Courtesy of NBC
The race to find Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) is on as The Blacklist concludes the second half of its Super Bowl two-parter. Warning: rant ahead.
Let’s bitch it out…
‘Luther Braxton: Conclusion’ is the kind of episode that makes me want to shoot my television. It is an infuriating, anti-climatic waste of time that does so little with its 42 minute runtime that I’m amazed the writers haven’t apologized for wasting viewers’ time. The episode is barely even worth discussing it is so uneventful. File this one away under “Audience Hate Crime”.
Clearly intended to “pay off” (please note air quotes) part one, this conclusion essentially boils down to Lizzie getting drugged by Dr. Selma Orchard (Gloria Reuben in a nothing part) and forced to relive traumatic memories from her childhood. These memories are filmed through hazy, Vaseline smeared lenses and edited to the point of incoherence despite their complete lack of nuance or innovation. The bunny metaphor is obvious, the lack of plot revelation frustrating and the resolution – that Red (James Spader) was present – is trite (what a surprise! Oh wait, no it’s not). Naturally things needs to end ambivalently, as Orchard confides that Lizzie’s fried brain has been altered by previous tampering, which basically invalidates everything we just saw. Okay, so that’s 42 minutes wasted – thanks for that!
The other aspects of the episode are even less relevant. Despite nearly dying in the opening scene, Samar (Mozhan Marnò) is completely fine to run a full operation with Agent Boring (Diego Klattenhoff) although their efforts are rendered moot because Red tracks down both Lizzie and Orchard’s kidnapped son with ease. And are we meant to be worried about Orchard’s kid, because not only do we not know her, but we literally see him for two seconds! Newsflash: kill the kid. It makes no difference to us.
The result is an episode that is explicitly dedicated to pointless investigations and exploring memories for little information which may or may not even be reliable. ‘Luther Braxton: Conclusion’ is contrived, repetitive and useless. It is a a complete waste of time that insults its audience and fails on every level. Grade: F
Other Observations:
- Lest we think that the show will do something meaningful with a guest star of Ron Perlman’s calibre, Red kills him (off screen) and hangs him in the Director’s (David Strathairn) house. Yet another classic example of The Blacklist abusing its guest stars.
- Ditto Janel Moloney, whose Goodson spends the episode towing the governmental policy line about the Factory with Harold (Harry Lennix). Basically she exists to create animosity and spout generic dialogue.
- Speaking of terrible dialogue, how bad is that quid pro quo scene between Red and the Director? We get it, guys, neither of you knows how dangerous the other one is. Zzzzzz
- I LIKED how BOONE’S acting when she’s UNDER THE INFLUENCE essentially just involves spasming and SCREAMING sporadically. GREAT JOB <thrashes around>
- Episode highlight: Aram (Amir Arison) hugs Samar when she returns to the field office. I think I just want a spin-off of Aram doing cute things.
Your turn: were you disappointed in how terrible, obvious and dull ‘Luther Braxton: Conclusion’ was or am I just rhoid-raging? Did Perlman and Reuben deserve better? Do you care if we ever see the Director or Goodson again? Does Boone’s acting annoy you? Do you care about her falsified memories and stupid childhood trauma? Sound off below.
The Blacklist sucks up oxygen and decreases IQs on Thursdays at 10pm EST on NBC. Next week the murder Tom (an unseen Ryan Eggold) committed on the boat when Lizzie held him captive comes back to haunt her. Bestill my beating heart.