The Blacklist 7x07 Thoughts
Nov. 21st, 2019 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaHannah Hayes [No. 125]
Sigh. So this episode was fine but my dissatisfaction with how the show has been dealing with Liz and the Liz/Red relationship is not going away and I've, in fact, been finding it harder to look past as the season goes on. It sucks because beyond that this episode was on par with past episodes... I'm just so damn annoyed about everything else!
Liz continues her streak of feeling more like a background character than the female lead. She feels barely present the last few episodes, and in this one basically did nothing, and despite everything happening with Katarina feels barely involved in the larger plot. It's bizarre. Is the actress not as available and they have to work around not having her? I don't get it. Then there's Liz/Red which I feel like I've complained about every episode this season so I just need to say that an occasional friendly scene between them doesn't make things better, it just makes it more confusing how things are playing out in every other scene. If things are still good between them then why hasn't he been by her apartment? Why isn't he trying to bond with Agnes? Hell when she was looking for a nanny you'd think he'd have been right in there. Ugh.
+ The Stranger/Frank being Ilya (probably) is not shocking. Red being Ilya would have worked and made sense but there were things that didn't entirely fit and the sudden appearance of his trusted old friend last season muddied the waters a lot. I will totally buy Frank as Ilya if that is actually where they're going with this. But of course that leaves the question - if Red isn't Ilya than who the hell is he? A childhood friend of Ilya and thus also Katarina?
+ The whole scene between Red/Katarina(/Patrick/Dembe) was great. I loved getting to see Katarina be more emotional. I liked what the Patrick situation did to connect current Katarina more with the flashback version we knew. I liked Red being ruthless with Patrick and Dembe being his moral compass and convincing him not to kill Patrick.
+ 'That woman', seems pretty harsh.
+ I also liked the scene where Liz visits Red. It was great to see them being so light and happy together even in such a short scene. I loved seeing Frank's reaction to Liz and his little laugh to himself when she said she'd pray for Red's digestion. It was nice to get a Red story.
+ Dembe doing needlepoint was A+. And I loved how into having an RV for stakeouts Red was.
+ I liked the comparison between Katarina/Patrick and Red/Liz - Katarina caused Patrick to be orphaned and out of guilt took up a position from afar as a guardian angel looking out for him, just like Red did for Liz.
+ I can't believe that Liz told Alina the whole truth about Red. I expected, and was fine with, Liz telling her 'he's not actually my father' but everything? I'm honestly dumbfounded. I still believe that Liz deserves to know the truth but the show is making it really damn hard. The fact that she told the whole team so quickly afterwards was bad enough but now to tell a stranger, even if she is a new member of the team, what Liz thinks is his greatest secret, and in the middle of the Post Office even, honestly feels kind of like another betrayal. It's also basically confirmation that he was right to keep secrets from her. He sure as hell can't count on her keep it and not to tell other people. Or to make the most basic attempt to be careful in passing the information on. What the hell happened to 'no one else deserves to know'? I hate that they chose to go in this direction because it makes Liz look really terrible, tbh.
+ I'm confused about why Morozov's men didn't keep trying for Katarina during the bathroom fight instead of taking Skip and running? She wasn't armed, she was outnumbered (did none of them have guns?) and didn't have backup.
+ I'm surprised that Skip didn't say anything to Red about the little girl with Katarina. Still time I suppose since he's in Red's custody.
+ I'm really glad that Hannah did kill her rapist. Especially with the reveal that he was suing for custody. I wouldn't have bought it if she'd backed down.
+ I'm curious about why Red did choose this case for the TaskForce. There's no seeming connection to anything he's interested in so??
+ I like Megan Boone and generally think she does a good job but that one shot reaction after they discovered Hannah was the bad guy was so weird that it took me out of the episode. What even was that?
Sigh. So this episode was fine but my dissatisfaction with how the show has been dealing with Liz and the Liz/Red relationship is not going away and I've, in fact, been finding it harder to look past as the season goes on. It sucks because beyond that this episode was on par with past episodes... I'm just so damn annoyed about everything else!
Liz continues her streak of feeling more like a background character than the female lead. She feels barely present the last few episodes, and in this one basically did nothing, and despite everything happening with Katarina feels barely involved in the larger plot. It's bizarre. Is the actress not as available and they have to work around not having her? I don't get it. Then there's Liz/Red which I feel like I've complained about every episode this season so I just need to say that an occasional friendly scene between them doesn't make things better, it just makes it more confusing how things are playing out in every other scene. If things are still good between them then why hasn't he been by her apartment? Why isn't he trying to bond with Agnes? Hell when she was looking for a nanny you'd think he'd have been right in there. Ugh.
+ The Stranger/Frank being Ilya (probably) is not shocking. Red being Ilya would have worked and made sense but there were things that didn't entirely fit and the sudden appearance of his trusted old friend last season muddied the waters a lot. I will totally buy Frank as Ilya if that is actually where they're going with this. But of course that leaves the question - if Red isn't Ilya than who the hell is he? A childhood friend of Ilya and thus also Katarina?
+ The whole scene between Red/Katarina(/Patrick/Dembe) was great. I loved getting to see Katarina be more emotional. I liked what the Patrick situation did to connect current Katarina more with the flashback version we knew. I liked Red being ruthless with Patrick and Dembe being his moral compass and convincing him not to kill Patrick.
+ 'That woman', seems pretty harsh.
+ I also liked the scene where Liz visits Red. It was great to see them being so light and happy together even in such a short scene. I loved seeing Frank's reaction to Liz and his little laugh to himself when she said she'd pray for Red's digestion. It was nice to get a Red story.
+ Dembe doing needlepoint was A+. And I loved how into having an RV for stakeouts Red was.
+ I liked the comparison between Katarina/Patrick and Red/Liz - Katarina caused Patrick to be orphaned and out of guilt took up a position from afar as a guardian angel looking out for him, just like Red did for Liz.
+ I can't believe that Liz told Alina the whole truth about Red. I expected, and was fine with, Liz telling her 'he's not actually my father' but everything? I'm honestly dumbfounded. I still believe that Liz deserves to know the truth but the show is making it really damn hard. The fact that she told the whole team so quickly afterwards was bad enough but now to tell a stranger, even if she is a new member of the team, what Liz thinks is his greatest secret, and in the middle of the Post Office even, honestly feels kind of like another betrayal. It's also basically confirmation that he was right to keep secrets from her. He sure as hell can't count on her keep it and not to tell other people. Or to make the most basic attempt to be careful in passing the information on. What the hell happened to 'no one else deserves to know'? I hate that they chose to go in this direction because it makes Liz look really terrible, tbh.
+ I'm confused about why Morozov's men didn't keep trying for Katarina during the bathroom fight instead of taking Skip and running? She wasn't armed, she was outnumbered (did none of them have guns?) and didn't have backup.
+ I'm surprised that Skip didn't say anything to Red about the little girl with Katarina. Still time I suppose since he's in Red's custody.
+ I'm really glad that Hannah did kill her rapist. Especially with the reveal that he was suing for custody. I wouldn't have bought it if she'd backed down.
+ I'm curious about why Red did choose this case for the TaskForce. There's no seeming connection to anything he's interested in so??
+ I like Megan Boone and generally think she does a good job but that one shot reaction after they discovered Hannah was the bad guy was so weird that it took me out of the episode. What even was that?
