Spoilers ahead for Episode 17 of The Blocklist Season 10, called “The Morgana Logistics Corporation.”
The Blacklist only has a limited number of episodes left before the final credits roll on the series, and it still remains to be seen if the long-running drama will answer all of the questions surrounding Reddington. In the latest episode alone, he managed to help out the task force while also playing everybody, although it’s still not clear why he’s been so sentimental lately. “The Morgana Logistics Corporation” unfortunately did make it clear how Hudson could take down the task force, and it remains to be seen if Red has any tricks left to save the FBI unit.
To the show’s credit, it wasn’t clear until the end of the hour that Red actually was playing more than one side, and he did give the task force the win of putting a stop to Morgana’s elaborate smuggling operation. He then proceeded to arrange the $3 million bail to get their #1 arrest out of prison and threw a party for all of the people who had worked with him. He dismantled another one of his operations for an unspoken reason, gave the agents a win, and even got to hang out with Dembe again after they shared a beautiful moment together in the previous episode, currently available streaming via Peacock Premium subscription.
On the whole, Red manipulating the entire investigation into Morgana for his own purposes felt like classic Red, and I still enjoy when The Blacklist reveals an overly elaborate plot that only James Spader’s character could have possibly made work. He hasn’t lost his touch for tricks, but I can’t help but wonder if he has any moves that could get the task force out of their sticky situation with Congressman Hudson, which just got a whole lot stickier. As director Saray Guidetti explained previously, the agents were in serious jeopardy with Hudson digging into their secrets, and he uncovered a lot of what Cooper and Co. undoubtedly would have preferred to remain classified.
Not deterred by losing the support of Senator Dorf, Hudson found new leads to chase when an old FBI contact brought him the news that Cooper had secretly met with other three assistant directors at the Bureau, and chasing that lead brought resulted in an agent accidentally dropping “Zuma” when threatening him with potential legal action if he takes any of his findings to Congress. It was just a single word, but it was enough. “Zuma” of course led the congressman to Dembe, which naturally is a big sign that Red was in the mix.
Once Hudson connected the Dembe dots, he realized that Cooper adopted the daughter of Liz Keen, who had gone on the run with Red prior to her untimely death and dramatic farewell. Even Ressler was pulled into the mess due to his past hunt for Red. Everything pointed toward the secrets of the task force revolving around Reddington, and Hudson seems to have the information that he needs to start digging deeper than ever into the team. Through no fault of his own, Dembe may have been the key to taking down the whole group.
And while Red usually has the tricks to get out of just about anything, he already discovered in his sneaky search of Hudson’s house that there’s nothing to use as leverage against him and no way to blackmail him. Plus, Red has been mysteriously sentimental in Season 10, which extends to giving away his earthly possessions, so it’s even harder than usual to predict what he can and is willing to do.
We can only wait and see with new episodes of The Blacklist in its new time slot of Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. The series will air its very last episode in the not-too-distant future, so you can check out our 2023 TV premiere schedule if you’re looking for new TV options.