The series Leverage aired on TNT from 2008 to 2012, but it seems to have grown in popularity in reruns. It features a group of four specialists — hacker, muscle, conman, and thief — who partner up to help the underdogs. While it consistently relied on the viewers’ ability to suspend their disbelief, it was nonetheless quite entertaining. The most recent episode of The Blacklist “The Director (No. 24): Conclusion” almost seemed like a homage to the show.
Like Leverage this episode involves a mastermind, Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader), pulling together his own team of specialists. Their goal is to capture “The Director” (David Strathairn) and exonerate Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). Furthermore, this episode borrows several of the tropes Leverage relied on. It begins with the formation of a team of highly specialized agents (the central premise of Leverage). At one point, Reddington explains, complete with flashbacks, how all of the episodes earlier in the year led to this point (also a trope shared between The Blacklist, Leverage, and almost any other suspense show on television). Their con centers on switching floors in a building — a plan central to many of the cons on Leverage. Finally, while there has always been a fantasy aspect of The Blacklist, this episode really stretched the viewer’s ability to buy into the almost infinite resources available to Reddington.
“The Director (No. 24): Conclusion” is also one of the few episodes in the series that offers some closure. Two story lines — the exoneration of Elizabeth Keen and the fate of “The Director” — get resolved. It ends with what should be a surprising reveal, but when you create a soup of moral ambiguity, a switch in allegiance doesn’t have much shock value. As a rule, The Blacklist likes to take its time resolving conflicts. It’s been stringing along the real connection between Reddington and Keen since the beginning of the series, so it was unexpected to have the creators close the door on “The Director’s” story arc. That being said, The Blacklist does tend to kill characters off before they get stale.
There have been two notable exceptions. The creators do make sure that both plot lines and characters don’t pass their expiration date. Yet, as far as plot devices go, it’s been three years and the audience still does not know the exact relationship between Reddington and Keen. At one point, Keen did confront Red and ask if he was her father, but he denied it. Then again, this is the same character who, when introduced, laughed about being trusted: he clearly stated that he should be distrusted.
The other has been the relationship between Tom and Elizabeth Keen. Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) started out as the nerdy school teacher turned agent, who was set up to seduce and watch Elizabeth. The producers seem to be holding out the hope of a Tom and Elizabeth reunion. Either that, or they are setting up Tom to martyr himself to save Elizabeth. Of course, there’s always the third option: have Elizabeth go full-bore evil and follow in Red’s footsteps, in which case, a reconciliation with Tom, however dysfunctional, would make some sense.
Next week, we’ll have a new story arc to look forward to. Hopefully, by the end of the year, one or both of these loose ends will finally get tied up.