The Blacklist 7x02 Thoughts
Oct. 12th, 2019 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaLouis T. Steinhill, The Conclusion
+ Beautiful Harold/Liz scene. "We're your family" ♥ That was so great. I loved him immediately being on Liz's side and trying to make sure she knew it wasn't her fault.
+ "Someone I care about." I always love Liz (or Red) mentioning that they care for the other.
+ I'm torn on the guilt trip Red laid on Liz over Dom. On the one hand, yes Liz and Ressler's search renewed interest in Katarina and brought her out of the shadows. But on the other hand, Liz never would have gone looking if he'd just tell her the truth! Sometimes he's a sin-eater but other times he's very bad at accepting responsibility. These are his sins coming to fore not Liz's and lashing out like that was cruel (even if I sympathise with him). I'm with Harold here. That said I did like both of those Red/Liz scenes and that even though she apologised she also refused to back down.
+ I am genuinely so perplexed over what the show is doing with Liz re: Katarina. I was confused last season too but I thought with Katarina on the show it would work for me better. Instead I find it just as confusing and terrible. Liz doesn't know that Katarina is behind Red's kidnapping or that she's even alive! So why the hell all this worrying that Katarina, herself, could be a threat? When was she ever a threat to Liz? Why this leap to Katarina being a potential bad guy?
Her dismissive "Apparently she's not the maternal type" made me go 'wait, what' because everything we, and Liz, know about Katarina with regards to Liz indicated a mother who loved her daughter deeply. Katarina gave up Liz but it was to protect her and considering Liz literally did the same thing with Agnes she should be even more sympathetic towards her! I just don't get it.
+ As per usual there was a lot of word slight-of-hand happening this episode. I've definitely noticed the way the show is playing with talking about Katarina and her relationships. She says 'Dom' and 'Dominic' and 'the old man' but never once 'my father'. Dom tells Frankie when she asks that the music belongs to his daughter but he never once specifically addresses the woman we know of as his daughter. It's like they were going out of their way to not say my daughter/my father. All that said I'm pretty sure this is Katarina Rostova not an imposter.
+ I'm amused that we had Katarina demanding answers from Red and him refusing to give them to her, while insisting he's on her side, just for how that mirrors Liz and Red's relationship.
+ I'm not sure what Katarina's look at the end was except that it was really ominous and not what you'd expect from a mother seeing her daughter for the first time in decades or her granddaughter for the first time.
I've been having a hard time with Katarina's portrayal because she is so different from the Katarina in flashbacks. It's been almost 30 years since then and I'm sure a lot more has happened to her so it's not unbelievable that she would change this much, but it is hard to reconcile the two versions of her right now.
She thinks that Dom and Red betrayed her in Belgrave. Red denies this and I believe him in that he doesn't think that he betrayed her but perhaps this is one of those situations where things are very different based on point of view? And it seems like Dom might have? Red at least thinks Dom did - he set her up, he betrayed her according to Red. But then Dom insists that he didn't so who knows? He says that what he did was to 'protect my own'... who is he talking about? You'd think Katarina would be considered #1 on Dom's my own list. Is he talking about Liz? Or his wife? Or even Red? His country? Or did he do what he did to protect Katarina (and it went wrong)? 'It's complicated' is the only thing I'm certain of from that Red/Dom bickering.
I wonder if Belgrave was one of the big tipping points of the series (like the house fire)? We still have a lot of unsolved mysteries/questions that could perhaps be answered here. What did Red do to Katarina that Dembe thinks Liz might never be ready to hear? Could this also tie into when Red had to choose between a child and her mother and chose the child? Red thought Katarina was really dead for a long time - does it go back to Belgrave?
Random theorizing: Katarina decided she wanted Liz back and Red (and Dom?) were of the opinion that it would put Liz in too much danger and acted to stop her? I can absolutely see how she'd see that as a betrayal. Or, I find myself wondering if Red messed with Katarina's memories (like he did with Liz) to protect her and/or Liz?
+ I love that Frankie helping Red escape was all part of Steinhill and Katarina's plot to find Dom.
+ Frankie insisting that she's not leading Red 'or anyone else' into an ambush ended up rather darkly amusing when 5 minutes later she literally does that to Katarina's men. Between that and Red telling her she wasn't a killer and then her killing a bunch of Katarina's men there was a lot of telling of Frankie as one thing but showing her as something else.
