The Blacklist - Recap: Judge, Jury, and Executioner

Recap video and review of The Blacklist - Episode 15 - The Judge:

Guest star casting for a procedural continues to be one of those tricky things no network has ever been able to get completely right: cast too small, and the surprise twist that the guest star is the killer feels like it came out of left field; cast too big, and it's obvious from the start just who the killer is. Such is the case with "The Judge," which casts two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest as the titular Judge. But what's interesting is just how little knowing her identity matters. The Blacklist smartly makes this less about the crime itself, and more about the tenuous nature of justice, and a system that alternately gets it wrong for the right reasons, and gets it right for the wrong reasons. In essence, while this does end up being a case of "The Most Famous Person Did It," the episode is underpinned with enough solid storytelling to maintain interest throughout. It's not as nakedly entertaining as some of the best popcorn hours of the show, but it's a compelling episode of television nonetheless, thanks in particular to a killer last-minute twist. We'll get to the twist later, but for now, it's necessary to get to the heart of the case that anchors the episode.

Credit: NBC

The Judge is a mysterious person who is the method of last resort for the wrongfully convicted. Unlike a real judge, The Judge doesn't actually have the power to overturn your conviction or secure your release, but the mysterious figure will make certain that the person(s) responsible for your imprisonment/execution are treated in kind. It's an eye for an eye, and The Judge is the one with all the power to decide a person's innocence or guilt. It's an interesting take on a Blacklister, as The Judge is presented as something of a moral crusader. Did your incompetence lead to your client wrongfully serving 12 years in prison? The Judge will make certain you're abducted and are held in captivity for 12 years yourself. Did your illegally obtained confession lead to the execution of an innocent man? The Judge will make certain you pay with your life. It's moral relativism at its finest, and it makes for a compelling story. This is due in large part to the effectiveness with which Dianne Wiest plays her character. Ruth Kipling, an advocate for prisoners' rights, is equal parts warm and chilling. Mostly chilling though, as her mission centers on forcing Assistant Director Cooper (Harry Lennix) to pay for the death of Alan Ray Rifkin, an American Taliban agent convicted of mass atrocities against a civilian village in Afghanistan. As The Judge, Ruth is still interested in getting to the truth of the matter, but all evidence points to her client's innocence.

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And she's right. At least about Cooper having obtained the confession through torture. The revelation comes as a result of Liz (Megan Boone) investigating the case and meeting with a contact who confirms Cooper's involvement years earlier. Hell, Cooper even admits it, rationalizing his actions as having been geared towards seeing that a guilty man paid for his crimes and didn't slip through the cracks of the system. Yet the story takes a firm, judgmental stance against Cooper, and I'm not sure it's wrong to do so. I've never really been a fan of the Cooper character, even though I generally like Harry Lennix. And this episode does the character no real favors, as it doesn't make him any more likable or relatable, nor does it give him any greater sense of depth. Sure, he apologizes and tells Liz that if she feels the need to take the matter to the proper authorities, he'll understand. But it doesn't paint him as any more trustworthy or deserving of the audiences' respect. He becomes a man of greater moral ambiguity, which I suppose is interesting, but it has the unfortunate byproduct of rubbing off on Liz, who decides the Rifkin torture is something that can stay between them. This has the effect of making her seem less determined, less committed to her convictions. In essence, Liz just becomes another cog in a compromised system. Although, to be fair, her reversal on the whole torture thing could just be the result of her no longer feeling guilty about Rifkin dying, since Red (James Spader) was able to prove the man really was guilty of his crimes.

Credit: NBC

On this end, we get a tremendous scene out of that information, as Red meets with The Judge and gives her a stern lecture on the nature of morality, applauding her efforts over the years to apply a rigorous standard of justice and getting it right far more often than the system does. But he reveals to her that while Cooper was guilty of torturing Rifkin, he didn't get the wrong guy. Rifkin was absolutely guilty. And so The Judge turns herself in, recognizing that she must hold herself to the same standard of justice as she holds everyone else. It's an effective bit of storytelling, and it's wonderfully performed by Spader and Wiest. Spader also has an effective little scene with Cooper at the end, in which he ominously declares that a war is coming, and that the murder of Diane Fowler is merely a taste of what's to come. He asks Cooper for help when the time comes, citing that he rescued the Assistant Director from the clutches of The Judge. Red also requests that Cooper help out an old Admiral friend who's fallen on hard times as a result of his own actions in the past. Each week, we learn a little bit more about Red, and somehow, it really doesn't surprise me that he once went to a military academy. Red strikes me as the kind of guy who we'll learn has lived many different lives before this one.

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I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the terrific actors drafted for this week's show. In addition to Wiest, Reed Birney is terrific in an all-too-brief role as Tom Connolly, the attorney who secured Rifkin's confession and helped Cooper cover it up. Lance Reddick also appears as a private investigator hired by Red to investigate the previous whereabouts of Lucy Brooks (Rachel Brosnahan), who now goes by Jolene Parker. Reddick's character is able to discover a flash drive in Lucy's apartment that reveals she's been following Red and Liz for a long time. Of course, we don't really need the evidence from the flash drive to be convinced that "Jolene" is up to something. She seduces Tom (Ryan Eggold) at the hotel bar, making out with him in the bathroom only to be interrupted by the entrance of a confused little kid. They're both momentarily embarrassed, but Jolene is able to convince him to come up to her room, and this is where the other shoe drops...

Credit: NBC

When Lucy/Jolene gets on his case for rejecting her, she reveals that Tom's "handlers" sent her as a test of his commitment. This infuriates Tom, who reveals that he's done everything his handlers have asked. He fell in love with Liz, he even married her, all because that was his "job". So there you have it. Red was right all along. Tom is not at all who he says he is, and when the truth eventually comes out, I imagine all hell is going to break loose. Granted, I'm not sure this justifies the endless amount of time we've spent over the last 15 episodes watching marital drama in which Tom and Liz make plans, something comes up at work, Tom gets upset and questions her commitment to their marriage, and they make up in time to have the same fight the next week. My only guess is that they had to establish the routine of the marriage, the positively quotidian nature of their pairing, for the shock of this reveal to carry any weight. Because this means nothing unless we actually believed, up until now, that Tom was just a normal guy. With that said, I wish the show hadn't been forecasting this reveal since close to the beginning. Realistically, there was never a chance this wasn't the case, since it would have just been bad storytelling to have Red bring up his suspicions about Tom without those suspicions ever amounting to anything. But even though it's not perfect, I'm still pretty well gripped by this storyline, as an overarching narrative appears to be coming together. What is this "war" to which Red refers? What is Tom's part in all this? And what is Red and Liz's relationship? I know we're probably not going to get an answer on that last one anytime soon, but I feel like it's something that we need to keep asking.

All in all, while "The Judge" isn't my favorite episode of The Blacklist, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thoroughly entertained by it.