The Blacklist - Recap: Simply Red
Recap and review of The Blacklist - Episode 8 - General Ludd:
I'm generally finding with each passing week that The Blacklist is a much more involving character study than it is a procedural. This isn't simply because the cases themselves are only intermittently interesting, or because James Spader's performance is far more engaging than any of the cases Red is actually working on, but rather because the character dynamics the show has created are far more vivid than the world those characters inhabit, a world that only ever manages to be a thin facsimile of our own. "General Ludd" is easily the best episode of the series so far because it pushes the central investigation to the side in favor of serialized, character-based storytelling. This was less of a thriller and more of a character piece that centers on a relationship that's only just beginning to come into focus, as the series continues to play with the idea that Red (James Spader) could be Elizabeth's (Megan Boone) biological father. Yet like many of the red herrings in the weekly cases, this theory is likely too simple to actually be the case, and the episode inevitably poses more questions than it answers. All the better to keep viewers guessing, I suppose, as this ended up being a pretty outstanding hour of TV.
In many ways, this was an episode about fathers. The titular criminal is a man organizing an entire revolution in order to bring wall street to its knees. From behind a creepy red mask, General Ludd (Justin Kirk) mobilizes his forces, blowing up planes and killing innocent civilians, all due to a Wall Street vendetta. Apparently, when he was six, Ludd's father lost his job with an airline after a Wall Street corporation bought out the company and sold it off, essentially rendering his father's life's work meaningless. In retaliation for ruining his father's life, Ludd intends to devastate the financial sector, bringing the U.S. economy to its knees (I'd argue he's a bit late on that front), and basically destroy Wall Street. It's an ambitious plan, but the episode really doesn't give us much to invest in as far as Ludd himself is concerned. And perhaps that's the point, that Ludd (birth name Nathaniel Wolff) is mostly unknowable. I'm fine with that, if that's the approach the episode intended to take. Really, he's little more than a thematic parallel with Elizabeth anyway, as our FBI profiler is having daddy issues of her own this week.
Elizabeth's father, Sam (William Sadler), is in the hospital, and he's gone to great lengths to hide the severity of his condition from Liz. His cancer has apparently returned, and the doctors are giving him six weeks to live. Elizabeth wants to fly out to see him, but she can't because of General Ludd, as his attacks have caused all the planes in the area to be grounded indefinitely. Tom (Ryan Eggold) is able to get out to see Sam before the attacks occur, but Liz has no such luck, prompting Red to offer her the use of his private plane. Unfortunately, Liz is caught up in the hunt for Ludd, a matter of urgent national security, naturally. With Agent Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), she is able to track down Ludd and call in reinforcements, but the ringleader inevitably escapes by detonating a stack of money in a crowd of protesters, providing a distraction while he escapes with the blueprints for the new hundred dollar bill. Obtaining this item had apparently been Ludd's plan all along, and he damn near gets away with it too. But Red somehow always manages to have his hand in every cookie jar, where criminals are concerned. When Ludd approaches him to use his plane to escape, Red sells him out to the feds, though he takes the blueprints for the new hundred dollar bill himself, in order to give it to a counterfeiter of his whom he considers "an artist".
Credit: NBC
Yet, once again, the investigation itself isn't really the point of interest here. In pursuing the story of Sam Keen, the narrative fleshes out Red a bit more after last week's reveal that he once had a family. Red flies out to visit Sam in the hospital, and the two old friends reminisce about happier times. While we have no reason to suspect Sam doesn't know about Red's profession, he never really reveals that he does know that his friend is an internationally renowned criminal. The ambiguity existing in these otherwise warm, endearing scenes adds another shade of mystery onto the inevitable tease of just what connection the two men (and, by proxy, Liz) share. Red discusses how Liz has come to inherit Sam's fierceness and warmth, saying she's soft, and then hard, and then soft again. Red goes on to say that Sam gave her a tremendous gift in taking her in and raising her as his own, and while Sam doesn't confirm that Red is Lizzie's father, he doesn't deny it either.
Sam talks about how badly he wants to come clean to Lizzie, to tell her the truth about whatever past it is they all share. However, Red refuses to allow him to tell Liz the truth, whatever that truth may be, and it's clear to see just how desperately Red wishes to cling to whatever possibilities with Liz that the continued lies of omission afford him. Yet that's no comfort to Sam, who laments being told he has six weeks to live when he'd prefer to simply have it all over with. And so Red mournfully obliges his old friend. Red tearfully tells Sam he hopes he'll be able to love and protect Lizzie half as well as he did, before placing a pillow over Sam's face and suffocating him. James Spader is tremendous here, embodying all of Red's grief in silences and simple actions, such as light brush of Sam's hair and a kiss on his forehead after the act is done. It's a grim scene, but strangely touching all the same.
Credit: NBC
Yet the plot thickens once Red leaves the hospital and bumps into Tom, having just come from the hospital himself after learning of Sam's passing. He worries about how he's going to break it to Liz, apparently feeling comfortable enough to blab all of his problems to a complete stranger. Red takes the opportunity to tell Tom that his wife will be able to get through this, because he'll be there for her, protecting her, watching her and supporting her through everything. It's at this point the conversation sort of changes, as Red delivers this more as a set of instructions for what Tom will do if he knows what's good for him. And Tom has this sort of knowing look on his face, not that he's deduced that Red is a man who knows who he truly is (if there's a secret to Tom's identity at all), but rather that this is a man worthy of suspicion. It's a wonderful scene of remarkable subtlety, and it all boils down to the effectiveness of both Spader and Eggold in their roles.
Credit: NBC
Ultimately, Liz learns the truth about her father's passing, and attends the funeral, falling to pieces in the process (in a sequence set to the beautifully fitting "Welcome Home" by Radical Face, which I've embedded below). As revealed earlier in the episode, Sam had raised Liz by himself since she was four years old, though it's uncertain if Liz knows she was adopted. As it stands now, the mystery surrounding her parentage remains as vague and disquieting as ever, as does Red's agenda: for helping capture Ludd, Director Cooper (Harry Lennix) gives Red access to ViCAP (the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database), and Red gets right to work. He punches in a number and brings up the file on a young woman named Lucy Barnes. Who is this woman? What is her connection Red? Could she actually be his daughter? If so, who is Lizzie to him? For now, Liz is simply Red's partner -- and perhaps his friend, as he helps ease her grief over her father's death by prompting her to share stories about him in order to honor his memory by remembering him. It's a beautiful little moment, seeing Red on a child's swing alongside Liz, remembering Sam Keen and sharing in grief that must remain hidden on Red's end. The show has a greater level of emotional complexity than many might allow, and "General Ludd" is a fitting representation of that depth and complication. This is the best episode of the series so far, and James Spader continues to do yeoman's work in a role that -- it's becoming apparent -- could only have been inhabited by him.