+ I liked that Steinhill's apparent suicide was fake and he escaped. It felt appropriate for a master of illusions.
+ Beautiful Harold/Liz scene. "We're your family" ♥ That was so great. I loved him immediately being on Liz's side and trying to make sure she knew it wasn't her fault.
+ "Someone I care about." I always love Liz (or Red) mentioning that they care for the other.
+ I'm torn on the guilt trip Red laid on Liz over Dom. On the one hand, yes Liz and Ressler's search renewed interest in Katarina and brought her out of the shadows. But on the other hand, Liz never would have gone looking if he'd just tell her the truth! Sometimes he's a sin-eater but other times he's very bad at accepting responsibility. These are his sins coming to fore not Liz's and lashing out like that was cruel (even if I sympathise with him). I'm with Harold here. That said I did like both of those Red/Liz scenes and that even though she apologised she also refused to back down.
+ I am genuinely so perplexed over what the show is doing with Liz re: Katarina. I was confused last season too but I thought with Katarina on the show it would work for me better. Instead I find it just as confusing and terrible. Liz doesn't know that Katarina is behind Red's kidnapping or that she's even alive! So why the hell all this worrying that Katarina, herself, could be a threat? When was she ever a threat to Liz? Why this leap to Katarina being a potential bad guy?
Her dismissive "Apparently she's not the maternal type" made me go 'wait, what' because everything we, and Liz, know about Katarina with regards to Liz indicated a mother who loved her daughter deeply. Katarina gave up Liz but it was to protect her and considering Liz literally did the same thing with Agnes she should be even more sympathetic towards her! I just don't get it.
+ As per usual there was a lot of word slight-of-hand happening this episode. I've definitely noticed the way the show is playing with talking about Katarina and her relationships. She says 'Dom' and 'Dominic' and 'the old man' but never once 'my father'. Dom tells Frankie when she asks that the music belongs to his daughter but he never once specifically addresses the woman we know of as his daughter. It's like they were going out of their way to not say my daughter/my father. All that said I'm pretty sure this is Katarina Rostova not an imposter.
+ I'm amused that we had Katarina demanding answers from Red and him refusing to give them to her, while insisting he's on her side, just for how that mirrors Liz and Red's relationship.
+ I'm not sure what Katarina's look at the end was except that it was really ominous and not what you'd expect from a mother seeing her daughter for the first time in decades or her granddaughter for the first time.
I've been having a hard time with Katarina's portrayal because she is so different from the Katarina in flashbacks. It's been almost 30 years since then and I'm sure a lot more has happened to her so it's not unbelievable that she would change this much, but it is hard to reconcile the two versions of her right now.
She thinks that Dom and Red betrayed her in Belgrave. Red denies this and I believe him in that he doesn't think that he betrayed her but perhaps this is one of those situations where things are very different based on point of view? And it seems like Dom might have? Red at least thinks Dom did - he set her up, he betrayed her according to Red. But then Dom insists that he didn't so who knows? He says that what he did was to 'protect my own'... who is he talking about? You'd think Katarina would be considered #1 on Dom's my own list. Is he talking about Liz? Or his wife? Or even Red? His country? Or did he do what he did to protect Katarina (and it went wrong)? 'It's complicated' is the only thing I'm certain of from that Red/Dom bickering.
I wonder if Belgrave was one of the big tipping points of the series (like the house fire)? We still have a lot of unsolved mysteries/questions that could perhaps be answered here. What did Red do to Katarina that Dembe thinks Liz might never be ready to hear? Could this also tie into when Red had to choose between a child and her mother and chose the child? Red thought Katarina was really dead for a long time - does it go back to Belgrave?
Random theorizing: Katarina decided she wanted Liz back and Red (and Dom?) were of the opinion that it would put Liz in too much danger and acted to stop her? I can absolutely see how she'd see that as a betrayal. Or, I find myself wondering if Red messed with Katarina's memories (like he did with Liz) to protect her and/or Liz?
+ I love that Frankie helping Red escape was all part of Steinhill and Katarina's plot to find Dom.
+ Frankie insisting that she's not leading Red 'or anyone else' into an ambush ended up rather darkly amusing when 5 minutes later she literally does that to Katarina's men. Between that and Red telling her she wasn't a killer and then her killing a bunch of Katarina's men there was a lot of telling of Frankie as one thing but showing her as something else.
+ I liked that Steinhill's apparent suicide was fake and he escaped. It felt appropriate for a master of illusions.
