- Red had a chance to take Tom out and he didn't. That's going to come back in some way.

[nutty1]

Jeez, I still like this show!!

[thuganomics85]

I did get a kick out of Chris Calk's character creating a program that spies on everyone, because after all, that isn't new for Lucius Fox!  This show does seem to like using Gotham actors lately.  When is James Frain going to show up, because really, that man has been born to play a future Blacklister, who will probably end up being wasted for more baby drama.

 

So, Lizzie now wants to keep the baby, after Red bails Tom's ass out, and then she sees a video of him praising her.  Lets ignore the fact that the video was made during his undercover days, so that wasn't even the real Tom, possibly.  Because she is Lizzie, and she apparently will forgive Tom for all that shit.  After all, why should you let a major con and even trying to kill you, deny you true love?!

 

So, not only is he anti-adoption, Ressler was also saying something about how all women are hardwired to want babies and whatnot.  I... really don't know what to make of that.  Ressler's got some interesting views on gender dynamics and roles.

 

A killer performance artist is an entertaining idea and Daniel London did what he good, but the case itself was a waste.

 

I wouldn't be against a return from Rachel the Reporter; especially if she once again enters the scene wearing only a see-thru shirt and no pants.

[Danielg342]

I wouldn't be against a return from Rachel the Reporter; especially if she once again enters the scene wearing only a see-thru shirt and no pants.

I double down on this endorsement. ☺

[Dowel Jones]

So, Lizzie now wants to keep the baby,

 

Flash forward two years, Lizzie changing one more soiled diaper, "I am so done with you!.."

[calipiano81]

I need to have my memory refreshed. Have we ever seen Nick the doctor before? Seemed like he was a convenient plot device all of a sudden (much like a lot of stuff on this show).

Nick the doctor first appeared in 2x19 "Leonard Caul." He was Liz's ex-fiance (it was implied that Liz cheated on him with Tom) who Liz called to help when Red was shot.

He accepted $500,000 for operating on Red and apparently has been working for him ever since. I don't really understand why he feels "trapped" by Red, since Red only threatens/hurts bad guys, not innocents (especially one who saved his life).

Edited February 22, 2016 by calipiano81

[Danielg342]

I don't really understand why he feels "trapped" by Red, since Red only threatens/hurts bad guys, not innocents (especially one who saved his life).

I suspect Nick was trying to evoke the feelings that Liz is supposed to be feeling, since no matter what Liz does she always winds up needing Red, just because of the realities of having Red in her life.

[betsyboo]

This episode is why i have a post it covering my webcam. 

[saber5055]

I don't really understand why he feels "trapped" by Red, since Red only threatens/hurts bad guys, not innocents (especially one who saved his life).

 

Especially since Red seems to pay generously, more than generously, when someone is on his payroll. Maybe now that the doctor has paid off his loans and is flush financially, he's all about not wanting to do anything any more for the person who brought him out of lifelong debt. People are like that!

 

My webcam got a postie put over it the minute I took the machine out of its box.