The Blacklist 1.11: Red's Retribution

The Blacklist was back with a good episode - 1.11 - for Red tonight, in which we get to see another, tougher side of him, or a side we knew existed, but up until now had not seen in such back-to-back, vivid evidence.

Red was nearly killed in the last episode, and we couldn't expect him to take that lying down.  Indeed, we'd expect him to unleash just the reign of retribution and terror that we saw on the screen tonight, as he methodologically hunts down and eliminates just about everyone responsible for the depredations he and Elizabeth and the FBI suffered in December under Anlso's onslaught.

So as the team hunts down the serial killer of the title - the Good Samaritan killer, with some crucial advice from Red - we get a gruesome killing spree from Red himself, which could be considered serial killing the way it's supposed to be, with the victims being people who contributed in crucial ways to the near miss Red and his loved had with death in 2013.   This also showed Red for what already knew him to be, but only saw occasional evidence of:  someone unafraid to snuff a life in an instant, but only if justified, and very much enjoying the process in the bargain.

Meanwhile, we also get a startling revelation about Fitch near the end: he's not only a bad guy, but someone important enough in the government to sit across a table from US Assistant Attorney General Fowler and hold his own with her.   In addition to being a pleasure to see Alan Alda and Jane Alexander in the same scene, this tells us our government is a lot more involved with Red and who knows what else than we've so far seen.

And last, for now, there's Liz's husband, who's off on a job interview in Nebraska for most of the episode.  As I've been saying, and will say again - I think he's a bad guy, with a nefarious story we have not yet seen, and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

See also The Blacklist Debuts: Alias Meets Jay Z ... The Blacklist 1.2: Mysteries ... The Blacklist 1.3: Construction Site Heights ... The Blacklist 1.6: Truth and Enigma ... The Blacklist 1.7: Natural Immunity ... The Blacklist 1.8: The Father and the Husband ... The Blacklist 1.9: Field Transfusion ... The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words

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