This episode begins in Tehran, a flashback of Samar her past where her family got killed. Zal Bin Hasaan, the man who killed Samar's family is the new name on The Blacklist. Hasaan also killed Samar's brother at the Pishin attack in Iran. Ressler and Samar found all the bodies and 1 survivor, Shahin Samar her brother survived the Pishin attack. Tom and Harold hold Karakurt hostage at Cooper his garage. Red threatened a man he says that he is Zal Bin Hasaan. Tom and Liz have a meeting, he tells her that he found Karakurt. Ressler and a FBI team raid the Wing Yee and arrested Solomon. A bomb explode where Samar hold the hostages. Shahin is Zal Bin Hasaan. Shahin ubducted Samar, Red rescued her. Tom and Ressler are fighting Harold comes between the two. Ressler and Samar are kissing in the last scene. Good episode of The Blacklist Season 3, this episode was a key one in the series it marks the storyline of Samar, Karakurt his abduction and many morw mysteries.
4 Reviews
Character Development
Hitchcoc15 November 2022
This is an interesting episode which reinforces some of the pain and anguish the characters carry around with them. There is so much baggage that finding a moment or two of joy is really hard. When the brother turns out to be bad news he resorts to expecting his sister to save him. The CIA and Christine Lahti's character are either in on the evil or ignorant of it. We are told, and rightfully so, that the family is the agency, and they need to block out the nasty implications of what they do, including having loved ones short because of a case they are on. I think this episode is about a bit of a rest, although there is still a loot of action.
Atonal
A_Different_Drummer14 November 2015
Have been a huge fan of this series -- see prior reviews which make the case plainly -- but I have problems with this episode.
On the one hand, you could simply dismiss the issues here as what I have called in prior reviews "P2K4" tactics, ie, the writing team needed to have all the players on the board in certain places at a specific time in order to deliver the coming "payoff" or "twist" -- and if that means sacrificing an episode (ie delivering an episode that is somewhat unsatisfying to watch, or less satisfying than we are used to) then OK, that's the price of the game.
But I want to go a bit deeper, with the reader's kind permission.
As we move into Season 3, we note again that the charm, the elegance of this show involves an alleged "bad guy" wonderfully played by Spader who seems to be the only one on the planet that can capture other bad guys, especially those that leave the traditional justice system powerless.
It is a clever premise and it works a treat. Essentially each name on the Blacklist (remember, they are still bracketing each episode with a Blacklist number, in spite of the Lizzie/Cabal arc) is a sort of Hannibal Lector, and, evil as they may be (and they are) Spader always saves the day.
I dubbed this review "atonal." Which means music lacking the core values of music. The problem here is with a story that sets Spader against true terrorists. Historians of the future, looking back at our era, will no doubt observe the plain truth that "terror changes everything." It displaces gravity. It evaporates the rule book. Each prior Blacklister, evil as they were, did not show any predilection to die for their cause. This episode in the view of this critic mixes oil and water. Reddington is going against people who lack core values and are prepared to kill or die simply to make a point.
Which is what I am doing in this review. Making a point.
I could have dismissed the weakness in this script as simply a sacrificial episode to reach a certain point in the greater arc.
But there is more to it than that.
On the one hand, you could simply dismiss the issues here as what I have called in prior reviews "P2K4" tactics, ie, the writing team needed to have all the players on the board in certain places at a specific time in order to deliver the coming "payoff" or "twist" -- and if that means sacrificing an episode (ie delivering an episode that is somewhat unsatisfying to watch, or less satisfying than we are used to) then OK, that's the price of the game.
But I want to go a bit deeper, with the reader's kind permission.
As we move into Season 3, we note again that the charm, the elegance of this show involves an alleged "bad guy" wonderfully played by Spader who seems to be the only one on the planet that can capture other bad guys, especially those that leave the traditional justice system powerless.
It is a clever premise and it works a treat. Essentially each name on the Blacklist (remember, they are still bracketing each episode with a Blacklist number, in spite of the Lizzie/Cabal arc) is a sort of Hannibal Lector, and, evil as they may be (and they are) Spader always saves the day.
I dubbed this review "atonal." Which means music lacking the core values of music. The problem here is with a story that sets Spader against true terrorists. Historians of the future, looking back at our era, will no doubt observe the plain truth that "terror changes everything." It displaces gravity. It evaporates the rule book. Each prior Blacklister, evil as they were, did not show any predilection to die for their cause. This episode in the view of this critic mixes oil and water. Reddington is going against people who lack core values and are prepared to kill or die simply to make a point.
Which is what I am doing in this review. Making a point.
I could have dismissed the weakness in this script as simply a sacrificial episode to reach a certain point in the greater arc.
But there is more to it than that.
The Weight of Random Plot Points Really Overwhelmed Them
frankelee4 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
It's weird how the Director keeps setting up ambushes for Liz that the task force finds out about, but even though the task force talks to her and Red on the phone every 30 minutes, they can in no way ever tip them off about the trap.
This episode is especially bizarre, a group of Middle Eastern terrorists kidnap technical contractors, and hold them hostage near DC, so that the Feds would team up with Mossad to raid their compound because of intentionally left behind clues as to where it was, where they would also discover a group of unaccounted for other hostages, who the FBI would then agree to transport all of to a Mossad safe house, where they would be questioned but otherwise assumed to be harmless and left unguarded, and no American security would otherwise be provided, so that one of the unaccounted for hostages could explode a bomb that allowed the other unaccounted for hostages to violently take over the compound because they were actually all terrorists, and execute the original American hostages, and begin executing Mossad hostages in order to gain access to a safe with a hard copy of the Mossad agents hunting Hasaan.
That plan had a lot of assumptions in it that all went right. For no real reason. It's definitely illogical to send the American hostages to be processed at a Mossad safe house, probably against protocols, maybe even illegal, and certainly fireable as an offense. And then it is also amazing that these Mossad agents didn't follow any normal protocols and assume these unaccounted for hostages were potentially dangerous and keep them in cells at least. Like I said, most of the assumptions in this plan are far less than 50/50 in likelihood.
Also why do we have the pretend Tom and Ressler are in the same league as hand-to-hand combatants? Tom is routinely shown Jason Bourneing his way around the world, defeating groups of armed men with his bare hands, and Ressler is like a guy with FBI self-defense training. I'm not saying Tom's ability as a super spy makes sense, but it's already established. Ressler isn't able to eliminate a half dozen armed men using only his hands, so it's not clear why Tom couldn't just toss him around. Like everything else on this show, the writers put their thumbs on the scale for everything, and this episode was especially lame for it.
This episode is especially bizarre, a group of Middle Eastern terrorists kidnap technical contractors, and hold them hostage near DC, so that the Feds would team up with Mossad to raid their compound because of intentionally left behind clues as to where it was, where they would also discover a group of unaccounted for other hostages, who the FBI would then agree to transport all of to a Mossad safe house, where they would be questioned but otherwise assumed to be harmless and left unguarded, and no American security would otherwise be provided, so that one of the unaccounted for hostages could explode a bomb that allowed the other unaccounted for hostages to violently take over the compound because they were actually all terrorists, and execute the original American hostages, and begin executing Mossad hostages in order to gain access to a safe with a hard copy of the Mossad agents hunting Hasaan.
That plan had a lot of assumptions in it that all went right. For no real reason. It's definitely illogical to send the American hostages to be processed at a Mossad safe house, probably against protocols, maybe even illegal, and certainly fireable as an offense. And then it is also amazing that these Mossad agents didn't follow any normal protocols and assume these unaccounted for hostages were potentially dangerous and keep them in cells at least. Like I said, most of the assumptions in this plan are far less than 50/50 in likelihood.
Also why do we have the pretend Tom and Ressler are in the same league as hand-to-hand combatants? Tom is routinely shown Jason Bourneing his way around the world, defeating groups of armed men with his bare hands, and Ressler is like a guy with FBI self-defense training. I'm not saying Tom's ability as a super spy makes sense, but it's already established. Ressler isn't able to eliminate a half dozen armed men using only his hands, so it's not clear why Tom couldn't just toss him around. Like everything else on this show, the writers put their thumbs on the scale for everything, and this episode was especially lame for it.
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