The Blacklist - The Forecaster - Review: "A Pyrrhic Victory":

I, very often, sing The Blacklist's praises. I love how the show harmoniously blends the elements of a procedural drama with that of a serialized one so well you could barely tell what aspect you are viewing. The actors are wonderful and play their roles fantastically. James Spader steals every scene as Raymond "Red" Reddington and the mythology behind his relationship with Liz and the top criminals of the world make the show unique. However, recently, I have noticed the quality of The Blacklist declining slightly. Fans have made such claims on the articles I read both on this website and a few others. While I agree with those claims on some episodes, I do not believe that this is a trend for the show we have come to know and love. The past few weeks, which are a vast improvement on this season's episodes, are proof The Blacklist is getting back to its roots as the great series we know it can be.

Last Thursday's episode of The Blacklist showed us another great blacklister in 'The Forecaster'. It reminded me of some of the great season one blacklisters that are so good we can recall their misdeeds and quote them by memory. I'm positive in seasons to come we will remember 'The Forecaster' episode with great clarity. The episode dealt with Liz receiving dioramas of criminal activities at her doorstep before they happen. How much easier could her first case back to work be? We find out later a little girl named Maggie created the dioramas and her mother put them on Liz's doorstep because she saw Liz's face on TV and thought she would be sympathetic to her daughter's situation.

Although confusing at first, and much like Red's 'white' puzzle, the pieces came together as the hour progressed as to what exactly was going on with Maggie and how she was able to, with such detail, create dioramas of tragic events that would later come true. Maggie's earpiece would pick up Farnsworth and Charnquist's phone calls about whatever tragic events they were planning and Maggie, being the altruistic kid that she is, decided to use her creative skills to create dioramas of each horrific moment. After her mother realized they were 'coming true' she decided to secretly take them to Liz's doorstep in the hopes that Liz could prevent what was depicted. However, Maggie is not 'The Forecaster' the title of the episode suggests. Red associated the title to Farnsworth as we hear him tell Liz that near the end of episode.

I thought the episode last Thursday was another great hour for The Blacklist. I hope the series continues on this fun path that it is currently on and we continue to see great blacklisters. Red mentioned near the end of the episode that Liz and the Task Force won a pyrrhic victory; they were able to get Charnquist, however, Farnsworth, The Forecaster, was able to escape. I suppose what has been happening with a few of the characters on The Blacklist recently has been nothing but pyrrhic victories. Red and Dembe get two new 'cleaners' at the cost of losing Mr. Kaplan.; Red gets rid of Kirk as well as getting him out of Liz's life, but continues to have Liz not trust him enough to see her new apartment or see Agnes. Let's hope, for Red's sake at least, that there are more victories for him without any losses, however, Red being who he is that appears doubtful.


Red's Quotes

- "I did done...do."
Red to one of his new cleaners, Sakiya.

- "I'm a bad man, Iniko, but not that bad"
Red to Iniko

Music from the Episode

- "What I like About You" by The Romantics
Tom unpacks and dresses the apartment as he sings along to the music and watches after Agnes; Tom hears someone outside the apartment door, grabs the box cutter and finds another diorama outside the door.

- "Alone" by Dark Horses
Maggie works on her diorama of the attack on Jasek Financial; Charnquist and Farnsworth plan to kill Beckner as Liz and the FBI work on stopping his attack on the business; Red inspects Fudo and Sakiya's cleaning work.

Thoughts and Discussion

- With everything that has happened to Tom, Liz and especially baby Agnes, why on Earth would Tom leave Agnes unattended for ONE second let alone the few minutes he did while not only leaving the apartment but the building?! It makes no sense and was insane on Tom's part.

- I love Aram's story about his pet rabbit, Dash. Lol

- Tom singing and dancing for Agnes was great.

- So, I suppose, Farnsworth will get away with whatever he was doing along with Charnquist, although Charnquist did get caught in the end.

- Speaking of Charnquist...That was a great shot by Ressler at the end that ended up killing Charnquist through clouded glass, broken glass and from atop another building altogether.

- Red putting together and completing an all-white puzzle on a white table in a completely white room shows that he is capable of anything.

- Where is Mr. Kaplan? Last we saw of her she was hitching a ride in a truck. I still think Red missed on purpose and wanted to graze her. I wonder if Mr. Kaplan thinks that way also.

- Did you notice...Liz, Tom and Agnes's apartment number is 4A. I've always said that numbers play a small role on The Blacklist (Especially when you think that each week we are given the blacklister's 'number' on the blacklist). Red was number 4 on the FBI's most wanted list as we know from previous episodes. Even though Liz and Tom are trying to get away from Red, it's as if the writers are saying he is always there and always watching by making the apartment number 4.

Thank you for checking out my Review of last Thursday's episode of The Blacklist! Have a great weekend everyone!