Yes, the bunny. Remember when Liz was examining a box of her things after Sam died and amongst them was a slightly singed stuffed bunny? Naturally, the fluffy live bunny was symbolic of the plush one in the box of mementos from her youth. Liz makes the connection too and tears the head off the bunny to reveal – something! It’s small, looks like a circuit maybe. It’s fairly plausible that this is a Fulcrum clue, one that will be put under the magnified glass in the coming weeks, but it begs the question, will Liz tell Red that she found it?
The triumph of Braxton’s defeat, Liz’s rescue and the ongoing (for now) safety of the Fulcrum was mitigated by another hiccup in Liz and Red’s relationship. The revelation that he was in her home on the night of the fire, looking for the Fulcrum, is interpreted by Liz as a sign that Red cares nothing for her personally, just the knowledge in her head. It’s amazing sometimes how the writers of The Blacklist treat the Liz/Red relationship like a will-they-or-won’t-they couple in a rom-com, constantly throwing up obstacles to prevent our protagonists from accepting what they know is true. Red’s tenderness when he finds the tortured Liz really says it all, and a supposedly smart cookie like Liz would have to ask if finding the Fulcrum is all important then why Red didn’t just push her for the information she has in the first place. For now, it looks like things are off-again.
Really though, the only people that Red was heartless towards was anyone that stopped him from getting to Braxton, who, like everyone else in the Factory seemed to escape the missile destruction of a retired oil platform turned jail in the middle of the ocean none the worse for wear. Seriously, who did that guy think he was, trying to extort Red for Braxton’s location. Didn’t he know who he was dealing with? Meanwhile, Braxton himself, who was a genuine intimidating threat in Sunday night’s episode, seemed oddly inept here. Red did point out though that Braxton’s no good at thinking on the fly, so I guess that makes sense.
We know that the real big bad in all of this though is The Director, AKA: the guy that looks suspiciously like David Strathairn. He and Red had a face-to-face this week, a game of who knows more than who. I think it’s safe to say that The Director is more convinced than ever that Red is Fulcrum-less, and it’s easy to see that Red kind of overplays his hand, but The Director seems far too shrewd to call Red’s bluff, and something tells me that Red is not entirely bluffing on his end. It’s likely he’s seen the Fulcrum before, and/or has enough of it to have, at least, some kind of leverage over this cabal who, aside from The Director, is still only seen through odd angles and reflections. I wonder if their identities are being hidden for major reveals down the road. Speaking of major reveals, I guess the health issue wit Cooper will wait till next week to be addressed directly.
Admittedly, I want to be mad at this week’s Blacklist for not being the info dump I so desperately want, but I think the concluding chapter here capitalized well on the momentum of the winter premiere. The question is though, will The Blacklist fall back on old habits as it settles into its weekly rhythm once we start dealing with the Blacklister of the week again?