#glowstar826

[alyblacklist]

Is there any way Red could have been redeemed in your eyes?

Sure. If he'd been willing to give Liz the truth without absurd conditions like killing him and taking over his empire - things she absolutely did not want to do. Having failed to do that, and having placed his own selfish needs and ego above her life, I think he deserves any suffering that comes his way.

All of this is 1000x worse if he's actually her parent btw.

[alyblacklist]

What do you think of the season so far? After the first episode I went off of it for good, feeling too disappointed to continue.

I'm watching for Diego at this point so I'm all in for moody Ressler, the grief beard, and the angst. If I weren't watching for those things I would've turned it off by now because I have to say, the rest of it is not compelling. I am really NOT feeling Red this season at all - and I used to love him. I find myself either bored at the monologues, outright cringing (the kisses with Alberta and Vesco), or raging (pretty much any scene where he tries to foist himself on Agnes). I am watching for basically everything else happening in the show EXCEPT Red. But mainly Diego. So far, HE hasn't disappointed. But the rest of the show feels...off. Dembe as an FBI agent isn't gelling yet. I don't care enough about the rest. Maybe JB's fingerprints were more significant than I realized. But everything just feels a bit wrong.

[alyblacklist]

Well, it seems that the Liz-haters finally got what they wanted.

Who would’ve thought? Certainly not me.

Yep. I'm sure Reddit is celebrating. I was really hoping that all the warning signs would not prove to be true. It's difficult to picture where the show goes from here. I truthfully wish they had just ended it this season rather than go on without her.

[alyblacklist]

I’m glad you’re back. All I have to say is that the writers seriously fucked up what could’ve been a gem of a TV show. The opportunity they passed because they were so determined to keep Red’s identity a secret will forever leave a frustrated hole in my heart.

Agreed. It will never be the same as it was or as it could have been.

[alyblacklist]

What is your opinion on Liz’s parenting skills in general? Now, I don’t hate Liz, but I think it was a poor decision on the writers’ end to make her have a child. Story-wise, Agnes is a burden, pure and simple. If I was a writer on the show, I’d be regretting writing Agnes in every time I sat down to write a new episode. I’d be suffering from severe writer’s block lol.

I agree. I've never been a fan of their decision to write in Megan's pregnancy. The story was clearly not ready for a child at that moment and they've struggled with what to do with her ever since.

From cutting the "on the run" arc of S3 short (in the comics, it was supposed to go past Christmas) to Liz faking her death, the horrid "kidnapping" arc of early S4 that resulted in baby being dangled off a roof, Tom's "stay at home dad" struggles including running after a suspected criminal while Agnes was left in the apartment, provoking drug dealers at the park while with his daughter, all followed by his departure to figure out his own family for months while leaving her behind at home, then his death and Liz ending up in a coma, Liz finally waking up and getting rehabilitated after missing what seemed like half to 2/3 of her daughter's life before handing her over quickly to her mother-in-law Scottie (who tried to have Liz herself kidnapped and nearly got both her and Agnes killed in S3) after his death so she could go live in a cabin in Alaska and dream up revenge and come home and stew people, finally bringing her home and being incapable of finding a more suitable nanny than her random neighbor who turned out to be her fake mother, learning that woman caused her daughter to witness a man being killed and thinking that was still fine, taking her daughter on the run with her as a wanted fugitive and leaving her with yet another random stranger who literally appeared at her car window... I could go on. Agnes is like the football that everyone keeps passing and no one really knows what to do with. That's why anytime I read a theory that suggests she will be taken AGAIN or bad things will happen to her I'm like oh please no. Enough.

Bottom line: how can we even say that Liz has parenting "skills" when she's barely been shown as a parent in the life of the show? It's always "where's Agnes? Who's watching Agnes?" while Liz makes terrible decision after terrible decision. Kind of like Hudson the dog... But it's fiction and so...

I really did roll my eyes at Red's line about Liz being a good mother (as she was pretending to call her daughter's nanny) when her mother was such a terrible one. I think in this case, it's more like mother, like daughter, than Red wants to believe.

[alyblacklist]

I just wanted to say I really liked the development of Liz and Ressler’s relationship in this episode, especially the love confession. It was very sweet.

That's nice to hear, especially since I know you don't ship them in general. It was nice to finally have some moments of honesty between them.

[alyblacklist]

What do you think of the reveal regarding the coded messages at the end of 8.15? What do you think Red’s message to Ivan means?

Also, I think it’s very stupid that neither Liz nor Ressler thought of the corresponding numbers to the alphabet. It’s an ages-old coding system that I knew about from when I was pretty young.

One final thing: How did you feel about the episode overall? I, personally, felt pretty underwhelmed by it in the beginning and extremely bored by the time it was finished.

P.S. I sometimes wish I were old enough to get a job. Then, I’d be able to apply to be one of the Blacklist writers so I could somehow save the show from more stupidity.

It’s funny that your question came through right as I was typing out a response to another ask on this subject. 

In Ressler and Liz’s defense, they had what - like 30 seconds of staring at those numbers before Liz realized the FBI was closing in on her? In the pressure of the moment, I can see why it may not have been the first thing to spring to mind.

I actually loved the episode. It felt like old-school Blacklist with a good heist, fast paced. I loved the Bethesda Terrace scenes and all the Ressler/Liz after such a long drought. I thought adding Glen’s mom to Red’s team was a great addition. I’ve had issues with some of the episodes this season, but this wasn’t one of them. I thought it was great. I recognize I’m probably in the minority on this from the comments circulating around the fandom but I find as a general rule that is often the case this season.

That said, I do think there is a strong disconnect between this episode and 8.14 (Misere). Last week, we had Liz hallucinating Mr. Kaplan and acting so strangely and this week she’s on her game and planning heists and escapes with a seemingly clear head. I’m curious to see how they resolve that dichotomy because it just left me feeling like we could have lived without 8.14 entirely if Liz’s mental state is going to be so inconsistent. 

[alyblacklist]

This is just a general question, but do you like any other ships in TBL besides Keenler?

No, Keenler has always been it for me. They are what drew me to the fandom in the first place and they (and Diego/Ressler) are the main reasons I have continued watching all these years.