S01.E20: The Kingmaker

[ElectricBoogaloo]

A politician in Prague finds himself being framed for murder, which sees the team attempting to take down the Kingmaker, a strategist who's behind the emergence of some powerful politicians.

[AimingforYoko]

Heh, Red was a little impatient with Lizzie after the Kingmaker got killed, "You had one job!"

[bagatelle]

So, is Red her uncle?  He did a mercy killing on Lizzie's father, his brother, a guy he's known his whole life, as he said. In any case, it seems he wasn't the bad guy in that instance.

[LittleIggy]

Loved seeing Linus Roache as the villain. It's a bonus to seeing him as King Ecbert on "Vikings."

The scene of Dembe having the munchies surrounded by all that weed was funny.

[Caroline]

So, is Red her uncle?  He did a mercy killing on Lizzie's father, his brother, a guy he's known his whole life, as he said. In any case, it seems he wasn't the bad guy in that instance.

I don't think so. He said he'd known Sam all of Lizzie's life and 'most of' his own.

[milkyaqua]

I loved how Red was explaining the how and why he killed Lizzie's father.  Like that would make it better but that's Red for you.

 

Loved seeing Linus Roache (I miss the mothership L&O).  But seriously, you're a germaphobe and a smoker and you kill people which is messy, ok.

 

Please don't put Keene and Ressler together, ugh.

 

What's with the secret cabal?

 

Again with the incompetent FBI?  The Following and The Blacklist should have a contest.  Why didn't they alert someone closer to the senator's home?

Edited April 29, 2014 by milkyaqua

[ottoDbusdriver]

If the Kingmaker had the alarm codes for the senator's house, why did the alarms go off ?

 

Here's the even stupider question -- if the senator had the house alarms set, why were the doors unlocked ?
Ressler waltzed in the back door without a problem and Wiggie strolled through the front door without a key.  Alarm codes do not equal having the key to the door, especially for older homes like the senator's mansion.

 

Even weirder -- the senator's wife had a blackberry in her hand (you can see the logo above her finger on the back of the phone), yet was unable to call the police because "there's no signal".  Are 'The Blacklist' writers trying to convince the viewers that The Kingmaker either took down the local cell tower or carried a cell phone jammer with him ?

 

That front room of the house was surprisingly well lit for the middle of the night -- how many moons were in the sky because I doubt that the house of a U.S. senator is surrounded by street lights ?  Because the very bright light was coming in from windows on opposite sides of the room.

 

Wiggie's acting while she was being strangled was underwhelming -- there was no strain or bulging veins in her face -- heck, her face wasn't even turning red. It's like she wasn't even trying.

[mindbird]

Lizzie has grown on me, and one must allow that the show isn't giving her much of a chance.  I hope the FBI doesn't really send tightly-clothed spike-heeled agents into dark houses chasing intensely skilled hitmen. If there's any niche in the world for long pants and flat shoes, it would have to be as in law enforcement and such.

 

Maybe the wardrobe department doesn't read the scripts.

 

But really, Lizzie's okay with me.  As long as Neal stays dead...oh, sorry, wrong show.

Edited April 29, 2014 by mindbird

[Julia]

I've been wondering about the dress code myself, because Meera seems to dress in practical working clothes. I'm not sure what signal they're sending there, except maybe "this is our leading lady."

[Gregg247]

Wow, I didn't recognize the guy from "Law and Order" as the Kingmaker this week.  Maybe they should have hired Sam Waterston to play the Senator instead of the guy from "House of Cards".  That would've been funny.  

 

Glad to see Alan Alda again, especially as a bad guy; its a nice change of pace for him.  I also like to see Red struggling a bit.  He's gotten a little too cocky lately, so I like seeing him actually worried about something.  That includes his little "personal story" he told to the guy in the swimming pool in the beginning of the episode.  Red's story was he was a life guard and had such a bad experience, he hadn't been in the water since.  The guy says, "But weren't you in the Navy?", and Red looked perturbed that his lie was sniffed out so easily.  

 

You're awesome, Red, but you're a little full of yourself!

[SomeTameGazelle]

I don't think so. He said he'd known Sam all of Lizzie's life and 'most of' his own.

