Last night, The Blacklist concluded its remarkable 10-year run on NBC, captivating many of its viewers throughout. However, as outstanding and praiseworthy the writing was for its entire run, the ending is not at all worthy of such praise.
Fans took to social media to blast the ending which will likely go down as one of the worst endings of a successful show in modern TV history — and that includes The Sopranos and Game of Thrones.
Before I dig into it and add spoilers, some of you may not have seen it, so let me first explain without ruining it for you.
Criminal mastermind Raymond Reddington, played superbly by James Spader, has been giving names of major criminals to the FBI for years for self-protection and, some might say, to eliminate his competition.
The blacklist itself is a list of all of those criminals, and the FBI creates a task force for the purpose of following Reddington’s leads, which almost always result in apprehending the criminal — though many of the powers-that-be don’t know that Reddington is the main source of the task force.
However, as the show neared its end, the task force did also, thanks to some powerful people realizing and believing that they are basically being used by Reddington. Now, they seek to apprehend him and make him pay for all of his crimes. No more chasing Reddington’s list; time to chase him.
Of course, it’s turns out not to be so simple to catch him; he has built relationships with many of the people on the task force, and as the show built to its conclusion last night, no one was sure whether Reddington would escape, or be apprehended by the task force, or if he would be killed by them, if he would kill whoever attempted to apprehend him, or if he would be let go. Many twists and turns during the two-hour finale made you believe in any of those possibilities.
Finally, Donald Ressler, one of the task force’s agents who has been a character on the show since the very beginning, was hot on Reddington’s trail. Ressler, played by Diego Klattenhoff, followed a lead to Spain, which was more of a theory than a lead, but it proved accurate. Too early — or so it appeared —we were about to see a one-on-one showdown. Earlier in the finale, Reddington had shot Ressler to get away, but intentionally aimed his shot at his bulletproof vest. Now that Ressler is about to find him, how will he react? Will he help him get away? Will Reddington shoot him fatally this time?
We were about to find out.
Then the absurd happened .
Spoiler alert: This is where those who do not want to know the ending should stop reading.
Reddington went for an afternoon walk in the fields of Carmano village, near the house where he is staying. Ressler ultimately finds out exactly where the house is, and is told upon arrival that Reddington went for a walk. He darts out looking for him.
Here we go. If you’re a writer, what would you do? They certainly set this up perfectly. Five minutes left in the episode — in the whole series — and here is how it ends.
Raymond Reddington was still going for his walk in the fields, while Ressler was surely about to confront him. …Then a bull showed up, charges at Reddington, and kills him. That’s it. He was killed by a bull. Now that’s some bullsh**!
Incredibly, the writers not only decided not to offer any of the previously mentioned possible endings; they presented instead a completely unsatisfactory one, that nonetheless everyone somehow must have agreed to.
So when Ressler finds him, Reddington’s already dead.
The entire series led up to this moment, and the writers decided to have livestock kill the world’s greatest criminal mastermind. Why? Likely because the writers couldn’t decide what to do. It was a cop-out, and they denied viewers a final showdown.
It also reveals, unsurprisingly, that the writers were not thinking ahead at any point during this journey. There is no way that they decided years ago that this series will end with Reddington being killed by a bull. One can safely assume “Yeah, that’s it. Great ending! Let’s lead towards that!” was never spoken by any of the writers.
Why no long-term plan? Probably because the writers of the show were talented enough not to need one. Per episode, they are outstanding. Per season, pretty solid. But it can all come crashing down with a truly horrible ending. The sad part about it is they were pulling it off — despite not really tying up all loose ends — and it was about to be a memorable ending until it suddenly fell flat.
Now it will be remembered for its poor ending.
I’m not saying it will be remembered only for its poor ending but, like I noted earlier, now The Blacklist will be placed in the same category as The Sopranos and Game of Thrones. Just like those two shows, The Blacklist will be remembered both for being a great series and having a horrible ending, which likely lessens it’s desire to be rewatched or, for that matter, watched for the first time by those who hear about the end, one that’s a great injustice to the excellent 10-year run of the show.
In my final conclusion, I’ll leave you with some unforgettable words that will satisfy you in a way the show’s ending failed to. My wrap-up.….Oh wait, oh no, there’s a bull charging at me! I’m out!
