The Blacklist - Recap: The Secretive Men of Elizabeth Keen
Recap and review of The Blacklist - Season 1 Episode 3 - Wujing:
It can be difficult to really nail serialized storytelling in a spy story, particularly one that follows a largely procedural format. Yet The Blacklist is impressive in how it moves its plot forward with minimal exposition. There's a great "show, don't tell" dynamic that privileges close attention and careful consideration of each plot point, for the viewer. "Wujing" is particularly successful in how it divides its attentions between the Case of the Week, the blossoming partnership between Elizabeth (Megan Boone) and Red (James Spader), and the continued investigation into just what Tom (Ryan Eggold) is hiding. It's a strong episode that not only hints at Red's connection to Elizabeth, but also offers a peek into Tom's classified past.
The title "Wujing" comes from the name of the five Chinese books containing the principles of Confucianism. It's also the moniker adopted by the latest target on The Blacklist, a man attempting to access secret CIA information. Elizabeth is initially hesitant to help Red in the pursuit, since she's consumed with her own side project, performing rudimentary ballistics tests in her home with Tom's gun, in order to ascertain where it comes from, and whether it's been used in any crimes or missions. However, Liz is compelled to assist once Red reveals that Wujing is responsible for the murder of several CIA agents (which is all the more peculiar, because the FBI won't even officially acknowledge that Wujing exists -- because they aren't exactly certain he does). And so Liz goes undercover as a encryption specialist alongside Red, who procures them a meeting with the elusive Wujing (Chin Han), who needs all the help he can get in cracking the CIA codes. Ray makes it clear to Liz that once she decodes the message Wujing is after, she must give it to the Chinese in order to maintain her cover and prevent the terrorist faction from killing an embedded CIA agent close to the situation.
And so we get some fittingly tense scenes, as Ray and Liz go to their underground meeting with Wujing and his group, only to discover that the meeting is in an underground bunker. This causes the FBI to lose Liz, as her tracking device (disguised as a nicotine patch) has a limited ranged. In essence, Liz has to trust Ray in order to get through the mission. It's this storytelling decision that serves the narrative best, as the show goes back to one of its more compelling elements: the push-and-pull in the relationship between Liz and Red. It's clear she'd prefer not to be working with this man, yet she has little recourse but to enlist his aid, such as when she asks him to provide a distraction so she can plant an encryption device on Wujing's computer. Spader continues to shine as Red, with a winning charisma that makes him difficult to root against, regardless of his motives. Here, he sticks up for Elizabeth when Wujing threatens to kill her in retaliation for Red having killed one of his men to maintain their cover. "If you're going to kill her, you'll have to kill me too, because I will kill you," said with all the stone-faced conviction of a man who means business.
Credit: NBC
From there, the episode kind of descends into a lite-Bourne movie, as Agent Reeser (Diego Klattenhoff) once again winds up fighting a villain on the top of a building, overlooking a steep drop. In this case, however, there's a greater sense of urgency, as the FBI is racing the Chinese to the location of the CIA agent hidden in Washington, D.C. with his young son. Though Red and Liz aren't really involved with this sequence, it still works mostly by virtue of continuing to help build the show's ensemble. Sure, Reeser doesn't do a whole lot else but fight, and Agent Malik (Parminder Nagra) seems to exist solely to be the person who's good in a last-minute pinch, but it all comes together well. This feels like a team far more than your standard cut-and-dry procedural ever tends to, and the capture of Wujing is actually pretty clever, as we find that Liz placed her tracking device on the criminal's getaway vehicle, allowing the FBI to locate him before he could escape.
Credit: NBC
It's at this point that Red offers some semblance of answers to Liz, as if in payment for services rendered. He tells her that the reason he chose her is “because of your father.” Red stops just shorting of admitting he knew her father, saying that the answers to her questions are complicated. I've read some interesting theories online as to the nature of Liz and Red's relationship that have nothing to do with Red actually being her father (as I can't imagine the series would actually go with a twist that obvious), everything from Red having been the ex-lover of Liz's father or mother, to Red simply having been a former best friend/partner-in-crime to her family, right down to the possibility that Red is some other relation like a cousin or uncle.
Credit: NBC
Regardless, there's much more going on than Liz could possibly know, and it should perhaps be troubling that all of the male relationships in her life are informed by this ambiguity, as her trust in Tom is slowly ebbing away with each passing week. When she gets the ballistics report back, the information about the gun is redacted due to its classified nature. Yet while the info remains a secret to Liz, we actually get to see the unclassified documents -- in Ressler's hands. The report reveals that the gun was involved in a case of such importance that discussion requires the approval of the Director of Homeland Security. As if that weren't shady enough, a mysterious figure has had bugs and cameras placed in the Keen household, and that mystery man (or woman) watches the surveillance footage with potentially malicious intent as the episode comes to a close. This development is paralleled with the reveal of Red's payment for his earlier work with Wujing, which comes in the form of a piece of paper with only a number on it: 042983. What does the number mean, and how does it factor into Red's motives? Once again, it's hard to tell. (Although, fun fact: that's actually Megan Boone's birthday: April 29, 1983. No idea if it's an intentional Easter Egg or not, but there ya go) In short, things are going to get a whole lot more confusing for Liz before they get any clearer.
"Wujing" is a solid episode from front to back, and a winning showcase for James Spader's unique talents, as he makes Reddington a far more likable, beguiling figure than one would expect a multinational criminal to be. Then again, from a sheer character perspective, Red had to be good at what he does for a reason, and so it really shouldn't be that big of a surprise that he's as charming as he is ambiguous.