The Blacklist 7x06 Thoughts
Nov. 15th, 2019 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaDr. Lewis Powell (No. 130)
+ I'm really disappointed in how Frankie's storyline ended. Also confused. They've spent 6 episode slowly building her as a character - including that mystery about why she lied about being married - and putting in the effort with her so why throw that away like this? Her betraying Red for money in the end felt like it came out of left field. That doesn't seem in line with what we know about her. Plus if this was the end goal all along I feel like this test should have happened several episodes ago. This felt so off that I'm guessing the actress got another job and they had to quickly write her out. If so I wish they had done a better job at making it make sense for her.
+ Seriously again?! For the second week we get Liz sent off while Ressler gets the big moment alone - this time Liz (unnecessarily) helps an injured person out while Ressler keeps going and saves a room full of people. This annoys me so much. Honestly this is an issue I keep having with the show but this season in particular has been kind of crap for Liz as a character. What has she really done? Has she had any big or badass moment? Has she solved something impressively? Between this and the lack of Red/Liz it's almost like they've back-grounded their female lead this season and I'm not happy about it.
+ "Trust is so fragile. ... When a bond of trust is broken there is no greater betrayal." This is an overarching truth of Red's which is why him pulling away from Liz and there being tension between them would be 100% believable. Her betrayal is still not something they've really dealt with. I'd even buy him trying to pretend so hard that nothing is wrong that he puts himself into denial but still can't stand to be around her - but neither are what we're seeing on our screen. There are a lot of believable reasons for a separation between the two if they bothered to put the effort in but for whatever unfortunate reason they decided not to. Instead they just barely interact and Red isn't bothering to actively protect her and Liz seems happy with the status quo and I'm left dissatisfied.
+ It was nice to have Red and Liz actually in a scene together again and the friendly phone call was nice. Still not enough.
+ I feel like introducing Park as a new main character in the same episode they kill off Frankie was badly timed. It definitely felt like 'oops got to kill off this one woman so lets throw in another to replace her' and that is never a good look. That said I did like Park a lot more by the end of the episode than I was expecting.
+ The Park vs Frankie fight was great.
+ I wonder if Park has the same warrior gene that Liz has? It'd be neat for that to be brought back up. Especially if they end up addressing Liz having it again. We haven't seen Liz's inner darkness in awhile and I kind of want to.
+ This exchange:
"I'm not sure it's healthy for any of us." - Liz
"I'm sure. It's not." - Aram
was interesting. Liz said it with a bit of a smile and all self-deprecatingly while Aram was 100% serious. The Samar situation really did a number on their relationship because I feel before that Aram wouldn't have been so cynical about Red and their relationships with him. Not that he's wrong. The fact that Liz walks into a scene where Red had someone tortured and only sighs in annoyance because he didn't get all the info she wanted before he died is a massive jump from pilot Liz.
+ I really wish we'd gotten some build up to Agent Park. Even just having a conversation between Harold and Liz about hiring a new agent would have been better.
+ We've really been getting a lot of Red's people these last couple episodes and there were so many in this episode. Nice to see Vontae again though using him as the 'traitor' made it immediately obvious this was a test for Frankie. Brimley is always good to see and I loved the dinner scene and Dembe being completely unsold on not having ice cream. (Cute! We need more Dembe moments like this. Also more Dembe. There hasn't been enough of him this season.) Also nice to see Tadashi and even the cleaner siblings again. I'm liking this trend.
+ This is the second week in a row that Red or his team have messed up and killed a source of information accidentally before getting everything they wanted. What the heck is up with that? I did love Liz's exasperation with Red over it.
+ I liked the murderous AI killing AI scientists to try and prevent the Singularity plot. Feels a little out there for this show but I enjoyed the twist. It was kind of fun and crazy nonsense. And the additional twist of the AI trying to prevent the Singularity itself was great.
+ I also found myself disappointed by Aram/Elodie. I liked them a lot up until this episode but Elodie's whole thrill seeking thing is making me less interested in them. For one thing her 'thrills' are such small even childish circumstances - crashing a wedding, breaking into a house to have sex - that they leave me very unimpressed with her. For another, I thought they worked well together but, uh, no this is not Aram. I don't see this going anywhere good.
