The Blacklist Review: Luther Braxton (Season 2 Episode 9)

Well, folks, The Blacklist officially became interesting again.

So many times on this series, we’re provided with endless rabbit trails of unanswered questions. Moreover, when we are finally presented with answers to the questions we’ve spent hours of our time in episodes pondering, they come too little too late. The build-up in the NBC series is often more intense and interesting (and sometimes frustrating) than seems worth it for the payoff. But with its post-Super Bowl winter debut, The Blacklist officially found the near-perfect balance between suspense and answers and between villains and heroes.

In “Luther Braxton,” we are immediately thrown into action as Reddington is being hauled off by the CIA to a secret detention facility that houses those criminals who have the most valuable information about secrets integral to the government. The task force prepares to extract Red from the prison once they realize they have a short window of time in which to do so and that the CIA would most likely kill Red once they’ve gotten the information they need and want from him. (They deduce this because the CIA top secret prison is essentially where the agency sends criminals and threats to the country that they want to easily disappear).

The Blacklist is at its best when it integrates villains into Red’s personal story – it makes the episode feel like it has real, important stakes attached to it.

And in this episode, there are high stakes. As Red is shackled in the prison, he warns the warden of Luther Braxton – a ruthless thief – and his plan to take over the facility. Braxton wants something and he already has the men in place in the prison in order to enact that plan.

No one ever listens to Red, which is kind of the whole point of this show (seriously, how many times has he managed to save the lives of government agents because he’s the only one who knows what is about to happen? How many times do you think Red just wants to roll his eyes and ask: “Why does no one listen to me? Do I just have a face that no one listens to?”), and also problematic for the warden who – as Red predicted – has a breach on his hands in a matter of moments.

Braxton (played by the always chilling Ron Perlman) is after something called the Fulcrum. Apparently, this file – which was mentioned in the series’ mid-season finale – is a blackmail file that proves the existence of a clandestine organization. In a very simple explanation that the show delivers to us, Braxton isn’t planning on breaking out of the detention facility. That’s not his goal. His goal is to break IN – into the CIA and government organizations that house top secret information. Braxton is a thief, after all, and his goal is always to steal.

Oh, and did I mention that some genius at the CIA decided that the detention facility would also double as an access point to house the country’s biggest and most sensitive secrets? Yeah. That’s what Braxton is after.

While the siege on the facility is occurring, Samar and Ressler get taken hostage and Liz is separated from them, eventually able to team up with Red. Their goal is to destroy the facility’s server by literally blowing up the boiler room in hopes that it’ll take it out. The problem? The room DOES blow and renders Red temporarily unconscious and dead-like and causes Liz to be snatched by Braxton’s men.

Did I also mention that in order to prevent Braxton from ever utilizing the government secrets that a man (the leader of the U.S. National Clandestine Service) ordered his liaison to have the detention facility blown up to destroy Braxton and Red (and all of the agents within there, too)? Because that happened.

We literally end the episode with a bang – the first strike hits the facility after Red and Liz manage to injure Braxton and detain him together. There’s one bit of information that’s extremely important to this episode, too: Red’s desire to prevent Braxton from getting a hold of the Fulcrum has a lot to do with him, seemingly. He tells Liz that everyone believes he has it and the only reason that he’s being kept alive is because of it. Once people know he does not, he’s as good as dead. Liz is extremely confused, as are we because that doesn’t seem like the best reasoning. In the boiler room, Red admits that Liz is a part of the Fulcrum and – once again – she and we are baffled.

At the end of the episode, though, it’s pretty evident that the reason Red has taken so much care to protect Liz is because they’re bound together by this whole ordeal – she is keeping him alive; her presence is the reason he still exists, since she’s tied to the Fulcrum and that is the very thing keeping others from killing him.

What was so interesting and engaging about this episode of The Blacklist was that it provided just enough answers to leave us intrigued, and not so many as to leave us feeling ambivalent toward a second episode of the series within a week. “Luther Braxton: Conclusion” airs this Thursday, and from the looks of it, it will involve Liz fighting for her life.

One of the most interesting things about this series thus far has been the vague complexity of the Red/Liz relationship – the constant questions of whether or not he is somehow related to her or her father or just someone who really cares about her – and “Luther Braxton” did a great job capitalizing on the neediness that these two have for each other: they constantly protect one another, even when Liz absolutely seems to abhor Red. I’m really curious to see more of Liz’s story this year, especially given how dark she was before hiatus. I have a feeling the results will be nothing short of engaging.

Other thoughts:

• The Blacklist probably has the best music director in the business. Songs on this show are always so important and so spot-on.
• Can’t Ressler just catch a break for once and NOT get kidnapped or injured? Though, from the looks of the trailer for “Luther Braxton: Conclusion,” it appears he is not as gravely injured as he was during the “Anslo Garrick” two-parter. Thank goodness for that. Also, I’m glad that we got some good Samar/Ressler moments. That woman can think on her feet and it saved both of their lives.
• Can we talk about how concerned Aram was for Samar? Because that was precious and heartbreaking.
• “From this point forward, you don’t exist.” “Well that’s a load off.”
• James Spader can monologue like no one else, I’m telling you. I would listen to him talk about tropical fish and cat burglars all day.

What did you all think of the mid-season premiere of The Blacklist? Was it as explosive and grand as you had hoped? Have your questions been answered yet? And – most importantly – were you sad that we were missing Red’s fedora?

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The Blacklist airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC