#88: Ivan
Synopsis: A notorious Russian hacker conducts an unprecedented cyber-attack on the US, killing a man and stealing a dangerous piece of electronic equipment. In the midst of all this, Reddington builds a contraption.
Thoughts: Honestly? Kind of a weak episode.
This is the point of the show where the Blacklister of the week begins to feel a bit superfluous in the broader plot of an episode. There'll still be great episodes with great Blacklisters past this point, and former Blacklisters haven't necessarily been the cream of the crop - but Ivan is a pretty notable dip in quality up to this point.
The plot of the episode is basically that this hacker can hack anything. There's a part where they trigger a car's airbag remotely, and another scene where they set off a fire alarm on what's basically a tablet computer. The car is kind of old, even for 2014 standards, and there's next to no way that the building with the fire alarm had an intranet system linked to the fire alarm.
It's some "suspend your disbelief"-level nitpicks, I know, but it's like... within the past couple of years, we've just cracked the code on smart homes and gotten to a point where our cars have integrated fuckin touchpad tablets smack-dab in the middle of the dash. In today's world, it's that little bit more reflective of the world we live in - for a show set in 2013-ish, it's a little bit absurd in hindsight. It's an "internet of stuff" plotline from the infancy of the real-world "internet of stuff", and it feels a little bit quaint is all.
I don't think the show was trying to be prescient, but it was a bit jarring to see this hacker character controlling lights and setting off alarms and thinking to myself "oh, like a google home setup : )". Which is fine, but then I think of an episode like the Good Samaritan, and the trappings of this episode just don't compare to the weird shit that earlier episodes were doing.
I say that because - and I swear this is as negative as I'm gonna get - the plotline around this Hackers-ass premise is pretty bog-standard. The stakes are low, the villain is a cliche, the emotional heart of the Blacklister's story is treading water at best. The whole "dangerous hacker on the loose who can hack anything" premise doesn't do much to paint over the cracks. It's a real eye-roller.
Reddington's role in this episode is basically to tinker with this device. It's like he's building a clock from scratch, and as Liz checks in with him over the episode, the contraption is steadily becoming more assembled. There is a part where he gets to go to Belarus and conduct a sneaky little mission, which I actually liked a lot now that I think about it - but for the rest of the time, he's out here toying with some clockwork and dropping some exposition.
Speaking of exposition - this is the episode where Reddington first tells Liz that he doesn't lie to her. I kept that in mind for the rest of the show the last time I watched it, and I think it's a line that holds a lot of weight for a lot of the show's run. The only way that Reddington has lied to Liz so far is by omission, to the point where if she throws a question at Red that he doesn't want to answer, he explicitly changes the subject without acknowledging the original question. He usually turns it back on the asker with the intention of manipulating their emotions, but in the most technical sense, Reddington is telling the truth. He does not lie to Elizabeth.
But one thing I forgot was Elizabeth's response to this assertion:
"How would I even know?"
Which, imo, is SUPER VALID. Reddington never gives her the whole truth, he manipulates her through her work and through this seemingly intentional destabilization of her life, and the crumbs of truth that he offers are deliberately vague. How is she meant to take him at his word when he can't open up to her, the same way that he expects her to open up to him?
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I'm going to give you a warning. There is an ongoing plotline involving one of the show's characters that plays heavily into the myth arc of the season and turns their prior characterisation on its head. The show is currently playing this plotline for dramatic irony, and other characters in the show have no idea about this character's true intentions.
I'm currently spoiler-tagging this plotline out of courtesy, but sooner or later the cat is gonna be let out of the bag. This is a season one plotline in a show that lasts for ten seasons; I cannot hide this forever.
Here's what I'm gonna do: when the other shoe drops, when the reveal happens for the other character/s in the setting, I will stop hiding it behind a readmore tag. Past a certain point, you cannot hide a plot development like this any more.
None of the other characters know yet, so I'll still be discussing their storyline underneath the Read More cut below. But it's coming up fast.
