Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The Blacklist - Dr. Linus Creel


Secret government mind-control experiments are the target of the latest episode of The Blacklist when Reddington (James Spader) points the FBI to a series of stable people with no history of violence conditioned and pushed into committing murder. The trail eventually leads back to Dr. Linus Creel (David Costabile) whose research into the Warrior Gene allowed him to handpick subjects for his experiments and slowly isolate and infuriate them, pushing them into actions to prove his pet theories about how easily someone can become a killer.

Despite last week's big tease of answers coming to Lizzie (Megan Boone), "Dr. Linus Creel" offers none. Sure, we see the locked room in a warehouse but not what, or who, is behind the door (like say, Tom, perhaps?). Nor does Lizzie's single sit-down with Naomi (Mary-Louise Parker) offer any insight into Reddington's obsession with Ms. Keen other than confirming its been going on for decades since she was a child. In instances like this the show missed a valuable opportunity to feed its fans with a few breadcrumbs foreshadowing what else is to come rather than just tease what the show refuses to yet reveal.

The episode works as a Blaicklister of the week, but it doesn't deliver any juicy morsels other than suggesting that Lizzie has the Warrior's Gene (which really isn't all that shocking or interesting). One final note: Paul Reubens returns in his role of Red's fake heavy, which (since when know its all an act) falls somewhere between simply weird and pointless. If the character is going to keep popping up I'd have preferred not to know his big secret right out of the gate.

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