The two-hour season finale of The Blacklist’s fourth season delivered plenty of surprises as Mr Kaplan (Susan Blommaert) and Reddington’s (James Spader) feud came to an end.
If you haven’t seen the fourth season of The Blacklist and want to avoid spoilers, we suggest you stop reading now. If you have seen it and would like to hear our thoughts, keep reading.
As Mr Kaplan threatened to testify and expose Reddington’s work with the secret task force, Red and the team went into overdrive to stop her. Despite everything she had done, Liz (Megan Boone) wanted assurance that Red wouldn’t kill Mr Kaplan but he wouldn’t give that to her. To get the grand jury off their backs, Red helped Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) find Reven Wright’s (Adriane Lenox) body so they could blackmail Laurel Hitchin (Christine Lahti) into shutting the inquiry down.
Mr Kaplan dug up a suitcase that belonged to Liz when she was a child and hid it in a locker. When she finally came face-to-face with Red, Mr Kaplan told him she wasn’t prepared to go to prison and warned that she had a confidant that would ensure the truth was revealed to Liz. After saying that, she threw herself off the bridge and seemingly died as she hit the water.
Meanwhile Harold (Harry Lennix) ran a DNA test on a bloodstained shirt of Red’s to find out once and for all if he was Liz’s father. An anxious Liz opened the results and found out that Red was her biological father. She confronted him and told him that she wanted to embrace him as her family.
Elsewhere in the episode Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) returned and he was revealed to have been working with Mr Kaplan. The final moments of the episode showed him retrieve the suitcase and show it’s contents; a collection of bones (presumably Katarina’s?). Ressler hit out at Hitchin when she goaded him about ‘owning him’ and accidentally killed her in the process. Samar (Mozhan Marno) and Aram (Amir Arison) grew closer after Aram was subpoenaed to testify against the task force, and the two shared a passionate kiss.
As we patiently wait for the fifth season of the show to arrive, I’ve compiled a list of the 10 things I want to see. Keep reading to find out my thoughts.
1. The end of Liz’s daddy drama. I predicted at the end of season 1 that Red was Liz’s father, something that caused a very strong reaction from fans of the show. After the Alexander Kirk (Ulrich Thomsen) distraction earlier this season, it seems that the case has now been settled once and for all. Long may it stay that way!
2. Liz and Red to re-examine their relationship. Liz has wavered back and forth when it comes to her feelings about Red but now knowing that he’s her father, it would be nice to see the two share a bit more screen time together. Their relationship hit a great peak when they were on the run together during season 3 but it was damaged after Liz faked her death. I look forward to the two exploring the father-daughter relationship they have.
3. The bones to have a twist. It seems too obvious for the bones in the suitcase to be Katarina’s thanks to the foreshadowing that Liz could never know what Red did to Katarina. I still think Katarina is alive and will show up at some point, this is The Blacklist after all.
4. Ressler to struggle with killing Hitchin. I’m not the biggest fan of Ressler but I actually liked his revenge storyline against Hitchin this season. Now he’s killed her, I hope that we see a little bit more complexity for the character and give Diego Klattenhoff something to do other than look constipated or in pain.
5. Samar to cheer up. Hands up who was fed up of Samar being a complete Debbie Downer all season? Seriously, I was concerned that if she did smile it might break her face. Samar used to be badass but she’s been turned into a whiney character that seems to only revolve around her relationship with Aram. Now the two of them seem to be getting together, I’d like Samar to resume her role as the task force’s wild card.
6. Tom Keen to actually get something to do. I’m still gutted that The Blacklist: Redemption got cancelled after only one season. Ryan Eggold is a seriously good leading man and he’s under-used in The Blacklist. With the reveal that he was Mr Kaplan’s helper, I hope he gets some juicy storylines and doesn’t fade into the background as a stay at home dad again.
7. More Aram-centric episodes. Aram is without a doubt the secret weapon of The Blacklist. Amir Arison’s performance is the perfect mix between comedy and drama and he’s amazing. I’ve enjoyed him getting his own storylines this past season and I hope the potential relationship with Samar doesn’t sideline him.
8. Liz to find out she has a grandfather. Dom (Brian Dennehy) now knows that Liz isn’t dead after all but Liz has no idea that Dom exists. I suspect Red won’t want Liz getting anywhere near Dom as he surely has lots of secrets to tell but it would seem a missed opportunity not to introduce the characters next season.
9. New blood. The Blacklist needs a bit of a shake-up. Season 4 was rocky but it returned to its best in the second half of the season when Mr Kaplan kicked off her revenge plan. Some new characters to cause friction between the members of the task force would be welcome.
10. Mr Kaplan to be alive. It’s highly doubtful that the show would do two fake outs when it comes to Mr Kaplan’s death but her body wasn’t recovered on screen, which means she could still be alive. It’s unlikely that she would have survived that fall but this is The Blacklist so you never know…
The Blacklist will return for a fifth season this autumn on NBC in the US and Sky 1 HD in the UK.