 

I thought it was clear that both Lizzie and Sam knew that he [sam] wasn't her biological father. Red could in theory be Sam's older brother if he had known him "most of [his] own" life, but that wouldn't indicate any relationship to Lizzie. (I wasn't paying attention to anything that would prove whether Red is older or younger than Sam; Sam seemed older but then again he was also sick and dying.)

 

Red could still be Lizzie's uncle if he was her bio mother's or father's brother, but I don't think we have seen anything concrete to prove or disprove that.

[Danielg342]

As I said last week- and I still believe this week- every now and then, at least, The Blacklist ought to devote an entire episode or two to providing answers to its mytharcs, because the Case of the Week gets in the way too much. I'm glad The Kingmaker had something to do with Red, but, as we've seen all season, we got too much posturing, too many cryptic messages and no answers, and I fear it's getting too late into the season to resolve things adequately.

 

Also...I liked seeing Fitch, and learning that he's a Danza (in that Fitch's first name is Alan, just like Alda), but I fear with Fitch leading yet another "Nebulous Organization" the show is getting bogged down too much with them. I mean, not only is there Fitch, but we've also got Red's empire (which strains credulity at times), Berlin, some of the Blacklisters (if not the entire Blacklist itself) and even some factions within the U.S. government itself it seems...I mean, I'm all for complex storylines and having so many different factors and players to consider, but let's start organizing these groups and fit them into the greater story somehow. I'm not asking that I know everything right away- it's too early for that- but I think, at the very least, I'd like to see what these groups' motivations are, at least, if I'm asked to somehow care about them.

 

(As a corollary I do hope the show resolves that point soon...there's a real opportunity for the show to delve deep into the criminal underground and deconstruct it and provide some interesting perspectives. For example, far too often, the "shady underworld" is always shown to be evil and I feel like the show has the opportunity to show that some factions in the underworld aren't as evil as we think; plus The Blacklist could really paint that it's the criminals who really run the globe and resolve things for people, especially considering the FBI in this series seems to stand for "Forever Bungling Idiots". This is an opportunity the show can't waste)

 

As for the case itself...I liked it. Linus Roache was great as The Kingmaker, and I thought the idea- like quite a few of the criminals on the show- was incredibly novel. Not just that, but I felt like the concept was believable too- why couldn't "kingmakers" exist in reality, if they already do? I'm not sure I buy that The Kingmaker could really do everything by himself, but at least it led to his undoing.

 

Other points...I liked seeing Elizabeth Keen go to Donald Ressler at the end...at this stage, Ressler's the only friend she's got left, so it's natural for her to go to the last person she can rely on. I didn't quite like seeing Keen "break up" with Red because I feel like it's hollow storytelling- we all know that Red and Keen will link back up again sooner rather than later- but I'm also willing to see where it goes. Finally...Dembe just calmly eating ice cream after developing the munchies...that was so funny.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, I loved Dembe surrounded by all the edibles and feeding his face with that bowl of ice cream!

 

I also liked the shot of Elizabeth returning home to the wrecked house. I don't like the character (or the actress) but it was a great reminder that everything has gone to shit in both her personal life and her professional life.

 

I like that she went to Ressler as a friend (please, nothing more than that!). I don't think it's because she has no other friends (we saw a bunch of people at the recommitment ceremony) but because she doesn't need a shoulder to cry on. She wants someone who will not just pat her on the back and say, "There, there." She wants someone to apply their analytical skills and help her figure out what the hell has been going on.

 

I found the kingmaker plot itself a bit more interesting than some of the case of the week stuff they've done before. The fact that the younger politician was willing to go to all that trouble made me remember that politicians are the worst! Later when the older senator agreed to give up his seat and the kingmaker said he didn't trust his word since he was a politician, I thought heh, as much as I'm not rooting for the bad guy here, he's not lying.

Edited June 30, 2014 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Happytobehere]

I don't think so. He said he'd known Sam all of Lizzie's life and 'most of' his own.

Although I agree Red is not Lizzie's uncle, that statement does not preclude the possibility. If Red is the older brother, there would be a portion of his life (2, 3 years, etc.) where he would not have known Sam; thus making his statement factually correct, but informationally elusive, as is Red's style.