S06.E13: Robert Vesco

[ottoDbusdriver]

Episode Description:

Red and the Task Force hunt for legendary fugitive Robert Vesco, one of history's most notorious con men. Meanwhile, Samar makes a life changing decision.

Note: This is the first hour of 'a 2 hour event' (that's what the NBC promo weasels are calling it).
 

[CaptainE]

Are you a moderator here Otto?

[mxc90]

I knew Red would quickly forget Cooper.  He throws a major bash, invites all these freeloaders, Carol Burnett, Vontae, and even Glen (the man that was prepared to rob Red of all his cash, once he got sentenced) showed up with his mother. And to cap Red's night he was preparing to bang a married woman. But the man that stuck his neck out for him is not there to be the guest of honor and Dembe was out digging for a body in Cuba.

Now he is back to his old tricks by deceiving the FBI. How easy he forgot the person/people most loyal to him.

I am glad Vesco took his gold.

[NeenerNeener]

That was amusing pretty much all the way through. TBL doesn't usually have that many intentional laughs.

[preeya]

So now they tried comedy(?). In my opinion, they failed miserably.

Too bad about Samar & Aram. My MIL had vascular dementia and believe me, it is truly burdensome.

[saber5055]

I guess all the serious writers took this week off -- if there really are any serious writers on this show -- and the comedy team took over. The only good part was the party Red tossed for everyone. Otherwise, the gold story was so hackneyed and tedious I don't have words for it. I declare it an epic fail.

However, I am disappointed it wasn't shown how all those gold bars were carried out since I looked up how much each bar weighs: 25 lbs. I wanted to see the boys scoop them up, stuff a bunch in their pockets, and waltz out of the opera in their tuxedos filled with gold bars. Alas, it was not to be. Now THAT might have gotten a laugh out of me.

Edited March 30, 2019 by saber5055

[ottoDbusdriver]

No. 9.  ?? Robert Vesco gets No. 9. ?? WTF ?

And what is with this fever dream party of Red's ?  Who are all these people ?  Meanwhile, Dembe gets to go dig up a body in Cuba ?

Whoa, whoa, pump the brakes, Lizzie, how about you dial back on dissing Nova Scotia ?  Where is that coming from ?  And considering it's "claimed" to be winter, there's no snow in sight.  I seem to remember earlier episodes that Lizzie and the Task Force couldn't even carry a gun in Canada (when they went to Montreal, for example), but here there are running and gunning in quaint Truro.

I thought it was hilarious that Lizzie was being outrun by a senior citizen.

Of, FFS !!  This is basically an episode of National Treasure, which then it morphs into an episode of Ocean's Eleven for the caper.

The Samar/Aram stuff is just so damn boring.  They're broken up, they're not broken up, there's a pregnancy, there's not a pregnancy.  Enough already. 

Oh noeess, Reddington got hoodwinked. Seriously, they didn't have anyone guarding the gold ?

I guess this would be the episode that they farmed out to the interns, who basically gave up 10 minutes in and snagged ideas for the rest of the episode from movies off of Netflix.

No sign or mention of Agnes, the dogs, the sister, Tom's ghost, or Grandma Scottie.

Edited March 30, 2019 by ottoDbusdriver

[dwmarch]

I enjoyed the episode despite its faults. The Blacklist sometimes tries to be angsty and heavy and serious with mixed results so I don't mind mixed results in the comedy department.

However, one must wonder why Red would steal tons of gold and then leave it in a warehouse with no guards around it. One single guard would have sufficed!

Lizzie's laughter at Red's reversal of fortune was kind of annoying but super on-point. He's been leading her around by the nose since the show started so when she sees the same thing happening to him she can't help but laugh.

I'm quite impressed by the accurate Truro Police cars and the half-second shot of Vesco stuffing Canadian money into his go-bag.

Less impressed by the idea that he had the whole department on his payroll. It may not be the biggest town but paying off every cop would be a serious ongoing expense.

It was silly that they had to get Glen to run onstage to yell "fire!" so they could set the explosives off. How about setting the explosives off first and then having Glen run out there to say a gas line had ruptured?

Despite the unfortunate implications behind "I'm never breaking up with you" it was good to see Aram actually being assertive about something for once in his life. Amir Arison recently appeared on Billions as a representative of a fictional country and he had none of Aram's quirks/anxieties. Aram has seen enough action that he certainly should have grown a pair by now.

Edited April 1, 2019 by dwmarch
yell, not run

[Dowel Jones]

I spent most of the episode on Wikipedia reading about Vesco, and listening to the television.  I even remember some of the news of that time, although I didn't give a fig about what was going on.  Nixon was President; that was enough.

[Loandbehold]

Since when did Red have an entire team of people he could count on to do a robbery of this type on less than 24 hours notice? Has he completely rebuilt his entire organization? It was amazing that they could move that much gold in so short a time. Even if they were using pallets. You still have to load the gold onto the pallet. 

Carping aside, it was a fun episode. I'm a sucker for a caper, although this did remind me a little of the "Scheherazade" episode of Leverage.

