NBC Finally Found a Drama That Works

NBC's Monday night FBI drama will wrap up its freshman season this week. The Blacklist and James Spader's morally ambiguous Raymond Reddington have breathed new life into NBC, but is the upcoming episode a season finale or a series finale? We need to know immediately.

Luckily, NBC has already confirmed that The Blacklist is renewed for Season 2. The series has posted the best numbers for the network since 1994’s sci-fi series Earth 2, so the news isn’t entirely a surprise. According to TVLine, the second season will air around September and after a winter break, The Blacklist will pick back up on Thursday nights in February. To find out what the second season may revolve around we perused through the show’s plotlines and unanswered questions that may not be resolved in the finale – here is what we found…

All About Berlin

Now that we know Berlin is a person, rather than a top-secret organization or case file, we can focus our attention on further unfolding the mystery. Who is this person so intent on seeing Red fall? And even more intriguingly what did Red do to them to make his downfall their sole interest in life? This plan they enacted took patience and was carefully thought out. Red doesn’t seem like the kind of person to underestimate his opponent. Who did he miss? There is a theory that Berlin is either Liz’s mother or Red’s wife – who may or may not have been pictured in the photograph Red rips out of the Stewmaker’s photo album in the fourth episode.

Also worth noting is the scar on Liz’s palm and its resemblance to the symbol on boxes in possession of Berlin affiliates Tom and Gina. Its reappearance suggests that this entire situation is related to the fire Liz was involved in when she was younger.

What's The Deal With Liz’s Father?

This was at the top of everyone’s minds at the top of the season, and then the showrunners’ slyly preoccupied us with awesome villains. But when the second season starts up, the relationship between Liz and Red has to be in the forefront. The Blacklist will want to avoid the pitfall of having the question linger for too long – like when The Killing had us all wondering who killed Rosie Larsen and then had us wait two painfully slow seasons before answering the question.

As a part of his evil plan, Berlin sent someone to keep an eye on Liz, and Red came out of hiding and placed himself in her life to do the same. Clearly she’s an important piece of this and it all seems to be linked to her lineage and that mysterious fire that happened in the past. The answer and Red’s connection to it all will undoubtedly be complex, we’ll take the smallest morsel, and any clue really, any.

Unveiling Red’s Origin Story

So much time is spent reveling in Red’s current bad guy persona that we haven’t really had time to delve into his backstory. Before becoming a criminal mastermind he was an FBI agent. There has to be a lot of fun stories there. What made Red go rogue? Was his family really murdered and if so, was it in retaliation to something he did? Further, if his family’s murder and his present entanglement with Berlin are linked it would seem that the theory about his wife being behind the attacks is somewhat credible. Also, in the “Frederick Barnes” episode, he goes through the trouble of purchasing a house (seemingly the one his family was murdered in) only to demolish it. How does it play into the story of his family and Liz?

Red Needs To Meet His Match

I know it’s hard to believe, but eventually Red’s shtick will get old. We will get tired of hearing his amazing, pointless stories, and his weird laugh will get old. I imagine this won’t happen until about mid-way through the sophomore season, but still we need someone else to step up, so that our antihero doesn’t have to continue pulling along the entire series. Megan Boone has grown as an actress since the premiere, but unless her character starts popping mood stabilizers and suddenly grows some charm, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be her. Look for one of our minor characters to get more interesting. Ressler has shown promise, and there was definitely an opportunity missed with Parminder Nagra’s CIA agent Meera Malik.

Whether we get all the answers we want or not, it’s good to at least know that we'll get another season of Red outwitting the government and protecting his interests, however questionable they are.

Images: NBC (3)