+ I'm really disappointed in how Frankie's storyline ended. Also confused. They've spent 6 episode slowly building her as a character - including that mystery about why she lied about being married - and putting in the effort with her so why throw that away like this? Her betraying Red for money in the end felt like it came out of left field. That doesn't seem in line with what we know about her. Plus if this was the end goal all along I feel like this test should have happened several episodes ago. This felt so off that I'm guessing the actress got another job and they had to quickly write her out. If so I wish they had done a better job at making it make sense for her.
+ Seriously again?! For the second week we get Liz sent off while Ressler gets the big moment alone - this time Liz (unnecessarily) helps an injured person out while Ressler keeps going and saves a room full of people. This annoys me so much. Honestly this is an issue I keep having with the show but this season in particular has been kind of crap for Liz as a character. What has she really done? Has she had any big or badass moment? Has she solved something impressively? Between this and the lack of Red/Liz it's almost like they've back-grounded their female lead this season and I'm not happy about it.
+ "Trust is so fragile. ... When a bond of trust is broken there is no greater betrayal." This is an overarching truth of Red's which is why him pulling away from Liz and there being tension between them would be 100% believable. Her betrayal is still not something they've really dealt with. I'd even buy him trying to pretend so hard that nothing is wrong that he puts himself into denial but still can't stand to be around her - but neither are what we're seeing on our screen. There are a lot of believable reasons for a separation between the two if they bothered to put the effort in but for whatever unfortunate reason they decided not to. Instead they just barely interact and Red isn't bothering to actively protect her and Liz seems happy with the status quo and I'm left dissatisfied.
+ It was nice to have Red and Liz actually in a scene together again and the friendly phone call was nice. Still not enough.
+ I feel like introducing Park as a new main character in the same episode they kill off Frankie was badly timed. It definitely felt like 'oops got to kill off this one woman so lets throw in another to replace her' and that is never a good look. That said I did like Park a lot more by the end of the episode than I was expecting.
+ The Park vs Frankie fight was great.
+ I wonder if Park has the same warrior gene that Liz has? It'd be neat for that to be brought back up. Especially if they end up addressing Liz having it again. We haven't seen Liz's inner darkness in awhile and I kind of want to.
+ This exchange:
"I'm not sure it's healthy for any of us." - Liz
"I'm sure. It's not." - Aram
was interesting. Liz said it with a bit of a smile and all self-deprecatingly while Aram was 100% serious. The Samar situation really did a number on their relationship because I feel before that Aram wouldn't have been so cynical about Red and their relationships with him. Not that he's wrong. The fact that Liz walks into a scene where Red had someone tortured and only sighs in annoyance because he didn't get all the info she wanted before he died is a massive jump from pilot Liz.
+ I really wish we'd gotten some build up to Agent Park. Even just having a conversation between Harold and Liz about hiring a new agent would have been better.
+ We've really been getting a lot of Red's people these last couple episodes and there were so many in this episode. Nice to see Vontae again though using him as the 'traitor' made it immediately obvious this was a test for Frankie. Brimley is always good to see and I loved the dinner scene and Dembe being completely unsold on not having ice cream. (Cute! We need more Dembe moments like this. Also more Dembe. There hasn't been enough of him this season.) Also nice to see Tadashi and even the cleaner siblings again. I'm liking this trend.
+ This is the second week in a row that Red or his team have messed up and killed a source of information accidentally before getting everything they wanted. What the heck is up with that? I did love Liz's exasperation with Red over it.
+ I liked the murderous AI killing AI scientists to try and prevent the Singularity plot. Feels a little out there for this show but I enjoyed the twist. It was kind of fun and crazy nonsense. And the additional twist of the AI trying to prevent the Singularity itself was great.
+ I also found myself disappointed by Aram/Elodie. I liked them a lot up until this episode but Elodie's whole thrill seeking thing is making me less interested in them. For one thing her 'thrills' are such small even childish circumstances - crashing a wedding, breaking into a house to have sex - that they leave me very unimpressed with her. For another, I thought they worked well together but, uh, no this is not Aram. I don't see this going anywhere good.