Hard to say, but I liked Lizzie laughing at Red and demanding a pic. 

8 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

No. 9.  ?? Robert Vesco gets No. 9. ?? WTF ?

I thought it was b/c he had been Public Enemy No. 1 before leaving the US in the early 70s. Plus taking Red for all he had. If Red determines who gets placed where on The Black List, I can see him putting Vesco in the Top 10. 

[Kelda Feegle]

The party was the Red I want to spend time with, the rest was shite. I was incredulous that he got fooled again. 

[tljgator]

11 hours ago, saber5055 said:

However, I am disappointed it wasn't shown how all those gold bars were carried out since I looked up how much each bar weighs: 25 lbs.

I thought they (very briefly) showed some of the crew pushing a giant laundry cart/basket thing out of the building, that I presumed had the gold in it, since I'm with you -- I knew it should (in the real world) be crazy heavy. It was just before Lizzie and whatshishead teleported to NOLA in record time and came upon the post-explosion/fire-in-a-crowded-theater-scene.

Thought this episode was a snooze, especially as the start to an ever so special two-parter. When the Stacy Keach (that was Stacy Keach, wasn't it?) hug happened, I knew Red had been had, and if I knew it, he should have known it, since I only half pay attention to this show anyway. Meh.

[Notwisconsin]

this was unique in that the blacklister was a genuinely real person. I remember reading that Vesco had died sometime in the '90s. i could be wrong.

[rur]

I enjoyed this episode  because it was different, and because it had some humor in it.  

The only thing I found irritating was Liz briefing the crew at the beginning, and this irritation has been building for some time. Every week job-on-a-gold-platter Lizzie gets to instruct all the agents on who they'll search for next, as if she's actually done some of the hunting down without Red's help.

[Neiman]

I enjoyed this episode. Just wish the next one would've been Red hunting Vesco again to get the gold.  Surprised he let it go.

[NoReally]

Question: Has it actually been established that the Blacklisters are numbered in order of importance?

If so, I must've missed it. I thought they were just assigned numbers in the order they were put on the list.

[Loandbehold]

4 hours ago, NoReally said:

Question: Has it actually been established that the Blacklisters are numbered in order of importance?

If so, I must've missed it. I thought they were just assigned numbers in the order they were put on the list.

I don't believe the numbers have ever actually been mentioned on the show, just in the episode titles. Whenever Lizzie briefs the team we don't hear her mention any Black List number. I guess some of us assume that there must be some logic to the numbers since they don't go up or down, but skip around in the titles. Importance or level of danger makes as good a guess as any for why someone is Number 9 while someone else is No. 112.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Loandbehold

[CaptainE]

On 3/31/2019 at 10:29 AM, rur said:

I enjoyed this episode  because it was different, and because it had some humor in it.  

The only thing I found irritating was Liz briefing the crew at the beginning, and this irritation has been building for some time. Every week job-on-a-gold-platter Lizzie gets to instruct all the agents on who they'll search for next, as if she's actually done some of the hunting down without Red's help.

It was different, but still inane and forgetting half 80% of the previous plot points such as THE MYSTERY OF WHO RED REALLY IS.

FFS, so this is just going to be glossed over from now on as if we the viewers are some 4 year olds with the memory of a gnat?  That's what's annoying the shit out of me.  Where the hell is Lizzie's sister?   Do you remember that Lizzie and Ressler disposed of some bodies a few weeks ago?

Harold and the team just existing to get a useless criminal off the street?  Guy living with his cat.  FBI warrantless raids in Canada?

BTW, customs is still a thing, even if you're flying a private jet into the US. A corpse would've been out of the question.

And why the hell would you believe the gold is gone just because Red says so?  How many times has he pulled the wool over the Keystone Kops' eyes?

What a cute little romp?  Not. 

KMA millenial writers.  This is such dreck.  And if you (not directed at you RUR) couldn't figure out why Samar said she was pregnant (obvious ruse for the polygraph tech)  this show must be truly entertaining.

Edited April 1, 2019 by CaptainE
this a general reply not criticizing the quoted poster

[rur]

Oh, I understand, CaptainE. 

I no longer watch this show closely. Usually I'm playing a game on my tablet while it's on. If something happens that actually makes me look up and watch the story, I'm intrigued, and  the timing and the hijinks in the opera house did entertain me. 

I agree with you on the amount of dropped threads and inconsistencies from episode to episode, though.

Edited April 1, 2019 by rur

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 3/29/2019 at 9:52 PM, mxc90 said:

He throws a major bash, invites all these freeloaders, Carol Burnett, Vontae, and even Glen

I would have hoped that he would keep Vontae away from all criminal activity.  Set him up with a place to live, a small income, and maybe guidance to go to school for some sort of training.  That would be a good expression of his gratitude to him.

Otto, I demand that you inquire about the fate of Robert Vesco's cat in each future episode thread!  (Since Vesco is unlikely to be able to go back to that apartment, I hope he asked one of the police officers to adopt him/her.)

Edited April 5, 2019 by ItCouldBeWorse