On Season 8, Liz Keen, and Motherhood
Disclaimer: These are my opinions and observations. I am not an expert in anything. I am not a follower of the Rederina theory, so this is not about that.
The dark, tragic end of “The Blacklist” Season 8 finale keeps rattling around in my head, like most Keenler/Liz fans out there. Okay, so Megan was leaving and they wanted to kill her off. As writers, they wanted to build up major tension for the finale, and have Liz and Red’s plan go wrong. Therein lies a story. But it doesn’t really make sense to fans of the show. Why is that? There seem to be lots of reasons, some of which pertain to Red. But let’s put him aside, because I don’t think he is the only reason this story line stunk to fans. This finale (and season 8) really sticks in my craw for one major reason: motherhood.
1) Liz’s mother shows up in her life, secretly, without arms wide open. To use her to get to someone else. There is no love, no tears of joy, no inclination other than words that she is Liz’s actual mom. Viewers weren’t really buying it (I wasn’t), so why did Liz? I don’t care if you are a hardened Russian spy, if you see your estranged daughter in person, there are going to be tears, awe, and apologetic words. The red flag in the story line isn’t that this woman showed up claiming to be her mother, it’s that Liz bought it. After all the loss she suffered, Liz would be pretty hard pressed to open herself up to anyone without time and work. Adult daughter reunites with never-known mother and its pretty emotionless. Adult daughter goes all-in, scorched earth, anyway = questionable character choice. Doesn’t make sense.
2) Liz is a mother herself. And while she has made some very questionable choices (because she lives a very unique life and this is a tv show), she is still a mother and that fact changes a woman. Motherhood literally changes your brain and how you think. She would be working toward getting out of this life to protect her daughter. Her child’s life would come first. Now, one could argue that Liz was working to make that happen throughout season 8 (by ridding them of Red), but choosing to run his criminal empire doesn’t make any sense for keeping Agnes safe. Liz clearly wanted normalcy for Agnes (dance, schools, nanny, playgrounds). Choosing criminal empire seems like the wrong direction. The flip side being that Liz is in prison and Agnes is basically an orphan. But they were on the run this whole time, chances are that could continue. Dangerous liaisons and compounding dangerous decisions with a child in tow = questionable character choice. Doesn’t make sense.
3) Liz is a motherless mother. She would be acutely aware of the impact the role of mother has in a child’s life, specifically how losing a mother affects a child. THE LAST THING LIZ WOULD WANT IS FOR THE SAME THING TO HAPPEN TO HER DAUGHTER. That would be priority one not to repeat. But her actions throughout season 8 do not line up with that. Questionable character choice. Doesn’t make sense.
These are a few reasons I feel like Liz Keen’s actions in season 8 were flawed. Perhaps the writers felt like they had to be flawed in order to get from Point A (dead - fake- mother) to Point B (dead Liz). She’d really have to go off the rails to never be able to return to normal life, burn notice, etc. Even if the outcome were the same (dead Liz Keen) I wish the path to that point had been more satisfying, character-wise. She could have gone down as the hero. Instead, the writers treated her like the villain.
I remember what Jon Bokenkamp said in an interview, about how “The Blacklist” is about the role of child/parent and that is one reason why they chose to introduce the Agnes storyline (after finding out Megan was pregnant). It seems they got the “father”/daughter characterization down in the beginning, but dropped the ball on mother/daughter one. That narrative had some holes.
Season 9 starts tomorrow. Some of these head-scratchers will likely be answered. Maybe new information will emerge to change how we look back at Season 8, we shall see. Go ahead writers, add another layer, prove me wrong.
