The Blacklist Review: “Vanessa Cruz” (Season 2, Episode 18)

Unfortunately, this is where Tom comes back into play. He wants the passports the FBI confiscated from his box hidden in the cubby hole at the old Keen home, and Liz wants a way to find Vanessa without giving up the Fulcrum to Red. I guess old bedfellows are strange bedfellows, and all the while, Tom is trying the old “I’m not really such a bad guy” routine. The NBC teasers made it look like this was going to be a genuine romantic dilemma for Liz, once again falling for Tom and his good guy act, but fortunately we were spared anything that obscenely stupid.

Gratefully, the show returned to the only relationship that matters, the one between Liz and Red. Red confirmed what we all assumed, that he was the one that ingratiated Tom into her life. The size of the typeface made reading between those lines easy, but that doesn’t mean all the beans are spilled. Liz finally does something she should have done several weeks ago, and gives Red the Fulcrum. Clearly it’s dangerous, they tried to blow her up to get it, and clearly it’s the thing that Red wants most. And if it’s all that Red wants then best it be gone and him along with it, but if he does really care about Liz, then why wouldn’t he stick around anyway?

The cliche of the con woman falling for her mark was almost slightly outdone by the cliffhanger this week as the Director made his move against Red, leaving him shot and bleeding out from a sniper’s bullet. Naturally, this happened right after the revelation about the Tom connection and the angry resentful surrender of the Fulcrum on Liz’s part. Of course, the only way we’ll get candid from Red is if he’s at Death’s door, and I think it’s fairly obvious that no matter what else happens, Death isn’t about to answer that door.

This week’s episode of The Blacklist can be rated as a solid C. It’s satisfactory in that we get more of the stuff we want and less of the stuff we don’t care about. Developments with the Fulcrum have felt as though they were on the back-burner for far too long, and tonight’s highlights almost make it feel like the writers are now rushing to something that they forgot they’re trying to get. That’s fine, but let’s just get there. And if we have to use Tom to learn why Red’s been doing the things he does, then I can live with that. Just no more Moonlighting stuff with guy that still has Nazi regalia tattooed on his neck.