- Title: The Blacklist – The Major
- wiki: link
The investigation into the death of harbor master Martin Wilcox (Michael Kostroff) puts Lizzie (Megan Boone) in front of a judge (John Finn) forced to tell the truth about the task force while doing her best to hide the truth about how the harbor master met his end. To convince the judge of the reasons for keeping the task force classified Lizzie reveals her odd relationship with Red Reddington (James Spader) as the episode relies on a collection of clips and flashbacks as an overview for the show’s first 36 episodes.
While Lizzie is stuck in front of the judge, Reddington gets the task force searching for the Major (Lance Henriksen) who has a reputation for recruiting children and transforming them into well-trained spies. One of his agents is Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold) who, we discover for the first time, was hired and placed in Lizzie’s life not by Berlin but by Reddington who has been keeping an eye on Lizzie long before her first day working for the FBI.
The Second Season seems a tad early for a clip show but “The Major” works in retracing the odd relationship between Lizzie and Reddington (so bizarre the judge has trouble accepting her story). Although mainly a B-story, the search for the Major gives the show a current storyline allowing for an important reveal about Red and Tom’s relationship and laying the groundwork for next week’s episode and the search for Tom Keen as evidence continues to paint Lizzie into a corner threatening the end of her career (and likely a fairly long prison sentence).
