Tuesday, September 23, 2014

The Blacklist - Lord Baltimore


Picking up on the unresolved events of last season's two-part finale, Reddington (James Spader) continues his search for the mysterious Berlin (Peter Stormare) as his enemy reaches close to home and enlists an expert data miner and bounty hunter known as Lord Baltimore (Krysten Ritter) to track down Red's ex-wife (Mary-Louise Parker) who apparently is key to the madman's revenge. Things aren't better for the rest of the task force as Cooper's (Harry Lennix) recovery has him contemplating retirement, Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) is refusing psychological counseling, and Lizzie's (Megan Boone) life after the death of Tom (Ryan Eggold) has gotten no less complicated.

It appears the Berlin storyline will continue for at least one more episode, although "Lord Baltimore" does offer Red clues as to the man's reason (and method) of revenge. Ritter is intriguing as Lord Baltimore, but the character is far too complicated than necessary given both the twin and multiple personality threads the episode must wade through to get to the truth. The same could be said for the blind alley involving Red's capture and release by an agent of Mossad (Mozhan MarnĂ²) which heightens tension at one point in the episode, but, unless it's setting up something further down the line, turns out to be rather pointless.

Lizzie's paranoid existence (although it's not paranoia if they are really after you) offers a big change for her character for Season Two (especially with the audience knowing that someone is still keeping track of her despite her new nomadic lifestyle). By the end of the episode the task force appears to be back up and running with new oversight that has some concerns about its wild spending habits, and Berlin's revenge has finally begun setting up a meeting between the two men next week which may either conclude the storyline or possibly lay the groundwork for a longer arc continuing deeper into the show's Second Season.

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