I’m not sure why they invented a spy lair for Tom. Security cameras, pictures of Liz on the wall and piles of guns? For a guy that is supposed to be a deep cover mole assigned to watch Liz? He’s already married to her and sharing a house. I don’t think he needed photos of Liz on the walls of his spy lair. 
Tom was careless and dumb to bring that toy into his hideout. I guess the writers were desperate to find a clever way for Liz to learn the truth.
The Daily Beast has a good article on The Blacklist. They point out that Spader as Red is the best thing this show has to offer.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/31/the-blacklist-is-dead-without-the-psychotic-red.html
Ho-hum episode tonight. Didn’t find the featured blacklister all that interesting. Didn’t care for the resolution of Tom’s “brother”. Apparently Red is a wizard in a world of muggles. Dude can do anything, has infinite resources, and apparently none of the people that hate him are competent enough to kill him.
Given that the show has been renewed, is there any way they can just kill Lizzie off? She’s just not a strong enough actress to rise to (much less above) the very weak material they’re writing for her.
It took all season but Liz finally got her chance to confront Tom. Not that we learned anything. He’s still a mystery. I see in the previews something will happen to make Liz mistrust Red again? This is getting tedious. She’s spent the entire season bouncing back and forth between hate and trust of the guy.
The character Liz should be more like Dana Scully, at least insofar as competence and intelligence go. She is really written like a teenager, and not a very mature one at that. Also, Tom was a bit spry with the fighting and grabbing and gun-aiming for a guy with multiple broken fingers, including a broken thumb … to slip out of cuffs, Liz would have had to have broken or dislocated the metacarpo-phalangeal or at least the carpo-metacarpal. It would have been hard to hold or aim anything with that hand … he would have been doing everything left handed.
Presumably whatever was in the safety deposit box.
I was impressed with how seriously Red takes his relationship with Liz. He doesn’t lie to her. Even when faced with a direct question about killing her dad. It’s amazing Red told her the truth. There’s a lot of information he’s holding back (probably for her own good and safety). Red has to be her dad. Would he be that brutally honest with anyone else?
I was hoping Alan Alda’s group would have helped. It would have been awesome watching those two groups working together to eliminate Mr. Big.
The speech Red gave to Alan Alda. Saying he had no idea how ruthless Red would be to protect his interests. I got the impression Red was talking about Liz. Red will wipe out anybody that poses a threat to what he cares about. That could be Red’s Achilles heel. Red will be in trouble if they learn they can attack him by going after Liz.
Lizzie continues to be a moron, though. Last week her insistence on following Tom herself - c’mon, she’s the only person he would recognize and spot as a tail! She’s supposed to be intelligent, and an FBI agent - hell, she’s supposed to be a grown-up.
This week, the whole “we’re done” speech. Again. One, she’s Red’s liaison with the task force but I don’t think she gets to go back to the Post Office and say “eh, I’ve decided we won’t be bringing in dozens of elusive, high profile criminals anymore. Wrap up this multi-million dollar task force and go home.” Two, the man was straight with her - he deserves credit for that. And the person he killed was suffering and terminally ill - she knew that.
I’m wondering how Red hit upon the numbering scheme for his list. Are lower numbers more evil? And if that’s the case, has he ever regretted putting someone too high or to low? Or did he just kind of jot folks down as he thought of them?
They’ve setup an interesting finale for next week. I’m puzzled how they can have the confrontation with Berlin and still have a season 2. It seems like the reason for the Blacklist will get resolved in the finale. I’m sure the writers will have something planned for season 2. They need their paychecks.
There were some glaring issues this week. Yet again Liz and Red break up and get back together. The task force seems like a pawn in all of this. Lets dissolve it! I LMAO when Red pulls out a pistol and points it at Liz. A police sniper would have picked him off with a head shot in the real world.
I wasn’t interested in this weeks Blacklist guy. The best part is at the end when Liz and Red talk.
One of the best parts of the episode: the group figures out there are 5 Horsemen… and Aram the “computer wizard” says - “That’s a great band name”… classic !
I guess they are planning a big reboot of the series next season. Half the season 1 cast is gone. Parminder Nagra’s talents were being wasted. They never found much for her character to do. Harry Lennix may or may not be back. Honestly he could easily be replaced with another task force boss. Ryan Eggold had the best character arc season 1. He did a good job playing the wimpy school teacher husband that grew more and more sinister each episode. We never have been told who tortured and nearly killed him early in the season.
Liz is even leaving her condo. So season two will feature new sets and cast. I hope they hire better writers. This show deserves better writing.
I can’t think of much to say about the finale. A few characters that I never cared about died. Berlin escapes to cause more trouble in season 2. Red is still an enigma and Spader is the only reason to watch. Liz is still stiffly played by Megan Boone. I guess she can’t be replaced.
Spader showed off some acting chops when he was talking to Liz about her father. I guess Liz thought Tom was dead (can’t F.B.I. special Agents establish no pulse?) You’d think she’d have to wait for a debriefing team to arrive at the scene before leaving, and Tom would have been carried out on a stretcher. They were reaching with that part. At least Eggold’s character is one of the most interesting.
So did the writers really think everyone wouldn’t know from the first moment that [del]Keyser Soze[/del] Berlin was actually the man in the hospital? Especially as he was played by Peter Stormare?
For all it’s flaws, I still like this show. Not sure how Lizzie is going to wiggle out of promising Red she’d “finish” Tom and not doing it.
I assume Red was wearing a bullet-proof vest when Tom shot him? It wasn’t mentioned one way or the other, but he was clearly hit, and didn’t seem to mind much.
I think Cooper will live.
Love Evil Hawkeye. Need more from him, especially paired with Spader.
Wondering if Lizzie is somehow Berlin’s daughter? Maybe the body parts sent to him in prison were from another girl?
On reflection, I think Red knew Liz wouldn’t finish Tom. He would have sent his man to check after she left, if he’d wanted him dead. I’m thinking Red hoped Tom would survive, perhaps as a link to Berlin.
I hadn’t considered that Tom might survive. I guess he could pop up unexpectedly in Season 2. There’s some good drama to be explored in Tom and Liz’s new love/hate relationship.
I’ve seen speculation that Liz might be Berlin’s granddaughter. Berlin may be angry that Red’s wife died because of his covert activities. That would be a good motive for Berlin’s desire for revenge. That might explain why Red is so confused about who’s so angry at him. He may have never considered it might be his previous father-in-law.
That’s just speculation. Who knows what direction the writers will take this show. I’m not sure the writer’s know either. 
It’s how I originally read the “lexical ambiguity”–when the prisoners said “he” was cutting “his” hand off, I heard it as Berlin was cutting his own hand off. It wasn’t until later in the show, when they gave him to me as the guard, that I though, “Well, I guess it would be silly to cut your own hand off when you could cut your guard’s hand off instead.”
Now if you’ll excuse me… goes to check Peter Stormare on the IMDB
If you ever watched “Prison Break”, Stomare played a con who cut off another guys hand to get out of being handcuffed to him. (Also, apropos of nothing, he was Karl Hungus in “The Big Lebowski”.)